United Church of God: The Gospel of the Kingdom: Now Featuring Jesus as a Limited-Edition Bonus

Let’s set the scene from the United Church of God’s Council of Elders. They’re designing visitor packets, banners, and branded materials to “communicate who we are and what we do.” The top priority that emerges? Keeping the Sabbath and the Holy Days. That’s the thing they want front and center. Then Vik Kubik, bless his heart, has to gently remind everyone: “Hey, maybe we should also mention Jesus Christ and His importance in the plan of salvation.”

It’s the theological equivalent of planning a wedding and putting “We serve brisket on the correct days” on the invitations before remembering to put the groom’s name anywhere.

This isn’t an accident. This is Armstrongism working exactly as designed.

Herbert W. Armstrong built an entire religious system around the idea that mainstream Christianity had the wrong gospel. According to him, they were only preaching “a gospel about Christ” — His birth, death, and resurrection — while the real gospel was the good news of the Kingdom of God: a literal world government that would enforce God’s law on earth. In that framework, Jesus isn’t primarily the Savior you have a personal relationship with right now. He’s the future King who will return to set up that government and make everyone keep the Sabbath and Holy Days properly.

So when you’re designing outreach materials, what naturally comes out first? Not “Come meet Jesus.” It’s “We keep the Sabbath and Holy Days.” Because that’s the distinctive. That’s the sign. That’s how you know you’ve found the “true Church.” Jesus is important, sure — but He’s important because He’s going to make the whole world keep the law the way we already do.

This is why Armstrongism has always had a slightly allergic reaction to centering Jesus too much. If your entire identity is built on being the people who still obey the Old Testament commandments that everyone else supposedly abandoned, then leading with grace, the cross, or a relationship with the risen Christ feels dangerously close to sounding like those lawless Sunday-keeping Protestants, or worse yet, the Catholics. You can’t have visitors thinking this is just another Jesus church. You have to make sure they know this is the Sabbath-and-Holy-Days church that also happens to believe in Jesus.

That’s why the materials were shaping up to lead with the law. And that’s why Kubik had to play the role of the guy who raises his hand and says, “Should we maybe… put the actual Savior in there somewhere?” It’s the same instinct that makes Armstrongist groups spend far more time explaining why Christmas and Easter are pagan than explaining why the empty tomb changes everything.

In Armstrongism, Jesus mostly functions as:

• The one who died so your past sins could be forgiven (after which you’d better start keeping the law perfectly),

• The coming King who will enforce that law worldwide,

• And occasionally the “Lord of the Sabbath” (which conveniently lets them keep talking about the Sabbath).

He is rarely presented as the central, sufficient, personal object of faith and worship in the way evangelical Christianity does it. The focus stays on “God’s way of life” — which, in practice, means the commandments, the calendar, and the government. Jesus becomes the supporting cast in the story of the law being restored.

So when the Council of Elders sits down to create visitor packets and the first thing that comes out is “Sabbath and Holy Days,” they’re not being sloppy. They’re being consistent. The brand is the law. Jesus is the fine print you add when someone points out that maybe the fine print should be mentioned.

It’s almost charming in its predictability. Even when they’re trying to reach new people, the old Armstrongist reflexes kick in: lead with the distinctive commandment-keeping, and if someone notices the Son of God is missing from the brochure, just pencil Him in later.

Classic.