Tim Kitchen Sr Claims HWA Was Murdered!

 

Those crazy Kitchens are at it again! Not content with their conspiracy-laden lives, the father of the clan, Tim Kitchen Sr. has made the claim Herbert Armstrong was murdered! And here we thought Bob Thiel was a blithering idiot! Sheesh!

Now, we come to this Philadelphia Era of God’s Church. Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong and the World-wide Church of God under him supporting him did Fulfill all the commissions God gave him to complete, just as Mr. Armstrong plainly stated. So, when he had completed all jobs Christ gave him to complete, God took him. There was word within God’s Church that he might have been martyred as two men in the church ran out of the building (one out of Mr. Armstrong’s room) and declared “They murdered Mr. Armstrong and I may be next”! Strange events indeed! This would lend motive for certain men’s silence for sure. I don’t personally know, but, given these men’s statements, you wonder. But, now, what has happened to God’s Church after Mr. Armstrong died (or was martyred)? 

 

Many people think many different things. God’s Ministers (both those ordained by Mr. Armstrong and the Church, and, those raised up within after and others), all say different and conflicting stories. UNDER THREAT: The challenges the Church faces today

LCG: Hotly anticipating the biggest climax ever!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Only in a COG...sigh

Only in a COG that has been saying the same thing for decades.

Only in a COG that has never been right yet about anything in prophecy.

Gerald Weston writes:

This generation has, as President Franklin D. Roosevelt said of his generation, “a rendezvous with destiny.” We are rapidly, far more rapidly than many suspect, approaching the climax of the ages. Our world as we know it is coming to an end, but that is not bad news for those of us familiar with biblical prophecy, which is nothing less than history written in advance. As Jesus encourages us, “Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near” (Luke 21:28). Yes, there is living hope for a better world coming to those who are called, chosen, and faithful (Revelation 17:14). 

 

As Paul explains, “For all who are moved by the Spirit of God are sons of God. The Spirit you have received is not a spirit of slavery leading you back into a life of fear, but a Spirit that makes us sons, enabling us to cry ‘Abba! Father!’ In that cry the Spirit of God joins with our spirit in testifying that we are God’s children; and if children, then, heirs. We are God’s heirs and Christ’s fellow-heirs, if we share his sufferings now in order to share his splendour hereafter” (Romans 8:14-17, New English Bible). Wow! Children of God and joint heirs with Christ! What an amazing plan God has in mind for us (Romans 11:33-36).

LCG: Saving the world from bovine flaltulence! Woo Hoo!

 

If there was ever a need in the Church of God to end flatulence it is great to see LCG leading the pack! Gerald Weston sets the example! Not sure if its the right one though.

A well-known Peggy Lee song, for those of us old enough to remember, asks the question in the refrain, “Is that all there is, is that all there is?” It then gives the obvious conclusion where there is no overriding purpose in life: “If that’s all there is, my friends, then let’s keep dancing. Let’s break out the booze and have a ball. If that’s all there is.” Did not the Apostle Paul say the same? “If, in the manner of men, I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantage is it to me? If the dead do not rise, ‘Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!’” (1 Corinthians 15:32). Sadly, that is the mental state in which this generation finds itself, not only the young, but many older folks as well. 

 

 

It is the mind of God, as expressed in the Bible, that gives us the roadmap for life and the living hope of a meaningful end to the journey. That is what most of mankind is missing. That is why people get caught up in trendy causes, whether LGBTQ, or vegan diets to save the planet by reducing bovine flatulence. Have they never read how many buffalo once roamed the North American plains and prairies? Apparently not. Schools are more interested in indoctrinating our youth in “woke culture” than teaching natural history.

As usual, The Gays made it into a Living Church of God article. Where would they be without this constant bogeyman? 

PCG Lake Evaporates Just Like The Church Is Losing Members

 

Today's webcam shot on the cult compound of the Philadelphia Church of God shows that the lake is evaporating. Is God withholding his blessings from the cult?

The lake is receding just like the membership of the church is. 

Will we see in 10-15-20 years a housing project built here?

PCG: Exalting Moses, Ignoring Jesus

One thing the Church of God has always been good at was ignoring Jesus and anything he taught. Instead, the church focused heavily on Old Testament books and the men mentioned in them. After the implosion of the church in the mid to late 1990's, various splinter groups took that focus upon the OT to the extreme, especially the Philadelphia Church of God. 

Every signal article from the PCG has as its prime focus the Old Testament men, laws, and covenants. Nothing irritates them more than to have to talk about grace, justification, sanctification, and the name that they dare not be mentioned, Jesus.

Gerald Flurry, in a letter to his faithful, sent this out today:

Joshua Exalted Moses 

 

After the death of Moses, God chose Joshua to lead Israel. Over and over, this Joshua of old told Israel to remember and exalt what God had revealed through Moses—and he and the nation prospered as a result. 

