Dave Pack: Jesus Was Supposed To Have Returned March 23, 2021

Part 299

Dave delivered Part 299, a 30-minute message this past Saturday night. After another failed predicted date for Christ’s return the day prior, he has a new revelation that points undoubtedly to Christ’s return on March 23rd or the faithful will need to wait another year.

Dave states: "Now, everything you know, is summarized in three facts. Everything! The first half of the year is 1,290 days, and it ends at Trumpets in 2024. Meaning Abib 10 (When Christ returns), sometime on March 23rd! Number two. We eat the Passover with Christ on Abib 14. This is when God and Christ appear together in glory with all saints. Three, the "gap" between the 1290 and Passover is 84 hours. Those are your "pole stars." Those are your touchstones. Those are Jachin and Boaz. They're the two pillars. Abib 10, "the coming," and Passover and a half a week in between. Now, if Tuesday comes and goes, then it would appear we wait another year."

Why Is Satan the Supreme All Powerful "god" of the Church of God?

Below is a letter sent to Exit and Support Network detailing absurd comments made by a Philadelphia Church of God minister, Roger Brandon. The comments in parenthesis are by ESN.

Members Told Not to Take Satan’s Bait:
March 19, 2021 

 

Roger Brandon recently gave a sermonette where he told members not to take Satan’s Bait. (Comments by L. S.) 

 

He threw out the question, “Have you ever wondered what Satan is doing during the days leading into Passover and Days of Unleavened Bread?”(Comment: This causes the members to concentrate right away on Satan.)

It has always amazed me at how much more powerful Satan is to Church of God leaders and members than the God they supposedly are following. This is just one more legacy of the church shoving Jesus to the back burner and ignoring all that he accomplished. When the emphasis in the church is placed upon gaining favor from God by keeping the law, the COG ignores or deliberately lies about Jesus. This, in turn, lets Satan become all-powerful and always out to destroy gullible or backsliding church members.

Then he told them Satan is getting them to “leave the church” and “bait them into sinning” and if they do those things, he can “slowly erode their faith.” He quoted from HWA more than once. (Comment: Brandon doesn’t mention that even though Satan tempts Christians in many ways, “we are not unaware of his schemes” [II Corinthians 2:11] and we can take up “the shield of faith” to “quench all the fiery darts” thrown at us [Ephesians 6:16].

It is always Satan's fault that members leave the church. It never seems to be the abusive and vile leaders and the garbage they preach. People will only take being treated like dirt for so long and then they will leave. After decades of lies about prophecy, some are deciding to leave PCG now. Others leave because they are sick of the "no contact" perversion that the Flurry's and their jack-booted ministry teach.

He talked about Satan “broadcasting in attitudes and moods” and “sometimes we can’t resist that bait.” (Comment: This is referring to how HWA always said Satan had some sort of “wavelength” that he sends out through the air broadcasting bad attitudes. This is the opposite of Ephesians 6:10-18, a passage which talks about more than “Satan” having some sort of “bait.”)

We have discussed before on here the epitaph that COG leaders regularly throw out at members who they deem to be in "bad attitudes." This epitaph is a direct way of silencing critics. Members who have been accused of this are then deemed to be in direct rebellion against God, which is a lie.

He quoted I Peter 5:8 and said, “Satan is “always on the job” and” Satan is out to destroy us.” (Comment: These words do nothing but concentrate on fear.)

Fear is the best message COG cult leaders use to keep members under control. Fear of Satan taking over their minds. Fear of not going to the place of safety. Fear of the great tribulation. Fear of disfellowshipment. On and on the list goes. The church has made Satan more powerful than anything Jesus ever did. They never mention when Jesus says to "rest" in him and not worry. Let him carry your burdens and worries.

Then he laid guilt on the members, by saying, “When we fall it’s because we’re not close enough to God.” (Comment: It’s because we are not depending wholly on Christ and standing fast in His grace [I Peter 5:12 and Colossians 2:5, steadfastness in Christ, which Brandon didn’t quote because he left outgrace and Christ as our Helper.)

If you are a Christian and have been taught to understand the things Jesus accomplished it is just as L.S said above. Being steadfast in the comforter makes it a lot harder to fall, and even when one does, there is no need to worry about ultimate damnation, the fake damnation that the COG loves to scare COG members with. 

