Early in 1992, the Worldwide Church of God (wcg) issued a new pamphlet titled, Statement of Beliefs of the Worldwide Church of God. Church members were asked to read it very carefully. If the members have done as told, they should be shocked by the statement of belief concerning God. This belief is listed first in the pamphlet. Usually a church’s doctrine concerning the nature of God is its most important. The Catholics will tell you that the foundation of all their doctrines is the trinity. Today’s Catholic and Protestant churches often describe the nature of God first because it is considered the foundation of all their other beliefs. If we apply this same principle to the new wcg statement, we can see that the Church is building upon a new foundation.
More recently, the wcg has produced another booklet which is even more shocking than the Statement of Beliefs. It is titled, God Is…. The wcg has radically changed its understanding on the nature of God. When Herbert W. Armstrong was alive, the Church always explained the true nature of God as a Family. He explained this quite clearly in chapter one of Mystery of the Ages, which is titled, “Who and What is God?” We recommend reviewing that chapter along with this article.
In reality, the wcg’s new understanding on the nature of God is not new! Believe it or not, the wcg has now accepted the very old doctrine of the trinity. They will probably deny this. But it does not take much of a scholar to see clearly that they now believe God is a trinity. This article will prove this to you from the wcg’s own literature!
Full Divinity of the Holy Spirit
Here is a quote from the wcg statement concerning God: “God, by the testimony of Scripture, is the only true God and Father of all, eternal, immutable, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent. He is Creator of heaven and Earth, sustainer of the universe and source of man’s salvation. God is love and infinite goodness. The church affirms the oneness of God and the full divinity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.” This belief is definitely not what Mr. Armstrong taught the Church of God. The most condemning part of this statement is the phrase, “the full divinity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit!” A Protestant Bible scholar working with the wcg said on a radio talk show that if the wcg is willing to say that the Holy Spirit has “full divinity,” then they are actually teaching the trinity! If they will not admit this, the scholar said, “They are guilty of hypocrisy!”
This new teaching by the wcg will usher in a new wave of error into the already troubled Church. The false doctrine of the trinity destroys the Bible doctrine of the Family of God. It teaches a closed Godhead! The trinity doctrine destroys the true Gospel of God, which is the good news of the Family of God taking over rule of this Earth. If you believe in the trinity, you cannot believe in the Family of God.
Here is what Joseph Tkach Sr. wrote about this “new” belief in the December 23, 1991 Worldwide News: “The newly printed Statement of Beliefs of the Worldwide Church of God will be mailed to you soon …. Let me make a few comments about one portion of the statement. In the statement about God, you will notice that the final sentence reads: ‘The church affirms the oneness of God and the full divinity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.’ Someone may ask, ‘Does this mean we now accept the doctrine of the trinity?’ No, it does not. The doctrine of the trinity in the Western church attests the union of three persons in one Godhead, so that the three are one God as to substance, but three persons as to individualities. We do not accept this teaching; we believe the word person is inaccurate when referring to the Holy Spirit.”
What does the wcg mean by the term “full divinity?” They mean that the Holy Spirit is on the same level as the Father and the Son. You could read that same statement in any trinitarian literature! We will quote from some of this literature later in this article, but the wcg still says that it does not accept the doctrine of the trinity. Yet its only disagreement with the trinity doctrine revolves around the word “person.” Well, could it accept the word “being” instead? If the Holy Spirit has “full divinity,” it certainly could!
This statement of beliefs on the nature of God is just one more political maneuver to win favor from this world. It is spiritual double talk. To the world it looks as though the Church accepts the trinity. But for wcg members, the leaders are saying that they aren’t changing anything! Do not be fooled! Church leaders have accepted the doctrine of the trinity! You should notice that Mr. Tkach does not give one scripture to support this change! Yet Church leaders are saying that there are three “beings” in the Godhead! Where does this idea come from? It is a satanic, diabolical deceit being thrust onto God’s people!
