Are You a Peacemaker? Because Nothing Says ‘Peacemaker’ Like 30 Years of Splinter Groups Accusing Each Other of Being Laodicea

Doug Winnail's recycled "Are You a Peacemaker?" article (this version is basically the 1999/2007 Living Church News piece with a 2026 date slapped on it) is a masterclass in Armstrongist irony. 

Living Church of God members are told they will soon be spirit-born sons of God sitting on thrones in Jerusalem, reigning as kings and priests, enforcing God's law on the nations so that swords get beaten into plowshares. That's the "gospel of peace." Their job description in the Kingdom is to be the cosmic police force that finally makes everyone keep the Sabbath, the holy days, the clean meats, and the rest of the package Herbert W. Armstrong packaged as "the way of peace."

The problem? The people who claim they will be the enforcers of unity and peace cannot stay in the same room with each other now.

The Armstrongist Version of Peacemaking

In classic Armstrongism, "peace" is not primarily reconciliation through the cross. It is obedience to the law as administered by the Church of God government. Winnail quotes Psalm 119:165 ("Great peace have those who love Your law") and Leviticus 26 as if the Sinai covenant is still the operating system for the New Testament church. He then fast-forwards to Revelation 5:10 and Isaiah 2: the saints will rule and teach the nations the law. That's how peace arrives.

This is the same theology that produced the Worldwide Church of God under Herbert Armstrong: one man at the top, "government of God" flowing downward, and anyone who questioned the package was "disfellowshipped." After Armstrong died, the organization that claimed to be the only place God was working promptly exploded.

How Divided They Actually Are

The numbers are not subtle. After Joseph Tkach Sr. and Jr. moved the old WCG toward historic Christianity, hundreds of new splinter groups popped up adding to the long list of somewhere between 300 and 400 groups that have formed since the Radio Church of God appeared on the scene, all claiming to be the faithful remnant that "held fast." The big four that still try to look like the old WCG are LCG, United Church of God, Philadelphia Church of God, and Restored Church of God. Then there are the second-generation splits: COGWA (which left UCG), Continuing Church of God (Bob Thiel left LCG in 2012 after concluding LCG no longer had "the Philadelphia mantle"), Enduring Church of God, Church of God 21st Century, and dozens of smaller "slivers." 

LCG itself was born in a staff revolt. Roderick Meredith was fired by the board of his own Global Church of God in 1998. He took most of the members and started Living Church of God. That is the organization now lecturing everyone else about "smoothing ruffled feathers" and "not pouring gasoline on smoldering embers."

They quote Matthew 18:15-20 about going to your brother privately. They quote Romans 12:18 about living peaceably "as much as depends on you." Then they spend decades marking, disfellowshipping, and publicly condemning the other groups that keep the same Sabbath, the same holy days, and the same British-Israelism. Each group is convinced the others are "Laodicean" or have "lost the truth." That's not peacemaking. That's a circular firing squad with extra holy days.

The New Covenant Contrast

The New Testament actually does talk about peace. Ephesians 2:14-16 says Christ himself is our peace. He broke down the dividing wall of hostility and created one new man. Colossians 2:16-17 says the Sabbaths and festivals were shadows; the substance is Christ. Galatians says the law was a tutor until Christ came. The fruit of the Spirit includes peace, but it is produced by the Spirit, not by perfect calendar-keeping or submitting to the correct evangelist in Charlotte.

Jesus' beatitude "Blessed are the peacemakers" is not a job description for future theocratic enforcers. It is a description of people who have been reconciled to God and therefore become agents of that same reconciliation. The New Covenant does not produce 400 competing "one true churches" all claiming they will run the Millennium. It produces one body.

Winnail is right about one thing: the world's peace plans keep failing. He just never applies the same standard to the movement that claims it alone knows "the way of peace." If the people who will supposedly enforce the law cannot even agree on who holds "the government of God" in 2026, the idea that they will suddenly become unified world rulers in a few years requires more faith than most of us can muster.