Remember the Plain Truth magazine. After Herbert Armstrong's death this cult seemed to have quietened down, but now it seems to be re-emerging especially on the internet and through their new magazine. They have changed their name from Worldwide Church of God to Restored Church of God and their material is now called Real truth in place of Plain Truth. They are advertising as the "one true church".
For those who don't know why they are a cult they have a website full of blasphemies about who Jesus is. For example they teach against the Trinity and say that Jesus only became the Son of God after His resurrection from the dead and we Christians can only be born-again after our resurrection from the dead. It says He was conceived of the Holy Spirit at birth but only became "born-again" at His resurrection. This is blasphemy of who Jesus is and the work of the Holy Spirit
In order to arrive at such heresy Armstrong has to ignore great chunks of scripture. Anyone who willingly ignores scripture like this is a deceiver and liar. How can you trust anything they say. Therefore, how do we know if they are telling the truth about anything they state as fact?
In order to arrive at such heresy Armstrong has to ignore great chunks of scripture. Anyone who willingly ignores scripture like this is a deceiver and liar. How can you trust anything they say. Therefore, how do we know if they are telling the truth about anything they state as fact?
Armstrongism is well known to be a cult from the Plain Truth days. Jesus said that a bad tree cannot produce good fruit. If anyone says that they teach some good things, though and very informative, beware. How can you believe anything which comes from a bad tree? It may have some truth but mixed with poison. The net result is it messes you up. If they distort the clear truth in the scriptures, how can you trust them in anything they say?
This is their own webpage which shows up this heresy
John, also note that splinters of this group are everywhere and need to be avoided by careful discernment. Armstrong borrowed a lot of his ideas not from the Bible but from groups that emerged out of the Millerite movement.
ReplyDeleteOne major problem is that they put up innocuous looking websites that slowly draw people in. A good example of this is the Seventh-day Adventist cult that shares so much with what Armstrong taught.
Keep up the good work.
God bless.
Thanks RG for your contribution.
ReplyDeleteGod bless
It looks like Armstrongism have been influenced by Word of Faith or vice-versa because they BOTH teach the heresy that Jesus was only "born-again" at His Resurrection.
ReplyDeleteWatch out for http://bible.cc and http://biblos.com . They are Bible study helps called "Online Parallel Bible" which look excellent (at first glance) but show adchoices (adsense)links to "restored church of God" (ie Armstrongism). I have written to them about this, checking whether those links are supported by them or are out of their control because they are using adsense.
This is why I refuse to use adsense (a way of making money on blogs) because I don't want to be the cause of readers getting led to wrong sites.
2 examples of those links:
one link is to "world to come" which is part of rcog
another link is to "Global Church Of God" which states "The major doctrines of the Church are those, which were taught by Herbert W. Armstrong"
So, even if biblos is sound, be wary of the links.
Yes I have come across many of these people who belong to the splinter groups, one which has headquarters in my home state of North Carolina. Sure made me sad to see these people think that they had to keep the feasts etc, and were unable to even hold down jobs where they could get that much time off work. We do not gain anything by our so called good works, and Jesus fulfilled all the feasts for us. We need to study these out as we do all of scripture, but I feel so sorry for the people who think that going back to keeping the law,which the bible states that no one can keep, makes them better Christians.
ReplyDeleteAnyway I used to listen to Armstrong a bit till discernment really kicked in and I saw so much off scripture, and then the scandals on his organizations came out as well.
Hi
ReplyDeleteBiblos have just replied to me telling that they would remove the links and apologised. However, does anybody know whether Biblos are okay. I mean they have tons of links to the church fathers and to apocryphal books and much other archaic literature but not much on sound teachers since the Reformation.
Am just wondering whether that is for research purposes or because they are emergent.
Hi
ReplyDeleteI have written further emails to Biblos about the above. Although they have been kind enough to answer, I am disappointed and surprised by the evasive nature of their answers to my questions.
I have cut out/pasted the specific questions/answers here (omitting the pleasantries).
me:
I am wondering if I can recommend your site to others, so would be keen to know a little more about you. Your Statement of Faith is a bit brief and doesn't tell us much about you, so am looking for reasons why I can endorse you
Biblos:
We are interdenominational, and privately owned and operated. Hence our statement of faith is somewhat brief, as we don't seek to take a stand on denominational issues, but rather to do everything we can to promote God's word. You've probably also seen the mission statement to:
1) Increase the visibility and accessibility of the Scriptures online.
2) Provide free access to Bible study tools in many languages.
3) Promote the Gospel of Christ through the learning, study and application of God's word.
Me:
Final question. Just wondering why you list so much archaic and seemingly dubious literature. For example apocryphal books and writings of the church fathers but not much from sound teachers of recent times (since the reformation) like the Wesleys. I am sure you have a good reason, just wondering what that reason is. As I run a blog, I would like to inform my readers about good sources of information provided they are sound.
Biblos:
We are limited on some of the newer texts that may still be under copyright, but are working on additional permissions.
We do have some relatively more recent texts available through the commentaries tab, including the text of Wesley's Notes on the Bible.
Me:
For the sake of my readers. Why do you list extra biblical books like the apocyphal books and the writings of the church fathers?
Biblos:
Here is our statement on the commentaries, which I would say applies to the Library as well:
The commentaries are provided for study and research purposes. Please note that we do not necessarily endorse every opinion offered by the writers.
Conclusion:
It is clear they are not going to answer my straight question regarding their long list of apocryphal books and emphasis on the writings of the church fathers. Why?
Anyway, they are a good source for finding out what FALSE extra biblical books say (especially in preparation for witnessing to Catholic theologians).
However, I only recommend the site to those who are well grounded in the Word of God as it could fill your mind with unhelpful teachings and thereby act like weeds in your mind.