Tuesday, June 3, 2025

British Israelism Debunked: Matt Baker

 


I grew up in the Worldwide Church of God cult, founded by Herbert W. Armstrong. In this video, I discuss one of the cult's main beliefs - British Israelism - and why it is wrong. Chart & Narration: Matt Baker https://usefulcharts.com/

LCG Asserting That Former WCG Members are "Returing to the faith"


Gerald Weston wants to give the impression that there are a lot of former Worldwide Church of God members returning "to the faith". Which "faith" is that?  Traditional Christianity? 1st Century Christianity? Other Church of God movements? To Theilism? Traditional Armstrongism?

Former church members who never really abandoned Armstrongist teachings are those minuscule numbers that may be returning. Many left WCG searching for the one true church and became wanderers in a sea of church splinters, filled with self-appointed men thumping their puny little chests about how great they are. Those wanderers then discovered that none of the groups really captured the lost fantasy they still held up as the standard.  So, they dug out old literature, watched online videos of HWA sermons, and kept flipping the pages of worn-out color-coded Bibles with a booklet next to it that claimed to PROVE how things were supposed to be. After many years of this lonely lifestyle and an occasional undercover visit to a COG Feast site, a few have returned to LCG and other COG groups seeking missing fellowship. That doesn't last long till they discover the same old crap that destroyed the Worldwide Church of God still infects the current COG movement. Soon, they will leave again and become stay-at-home true believers.

The nineteen men on our Council of Elders gathered this week for three days of deliberations. The first day was mostly devoted to updates from the men regarding their areas of responsibilities, and the reports were overall very encouraging. One trend we notice is that people with a past Worldwide Church of God association are returning to the faith after being away from it for several decades. We are also seeing people who never had such association coming along and progressing toward baptism. We had lively discussions on how better to reach the world with the message of the Gospel and with a warning of where our world is heading. Much focus was on how to broaden our appeal to a larger demographic and how to cut through the clutter of information available today, while realizing that our message will be rejected by the majority, just as was the message of the prophets of old. Some very interesting ideas were presented, and I am truly grateful to have these men of wide experience to give good counsel going forward. Thank you for all your prayers regarding these meetings. Due to the time-consuming nature of these council meetings, there will be no video update this week.
—Gerald E. Weston