Is It Just The Weather Or A Sign Of The End Times? LCG Has The Answer!

 Australian Residents Return Home After Flash Floods, 

Amid Warnings Of Another Storm

Australia Reeling from More Disasters: “In just over a year, the Clarence Valley and Kempsey have experienced drought, floods, bushfires and now another flood. Many other communities on Australia’s east coast are also dealing with their third or fourth significant natural disaster since 2019” (The Guardian, March 23, 2021). Thousands have been evacuated, bridges have been washed out, 200 schools have closed, and homes have floated away (BBC, March 22, 2021). Millions of spiders have invaded neighborhoods near Sidney in an attempt to escape the rising flood waters, and snakes are seeking refuge in trees (The Guardian, March 22, 2021). In Australia, many of those spiders and snakes are deadly poisonous!

At the same time, unusually heavy summer rains spawned a massive eruption of mice (Deutsche Welle, March 19, 2021). One farmer observed, “At night... the ground is just moving with thousands and thousands of mice just running around,” and many farmers are concerned the plague of mice will destroy this year’s crops.

The Bible clearly states that one of the consequences of disobedience to God’s commandments would be that disaster “will come upon disaster” (Ezekiel 7:26), including troublesome plagues of wild animals—especially in the Israelite-descended nations, such as Australia (Leviticus 26:21–22; Revelation 6:8). While these disasters in Australia are not the prophesied end-time plagues themselves, they demonstrate one way in which such plagues may come about. To learn more about what is happening now and what is yet to come, watch our enlightening telecast “2021 in Bible Prophecy.”—Scott Winnail, Chris Sookdeo, and Francine Prater

Yes brethren, let us scare you with doom and gloom, but be assured that these are NOT end-time incidences happening. We know it's just weather and stuff like this has been happening for centuries on a regular pattern, but we like to keep you whipped into a frenzy fearing for the end times, that way you will give us more money for the final push when we say it is time. 

Be sure to watch their "enlightening" telecast for direct revelations from God on what is happening! Woooo!

LCG Members: Humble Yourselves So That The Proud Ministry Can Teach You!

 

The always up lifting Friday love-bomb from Doug Winnail:

COMMENTS

A Key to Spiritual Growth and Success: Many believe the key to success depends on who you know. However, God’s instructions are quite different. Jesus stressed the importance of humility and teachability when He said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit” and “Blessed are the meek” because they will inherit the Kingdom of God and reign on this earth (Matthew 5:3–5). God was able to use Moses because he was humble and teachable (Numbers 12:3). Jesus was exalted by God because He humbled Himself and followed God’s instructions (Philippians 2:8–11). Solomon understood that “before honor is humility” (Proverbs 15:33). The Apostle James records, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6–10). Peter records that God will exalt those who are humble and can submit to one another (1 Peter 5:5–6). The prophet Isaiah offers a summary of what God is looking for in those He will reward: “But on this one will I look: on him who is poor [humble] and of a contrite spirit [willing to change], and who trembles at My word [a person who is teachable by God]” (Isaiah 66:2). These scriptures provide us with the real key to spiritual growth and ultimate success.

Have a profitable Sabbath, Douglas S. Winnail

LCG Limiting Feast Sites to 300 - 400 Socially Distanced Attendees

When the church was united in purpose, unlike the divided COG today. 

(Remember, this is just ONE of many WCG Feast sites this large)

COMMENT: Looking at the number of States and churches assigned to the respective sites below it is a clear indicator that LCG churches are not large, despite the impression they try to pass off. Their stance on the maximum number of attendees will make it harder for other COG people to Feast hop, as so many like to do, especially if there are several COG groups in the same area.

Get your speed-dial ready LCG members for 12:00 noon EST, May 2, it's going to be a tough fight if you want to transfer!

FEAST OF TABERNACLES Festival Registration—Where Congregations Are Assigned

The Festival Office and Feast Site Coordinators (U.S. and International) met this week in online meetings to discuss this year’s Feast of Tabernacles. Topics included the overall purpose of the Feast and how we are expecting to conduct it this year. This year, in the United States, we are planning for a maximum attendance at most of our Feast sites of around 350–400. We have arranged for venues with room to accommodate this level of occupancy with social distancing. In the United States, we will also be allowing a moderate level of transfer requests (keeping our attendance levels at 350–400 max). However, since transfer requests will not be unlimited, we do encourage as many people as possible to go to their home site. (We’ll have more information about International Feast sites and International transfers at a later date—stay tuned!)

