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Worldwide Church of God
(WCG)
Worldwide Church of
God. The
transformed, transmogrified, reconstituted, reformed,
revamped, reincarnated, born-again sect that still
refuses to hold its leadership accountable to the
membership. The personal fiefdom of Joe Tkach Jr.,
son of the previous Pastor General, Joe Sr. Founded
by Herbert Armstrong.
Plain Truth ministries (PTM): The separately
incorporated media arm of the WCG.
WCG Today: WCG's monthly church paper (formerly
The Worldwide News). Any resemblance between
the contents offered and real journalism is (in our
jaundiced view) purely coincidental.
Michael Morrison's
Articles. A
Worldwide News writer presents his articles
on various religious topics.
Mike Feazell's website. One of Joe's leading
lieutenants puts his best foot forward.
Should Women be ordained? The WCG is debating the
issue of women's' ordination, and this semi-official
site is the place members can submit discussion
papers to.
Honey, I Shrunk the
Church.
Originally published in New Times Los
Angeles in 1997, this article follows early
developments in the WCG under its third Pastor
General, Joe Tkach Jr.
United Church of God, an
International Association
(UCGia)
United Church of
God. The
largest of the factions that has left the WCG.
Currently led by Clyde Kilough (president). Kilough
seems to regard himself as some kind of latter-day
Nehemiah, and has made "zeal" his battle cry. He is
quoted in The Journal as saying: "We don't
need a spiritual Starbucks jolt, but we need to be
stir sticks." We wonder if Clyde is confused about
the difference between a stir stick and a dipstick.
See also the
British UCG site.
The Good News. UCG's flagship magazine. See also
Virtual Christian Magazine.
Victor Kubik's Website: Kubik is a high profile
UCG minister who sits on the Council of Elders. See
also
LifeNets.
Tomorrow TV: a UCG related broadcast.
United Christian Outreach Germany: Not strictly a
UCG site, but promotes Gute Nachrichten (the
German GN) and is operated by GN staff member (and
former WCG Regional Director) Paul
Kieffer.
Living Church of
God
Living Church of
God. Run by
Rod Meredith, the main splinter of the now defunct
Global Church of God. Produces the Tomorrow's
World telecast and magazine.
Philadelphia Church of
God
Philadelphia Church of
God. Run by
Gerald Flurry. A heady cocktail of hard-line
Armstrongism and weird new elements introduced by
Flurry (a.k.a. Elisha & "that
prophet")
Robert Kuhne's PCG Info
site. No,
not Dr. Robert Kuhn, wunderkind of the 70s WCG. This
Robert Kuhne is a former PCG member who wised up and
is willing to tell us all why.
Church of God, an International
Community
Church of God, An
International Community. Run by David Hulme, formerly
president of the UCG. See also this group's flagship
magazine:
Vision.
Intercontinental Church of God
(Garner Ted Armstrong)
Garner Ted Armstrong
Evangelistic Association. Ted may be dead, but the
tithe-generating potential of the GTAEA means the
organization is likely to continue for some time
yet.
Intercontinental Church of God. The church
associated with the GTAEA. Herbert Armstrong's
grandson, Mark Armstrong, appears to be the leading
figure in this group since the death of his father,
Garner Ted Armstrong.
Church of God,
International
Church of God,
International. Founded and led by Garner Ted Armstrong until
he was removed in the wake of yet another scandal in
the mid 90's.
Church of God (Seventh
Day)
Church of God (Seventh
Day). The
parent body from which Herbert Armstrong defected. An
evangelically oriented Sabbatarian church, it
publishes The Bible Advocate magazine. The
University of Virginia has a
COG7 information page. The
Australian COG7 also has a small web
presence.
Information sites produced by
former Church of God members
Ambassador Watch. Originally part of The
Missing Dimension site (but now simply known as
Ambassador Watch). Updated
frequently.
Ambassador
Files.
Resources on the pre-1986 WCG and the present day
PCG. A sister site to The Missing
Dimension.
