United Church of God

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The United Church of God is a non-Trinitarian Christian free church that split off from the Worldwide Church of God in 1995 and largely follows the teaching of Herbert W. Armstrong .

Other names

The official English name is The United Church of God, an International Association . The German name is abbreviated with VKG, the English with UCGIA. The United Church of God, an International Association is not to be confused with the International Church of God , the Intercontinental Church of God or the Global Church of God , all of which are also splits from the Worldwide Church of God.

distribution

The United Church of God states on its website that it is active in 40 countries. Membership numbers are not mentioned.

Adherents.com lists 240 churches with 20,000 members worldwide for 1998. The Worldwide Church of God states that in 1995 hundreds of ministers and 12,000 members formed the United Church of God.

organization

The organization's headquarters are in Cincinnati , Ohio , in the United States.

The United Church of God is governed by a twelve-member council of elders to which the president reports. The President's role is primarily the management of the United Church of God, and he also serves as the official representative of the Church. The President leads a team of three department heads responsible for finance, pastoral service, and media and communications.

The council of elders meets four times a year and is responsible for the overall policies and teachings of the Church. It is elected by the general conference of elders, which meets annually and approves budget and strategic objectives.

Teaching

The United Church of God follows the teaching of Herbert A. Armstrong, which differs in essential points from the Christian consensus. Important teaching statements are:

  • God is not seen as trinitarian; in particular, according to the teaching of the United Church of God , the Holy Spirit is the power of God and not an independent person of the Godhead.
  • Christians are part of the family of God and at their resurrection will become "spirit-born beings who are part of Elohim , the ruling family of God".
  • The moral laws and the festivals, as they are handed down in the books of Moses , are also binding for today's Christians.
  • The United States, Great Britain, and a few other nations are largely made up of the physical descendants of the 10 lost tribes of ancient Israel.
  • The origin of many traditional Christian festivals and rites (e.g. Christmas , Easter ) is pagan and these festivals are therefore reprehensible in God's eyes.

practice

The United Church of God observes the Sabbath as a weekly day of rest.

Members pay tithing of their earnings.

The United Church of God celebrates Pentecost and the biblical feasts of Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Day of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement and the Feast of Tabernacles, which are listed in the Old Testament.

history

The United Church of God comes from the Worldwide Church of God (WKG), founded by Herbert W. Armstrong . Herbert Armstrong died in 1986 and Joseph W. Tkach succeeded him as Pastor General. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Joseph Tkach initiated a series of doctrinal changes in the basic doctrines of the Church, such as keeping the Sabbath and Holy Days, and the meaning of the commandments on clean and unclean food. The new doctrines were proclaimed New Covenant theology and caused thousands of members and hundreds of ministers to leave the Church.

The United Church of God was founded in the spring of 1995 at a conference in Indianapolis ( Indiana founded). The founders were former pastors of the WKG. The first president of the newly formed United Church of God was David Hulme. Hulme left the VKG in 1998 after the council of elders had deposed him as president. He is currently the President of the Church of God, an International Community . Hulme was followed by Les McCullough in 1998, Roy Holladay in 2001, Clyde Kilough in 2005 and Dennis Luker in 2010.

Current President, Dennis Luker, was a former regional pastor for the Church in Washington state, served on the council of elders and has experience abroad as a former regional director of the Worldwide Church of God in Australia.

Institutions

The Ambassador Bible Center offers an eight-month course in understanding the Bible according to the teaching of the United Church of God.

media

The United Church of God publishes various media.

  • The bimonthly magazine The Good News (German Good news - answers for today and tomorrow ) is the most important publication of the United Church of God, which is published in five languages. In March 2005, Good News had a worldwide circulation of 412,000 copies and subscription is free. The magazine contains articles on biblical teaching, prophecy, current world events, social problems, science and the Christian way of life from the perspective of the United Church of God.
  • World News and Prophecy appears monthly and contains articles that deal with current world events and their relationship to biblical prophecy from the perspective of the United Church of God. It assumes the rise of the European Union , the decline of the supremacy of the United States and Great Britain, and the decline of morality in Western culture.
  • The United News is primarily concerned with news and events within the United Church of God and reports on preaching work, church activities, Christian doctrine and lifestyle, news from the administration, and birth and death notices within the church.
  • Internally , along with Gute Nachrichten, is the only regular German-language publication.
  • Vertical Thought is a quarterly publication for teenagers.
  • Virtual Christian Magazine is an online magazine
  • Beyond Today produces a weekly television program and airs on over one hundred free channels in the United States.

Web links

Single receipts

  1. ^ About the United Church of God
  2. ↑ adherents.com United Church of God
  3. ^ A Brief History of the Worldwide Church of God, Chapter Two: A Decade of Painful Change
  4. ↑ [1]
  5. ↑ [2]
  6. ↑ United Church of God: Feast Days
  7. ^ "The Uniteds," Ambassador Report , Issue 59, June, 1995
  8. ^ "United Dethrones Hulme," Ambassador Report , Issue 68, April, 1998