 

"[T]he Lord commanded Joshua to speak unto the people, according to all that Moses commanded Joshua …" (Joshua 4:10). Joshua didn’t decide on his own to do that; God commanded him to do it, and Joshua obediently did so! We are commanded today to teach according to all that God taught through Herbert W. Armstrong. We are the only Church that does so. "There was not a word of all that Moses commanded, which Joshua read not before all the congregation of Israel …" (Joshua 8:35). Joshua didn’t even reject one word that God taught through Moses. He taught the people that every inspired word of Moses had to be kept! He taught them to remember Moses! God had revealed to Joshua the importance of Moses’s position in Israel. He also prophesied a great warning to anyone who would dare reject even one word of God’s message through His messenger. 

 

When God sends a man to deliver a message, it is extremely dangerous to reject even one word!

Gerald claims that the PCG is required to teach all that HWA taught, yet they do not. The PCG has taken most of Armstrong's writings and deleted words here and there and even added some so that his words did not conflict with Flurry's new revealed teachings. So when PCG says they preach everything that HWA did, they are liars. 

The PCG rejects Herbert Armstrong and Jesus, pretty much like every single COG out there today, especially the improperly named "continuing" Church of "god" and the Restored Church of God. All three of these groups preach the mindless rants of deluded psychotic leaders instead of following the one that they should.

Church of the Eternal God (San Diego) How Do You Keep The Sabbath In Space?

 

The church has always been in a quandary about people who live in the far northern and southern hemispheres when it comes to Sabbath-keeping. From Herbert Armstrong to all of the splinters, the speculations vary by group, with most trying to use the International Dateline as a guidepost. That by itself presents a huge issue because the Jewish nation never has used the international dateline as a standard since it did not exist when Isreal was forming out nations around them.

I remember in the Dayton area people being whipped into a frenzy about the end times when the church speculated that the U.S. and other countries would put COG members on spaceships and shoot them into space in order to get rid of them. Church members wanted to know how they would be able to keep the Sabbath. Can the church get any crazier?

...how then would someone keep the Sabbath in areas of the world where there wouldn’t be a sunset-to-sunset time period during certain times of the year? For example, certain places in Alaska, Norway, Sweden, and other far northern or even southern areas would fall into that category. How is the Sabbath to be kept there? 

 

Bibleask.org has this to say: 

 

“Modern living provides some unique situations where keeping the Sabbath might have some questions. For example, keeping the Sabbath in space and the polar regions of the Earth like Alaska presents unique issues for Sabbath keepers. In the north of the Arctic Circle and south of the Antarctic Circle, a single period of daylight can last for a month or more during the summer, and the night lasts for a similar length of time in the winter. 

 

“The Bible says, ‘It shall be unto you a sabbath of rest… from even unto even, shall ye celebrate your sabbath (Lev. 23:32).’ This means that the Sabbath should be kept from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset. 

 

“Therefore, in the further regions of the earth and in countries where the sun doesn’t go down like the Polar zone, the timing of the Sabbath should be adjusted to the International Date Line. Example: permitting local rest-day adjustment, And believers may determine the Sabbath by the longitude that are further south or further north depending on which Polar zone they are in. 

 

Therefore, for those who live in Alaska, they can follow the time zone of Portland, Oregon. Thus, Sabbath keepers living in those areas can rely on the cycle of day and night in 24-hour periods. These periods are commonplace in most of the world.” 

 

“Modern living provides some unique situations where keeping the Sabbath might have some questions. For example, keeping the Sabbath in space and the polar regions of the Earth like Alaska presents unique issues for Sabbath keepers. In the north of the Arctic Circle and south of the Antarctic Circle, a single period of daylight can last for a month or more during the summer, and the night lasts for a similar length of time in the winter.

They also have this:

A letter was written back in the Worldwide Church of God days asking the question about keeping the Sabbath in the arctic. This is what was answered by the Personal Correspondence Department, Letter L163, which was included in a collection of the letters written under Herbert W. Armstrong, dated August 1, 1988: 

“God has not made it impossible for His people to obey His laws. God’s law is spiritual and is intended for all people, wherever they live on earth. But His law is also practical and workable.

“In the far northern latitudes, the days are divided in the following manner: About the beginning of summer, the sun almost touches the horizon once every 24 hours. When it reaches its lowest point, one day ends and another begins. About the beginning of winter, the sun comes up to, or almost up to, the horizon once every 24 hours. This also divides the days. The effect is that near the beginning of summer the seventh day is from midnight to midnight. Over the next six months, the beginning of the days drops back rapidly until near the beginning of winter the seventh day is from noon until noon. The sun touching, or almost touching, the horizon corresponds to sunset in both cases.

“It should be noted, then, that God revealed the Sabbath commandment to people living in the temperate zone, where He defined the proper observance as being from evening to evening. But in extreme latitudes where farming is not a factor and thus daylight is not associated with work, this rule is not practical or reasonable. Jesus said, ‘The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath’ (Mark 2:27). For this reason, the Church has made a judgment based on the spirit of the law. Brethren living in areas crossed by or above the 60th parallel (parts of Alaska, Canada, and Sweden are examples) have been advised that it is proper to begin observance of the Sabbath at 6pm in cases where actual sunset time varies extremely.”

