Worldwide Church of God
Family Tree
The Beginning of the End
In February 1979 Herbert Armstrong’s Worldwide Church of God published the 45th anniversary
issue of Armstrong’s The Plain Truth magazine. It featured a full-
Then again, it had a resurgence by the mid-
Still, to an outside observer at the time in 1979, it would have looked like the WCG was flourishing. True, it had closed two of its three colleges, the one in Texas and the one in Great Britain, with only Pasadena, California left. But the church congregations were still growing, with total attendance at the annual conventions held throughout the US and the world for the biblical Feast of Tabernacles likely over 100,000 people, up from the 1,507 reported in 1955. (It peaked out at about 150,000 around the time of Herbert Armstrong’s death in 1986.)
But by 2009, 30 years after the 45th anniversary issue of the PT, the Worldwide Church of God no longer existed. At all. The World Tomorrow went off the air in 1994. Ambassador College closed its doors in 1997. And The Plain Truth was no longer published by the WCG after 1996. (There is a Plain Truth magazine now published by a group called Plain Truth Ministries, but it bears absolutely no connection to the teachings of Herbert Armstrong.)
The outside observer in 1979 would have been misled. What was going on behind the scenes in the Worldwide Church of God at the time made it clear that the organization was like the Titanic, impressive to look at and superficially virtually “unsinkable,” but headed for an ultimate collision with with the iceberg of reality. It survived for less than 25 years after the death of its founder. The rest of this WCG Family Tree section of the Field Guide chronicles that collision and its aftermath. For an overview of the “Prehistory of the WCG” leading up to the founding of The Plain Truth and The World Tomorrow, see the WCG Family Tree Intro.
Between the first notable “split” in the WCG in 1974 and the advent of the beginning influences of the Internet in 1995, one researcher catalogued over 300 such splinter groups–and splinter groups off splinter groups–small and large. Between 1995 and the present there have been many, many more.
Some are merely small home fellowship groups that have left in a huff from some small congregations over matters of “who is in charge?” Others have been small groups which have discovered what they believed to be some “astounding new truth” about doctrine or prophecy, and whose efforts to persuade others in their own congregation to believe this new truth have failed. Many such folks have reorganized themselves into new small ministries or denominations with the goal of promoting their favorite new pet doctrine.
Some branches haven’t really been church groups or denominations, but rather “one-
Still others have been fairly significant divisions in existing denominations, which ended up with the formation of rival denominations.
There have been hundreds of twigs that have ultimately formed off the trunk and branches
of the WCG, but it would be impossible to cover them all in one website. It would
take an encyclopedia-
The purpose of this Family Tree section of the WCG profile on the Field Guide
is merely to highlight a limited collection
of the most noticeable or influential of these groups.
Below is a list of this collection of groups, along with the date they were formed, the name of any one individual who had particular influence in the formation, and the acronym by which they are identified. You may click on any of these groups to go directly to a brief description of the group and a bit of commentary on how and when they split from earlier groups in the COG world.
If an entry is indented, it indicates it was a “split” off the group from which it is indented. The information provided in the commentaries linked here is intended as only a very brief overview. For more details about any of these groups, see the resource links provided throughout the various webpages of this WCG Family Tree section of the Field Guide
Associated Churches of God: ACOG 1974 Ken Westby
Church of God, The Eternal: COGTE 1975 Raymond Cole
Church of God, International: CGI 1978 Garner Ted Armstrong
Church of God Outreach Ministries: COGOM 1996
Intercontinental Church of God: ICG 1998 Garner Ted Armstrong
Church of God, Worldwide Ministries: COGWM 2004
Church of God, Ministries International: COGMI 2005
Biblical Church of God: BCOG 1979 Fred Coulter
Christian Biblical Church of God: CBCOG 1982 Fred Coulter
Church of God Evangelistic Association: CGEA 1980 David J Smith
Triumph Prophetic Ministries: TPM 1987 William Dankenbring
(Later renamed Triumph Prophetic Ministries Church of God: TPMCOG)
Philadelphia Church of God: PCG 1989 Gerald Flurry
Global Church of God: GCG 1993 Roderick C Meredith
Living Church of God: LCG 1998 Roderick C Meredith
Restored Church of God: RCG 1999 David C Pack
ABCDEFG COGs
United Church of God: 1995 Council of Elders
Church of God, an International Community: COGAIC 1998 David Hulme
Church of God–Preparing for the Kingdom of God: COGPKG 2000 Ron Weinland
Church of God, a Worldwide Association: COGAWA 2011 Council of Elders
Rocky Seas:
Groups formed before the death of Herbert Armstrong in 1986
Prior to 1972, there were occasional rumblings of discontent about policies and procedures and doctrines within Herbert Armstrong’s organization. But for many years Armstrong insisted that anyone leaving the organization would be “left behind” when the group was taken to a Place of Safety by divine intervention just prior to the Great Tribulation–which he insisted was prophesied to commence in 1972. The fear of this tended to keep the average member, and even most ministers, “in line.”