Satan—the ‘Spirit’ of the trinity
Mr. Tkach continues, “Someone may ask, ‘Why does the statement use the word divinity in reference to the Holy Spirit?’ For these reasons: the Holy Spirit is not created. It is eternally of God. Therefore the Holy Spirit cannot be less than divine. As you will see from the statement about the Holy Spirit (on the same page), we speak of the Holy Spirit in terms of the ‘power’ of God, but not as ‘only’ or ‘merely’ the power of God. We need to understand that the Holy Spirit is divine and eternal. The Holy Spirit cannot be separated from God. That is why it is important that we state clearly that we affirm the ‘oneness of God and the full divinity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.’”
Mr. Armstrong always taught that the Holy Spirit was the power of God. Mr. Armstrong said many times that it was a force from God. But now the wcg is saying it is much more than that. It is saying it has “full divinity,” which places it right up there with God and Jesus Christ! The wcg is now teaching foundational Roman Catholic doctrine, which even Roman Catholic leaders admit is not based on the Bible! They say it is a mystery to be accepted on faith!
All of God’s people need to really think about this issue. If the Holy Spirit has full divinity, where is it in the Bible? If this is true, it must be there! Try to find scriptures to show the full divinity of the Holy Spirit. We in the Philadelphia Church of God know that you cannot find one scripture to support this doctrine. We know that Mr. Armstrong taught correctly about the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a power and a force working in our minds. God uses the Holy Spirit as a tool to convert and change His people. God uses the Holy Spirit to combine with our human spirit and bring us to birth in the Family of God.
Who is this third being the wcg is now willing to teach about?
“How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High” (Isaiah 14:12-14). Satan the devil has always wanted to be just like God the Father and Jesus Christ. That is why he became Satan the devil. His ambition for this exalted position has not changed just because he was hurled out of heaven for his rebellion.
Satan is still intent on being on the same level with God and Christ. He is the third “being” of the trinity. The trinity doctrine is a direct reflection of Satan’s desire to be God. God’s Church has always taught this in the past. The only way you could possibly see the trinity doctrine in the Bible is to add Satan the devil to the formula. Nowhere in the Bible can you prove that there are three Gods sharing the same level. Now after the death of Herbert W. Armstrong, the Worldwide Church of God is teaching this unprovable doctrine.
This just shows how diabolical this doctrinal change is! Satan is imposing his will on the Laodicean Church! And even though the Worldwide Church isn’t now coming right out and saying there is a trinity, Satan will force them to do so before it is all over! Study your Bible carefully. You cannot find one reference proving that there are three Gods on the same level.
Area Not Carefully Studied
Mr. Tkach continues: “We should all realize that this is simply an area that had never been carefully studied.” This is probably one of the most tragic statements in the entire article. It is nothing more than a “put down” of Mr. Armstrong. Church leaders want the members to believe that Mr. Armstrong was some doddering, old, ignorant fool. They want us to believe that he spoke—and we all just followed along. They expect God’s people to accept their new intellectual scholarship and believe their “super-smart” new teaching on the trinity doctrine which is actually over 1,500 years old!
The wcg leaders continually say that the ministry of the Philadelphia Church of God is preying on God’s people. We are not preying on God’s people! We are teaching the Truth of God! But Satan the devil is preying on God’s people through them. In reality they are the tools of Satan. They just blindly give what Satan inspires to God’s people! If these men continue as they are, they are not going to be in God’s Kingdom, unless they do some heavy repenting. It really doesn’t matter what they say about the Philadelphia Church of God. Hopefully God’s success through us is making them angry enough to examine what they are doing!
Putting down God’s apostle in nearly every article is satanic! We know that our true battle is not with the Worldwide Church; it is with Satan the devil! Satan wants to destroy the Philadelphia Church of God. But God is not going to let that happen! Our main goal in the Philadelphia Church of God is to get God’s ministry and people to think and turn back to God. The Tribulation is coming upon all of God’s people who accept the trinity doctrine.
