A Break From The Disturbing Things Currently In Armstrongism and A Look At The Good News In The World Right Now

With all of the sick things being said in the various Churches of God by sick leaders who say some of the vilest stuff lately and who can only dwell on the things they see wrong, here is a look at the good that surrounds us, even in the midst of the stay-at-home rulings and forced isolation.

Arrest Warrant For Pastor Who Held Church Services Despite Stay at Home Order

This should make Church of God leaders think twice about demanding their members show up for services every Saturday.  Of course, they will screech PERSECUTION!

This should be a warning to at least three groups that still is having their members meet together.

Bob Thiel - Continuing Church of God
David C Pack - Restored Church of God
Gerald Flurry - Philadelphia Church of God

Arrest warrant issued for Tampa megachurch pastor who led packed services despite safer-at-home orders

TAMPA, Fla. - The pastor of a Tampa megachurch is facing charges after refusing to close its doors despite a "safer at home" order in effect in Hillsborough County, meant to stop the spread of COVID-19. The sheriff of Hillsborough County says one of two Sunday services had up to 500 people in attendance.

Sheriff Chad Chronister and State Attorney Andrew Warren on Monday announced that an arrest warrant had been issued for Pastor Rodney Howard-Browne. He faces charges of unlawful assembly and violation of public health emergency order.

The River at Tampa Bay Church held two services Sunday, Chronister said, and even offered bus transportation for those services. The chuch's livestream showed a packed crowd cheering and applauding.

"They have access to technology allowing them to livestream their services over the internet and broadcast to their 400 members from the safety of their own homes, but instead they chose to gather at church," Chronister said during a press conference. See article here.

Church of God International: British Israelism - There They Go Again

There They Go Again

The late Ian Boyne of the Church of God International rejected Herbert Armstrong’s British Israelism. Unlike most of the leadership of the Armstrong Churches of God, Boyne rejected the prophetic model created by Herbie and was even unafraid to stop by this blogsite on occasion and share his disdain for those teachings. For Mr. Boyne, CGI represented an organization that had outgrown the foolishness of Armstrongism and had embraced a more mature and defensible version of Armstrong’s theology. Unfortunately, his views on British Israelism now appear to have been out of sync with the organization to which he devoted a large part of his considerable talents, energy and life.

Like the dog who has returned to his own vomit, there can be no doubt that the Church of God International has embraced the teaching of British Israelism whole hog! In their most recent Armor of God program, Pastor Bill Watson resurrects God’s promises to Abraham and runs through the story of how Israel separated from Judah. He then proceeds to assert that the birthright promises devolved to Manasseh (the United States of America) as the “great nation” and to Ephraim (the British Commonwealth) as the “company of nations.” And, while this stuff may sound absurd to the average listener, it will no doubt sound very familiar to those who have had any experience with Herbert or Garner Ted Armstrong and their now-defunct Worldwide Church of God.

Despite the abysmal record of prophetic failure racked up by both Armstrongs, Watson insists that the voice of the prophets comes alive when one understands and accepts British Israelism. Despite the fact that our modern understanding of DNA has excluded any possibility that the peoples of the United States and Britain could be the physical descendants of Abraham, CGI persists in promoting the teaching that they are. Despite the history that disproves their understanding of the migration of ancient peoples and the survival of the Davidic dynasty after its biblically recorded demise, CGI insists that history is wrong. Despite the fact that the majority of Christianity recognizes that the promises to Abraham and David will find their complete fulfillment in Jesus Christ, the Church of God International continues to pedal the heresy that those promises must be fulfilled in the here and now – in this world.

Unfortunately, there is no such thing as an intellectually satisfying version of Armstrongism. CGI has demonstrated that there really isn’t any room for deviation or dissent from Herbert Armstrong’s core teachings – British Israelism being one of the most distinctive of those. And I can’t help but wonder what Ian Boyne would think about CGI’s latest offerings to the public.

Miller Jones

Idiots in the Pulpit: "Whatever you do right now, don't you stop tithing...even if you have lost your job!"

Here is scamvangelist Kenneth Copeland DESTROYING the virus through what I can only describe as a Christian magic spell.

