Sunday, August 25, 2024

New Book: The Six-Day War in Creationism: A New Critique of the Young Earth Reform Movement

 


Gene Nouhan's book will be featured at an upcoming literary event in Chicago that draws over 100,000 people.

ReadersMagnet, a renowned publishing and marketing company, will display Gene Nouhan’s The Six-Day War in Creationism: A New Critique of the Young Earth Reform Movement at the 2024 Printers Row Lit Fest (PRLF). This prestigious literary event, to be hosted by the Chicago Tribune, is scheduled for September 7-8, 2024, at Printers Row Park, 620 South Dearborn Street, Chicago, IL, USA. The PRLF is expected to attract a crowd of 100,000. 
 
During the historic reforms in the Worldwide Church of God, Gene played a significant role in moving a fringe group towards Orthodoxy. This experience prepared him to critique the Young Earth Reform Movement’s overreach following the Ken Ham/Bill Nye debates. His troubling encounters with zealots in the movement led him to write a comprehensive critique provided in his book, The Six-Day War in Creationism. 

The book focuses on where the Young Earth ReformMovement departs from historic Christianity. While Gene reassesses the literalism of Young Earth Creationism, he goes out of his way to show that the Reformist mentality in the movement is more serious.

The Six-Day War in Creationism unpacks many new insights on Genesis related to God’s nature, the Bible’s purposes, and the Church’s Mission. The book surprises readers with its credible template for resolving theological controversies, forever changing their perspectives on Creationism. 

Amazon Books has a similar statement: 

During the historic reform in the Worldwide Church of God, Gene wrote peer-reviewed studies, spoke at conferences, served as a Senior Pastor, and with many colleagues, helped move that fringe group to Orthodoxy.

It turned out that untangling a denomination's self-styled theology was preparation for sorting out the Young Earth Reform Movement's striking overreach. Following the Ken Ham/Bill Nye debates, Gene was awakened to a "war" in Christianity over six days in Genesis. After troubling encounters with zealots in the movement, he saw the need for a comprehensive and definitive critique. 
 
While Gene reassesses the literalism of Young Earth Creationism, he goes out of his way to show it is the Reformist mentality in the movement that is more serious. The Six-Day War in Creationism focuses on where the Young Earth Reform Movement departs from historic Christianity.

This book unpacks an impressive number of new insights on Genesis related to the nature of God, the purposes of the Bible, and the Mission of the Church. The surprising reward of this book is it serves as a credible template for resolving other controversies in theology. After reading the Six-Day War in Creationism, you will never look at the issues in Creationism the same way.


Saturday, August 24, 2024

COGWA Declares That The Spiritual State Of Its Ministry Is The Best It Has Ever Been

 


There truly can be no greater church on the face of the earth than a Church of God. Everything about it, from its existence to its mission, occupies the most important moment in the history of humanity and they make sure to let us all know how glorious it is.

This is part of the latest statement on the health of the Church of God a Worldwide Association. Notice how they extend their reach all the way back into the glory days of old in the mother church, the Worldwide Church of God where everything's perfect and wisdom and truth emanated from it to the world, while inwardly it was a hotbed of corruption, immorality, and financial misappropriation, led by power-hungry men who left a trail of destruction in their wake. Some of those same men sit comfortably in COGWA where they went after their apostasy from the United Church of God.

God has apparently been shining his favor upon COGWA ever since, especially when it comes to its ministry.

In reviewing the modern history of the Church, we can clearly see that the spiritual health of the Church is at its best when there are dedicated pastors who have a passion for the truth and a genuine love for the brethren. If you take a small slice of our history, beginning in 1933 with the inception of the Radio Church of God and going forward 20 years, you will find a lot of people tuning in to The World Tomorrow program and many thousands of subscribers to The Plain Truth magazine but the Church was still primarily a radio ministry, even after 20 years. In 1953 there were only a handful of congregations in the northwestern part of the U.S., and none outside the United States. But in the next 20 years—from 1953 to 1973—things changed dramatically. The attendance at the Feast went from less than 1,000 in Big Sandy in 1953 to almost 100,000 in multiple sites in 1973. What changed? In 1952 the first graduates from Ambassador College began to be sent to the congregations, serving a year or two as ministerial assistants and elders before becoming pastors.

