{"id":66,"date":"2007-07-28T05:57:18","date_gmt":"2007-07-28T13:57:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wcg-news\/pcg-what-the-tkaches-originally-said\/"},"modified":"2007-07-28T06:53:27","modified_gmt":"2007-07-28T14:53:27","slug":"pcg-what-the-tkaches-originally-said","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wcg-news\/pcg-what-the-tkaches-originally-said\/","title":{"rendered":"PCG: What the Tkaches Originally Said"},"content":{"rendered":"

The following is in the July 2007 edition of the PCG’s<\/a> Philadelphia Trumpet and is from another chapter in S. Flurry’s book:<\/em><\/p>\n

On Dec. 17, 1994, Joseph Tkach Sr. delivered a landmark sermon, bringing out into the open several far-reaching doctrinal changes that centered around a \u201cnew\u201d (actually mainstream) understanding of the Old and New Covenants. According to his son, \u201c[I]t once and for all convinced the skeptics within our own church that the changes were for real and that they were permanent.\u201d Later, he wrote, \u201c[M]any of our members didn\u2019t believe that the changes they were seeing in the church were real. Just as evangelicals have a hard time believing that the Worldwide Church of God has moved into orthodoxy, many of our members had a hard time believing their church was moving away from its peculiar doctrinal distinctives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why would their own members<\/em> have been skeptical about the changes being \u201cfor real\u201d? Why would they find it difficult to believe the church was moving away from its past teachings?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s because after making the changes, the Tkaches<\/em> then reassured the membership that nothing had really changed<\/span>. And when rumors would circulate that more changes were coming, the Tkaches kept saying, \u201cWe will never change that\u201d\u2014right up to the point of actually making the change…<\/p>\n

Mr. Tkach gave a sermon in Pasadena on April 30, 1994 (a tape of which was later played in all wcg<\/span>congregations), in which he denounced \u201crumormongers\u201d: \u201cThey have no compunctions at all about exaggerating. Like I read from this list of rumors that are going around: We\u2019re going to start keeping Christmas, and we\u2019re changing the Passover, and we\u2019re making changes to please the Protestants to get accreditation. \u2026 [W]e\u2019re going to do away with the Sabbath, we\u2019re going to do away with the holy days and we\u2019re going to do away with the law.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the Ambassador College commencement exercises on May 20, 1994, Mr. Tkach quoted Ted Koppel, who said, \u201cWhat Moses brought down from Mount Sinai were not the ten suggestions. They are commandments.\u201d Mr. Tkach said, \u201cNotice he used the word are<\/em> and not were,<\/em> because they are still in existence today, in spite of what others accuse us of saying\u2014\u2018that we are doing away with the law and the commandments of God.\u2019 Again I say, \u2018garbage.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Later that year, on November 12, Mr. Tkach made several more strong statements in a Pasadena sermon: \u201cYes, we should keep the law\u201d; \u201cI\u2019m not trying to minimize the importance of the law\u201d; \u201cI\u2019m not trying to minimize the importance of the Sabbath.\u201d<\/p>\n

Three weeks later, speaking in Washington, d.c<\/span>., Mr. Tkach asked, \u201cDoes this mean that we are no longer obligated to obey the law?\u201d His answer: \u201cGod forbid!\u201d He later said, \u201cChrist is saying the New Testament gospel is not contrary or contradictory in any way, shape or form to the Old Testament law.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then, on December 17\u2014just two weeks later,<\/em>and after a string of denouncements against those spreading \u201clies\u201d and \u201crumors\u201d\u2014Mr. Tkach did away<\/em>with the church\u2019s teachings on clean and unclean meats, tithing, the Sabbath, holy day observance and the law. This, according to Tkach Jr.\u2019s book, is when skeptics in the church finally<\/em> knew that the changes were for real…<\/p>\n

In a letter to Dennis Leap on April 20, 1990, Joseph Tkach Jr. wrote that Mystery of the Ages<\/em>\u00a0\u201cwas discontinued because we have more economical ways of providing exactly the same message<\/em> to subscribers and members. The doctrinal message of the book is not being changed or stopped.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Would Jesus Christ say the \u201cexact same message\u201d of the book was being disseminated four months after firing two ministers and saying the book was \u201criddled with error\u201d?<\/p>\n

Tkach Jr. wrote, \u201c[D]on\u2019t pretend to others that you are continuing to follow Mr. Armstrong\u2019s way. Please be honest about it.\u201d How ironic that statement turned out to be. It is now clear that this accusation is precisely what Tkachism<\/em>was doing at the time Joe Jr. wrote his letter\u2014dishonestly giving the impression they were continuing in Mr. Armstrong\u2019s steps. Tkach Jr. wrote, \u201c[N]one of the \u2018seven mysteries\u2019 explained in [Mystery of the Ages<\/em>]\u00a0has been changed or deleted.\u201d
\n…<\/p>\n

