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From: johnr@copper.UUCP (John Rutis)
Newsgroups: net.religion.christian
Subject: Worldwide Church of God
Message-ID: <209@copper.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 4-Mar-86 15:21:13 EST
Article-I.D.: copper.209
Posted: Tue Mar  4 15:21:13 1986
Date-Received: Thu, 6-Mar-86 03:44:26 EST
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Tom Albrecht writes:

> Armstrong joined an off-shoot movement of the SDA  called the
> "Church of God (Seventh-Day)".  It was later that he founded the Radio
> Church of God.  Armstrong was influenced by his wife, who had
> told him about a great discovery, "obedience to God's spiritual laws
> summed up in the Ten Commandments is necessary for salvation. ...  We
> must repent of sin, repent of transgressing God's law which means
> turning from disobedience as a prior condition to receiving God's
> free gift." [The Autobiography of Herbert W. Armstrong, pp. 281-284]
> The woman who revealed this great discovery to Mrs. Armstrong was a
> former member of the SDA and a member of the splinter group.  How
> would you reconcile this with your assertion that Armstrongism
> antedates SDA or Mormonism?

So much has been left out  of what the Autobigrapy actually says that any
resemblence of the above paragraph to the truth is coincidental.  For example,
the actual quote implies that Mr. Armstrong taught and we believe in
"salvation by works", a constant slander against us.  Salvation is a FREE
gift of God, an eternity of good works cannot earn salvation.

The Church certainly was NOT an off-shoot of SDA.  We can trace the Church
from the original Apostles.  Following is a very brief history of the Church
in the U.S.  In 1664, Stephen Mumford was sent from the "Bell Lane" Church
of God in London to Newport R.I.  After associating with the members of a
Sunday Baptist Church for seven years, a Sabbath keeping church of seven
members was founded.  It grew slowly in membership.  In 1705 a local
congregation was formed in Piscataway N.J.  By 1800, Protestant doctrines
became popular and caused a split.  A new denomination calling themselves
"Seventh Day Baptists" began.  A minority remained faithful the the Church
of God.  In the middle of the 19th century, these few were associating
themselves with the growing Adventist movement.  When the Adventists organized
as a denomination in 1860, only a few, mostly in Ohio, Iowa, and Missouri,
remained faithful to the Church of God.  By the time Mr. Armstrong came into
contact with the "Church of God (Seventh Day)", there were only a very few
members, mostly in Missouri, Oklahoma, and Oregon.  (There were also a few
congregations in Mexico, Chile, Argentina, and the Philippines.)  

Should a man not be "influenced by his wife"?  Mrs. Armstrong was shown
that the Sabbath was to be kept, rather than Sunday.  Mr. Armstrong was
appalled - what would has friends and business associates think of him
with a wife who was a religious fanatic.  He argued that "all these churches
can't be wrong".  Mrs. Armstrong told him that if he could prove to her
from the Bible that Sunday was the proper day, she would accept it.  Since
he was out of work at the time, he spent months in the Multnomah County
Library in Portland Oregon trying to prove the doctrine of Sunday worship.
Instead he found that Sabbath worship is required by God.  At the same time
he proved the existance of God, the truth of the Bible, and the falsity of
the theory of evolution.  Read the Autobiography.

John Rutis