Please note: Festival registration is scheduled to open on Sunday, May 2 at 12:00 noon (Eastern Daylight Time, USA).

April 8, 2021 

For your information, the following is a list of the United States Feast sites and the congregations that are assigned to them:

Boerne, Texas

Texas: Abilene, Amarillo, Big Sandy, Dallas, Midland, Temple

Branson, Missouri

Arkansas: Fayetteville, Fort Smith, Little Rock, Russellville Kansas: Chanute

Missouri: Joplin, Springfield

Oklahoma: Oklahoma City, Tulsa

Tennessee: Memphis

Florence, Oregon

Alaska: Anchorage

California: Fresno, Bay Area, Sacramento

Idaho: Boise

Nevada: Reno

Oregon: Myrtle Creek, Portland

Washington: Richland, Seattle/Tacoma, Spokane, Tonasket

Hilton Head Island, South Carolina

South Carolina: Anderson, Columbia, Walterboro Georgia: Atlanta, Augusta, Braselton, Warner Robins

Lake Geneva, Wisconsin

Iowa: Dubuque

Illinois: Chicago, Peoria

Indiana: Indianapolis, La Porte, Terre Haute

Minnesota: Duluth, Minneapolis

North Dakota: Bismarck

Wisconsin: Appleton, Merrill, Milwaukee, Wisconsin Dells

Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri

Iowa: Des Moines

Illinois: Springfield

Kansas: Wichita

Missouri: Columbia, Kansas City, Rolla, St. Joseph, St. Louis Nebraska: Lincoln, Omaha

Midway, Utah

Arizona: Phoenix, Prescott Valley, Tucson

Colorado: Colorado Springs, Denver, Grand Junction Montana: Great Falls, Helena

New Mexico: Albuquerque, Santa Fe

Utah: Layton

Wyoming: Casper, Cheyenne, Saratoga


Mount Snow, Vermont

Connecticut: Danbury

Massachusetts: Auburn

Maine: Waterville

New Hampshire: Tilton

New Jersey: Hammonton, Rahway

New York: Albany, Corning, New York City, Plainview, Rochester Pennsylvania: Tannersville

Rhode Island: Pawtucket

Natchez, Mississippi

Alabama: Athens, Birmingham, Dothan, Montgomery

Florida: Pensacola

Louisiana: Baton Rouge, Lafayette, Monroe, New Orleans, Shreveport Mississippi: Jackson, Laurel, Natchez, Ocean Springs

Texas: Lufkin

New Bern, North Carolina

North Carolina: Charlotte, Fayetteville, Greensboro, Greenville, Jacksonville, Kannapolis, Raleigh, Statesville

Pigeon Forge, Tennessee

Georgia: Blairsville

North Carolina: Asheville, Sylva

Tennessee: Chattanooga, Clarksville, Crossville, Etowah, Knoxville, Nashville Virginia: Bristol

Puerto Rico

San Juan

San Diego, California

California: Banning, Garden Grove, Los Angeles, San Diego, Santa Barbara Nevada: Las Vegas

South Padre Island, Texas

Texas: Baytown, Corpus Christi, Houston, San Antonio, The Valley

St. Augustine, Florida

Georgia: Columbus, Thomasville

Florida: Fort Lauderdale, Jacksonville, Lake City, Melbourne, Naples, Ocala, Tampa

Sandusky, Ohio

Indiana: Fort Wayne

Kentucky: Berea, Louisville

Michigan: Flint, Kalamazoo, Lansing, Traverse City Ohio: Akron, Cincinnati, Columbus, Lima Pennsylvania: Pittsburgh

West Virginia: Morgantown


Williamsburg, Virginia

Maryland: Baltimore, Salisbury Pennsylvania: Harrisburg

Virginia: Norfolk, Richmond, Winchester West Virginia: Bluefield, Charleston

Pasadena: Home of Religious Kooks Since 1942

 

1945 article about The Remnant Church of God who made the same stupid prediction for the end of the world that Herbert Armstrong did and which various COG leaders lie about today claiming HWA never set dates.