The article continues: “We used the argument that if the Holy Spirit were a divine person, then Jesus would have been the Son of the Holy Spirit, and not the Son of the Father (Luke 1:35). However, this argument showed that we did not understand the doctrine we were attempting to refute. The trinitarian concept of God does not teach that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are separate beings. The trinitarian teaching is that there is one and only one Being who is God, and this one Being is three divine persons. To trinitarians these persons are distinct, but they are nevertheless one Being. In other words, God is not just one, nor is God three, but God is three in one and one in three. When one of the three acts, all act.” Mr. Tkach appears to be only quoting the trinitarian doctrine here. By the end of this article, you will see that he is actually teaching the same doctrine! If you understand the trinity doctrine, it makes God out to be a robot. But we in God’s Philadelphia Church know that God is a Family. If one of your family members goes roller-skating, do all of you go? That is the trinitarian concept of God!
Mr. Tkach continues: “We also used an analogy of a printing press to explain God and the Holy Spirit. This is not an appropriate analogy. The printing press is totally separate from an author, a mere tool the author uses to get a job done. This analogy implies that the Holy Spirit is separate from God. If it were separate from God, it would have to be one of God’s creations—an idea that is biblically wrong.”
But the Holy Spirit is a tool to get a job done. Again, this is another “put down” of Mr. Armstrong’s plain teaching. The Holy Spirit is a force from God, and it is in all truly converted Christians. “But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his” (Romans 8:9). While in us, the Holy Spirit is separate from God. Whose teaching is not appropriate?
The article goes on to state: “We also used arguments derived from metaphors. We noted that the Holy Spirit can be quenched (1 Thessalonians 5:19) and asked, ‘Can a person be quenched?’ Yet, we omit references to God as ‘a consuming fire.’ Therefore our reasoning was inconsistent. The trinitarian would point out that if God can be referred to as a fire and still be a divine person, then similar references to the Holy Spirit do not prove that it is not a divine person.” Hopefully everyone can see the faulty reasoning here. These Bible quotes are not two metaphors. The Holy Spirit being quenched is a statement of fact. Through sin, we can block the Holy Spirit. That is not the same as saying that God is a consuming fire. Seeing God as a “consuming fire” is a metaphor. Do you see the weakness to this reasoning?
The article continues: “When we attempt to point out the errors and inconsistencies in the teachings of others, we must at least understand what others are teaching to avoid exposing our own ignorance.” These statements are just a deceitful way of saying that Mr. Armstrong was just plain ignorant. They are also saying that all of God’s people were just plain ignorant for believing Mr. Armstrong as he taught from the Bible.
Who is really ignorant here? If you accept the doctrine of the trinity, you must accept the three in one theory! If one acts, they all act! When Jesus Christ was brutally beaten, were God the Father and the Holy Spirit also beaten? Throughout all of the New Testament only Jesus Christ and God the Father are mentioned together. If the Holy Spirit was a being, then you would think it would have a crushing inferiority complex for not being mentioned along with Jesus Christ and God the Father in the Bible. If all shared the same “full divinity,” wouldn’t it be a little unfair to not mention the Holy Spirit? Read the opening remarks in all of the Apostle Paul’s letters. He consistently refers to God the Father and Jesus Christ only! The Holy Spirit is not mentioned along with Christ and God the Father because there is no trinity! And all human beings can be happy for that!
The True Nature of God
Let’s now review the true nature of God as taught to the Church by Mr. Armstrong. Religious scholars did not agree with him when he was alive; they will not agree with us now. We must never forget that Satan wants to destroy the knowledge of the true nature of God because he can never be in God’s Family. Satan was never created with the potential to be God. Now because of his rebellion, he can’t even help God with His Work! Man’s potential is so stupendous. Satan is very jealous of our future and will do anything to prevent us from fulfilling our potential.