But when 1972 came and went with no miraculous events, the rumblings under the surface increased and eventually broke through visibly. There were two doctrinal areas which were particularly contentious:
Healing
Herbert Armstrong had insisted for many years that much of modern medicine was contrary to trusting in God for physical healing. Thus it was acceptable to go to a doctor to have a broken bone set, but not to have any kind of “operation,” including something as simple as removing an infected appendix. Those who were sick or injured were to call for a minister to come and anoint them with oil and pray for their healing.
Herbert Armstrong’s own wife Loma had died in 1967 from what was believed to have been perhaps a simple bowel blockage, that could have been treated with a very minor operation. Instead, she died a slow, horrible, and painful death–without even an aspirin to ease the pain, since Armstrong’s writings also leaned against the use of any pharmaceuticals.
Blood transfusions, such as might be needed for injuries suffered in violent traffic collisions, were particularly frowned upon. His eldest son, Richard David Armstrong, had died in 1958 after such a collision. Although one of the hospitals treating him had managed to do a blood transfusion when he was either unconscious or too weak to protest, some reports indicated he ultimately died of the after effects of shock. One of the first responders to the accident had wanted to give him a shot to head off the body’s shock reaction, which might have ultimately saved him, but Herbert Armstrong reportedly insisted that this not be done.
Thus over the years numerous adults and children in the church had suffered, and
some, including some of Herbert Armstrong’s closest family members, had died or
been permanently injured, from refusal to accept medical intervention for serious
health problems or injuries. Ironically, by the time of his own declining health
and death in the mid-
But this was not so in the early1970s. By1972 many ministers were beginning to seriously question the WCG’s official doctrine regarding healing, and some had chosen to refuse to continue to counsel families against medical treatments.
Divorce and Remarriage
Many church denominations, especially in decades past, have frowned upon divorce between Christians. So Armstrong’s strong condemnation against divorce in the Radio/Worldwide Church of God was not unusual. What was unusual was his position toward people who had already been divorced and remarried in the past before coming into contact with his teachings.
If a remarried person, with a previous spouse still alive, requested baptism from a minister in the organization, they were required to first separate from their second spouse. They were believed to be still “bound” to their first spouse until death. A second marriage was no different from adultery. This was true even if the first spouse was remarried, and there was absolutely no prospect of reconciliation of that first marriage.
What if a fifty-
By 1972 this doctrine had caused so much heartache for so many church families that many ministers had also come to seriously question it also, and some had chosen to refuse to counsel prospective members to undergo such separations.
Associated Churches of God: ACOG 1974
By 1974, so many ministers had come independently to these decisions about healing
and divorce and remarriage that a chorus of insistence was raised that Armstrong
reconsider his teachings. He did reconsider them … and decided that they were fine
just the way they were. By 1974 quite a few more doctrinal issues were also beginning
to loom larger and larger. And then there was the matter of the revelation in that
year of the surprisingly wide extent of sexual scandal involving Herbert Armstrong’s
son Garner Ted Armstrong–and Herbert Armstrong’s cover-
In earlier years, Armstrong’s declaration that nothing was wrong with his doctrines–nor with his son–would have been enough to silence discontent. But by 1974 there were cracks in the total dictatorship of Herbert Armstrong. A significant number of ministers thus banded together and decided to formally rebel.
They were led by Ken Westby, who was at the time one of the eight men appointed as directors of the WCG ministry over sections of the US. He was in charge of most of the East Coast .
Those who were pastors in particular were able to convince a percentage of those in their congregations to join the rebellion and form new congregations. And thus was formed the first significant “branch” off the parent organization, which the reformers dubbed the “Associated Churches of God.” (ACOG) Some reports put the numbers involved at the time of formation as about 70 ministers and 11,000 members. That would have been well over 10% of the membership. It would also mean perhaps a 10% reduction in the income of the WCG.