Not only has Pasadena produced crackpot Rev. Long, but also L Ron Hubbard, Alistar Crowley, Herbert and Garner Ted Armstrong along with their legion of deluded false prophet dupes, but also the Flat Earth Society which some Church of God members actually believe in.

L Ron Hubbard and Aleister Crowley were friends of Jack Parsons (founder of JPL) who had a house on South Orange Grove Blvd called The Parsonage, where they took drugs and practiced satanism and devil worship.

The Church of God International and Herbert W Armstrong’s Legacy

 

Please note: 

 "Miller Jones requests that you direct all commentary on this piece to him and that you leave his father alone."

The Church of God International and Herbert W Armstrong’s Legacy

The late Ian Boyne once wrote: “I am happy for the CGI, to which I belong, which retains the finest teachings of Herbert Armstrong without the dross and the excesses. I am NOT saying it is the only true church! For all GTA’s moral weaknesses and reprehensible personal behavior, he reformed a system without throwing out the baby with the bathwater.  Ron Dart’s work in the CGI has also been invaluable in preserving an intellectually respectable brand of Armstrongism.”

This sentiment (that CGI has gotten rid of all of Herbie’s errors and kept the good stuff) is/was NOT peculiar to Ian Boyne. Indeed, similar comments have been posted here in relation to many of the things which I’ve posted over the years relative to that group. In fact, some commentators have even suggested that my refusal to acknowledge this “fact” is proof that I was never actually affiliated with the group (never mind the numerous articles written by me for The International News over the years). Hence, I thought that it would be instructive to take another look at this claim and see how it measures up to the reality on the ground.

First, I have always been willing to acknowledge that CGI made significant changes to Herbie’s teachings about church government. CGI should be applauded for its more enlightened views on the meaning of servant leadership, but it should also be noted that the group still occasionally practices censorship and disfellowshipping within its ranks. And, while folks like Ian Boyne rejected Anglo-Israelism, Pastor Bill Watson continues to incorporate it into his messages and insist that it is an integral part of the church’s teachings. Also, to be fair, CGI has abandoned some of Herbie’s bizarre notions about things like divorce, make-up, healing, and personal finances.

Nevertheless, I must dispute in the strongest terms available to me that CGI has retained “the finest teachings of Herbert Armstrong.” For instance, the group continues to maintain that Christians are obligated to keep many of the tenets of the Old Covenant (Sabbath, Holy Days, Tithing, Clean/Unclean Meats). Likewise, they have retained many of Herbie’s twisted notions about prophecy, the “incredible human potential,” the “world tomorrow,” angels, Binitarianism, the meaning of Holy Day symbolism, the “truth” as the marker of a real Christian, the “true” gospel and the rejection of all things “pagan.”

I can hear it now, “Well, what’s wrong with those things?” Unfortunately, the plain truth is that the Church of God International has retained MOST of the core doctrines/teachings of Herbert W Armstrong. Yes, a search of their website may not turn up any mention of the man, but his fingerprints are all over the teachings and traditions of the Church of God International – whether or not they’re willing to acknowledge it!

 

--Miller Jones

Ron Weinland: "I am the last apostle for the Church of God"

Ronald Weinland's Groundhog Day

Poor Bob Thiel, always the bridesmaid and never the bride. We have been told to assume Bob is the end-time know-it-all that will lead the faithful into the hellhole of Petra, BUT NO, Ron Weinland has sent Bob whimpering into the backroom of his little storefront in Grover Beach. Ron Weinland is the man to lead the COG into glory as the LAST prophet the Church of God needs.

Candidly, I cannot help but be reminded of the prophet Jonah who tried to escape having to tell Nineveh what God told him to say about their destruction. I am not Jonah, but what I am to inform others concerning the writing of this book is that I am a prophet of God and have been sent by Him to do this job. In addition, I am the last apostle for the Church of God in this final age of mankind.

