I had a blurb a while back about the Waldenses and how they were NOT Sabbatarians or a remnant of the 'true church". You would think that the various COG's would do some actual research before they write their articles. CGI apparently did not feel the need to do so and relied upon illogical research of past COGers.
CGI's magazine Armor of God had this to say:
Extreme and excessive persecution was used to wipe out every historical trace of the Sabbath-keeping, Feast-keeping Church of God, which stood up for the doctrines left by the Apostles. As the Church of God struggled to survive, moving from place to place, it took on various ‘nicknames’ in different territories.
Names like the Paulicians, Waldenses, Leonists, Vaudas Cathars, and Albigensians were all attached at some time or another throughout the centuries, describing
these people and their movements.
Who does CGI rely upon for this information? An outdated and poorly research book and a COG members' research:
For example, Orthodox Christians date the Waldenses as originating in the twelfth century and named after a wealthy French merchant Peter Waldo, who was founder of a radical ascetic Christian movement. But much information has come to light proving the Waldenses existed as early as the second century.
The recent work of Andrew N. Dugger and Clarence O. Dodd, titled, A History of the True Church, and Richard C Nickels’ Six Papers on the History of the Church of God, have done much to preserve some of the earlier writings about these groups.
In another bold claim, they said that England was a sabbath keeping nation until Ethebert, King of Kent converted to Catholicism in 597 AD.
“Catholicism was not established in Britain, until the conversion of the Angles in the 6th century by Augustine of Canterbury. According to Butler, Ethelbert, king of Kent, was converted to Catholicism at Pentecost 597AD with some 10,000 subjects baptized at the pagan midwinter Christmas festival of 597. The Christians of Britain were up until that time, predominantly, Sabbath-keepers, who kept the food laws and the Holy Days.”
Being the Anglophile that I am and in the collection of numerous books I have back several hundred years, there is no mention in any of those books that the nation of England was a nation of sabbath keepers! Even my extensive collection of Celtic books never refer to the English or Saxons as "sabbath keepers." Sure, many of the traditions of the Celts were carried north to England as they travelled across Europe and Asia as the people migrated, but, sabbatarianism is not one of the traits that is ever mentioned. Of course, there is a reason for this in COG lore. It is not mentioned because Satan was seeking to destroy the true remnant with intense persecution and those evil Catholics stopped the truth from being published. Ho hum......