Matthew 11:28-30
28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

He told them there is “grave danger” in getting their minds on themselves. Because then they “can’t really comprehend Passover or conquer the Devil.” (Comment: It is Jesus, not us, who is the one that goes forth to “conquer” [Revelation 6:2]. Also read: How can I observe Passover if I’ve left the group? from our Q&A which also talks about Passover).

The COG has made a business out of training members to focus upon themselves and not on Jesus. Keeping the law correctly as interpreted by COG leaders forces the members to constantly look at themselves to see how they are doing. That is the emphasis that the COG places upon members at the COG version of Passover. They are to spend weeks beating themselves up over all their indiscretions over the last year. Are they worthy? Are they in the right attitude? Have they deleavend their home, car, and office properly?  Have they deleavend their mind so they don't sin anymore? Blah, blah, blah. When they do this they have let sin trump redemption letting Satan once again become more powerful than that wimpy Jesus COG leaders love to mock.

He said Satan has the “right bait” for each of us and it might be to: not pay our tithes, control our temper, lack of patience, lust of the flesh, or words we hear from others and how we react. (Comment: Tithing and offerings have always been a major doctrine in PCG, especially during the holy days. Read: “Tithing and Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing.”)

Fear, fear, fear. Satan's bait is always more powerful than Jesus. Not tithing is never going to cause anyone to be taken over by Satan, especially since it is not a new covenant command. Losing one's temper, have a lack of patience are not salvation issues.

One of the worst things he said was that God won’t even hear our prayers (he quoted Isaiah 59:2) and added that “Our sins separate us from God.” (Comment: This is seriously in error since God has forgiven all our sins through Christ Jesus. Read: “The Sin Question.” PCG ministers are known to constantly quote from the O. T. which was the old covenant and Christians are not under the old covenant.)

This has to be one of the stupidest comments I have heard a minister make, well, at least in the last 30 minutes or so. The fact that Satan is so powerful that he can put up a force field between COG members and their God when it comes to prayer is idiocy. This also says that the prayer of Christians and others around the world are going unheard while the prayers of COG members are the only ones getting through. Apparently, Satan is too weak to stop those prayers from ascending on high.

There was so much emphasis on striving with a focus on Satan in this sermonette. (Comment: Brandon does not want to emphasize that we who have trusted Christ and his free gift of eternal life are overcomers because “the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world” (1 John 4:4). He does not focus on Christ and what He has already done for us. –PCG source (additional comments by L. S.)

LCG: Do your leaders, ministers and elders meet these qualifications to serve you?

Sadly, this is the face of so many of the "elders" leading churches today

These are the qualifications for elders in the LCG:

Qualifications of Elders
1 Tim 3:1-7; 2 Tim 2:24-25, 4:1-2; Titus 1:5-9; 1 Peter 5:1-4 

• Must be blameless (above reproach, no grounds for accusations)  Right out the gate many elders fail the qualifications. Sadly, the number of elders who are above reproach and suffer no grounds for accusations are few and far between.

• Willing to serve  -  The track record for far too many elder's in the church has never been one of service. They expected to be served, waited on hand and foot. Clean their houses, mow their lawns, take care of the dry cleaning, paint their homes, etc.

• Husband of one wife  For some, at least.

• Temperate (marked by moderation, not extreme)  Far too many elders and ministers are volatile and overreact to members questions and life circumstances

• Sober-minded (serious)  This one does describe many elders in the church. Some of them seem to have never cracked a smile since they were ordained! Far too many take themselves far too seriously. God forbid if you ever laughed at one of them to their face!

• Of good behavior  Child molesters, serial stalkers, adulterers...you name it and the elders have done it or are doing it. Not all of them, mind you, but far too many have!

• Hospitable  For some elders and ministers, if they deem you worthy to be in their presence then they are hospitable to you, otherwise don't disturb their bubble with your presence.

• Humble  LOL! Let's start with Rod Meredith and Gerald Weston. Humility just reeks from these guys, right?

• Able to teach (explain, exhort, convince, inspire, correct)  Just how many times does an elder/minister need to repeat the same sermon? Enough with the sermons with 7,14, or 21 points over a 1 1/2 hour time period. Enough! An effective speaker can get across the main point in 15 minutes or less. No one needs to stand up there for hours on end lecturing. That is the problem right there. They lecture. They don't inspire, they don't convince, they lecture.