Thankfully Christians are not bound by laws made specifically for the nation of Israel. There is no record of the Sabbath being kept before Moses nor were there any commands to keep it. When the Apostles met in Jerusalem the Sabbath was never imposed upon Gentiles. In fact, Paul rebuked the Galatians for trying to impose the law upon the gentiles in Galatians 4:10 -11.

LCG:Yes, we know this the 500th time we have told you we live in uncertain times, so be prepared for the worst!

Where would the Church of God be without some good scare scenario to whip up the members into a frenzy? Drought, tornadoes, the war in Ukraine, supply chain shortages, batshit crazy Putin, the gays, the Chinese, the gays, Bob Thiel, and sex. The world is filled with evil out there that is trying to destroy the true COG.

While it is never a bad idea to have an emergency kit ready, particularly if you live in earthquake country and tornado alley, you need to understand that the church will not help you. 

Be Prepared! We are living in an increasingly uncertain world today that is seeing serious disruptions in the daily activities of life: from travel to food shortages to soaring prices—and increasing violence in many places. All this points to the need to plan ahead for unexpected emergencies—advice that is also found in the Scriptures. Solomon advised, “Ponder the path of your feet” (Proverbs 4:26). He also observed, “A prudent man foresees evil [danger] and hides himself [he takes precautions], but the simple pass on and are punished [they face consequences]” (Proverbs 22:3). God’s Church has long encouraged members to prepare for unexpected emergencies—keep a supply of bottled water, non-perishable food items, batteries for flashlights and a radio, extra vitamins, prescribed medications, a camp cooking stove or heating device—things that may be needed if public services are disrupted. While we look to God for our ultimate protection, we must also do our part to be prepared. 

 

Have a profitable Sabbath, 

Douglas S. Winnail

COVID Hits LCG Leadership: LCG's Upcoming Council of Elders Meeting Now Online

God's most highly favored church in these perilous end times has been hit by COVID once more. This time it is several Council of Elders members. LCG had planned to have a face-to-face meeting next week with the Council. Now it's back to ZOOM. 

Where was God's protection of these highly favored men? Gone are the days of old in the WCG when church leadership bragged about how its members and ministers were immune to so many health issues that the world suffered with.

The in-person Council of Elders meetings scheduled for this coming week have been postponed due to several recent COVID cases among Council members. We will instead hold online meetings this coming week and plan to have in-person meetings June 20–22. 

Upcoming Council of Elders Meetings

As Mr. Weston mentions in his opening comments, the in-person Council of Elders meetings next week will be held online. Meetings will be conducted on Monday and Tuesday, May 2 and 3. Mr. Weston plans to hear reports from the International Directors as well as guide discussions on needs in the Work, growth in the Church, and other matters. Plans are being made for the next in-person meetings. Your prayers for next week’s meetings would be much appreciated. For your information, here are the current Council members:

Mr. Gerald Weston 

 

Mr. Richard Ames 

 

Dr. Douglas Winnail 

 

Dr. Jeffrey Fall 

 

Mr. Lambert Greer 

 

Mr. Mario Hernandez

Mr. Jonathan McNair 

 

Mr. Rod McNair 

 

Mr. Rand Millich 

 

Mr. Peter Nathan 

 

Mr. Wallace Smith 

 

Mr. Rick Stafford 

 

Mr. John Strain 

 

Mr. Rob Tyler 

 

Mr. Stuart Wachowicz 

 

Mr. Dexter Wakefield

 

Did Church of God International Give Up In Defeat Over Bill Watson?

 

Bill Watson’s Corrupt Leadership

By

Lonnie Hendrix

Apparently, the leadership of the Church of God International has thrown up their hands in defeat and surrendered in the battle that has been raging over that organization’s messaging. As regular readers here know, CGI headquarters has been trying to rein in the overt and highly partisan political messaging of rogue Pastor Bill Watson and his allies for some time. Indeed, the Executive Committee of that church even voted to remove some of Bill Watson’s and Adrian Davis’ controversial messaging on Covid-19 from their platforms! Last month, the church held a ministerial meeting to confront and address the problem, but Bill and his allies were having none of it. Watson insisted that his remarks were completely appropriate – that he was only talking about “policy.”

What makes this writer think that CGI leadership has surrendered to Bill and company? The appearance of Pastor Watson’s latest sermon on their website! In his latest political diatribe, The Leaven of Corrupt Leadership, Watson talks about how the Democrats have caused the soaring inflation currently being experienced by most Americans (no mention of the former Republican Administration’s handling of the pandemic and the current war in Ukraine in this connection). Did you notice that very ACOG theology sounding title for his sermon? I bet some of you are wondering what in the world that has to do with politics. You should never underestimate Bill’s capacity to weave politics into his message!