So from this point forward, there will be things that I will state as a prophet and an apostle that have to do with those things that God has revealed to me to give. I am not as one of the prophets of old who were given prophecies that were given for the purpose of being recorded as scripture. Instead, I am one who has been given to interpret many of those prophecies that apply to this end-time about those things that are now going to come to pass.

That Other Fake COG Prophet Claims He Has Been "BLASTING" All Over The Place Lately.

 

It's another day in COGland and another crackpot self-appointed prophet has set sights on a future date for the tribulation and the coming of his creature he likes to call "christ", but not before "BLASTING" other self-appointed prophets for being false prophets.

The Great Bwana to the Continent of Africa and Chief Overseer of 299 Caucasians, is ridiculing how wrong some Christan doomsayers were/are, including Dave Pack and Gerald Flurry, over their string of failed prophecies while boasting that he has been right on every single thing he has ever said. Though, like any good self-appointed prophet, Bwana Bob ignores his own lies while condemning theirs.

Each year, various ones point to their predictions and/or calculations as to when they believe the Great Tribulation (Matthew 24:21) will begin. 

 

Consider, for example, that although some claimed that the blood moons in 2014 and 2015 may have marked the beginning, I correctly denounced that years ago and was proven right. I also denounced the so-called Shemitah year and the claimed devastation that was supposed to hit the world economy, etc. in late 2015, and again was right. On January 1, 2017, I blasted the idea of the claimed ‘Jubilee of 2017″ would mark the end. Furthermore, I blasted the idea that the solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 or Planet Nibiru would begin the tribulation or destroy the Earth. I also denounced the view that because of the formation of the tiny nation of Israel in 1948, that the Great Tribulation needed to start 70 years later, like in 2018. Some wrongly claimed that something from the “Sabbatical Code” as well as a shemita-decree calculation or a message from Fatima predicted 2019. Some pointed to astronomy and even John 20″20 as proof for 2020 as the beginning, but this was denounced as well.

It's hilarious that he assumes he is the one true authority in denouncing these foolish speculations when myriads of scientists, Christian ministries, and others were and still are doing the exact same thing. All Bob ever does is ride in on the coattails of others and then pretend to take the accolades as if he is the most intelligent human God has ever placed on this earth (after Dave pack, of course).

Bwana Bob claims that even though these guys were all wrong, that time is actually short and the crap is soon to hit the fan. His excuse for this is:

1 But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: 2 For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, 4 traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away! (2 Timothy 3:1-5)

The problem with quoting this, especially from a COG self-appointed prophet is that it perfectly describes the current leadership of the Church of God today, INCLUDING Bwana Bob!  Never have we seen such a harem of men who are such lovers of themselves, boasters, blasphemers, unholy, unforgiving brutal, headstrong, and haughty men as we have today leading the Churches of God.

The Great Bwana goes on to ridicule Wade Cox...

The unitarian Wade Cox reportedly believes that the sixth trumpet (which comes years after the 5th seal and the start of the Great Tribulation) could be sounded already and Jesus could come in 2022:

and Gerald Flurry and Dave Pack

I have seen one claim that the Great Tribulation will begin March 6, 2021 and end September 16, 2024, but that is not possible. Another has speculated that it will start during Passover in 2021 (that which begins after sunset March 26 2021). Again, not possible.

While all of these COG leaders are wrong, Bwana Bob is not and sets his own dates.

While we are close to the end of the 6,000 years, having read all of those “fathers,” I do not believe that they specified 2028, only that there was a 6,000 year plan. 

 

A true prophet of God realizes that any who claim prior to 2024 are in error. There is NO possibility that the Great Tribulation will begin in 2021, 2022, or 2023 nor that Jesus will return before 2028. 

 

There is no possibility that the Great Tribulation can happen in 2021 or 2022 and those who rely on the Bible have realized this. It is only those who overlook scripture and rely on their own views and/or false traditions who make the mistake of thinking that the Great Tribulation can, or could, happen in 2021.

Therefore, while the Great Tribulation is coming, it will not begin in 2024. 