"In the name of Jesus... I execute judgment on you, COVID-19!... It! Is! Finished! It! Is! Over!" pic.twitter.com/EyRosWxcHp

— Hemant Mehta (@hemantmehta) March 29, 2020

Far too many present-day Church of God leaders think they and their followers are immune to the coronavirus.

Whatever you do, you must NEVER stop tithing if you lose your job during the shutdowns!

Multi-millionaire televangelist Kenneth Copeland tells viewers that even if they lose their jobs because of the coronavirus outbreak, they must continue giving to the church: "Whatever you do right now, don't you stop tithing!" pic.twitter.com/Xp154Fm1rn

— Right Wing Watch (@RightWingWatch) March 19, 2020

All of us with ties to the Church of God movement know, all we need to do is substitute Dave Pack, Ron Weinland, Gerald Flurry, Bob Thiel, Vic Kubik, Gerald Weston and most of the other splinter leaders in place of Ken Copland's name and we hear the exact same thing.  Their god needs your money! Even though you have lost your job, they deserve your money.

Figure 1.  Phylogenetic Chart of Human Haplogroups

Figure 2. Clans of the Sons of Noah from Genesis 10

The Noachian Bottleneck and the Refutation of Herman Hoeh’s Theory of the Origin of Nations

By Neo

Herman H. Hoeh was a historian trained at Ambassador College. He is known for his two volumes of alternative history titled The Compendium of World History. He also established a racial history of mankind for the Worldwide Church of God (WCG) in his published article titled The Origin of Nations! Racial policy implemented in the WCG was predicated on Hoeh’s unconventional theological anthropology. Later in life, he purportedly denied the validity of his work. I will refer to Hoeh’s viewpoint as a “theory” in this article but in the past in the WCG it was regarded as the inspired truth brought to the church by Hoeh and bearing the ideological imprimatur of Herbert W. Armstrong. Based on the science of genetics, this article will establish that Hoeh incorrectly redefined human racial history.

Noachian Genetic Bottleneck

According to the traditional interpretation of the events of Genesis, Noah was the forefather of mankind. This premise was also fundamental to Hoeh’s theory. Everyone on earth is descended from Noah according to the genealogy in Genesis 10. While that is the tradition, a counterpoint is that this genealogy has been unjustifiably labeled “Table of Nations” in some Bibles. The Biblical text itself gives it a much more focused scope and refers to the genealogy as the Clans of the Sons of Noah.

If we assume that Noah was a real person and his descendants were real people, named in the Genesis 10 genealogy, and that Noah was the progenitor of all of postdiluvian mankind, this means that the events of the Great Flood produced a genetic bottleneck. A genetic bottleneck is a population collapse with diminished heritable diversity among the survivors. The eight survivors in the Ark represented mankind’s entire gene pool. And this gene pool lacked diversity because it consisted of Noah, his sons, and their wives. Five out of the total of eight survivors were related. Hoeh theorized that all postdiluvian racial diversity transited The Flood through the wives of Ham and Japheth. Shem was a racially pure Caucasian but Ham and Japheth had non-Caucasian wives. And from this small gene pool all the races of mankind today proliferated. 

Evidence of this view of human racial history should be mapped into the human genome. But it is not. If this theory were true, given a date for the Flood of only a few thousand years ago, all of mankind should have the same Y Chromosome haplogroup as Noah which is inherited through the male line. The descendants of Shem should have Noah’s Y Chromosome haplogroup and a single Caucasian mtDNA haplogroup (mitochondrial DNA inherited through the female line). The descendants of Ham and Japheth would have Noah’s Y Chromosome haplogroup but mtDNA haplogroups from their non-Caucasian wives. All of humankind would now share a tiny gene pool consisting of one Y Chromosome haplogroup and four or fewer mitochondrial haplogroups.

The hallmark of a good theory is that it explains reality. Hoeh’s theory fails this test. Its prediction of the current genetic configuration of the earth’s population is incorrect. Instead of the tiny gene pool Hoeh’s theory would predict, we have a great diversity of Y Chromosome haplogroups, not just one. And we have a plethora of mtDNA haplogroups among and within racial clusters, not just four or fewer. In other words, there is no genetic evidence that there was ever a collapse of the human population to produce a Noachian Bottleneck. This implies that the Flood was a local event that did not affect the bulk of mankind with its great diversity of existing haplogroups. (I will mention that I do believe that Noah was an actual historical figure. But I believe that the Great Flood was a local event and seems to have found its way in a mythicized version into the traditions of many Middle Eastern people. )

A Genetic Interpretation of the Genesis 10 Genealogy

Let us assume that Noah was not allegorical but a real person. Let us also assume that the genealogical table in Genesis 10 reflects actual people and their genetic relationships. How would we then interpret the genealogy in Genesis 10 under the constraints of genetics?