XCG. Gary Scott's innovative
website.
Painful
Truth. The
"granddaddy" of all WCG information sites. An amazing
resource. Founding webmaster Ed Mentell Sr. pulled no
punches with an "in-your-face" agnosticism that upset
some, but was a refreshing change to those sites with
sectarian agendas. Under Ed's stewardship The Painful
Truth added the complete archives of
Ambassador Report, the single most
important news source on the WCG over three decades,
and the very funny "Graveyard Church of
God" files. In November 2003 Ed stepped
aside. The site is now operated by Mike
Minton.
Herr Strauss &
Memories of Pasadena. J.Orlin Grabbe reminisces about life on
the Ambassador College campus in its heyday. If you
ever wondered what life in a parallel universe might
be like, this is it.
Robert McNally's
Page.
Testimonies from former WCG members who are now
non-believers.
Kscribe's COG videos: AV commentary on the one
true Herbal faith. Sense of humor required!
Lake of Fire. Who is this guy? No idea, but he's
(or could it be "she's"?) both entertaining and
irreverent.
COG Critic. The website. Also
the blog. Another new entrant in the
field.
COG Legacy. One of the posters on The Painful
Truth forum has set up a promising
blog.
Exit & Support
Network.
Includes some interesting material on both WCG and
PCG. Fundamentalist perspective.
Information sites produced
by Church of God members
The
Journal. An
independent newspaper circulating amongst members of
the various Church of God groups, edited by Dixon
Cartwright. The online edition runs selected features
only. One of the best sources for detailed
information.
Servants'
News. It
seems that the non-denominational publication
produced by Norman Edwards, a former Global Church of
God member, has finally disappeared after months of
inactivity and the webmaster's abortive involvement
in the Port Austin community. In its heyday SN was
widely respected.
Church of God News. Part of the Giving and
Sharing website run by Richard Nickels.
The Plain Truth Web
Site. Not to
be confused with the magazine now produced by
Plain Truth Ministries. This site is the
personal project of a UCG sympathizer. Covers the
various sects of Armstrongism.
Field Guide to the Wild
World of Religion. Pam Dewey's site. Not just WCG, but
resources on a wide range of movements. Pam was
interviewed on this site in 2002.
Bob Thiel
(COG-writer): Thiel is a Living Church of God host in Arroyo
Grande. He runs news items on various Armstrong sects
from a LCG perspective.
Music for The Church of God. Webmaster Jim Ross
has music from most COG hymnals.
Churches of God UK: British website contains news
and articles concerning UK based COGs.
Mere Apologetics. CGI minister Vance Stinson's
blog.
WGTM: Can't get enough COG? Need to hear more
preachin'? WGTM may be for you. This is an online
radio station that beams out messages by COG
ministers David Antion, Ray Wooten and creator Lani
Finley ("Biblical Teacher", no credentials supplied,
but an active COG writer) along with Christian
music.
Smaller Splinter Groups-
United
States
ASK.
Established by the late Ernest Martin, a theology
professor at Ambassador College prior to 1974.
Martin's writings were influential in the 1970's, and
his positions on Sabbaths, Law and Tithing have since
been adopted by many others. Ken Nagele also runs
ernestlmartin.com
Christian Biblical
Church of God. Fred Coulter separated from the WCG in the late
70's to form the now defunct Biblical Church of God,
later moving to the present structure. One of the few
COG ministers who can read New Testament Greek, he
authored his own Harmony of the Gospels and
later went on to produce a complete New Testament
translation.
The Cincinnati/Lexington Church of God. UCG
breakaway congregations led by Jim O'Brien.
New Testament Evangelism. Bill Jacobs & Guy
Swenson set the proverbial cat among the pigeons in
2004 by organizing an evangelism conference without
the sanction of Chairman Clyde and the Central
Presidium of the Commu... whoops, wrong totalitarian
system!
Church of God, Worldwide Ministries: These folk
split from the post-Ted ICG when it became apparent
that the "mantle" (or "baton" or whatever) had been
passed down the gene pool to Mark Armstrong, an
unordained late-comer to the COG, but GTA's eldest
son. George Trent is one of the leaders.