“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). The word for God in the Hebrew is Elohim. The Englishman’s Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon states that this word is plural. It is different from the singular form of the word eloha. Elohim is a plural word like family, church, or group. Now a scholar could say to you: “No, I see Genesis 1:1 as saying there is only one God there.” You can refute this scholar with another very simple scripture. “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness” (Genesis 1:26). Now, if we were to look at the context of this scripture with an open mind, we all would have to admit that there is more than one God represented here. The words “us” and “our” make it plain that there had to be at least two. But it is still only one family known as God. This verse also says that man was to be made in God’s image and likeness. Mr. Armstrong always taught the Church that “image” referred to God’s character. Mankind was not only to look like God, he was to become God.
Let’s get some more context related to verse 26. “And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so. And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind; and God saw that it was good” (Genesis 1:24-25). God made all the animals after their kind. The cattle were made after the cattle kind.
When we come to verse 26, we see that man was not made after the animal kind, nor was he made after the angel kind, but after the God kind! Since his rebellion, Satan has resented this fact. He was never made after the God kind. That’s how exalted man’s future is. We are to be born into the Family of God. Satan feels that God has cheated him, so he has created a doctrine that puts himself in the Godhead. But his doctrine also shuts man out of the picture. Satan failed miserably with God’s purpose for him, and he wants all of us to fail in God’s purpose for us! If Satan can blind us to this great truth, then he can easily destroy our potential!
Man’s Incredible Human Potential
The following are some quotes from Mr. Armstrong’s book The Incredible Human Potential:
And now, a vital new truth!
What God had created was perfect in quality—but, like unfinished raw furniture, the earth’s creation was to be completed by the angels. Thus the angels were to participate in acts of creation!
Actually this earth was the proving ground—even as God endowed it to be for man today—to qualify the angels to perform the same creative finishing of the planets of the entire endless universe! And that has now become the transcendent potential of man!…
But God also knew there were not enough of Him! He wanted millions—even billions—of personages endowed with His holy and righteous character!
That is why God had purposed to reproduce Himself, through man.
The trinity doctrine blocks all this knowledge concerning the Family of God. This knowledge is so awe-inspiring it is almost unbelievable! Because Satan has done such an excellent job of deceiving mankind, it is hard to accept such truth. But God has designed a plan that allows for “millions—even billions” of humans to be made into members of the God Family!
How many Gods were present at creation? Does the Bible tell us? Yes it does! “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God” (John 1:1-2). We must look to the New Testament to further understand Genesis 1:1. There were two Gods present at creation. One was called the Word and the other was called God. They were both individual beings of the God group. We know from the Scriptures that they became a Family. The Word came to this Earth and lived as the human being Jesus Christ. At His resurrection, Jesus Christ became the first human being to become a spirit-born member of the Family of God (Romans 1:4). Jesus Christ’s resurrection opened the way for all converted, faithful human beings to enter into the Family of God.
Here is another quote by Mr. Armstrong, from his book The Missing Dimension in Sex:
The doctrine of the trinity is false. It was foisted upon the world at the Council of Nicaea. It is the pagan Babylonish trinity of father, mother and child—substituting the Holy Spirit for the mother, Semiramis, and calling it a “person”…. God is a kingdom—the supreme divine family which rules the universe! The whole gospel Jesus brought to mankind is, merely, the Good News of the Kingdom of God—and that Kingdom is God. It is a family—a ruling divine family into which humans may be born!…
So the Eternal Father is a Person, and is God. Jesus Christ is a different Person—and is God. They are two separate and individual Persons (Revelation 4:2; 5:1; 6-7).
Mr. Armstrong was very specific about this teaching. He showed the Church very clearly, from the Bible, that our salvation was to become members of the God Family. And now some leaders in Pasadena want to throw this all away so they can look good in the eyes of all the worldly churches.
God’s plan for mankind is very clear and simple to understand, if men are willing to repent and believe it. “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my father in his throne” (Revelation 3:21). Jesus Christ shows us here that the firstfruits will share His throne, which is an extension of God the Father’s throne. But all human beings will have a place in God’s Family, if they are willing to “overcome.”