Genetic mutation that formed human haplogroups is a very slow process. It happened over hundreds of thousands of years. This means that Noah and his descendants in Genesis 10 genealogy were all of the same Y Chromosome haplogroup. This may be deduced as follows: first, they are all descended from Noah and bear his haplogroup in all masculine lines; second, there was not enough time, in a few generations spanning a few hundred years, for any significant number of mutations to occur that would give rise to a haplogroup divergent from Noah’s haplogroup. This means that Noah did not give rise to the different nations of the earth but to a collection of clans which were all of the same race.

There is empirical evidence supporting the conclusion that Noah’s descendants are all of the same race. The Adnani Arabs according to Arab genealogists are descended from Abraham through Ishmael and are classical Hebrews. They are represented in the Semitic branch of the Genesis 10 genealogy shown in Figure 2. And, also, Dr. Spencer Wells’ research for the National Geographic Society established continuity between the ancient Canaanites, Phoenicians and modern-day Lebanese based on archaeology and genetics. A finding relevant to this discussion in Wells’ research is that the Canaanites are also of the same haplogroup as the Adnani Arabs. But Herman Hoeh’s theory would have predicted that the Hamitic Canaanites would be racially different from the Semitic Arabs. In fact, Hoeh’s claim was that the Canaanites were the ancestors of the West African blacks (haplogroup E). But through genetics, we have evidence that both the Semitic and the Hamitic lines descended from Noah were racially the same and of the same Y Chromosome haplogroup.

The Bedouin Arabs are an excellent reference population that will lead to the identification of the Y Chromosome haplogroup common to the Clans of the Sons of Noah. Though the progenitor of the Jews, Abram, is identified in the Genesis 10 genealogy, the Jews do not make a good reference population. Because of the Diaspora, Jews absorbed people from other ethnic backgrounds through intermarriage. It is estimated that Ashkenazi Jews are from 30% to 60% European in ancestry resulting in a modified genotype and phenotype. But Bedouins provide a good reference population because they “are the best representatives of autochthonous Arabs” (Indigenous Arabs are descendants of the earliest split from ancient Eurasian populations, Genome Research, Feb. 2016, p. 151). Bedouins are a mix of Adnani Arabic ancestry and Qahtanie Arabic ancestry. The Adnanis trace their descent to Ishmael the son of Abraham. And the Qahtanites trace their ancestry to Joktan the son of Eber, the father of the Hebrews. Bedouins a high frequency of Y Chromosome haplogroup J. In one genetic sample, taken from Ajman, they were 100% haplogroup J (Genetic Structure of Nomadic Bedouin from Kuwait, Heredity (Edinb), November 2009, Table 3). The conclusion this evidence permits us is that Bedouins are paradigmatic Hebrews and are haplogroup J. We may infer from this that Noah, a Hebrew, and his descendants are haplogroup J.

References in classical literature may be found to some of the names listed in the Clans of the Sons of Noah. No doubt Noah’s descendants migrated widely, settling among the peoples of other haplogroups that populated the earth, giving their names to some populations, but were not the source population for all mankind. Also, some peoples who are a part or the Arab culture do not have genetic connection to the Arabs of the Arabian Peninsula. An example would be North African tribes that are haplogroup E and have a North African history and heritage.

Charts in Conflict

Hoeh relied on a number of methodologies that did not have great fidelity, such as similarities in names, to identify various races. For this reason, he made many misidentifications. An example involves the Germans, Eastern Europeans and Russians. Hoeh identified the Germans and the Eastern European Slavs as Semitic. The Russian Slavs he identified as Japhetic. In his reckoning, the Germans were descended from Asshur, the Eastern Europeans from Elam, on the branch of Shem, and the Russians from Meschech and Tubal, on the branch of Japheth. These names can be located on Figure 2. But, from genetic analysis, the Germans in the east, the Eastern European Slavs and the Russian Slavs are all haplogroup R1a (see map in Wikipedia article titled Haplogroup R1a) and Hoeh’s divide between Semitic and Japhetic races here is not supported.