• Not given to wine  Oh Lordy  This is COG ministers and elders we are talking about. The sad fact about far too many in the COG ministry is that too many of them are raging alcoholics.

• Not violent  How about the elders that strike their wives or are emotionally abusive? Or the ones that are child molesters? Or the stalkers and rapists? Fortunately, there are not that many in the church, but they are there and the church does its best to cover up their bad deeds.

• Not greedy for money  What about the ministers and elders who get peeved that lay members make more money than they do and have better things and then proceed to make the lives of those people miserable if they don't regularly cough up their money. COG ministers are well known to court and pamper well-off members. They get invited to the minister's home and are able to slide by when they do things not kosher in the church's  eye. Don't forget around holy day offering times as their eyes glaze over as they demand members put more and more money in the offering plate. It is important to them that they look good in HQ's eyes.

• Gentle  Some of the most abusive and heavy-handed men in the church have been ministers and elders wreaking havoc in their congregations. Do you remember Rod Meredith as a gentle soul? 

• Self-controlled See not given to wine, above

• Not quarrelsome or quick tempered  Most church members have never seem a group of men who can get pissed off and angry so fast than they do with the ministry. They are quick to jump the gun and make snap judgments without getting all the facts.

• Not self-willed 

• Not covetous  How dare a lay member have better things than a minister  Or, better yet, the freedom to do what they want  so let's make them come over and paint my house on their time, mow my yard, and deleaven my home for me.

• Ruling well their own children and households (demonstrating Godly leadership in their family) From Rod Meredith's children to the children of far too many COG ministers and elders, this has NEVER been the case. Drug abuse, arrests, sexual assaults  premarital sex, you name it and COG ministers children have done it and are still doing it. For far too many of their children are not even members of the church anymore. Some example that is!

• Having children who are good examples   see above

• Not new to the truth, but having a track record  Sadly that "track record" is nothing to be proud of in the church considering the decades of theological and spiritual abuse the church has dished out. Just because someone has read all of HWA's books and articles doe snot make them a theologian or ministry material. Reciting church doctrine by rote is not a good track record either.

 

• Having a good reputation among those outside the church  If church members are told continually to not be a part of the world, why would an LCG elder be well thought of in their community? They self isolate in order to not be tainted by the unclean and god forbid if they associate with those "so-called" Christians, Buddhists, or Muslims who might be their neighbor.

• A lover of what is good 

• Just and holy Justice in the Church of God. What a novel concept!

 

• Holding fast the faithful word as taught, that he may be able, by sound doctrine, both to exhort and convict those who contradict.  

A lot of good this has done over the decades. If the ministry in the LCG really believed this they would have never allowed the heretic Bob Thiel to pull the crap he has done nor would they have massaged his delicate ego by telling him that he was a prophet. Because Jesus is not part of the picture, sound doctrine is not part of the bigger picture in the church. Because of that they cannot effectively exhort and convict people to be lovers of The Way. They know enough to force the law and government down the throats of people, but not Jesus.

From the LCG's Advanced Leadership Training Program, Class 24

LCG: The type of government implemented in this church will soon be worldwide! (Lord have mercy on us all!!!!!!!!!!!)

LCG ministers are trained about government with this: 

God’s form of government is clearly laid out in His inspired word, the Bible. God’s government begins with the father, followed by Christ, then down through the leaders that God puts in place in His Church. These leaders submit to each other, and ultimately to Christ and the Father. Government God’s Church is designed to mirror the Father’s relationship with Jesus Christ, teaching us more about Him. It includes the creation of offices and responsibilities in the church, and was designed to facilitate order, peace, and decency (I Cor 14:33, 40) and to eliminate confusion. 

God wants His people to learn more about Him and His government. He outlined His form of government for the Church and the family, because His government will be implemented globally Tomorrow’s World. God’s form of government teaches us to humble ourselves before Him and to submit to each other—in accordance with the example that Christ left for us. Ultimately, following God’s form of government requires faith in the leadership that God places in His church. Godly leaders must earn and maintain that faith by exemplifying and practicing the fruits of His spirit, including love, patience, and mercy. These Godly characteristics should permeate and exemplify God’s government. Practicing God’s form of government now, not only enables God to work effectively through leaders in His Church to do His work, but it will also enable us to easily transition into His government in His Kingdom! 

