( I wrote this piece in Mark Tabladillo's Jesus Loves Fellowship message board way back in 2000. There are some various issues I have modified my position or changed entirely but I have eversince remained extremely firm in my belief in respect to the triune nature of God is true and why it is essential to historic Christian faith. Enjoy!)VS.
I have gone into various times on this board why I believe that the triune nature of God is a sound doctrine. Unfortunately, for some in the splinters this creates a license to treat me as some kind of demon and a "divine right" to attack me personally or mock me in an extremely cruel way. Though I may share similiar beliefs and practices (e.g. I still celebrate the Sabbath and the Holy Days in a much more liberal and definately less legalisitc way and I still lean to soul sleep and annhilationalism but this time in the school of Edward Fudge [and] not Herbert [W.] Armstrong and his spirit [in] man theory). I am nonetheless a "pagan protestant" in their [the splinters] sight. Others remain civil in their approach but it remains a one way street in communication with them. When I fail to agree with their rebuttal and show them scripture back, I am shouted with, "How many times I am going to tell you this!" or "We have discussed this before!" I could remember visiting a United Church of God service about a couple of years ago and a friend of mine who spent a fanatical amount of energy arguing with me, trying to persudade me to disbelie[ve] what I prove true from scriptures. He zealously argued with me 'til the piano played. Next to the Jehovah's Witnesses, I find the Armstrongist Churches of God spend a considerable (if not incredible) amount of study in disproving the triune nature of God.
I don't know whether I am going to invest the same amount of time disprove their doctrine on the Godhead, the God Family doctrine, but this is what I am going to do on this post.
As a teenager growing up in the 1980's we were told that us young people in "the Church" just accepted things, rather than proving it out on their own. This doctrine I just "accepted" as a teenager. I knew that this doctrine was not acceptable to those "Protestants" out there. Even Jimmy Swaggart said that the God Family doctrine was the "most highest blasphemy against God!"
Many years I have took in and on out the library (and I have personally now on photostat), The Armstrong Empire written by [the late] Joseph Martin Hopkins and he too disproved the God Family doctrine. At age 21, I started to begin to take what he wrote seriously.
Here is an excerpt from the book on page 104, "Armstrong caricutures the Trinity as sitting loftilly in condescending disdain of lowly humanity. In doing so he brushes aside clear scriptural teaching about the nature of God and the nature of man, and the contrast between the two. Isaiah's vision of the Lord on the occassion his call illustrates this awesome contrast. seeing the Lord exalted on his throne, surrounding by Separphim, Isaiah was moved to exclaim, "Woe is me! for I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts!" (Isa.6:1-5). Thereafter, Isaiah commonly referred to God as "The Holy One of Israel". The purging of Isaiah's sin, symbolized by the touching of his lips with a live coal from the alter, by no means gave him the illusion that he had been elevated to the level of deity. the goodness attainable by regenerated human beings stand in stark contrast to the glory of the Holy One; and Isaiah was moved to observe that not our evil but "our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment" (64:6). "O Lord." he acknowledged, "thou art our Father; we are the clay, and thou art our potter; we are all the work of thy hand (64:8)."
Here is the nail in the coffin of my belief in the God Family doctrine in my study in 1991. Continuing on page 104, "The vision of the New Jerusalem in Revelation 21 goes completely against the doctrine that men can become God. The Apostle John describes,
A great voice from the throne saying, "Behond, the dwelling of God is with me. He will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God Himself will be with them; he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death sall be no more...for the former things have passed away"(vv.3-4)
Far from being identified with God as God, the redeemed are described as being in fellowship with God while at the same time remaining distinct and seperate beings. Verse seven promise that "He who conquers shall have this heritage, and I will be HIS GOD and he shall be MY SON"--a flat contradiction of the teaching that the destiny of the faithful is to be God."