 

Christians, Philadelphian ones, are to understand Jesus said tribulation related events tie in with Daniel. Yet, most who profess Christ do not fully get it. Anyway, after Daniel 11:31 and the fleeing (Matthew 24:15; Revelation 12:14-17), the Great Tribulation begins:

21 For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. 22 And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened. (Matthew 24:21-22)

This cannot possibly happen before 2022 and I do not believe the Great Tribulation can start before  2025.

Bwana Bob will end up like Dave Pack and will keep moving the goalposts as his dates all come and go and he is still sitting in his depressing little storefront in Grover Beach peddling quack holistic medicines while still thumping his big thick bible in front of his dingy curtains and crooked bookcases as he bounces in his chair and flails his arms trying to impress us.

 

David C. Pack's BAIT & SWITCH Scam

From a reader:

David C. Pack's BAIT & SWITCH Scam 

At the start of his Restored Church of Greed (RCG) cult, David Pack talked about “precision of doctrine” and about holding on faithfully to everything that Herbert W. Armstrong had taught at the time of HWA's death in January 1986. That is how Dave Pack suckered in some former Worldwide Church of God people. 

 

After gaining their confidence, like con-artists do, Dave Pack started to introduce many new, strange, massive, doctrinal changes that were supposedly supported by some sort of “logic” (that was not very logical) and by hundreds of supposed “proofs” (that did not prove anything). Loud, overwhelming, sleep-depriving, non-stop noise (with spittle) coming from Dave Pack's continually flapping mouth totally bamboozled his followers. 

 

It now seems strange that some people still listen to Dave Pack after all the lies and nonsense and thefts and self-promotion and wrong date guesses and even more thefts that he came up with over the past seven years. But, perhaps it is not really about seeking the truth of God after all. Nor is it really about holding on faithfully to what HWA had taught. Apparently, it is about something else. 

 

Current RCG members might like to be handled delicately by outsiders (though not by Dave) and be considered to be sincere and decent people who mean well. However, the fact is that there is something seriously wrong with their minds and their behavior. They are now the accomplices and enablers of one of the worst raging false prophets (#2 after Gerald Flurry) that Satan ever sent against former WCG people.

Dave Pack: Now that everything I have said has failed to happen, I assure you it will happen by the end of the month of Abib. Much has been now clarified...

After another round of prophetic failures, more excuses...

 

From an RCG source:

Prophetic Update  YESTERDAY  April 4, 2021

We trust all of you worldwide had a very meaningful and enjoyable Last Day of Unleavened Bread. We certainly did here at Headquarters. There is of course the largest of questions on everyone’s mind: Must we wait a year or longer for the Kingdom now that the Spring Holy Days are over? The answer is no! Much has clarified and presents a path forward.

An analogy perfectly sets up this prophetic update: Think of the month of Abib as a property with 30 acres (representing days). As of yesterday, we only built a hedge around 21 of those acres. What we came to realize last night is simple—we needed to expand the fence to include all 30 acres—to hedge about the entire month of Abib.

But there is even more to Deuteronomy 16:1 than meets the eye! We are not only to “observe” (guard, build a hedge around) Abib, but also “keep the Passover”—the entirety of the Feast. “Keep” carries powerful meaning central to our wait—“to do or make.” “Doing the will of God” is explicitly tied to “keeping (doing) the Passover”!

The picture that could only emerge after we have done the will of God is that we wait a little while after keeping the Days of Unleavened Bread, with everything happening inside the month of Abib. Just think of the middle verses in Zechariah 11, which fit this scenario perfectly. Without getting into detail, we can expect big events to develop before the month is out.

Keep your eyes peeled! Our “observing” and “doing” will soon pay off with the arrival of the Kingdom of God!

The International Dateline and the Sabbath: Straining at a gant and swallowing the camel...

It is amazing to watch the lengths some COG "leaders" go to defend their beliefs and "prove" that the Sabbath is required. Never fully studying about the Sabbath requirement for New Covenant followers, they rely fully upon COG publications written by a myriad of so-called educated leaders. Even then, certain men have decided that COG "proofs" have not gone far enough to suit their hyper-legalistic minds so they come up with even more bizarre scenarios and teachings.

Case in point, the International Dateline, and Sabbath-keeping.