Jesus Christ’s Father will also be our Father. The true Gospel of Jesus Christ has everything to do with Family. We are going to be God as God is God. When the wcg began to say that we were not going to be God as God is God—they were leading up to this major doctrinal change. We are not going to have God’s rank or authority. We will not share past eternity with God. But from the instant we are changed from flesh and blood into spirit beings we will be God as God is God for all eternity!
Exchanging the Truth for Mysteries
The Worldwide News article continues: “The Bible tells us there is one and only one God. Pagan ideas about multiple gods are condemned in the Bible. Yet the Bible also tells us about the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. These are one and are divine and eternal. The Bible does not fully explain how this can be so, but scripture does call upon us to believe it… . Here is the key: There are things that are simply beyond our limited, finite, human ability to grasp.”
What does Mr. Tkach mean by only one God? Are ideas about multiple gods pagan and condemned by the Bible? Is that what your Bible says? Remember, John 1:1 tells us that there are two Gods. It is true that there is only one God Family. But it is also true that there are presently only two members to this Family. There will be many more members in the future.
It is obvious that Mr. Tkach no longer believes this. He says that the Bible teaches us that there is “the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit,” all on the same divine level. He says the Bible doesn’t fully explain how this can be so. The reason for this is because it is not so! What Mr. Tkach is really asking the Church to do is to accept one of the old Babylonian mysteries. How terribly evil! Can you really believe such a thing? The Worldwide Church of God is now being fed the “mystery religion” of the great Babylonish whore!
Mr. Tkach continued in his article: “Likewise, the Bible tells us that there is one God. Yet the Bible also tells us of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Our finite minds are unable to fully understand that. It is a spiritual reality, a spiritual truth, not a physical one. We do not have to accept ancient creeds that affirm one God in three divine persons. But we do have to accept the Bible.” Doesn’t God give us His Holy Spirit so we can understand the great truths of the Bible?! (1 Corinthians 2:10). This new teaching of the wcg is total confusion and right out of the mind of Satan the devil!
Let’s now look at probably the most evil part of this entire Worldwide News article (emphasis added): “Therefore, we have carefully chosen wording for our Statement of Beliefs that we believe is consistent with the Bible, but without going beyond the Bible by calling the Holy Spirit a person. We accept what the Bible says about God on faith, even though we cannot in this life fully comprehend it. It is important to realize, as I have explained before, that it is contrary to the Bible to think of God as other than one. The father and the Son are not two Gods. They are one God. Likewise, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are not three gods. They are one. But neither do we believe it is correct to say they are three persons in one God.” Mr. Tkach says that the Father and the Son are not two Gods. He says they are one God. That is the trinity doctrine. Teaching that Jesus Christ and God the Father are not two Gods is a Satanic lie! It is also Roman Catholic doctrine—plain and simple!
To illustrate, here is a quote from a book titled, My Catholic Faith: “Why do we make the sign of the cross? We make the sign of the cross to express two important mysteries of the Christian religion. The blessed trinity and redemption. When we say ‘in the name,’ we express the truth that there is only one God. When we say ‘of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit,’ we express the truth that there are three distinct persons in God.” Isn’t this teaching the same as what the wcg now believes? Mr. Tkach may say no, because he feels the word “person” isn’t an appropriate word to describe the Holy Spirit. But would Mr. Tkach accept three beings in one God? The only proof that the author of this book gives for the Catholic belief in a trinity is that it is a mystery! Isn’t Mr. Tkach asking the wcg to do the same?
If you take a good, hard look at the Worldwide News article, you will see that Mr. Tkach never mentions the word “family” one time! He is teaching a closed Godhead. If you believe what he is teaching, you can no longer believe in the Family of God. In reality, Mr. Tkach is teaching the number one doctrine of Satan the devil! Even if Mr. Tkach states he does not believe in the trinity, he is not being honest with himself or you! He is trying to tell you that only he and his ministers can understand certain truths. He is trying to say that there are certain truths the layman simply cannot get! This is also Roman Catholic philosophy and a diabolical deceit of Satan the devil!