In brief, if one were to take Hoeh’s racial identifications and label each patriarch in Figure 2 and then label each patriarch with the haplogroup identifications from Figure 1, the resulting chart would not look anything like Figure 1 which is based on progressive mutational development connecting haplogroups. This necessary haplogroup connection in Figure 1 would be lost because of erroneous identification in Figure 2.

Implications for British Israelism

The evidence cited in this article thus far supports the conclusion that the Hebrews, including Abraham and his sons, are haplogroup J. Since this is true, the British people are unrelated to these clans. The British people are haplogroup R which has a separate extensive history based on genetics and archaeology. Some will assert that the Jewish population contains some haplogroup R, particularly the Ashkenazi who have a history of intermarrying with Europeans. This presence of haplogroup R in the Jewish population may then be pretextually used to link the Jews racially to the people of Britain. But by establishing that Abraham was haplogroup J, using the Bedouin Arabs as a reference population, we can identify the Abrahamic element in the mix of haplogroups in the Jewish population. This Abrahamic element is haplogroup J. A similar analysis can be used to identify the tribe of Asshur as Y Chromosome haplogroup J. Archaeogenetics has identified haplogroup J and haplogroup G among excavated ancient Assyrian remains. From this approach, we know that the native Assyrian haplogroup is J. This means that the ancient Assyrians did not give rise to the Germans who are haplogroups R1a and R1b. It is worthwhile mentioning that haplogroups are not the full story but autosomal studies must also be considered. In such studies the Jews group autosomally with other Middle Eastern populations that have a higher frequency of haplogroup J.

Critics and Unicorns

Some of the material in this article appeared on this blog some months back and there were two principle criticisms:

1. One critic stated that the large time spans for the existence of modern man were fabulous. I think the point was that God had to create the racial diversity putatively reflected in Genesis 10 because there had not been enough time for that diversity to evolve – Adam was created around 6,000 BP supposedly. My view is that Adam may have been created sometime in the Neolithic but the earth was then already populated by other sentient hominids. Statements in Genesis point to this. Adam, in this view, was the father of mankind in spirit but not genetically.

2. Another critic persisted in asserting that there was no way to determine the haplogroup of Abram short of actually swabbing Abrams cheek and submitting this sample to DNA testing. I recall that this person contended that Abram might well have been haplogroup R – the haplogroup of the British people – and this could not be disproven. This is somewhat like this critic requiring me to disprove there is such an animal as a unicorn by my looking everywhere in the universe. First, it is a fool’s errand to take this kind of unending approach and, second, the critic can always say that my search may not have been thorough enough. Circumstantial evidence suffices for Abram and for unicorns. Any reasonable mind would understand that. It can be easily deduced from indirect conditions that Abram was haplogroup J – like Ishmael, Joktan, the Bedouins and the Canaanites. 

Conclusion

Herman Hoeh’s theory of racial history has a principal flaw from which other flaws emanate. The flaw is the belief that Noah was the progenitor of the racial diversity that we know in the human population today. Hoeh should not be taken to task too harshly for this. Many Christian denominations at one time interpreted Noah’s role in this way and some still do. There was no Noachian Bottleneck as one might expect if the account in Genesis is interpreted to insist on a global flood. Noah and his family were all of the same race and genetic affinity. Racial policy of many different perspectives can be formed but it cannot be rooted legitimately in the anthropology of Genesis 10. But then Herman Hoeh did not have the benefit of the science of genetics to aid him in his historical analysis and reconstructions. We do have this advantage and it would be a regrettable intellectual dishonesty to neglect this advantage.

-->

Zealous Christians Do Not Need To Use Toilet Paper

It is another beautiful day in the world and another Church of God wannabe has opened his mouth and said something stupid.

Our very own Zealot and wannabe church of "god" leader, James Malm, has told his tens of followers that all of the self-isolating Church of God members around the world who are following government guidelines during the coronavirus pandemic are turning from obedience to God to the comfort of their families.