Churches of God
Outreach Ministries. A group largely drawn away from the
Church of God, International when Garner Ted
Armstrong refused to step down following a scandal in
the mid-90s. Armstrong was in fact later ejected, but
there has been no subsequent reconciliation between
the two camps. The website doesn't seem to get
updated very often. In the UK the group is led by
James McBride and known as the Churches of God
UK.
Triumph Prophetic
Ministries.
Run by William Dankenbring, a former Plain
Truth staff writer. Prophetic speculation or
profound truth? You decide.
Cornerstone Ministries. Jim Rector's site.
CEM. An
independent ministry run by Ronald Dart, once Garner
Ted Armstrong's right-hand man. CEM resources
are used by many local congregations, including the
radio series Born to Win.
Guardian
Ministries.
Run by David Antion of the
Church of God Southern California.
Church of the Eternal
God. Latest
of the proliferating shards of Armstrongism.
Affiliated with the Global COG (UK) and COG-ACF
(Canada) - both sub-splinters from Meredith's failed
Global Church of God.
Church of God, The
Eternal.
Founded in 1974 by Raymond Cole, one of the original
"evangelists".
Eternal Church of
God. Art
Braidic's group.
Elect Alert: Produced by A Congregation of
God which, despite the name is, we're assured,
totally unrelated to the Arizona based community
founded by Darryl Henson.
Darrell W. Condor: Darrell, a former assistant to
Tkach Senior, has dropped the New Testament, which he
regards as a hoax.
Legacy Institute: Leon Sexton's US based ministry
to Thailand and other Asian nations with the COG
gospel.
Association for
Christian Development. What remains of the Associated Churches of
God, a splinter group headed by Kenneth Westby that
separated from the WCG in 1974. The site features
articles by former Plain Truth managing editor Brian
Knowles, Westby, the late Charles Dorothy and
others.
Barnabas
Ministries. Alan Ruth's site. Reportedly the COG site
that draws more hits than any other - 1.4 million
page views in 2002.
Sabbath Church of
God. Warren
Zehrung, COG surfer extraordinary. WCG, GCG, CG-ACF,
CEG... and now his very own SCG. Way to go
Warren!
COG Talents Ministries. If memory serves, Ted
Phillips was once a CGI pastor. These days he has his
own organization in Morro Bay, California.
United Christian
Ministries.
Ray Wooten, formerly of the UCG, seems to be the
person behind this ministry.
The Church of
God. Which
Church of God? THE Church of God,
apparently. A group of "outcasts" from Gerry's
PCG. A much nicer bunch of folk, from what we
can gather, now they've booted "That Prophet" off his
pontifical pedestal. However the doctrinal
beliefs of this group seem very much the same in
other areas. There seem to be two factions: They are:
http://www.t-cog.org/ (the link above - ministers
Don Roth and Gary Liebold) and
http://www.tcog.us/ (Jim Mortensen).
Wholeworld Church of
God. Down in
Tennessee the unshakeable kingdom of Herb still has
its zealous guardians.
Congregation of God
Seventh Day.
John Pinkston heads up this boutique version of
Armstrongism. A former military man, Pinkston has
eschewed the traditional non-war stand of the COG and
preaches in favor of military service for
Christians.
Church of God,
Restored.
Run by
Mardy Cobb. Formerly known as the Worldwide
Church of God, Restored.
Remnant Church of
God.
Former WCG local elder
Rolland Wile runs this ministry.
Stedfast Church of
God. More
old time Herbyism. Led by Arlen Berkey, who
re-publishes a lot of HWA material in his Good
Newsletter, and buys full page ads in The
Journal on a regular basis. To those critics who
point out that steadfast is spelt with an 'a', Mr.
Berkey apparently responds that he's going to spell
it the King James way, never mind those
confangled new dictionaries! Y'all send in your
tithes and offerings anyway.