The problem the COG has as a whole is that they have to deal with that pesky International Dateline which causes some people to keep sabbath on one day while in other parts of the world have yet to keep it or may have already done so. This causes a conundrum to a lot of diehard Sabbath-keepers who think the entire world must stop at the same time.

Never fear though, COG members and some "leaders" have an answer for everything. OzWitness, an Australian COG site has determined that the International Dateline is WRONG and is causing "true" Christians to keep Sabbath on the wrong day. So, they have come up with a new "dateline" to ensure that the entire world keeps sabbath at the same time.

OzWitness states:

The International dateline is not something that most of us have considered. Most of us have just taken for granted that we keep the Sabbath on the seventh day, as scripture requires. Those who travel across it though and those who live East of Jerusalem but West of the present dateline, may have wondered if the Bible has anything to say on this subject, so let’s examine the biblical evidence, and then come to our own conclusion.

"Coming to our own conclusion" is the reason the COG is in such a horrendous mess. With hundreds and hundreds of bloviating men making all kinds of idiotic proclamations, no one, and mean NO ONE, has any idea what the COG even stands for anymore.

Yellow highlights are mine, colored word highlights are the original author's:

We know that God has provided the instruction and examples in the Bible for the month and the year and He would not fail to provide the needed information on the dateline, because the fact is that, though many people have not thought about this, there has to be one somewhere – a definite line on the earth where God’s day begins. Any conclusions drawn without including that vital dateline must be invalid!

No well-researched religious scholar, no Jewish rabbi or theologian, no mathematician, no scientist, and not even Arab geographer Abulfeda and explorer Magellan were/are as correct as a lay COG member.

This is simply because the earth rotates. If we travel East, against the rotation, the day is shorter as the sun seems to come towards us, and sunset is earlier. If we travel West, with the sun, the days are longer than 24 hours. Of course, without knowing where the true dateline is, those of us who live East of Jerusalem, but West of the present International Date Line, do not securely know when to keep the annual Holy Days which Jesus Christ kept.

But a COG member sure does!  

Also, we are concerned to make sure we keep the seventh day Holy. Genesis 2:3, ‘And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.’ We need to keep a tight check on the days, and we know that at the time of Jesus the Jews were keeping the correct day. Jesus vouched for that by His agreement of both the Sabbath and Holy Days back then. Since then, the Romans drove many Jews from the ‘Holy Land’ in a great diaspora, but, no matter where they went, East or West, they carried the same day with them, and no matter where they ended up, today most are in agreement about which day is the 7th, from Hong Kong, to Cape town, to San Francisco.

They did this without any reference to an international dateline, because travel back then was slow. They had no watches and they would not have noticed that the day was either a little longer or shorter, depending on whether they were moving West or East. Actually, the dateline had not been invented then anyway, it only came about after men began to circumnavigate the earth in ships, and depending on which way they went, they either seemed to ‘lose’ or ‘gain’ a day against the calendar they started out from. When the Sabbath was restored at Sinai, the Israelites began to keep it, though they were not in Israel, and later Daniel kept the Sabbath in Babylon, as did Ezekiel and Ezra, though they started it long before it commenced in Jerusalem. Paul travelled far to the West and kept the same Sabbath, but much later than those at Jerusalem. Obviously then, there is no rule that we should keep the identical time with Jerusalem.

So, the fact is that, no matter which way the Jews travelled from Jerusalem, even eventually as far as America, West, or China East, they retained the knowledge of the true Sabbath, even though much later, disagreements arose amongst their scholars, which have not changed the majority of Jewish practice, and to this day the vast majority of Jews worldwide keep the Sabbath on the same date. 

So if the knowledge of the "true" Sabbath and the fact that Jews all observe Sabbath, then what is ht issue?

Well, this is the Church of God and after all, it is ALL KNOWING on EVERYTHING imaginable.

So, why is it that among some Christian 7th Day Sabbath keepers, there is some confusion about which day is the seventh? Well, these days we travel by air and it is not uncommon to cross half the world in 24 hours. It then becomes very noticeable that you have ‘lost’ or ‘gained time’, and the world has had to agree on the dateline, the longitude East or West of the prime meridian which was placed at Greenwich, England, where a new calendar day begins. 