God Is…
In September of 1992, the wcg introduced the booklet God Is… to its members. That booklet confirms what has been said in this article, only more so. Mr. Tkach introduced this new booklet in the August 25, 1992, Worldwide News. In his article, Mr. Tkach said, “The doctrine of the trinity did not originate in paganism, as we have traditionally thought.” Now that’s a strange statement. Because it had to originate somewhere. The trinity is a religious subject. It either originated in paganism, or it originated in God’s true church. Mr. Tkach is actually saying the trinity originated from God!
In the booklet, which, by the way, has no author listed in the front, the wcg says, “God is one being, one entity.” A little later on the author writes, “Yes, the Holy Spirit is also God, as we shall see in the next chapter.” So according to the wcg, God is one, and the Holy Spirit is God. Three in one—right? Well, to quote the booklet again, “The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are God.” Later it says, “The Bible does reveal three entities within the one Godhead—the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.”
The booklet brings up the point about the whole thing being a mystery. Notice: “All Christians realize that any humanly worded formula cannot really describe God with complete clarity. Thus the trinity doctrine has been accepted as a mystery—part of the ‘mystery of godliness.’”
Then the booklet goes on to make some completely unbiblical statements concerning the Family of God. It says, “The Bible tells us that, upon conversion, the Christian is ‘born again’ into the Kingdom of God as one of the ‘children of God’ (John 3:3; 1 John 3:2).” No, the Bible emphatically does notsay that. But that’s a completely different subject. Continuing with the quote: “It is not biblically accurate, however, to say that God is a family.” wcg leaders reason that God has a family but that God isn’t a family! Do you follow that? Only a scholar could come up with something like that. What is their proof that God isn’t a family you might ask? They explain the word Elohim in Genesis 1 by saying, “most scholarship contradicts this interpretation [that it’s plural] of the word Elohim.”
So the wcg says that the Holy Spirit is God. And they say that God is one, so there are three in the one. This totally destroys the Family of God concept which they also readily admit. But now notice what they write toward the end of the booklet: “The Worldwide Church of God does not teach that the Holy Spirit is a person, because we believe Scripture is not explicit on this point, and human language cannot be. We believe the Bible portrays the Holy Spirit as the presence of God in action, distinct from the Father and the Son, yet one with them.”
After almost 50 pages proving that they believe in the pagan trinity doctrine, they then try to say at the end that they don’t believe in the trinity doctrine. Don’t fall for that. They said the same thing when they changed the “born again” doctrine. They have made a massive change contrary to what Mr. Armstrong taught from the Bible!
Our Great Future
Let’s look at a few quotes from Mr. Armstrong’s book, Mystery of the Ages: “Therefore God’s Word reveals that God and the Word—two supreme Personages—coexisted always.” The wcg says there is just one God.
Mr. Armstrong writes: “The false trinity teaching does limit God to three Persons. But God is not limited. As God repeatedly reveals, his purpose is to reproduce himself into what well may become billions of God persons. It is the false trinity teaching that limits God, denies God’s purpose and has palpably deceived the whole Christian world.” The wcg now says God is not a family.
Mr. Armstrong wrote, “The trinity doctrine limits God to a supposed three Persons. It destroys the very gospel of Jesus Christ!” That Gospel, according to Mr. Armstrong, is the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. Anyone who has read any recent wcg literature knows that they no longer preach the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. They talk about a gospel of salvation, or a gospel of grace, or a gospel of love, or any other Protestant-sounding gospel you can think of.
It’s really rather amazing when you think about it. Mr. Armstrong was writing about the trinity in Mystery of the Ages, and he was speaking about other worldly religions that believe in it. He said the trinity limits God. The wcg limits God. He said the trinity destroys the Gospel. Today, the wcg has changed, or destroyed, the true Gospel. And he said the trinity doctrine destroys the Family of God which the wcg has now said does not exist. It’s as if Mr. Armstrong was writing about God’s Church after his death!