He begins by stating that Christ’s work isn’t just about salvation and that the first chapter of Acts proves that he was busily telling his disciples about the Kingdom of God before his ascension to heaven! And, yes, in case some of you were wondering, for Bill, the Kingdom of God suggests a political entity or “polity.” Indeed, Bill went on to mock the notion that Christ was dwelling on what he had done for his disciples – making salvation possible for them and the rest of the world. For Bill, the Christian message is inherently political – it’s all about overthrowing this world’s governments and resurrecting the defunct Kingdom of Israel under Christ and his disciples.

From there, Watson launched into another diatribe about how Christ handled the religious leaders of his day – the Pharisees, Sadducees, scribes, and lawyers. He talked about the contempt that Christ had for them, and how boldly he challenged their teachings and authority (there is no mention of the fact that he told the people that they occupied Moses’ seat and that they should follow their teachings, not their hypocritical behavior). For Bill, both secular and religious leadership in 2022 are full of corruption and incompetence, and it all tends toward authoritarianism.

Need examples? Bill has got plenty of them. He went on to talk about the Durham investigation of the Clinton campaign in 2016, and the indictment of one of her campaign’s lawyers. Next, he mentioned the controversy surrounding Hunter Biden’s laptop. Watson went on to assert that the content of Hunter’s laptop is demonic. He talked about politicians and members of Hollywood’s elite taking advantage of Epstein’s pleasure island. Once again, no mention of the fact that Trump was an associate of Jeffrey Epstein or any of the current investigations surrounding Republican politicians. Are we beginning to discern a pattern in Bill’s remarks?

How on earth does all of this relate to the Days of Unleavened Bread? He says that it’s time for all of us to wake up and not tolerate “the leaven of corrupt leadership” in our society! Bill says that this is all “very appropriate” for him to be talking about because this is “some of the sin we’re swimming in” and “we’re being effected [sic] by it!” Never mind, that these are the very kinds of issues that Bill’s Kingdom of God is supposed to address! For Bill, we (Christians) need to be confronting and addressing this behavior NOW. And, according to Bill, those of us who think it’s inappropriate for Christians to engage in this world’s polity, we are busily burying our heads in the sand. He went on to say that pastors should be condemning abortion, gay marriage, and gender confusion – implying that this should be the focus of Christian pastors, not Christ’s message of salvation!

He said that ignoring all of these reprehensible behaviors is leading to the “reprobate of judgement” – that the ability to discern the difference between “right and wrong is lost in the confusion.” He claimed that ignoring this “leaven” is tantamount to discarding the Bible – the foundation of morality! Of course, Bill means HIS interpretation of what that book defines as right and wrong; and if your understanding differs from his, you’re just plain wrong!

Next, Bill turned his attention to religious leadership, and I must say that I found myself to be in complete agreement with his criticism of the wealth of folks like Kenneth Copeland, Pat Robertson, Benny Hinn, Joel Osteen, and Creflo Dollar. In fairness, unless it has changed, we should also note that Bill Watson is one of the few ministers of CGI who is actually on that organization’s payroll (said to be a modest stipend). He also decried the homosexuality and pedophilia extant within the Catholic priesthood.

Even so, Pastor Watson does not seem to comprehend that God will ultimately address these flagrant departures from the teachings of Jesus Christ – not us. Sure, we should all be spiritually alert and astute enough to not be patronizing these folks, and there’s certainly nothing wrong with pointing out their abuse. However, as in all of the other examples which Bill mentions, God is their ultimate judge – NOT me, you, or Bill!

From there, Bill returned to his theme that pastors have a responsibility to root out all of this leaven and confront it. You see, for Bill, the Church has been commissioned to warn Israel (America) away from their sins. Like the leaders of many of the other ACOGs, he sees himself as the spiritual successor of Herbert and Garner Ted Armstrong. He even concluded his message with a reference to that passage from Isaiah that is very familiar to all Armstrongites – you remember the vision of the “wonderful world tomorrow” with the wolf dwelling with the lamb, the leopard lying down with the kid, the calf and the lion together, and a little child leading them. In other words, the establishment of the physical Kingdom and restoration of Israel is the end game for Bill – not the salvation of humankind.

Finally, although Pastor Watson did reference Christ’s remarks about servant leadership found in the twentieth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, one can’t help but suspect that Tyler’s recent attempts to rein in his messaging were uppermost in his mind. In that passage, we read that Christ told his disciples: “You know that the rulers in this world lord it over their people, and officials flaunt their authority over those under them. But among you it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must become your slave. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Verses 25-28) For Bill, the clear implication is that the leavened leadership of the CGI shouldn’t be trying to shape his message or use their leverage to prevent him from talking about political topics!

