There seems to be no end to the depths of human turpitude on display in Samuel Kitchen's descent into COG madness. He has set himself up as the restorer of the one true Worldwide Church of God - a name he stole and appropriated. He has no more legal standing to use it than Ron Stephens does. Not only has he stolen a name; he has also lifted articles, books, and videos the original mother church produced. He pretends everything is in the public domain, or that "educational purposes" magically license wholesale copying.
As usual in COGland, the Ten Commandments everyone claims to revere conveniently skip over theft. Copyrights on Armstrong-era works did not evaporate in 1986. Grace Communion International inherited them; the Philadelphia Church of God later bought a stack of them for millions o dollars. "Fair use" is not a Swiss Army knife for reprinting a denomination's catalog.
The old Worldwide Church of God, as a legal and doctrinal institution, is gone. After Herbert Armstrong died in 1986, the organization repudiated his distinctive system, joined the National Association of Evangelicals, and in 2009 changed its name to Grace Communion International - while keeping the WCG trademark. What Kitchen is selling is not a resurrection. It is a publicity stunt: Armstrongist church government and legalism in a new wrapper, totally devoid of grace under the New Covenant.
Now, in an effort to collect tithe money, he has set up what he calls Worldwide Church of God Support Services. He claims the old WCG had a "Support Services" department that allowed them to collect money. Then, like Bob Thiel claiming lineage to the apostolic church, he claims his "support services" go all the way back to the original church in 31 A.D. That is not history. That is branding with a halo.
He then quotes Herbert as his justification. Armstrong wrote the following during the California receivership fight, when the church was scrambling to keep the state from seizing funds and members were being steered toward a Corporation Sole:
The Church of God has always had support services since its creation in 31 A.D.
"The two spiritual areas, which are the real purpose and mission of the Church, are, one, proclaiming the Good News of the Kingdom of God for a witness to the nations of the world..."...Now the second mission of the Church is to feed the flock, as Jesus said, on the spiritual food of the Word of God."Today we carry on God's Work in a world multiplied vastly larger in population, a mechanized, mechanical, complex world with instrumentalities to work with that were never dreamed of in the first century. So there is a great difference in the operation of the Church today from what it was in that day."The basic organizational pattern is the same today as it was then. But today we must utilize supporting services - and let's remember that - they are supporting services. The main function of the Church is spiritual. The supporting services are mostly physical. Get that into your minds and keep it there. However, supporting services are needful to get the Work done today."So the basic organizational pattern is the same. But today we utilize supporting services in scientific, technological and mechanical areas that were nonexistent in the first century."(Quote from "Congress of Leading Ministers", Herbert W Armstrong March 06,1981)
What it meant in 1981 is another matter. Armstrong was not discovering a first-century accounting department. He was defending a late-twentieth-century machinery of media, colleges, and cash flow while Sacramento circled the bank accounts. Under the New Covenant, the church is not a brand name, a candlestick franchise, or a PO Box in Iowa. It is people joined to Christ. The "supporting services" of the apostolic church were not tithe portals and AI hymn demos. They were meals, letters, shared goods, and itinerant preaching - and Paul would rather tent-make than let money become the gospel. "Get that into your minds and keep it there," indeed.
Then Herbert died, and the crap hit the fan. Rebellion and animus entered the church rather quickly. Refusing to follow HWA's own appointed successor was already treated as rebellion; the movement splintered into the rancor, bitterness, and self-appointed upstarts that define COGland today. Kitchen's version is simply the latest rerun: the old WCG as taxidermy, posed in a living room, still demanding first tithe.
Being PRIMARILY PHYSICAL IN NATURE, the support services are meant to ASSIST the spiritual body of Jesus Christ, known today as the Worldwide Church of God, to fulfill its missions.Above is an organizational chart provided by Herbert W Armstrong, apostle of Jesus Christ.After his death in 1986, the support services there listed in 1981, was eventually fully taken over and destroyed by disobedient, unfaithful, dissidents who had left Christ and decided to dirty the name of the Worldwide Church of God.This blow, struck at the ministry causing them to vacate the Worldwide Church of God and seek refuge in NEW ORGANIZATIONS that were being formed and created.Seeking refuge is not a sin.But creating DIVISION (and by that I mean creating new organizations to redefine the Church of God) is SIN AGAINST GOD!
Kitchen writes that support services are "PRIMARILY PHYSICAL IN NATURE" and exist to assist "the spiritual body of Jesus Christ, known today as the Worldwide Church of God." After 1986, he says, those services were "taken over and destroyed by disobedient, unfaithful, dissidents." Seeking refuge is not a sin, he allows. Creating new organizations is "SIN AGAINST GOD."
The silliness is obvious. He is creating a new organization, slapping the dead name on it, and calling everyone else the outer court.
Today, also in direct rebellion against reality, Samuel Kitchen has set himself up as the new Bob Thiel: a self-appointed savior of the church, God's greatest gift to the dangerous end-time dispensation. He is in his mid-thirties, lives in Keosauqua, Iowa, and describes himself as a third-generation WCG member who fellowships online and plays HWA tapes because there is no local minister. Estimates of his "worldwide" flock run to a handful. So he relies on gullible people on the internet.
He has launched Support Services of the Worldwide Church of God as the money pipe - checks to a Fairfield, Iowa PO Box, or electronic gifts - after an elder in the Philippines, Jonathan Dicen, wrote a letter authorizing him to collect tithes. Dicen then took a job with another COG group and cut the connection. Kitchen kept the letter anyway. Christ is Head, he says. The authorization survives like a coupon with no expiration date. No recognized charity status turns that arrangement into a church. Anyone sending him money might as well flush it and enjoy the sound. It always boils down to money
...the Worldwide Church of God was RAISED UP as the Philadelphia Candlestick(Rev.1:20), through the receiving of Herbert W Armstrong, apostle of Jesus Christ. The true Church ENGAGED IN THE WORK OF GOD, repenting and BELIEVING the gospel message.The Supportive Services, assisted the Church physically in order to fulfill its DIVINE MISSIONS from God.Today, there are a variety of support services provided, that are different from the early days of the Church.