Later on, various educational programs were established to assist the ministry in upgrading their biblical knowledge and their abilities to better serve the brethren. At one time we had a program called DELS, or Deacons and Elders Lecture Series, and in the early 1980s the Refresher Program was established to provide this needed education.

In recent years we have seen additional programs established for ministerial education. Today we have four primary programs that we rely on for biblical education and the development of future leadership: the Focused Mentoring Program, to develop leadership in the United States; the International Leadership Program (ILP), to develop leadership outside the United States; the Pastoral Development Program (PDP), to provide continuing education for the U.S. pastoral ministry; and Foundation Institute, to provide a basic biblical education for all those able to attend the nine-month program.

In addition to these formal programs, there are various conferences that keep the ministry informed and provide additional classes. These include an international conference for the worldwide ministry every two years and a variety of regional conferences in other years. We also usually have daylong webinar classes for the ministry in the spring and fall of each year. And we have conferences annually for special groups—Feast coordinators, camp directors and the Ministerial Services team. All of these education programs create a lot of activity here in the office. It seems that each week I am either planning for an upcoming conference or in the midst of one.

Each group of the recently completed PDP had approximately 15 hours of classroom instruction—along with time for interaction and socializing between classes and in the evenings. To give you an idea of the topics presented in the PDP, here is a partial list of classes in each four-day session:

    • The Importance of Integrity and Character in Doctrine and Christian Leadership.
    • Your Relationship With Your Congregations.
    • Divorce and Remarriage Issues: Doctrine and Process.
    • If I Knew Then What I Know Now.
    • The Pastor’s Role in Developing Leadership in the Local Congregation.
    • Helping Gen Z and the Alphas.
    • The War Against Truth.
    • Preparing for the Tribulation.
    • Technology for Today’s Pastor.
    • Preparing for Retirement.
    • Legal Considerations for the Ministry.
    • Politics and Voting: What We Teach and Why.
    • The Unique Stresses of Serving in the Ministry. Member letter


Thursday, August 22, 2024

Um...Why Is LCG Warnng Us About False Teachers?

 

Living Church of God wants to warn us about false teachers. We know this was posted quite a while back in response to Bob Thiel's heretical blasphemies, but isn't it the pot calling the kettle black? Isn't the Living Church of God also filled with false ministers?

Sadly, the Church of God today is filled with wolves masquerading as true ministers of God who are dominant out one blasphemy after another. Great will be the day when Bob Thiel, Gerald Flurry, Ron Wienland, and Dave Pack are silenced!

Beware of False Teachers: Warnings about false teachers are found throughout the Bible. Jesus warned they will come in “sheep’s clothing” (smooth-talking, congenial, appearing spiritual), but are actually “ravenous wolves” seeking to divide and devour the flock of God (Matthew 7:15–19). As the end of the age approaches, Jesus warned that “many will come in My name” claiming to be representatives of Christ “and will deceive many” (Matthew 24:3–5). The Apostle Paul warned that these false teachers would be guided by a different spirit and preach a different gospel about a different Jesus, and are actually ministers of Satan masquerading as ministers of Christ (2 Corinthians 11:4–15). Peter warned they will promote “destructive heresies” that deny the truth of Scripture—and that many will follow their erroneous teachings (2 Peter 2:1–3). Let’s remember these warnings and ask God for the discernment to recognize false teachers and their misguided ideas (2 Timothy 1:6–7)—because we will all be tested in this crucial area.
Have a profitable Sabbath,
Douglas S. Winnail