The Itty Bitty Independents

Individually led by God to a zillion different beliefs???

The March 25, 1996 issue of the In Transition newspaper printed an Offshoot Directory that already listed over 70 Worldwide Church of God (WCG) splinter groups. The April 30, 2001 issue of The Journal newspaper printed a Church of God (COG) Directory that listed the addresses of over 300 "churches, fellowships, ministries, study groups, Web sites, and service-providing entities that trace at least some of their history back to the Worldwide Church of God." The article accompanying this list said that, "These entities, however, represent only a small fraction of the actual number of Church of God groups and individuals in many countries." This might discourage some people by giving them the impression that there are so many groups that one just cannot possibly figure out who to listen to or where to go. Actually, there are still only a few (i.e. three) "large" splinter groups, but many very little ones. As for where to go, people should go to their own Bibles, blow the dust off them, and read and obey them.

At its peak in the later 1980's, the Worldwide Church of God (WCG) had about 150,000 people attending its meetings around the world. WCG attendance in the United States has now fallen by more than 80% from about 100,000 people to well under 20,000 people. Of the "big three" splinter groups, the United Church of God (UCG) has about 18,000 people, the Living Church of God (LCG) has about 6,000 people, and the Philadelphia Church of God (PCG) has about 5,000 people. Every other splinter group is much smaller. Most are truly puny, and never seem to grow no matter how long they have been around.

Notes:

1. Calendar confusion among the Independents

   In the February 26, 1997 issue of The Journal, the successor to the In Transition newspaper, Norman S. Edwards, the editor of the Servants' News newsletter, was mentioned in an article on calendar postponements. The article had this interesting comment: "Mr. Edwards said he wants to do what his Creator wants him to do. But 'the only problem is I've got 150 papers [about the calendar] back home telling me what the Eternal wants me to do, and they're all different.'" Most non-Jewish people had probably never even heard about such things as the Sacred Calendar and its Annual Holy Days until Herbert W. Armstrong (HWA) told them about such things. Now, the starting point for many of these same people is to reject the details HWA taught them about such things and to put forth their own half-baked ideas.

   This same problem seems to come up with every doctrine. Supposedly, those with different views are honest, sincere, spirit-led students of the Bible. However, their ongoing confusion, which is almost certain to go on a whole lot longer, suggests that something is wrong. While their various different, contradictory beliefs might all be wrong, they cannot all be right. They all want to think, or at least have others think, that they are so spiritual that God is taking time to personally lead each of them individually into His truth. Strangely, they seem to be led into all sorts of different, contradictory ideas. They give the impression that there is no such thing as clearly knowable Biblical truth on any matter. Furthermore, some then seem to think that it doesn't matter what you believe as long as you disagree without being disagreeable.

   At the risk of offending some people, something needs to be pointed out here. When hundreds of former members of the same church start to come up with hundreds of different, contradictory ideas, it might not be the Holy Spirit that is leading them. It might be hundreds of evil spirits each stringing along a goof-off. It is understood that this statement might prove that, "You can't please everyone, but it is possible to make them all mad at the same time."

2. The ungovernable want to govern

   The Independents tend to "despise government." They don't just dislike the abusive rule of self-appointed false prophets like Gerald Flurry, but all church government. Each Independent wants to come up with his own ideas, and be in charge, and skip out on regular church attendance, and perhaps avoid tithing. Then, they get lonely and want other people to fellowship with them. But, since the Independents don't believe in following other people, they shouldn't expect anyone to follow them either.

   In actual practice, the "Independents" often do continue to listen to, and follow, other people. They reject large, organized churches with set beliefs, fearing that such churches might teach them some error. But, they don't seem to hesitate to listen to the cassette tapes of all sorts of unknown individuals who like to talk and teach. The Independents can end up being taught more weird theories by more self-appointed teachers than they ever expected.

3. Increasing division and confusion

   The Independents often like to boast that the number of Independent groups is "exploding." They have lost count of how many new groups have been started. However, what they call growth, others might call division. The Independent groups tend not to grow in size. They just split up and grow in number. The average size of the groups decreases, while the number of groups increases. The Worldwide Church of God (WCG) was one large group with many members. It exploded, producing the splinter groups.

   Occasionally, some Independent will announce that they have come across some other Independent type who had no previous background in the WCG. They are trying to find examples of people who knew something without having been taught it by the WCG. Of course, the beliefs of these individuals that they find tend to differ from what the WCG had taught.

4. No magazine for the small-minded

   The Independents tend to criticize the idea of colorful, mass-circulation magazines. Since the only thing the Independents seem to be able to agree on is that they don’t like organizations, they end up being disorganized and can’t have a magazine of their own. While they might talk endlessly about how they have a "unity in the spirit," the idea of a magazine bringing real unity by teaching everyone the same truth just doesn’t seem to interest them. Their different beliefs lead to many much smaller efforts teaching many different "truths." Also, they often seem to think that magazines are expensive and wasteful, and that they have better ideas about how to do things. Actually, at the end of his life in the middle of the 1980's, Herbert W. Armstrong (HWA) was overseeing a Plain Truth (PT) magazine print run in the Worldwide Church of God (WCG) of over 7 million copies per issue, which were produced quickly and efficiently at a cost of about eleven cents a magazine! The only problem with a large-circulation magazine is that it can spread error faster and farther if some wrong idea gets published in it (such as another wrong guess about how soon the end of the world (age) might come, for example).

5. More than two witnesses???

   The United Church of God (UCG) has a nice way of questioning the claims of some of the more sensational types. One UCG minister said, "So far, we have identified about one hundred and ten individuals who each think that they are one of the two witnesses." The latest report says that this number is still increasing. Probably, none of these individuals would like to be told that they are mistaken. Still, Jesus did say that, "many false prophets will appear and deceive many people" (Matthew 24:11, NIV). No wonder that another UCG minister said, "We are not going to waste any more time on these people. We are going to get busy doing what we are supposed to be doing." The Bible says that when the two witnesses really do appear, "These men have power to shut up the sky so that it will not rain during the time they are prophesying; and they have power to turn the waters into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague as often as they want" (Revelation 11:6, NIV). None of the recent false witnesses have this power to back up their claims. They can't control the weather or anything else. In fact, it looks like they can't even control their own lying mouths.

6. Safer and cheaper to stay home

   After the breakup and decline of the Worldwide Church of God (WCG), many crazy people have arisen to teach many crazy new, and old, ideas. This Web site attempts to warn about them. However, nothing on this Web site is meant to discourage or criticize innocent people who sincerely believe in God but have been cast out of the various groups by sinful leaders who support wicked members. Sadly, many people have come to the conclusion that the safest approach is to stay home. Sadder still is the fact that they might be right. More than one formerly naive person can no longer stand the level of corruption in the WCG and its splinter groups.