The Trinity Doctrine<\/span><\/p>\n

On March 6, 1998, Pat Robertson interviewed Joseph Tkach Jr. and Greg Albrecht on his television program, The 700 Club<\/em>. They talked about the wcg<\/span>\u2019s doctrinal transformation. In describing the changes that took place early on, Mr. Tkach Jr. said, \u201cStarting in 1989,<\/em> we realized that the trinity was correct<\/span> and that it\u2019s the only logical and historically [sic] way to explain that God is one in three.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then, in 1990, Philip Stevens wrote an article for the Good News<\/em> titled \u201cWho Was Jesus\u2019 Father?\u201d Somehow, this statement managed to sneak by wcg<\/span> editors: \u201cThe concept of a trinity is nowhere found in the Bible. \u2026 The trinity hides from man God\u2019s plan of salvation. The trinity doctrine maintains that the Godhead is a closed unit into which no one else can enter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Three months after that article appeared in the Good News,<\/em> Michael Snyder wrote a letter to Watchman Fellowship, a cult-watching organization based in Arlington, Texas. Mr. Snyder said, \u201cThe question of God\u2019s disclosure to humanity is still open and the church awaits further scholarly discussion in the field of dogmatics concerning this topic. The article \u2018Who Was Jesus\u2019 Father?\u2019 from the November-December 1990 Good News<\/em> has been declared officially null and void with respect to church doctrine.\u201d<\/p>\n

…Around the same time, in the spring of 1991, David Hulme and Michael Snyder, his assistant, took part in discussions with the faculty at the Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. During his presentation, Mr. Hulme said he had been invited to explain the church\u2019s position on a \u201cnumber of things\u201d and to update them on the \u201cchanges\u201d in the wcg<\/span>. He said he wanted to take them through \u201csome of the more important changes that have occurred in the last four to five years.\u201d When he got to the subject of the trinity, Mr. Hulme said, \u201cEven though the Worldwide Church of God considers some<\/em> positions on the trinity to be heretical (for example, all forms of Arianism), it sees the Eastern, Western, Protestant, and Modernist views of the nature of God as genuine attempts to reach a deeper understanding of God\u2019s nature.\u201d<\/p>\n

As you might imagine, with these types of comments being made to those outside<\/em> the church, all sorts of \u201crumors\u201d and \u201cgossip\u201d began swirling on the inside<\/em>. Was the<\/em> wcg<\/em><\/span> about to accept the trinity?<\/em>some wondered. Fortunately for members, Mr. Tkach Sr. stepped forward to set the record straight. Toward the end of the summer of 1991, he wrote an article in the church\u2019s newspaper titled \u201cHow Do You React to Change?\u201d The article reflected much of the wcg\u2019s<\/span> latest discussions with Truths That Transform,<\/em> Watchman Fellowship and the Trinity Evangelical Divinity School…<\/p>\n

At the end of his article, Mr. Tkach said, \u201cWe do not believe<\/span> the doctrine of the trinity.\u201d Never mind that in a personal letter to Watchman Fellowship, Michael Snyder declared a Good News<\/em>article \u201cnull and void\u201d because of its comments in opposition to the trinity doctrine. Nor that, according to Snyder, the subject of \u201cGod\u2019s disclosure\u201d was now an \u201copen question\u201d in the church. Neither did Mr. Tkach mention that the church now taught the \u201cfull divinity of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit\u2014the biblical foundation for all trinitarian discussions\u201d\u2014as Dr. Stavrinides had explained to the ministry months earlier. Nor did he draw attention to the fact that David Hulme had been involved in several discussions with trinitarians at the Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.<\/p>\n

When you say, \u201cWe do not believe the doctrine of the trinity\u201d without qualification, doesn\u2019t that imply that the church rejects all forms and practices of the trinity? As far as unsuspecting members were concerned, putting Tkach\u2019s \u201cWe do not believe the doctrine of the trinity\u201d statement together with the November-December 1990 Good News<\/em> article (declared \u201cnull and void\u201d privately, but not in a church publication), the church was teaching the very same thing it had always<\/em> taught about the nature of God…<\/p>\n

Five months after he unequivocally said that the wcg<\/span>did not believe in the trinity, Mr. Tkach wrote, \u201cThe newly printed Statement of Beliefs<\/em> of the Worldwide Church of God will be mailed to you soon. \u2026 Let me make a few comments about one portion of the Statement.<\/em>In the statement about God, you will notice that the final sentence reads: \u2018The church affirms the oneness of God and the full divinity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.\u2019 Someone may ask, \u2018Does this mean we now accept the doctrine of the trinity?\u2019 No, it does not. The doctrine of the trinity in the Western Church attests the union of three Persons in one Godhead, so that the three are one God as to substance, but three Persons as to individualities. We do not accept that teaching; we believe that the word Person is inaccurate when referring to the Holy Spirit.\u201d<\/p>\n

In other words, we have accepted the trinity, but don\u2019t misinterpret that to mean that we have accepted the trinity<\/em>.<\/p>\n

In its August 1992 booklet God Is \u2026,<\/em> the church stated, \u201cGod is one being, one entity\u201d\u2014\u201cthe Holy Spirit is also God\u201d\u2014and \u201cthe Bible does reveal three entities within the one Godhead.\u201d When referring to the booklet in the Worldwide News,<\/em>Mr. Tkach wrote, \u201cThe doctrine of the trinity did not originate in paganism, as we have traditionally thought.\u201d But did all these statements mean the church had now accepted the trinity? Of course not,<\/em> they continued to tell the membership.<\/p>\n