The ACOG started out primarily as a literal group of small associated church congregations and church pastors. Over the years that seemed to dwindle, as groups and individuals moved on to other affiliations. The only remaining remnant of the ACOG seems to be Ken Westby’s own Association for Christian Development (ACD) organization with headquarters in Washington state. The ACD website notes that it is sponsored by the Associated Churches, Inc. But there is no link to any ACI website, a Google search yields no such site, and the ACD site has no mention of any affiliated local congregations.
The ACD promotes a number of doctrines that were central to the WCG, including observance
of the weekly Sabbath and annual biblical Feasts. From its website content it seems
to promote the notion of “British Israelism” and the study of “Hebrew Roots.” It’s
main distinctive among the branches of the WCG Family Tree is a continuing strong
emphasis over the past couple of decades of a distinctly NON-
Ken Westby himself is decidedly non-
Documentation:
For extensive details on the turmoil that led to the formation of the ACOG, see the transcript of an audio tape by Ken Westby from 1974.
Church of God, the Eternal: COGTE 1975
In a strange turn of fate, the events surrounding the formation of the Associated Churches of God caused the formation a short time later of an organization that was the diametric opposite of the ACOG.
The ACOG formed in protest because the WCG did not change controversial doctrines. Herbert Armstrong was shocked by the size of the “rebellion” and worried by the number of defections of both members and ministers. Losing 11,000 members took a chunk out of the “tithe base” of the organization! Once he was aware that his usual bullying tactics were not going to quell discontent, much less bring back the defectors, he shifted his position, lest even more members were tempted to jump ship. And thus before very long versions of almost all of the changes demanded by those who left were actually instituted within the WCG.
Everyone was then surprised that the eventual changes themselves spurred another
set of defections, although a smaller one this time. It was led by a long-
When the changes came in 1974, Raymond Cole was shocked, because he had quite a different perspective from most ministers and members in the WCG. He had for many years believed that Armstrong was divinely chosen by God to restore truth to the Church that had been lost since the first century. He was convinced that everything taught by Armstrong from the earliest years of his ministry was not based solely Armstrong’s personal study. No, even though each aspect of his doctrinal teachings may have appeared on the surface to have been the result of academic studies, he had been led in his studies directly by the Holy Spirit. Each conclusion he came to had been divinely inspired and confirmed directly by God. And once written down, it was The Truth for all time.
Because of this non-
And thus when Armstrong did so regarding a number of doctrinal areas, Raymond Cole balked. He was particularly concerned about the matter of divorce and remarriage,. And for some reason, he was also strongly upset by a change in the timing of the WCG’s annual observance of the Day of Pentecost. It had always been on a Monday, but in 1974 Armstrong agreed that he had been mistaken in his understanding of the scriptures regarding this celebration, and that it should instead be on a Sunday.
Cole found that a number of people around the country and the world agreed with him that such changes shouldn’t be made. Some contacted him and encouraged him to take a stand about the matters. There was no way to turn the tide on the changes already underway, so he felt his only option was to create an “oasis” for those few who wanted to keep “That Old Time Religion.” Thus in 1975 was born the Church of God, the Eternal. (COGTE) .
There is no clear information available on the subsequent history of the COGTE, including how many members or ministers may have been involved in its beginning, and how many may still be involved. It is highly unlikely that more than a few thousand people have ever been part of its activities. There has never been an effective public outreach to “new people.” Thus almost any church growth would have been from defections from other COG groups.
Raymond Cole died in 2001 at about age 75. Up to that time he had personally led the activities of the COGTE and seemed to be its main spokesperson. The organization still has a website, and many of Cole’s writings are still on it. The contact information for the organization shows only a congregation in the US, one in Switzerland, two in the Philippines, and one in Kenya. A separate “pastor” is listed for these locations, and they appear to perhaps take turns writing for the newsletter that is available on the website. The writings and sermons of the US Pastor, John Brisby of Eugene, Oregon, seem to have a prominent role on the site.
A letter from the late Raymond Cole describing the details surrounding the formation of the COGE is available on their website.
Church of God, International: CGI 1978
Herbert Armstrong had an older son named Richard David who was evidently originally being groomed to follow in his father’s footsteps in his ministry. Richard was one of the four students who made up the first class of Ambassador College in 1947. He was ordained as an “evangelist” in 1952, and became active in the Radio Church of God organization right away. His younger brother Garner Ted had shown little interest in religion, and had joined the Navy right out of high school in 1948. He served four years on an aircraft carrier during the Korean War, so had just gotten out of the service at the time Richard was ordained.