Optional Homework for Next Class:

• Review and discuss (with a partner) the qualifications and responsibilities of ministers, deacons and deaconesses outlined in 1 Timothy 3, Titus 1 and elsewhere.

Quotes on the Importance of Government 

The state is a bankrupt institution. The only alternative to this bankrupt ‘humanistic’ system is a God-centered government. —R.J. Rushdoony 

I am really surprised to see LCG use this quote by Rushdoony. He is an extreme far-right "dominionist" that advocates for total church control of society which includes stoning of adulterers, homosexuals, kids that talk back to parents, and much much more.  Though it should not surprise me because one of the big proponents of dominionism is Rushdoony's son-in-law, Gary North from Tyler Texas. North's books were widely circulated on the Pasadena and Big Sandy campuses in the mid-70s - early 80s.

"Dominionism comes in “soft” and “hard” varieties. “Hard” dominionism (sometimes called Christian Reconstructionism), as Clarkson describes it, explicitly seeks to replace secular government, and the U.S. Constitution, with a system based on Old Testament law. 

 

The father of hard dominionism, the late Presbyterian theologian R.J. Rushdoony, called for his followers to “take back government … and put it in the hands of Christians.” 

Rushdoony’s legacy has been carried on by his son-in-law, Tyler-based economist Gary North, an unapologetic theocrat who in 1982 called for Christians to “get busy in constructing a Bible-based social, political, and religious order which finally denies the religious liberty of the enemies of God.” (North, founder of the Institute for Christian Economics, did not respond to my request for comment.)" The Radical Theology That Could Make Religious Freedom a Thing of the Past: Even devout Christians should fear these influential leaders' refusal to separate church and state.

LCG's minister training on government continues by quoting Rod Meredith as an authority on government. Rod Meredith is the last person in the COG movement that needs to be commenting on church government, especially considering how he disobeyed Herbert Armstrong, got himself exiled to Hawaii refusing to admit he had done anything wrong, and then proceeded over the following years to wreck people lives and run off at the mouth till he cost the church millions of dollars after he libeled Lona McNair. She sued him and he lost all because of his rebellious loud mouth.

Lord help us if Rod Meredith is going to sit in some lofty throne and pass judgment upon us all, as he claims below.

“Although democracy may be one of the best humanly devised forms of government, it is not the "wave of the future" by any means. Truly, we all need to learn and understand God’s form of government, for the true saints of God will soon be called on to administer that form of government in Tomorrow’s

World.”  Meredith, R.C. (March-April 2005). The Future of Democracy. Tomorrow’s World (p.27)

“Throughout the entire Bible, it is made very clear that there will be no "democracy" and no "voting" in Christ’s Government. For as we read in Hebrews 13:8: ‘Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.’" (Meredith, R.C. (March-April 2005). The Future of Democracy. Tomorrow’s World(p.8).

Minister training quotes are from an LCG source.

LCG: Can you pass its test for ministers?

These are some of the questions Living Church of God ministers are expected to know in order to be ministers in the church. Note that there is nothing about Christ, except for the city in which he is expected to return to, at some point in LCG's timeline. Also, note a question about a comment Will Durant made. Durant is considered one of America's greatest philosophers. LCG can quote him but then mock great philosophers from Greece and elsewhere as pagans.

If LCG was a Christ-centered church then its entire training process for its ministers would be centered upon that inconvenient dude they don't like to talk about. Instead, it is all about the law, government, and prophecy, while that dude that keeps knocking at their door is left standing outside in the cold.

1. What is referred to by the “deadly wound” of Revelation 13?
2. What does historian Will Durant say is “one of the most brilliant ideas in the history of
    statesmanship”?
3. What do the two legs of Daniel 2 represent?
4. Why does the lamb which speaks like the dragon have two horns? What is their significance?
5. What defines the mark of the Beast in general, and which of the 10 Commandments does it refer to in particular?  