Restored Church of God. The RCG, led by Dave
Pack, is a splinter of the Global Church of God.
Norman Edwards writes of Pack (in Servants'
News): "Dave Pack has been a wolf in shepherd's
clothing and should not be any kind of minister or
servant among the people of God."
Church of God - 21st Century. The gospel
according to Raymond F. McNair.
Christian Church of
God.
Pastored by Jeff Booth in Amarillo,
Texas.
Church of God - Big Sandy. Pastored by Dave
Havir. Another benign local congregation, formerly
affiliated with UCG.
Terre Haute Church of God. A congregation that
split from the UCG in 2003 and went
independent.
Tyler Church of God. Originally formed by a group
that left CGI around 1995, it now has folks from
several other WCG traditions.
Bethel Church of
God. Eugene,
Oregon has an unenviable reputation as a hotbed of
Church of God sectarianism. Here Herb raised up his
"Philadelphia era" (Radio Church of God). Here the
RCG split - helping Herb decide to relocate to sunny
California. Here Marion McNair established the Church
of God the Eternal. And now this group, possibly a
split from the McNair group, has established its own
modest presence.
Church of the Great
God. John
Ritenbaugh's group
Northeast Ohio Church
of God (includes real audio of Herbert Armstrong)
Church of God
PKG. Ron
Weinland's group, a splinter from the UCG.
Church of God in Truth. A postponements focused
group.
Frank Nelte: Former WCG minister Frank Nelte has
a collection of essays at this site.
Living the
Way. "A
Sabbath observing Christian fellowship in Sacramento,
California." Supports the Ronald Dart "Born to Win"
radio program.
Restoration
Fellowship.
Established in 1981 by Sir Anthony Buzzard, a former
Ambassador College professor, now teaching at Atlanta
Bible College. Buzzard has published a number of
scholarly works, including a study on the Trinity in
collaboration with former WCG evangelist Charles
Hunting.
A voice cried
out A
site created by a splinter group of the Philadelphia
Church of God
Recovering Legalist
Ministries.
RLM is run by Ron Lohr, founder of the now defunct
Good News Grapevine. No longer with the WCG,
Lohr doesn't mention his former affiliation on this
site.
Cornerstone Evangelical
Association.
The work of Glenn Williams drawing on resources from
a number of sources. Has some of the old HWA booklet
titles.
Church of God - Established in
Modesto.
Formerly pastored by Don Billingsley, formerly WCG,
then UCG and later CG-AIC (Hulme). Billingsley
survived the car accident in which Richard D.
("Dick") Armstrong died, while on a baptizing tour in
1958. In late 2002 Billingsley separated from COGEIM
to start over again with a new group - Church of God,
Faithful Flock. COG-EIM is now led by Steve LeBlanc.
See also
The Wonderful World Tomorrow: COG-eim presents
yet another clone of Herb's World
Tomorrow.
Church of God, Faithful
Flock. Let's
see. Don started with WCG, leapt aboard United, dived
overboard with the Hulme faction, crossed over to
establish the Modesto splinter, and is now preachin'
the gospel in this newly minted COG. Where does a man
of his age get the energy?
Hope of Israel
Ministries.
A splinter from Bill Dankenbring's Triumph
Prophetic Ministries, founded by John
Keyser. Bill was most unimpressed and spat the
dummy,
calling Keyser some nasty names (isn't
Armstrongism fun!) Keyser's website is
sub-titled Spanning the Globe. Perhaps he
meant "spamming"? (Thanks to DR who drew Keyser to
our attention)
Newswatch
Magazine.
Published by David J. Smith, founder of the Church of
God Evangelistic Association. Conspiracy theories and
far right rhetoric. Site hasn't been updated in a
while.
God's Church,
Worldwide (well, in Orlando, Florida actually) Led by Rob
Elliot.
Blow the trumpet: Dennis Fischer and friends give
Herb a "blow job".
The Natural Church of God. Not a group of COG
"naturalists" but another one-man (?) web-sect. Links
to a variety of COG groups.