But Garner Ted quickly caught up, changing his mind about his dad’s religion and enrolling in Ambassador College in 1952. He was married to a young woman named Shirley Hammer in the church in 1953, and ordained in 1955. With a speaking style even more authoritative and glib than his dad, he was almost immediately put to work sharing the microphone on the World Tomorrow radio program. By 1957 he was making most of the radio programs while his father focused on other aspects of the ministry. If there might have eventually been a rivalry between the brothers for inheriting Herbert Armstrong’s legacy, it never had time to develop, as Richard was killed in a car accident in 1958 while on an evangelistic tour.
For the next 14 years Garner Ted Armstrong became the most recognizable “face” of the organization to the general public. When the WT program added a TV version, he was the spokesman for that also. And eventually he did a number of major public appearances before audiences of thousands in a campaign called “America Listen–Before It’s Too Late!!”
He wrote many of the articles in the organization’s Plain Truth magazine, was the
most popular speaker at the WCG’s conventions for the Feast of Tabernacles, and was
so well-
Most church members assumed he was being groomed indeed to eventually be the CEO of the organization, when HWA … who was about 80 years old in 1972 … either retired or died.
And then the unthinkable happened. Herbert Armstrong announced in fall of 1971 that
some mysterious “problem” that GTA had made it necessary for him to take a leave
from all his broadcasting and ministerial responsibilities. Herbert tried to imply
that it was some sort of health issue related to nervous exhaustion. But rumors were
rampant that it was a moral failure of some sort. Although denied at the time by
Herbert and other church authorities, that was a cover-
For details about this period in the history of the WCG, see the Memoir elsewhere on this Field Guide site.
GTA eventually “repented” for his fling with the stewardess to the satisfaction of
the leadership of the organization and was restored to all his responsibilities.
But by 1974, rumors were going much deeper. Evidently the situation of 1972 was not
the only incident of moral failure in GTA’s life. In fact it didn’t begin to scratch
the surface. Before it was all over, he had confessed at a ministerial conference
to over two decades of sex-
Once again, for more details on this saga, see the Memoir.
Somehow, the depths of the problem was kept from the majority of the membership of
the organization at the time. Those in the ministry of the WCG who were most disturbed
by the revelations ended up as part of the Associated Churches of God split that
occurred in 1974. And once again, GTA repented to the satisfaction of Herbert Armstrong
and his close associates in the WCG, and was restored to their good graces. For the
next four years, no further specific scandals broke out, and by 1977 Herbert Armstrong
had announced that indeed he was naming GTA as his successor in the leadership of
the WCG. At the end of that year, by then in his mid-
Garner Ted Armstrong stepped in and actively took over top leadership in the church and began some significant changes in doctrine and policies that moved the organization in a direction away from some of the more harsh approaches of the past. But in early 1978 Herbert Armstrong unexpectedly recovered and stepped back into an active role as top executive of the WCG. A battle ensued behind the scenes between the two Armstrongs, with Herbert Armstrong being swayed by other personalities within the organization who were antagonistic to Garner Ted Armstrong. Part of the younger Armstrong’s side of the matter was that he believed some men close to his father were manipulating him and the organization for their own personal financial advantage, but his father would not give credence to his concerns. (More details in the Memoir.)
Most of this maneuvering for control was kept from the general church membership. So when Herbert Armstrong took the final step in the battle and disfellowshipped his son on June 26, 1978, most members were startled and shocked. No clear public explanation was made, so the rumor mills ran wild. The typical explanation passed among the membership was that Garner Ted had been put out of the church for sexual misconduct. This was, in fact, not true, as there had been no evidence of a relapse on Garner Ted’s part since 1974. The official letter of disfellowshipment that Armstrong sent to his son mentioned nothing of the kind–instead, it only accused him of having a rebellious attitude towards his father. But it was to the advantage of the top administration of the church for these rumors to be allowed to be circulated, so no public denial of the issue was ever released.
It was obvious to Garner Ted Armstrong that there was no compromise that could return him to his father’s favor, so by August, he had organized his own new denomination which he dubbed the Church of God, International. He also began a parachurch ministry called the Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association to sponsor a return to the airwaves with a new evangelistic program of his own.
Garner Ted’s ouster was followed by a period of turmoil within the WCG, in which many members became aware of some of the financial and other irregularities that had caused the younger Armstrong’s concerns. From that point on a steady stream of members and some ministers left the organization, either voluntarily or through disfellowshipment for disloyalty to the leadership of Herbert Armstrong when they expressed their concerns to others and were “found out” to be “rebellious.”