The following year, in August 1993, Mr. Tkach wrote, \u201cSimply put, the Bible proclaims plainly and clearly that there is one and only one God\u2026When the Bible says that God is one, the word one<\/em>does not refer to a \u2018God Family,\u2019 but to one God.\u201d A little further in the article, Mr. Tkach wrote, \u201cThe Bible teaching is that there is one God who is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.\u201d<\/p>\n

…Were it not for Tkach Jr.\u2019s interview with Pat Robertson years later\u2014where he admitted they realized the trinity was correct in 1989\u2014it might still<\/span> be safe to assume (within the church, of course) that the Worldwide Church of God in no way<\/span> teaches the doctrine of the trinity.<\/p>\n

Their Greatest Challenge<\/span><\/p>\n

By now you can see how convoluted and contradictory Tkach Jr.\u2019s positions are. How could the explanation of Mr. Armstrong\u2019s teachings change so dramatically between 1992 and 1997 when Mr. Armstrong died in 1986?<\/em> Mr. Armstrong left an incredibly thorough written account of what he believed and taught. But that has not stopped Joe Jr. from dramatically altering his explanation of those teachings\u2014all depending on the time period<\/em> and the audience<\/em> he was addressing.<\/p>\n

Notice what Mr. Tkach Jr. says in his book about the difficulty they ran into when trying to explain the many changes: \u201cSome cult watchers, ministries, churches, and pastors can be more of a hindrance when it comes to helping individuals or aberrant groups break away from their cultic theology and practice. One of our greatest challenges has been trying to explain these doctrinal reforms to outsiders while maintaining our credibility internally,<\/em> and some groups have greatly hindered our efforts by their reporting.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The reason he blames outside groups for hindering their efforts to make doctrinal changes within the church is that they reported what was actually happening! This became problematic for Tkachism because they were telling these outside groups about all the changes\u2014even telling them that more were coming\u2014while at the same time<\/span> telling their own members that nothing was changing!<\/em> They<\/em> are the ones who hurt their own credibility\u2014by lying<\/em>.<\/p>\n

In his book, Tkach Jr. explains how their church leaders, in the early 1990s, kept contacting evangelical groups in order to keep them apprised of the changes in the wcg…<\/span><\/p>\n

It was certainly a confusing time.\u00a0\u00a0Around then, I remember J. Tkach Sr. stating\/indicating that RC Meredith was falsely teaching that WCG was doing away with the ten commandments (PCG left that out of their article). <\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

While I was\u00a0questioning what the Tkaches were doing (especially in regards to the Gospel and the nature of God), in addition to J. Sr.’s statements confirming that WCG would not do away with the ten commandments at that time I had another reason at that time to believe J. Sr. when he said the teaching on the ten commandments, etc. were not going to be changed by WCG.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

As it turned out,\u00a0I happened to have accepted the assignment to teach the local WCG congregation’s children the two songs that they were to sing at the Feast of Tabernacles<\/a> in 1994.\u00a0 This is a bit odd for me as music is not a strength nor area of much interest.\u00a0 Anyway, the two songs I was teaching the children were named something to the effect of “There are Ten Commandments” and “Do You Know God’s Feasts in the Spring and in the Fall”.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

The first song listed the ten commandments and explained that they should be kept, while the second song listed the Holy Days and briefly explained God’s plan of salvation through the Holy Days.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Hence, I found it hard to believe the rumors that WCG was teaching against the ten commandments and Holy Days as I was teaching them each week to the children of the local WCG congregation.<\/em><\/p>\n

However, when it was clear that WCG really did change them, I remembered the WCG comments against RC Meredith, realized that\u00a0Dr. Meredith\u00a0obviously had been right, and then after attending a GCG congregation when travelling, decided that it was the proper remnant of the Philadelphia portion of the COG at that time.<\/em><\/p>\n

Speaking of WCG and the Holy Days, I did (after leaving–additionally, while still in WCG I did write J. Sr. twice concerning certain changes) write an article regarding something that J. Tkach Jr. wrote about them.\u00a0 It is still available and is called <\/em>Is There “An Annual Worship Calendar” In the Bible?<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Another article of possibly related interest may be <\/em>Did You Know What the First Changes the Tkach Administration Made?<\/em><\/a> Some have said healing, others other subjects, but probably the first change had to do with eliminating being part of the Philadelphia era. This article documents what those changes were and compares the Tkach list of restored truths to HWA’s list of restored truths. It contains many quotes from HWA.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The following is in the July 2007 edition of the PCG’s Philadelphia Trumpet and is from another chapter in S. Flurry’s book: On Dec. 17, 1994, Joseph Tkach Sr. delivered a landmark sermon, bringing out into the open several far-reaching doctrinal changes that centered around a \u201cnew\u201d (actually mainstream) understanding of the Old and New […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-wcg-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}