Anabaptists and the Worldwide Church of God
A little while ago, I was refused admission to an internet group on grounds of us promoting polygamy as a biblical concept. The group is a group of Christian Home Keepers, and for doctrinal support, they rely on the help of an Anabaptist author (some of his writings are published at www.anabaptists.org and he also posts on conservative Anabaptist internet groups, so I have to assume that he might very well be an Anabaptist himself), who has no children of his own but introduced himself to us in an email as the "Papa" of the (female) group founder.
The email I received from this group founder, as an answer to my application, asked me to look further into Scripture and think again about the concept of polygamy, and as a "help", the main part of the email contained an article titled "Here's the Plain Truth About OLD TESTAMENT POLYGAMY". There was no indication whatsoever that the author of the email was not identical with the author of this article, though the title itself already gives an indication as to the source - ever heard of "The Plain Truth Magazine"?
A web search confirmed our first association, and revealed the author of this article: It was written in 1963 by Herbert W. Armstrong, commonly known as the founder of the Worldwide Church of God. I should be safe in the assumption that this organization is probably classified as a cult by most mainstream Anabaptists and other Christians alike, and even the WCG of today seems to have distanced itself from its founder by now.
Here is a snippet from the WCG website:
"In the 1930s, H. W. Armstrong began a ministry that eventually became the Worldwide Church of God. He had many unusual doctrines. He taught them so enthusiastically that eventually more than 100,000 people attended weekly services. However, after he died in 1986, church leaders began to realize that many of his doctrines were not biblical. Here is the story of how the church developed and changed."
Isn't it fascinating, though, that people don't pay attention to where they get their information from ? This nice young lady obviously ignored the fact that her source of information was rather dubious, just to present me with, I have to say poorly written and completely unconvincing, "evidence" that polygamy was not a biblical concept of marriage.
I know this lady read my yahoo profile, and I also know she visited our website and this blog at some point. Maybe she will do so again, and will pay more attention to where she gets her information from next time... and in all honesty, what good is a doctrinal helper in an internet group if the founder relies on sources such as the aforementioned for argumentative help ?
Technorati Tags: Anabaptists, WCG, Herbert W. Armstrong, polygamy, internet groups, Joshuah's House
The email I received from this group founder, as an answer to my application, asked me to look further into Scripture and think again about the concept of polygamy, and as a "help", the main part of the email contained an article titled "Here's the Plain Truth About OLD TESTAMENT POLYGAMY". There was no indication whatsoever that the author of the email was not identical with the author of this article, though the title itself already gives an indication as to the source - ever heard of "The Plain Truth Magazine"?
A web search confirmed our first association, and revealed the author of this article: It was written in 1963 by Herbert W. Armstrong, commonly known as the founder of the Worldwide Church of God. I should be safe in the assumption that this organization is probably classified as a cult by most mainstream Anabaptists and other Christians alike, and even the WCG of today seems to have distanced itself from its founder by now.
Here is a snippet from the WCG website:
"In the 1930s, H. W. Armstrong began a ministry that eventually became the Worldwide Church of God. He had many unusual doctrines. He taught them so enthusiastically that eventually more than 100,000 people attended weekly services. However, after he died in 1986, church leaders began to realize that many of his doctrines were not biblical. Here is the story of how the church developed and changed."
Isn't it fascinating, though, that people don't pay attention to where they get their information from ? This nice young lady obviously ignored the fact that her source of information was rather dubious, just to present me with, I have to say poorly written and completely unconvincing, "evidence" that polygamy was not a biblical concept of marriage.
I know this lady read my yahoo profile, and I also know she visited our website and this blog at some point. Maybe she will do so again, and will pay more attention to where she gets her information from next time... and in all honesty, what good is a doctrinal helper in an internet group if the founder relies on sources such as the aforementioned for argumentative help ?
Technorati Tags: Anabaptists, WCG, Herbert W. Armstrong, polygamy, internet groups, Joshuah's House