Garner Ted Armstrong had obviously expected a significant number of ministers and members to choose to leave the parent organization and affiliate with his new CGI. This never happened to the extent that he had expected. Less than 2000 members drifted to the CGI in the next year or two, and very few ministers, far fewer than had left with the Associated Churches of God split. Many ministers were more aware than the members of the depth of the sexual scandals that had swirled around Armstrong and had little respect for him. In addition, when he was in leadership in the WCG he had often been harsh to many of the men under him, so they had no desire to put themselves in such a position again. Only a few who had been in his favor in his younger days, or who had not had many dealings with him, chose to join his new group.
For the next 18 years the CGI experienced very minimal growth compared to the way the WCG had grown over the years. Within a decade fewer and fewer refugees were coming along from the WCG. Most growth was from people responding to Garner Ted Armstrong’s greatly diminished media efforts.
Church of God, International “splits”:
Church of God Outreach Ministries: COGOM 1996
In 1995, another sexual scandal eliminated any momentum that the Church of God, International had built up. Garner Ted Armstrong was accused of sexual assault, and this time there was a hidden video recording available to prove the accusations. Eventually he had to confess to the situation. But when he refused to step down from his leadership position in the organization, a group of ministers left in early 1996 and formed a loose confederation of independent congregations which they titled the Church of God Outreach Ministries. As of 2011 the confederation still exists, but doesn’t appear to have attracted many new members from the public.
Intercontinental Church of God: ICG 1998
The board of directors of the Church of God, International continued throughout 1996 and 1997 to try to convince Garner Ted Armstrong to at least take a leave of absence and go through a period of “restoration” before diving back in to ministry. At first they were convinced by his claims that the sexual assault case, which was settled out of court, was a “one time event.” But by late 1997 they learned that during the same time period, Armstrong was carrying on an adulterous affair with a married CGI member.
This was the final straw, and they demanded his resignation. When he refused to accept
the demand, and refused a “retirement package” offer in November, they voted in January
1998 to remove him. He immediately gathered a few ministers and some members who
were still blindly loyal to him personally n spite of his incredible track record
of deception and immorality, and formed the Intercontinental Church of God. He had
retained the independently-
By this time, though, he was an aging old man, who looked more like his own father did in his old age, than the dashing, dynamic young man he’d been in the 1970s. His TV shows and his personal appearance gatherings were a mere shadow of what they’d been 25 years earlier.
Then again, without at least the minor media pull of Garner Ted’s personality, and with many of its members having departed over the 1995 scandal, the Church of God, International has languished for years with little growth. A guesstimate of the number of members might be 2000 or so.
The Intercontinental COG also had so few members and ministers, and such a small media effort in spite of having Garner Ted’s personality to front the effort, that it also has languished for years with little growth. Garner Ted Armstrong died unexpectedly of complications of pneumonia in 2003 at the age of 73. Since his father had lived past 90, this was a shock to his remaining supporters.
Churches of God, Worldwide Ministries: COGWM 2004
After the passing of Garner Ted Armstrong, his eldest son, Mark Armstrong, took up
the leadership position in the organization. This upset a number of ministers and
members, since Mark Armstrong had never been an ordained minister, and they believed
this disqualified him from such a role. Many outsiders considered this odd, since
the same ministers and members had accepted his father as qualified in spite of a
life-
The Worldwide Church of God soon chose to threaten a lawsuit over the name, as it was deceptively similar to the WCG’s. They then changed it to Churches of God, Worldwide Ministries.
Church of God, Ministries International: COGMI 2005
In less than a year, some sort of internal dispute within the COGWM lead to a new split, with the new group calling itself the Church of God, Ministries International. As of 2011, the COGWM seems to have no web presence and may be defunct. The COGMI has a website which, when closely examined, seems to indicate an exceptionally small organization with a handful of ministers and a few widely scattered small fellowship groups.
Biblical Church of God: BCOG 1979
Jumping back again to the turmoil in the WCG in 1978:
Long-
And within three years, Fred was so unhappy with the system of organization as it developed, and so unable to work with the others with whom he had been cooperating to build the BCOG, that he left and started a rival organization called the Christian Biblical Church of God. (CBCOG) It didn’t take long for it to become clear that the main interest most supporters had had in the BCOG had been the idiosyncratic teachings of Fred Coulter. Once he left, the organization dwindled, and by 2011 seems to have disappeared totally.