There is no divine mission of a so-called Worldwide Church of God today. That WCG exists in Samuel's mind and among a few followers who cannot open a Bible without an HWA booklet on the table. The New Covenant church does not need a 1981 org chart to be the body of Christ. It needs Christ.
Then, in typical holier-than-thou COG speak, he declares that those who do not follow him are outside the true church, given over to the ways of the Gentiles, parked in the outer court of the Temple. Pure Armstrongist bullshit
Those who step outside of the true Church, are actually OUTSIDE OF THE TRUE CHURCH. Christ is NEVER DIVIDED. Those who step away, have placed themselves in another category.While still claiming to be part of the temple, they are stepping closer to the world, into the arena of the gentile world.So we see many "Church of God" groups in the OUTER COURT OF THE TEMPLE.These are NOT to be INCLUDED with the measuring of the Temple(aka Worldwide Church of God)."And there was given me a reed like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein."But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months."(Revelation 11:1-2)IF YOU STEP AWAY FROM THE TRUE CHURCH, you are GIVEN TO THE GENTILES, to be ruled and governed by the civil governments of this world. Therefore you see many becoming 501(c)(3) organizations, placing Caesar as HEAD over operations.Those works and projects are NOT SUPPORTING the Worldwide Church of God, but rather supporting themselves and will end up being liquidated into the coffers of the civil Gentiles authorities.
Revelation 11 is about measuring worshipers, not trademarking Pasadena. Under the New Covenant the dividing line is not "Did you stay with Herbert's corporate brand?" It is "Do you belong to Christ?" Paul did not tell Gentile churches they had wandered into the outer court for incorporating. He told them the law was a tutor that led to Christ, and that if righteousness comes by the law, Christ died for nothing. Kitchen's measuring reed is a fundraising brochure.
Then come the ministries designed to con a few contributors into thinking they are supporting something Christian:
In order to SUPPORT the MISSIONS of the Worldwide Church of God, several projects and resources have been established.A VOICE CRIES OUT- Herbert W Armstrong is a YOUTUBE and FACEBOOK PROJECT, that has been used to share the World Tomorrow Programs that have already been funded and produced by the Worldwide Church of God under Herbert W Armstrong.We are currently developing these programs for a new audience. We are developing a program that looks at current world events and news, and then going back to the message provided by Mr. Armstrong. This will springboard those programs to current day situations and society. We need your prayers most of all for the success of this project.Also a future PODCAST is in the works.RECAPTURE TOMORROW is a YOUTUBE and FACEBOOK project and resource, provided by Sam Kitchen(Administrator of this website). He has undergone writing songs, and using A.I have developed "demos" to help in future music development In the Church. He also uses this channel and page to post his personal thoughts.WWCG-ARCHIVES and WWCG-LIBRARY.This has been an ongoing project for many years. It's purpose is to preserve the productions and publications, of Herbert W Armstrong and the Worldwide Church of God and its support services(Ambassador College, WCG INC etc etc).How You Can Help- I need help with Audio Editing. I want to file all documents and all audio and video files with intros and outros, for conservation purposes. We are simply gathering a collection of previous publications, and productions funded and produced by the Worldwide Church of God, Herbert W Armstrong, and previous support services.
And then the hilarious absurdity: Ambassador College Online. How many reincarnations of that failed institution have been launched over the decades? The campuses closed. The degrees faded. The correspondence course now returns as an "updated" digital product, because nothing says 31 A.D. like converting Lesson 8 into a login password.
AMBASSADOR COLLEGE ONLINE.This project is going to be amazing. We will be taking the old Correspondence Courses of Ambassador College, and turning them into online courses, that will have additional updated portions, to bring the old courses forward to new audiences and today's world.Letter Department.This department will correspond with those who write in to the Church.Festival Department.In finding facilities and locations for the FEAST OF TABERNACLES and HOLY DAYS. This can be funded directly.The Website "worldwidechurchofgod.org" will showcase the activities and purpose and mission of the Church and its work. As we develop this website, more opportunities for our people to be involved will be posted
How quickly Ambassador Auditorium has faded out of the scene! Ambassador Auditorium went on the market for about $45 million, and Kitchen emailed the owners as a "representative of the Worldwide Church of God," asking how to start a purchase. The hall members once paid for is a concert venue on three acres in Pasadena. Kitchen's flock could not buy the reflecting pool. But the pledge math on his site is revealing: if 5,000 people give $100 a month, that is $6 million a year. He does not have 5,000 people. He has a calculator.
That is the house the old Work built. Kitchen wants the keys and a monthly draft.The New Covenant does not forbid generosity. It forbids turning Malachi 3 into a shakedown after the Temple priesthood is gone. Hebrews does not install a new storehouse in Keosauqua. It installs a better priest. Giving becomes cheerful and voluntary, not a loyalty test that sorts the temple from the Gentiles. Church government in Armstrongism was a pyramid with an apostle at the peak. Grace is a cross with no room for a spare-bedroom papacy.
Samuel's reincarnation of the old WCG is not Philadelphia restored. It is a brand revival with a donation portal, a borrowed name, a letter from a man who left, AI hymns, and a shopping list that runs from copyrighted archives to a $45 million auditorium. The old church ceased to exist. What remains is the oldest COG miracle of all: when the doctrine runs out, pass the plate.
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