And by publishing his sermon on their platform, we have to conclude that CGI’s leadership has ceded this ground to Mr. Watson. Bill should be allowed to preach his political message and warn Israel, and everybody in CGI should get on his boat! Never mind that CGI’s has clearly stated on their website that “Our mission is to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the world (Matthew 28:19).” – [See their Mission Statement] Never mind that their “Statement of Beliefs” contains this bullet point: “The gospel is the message preached by Christ and by His church about God’s coming Kingdom, the restoration of His government on earth, and how mankind can enter that Kingdom and government. It includes the message of what Jesus has done, is doing, and shall do—and ultimately is the message of the entire Old and New Testaments. The primary purpose and commission of the church is to ‘Go ye therefore, and teach [make disciples of] all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.’” I guess they’ve decided that since Bill is preaching part of the gospel (as they define it) that that is good enough!

666

 

The Patriarch Canaan: Classical Armstrongism’s Stance against Racial Intermarriage

 

Canaanites in an Egyptian Wall Painting.  Canaanites are on the left and Egyptians are on the right wearing white aprons.

The Patriarch Canaan:

Classical Armstrongism’s Stance against Racial Intermarriage

By NeoDromos 

Consider what God specifically says about social fellowship and interracial marriage. Speaking to Israelites about the sons of Canaan, the son of Ham, God said: "Neither shalt thou make marriages with them: thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son (Deut. 7:3).     – Herman Hoeh, “The Race Question”, 1957.

Intermarriage between the four primary races — white, yellow, brown, and black — is sin. God says so. And it is God who determines what sin is.     – Herman Hoeh, “The Race Question”, 1957.

“From North Africa the dark-skinned Canaanites migrated to West Africa and are called "Negroes" today.”      – Herman Hoeh, “The Origin of the Nations!”, 1957.

In the period between the Days of Unleavened Bread and Pentecost, God began to establish Israel in the land of promise. And the land of promise was already occupied by tribes of Canaanites. These people became highly important to policy formation in the Worldwide Church of God (WCG). The edifice of Armstrongism’s policy on racial intermarriage is built on a theological foundation of error involving the Canaanites. We only know what Deuteronomy 7:3, quoted above, really says when we know who the Canaanites are racially. If this pivotal scripture has been misunderstood and improperly founded then the edifice will collapse. The quotations above all come from documents published in 1957. They represent the view from the vantage point of Classical Armstrongism, the Armstrongism that Herbert W. Armstrong left intact at his death. Post-Classical Armstrongism, the praxis of modern denominations derived from the now-defunct WCG, may differ from this Classical view. This article centers on the Biblical and biological validity of the Classical Armstrongist dogma of racial intermarriage. 

Who are the Canaanites Racially?

The West African Blacks are not Canaanites. In fact, Canaanites were not Blacks at all. While there are a number of ways that one might arrive at this conclusion, modern genetic science provides an elegant and direct verdict. At the outset, it is important to recognize that Herman Hoeh did not have the genetics to rely on as he developed his understanding of anthropology. He relied on the creative interpretation of ancient historical sources – sources that were written to different and less reliable standards of fidelity than modern writing. And conclusions that are developed in this way cannot be tested in a laboratory as the results of genetic analysis can be. One can only speculate what direction Hoeh’s writing might have taken if he had had the results of the field of genetics available to him.

Dr. Spencer Wells was at one time a National Geographic Explorer in residence and is the geneticist that contributed to the video documentary “Quest for the Phoenicians” (National Geographic, 2004). Wells established that the ancient Canaanites were the Phoenicians of later history. And the Phoenicians became the modern-day Lebanese. Wells did not do this by sifting through soft, high-risk resources such as classical history or noting similarities in names – a Hoehist methodology. This was done by hard science – he traced actual molecular genetic connections – a scientific and deterministic methodology. (See The Quest For The Phoenicians).

Wells’ findings were recently corroborated by scientists at the Welcome Sanger Institute, a British genetics research institute. These scientists sequenced the genomes of four ancient Canaanites dating from around 4,000 years ago. From the Welcome Sanger website:

“The Bronze Age Canaanites, later known as the Phoenicians, introduced many aspects of society that we know today – they created the first alphabet, established colonies throughout the Mediterranean and were mentioned several times in the Bible….However, historical records of the Canaanites are limited…. Experts have long debated who the Canaanites were genetically, what happened to them, who their ancestors were and if they had any descendants today…. In the first study of its kind, scientists have uncovered the genetics of the Canaanite people and a firm link with people living in Lebanon today. The team discovered that more than 90 per cent of present-day Lebanese ancestry is likely to be from the Canaanites …”

The research was published in the journal of the American Society of Human Genetics, “Continuity and Admixture in the Last Five Millennia of Levantine History from Ancient Canaanite and Present-Day Lebanese Genome Sequences”, Volume 101, Issue 2, P274-282, August 03, 2017.

The ancient Canaanites and their modern-day descendants the Lebanese are closely related to the Jewish people. Both are principally Y chromosome haplogroup J. A study that supports this is cited on the website ScienceDaily:

“The study, published in the May 9 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that Jewish men shared a common set of genetic signatures with non-Jews from the Middle East, including Palestinians, Syrians, and Lebanese, and these signatures diverged significantly from non-Jewish men outside of this region.” 