6. What is the significance of the mark of the Beast being taken on the hand and on the forehead?
7. What is the first beast, and what is the second beast, of Revelation 13?
8. What is the connection between the numeral 666 and the coming European empire?
9. What is God’s admonition to His people regarding Babylon the Great (Rv. 18:4)?
10. What city will become the dwelling place of Christ, the Father, and the firstfruits for all eternity
(Revelation 21)? 

 

Advanced Leadership Training Program

LCG: The Hallmark of the church is NOT being a follower of Jesus but is....

One would hope that a church that claims to be Christian would have as its hallmark Jesus Christ and proclaim that unabashedly.

Then there is the Living Church of God. Guess what its hallmark is?

Its hallmark is church government! 

This was sent to be by an LCG contact and is part of the training that ministers go through:

A hallmark of God’s true Church is government conducted with an attitude of servant leadership. From God the Father, to Christ the head of the Church, to human beings positioned by Christ on the earth, this chain of government and, ultimately leadership, is essential to the function of the Church.  

Did you catch the "attitude servant of leadership"? Imagine having "servant leaders" in the LCG! Shocking, I know! 

Question

(Pose to group if you like): What causes a breakdown or malfunction in Church government?

Answer:

When people usurp authority not given to them or when they do things that are someone else’s

responsibility, or when they fail to communicate effectively. 

LCG just cannot stand anyone daring to do anything on their own without getting a minister's permission. 

 

We need to understand how to recognize, follow, and submit to God’s government in faith. This is a subject that has been preached about, talked about, and studied, yet few really understand the importance of this action. If we are to serve in God’s Church, we must understand, respect, and follow God’s government in order to serve God and His people properly and set a right example.

Here we go again. Members are too stupid to follow church government. Its all their fault. Its never the fault of ineffective leaders. 

Most worldly churches, although frequently well meaning, practice an unbiblical form of church government. The Presbyterian or democratic form of government places the “board” or deacons in positions where they direct the minister. The minister is expected to pastor the sheep, but only as far as the deacons or board sees fit. And when there is dissention among the board or deacons, the pastor does not have the ability to make decisions or solve the problems. Additionally, the pastor’s position becomes a political one, as he must avoid teaching forcefully and addressing personal sins, lest he be terminated by board members or deacons who might be offended. Churches that practice a non-biblical, democratic form of government, wind up with the same political issues that face most nations of the world today.

“Because, in our modern "democracies" (whether pure democracies or representative republics), the politicians campaigning for public office must be very selective about which facts to tell the voters. Generally, they must tell the public only what the people want to hear—whether it is true or not. If the politicians confront the public with too much reality, it is equivalent to committing political suicide!”

CLASS OVERVIEW 

 

In this class we will:

•Review God’s form of “top down” but merciful government.

•Highlight the needs for godly Church government.

•Highlight the consequences of ungodly forms of Church government.

•Highlight why we must “look to the pastor” and “look to Headquarters” as the earthly authority in spiritual matters.

“And although it is terribly neglected by most professing ministers of Jesus Christ, one of the primary emphases of Jesus’ message was the coming Government of God.”  Meredith, R.C. (March-April 2005). The Future of Democracy. Tomorrow’s World(p.7).

Although Mr. Meredith’s quote directly described governmental politics, the same can be said about church politics in democratic church governments. Today, in many churches run by boards, a minister can also commit professional suicide if he tells his congregations what they do not want to hear. Can God really use this type of government to inspire and direct His ministry to exhort and correct the brethren when necessary, and to provide “meat in due season?” No – in fact, it inhibits open, honest, God-inspired exhortation and admonition.

When has there ever been open, honest, and God-inspired exhortations and admonitions from LCG leaders????  The better question to ask is when has LCG leadership ever acted in a loving and merciful manner to its members? When, has it ever been grace-filled? When has it ever placed Christ above government and the law?

Is it any wonder why LCG is in such a mess when this is where their admitted hallmark lies?

Page from the Gnostic Gospel of Judas

The Contingent God of Armstrongism

by Neo

I do not believe that the human mind, no matter how much it might be augmented, is capable of deeply understanding God. So when we try to conceive of God, we always conceive of him differently than he actually is. God is mysterious. But this is not in tension with the idea that we may know God “through a glass darkly.” And this knowledge, though falling short of the reality, has definition. In this op-ed I will observe that the Armstrongist god belongs to a different class of being than the Christian God and is much more limited than the Christian God. This is best understood through recognizing that the Armstrongist god is a contingent being and the Christian God is a necessary being. 