Because England was the dominant seafaring nation when this occurred, all longitudinal lines are based on Greenwich, as 0 degrees, and, as a result, the dateline was set at 180 degrees East, on a great longitudinal circle that encompasses the globe (there are 360 degrees in whole) exactly on the opposite side of the earth from Greenwich. That was where each new day would start, at twelve midnight, and the day would progress West around the earth.

This proved very convenient, because 180 degrees East, is over the Pacific Ocean, the largest and emptiest body of water on the planet. Although they bent the line a little to avoid one or two islands, it avoids all land, which is the third vital requirement to avoid confusion. Imagine if the dateline went over land. It could happen that people on one side of a street were keeping Friday, and those on the other, Saturday, an impossible situation, so the choice seemed logical enough.

This positioning of the start of the day in the Pacific Ocean, upsets some Christians though, because of the scriptural belief that Jerusalem is the centre of the world, Ezekiel 5:5, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD; This is Jerusalem: I have set it in the midst of the nations and countries that are round about her.’ And 38:12, ‘To take plunder, and to carry off spoil; to turn your hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, who have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land.’ And that the law must go forth from Zion, Isaiah 2:3, ‘And many people shall go and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.’

This is quite true, for all our attention is centred on Jerusalem, and observations from there with regard to calendar issues, and the Biblical dateline must include this principle, but then, too early conclusions, such as, ‘those to the East cannot start the Sabbath until it has started in Jerusalem’, have been drawn, because certain scriptures are not recognised or considered.

Men have often felt the need to introduce their own ideas and traditions, without biblical confirmation; witness the disagreements of the obscure Jewish sages about the dateline. Jesus condemned that approach, and told us to look at scripture. Without those scriptures, some have suggested that Jerusalem should be the dateline. This is totally impossible because that would mean half the city keeping one day, and half the next. Others have suggested a boundary of Israel at Euphrates. That suggestion is equally impractical, as a look at the map will prove, for such a line would also cut through Africa and Asia, once again providing similar problems in many more areas of the world, and there are no dateline scriptures to back this suggestion. 

When the prime meridian is redrawn from Greenwich, and based upon Jerusalem, and then projected around the globe, it forms one great circle, and once past the poles becomes 180 degrees East or West of Jerusalem right over the waters of the Pacific, when Jerusalem is 0 degrees. This, I believe, is what God is describing in Job 26:10, as a statute, which actually determines the biblical International Date Line. Thus, that statute (a law which will be active in the millennium) directly links Jerusalem to the circle which now marks out the division between light and darkness, the beginning of God’s days, fulfilling the requirement in Isaiah 2:3, that the law will go forth from Zion, or Jerusalem. ‘And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.’

In fact, as we have seen, we are told that God created the dateline first, in Genesis 1:4, and then later positioned Jerusalem on that line (when it is extended around the globe). How wonderful and awesome are His far sighted powers! 

So what is the solution?

He ensured this by placing Jerusalem directly opposite what seems to be the biblical international dateline, on a great circle which goes right around the globe, actually appearing as the longitude 144.8 degrees West today, ( Jerusalem is now 35.2 degrees East of the prime meridian at Greenwich, so +180 degrees = 144.8 degrees West). 

The New COG dateline, conveniently skirting Alaska.

 

This line then lies 35.2167 degrees East of the present international dateline (which has been bent to avoid islands) right through the largely empty Pacific Ocean, but crosses Alaska unless, as a boundary, it is bent to skirt its shores.

In this way, even New Zealand and Australia share most of the Sabbath with Jerusalem, as does Europe and even the Americas, and the problem of the position of the true international dateline, which cannot be over land, could be solved (Genesis 1:4) while fulfilling the statute of Job 26:10. 

You can read the rest of this here: The Biblical International Date Line

There are hundreds of other sites by non-COG people who call the International Dateline, pagan, satanic, etc., so this is not really something new. Conspiracy theories keep religion alive, especially for Sabbath-Keepers/Messianic Jews/Yahwehists and others.

For all of these groups, the emphasis is upon days and never upon that inconvenient dude that beckons for them to follow him. Following the letter of the law is more important than walking in freedom.