COG Myths Concerning Our Ties To Seventh-Day Baptists in Rhode Island

 

The Painful Truth has a new article up today on the falsified links that the church has tried to use to tie the church to the Seventh-Day Baptists of Newport, Rhode Island.

It includes the letter from William Voyce of the Church of God, 7th Day refuted the many myths and outright lies that Herbert Armstrong and others promulgated.

William T. Voyce’s June 3, 1985 letter to the Worldwide Church of God is a veritable research paper with a “point-by-point refutation of their interpretation of American Sabbath history.” Mr. Voyce is a member of the Church of God, 7th Day and wrote the 7-page letter to the WCG after reading their article “The Church They Couldn’t Destroy.” Mr. Voyce has not received a WCG reply to his letter, the subject of which he feels is so important that “if the truth about this matter were more widely known, a good share of the Worldwide Church’s membership would never have joined in the first place.”

The article also includes research by Bruce Renhen on the same subject:

I was not alone in my discoveries concerning the Worldwide Church of God’s falsified link to the Seventh Day Baptist church of Newport, Rhode Island. As early as 1968, William T. Voyce of Des Moines, Iowa had corresponded with both the Seventh Day Baptist Historical Society (located then in Plainfield, New Jersey) and the Worldwide Church of God editorial staff in Pasadena.

Miss Evalois St. John of the Historical Society provided several photocopies to Voyce of original church documents dating back to the seventeenth through nineteenth centuries proving that A. N. Dugger (and later Herbert Armstrong) had counterfeited and altered the reading of their original documents. Miss St. John informed Mr. Voyce in her June 1968 letter to him:

A great disservice was done to both Seventh Day Baptists and Seventh Day Adventists by an Elder A. N. Dugger who now resides in Jerusalem. As you must know he was formerly a member of the denomination known as The Church of God (Adventist), with headquarters in Stanberry, Mo. In fact the U. S. Census of Religious Bodies 1926 carries the history/doctrine of this order which a footnote states was revised and approved by Elder A. N. Dugger, of the Church of God Publishing House. In 1934 (or 1933) Mr. Dugger separated from this group – Church of God (Adventist) – and established a new order – The Church of God (Seventh Day) – with headquarters at Salem W. Va. In the U.S. Census of Religious Bodies of 1936, one finds a history of this new order prepared – as the government states by Mr. Dugger. For the history of this group he deliberately “lifted” the history of the Seventh Day Baptists, added some Seventh Day Adventist history, and called it the History of the Church of God (Seventh Day). Because this pamphlet is put out by the U.S. Government – through its census Bureau – researchers and students of Church history have accepted his facts as true. One finds more of this “lifted” history in the book History of the True Church by A.N. Dugger and C.O. Dodd, published in 1936….

Check out the full article here:

Worldwide Church of God’s falsified link to the Seventh Day Baptist church of Newport, Rhode Island

 

Commercial Break: Keeping Perspective on the WCG Experience

 

Living Church of God: Why is Satan Always More Powerful Than The "Jesus" They Claim To Follow?

As usual, LCG members are being told that they are incapable of discerning what is right. Satan, that all-powerful god of the COG, is entrapping LCG members with desire and emotion. Members are told that they are incapable of discerning right from wrong because of rumors, gossip, and lies that currently abound in LCG.

In a direct attack on Sheldon Monson, Winnail says Satan is using him to sow discord in LCG. Quite frankly, LCG does not need Sheldon to spread anything in LCG. They do a really good job at sowing discord in the church all by themselves.

There is nothing wrong with members of LCG having doubts and resentment over hurts dished out by LCG ministers and leaders. Church leaders and many ministers think they are immune from any criticism. That ability of members to discern things happening to them, that they know is NOT right, is an eye-opening experience into more things wrong with the church. This is a God-given ability for people to use their minds to "fact-check" church leaders and doctrine. No COG member, regardless of which COG group they are in, should EVER have second thoughts when they dare to question church leaders, policies or doctrines. A wise and thoughtful person that follows Christ does that daily.

Is Satan After You? The Bible contains numerous warnings about Satan and how he operates to deceive, divide, and destroy—people, families, churches, and nations. He moves like a hunting lion, carefully stalking his unsuspecting prey (1 Peter 5:8). He is a dangerous adversary who is constantly searching for vulnerable individuals (1 Timothy 5:14–15; 2 Timothy 3:6–7). Satan does not hunt human beings using claws and bullets, but instead he appeals to our desires, emotions, and human vanity. He plants doubts and spreads gossip, rumors, and lies that hurt and confuse and discredit others (1 Timothy 5:13; John 8:44; Leviticus 19:16). Satan fosters dissention and division by stirring up fears, jealousies, and misguided ambitions (1 Corinthians 1:10–13), and he will use anyone—members, ministers, and self-proclaimed leaders—to sow discord and do his work (2 Corinthians 11:1–15). Satan will zero in on people who have doubts, hurts, and resentments or who feel wronged or overlooked because their ideas, opinions, or ambitions have not been acknowledged or accepted. He can use such individuals to criticize, undermine, or lash out at others. To avoid becoming an unsuspecting victim of negative or subversive thoughts and attitudes that Satan beams at his potential victims (Ephesians 2:2), we need to be alert, humble, and patient—and stay close to God (1 Peter 5:6–9).

Have a profitable Sabbath,

Douglas S. Winnail