Sabbatarian Churches of God

Refers to the teachings and doctrines of Jesus Christ and Herbert W. Armstrong while leader of the Worldwide Church of God (WCG), and is professed by him and his followers to be the restored true Gospel of the Bible.
Armstrong said they were revealed to him by God during his study of the Bible (Mystery of the Ages, pp. 7-30). The doctrines discussed on this page can be found in several of Armstrong's writings, especially The Ambassador College Bible Correspondence Course, The Incredible Human Potential, The Wonderful World Tomorrow, The Missing Dimension In Sex, The United States and Britain In Prophecy and Mystery of the Ages.
Armstrong taught that most of the basic doctrines and teachings of Mainstream Christianity were based on traditions, including absorbed pagan concepts and rituals (i.e. religious syncretism), rather than the Judeo-Christian Bible. His teachings have consequently been the source of much controversy.
Shortly after Armstrong's death in 1986, the Worldwide Church of God started revising its core beliefs towards the concepts, doctrines, and creeds of mainstream Christianity. This resulted in many ministers and members leaving the WCG to start or join other churches, many of which continue to believe and teach Armstrong's views to one degree or another. Eventually, the WCG changed its name in 2009 to Grace Communion International (GCI). Today, the official doctrinal position of GCI is mainstream evangelical, although there are still GCI ministers and members who do not fully embrace all of the changes.
The following are some of Armstrong’s identifiable doctrines that are in addition to or are different from traditional mainstream Christian doctrines. Many groups and churches which splintered in the aftermath of doctrinal changes within the Worldwide Church of God continue to hold many or all of these teachings of Armstrong.
God Family:
The God Family doctrine holds that the Godhead is not limited to God (the Creator) alone, or even to a trinitarian God, but is a divine family into which every human who ever lived may be spiritually born, through a master plan to be enacted in stages. The Godhead now temporarily consists of two co-eternal individuals (see Binitarianism), Jesus the Messiah, as the creator and spokesman (The Word or Logos), and God the Father.
According to this doctrine, humans who are called by God's Holy Spirit to repentance, who accept the gift of eternal life made possible by Jesus' sacrifice, who commit to live by "every word of God" (i.e. biblical scripture), and who "endure to the end" (i.e. remain faithful to live according to God's way of life until either the end of their own lifetime or the second coming of Jesus) would, at Jesus' return, be "born again" into the family of God as the literal spiritual offspring or children of God.
Armstrong drew parallels between every stage of human reproduction and this spiritual reproduction. He often stated that "God is reproducing after His own kind -- children in His own image." Whatever the changes brought about by this new entrance of humans into God's family, God the Father will always be the omnipotent sovereign and sustainer of both the universe and the spiritual realm, forever to be worshipped as God by the children of God. Jesus, as the creator of the universe and savior of God's children, will always rule the Kingdom of God, which will ultimately grow to fill the entire universe, and He likewise will forever be worshipped as God by the children of God.
Church authority:
Armstrong taught that the Bible (excluding the Biblical apocrypha and deuterocanonical books) is the authoritative Word of God (The Proof of the Bible). He taught that the Bible, while inerrant in its message, had been distorted through many conflicting interpretations, and it was not until the 20th century that God had restored the full Gospel message of the Kingdom of God, as understood by the original apostles, to the Church through him (Armstrong) by opening his mind to the plain truth of scripture (Mystery of the Ages, pp. 7-30).
Armstrong taught that all other churches calling themselves "Christian" were not merely apostate, but actually counterfeits whose history could be traced back to the first century, as described in the epistles (which refer to a "false gospel" and "false ministers" and "false apostles"), the eighth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles (the appropriation of "Christian" trappings by influential and ambitious pagan religious figures ) and later historians like Eusebius.
Sabbatarianism and Old Testament beliefs:
The observance of the seventh-day Sabbath from dusk on Friday to dusk on Saturday was the first non-traditional religious practice (as compared to mainstream Christianity) that Armstrong adopted. Armstrong wrote in several of his books that his wife, Loma, after she met a member of a Sabbatarian church group (the ), challenged him to prove to her from scripture that, as Herbert claimed, Sunday was the proper day for Christian worship. After months of bible study, Armstrong decided that there was no sound scriptural authority for Christian worship on Sunday, but rather that the Apostles and the first generation of Christians, both Jewish and gentile converts, continued for decades after the establishment of the Church age to set an example of observing the seventh day of the week (Friday at sunset to Saturday at sunset) as Sabbath.