Contingency

A contingent being is one that in essential some way depends on external conditions for its existence. A necessary being has no such dependencies but is self-existent. This latter statement is brief and apophatic but I will focus on ontological contingency in this op-ed rather than God as a necessary being. Armstrongism has no document titled “The Doctrine of God.” Its ruminations on God are scattered through booklets, magazine articles, and homiletic messages. So I will rely on my 30 years of experience as an Armstrongist and some internet research to describe the Armstrongist notion of god.

The Armstrongist god is a contingent being. Under this proposition, imagine how the universe started. There was nothing but an empty universe – space with no contents. God lived there but in a spirit realm or dimension. He resided somewhere in the “sides of the north” as viewed from the location of the yet-to-be-created earth. God, in this scenario, is so much a part of the physical universe that GTA stated that you could get into a rocket ship and fly to where god is, if you had enough time. To theologians and philosophers, this means that the Armstrongist god is immanent in the universe but not transcendent.

God as creator populated the empty container of space with celestial bodies. One, in particular, earth, he made habitable for biological creatures. But an issue is that the empty space in which god lived already had properties. It just did not have material objects. It was dimensional and was pre-made to accommodate the laws of nature that we know. Empty space is not the same as nothingness. God did not create spacetime – he had always lived in spacetime. The Armstrongist god is then dependent on eternally existing spacetime – as if it were a divine uncreated environment. But now we know that spacetime is not divine but physical. Spacetime reacts to gravity. This dependency on the spacetime environment means that the Armstrongist god is a contingent god.

A further example is that Armstrongists assert that their god always had a body (see the Mystery of the Ages, pp. 46-47). The human body is patterned after the body of god. So, bodily parts were an inherent part of his eternal essence. This means that god had teeth before ever envisioning the idea of eating. It was like he wondered what the hard, white things were in the unusual orifice we call a “mouth”. So, he started with teeth which had no purpose, they had just always been, and had to make something that they could be used for. So he invented this idea of nutrition and made this stuff called food so that these hard things in his mouth could have something to cut and grind up. The surfaces of these eternally existing hard, white things were already designed to cut and grind. So the engineering design of the teeth encouraged him in a certain direction in his creation. So the Armstrongist god is contingent on an eternally existing bodily construction with its already engineered mechanics.

A myriad of such examples could be constructed but two should be sufficient to arouse some reflection and questioning in the minds of those who accept the notion of the Armstrongist god. But in summary, the Armstrongist god did not create his environment or his body but he is dependent on these external elements. This dependency makes the Armstrongist god not necessary but contingent. Armstrongism does not account for where these external and eternal elements, both highly engineered, might have originated or what their status is in the divine realm. Given the Armstrongist model of a contingent god, one might speculate these elements were created by another superordinate being who is necessary.

There is in Gnosticism a kind of postulated being that matches the description of this kind of contingent god. This category of this created but powerful being is called a Demiurge. The definition below is from the Wikipedia article on the Demiurge:

In the Platonic, Neopythagorean, Middle Platonic, and Neoplatonic schools of philosophy, the demiurge . . . is an artisan-like figure responsible for fashioning and maintaining the physical universe.
The Gnostics adopted the term demiurge. Although a fashioner, the demiurge is not necessarily the same as the creator figure in the monotheistic sense, because the demiurge itself and the material from which the demiurge fashions the universe are both considered consequences of something else. Depending on the system, they may be considered either uncreated and eternal or the product of some other entity.

Many human religions have adopted a demiurgic view of god. And this view is particularly popular among atheists like Dawkins and Dennett because it is a much easier target to attack. This is because their arguments are rooted in materialism and the demiurgic god is mostly involved with the material universe. But this contingent god is not God as understood in Christianity. Consequently, many atheists begin their pleadings with a category error.

Who Cares?

