COG followers were ecstatic a year or so ago when Joe Kovacs from WorldNetDaily wrote a book Shocked by the Bible that sounded just like it was from the pen of Herbert Armstrong. Many have claimed he is a chruch member. Kovacs will nto repsond to the accusation. The mere fact that he is connected to WorldNetDaily is a concern right of the bat regardless of his affiliation with Armstrong.
This article is very much Christian based and will not appeal to some here as it attempts to disprove Armstrongism theologically.
Here is a religious blog that goes after him and Herbert Armstrong: Worldview Weekend News
While Rood may be blatant, WND ’s executive news editor Joe Kovacs is more subtle. Kovacs calls himself a “Bible believing Christian” and attends a non-denominational church. His books Shocked by the Bible and The Divine Secret are sold not only by WND but also by many of the splinter groups from The Worldwide Church of God who still follow the teachings of Herbert W. Armstrong.
This is not surprising, for many of Kovacs’s theological positions line up with those of the late cultist Armstrong. For example, Kovacs’s theology of the Godhead parallels that of Armstrong’s polytheist view of a family of gods. In The Divine Secret , Kovacs writes, “Yes, God is indeed a family. Jesus is the Word and He’s one member of the God family, and God the Father is yet another member of that same God family” (Kovacs, The Divine Secret, 24).
------While Rood may be blatant, WND ’s executive news editor Joe Kovacs is more subtle. Kovacs calls himself a “Bible believing Christian” and attends a non-denominational church. His books Shocked by the Bible and The Divine Secret are sold not only by WND but also by many of the splinter groups from The Worldwide Church of God who still follow the teachings of Herbert W. Armstrong.
This is not surprising, for many of Kovacs’s theological positions line up with those of the late cultist Armstrong. For example, Kovacs’s theology of the Godhead parallels that of Armstrong’s polytheist view of a family of gods. In The Divine Secret , Kovacs writes, “Yes, God is indeed a family. Jesus is the Word and He’s one member of the God family, and God the Father is yet another member of that same God family” (Kovacs, The Divine Secret, 24).
Armstrong wrote: “The sole value of human life lies in the human spirit and the potential of being begotten of God, later to be born VERY GOD, a child in the GOD FAMILY” (Herbert W. Armstrong, Mystery of the Ages , Pasadena, CA: Worldwide Church of God, 1985, 92). Implicit in this statement is the idea that men will become gods. Kovacs may soften this position slightly, but his theology goes in the same direction: “… we will…be born into the spirit world, not composed of flesh and blood anymore, but looking like yourself, composed of spirit just like God the Father and Jesus are composed of spirit, and be members of the actual Family of God…. This is exactly what the Bible says and it calls us the children of God. God is having children. God is reproducing Himself after the God kind” (http://www.wnd.com/2009/12/118220/).
An offshoot of Armstrong’s Worldwide Church of God interviewed Kovacs in their publication The Journal . From his comments, it is clear that he believes we shall become divine, again paralleling the teaching of Armstrong.
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We live in a time of growing biblical illiteracy. Because many are unfamiliar with the genuine, they may be swayed by the arguments of the counterfeit. Again, no one denies the very real peril descending upon this nation. That peril, however, is not alleviated by joining with the enemies of the gospel. In The Divine Secret , Kovacs doesn’t present the biblical gospel that sets men free. His message is one more system of “works”: “By honoring God and keeping His commandments, we’re learning the way the divine family lives. We’re practicing day after day, week after week, year after year how to live like God...” (Kovacs, The Divine Secret , 142).For the rest of the article which inlcudes an interview with The Journal and Kovacs click here
Much like Armstrong, Kovacs’s “gospel” delivers no certainty. And rather like Armstrong, the verses that speak of believers being a new creation in Christ (2 Cor:5:17) are made to refer to the resurrection. All that’s left are “works” until that time. Romans:8:11 tells us, “But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.” Kovacs applies that Scripture to the future resurrection of our human bodies. “Yes, all of us are currently sinful, mortal beings headed for everlasting death if we don’t repent…and we can actually ‘put on immortality’ if we’re faithful to God” (Ibid., 52). There is no assurance if our works don’t measure up. “But, once the jump is made from physical bodies to spiritual ones, being literally ‘born OF GOD,’ born into the actual family of God, the Bible indicates sin will not be possible…” (Ibid., 77). No one can miss the parallel to Armstrong who stated, “Until the resurrection, therefore, we cannot see, enter into or inherit the Kingdom of God. WE CANNOT BE BORN AGAIN UNTIL THE RESURRECTION!” (Armstrong, Pamphlet, Born Again? ).