Lo and behold, I was on the right track [in my studies]! The late Mr. Tkach Sr. rescinded the God Family teaching later that summer. A year and a half before his passing, Mr. Tkach Sr. gave his reasons for rejecting a doctrine and eventually accepting the triune nature of God as more biblical doctrine. Here's an excerpt of what he said in the July 12th, 1994 Worldwide News on page 3,
"Unless the official Church doctrine on the nature of God is biblically correct, the door is left open to all kinds of damaging heresies. the correct, biblical doctrine on the nature of of God helps prevent false ideas about Jesus and salvation from taking root.
For example, the error that humans will become "very God, supreme in power" or "God as God is God." which makes the creation equal to the Creator, springs from the nonbiblical idea that there is more than one God being. The belief was that since there is already more than one, then even more can be added.
From there, some went to the idea that ressurected and glorified humans would be worshiped by other humans (misreading Revelation 3:9 as though it contradicted the rest of the Bible). From there, some went on to another heretical, antibiblical idea that glorified humans could someday become "creators" and "saviors" of human races on other planets, just as God sent Jesus to save humanty on this planet!
Such a view demeans and devalue the truth of who who Jesus Christ is, and what his life death and ressurection mean for human redemption. It also minimizes what it really means to be a sinner and the depth of our need for salvation through the Son of God.
Further, it does away with the biblical truth that Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation. In short, it takes the focus off God, off Jesus, of the Holy Spirit and puts it on us.
This is only one example of an incorrect doctrine on the nature of God can begin to lead all kinds of nonbiblical ideas and concepts. This example is one that directly affected us. We thank god that he led us to change our official position before such thing had a chance to take deep root."
May I also supplement the late Mr. Tkach Sr.'s comments about members of the God Family being saviors that in Hebrews 6:6 discussing about the crucifixion being repeated. It brings our Savior Jesus to an open shame. I remember Ron Kelly's thunderous rebuke of the idea of members of the "God Family" being "saviors" on other planets [quoting from) Hebrews 9:26, "But now he has appeared ONCE FOR ALL at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the SACRIFICE OF HIMSELF." Even, Klingons and Vulcans are covered by the blood (if they so accept) and don't need a savior of their own (smile)!
As with Joe Tkach Jr., I have mentioned my theological differences [between us] but on this issue about the God Family, I agree with him on. He mentioned that pagan deities had "God Families" of 'families of God beings" whereas in Judaism and Christianity there was only ONE GOD BEING, no other gods could be added.
Another reason why I reject the God Family doctrine is that that [it] produced hierarchial government (and when I speak hierachial, I mean "papal" not "episcopalian" like the Anglicans and Episcopalians have). Many of the pagan cultures in had hierachial government and lorded their authority as the Gentile did in Jesus day. Here is what Robert M. Bowman Jr. in Why Should You Believe in the Trinity said and before I quote, you will be surprised what the Roman Emperors really wanted for the Christians to believe. It 's different from what the splinters what you to believe and comply with,
"Arianism was generally recognized by the emperors as more atttractive religious system than trinitarianism. The reason what is that Arianism, which taught that Jesus was a divine creature, implied that a creature could be a god, could become a highly exalted and command unconditionally allegiance from men. That was an attractive ideas to the emperors, whose pagan predecessors demanded worship, and who found it easier to rule if the people thought of them as in some sense divine. Trinitarianism, on the other hand, held all divinity to be possessed by the triune God and mainatianed a sharper distinction between the Creator and the creature was just an ordinary man."
It was so similiar in the historic WCG. Mr. Armstrong was God's Apostle and all truth and understanding ONLY came through him. I remember Rodders confirming my comparison because in the early 1980's there was a chart of the church government and HWA was third in command right behind Jesus Christ. A trinitarian understanding of God should have led the church to know that its Jesus Christ is number one and everyone else is number two (unfortunately the evangelical WCG doesn't understand this).
Here are the numerous reasons why I can no longer believe in the God Family doctrine. They are sincere and I have spent a considerable time looking over other scriptures (especially in Isaiah) contradict this doctrine. I do believe scripture tells us that we are to be glorified humans just as Jesus Christ had a glorified body after his ressurection. A body that will no longer age or suffer corruption (physically or spiritually) and we will live not for a relatively measly short [few] years but eternity, thanks to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. This is something I am very excited about!