Eventually, Armstrong accepted and observed many principles and laws found in the Old Testament and taught converts to do the same. These included the Ten Commandments, dietary laws, tithing, and celebration of high Sabbaths, or annual feast days such as Passover, Pentecost and the Feast of Tabernacles. Furthermore, he taught that the celebrations of Christmas and Easter were inappropriate for Christians, considering them not of biblical origin, but rather a later absorption of pagan practices into corrupted Christianity.
British-Israelism:
Armstrong was a proponent of British Israelism, (also known as 'Anglo-Israelism') which is the doctrine that people of Western European descent, especially the British Empire (Ephraim) and the United States (Manasseh), are descended from the 'Ten Lost Tribes' of Israel (The United States and Britain in Prophecy). Armstrong believed that this doctrine provided a 'key' to understanding biblical prophecy, and that he was specially called by God to proclaim these prophecies to the 'lost tribes' of Israel before the coming of the 'end times'. Grace Communion International, the lineal successor to Armstrong's original church, no longer teaches the doctrine, but many offshoot churches continue to teach it even though critics assert that British Israelism is inconsistent with the findings of modern genetics.
Other non-mainstream teachings:
God will soon set up His government on earth, under the rule of Jesus at his second coming, rescuing humanity from sin and self-annihilation, inspiring mankind to voluntarily turn to God's law, and ushering in a 1000 year period of peace, prosperity, and justice under the rule of the children of God, who are the biblical saints and faithful members of the Worldwide Church of God who are "born again" as spirit in the 1st resurrection at Jesus' return to the Earth.
Non-believers are not yet eternally judged, having a future opportunity for salvation after a mortal resurrection (the 2nd resurrection).
The vast majority of all people who have ever lived will be saved, thus the relatively small number of true Christians of this age are predestined to be merely the early "firstfruits" of God's harvest to help teach the majority of humanity raised by the 2nd resurrection.
The strict observance of the Ten Commandments is a voluntary response of Christians to receiving the unearned gift of salvation from God. The Ten Commandments are an eternal and inexorable law set in motion by God which brings about every good effect when obeyed, but which exact pain, suffering, and eventually death (especially an ultimate spiritual death) when violated.
The Holy Days of the Old Testament are still to be observed by Christians, and teach symbolically the seven steps of God's master plan of salvation for humanity. These are Passover, Days of Unleavened Bread, Pentecost, Trumpets, Atonement, Feast of Tabernacles and Last Great Day (8th Day).
A system of tithing in which 10% of one's total increase is donated to the church ("first tithe") for its operation and for sharing the gospel with the world; a second 10% was to be saved for the Christian family's expenses during the Holy Days ("second tithe"), and during the third and sixth year of each seven-year cycle, a third 10% was to be used for the indigent, widows, and orphans within the church ("third tithe").
Abstinence of eating unclean meats listed in the Old Testament such as pork, shellfish, etc.
God's children are not actually "born again" into spirit until after the return of Jesus to the Earth.
The "sleep" state of the dead, meaning the dead have not yet been judged, rewarded, or condemned, but rather wait to be resurrected.
A celestial heaven apart from the created universe is not the reward of saved humans, but rather the remade Earth under the rulership and personal presence of God, i.e. heaven (God's presence) is coming to Earth.
Punishment of the incorrigible is not an eternity of torment in hell, but rather a merciful annihilation, through fire, by the edict of God.
Humans are completely mortal (i.e. do not possess an immortal "soul"), but salvation is the free, unearned gift of eternal life in God's family as children of God, given upon the prerequisite of faith in God and repentance from sin, which then results in a motivation to completely observe God's eternal laws.
Three resurrections of the dead — (1) faithful believers as the first fruit harvest at Jesus' second coming Revelations 20: 4-6; Hebrews 11:35], (2) non-believers who never heard of Jesus Christ temporarily resurrected to mortality after the 1,000 years for an opportunity to learn and accept God's way for 100 years , (3) resurrection to final judgment of the incorrigibly wicked believers—those whose minds had been fully opened to God's truth and known Jesus Christ, either in this age or after the second resurrection, and rejected it—mainly those truly called but who fell away, and those who died incorrigibly rebellious in the "Wonderful World Tomorrow or 1,000 years of Christ reign on earth ".
There are many splinter churches, possibly more than 300, as well as second-generation splinters. Some of these are:
United Church of God;
Living Church of God;
Philadelphia Church of God;
Church of God Community;
Church of God International;
Intercontinental Church of God;
Church of God-21st Century;
Restored Church of God;
Church of God Outreach Ministries;
Bethel Church of God;
Church of the Eternal God;
Church of God, The Eternal;
Church of the Great God;
Church of God Fellowship;
Sabbath Church of God;
Church of God, Sabbatarian.

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