We must learn to stay pure in our doctrine or we will not make it into the Kingdom of God. We cannot cozy up to Satan the devil’s thinking and still be right with God. Our knowledge makes us what we are. We must reason right! If we begin to reason like Satan—we will appear to be religious. We’ll talk love and brotherhood—but we will be far from the knowledge of God! We must hold fast to God’s knowledge to acquire God’s nature!
“Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust” (2 Pet. 1:2-4). These verses are so clear. If you receive the right knowledge of God then, and only then, can you receive the divine nature. This is why the new teaching of the wcg is so dastardly. If Church members accept it, then they are cutting themselves off from God’s nature—and will not qualify for the Kingdom of God!
We must work harder now than ever before to get the truth about the Family of God into our minds. Our ability to overcome depends on how deeply we believe this truth. We must never forget that Satan wants to destroy us. The wcg has forgotten this fact. Satan has gotten a strangle hold on that Church! We have been given such great promises for our future. But, Satan will deceive us, if we open our minds to his doctrine. Why? Let us say again, Satan hates our future, because he cannot share in it! “For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son” (Hebrews 1:5). Neither Satan, nor any of the other angels have been promised sonship! But you and I have! We should never forget that the world can’t yet understand or accept our doctrine!
Here is one last quote from the December 31, 1991, Pastor General’s Report (pgr) on this subject (emphasis added):
The Worldwide Church of God teaches the full divinity of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit … .
Speaking from the perspective of God’s Word, there is no reason for the Church today to hold the doctrine of God’s nature, in isolation, as a criterion of orthodoxy or heresy. What the Church needs is to see its own role in a broader light, to confront modern issues, and to overcome obstacles that affect its worldwide mission. In order to facilitate this goal, the Worldwide Church of God has made clear distinction between issues that are strictly biblical, and issues that are essentially theological and philosophical. The former are easily accessible through the Bible in any translation, while the latter require special training or expertise … .
The Church highly respects the need for deeper theological work. It believes that a full and accurate statement on the nature of God would be a major achievement in the history of dogmatics, but, in the meantime, it defers to experts whose task is to dissect, analyze, and define what normally lies beyond the resources of the vast majority of believers … .
It [the Church] sees the Eastern, Western, Protestant and modernist views of the nature of God as genuine attempts to reach a deeper understanding of God’s nature … . Furthermore, all truth is precious, and only through a continuing, sincere, and healthy dialogue can some truths be firmly established.
This was written by K. J. Stavrinides. What is this man saying? First, he is saying that the wcg should enter into discussions with the other churches of this world. This is contrary to the Bible. Secondly, he is saying that the members of the Church should not be concerned about this—because only the experts know what is going on anyway! This is a very degrading statement to make about God’s people! And finally, he is saying that the churches of this world have truth about the nature of God! He is saying that if God’s Church really wants the truth on a matter, it must get together with worldly religious scholars. This statement alone should prove to members who really know their Bibles, that Satan the devil has greatly deceived that Church! What happened to god’s revelation concerning truth?! Mr. Armstrong relied on revelation—these men are relying on scholarship! Who do you want to follow?
What do we in the Philadelphia Church of God say about the above quote from the pgr? Here is a man that had God’s truth, but couldn’t handle it! The Philadelphia Church of God ministry takes much criticism for preying on God’s people. Who is actually preying on God’s people? The above quote identifies the real wolves in God’s Church! In reality, the ministers of the pcg are standing up for God’s people by our willingness to challenge such nonsense!
What separates God’s Church from the churches of this world? It is our teaching on the nature of God. But now the Worldwide Church has become just like all the other worldly churches. It has accepted a new foundation which is not really new. Now, only the Philadelphia Church of God teaches the true doctrine on the nature of God. God is a Family. We know that God’s Church on Earth is the Family of God in embryo (Ephesians 3:14-15). This is a great truth! Knowing this truth carries with it the weighty responsibility of teaching this truth! God is not a trinity—but a family into which all human beings can be born!