Christian Biblical Church of God: CBCOG 1982
Fred Coulter started the Christian Biblical Church of God in 1982 after finding himself
unable to cooperate with those who had helped him start the original Biblical Church
of God. Although the rhetoric he seems to offer about organization is that the CBCOG
is a cooperative effort, all evidence seems to point to it primarily being a one-
Fred has many idiosyncratic topics of emphasis that are not typical in other COG
groups. In particular, he has been one of the main promoters of so-
Although Coulter has only limited academic credentials in Greek, and none in Hebrew,
he has produced his own translation of the Bible, The Holy Bible In Its Original
Order–A Faithful Version with Commentary, which he touts as being extremely accurate–and
having the books following “the original God-
The notion that there is some “original order” to the books of the Bible, directly inspired by God, is difficult to establish. The documents making up the Bible were all originally separate manuscripts and only gathered into “collections” long after their original writing. And dating of the original composition of some of the manuscripts is highly debatable. So Coulter’s claims about this matter are not universally accepted, to say the least.
Some view his translation as being in particular his own opportunity to settle doctrinal questions by translating debatable passages in a way that supports his own doctrinal idiosyncracies, in much the same way as the New World Translation offered by the Jehovah’s Witnesses is used to establish their own idiosyncratic approach to doctrine. And of course, bound into this Fred Coulter Bible is Fred’s own idiosyncratic “apologetics” for his own doctrinal distinctives, in the form of Appendices.
Little public information is available on the size and scope of the CBCOG’s efforts, including how many people are affiliated either indirectly or directly with the organization. The organization’s website does not list any affiliated congregations, and there is a “sister site” titled “Church at Home” which seems to be a resource in particular for people to just use Fred Coulter’s materials to have “church at home.”
Vague mention is made of the CBCOG “recognizing” elders who are chosen by scattered congregations. But the only mention on the Internet of any numbers this might represent is the attendance at the annual Feast of Tabernacles gatherings sponsored by the CBCOG. Top attendance at those in recent years seems to have been about 2,000. But there is evidence that many who attend there–to hear Fred Coulter speak, perhaps–are actually affiliated with other Church of God denominations.
Although Fred Coulter’s efforts seem to not be very effective in reaching and bringing
in new supporters and converts from “the public,” he does seem to still be viewed
by some leaders in the larger COG groups as being influential among former members
of the WCG. In 2008, Rod Meredith, the leader of the Living Church of God publicly
“marked” Fred Coulter as being spiritually dangerous, and warned his own supporters
to shun Coulter. The details are available in a newspaper article on the Journal–News
of the Churches of God website. The concern was obviously that Coulter was “sheep-
For one person’s personal view of what life is like in the CBCOG in recent years, see a May 2011 letter from a former member on the Exit and Support Network website. The concerns expressed in this person’s story seem to be typical among those who have ended support of the CBCOG. A typical description of the ministering style of Fred Coulter over the years has included terms like “quick temper” and “like a bull in a china shop.” These are not the descriptions of “detractors” of Fred’s ministry, but from his own supporters, who evidently choose to ignore these characteristics. And these terms were not speaking of his approach to “preaching about sin in the world” or anything of the kind, but to his method of relating to his own supporters with whom he was irritated regarding even minor issues. (Herbert Armstrong was often described in the same way even by those close to him who continued to support him year after year.)
Church of God Evangelistic Association: 1980
In an editorial on 6/22/01 in the Newswatch Magazine, Newswatch founder David J Smith wrote:
Starting in May 1980 and continuing through June 1980, I suddenly saw a Bible before my eyes. I would blink thinking it would go away. It didn't. I would lay down to sleep, but the Bible was still there. This went on for 60 days until I laid the manuscript down to start Newswatch Magazine. I organized the church under the name The Church of God Evangelistic Association on June 23, 1980. The Bible that I had been seeing in vision ceased the moment I laid the manuscript down on the printers desk. It never has reappeared. I KNEW this was from God.