 

The salient conclusion affecting Armstrongism is that when the OT forbids intermarriage with Canaanites, the theological backbone of the Armstrongist view on racial intermarriage, it is not speaking of interracial marriage but intercultural or interreligious marriage. The Canaanites and the Jews are not only of the same race but are closely related within that race. 

The Occupants of the Far-flung Lands Belonging to “Israel”

The Armstrongists believed that the descendants of Canaan encompassed many different peoples both in ancient times and the present. They were peoples who occupied lands that were colonized by the British. These people were all viewed as biological descendants of Canaan and their dispossession was viewed as advocated by the Old Testament. The chart below shows some of these people and their principal haplogroups. 

People	Principal Haplogroup
Lebanese (the actual descendants of Canaan)	J
Jews (closely related to Canaanites)	J
Afro-Americans	E
Native Americans	Q, rarely P
Australian Aborigines	C, K
Maori	C, Others

 

If the pre-occupation concept is true, one gets plausible conformity to the events of the Old Testament and confirmation of Anglo-Israelism. But that is genetically impossible. Within a limited number of generations over a few thousand years as required by the so-called “Table of Nations” (A literary flair of the KJV translators - Biblically termed the families or ‘clans of the sons of Noah”) and Biblical chronology, the kind of diversity shown in the table above cannot be achieved based on the computed rate of mutation. This “clan of the sons of Noah” genealogy in Genesis may be Bronze Age allegory but it seems likely that it is a clan chart of the descendants of a single man just as the Genesis 10 states. Further, the hierarchy of haplogroups imprinted on the human genome has a fixed logical design and haplogroup J (Canaan) could never give rise to haplogroup E (African Blacks) because E occurs logically earlier in the human genomic hierarchy than J. 

 
It is clear that occupying land colonized by the British was not a criterion for being racially descended from Canaan. In fact, the British never displaced the actual Canaanites, the Lebanese. Although the idea of the British dispossessing the modern-day descendants of Canaan would be a nice proof of Anglo-Israelism, it simply does not fit history or biological reality.

 

Not Destined to be Slaves 

The Genesis statement attributed to Noah that Canaan would be a servant of servants is not racially relevant to African Blacks. It also does not seem to be empirically relevant to the Lebanese. How the statement relates to any people is not clear. And the view that somehow God is approving of the enslavement of Blacks and that there is a sense of righteousness one can feel in the slave economy of the Old South is a grave error. It is a viewpoint that is uncharitable and unchristian. It is in no way rooted in theology. Rather, it is rooted in greed. Southerners with means sought to consolidate lands into large plantations that were then operated using slave labor. The purpose was solely acquisitive. And concomitant to this was the oppression of poor White Southerners who were landless and jobless because of the slave economy. Not only did the Confederacy fight for the preservation of the slave economy, it inevitably fought for the continued exclusion of poor White Southerners from participation in economic well-being. Apologists for Anglo-Israelism may seek to transform the unethical institution of slavery into Godliness by invoking the account of Canaan in Genesis but that has no place in Christianity. 

The Implementation of Policy Forbidding Racial Intermarriage

By this time it is undeniable that Deuteronomy 7:3 and similar scriptures are not talking about racial intermarriage. These admonitions are speaking of interreligious marriage. This is true also of the intermarriage statements made in Ezra and Nehemiah. The Jews had been intermarrying with the people of the land and on the list were the people of Ashdod, Moab, and Ammon. All three groups are closely related to the Jews and of the same race. The people of Moab and Ammon are actually Hebrews and David was part Moabite.

Racial intermarriage may be forbidden by various organizations for a variety of reasons. What the organizations cannot do is use the Bible to justify such a policy. The Bible focuses on the issue of religion, not human breeding.

Racial purity is the goal of forbidding interracial marriage. Foundational to this idea is the definition of the concept of race. And there is no really deterministic boundary to this definition and, hence, no real ability for anyone to form a criterion for racial category. Haplogroup does not seem to aid in this quest. 

Haplogroup I in Scandinavia and Haplogroup R in Britain are genetically quite distant from each other but most would regard these people to be of the White race because of the simple criterion of appearance. So it is unlikely that Europeans can be thought of as racially pure by the haplogroup standard. For some race is about appearance and geographic residence. My hypothesis is that most people think tribally instead of racially. Race is a far more locally bounded concept than the broad idea of haplogroup.

Racial purity is a myth. Europeans are a combination of haplogroups R, G, I, and a little E and J. I, G and R represent three separate invasions of Europe. “I” people are the early Hunter/Gatherers. “G” people are the later Agriculturalists and “R” people are Steppe Pastoralists. The genetic distance is great between some of these haplogroups. In any case, the idea that Gerald Waterhouse promoted that Herbert W. Armstrong was pure in his generations like Noah (this is a misunderstanding of the intent of the Hebrew) is untenable. At a minimum, HWA had Neanderthal ancestry like other Europeans.