Church of God Proclaiming the Kingdom. Based in
Burleson, Texas, and run by two brothers, one who
styles himself president and the other "prime
minister". No really!
Church of God's Faithful. Robert Ardis'
sect.
Philadelphia Church - Stonefort. New Moons as
well as Holy Days and Sabbaths... woo
hoo!
Philadelphia Church - Port Austin. Homer Kizer,
formerly with the Stonefort group, strikes out on his
own. Another Kizer group apparently meets in PA
(PC-Bedford)
Smaller Splinter Groups - Other
Countries
AUSTRALIA/NEW
ZEALAND
*
CESA, a site that promotes Ronald Dart's CEM
ministry.
*
Christian Churches of
God. Wade
Cox is the leader ("Coordinator General") of this
group formed in Canberra in 1994. (Cox is not to be
confused with the more famous water-skier of the same
name.)
Pam Dewey's site contains some further
information.
*
Zion Ministry. Neville Stevens claims to be Elijah.
Or could he just be Balaam's ass?
*
The Way Worship Centre. Onetime Auckland WCG
pastor Jack Croucher runs this
ministry.
CANADA
*
British Israel Church
of God
Peter Salemi still promotes the discredited theology
of British Israelism.
UNITED KINGDOM
*
The Northwest Church of
God. Based
in Chester, England, these former WCG members have
rejected the Jewish calendar and now use a system
based on the sighting of the abib barley in Israel.
Join in the fun of the barley hunt with one intrepid
member's
first hand account.
*
The Global Church of
God (UK).
The British GCG has links to CEG and the Modesto
group.
*
What Next. Former UCG members David McDermott and
John Jewell run a small radio ministry.
*
The Church of God in Wales. Led by Jon
Bowles.
EUROPE
*
Le Siecle a Venir. The Belgian remnant of the
Global COG. Aligned with the Modesto sect.
Other
sites
Theology
Brinsmead Articles on
quango.net.
and
Brinsmead on this site. Former Adventist scholar
Bob Brinsmead produced the theological journal
Verdict in the 70's and early 80's. His
Sabbatarianism Re-examined was a groundbreaking
monograph that had tremendous impact in the WCG a
decade after it was first published. His recent
material has taken a more radical turn.
Grace and
Knowledge.
An online "Journal of Judeo-Christian History,
Theology and Culture" produced by former WCG member
Doug Ward.
Mark Kaplan's
Contemporary Commandment Keepers
Dissertation. Kaplan is former Ambassador College professor of
Hebrew. We understand he presented this dissertation
as part of a degree program at USC. This is part of
the
Church of Christian Commandment Keepers
site.
Sociology
Adolescent attraction to cults. Article from the
Fall 1998 issue of Adolescence. Applicable
to many first-generation WCG members in the Armstrong
era.
The New Believers. Website about the book by COG
commentator and British academic David V. Barrett.
Also check out our review
here.
History
Questions About the
Bible Canon.
A primer on the development of the Biblical
canon.
Bibarch.
Biblical archeology site edited by Michael Germano,
former Ambassador College administrator. Bibarch
acknowledges the "assistance and support of" Herbert
W. Armstrong, Kenneth C. Herrmann, Herman L. Hoeh,
Mark D. Kaplan, Ernest L. Martin, Roderick C.
Meredith, Peter G. Nathan, Joseph W. Tkach, Donald L.
Ward and a host of others. Hmm.
Church of God
research
Open Directory
Listings.
This is the source the major search engines draw on.
A comprehensive list of sites that present an
opposing view to the various Church of God
sects.
British
Israel
Religious Tolerance:
Anglo-Israelism and the WCG. Produced by Ontario Consultants
on Religious Tolerance. The WCG viewed through an
outside perspective.
Origin of Nations. The work of Craig White.
Craig's sites also include
Friends of the Sabbath Australia and (in our
opinion) the right-wing lunatic
Church of God Race Relations site.