29 Mar:  With increased testing the numbers of US positives for Covid-19 have risen past 100,000.  The number of cases is likely to continue a sharp rise for the next three to six weeks before leveling off.  Most of the brethren instead of turning to obedience to God are predictably seeking comfort from their families, friends in the church and their church social circle.  This epidemic should begin to stabilize in late May and then taper off by July.  That does not mean that the problem has gone away since the virus has spread widely throughout the nation and is highly likely to reassert itself during the next winter: The next time making scores of millions of American’s ill and killing large numbers. Because of this epidemic the looming Mideast war may be delayed until summer. 

The above idiotic comment pales in comparison to what follows:

I have heard that some people have fought over bathroom tissue in stores. Brethren remember what your wife does when the baby is soiled; she takes a designated face cloth wets it and washes her child. That is exactly what people did for their own personal hygiene for thousands of years until tissue came in vogue in the early 20th century. Toilet tissue is unnecessary and most certainly not worth fighting over, all we need do is wash.

I guess we should expect something like this from a guy who rarely ventures outside his apartment and spends the entire day parked at his kitchen table with his Strong's Exhaustive Concordance and other books as he cranks out one convoluted Biblical interpretation after another while begging for money to support his prediction addiction and zealotry habit. 

Fast Called For “Erroneous Simpletons” In The Church of God

It has always been beaten into us by Church of God leaders that we were worthless bags of human garbage in the sight of God. Of course, this is is to be expected from those who place all their focus upon the law and not on that highly inconvenient dude they still reject.

Wade Cox, leader of the so-called "christian" Churches of "god" cult has spent decades coming up with so many absurd extrabiblical teachings that he requires his small group of members to follow that you can never be shocked at what he does next.

Cox now believes that the work and sanctification by Christ is not enough for the wayward Church of God members to find favor in the sight of his god.  It is now up to him and his few followers to sanctify all the simpletons in the church who follow erroneous teachings by other Church of God leaders.

He and his little band of followers will be soon be fasting to force his god to forgive and sanctify the simpletons that make up the Church of God.

Thus the Temple of God or House of God is composed of all grades of people such as those that make mistakes and for those that are less intelligent and can’t understand many aspects of the faith.  A good example is the Worldwide Church of God offshoots who are so misled by their ministry that they follow the Hillel calendar and keep the feasts and the Solemn Assemblies on the wrong days and sometimes in the wrong months; and so we must fast for their error and ignorance, and also for that of Israel and Judah and the nations that understand even less.

The major aspect of the Passover is that there must be reconciliation of the House of God such that all are reconciled to their brothers before they go to the altars of the Passover.

It is in this sense that the fast is used and commanded in the Book of Joel and then taken up in Ezekiel following on from the commands in Joel to Sanctify a Fast in relation to this period from the New Moon of Abib on Ezekiel 45:18-24 and the preparations continue to 7 Abib (45:20) and on to the 14 Abib at the Passover Preparation and Sacrifice and then on to 21 Abib for the next seven days of the Feast.

So do we say as some claim that we don’t need to do anything before the Lord’s Supper as he set it aside and the ceremony of the Footwashing and the Bread and the Wine was enough? That is a false doctrine taught by some offshoots of the Churches of God and shows the appalling ignorance of the ministry of those elements. The commandment of the faith is to be reconciled to one’s brother and that we should not go to the feast empty handed and all males must attend. It is taken for granted that we must prepare individually for the Passover, but also we are commanded to prepare as a congregation and the Sanctification process is and always has been undertaken by the righteous over the ignorant of the congregations of the faith. God has set a process in place that has always existed and must be restored to all the faith.

Sanctification in the House of God

It is always a fact that the actions of the House of God and its ministry which Temple and Ministry we are, has always undertaken the process of sanctification.

It was from before the giving of the Law to Moses, by the patriarchs such as Job (Job 1:5).

The explanation here is that because the leaders of the congregation did not sanctify Christ as the Angel of the Presence and the Yahovah of Israel they did not go into the Promised Land. This was an example to the leaders of the Church of God that those who do not order and go through this sanctification process will not enter the First Resurrection.

It was the responsibility of the people to then sanctify Christ and now it is the job of present church members to sanctify the simpletons.

Since this is a splinter Church of God, it makes sense that Jesus is shoved to the back burner because his father was too weak to sanctify him and that he was dependant upon his followers to sanctify Jesus. 

Can it get any stupider?