Humans have differing perceptions of god. Does this mean that how we conceive of the Christian God is a matter of choice? For instance, the God of Calvinists Christians is much different than the god of Arminian Christians. Also, sociologists Paul Froese and Christopher Bader (“America's Four Gods: What We Say About God--And What That Says About Us”, Oxford University Press, 2015) determined by a survey that Americans attribute one of four different personality profiles to god: The Authoritative God, Benevolent God, Critical God, and Distant God. Because the view of God, both theological and popular, is varied, this does not abnegate the fact that there is a revelation of God contained in scripture – a revelation that permits broad agreement in the Christian movement on important divine attributes. For example, Calvinists and Arminians both believe that God is not contingent but necessary.

From these varied views, one might conclude that the idea of god is indeterminate for most people and that any notion of god will do. And for that reason, the Armstrongist god is just as valid as the Christian god. But this rejects the broad areas of agreement, based on Biblical exegesis, among denominations in the Christian movement. Given the state of knowledge in contemporary theology, there is no reason for a denomination to adopt the retrograde idea of a contingent god. And the boundary between a necessary god and a contingent god is, perhaps, the lowest threshold separating Christianity from non- Christian religions. That is why this issue is worth caring about.

Progressive Revelation and Contingency

I believe it is likely that the ancient Hebrews believed that God had a body. I also believe that they cast him in the role of an ancient Semitic Warrior God or Storm God. We can now see, with the New Testament available, that God’s characterization by Old Testament writers was anthropomorphic but to them it was realistic and they wielded the pen. As Dr. Peter Enns has stated, “God let his children tell the story.” The Logos resolved this problem by coming to earth himself and delivering a message about the nature of God. For this reason, a progressive revelation of God can be seen across the Old Testament and New Testament with the final revelation in Jesus himself.

In these opposing views, we have God as spirit (John 4:24) in the New Testament at one pole and God with a body in the Old Testament at the other pole. Armstrong used a hermeneutic of integration, rather than the hermeneutic of progressive revelation, to reconcile these two strongly divergent viewpoints. Armstrong innovated a novel non-Biblical concept that made God contingent, perhaps inadvertently. Armstrong asserted that god was of “spirit composition” which made it seem like god was composed of some kind of ethereal substance. (This also gave God locality which contradicts the Christian belief that God is omnipresent.) God is not made of spirit but God is, rather, a spirit. The concept of “spirit composition” does not occur in the Bible.

God as a theophany may appear to human eyes but that appearance does not imply he is made of some kind of visible “spirit substance.” Does God require eyes composed of some kind of spirit substance in order to be able to see? First, eyes would be a limitation to God. His sensory capabilities transcend anything we know as humans with our five senses. Second, if he requires eyes, then he is like a sighted created being, dependent on the functioning of internal organs to live. To assert that God is composed out of spirit substance with various organs is to assert that he is contingent and not necessary.

In the last analysis, Armstrong integrated the Old Testament characterization of God as having a body with the New Testament revelation of God in Jesus. He did this instead of simply accepting Jesus and his word as the ultimate and final revelation of the necessary God. My guess is that he did not use this hermeneutic simply to create the heretical concept of a contingent god. I believe he did it to achieve consistency between the Old and New Testaments concerning the nature of god and inadvertently cast god as contingent. We are now unable to ask him about his decisions.

(For the terms “spirit composition” and “spirit substance” see, for instance, Armstrong’s booklet “What Science Can’t Discover About the Human Mind”, 1978. In his “Mystery of the Ages,” Armstrong wrote that god is “composed of spirit.” The verb “compose” is transitive, requires a subject and object, and leads to the question “Who composed God of spirit?”)

Closing Remarks

Nobody knows the scope of God’s grace that he would extend to those who believe in a mischaracterization of him. Any judgment is above our pay grade and involves factors that I have not addressed. One could make the “Thief on the Cross” argument. The thief knew nothing about contingency and necessity yet Christ received him. But how many of us are really in that thief’s circumstances?

Even though God is unknowable in his fullness, there are some obvious errors that can be avoided. For instance, is it reasonable, based on the Bible, that the Christian god could be contingent in view of John 1:3 that states “All things (panta, Greek, meaning “all”) came into being through him?” It only takes a little reflection to understand that God created spacetime and is not captive to it.

There are enough relevant and incisive questions concerning contingency that I believe that the Armstrongist groups should review their beliefs about God, with consideration given to existing Christian dogma, and that their doctrine of god should be documented. And they should start by understanding that God is a necessary being, not a contingent being.