Apocalyptic
The Wonderful World Tomorrow: Herbert W. Armstrong's
Vision of Life After the Apocalypse. Scott Lupo,
University of Nevada, Reno. A paper presented at the
fourth annual conference of the Center for Millennial
Studies. The writer is, we understand, a member of
the WCG. This is a PDF document requiring Acrobat
Reader to view.
Evangelical /
Fundamentalist
Whistler's Tune: Originally appearing as a
monthly column on the Missing Dimension site, and now
a website in its own right, "The Whistler" presents a
conservative evangelical perspective on WCG and its
splinters.
Tim Greenwood Ministries. Tim used to work as a
cook at AC in Pasadena. These days he's a Word of
Faith entrepreneur. Hallelujah!
Personal web
sites
State of the
Heart. A
music ministry of WCG musical wunderkind Dr.
Ross Jutsum, who cut his teeth on GTA personal
appearances back in the 70s.
Children of the Promises. Website by John and
Rosemary Morton, two longtime COG members living in
New Zealand. Includes a major article critiquing
British Israelism.
Homer Kizer. Outspoken independent COG member
Homer Kizer has taken a leading role in questioning
the events surrounding the controversial dissolution
of Norm Edward's Port Austin enterprise. He also
seems to believe he is some kind of unique prophet in
church history. Do tell!
Christian Logic: The blog of a former activist in
the WCG "reformation" of the mid-90s.
wwwcg. Brainchild of UCG member Richard Burkard.
COG-style essays delivered with a wry grin. Richard
is a regular on JLF and an occasional correspondent
to MD. See also
Burkard's Blog, a well written, amusing blog
that's worth a visit.
Pabco's Home
Page. This
guy has a formidable array of old time WCG literature
on his site, including "1975 in
Prophecy."
Bill Bratt's Religion
Page.
Articles by Bill and a lot of links, some of which
are unfortunately dated.
Tony Badillo's site. A former WCG member's
research on the Temple of Solomon.
Fiery Dart. Poor old Ron gets the treatment from
a non-admirer.
The ex-Christadelphian. A WCG member converts to
the obscure Christadelphian sect before throwing in
the towel altogether and becoming a
non-believer.
Miscellaneous
The Original Bible
Project.
Initiated by the late Ernest Martin and headed by Dr.
James Tabor, this as yet incomplete translation of
the Bible has the backing of a variety of former WCG
luminaries.
Reluctant
Messenger.
This site is one of the busiest COG sites on the web.
It clocked over a million verified page views in 2002
(measured by hitbox.com.) The webmaster is a
true disciple of Herbert Armstrong with a lot of
wide-ranging material.
Rick Ross. Popular source of information on
cultic groups.
Giving &
Sharing. A
ministry run by Richard Nickels, formerly of the
Church of God the Eternal. Nickels seems to
believe that HWA's early work was genuine, but that
he fell away in his latter years.
Anchor. A quarterly publication offering
"support" for COG members "struggling" with
homosexuality. Edited by Melvin Rhodes and Ken
Hill. Seems to be a UCG initiative, but has also
been promoted in WCG Canada's Northern
Light.
Restitution of all
things. Keith Hunt, one-time collaborator with
Fred Coulter, has been busy writing 300 odd
articles. Also hosted on his site is the late
Jesse Ancona's
Lying with the Truth: Deception and Mind Control in
the Worldwide Church of God, a Case Study in
Religious Manipulation.
Via del
Rey
Walking backward into the World Tomorrow. Gerry
Flurry allegedly plagiarized some of webmaster
Jules Dervaes' writings
when concocting Malachi's Message.
Truth
Publications. "Information on the Only True Religion on
Earth." Yeah, right. Essays by an unidentified
enthusiast.
The Real Truth. No, not David Pack's The Real
Truth. This is M. John Allen's stuff. And Allen was
using the Real Truth name long before
Dave.
Elijah
III.
"I am", says Harold Reimann, "the only one on earth
telling you this." Whoa!
The Present Commission. "Vital information"?
Yeah, sure.
The Pure
Truth. Richard Scott's
material.
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