…On May 1, 1993, a man called a worldwide shortwave talk show and stated he was given
a dream/vision that "My [God's] servant David J. would lead an ingathering of saints
from a western state." I knew nothing of this until June 12, 1993, when Harold Dickson
from Kentucky called an told me. Meanwhile, on May 10, 1993, Brenda and I brought
her mother to Texas to see her great-
In an earlier editorial, on July 31, 1998, Smith had written:
In the Bible it is recorded that demons said to some unconverted Jews who were trying to cast them out "Jesus we know, Paul we know, but who are you?" [paraphrased] In other words Satan knows God is working in the earth through certain human beings and will stop at nothing to thwart their plans and activities. God has called for "an ingathering of saints from a Western state" under my leadership. NO MAGGIE, THERE IS NO CHAPTER AND VERSE PROPHESYING THIS, ONLY GOD'S VISION AND DIRECT THOUGHTS PUT INTO MY MIND AND THOUSANDS OF OTHER PEOPLE WHO HEARD IT STATED ON WORLDWIDE SHORTWAVE RADIO TEN DAYS BEFORE GOD EVER STIRRED ME UP TO GO TO WHERE THE INGATHERING WOULD BE!! THEN HE SENT SIX DREAMS AND VISIONS TO OTHER CHURCH MEMBERS UNKNOWN TO EACH OTHER TO CONFIRM I THAT I WAS NOT MAKING UP SOMETHING OR HAD SOME BAD PIZZA!
Although many founders of organizations in the WCG Family Tree, including WCG founder himself, Herbert Armstrong, have claimed to have been “led by God” in establishing their ministries, most of them have meant God worked in a fairly “generalized” way, through circumstances in their lives. David J Smith is one of the few who have claimed to have heard directly from God about the matter, and to have that “hearing” confirmed through “dreams and visions.”
Smith had been a former member of the WCG (and, by some accounts, of the CGI) at the time he began the CGEA. He had not been ordained while in either of those organizations, but, according to some sources, he was ordained by Fred Coulter of the Biblical Church of God after both of them were no longer in the WCG.
David J Smith has been pushing the envelope ever since his alleged encounter with the vision of the Bible and the voice of God. In addition to Newswatch Magazine, Smith was at one time on a significant number of radio stations and shortwave stations, as well as some TV stations, with a companion broadcast. His bombastic voice, “making clear today’s news in the light of Bible prophecy,” sounded almost creepily like that of Herbert Armstrong on the World Tomorrow program in the 1950s. However, as of 2011, the CGEA website notes that there are no shortwave or TV programs available at this time, and the only radio program is on KAAY AM, Little Rock, Arkansas.
You can, however, listen to live audio and video online broadcasts on the Newswatch
website every Saturday afternoon. These broadcasts appear to be sermons given at
the CGEA HQ congregation meeting in Waxahachie, rather than commercially-
One of his earliest claims to fame was a series of tapes he made in the 1990s that declared bombastically that the WCG and every group descended from the WCG had been directly infiltrated by “The New World Order” and were under orders from the Illuminati/Jesuit/Masonic conspiracy leaders.
Another series of tapes around the same time laid out his allegations that the CGEA headquarters in Waxahachie, Texas, was designated by God as the “Place of Safety” for all true Christians for a Great Tribulation which was to start about the year 2000. A number of people were convinced by his predictions and sold homes and left jobs to move there.
Not surprisingly, in spite of the failure of that and many other things he has predicted, the CGEA still has supporters in the year 2011. However, there is almost no public information on the Internet that would hint at how large … or small … the CGEA now is.
In a touch of irony, the one thing that is available on the Internet about David J and his ministry is a collection of Youtube videos that purport to prove that the CGEA has itself been infiltrated by the New World Order!
Triumph Prophetic Ministries 1987 (now Triumph Prophetic Ministries Church of God)
William F Dankenbring, founder of Triumph Prophetic Ministries Church of God (TPMCOG), has long been addicted to gaudily splendiferous webpage announcements made up with an extreme variety of font sizes for what he evidently supposes to be effective “emphasis.” In early 2008 the following was on his website, explaining the founding of TMPCOG. You need to see the original to get the full effect –the largest font was 72 points high! But the replica below (this is only an excerpt) will give a vague feel for the effect–as well as make it clear “where Bill Dankenbring is coming from.”
Celebrate with us!
The 21st ANNIVERSARY
of God’s
ACTIVATION
of Triumph Prophetic Ministries as the replacement, “obedient” CHURCH OF GOD,
Replacing the WCG as God’s True Work
On January 17, 1987 – one year exactly from the date Herbert W. Armstrong died!
TRIUMPH PROPHETIC MINISTRIES CHURCH OF GOD
is the ‘only’ remnant body in the World,
of “Jesus Christ,” the Church He said He
would “BUILD” which preaches what He, the twelve apostles, and the apostle Paul,
all faithfully taught.
Christ Himself declared, “I will build My Church, and the Gates of Hell
[= other Churches that will lead you to Hell],
shall “not” prevail against it” (Matt.16:18).
