One of the biggest challenges every new splinter personalty cult faces is why would anyone want to join them. With hundreds and hundreds of of splinter groups now spread around the world the Church of God has presented itself as a fractured and impotent organization. For decades the Church of God regularly mocked Christianity for having so many different domination's in its midst. Armstrong, Meredith, Blackwell and many others constantly made fun of the "disunity" of mainstream Christianity. Now the Churches of God are even more fractured than the churches around them. The membership are getting sick of all the fracturing and keep asking, "why are we all not together?"
Norbert Link, from the Church of the Eternal God, has this to say since he is the leader of the ONLY true COG in this end time dispensation:
I hear it all the time from our viewers and readers: “Why are
you not together with this or that organization which is also a part of
the Church of God, since we are all believing the same thing?” If that
were true, then we should all be together, but in reality, this
perception is simply not accurate. In fact, we differ greatly in
doctrine, administration, approach and purpose.
The founding documents of the Church of the Eternal God state the following in our Statements of Beliefs, under “Doctrinal Foundation”:
“The major doctrines of the Church are those, which were taught by
Herbert W. Armstrong, derived from the Biblical teachings as followed by
God’s faithful servants, and originally established by Jesus Christ
through the founding of His Church in the time of His chosen early
apostles. Since we are to increase in the knowledge of Jesus Christ, we
are committed to review and alter any of our teachings, if and when
proven to be wrong by from the Bible.”
Unlike other Church organizations which declared from the beginning
of their existence that “everything is on the table” and that all
doctrines and teachings of the Church must be reviewed and reconsidered,
we have been taking the opposite approach. For us, nothing is on the
table, unless a doctrine, teaching or administrative practice is proven
to be wrong, based on Scripture. This means, even if we cannot fully
prove a particular established teaching from the Bible, we will not
change it, if we cannot prove it to be in violation of God’s written
Word.
At the same time, we will change if a doctrine or administrative
practice is shown to be in contradiction with the Bible. However, there
are groups which say that nothing can be changed after Herbert W.
Armstrong’s death in 1986… and some even go so far as to say that none
of the Church’s changes can be accepted which occurred subsequent to
1974 and 1975, including major changes pertaining to the correct day of
Pentecost and our teaching on divorce and remarriage. This concept that
nothing can be changed today is clearly unbiblical and must be rejected.
Because the Church of the Eternal God is the ONLY enlightened COG out there, Link needs to emphasis that their understanding is the ONLY safe way of believing. His group is the ONLY COG on the entire earth where TRUE unity and doctrine reside.
He does however bring up a valid point on why so many Churches of God let ministers come into their organizations, straight into leadership roles, when they stab previous organizations in the back just a few days or weeks earlier.
Ted Budge is a prime example of that right now. He left David Hulm's fledgling group early last year when a small group of ministers rebelled against Hulme's tyrannical ways. He jumped ship with the Church of God, A Family Community (Father's Call) in order to establish true doctrines and to provide a safe haven for true believers damaged by Hulme. That fledgling little group soon had issues of its own within a few months. Ted Budge then stabbed those people in the back and jumped ship into United Church of God where he remained as a minister. Four COG's later and four different issues of disloyalty the UCG embraced him with open arms.
Our approach, as described herein, is the ONLY safe approach which
ALL Church organizations in the Body of Christ should take, because only
then true unity in doctrine and administration can be achieved. To just
give one example, it is simply not acceptable that one organization
disfellowships a person for Scriptural reasons (compare Matthew
18:17-18; Romans 16:17), and another organization, claiming to be in the
same spiritual Body of Christ, embraces him or her with open arms,
without even inquiring into the cause of the excommunication. Another
unacceptable policy prevails in many Church organizations which sanction
and officiate over the re-marriage of divorced persons in their
fellowship who are still married in the eyes of God, since God had bound
their marriage (Matthew 19:4-9; 1 Corinthians 7:10-15) and no
subsequent biblical grounds existed for divorce and re-marriage. Such
conduct gives some of the many reasons as to why there is no unity
amongst many Church groups. Unity can only come through the working of
the Holy Spirit, based on the teachings of God. How CAN two walk
together, unless they are agreed (Amos 3:3)?
Norbert Link is just as bad as the other COG's he condemns. The hypocrisy of the COG leadership continues on unabated. Meanwhile, the members continue to suffer and families destroyed all because of the fear based belief system that the Church of God continues to perpetuate.