Epilogue

Canaan was a very important patriarch for the Worldwide Church of God. He could arguably be said to rival Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Nimrod in importance. The full weight of the WCG policy on racial intermarriage rested on the racial identity of Canaan and his descendants. Herman Hoeh, interpreting ancient and suspect historical sources, misidentified the Canaanites principally as West African Blacks. From this error burgeoned policies, attitudes, ethics, anthropology, manners, and customs within the WCG. The modern science of genetics has pulled the keystone from this edifice.

This article is not an advocacy for racial intermarriage. Marriage is a difficult relationship to enter into and sustain. A fallen man and a fallen woman in a fallen society attempt to form a nuclear family. The prospects are not good. Everything that can be done should be done to give such a relationship a chance for success – this may include racial comparability. And ultimately it is the grace of God that leads to a successful marriage. This article does advocate the view that the Bible is not a breeding manual for humans. To assert that it is, is to engage in eisegesis. And inevitably it is accompanied by unChristian ideas about what races are superior and inferior.

 

UPDATED: Dave Pack's 14 Enablers

Updated with the addition of Samuel Baxter and deletion of Tim Willard

Tim Willard and his wife just left the Restored Church of God

Dave Pack has fourteen hand-picked enablers that rubber stamps each and every opinion that Dave utters. Not a single one of these men has any balls left to stand up to the endless stream of Dave's lies that are wrecking the lives of RCG members.

These men ultimately do NOT care that members are suffering as they sit in their cult-owned homes on the Wadfswroth compound. If any of them ever made a stand and stood up to Dave they know they would lose their homes and jobs.

These are Dave's 14 advisors, or more accurately, tape recorders. They sit and listen, nodding in approval, and never say, "Dave, you are wrong". They lap it all up and then head out and spread the word to the members.

Bradford Schleifer

Edward Winkfield

Ryan Denee

Dr. Jaco Vilgoen

James Habboush

Andrew Holcombe

Kenneth Orel

Salsa Jezhi

Samuel Baxter

Frank Lydick

Dr. Tim Ranney

Raymond Garb

Carl Houk

Larry McElroy

"What is going on at RCG is fraud of a Biblical proportion"

 

Dave Pack is a "skilled" street magician with the scriptures. He's a corner sidewalk card hustler with Bible quotes. He can move the scriptures around week after week and trick the brethren into believing he FINALLY has the whole picture. NOW Daniel is unsealed. NOW "the days of his voice" are over. NOW the Mystery of God has ended.

In the end, Dave Pack fails. He throws the same verses into the blender and comes up with a new recipe that is always the same: Kick the can down the road. The train will never stop. It cannot stop. Because any pause in the action is at False Teaching Station. Dave cannot have that. His ego cannot have that. After all, someone has to keep feeding the horses.

As a former member and former employee of RCG, I recently joined the private Wadsworth Neighbors Facebook group and offered to answer any questions folks would have. The thread currently has over 800 comments. Locals want to know what is going on over there. If I have an answer that I know is true and factual, I tell them. If I don't know, then I say so.

What is going on at RCG is fraud of a Biblical proportion. Dave Pack cannot now, nor ever be right because the Bible proves him to be false. A false minister. A false apostle. A false prophet. A false teacher. God CANNOT allow him to get anything right.

And yet, the brethren are so exhausted, so confused, so dizzy...they don't know where to go or what to do. "If I just hang on one more time." And yet, the next time Dave says the Kingdom will come...it fails. Count on that! God says Dave Pack HAS to fail. Or the scriptures would be broken.

Every human being has a "line in the sand" and all it takes is time.

One way or the other, both God and history will expose what Dave Pack is to everyone watching. Those closest to him already know...they know in their hearts. EVERY former minister I've talked to that left...left feeling uncomfortable and with a tale to tell of inside the wooden walls on the 3rd floor. There is almost a uniform voice from ministers who left "all speaking the same thing." It paints quite the picture.

How I wish this would be over. Let Christ and God's Kingdom come so I can be declared an antichrist once and for all. OR...Christ and God's Kingdom comes and we can REALLY know what the plan is. I still want to be a part of that.

Marc Cebrian

Why do Restored Church of God members continue to allow themselves to be made out as fools for believing Dave Pack's daily lies?

 

Here we are in another day, the sun is up and it is a beautiful day outside and the Wadsworth "jesus" has not returned!

Every single day Dave Pack makes up a new excuse as to why the creature he invented has not returned and the Restored Church of God members sit there and lap it all up as truth. How many lies will it take before they wake up? Worse yet, how many more failed returns need to happen before some RCG employee or member snaps and there is another COG tragedy happening?

Why are COG members so willing to give up individual self-worth to blindly follow these liars? So many church members have a deep need to be told what to do and believe. That then removes all responsibility from themselves and alleviates their fear and insecurity. If someone else is in control of their beliefs and tells them what to believe then they can remain in a child-like state all their lives. Sadly, this is an attractive option for most RCG members and other COG members.

Restored Church of God members danced the night away in anticipation of Dave's creature returning, but alas, it did not, but fun was had anyway.