Triumph Prophetic Ministries (Church of God) is the END-
… Exactly 1 YEAR, FROM THE “DAY” OF THE
DEATH OF MR. HERBERT W. ARMSTRONG
(after one year of mourning for the fallen leader),
THE NEW WATCHMAN, APOSTLE, SERVANT, LEADER
WAS SET APART
TO RE-
TRUTH, WITHOUT ANY ADDITIONS OR DELETIONS OF CHRIST’S OR PAUL’S 1ST CENTURY TEACHINGS AND PRACTICES.
One year to the very Day!
January, 17, 1987, after the death of Herbert Armstrong, God raised up William F.
Dankenbring to “Cry aloud, spare NOT, and show My people their SINS” (Isa.58:1-
**
So there you have it. Earlier in Dankenbring’s ministry his megalomania wasn’t quite
as obvious! But this announcement removes all doubt of where he believes he fits
in the scheme of things in the Plan of God on Earth.
Dankenbring graduated from the WCG’s Ambassador College and for some years was a writer for the organization’s publications. He was disfellowshipped from the organization some time in the 1980s, and as noted above, began Triumph Prophetic Ministries. He has not had a radio or TV ministry, but has spread his message primarily via a print magazine, the Prohecy Flash, through audio tapes sent out to supporters, and eventually through the Triumph website.
His following has not been exceptionally large, but those who have been supporters have often been extremely loyal to him personally. For example, this supporter whose thank you letter was printed in a 2000 Prophecy Flash edition:
"Thank you for the PF and the TAPES!! I am so greedy, it took me only 3 days to listen
to your 12 Tapes! As you may have noticed -
"Your impatient sister in Yeshua! God Bless you!
"P.S. . . . I stick closely to your narrow path!
-
A loyal supporter writing to the Prophecy Flash in the mid-
So for fellowship on Sabbath, he literally suggested such folks ought to "fellowship" with Dankenbring's tapes! This is surprisingly reminiscent of Herbert Armstrong. When asked a similar question in the 1960s, Armstrong forbade his followers from either gathering in informal fellowship and Bible Study without a minister, or attending any other kind of church. He rather recommended that those who could not fellowship with an official Radio Church of God congregation endorsed by Armstrong in their own area for Sabbath worship services should sit respectfully in front of their radio on the Sabbath and listen to the World Tomorrow Broadcast.
Dankenbring has specialized particularly in prophetic end times speculations and
in promoting his own idiosyncratic take on obscure Bible points. In February 1999
he speculated in Prophecy Flash that Bill Clinton was the Beast of Revelation. In
April 2001 he speculated that Ariel Sharon was the fulfillment of Biblical prophecies
of a latter-
It didn’t, of course. He is now speculating that the Tribulation has started in 2011:
It is very possible the final 3 1/2 year ministry of the two witnesses will begin around the Feast of Trumpets in the year 2014, about three years from now! Of course, we don’t know the exact date or hour. However, many indications give us reason to believe that the coming of the Messiah may be about 70 years from the founding of the state of Israel in 1948 – which would be spring of 2018, perhaps around Passover or Pentecost! Counting back 3 ½ years from then would bring us to fall of 2014.
The time of Great Tribulation has indeed opened its voracious, yawning, gaping, devouring Mouth, with gleaming, wicked teeth, to consume the raw material of this wicked, selfdestructive world. Its destruction rushes onward like a thundering freight train in the night.
It’s not quite clear why anyone pays attention to Bill’s speculations on this matter since he’s been equally bombastic about the same thing numerous times in the past twenty years and has failed miserably every time. But of course Herbert Armstrong was able to do the same thing–and keep a much larger collection of supporters–for over fifty years! Failed Prophecy Flash in the Pans have been a feature of the WCG movement since Herbert Armstrong first insisted, in one of the earliest Plain Truth Magazines in 1934 that the Tribulation had already begun and that the Day of the Lord would occur in 1936.
For more about Bill Dankenbring, see the entry for him in the Who’s Who Digest.
For major branches of the WCG that sprang up after the death of Herbert Armstrong, continue on to WCG Family Tree Branches 2.
Unless otherwise noted, all original material on this Field Guide website
is © 2001-
Careful effort has been made to give credit as clearly as possible to any specific material quoted or ideas extensively adapted from any one resource. Corrections and clarifications regarding citations for any source material are welcome, and will be promptly added to any sections which are found to be inadequately documented as to source.
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This is the second part of a series of articles on the history of the development and breakdown of the Worldwide Church of God. Be sure to read the Introduction to the series first.