As a wonderful dinner dance went deeper into the evening here at Headquarters, it BECAME EVIDENT our wait MIGHT be longer than expected—PERHAPS deep into the night, or even the daylight portion of today. A POWERFUL rationale for a seven-day “one week”—not eight-day—Kingdom of Israel EMERGED, which SOLIDIFIED AFTER a meeting this morning with Headquarters ministers. The case is PROFOUND and involves many scriptures, but only two are needed for proof: 

 

Daniel 9:27 says Christ will confirm the covenant with many for ONE WEEK.” Simple reading leaves no room for an eighth day! The “confirmation” is finished in seven days. Couple this with I Corinthians 1:8, which says Christ will “confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ [synonymous with the Day of the Lord].” 

 

Do NOT MISS what is being said when these two passages are linked! “Confirmation” is complete in the Day of Christ—which caps a seven-day period! 

 

YET AGAIN, we should cling to the promise in Habakkuk 2:3 as the day progresses and we move into the night: “though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry!” We are all STILL MOST EXCITED and INSPIRED here as a meeting with 14 ministers comes to a close!

Dave met with the 14 men he considers his council. Being the weak impotent men that they are, they sat there and nodded heads in agreement with Dave's latest lies. I wonder how many of them deep down inside know that Dave is a liar? 

10 Million and Counting!

 

Who would have imagined that this blog would have ever hit 10 million site views? It was not even a spark in the back of my mind over twelve years ago when I originally started this to post information about books that were critical; of Armstrongism that were banned by the church so that members did not read them. 

I remember one time at a Deacon/Elders get-together at Dean Blackwell's home when he took us to his garage. It was filled with thousands of books, of which was a huge collection of anti-WCG/Herbert Armstrong books. One of the self-righteous deacons became rather upset seeing all of these books. Blackwell shut him down rather quickly and said that if you were ever going to debate and challenge assumptions about the church then you need to understand the opposing viewpoint. He also mentioned that many of the books that were critical of the church contained a lot of accurate observations about the condition of the church. It was at that point I started collecting these kinds of books and currently have over 50 of them from the early 1960s to the present day, as the count keeps growing yearly as more and more exCOG members tell their stories.

Of course, no one in their critical thinking would have imagined the Worldwide Church of God imploding in such an appalling fashion as it did in the mid-1990s. I was one of those who supported the changes in the church and knew them to be drastically needed. Working in Pasadena or even attending there as a student or as a church member at church services, you quickly learned that the church never practiced what it preached. Its public face and its behind-the-scenes face were two different entities. One proud and boastful and the other, a vengeful spiteful hypocritical mess.

As the church imploded many of these vain spiteful men broke off to form new Church of God movements, which most of the time were nastier and more abusive than anything that WCG had ever contemplated. Each and every one of them told the lie that they were returning to the "truth once delivered" and returning to 1st century Christianity. There is not a single COG out there today that has ever accomplished this and never will even as they continue to lie that they are.

With the rapid birth of hundreds of these harlot daughters of Armstrongism, the church grew crazier by the day. Failed or discredited ministers in the WCG soon earned a following in the splinterdom of Armstrongism.  None of us could have imagined the absolute craziness that they all started preaching and how they began to act.

Gavin Rumney soon came on the scene documenting the rapid decline of the church and particularly the fallout over the doctrinal changes affecting the college and church as they were both imploding. Numerous people in Pasadena and the church were feeding him a steady stream of stories about conditions in the church. Soon, members in the splinter groups start sharing stories of abuse already happening in these young churches. Also during this time, Ed Mentell started The Painful Truth site which was a no holds barred expose of church abuse and its heretical teachings. In 1997, Dixon Cartwright started, The Journal-News of the Churches of God, which rapidly became a slightly neutral ground for various COGs to share their stories and doctrinal stances. Former members and present members also shared their stories of how they were abused.

Never would I have imagined that this blog would end up doing the same thing, but when the church started getting so crazy and the internet was rapidly holding them accountable this blog also took off Gavin Rumney, unfortunately, had died and the Journal ceased operating. During this time and now, church leaders in the Philadelphia Church of God, Restored Church of God, Church of God Preaching the Kingdom, and the absurdly named "continuing" Church of God started saying and doing incredibly stupid things. 

Never has the Church of God been filled with such incredible theological idiots as have in Gerald Flurry, Dave Pack, Ron Weinland, and Bob Thiel. These guys may be the weirdest leaders, but the church also has to deal with lesser men like Weston, Kubik, Zerubbabel, and others. 

So, as long as these blithering idiots say and do stupid things I will continue to highlight them for as long as I am able or get so tired of their stupidity that it's time to hang it all up. But, till then all I can say is, Keep it up, boys! Especially Bob Thiel! Has the church ever had a more vain, narcissistic, tone-deaf leader than we get to watch in him?

 It is never a dull moment in Armstrongism as we get to watch in real-time as the church disintegrates into meaningless nothingness.