About ABD

A Warm Welcome and God’s blessings to You, dear Reader!

Welcome to the As Bereans Did blog. This blog was started by Seeker of Truth in April, 2008. On February 7, 2011, we shut it down. At that time we hoped it wouldn’t be the last project for our team. On March 8, 2013, we reopened the doors with new writers. The team may change, but the original purpose remains. 

Unfortunately, since around COVID or so, our lives have all changed, and in some ways significantly. We no longer have the time to write. It's not that we don't care. We do! That's why we keep the blog up and maintained. It's hard to explain, but after almost 16 years of writing we think we've said almost all there is for us to say. Most other Armstrong blogs are down. Blogging's time has come and gone. New day, new fad.

I wouldn't say we are currently closed, but we're not exactly open anymore either. We're "clopen"?

We are always available by email, however. If you need us, reach out!

WHAT IS ARMSTRONGISM?

We are a small group of people who have each left the religious system that we refer to as “Armstrongism” (for lack of a better word).

Herbert W Armstrong was a down on his luck detergent salesman born in 1892 to a Quaker family. In a particularly low period of his adult life, he was introduced to the Church of God (Seventh Day). The COG7 split off from the Seventh Day Adventist movement in the mid-1800s, retaining its Old Covenant Sabbatarianism but rejecting Ellen G White. Armstrong joined the COG7, eventually accepted a job as a minister, and quickly climbed his way into their upper leadership. In time, his views differed from the main. In another a particularly low period of his life, a woman offered him some fire wood. He took that as a sign that God chose him for something special. He split off to become "the founder, Pastor General, and spiritual and temporal leader” and "the appointed Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ" of the Radio Church of God which later changed its name to the Worldwide Church of God.

The golden era of the WCG was in the 1950s through 1970s. The doctrine preached was practically the same as the Seventh Day Adventists. The two pillars of the church were prophecy and law. Primarily, prophecy focused on the soon-coming Great Tribulation and return of Jesus Christ. The law included the Ten Commandments - with particularly heavy focus on the seventh-day Sabbath - avoidance of holidays in favor of seven annual holy days, three tithes, and clean/unclean meats. The message that the Worldwide Church of God was the only organization in 1,900 years which understood all prophecy and taught this full truth of God went out across the airwaves and in print around the globe until it had generated tens of thousands of adherents. The annual income of the church was in the millions of dollars. Herbert Armstrong remained the undisputed head of his church until his death on January 16, 1986.

In the 1990s, the Worldwide Church of God left its legalist, Old Covenant teachings for New Covenant grace. It changed its name to Grace Communion International. Thousands rejected these changes and left to form their own churches. Some of the more prominent splinter groups include the United Church of God, the Philadelphia Church of God, the Living Church of God, the Church of God A Worldwide Association, and the Restored Church of God. There are hundreds besides these. We call these groups "splinters" (again, for lack of a better word). They each compete against one another to be the one true church with the one true leader and the one true set of beliefs.

Many newer members of these churches have no idea who Herbert Armstrong was or that Armstrongism is a branch of Ellen G White’s Seventh Day Adventist movement. We find this to be unfortunate. To forget your past is to forget who you are.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

That is a very brief summary of Armstrongism, and it brings us to the point of this blog.
The purpose of this blog can be summed up in two points:

1. To investigate and challenge the doctrinal and historical fallacies promoted by Herbert Armstrong, the Worldwide Church of God, and the splinter groups that remain today. 
2. To reach out to and support those who are questioning or contemplating leaving these splinter groups.

Here, read this post. It spells things out nicely: "On A Personal Note: Why We're Here"

As Bereans Did was originally an outlet for our confusion and curiosity. We were just as lost and confused as anyone else whose world view was just turned upside down, so we decided to write about it as a way to order our thoughts. ABD is a journey. We spent our lives following Armsrtongist doctrine, avoiding what we were told to avoid and performing what we were told to perform, surrounded almost entirely by others who did the same. We weren't allowed to question it. The hardest part of all of this was giving ourselves permission to question everything. Once we did, we had a big decision to make: pretend it never happened, or see where it all leads. We chose to push on.

Please understand that back then there weren't resources like As Bereans Did to help us move forward. We had to stumble in a direction we were not familiar with, two steps forward and one step back. We had to build this road ourselves, with the help of a very few other bloggers out there.

As Bereans Did became a search for the truth, and an outreach to others like us. The views of Armstrongism, we were often surprised to discover, were not only incorrect but sometimes willfully and deceitfully so. They sure aren't going to tell you that! We thought someone should.

We want to help people to discern the truth from fiction and to help them step out of the Armstrong system into the New Covenant in the finished work of Jesus Christ. After all, one of the deepest themes in the Bible is one of slaves being set free.

If you are currently attending Church of God splinter group, you are here either by accident, curiosity, or (hopefully) because you have given yourself permission to question. We commend you for giving yourself that permission! We know you're afraid. We were too! We know you're hiding what you're doing right now. We did too! We know you were told only Satan and eternal damnation in the Second Death await you out there with the "so-called Christians". We were told that too! Oddly enough, we didn't find Satan. We found Jesus, in a completely new and exciting way. We didn't find damnation, we found grace. We didn't find death, we found life.

For those asking questions and searching for truth:

"Truth without love is brutality; love without truth is hypocrisy."
–Warren Wiersbe

We offer you the truth that we've found. We try to offer the truth in love, but even still it can seem pretty brutal. To challenge a worldview, especially one as encompassing as Armsrtrongism, is always painful. We apologize in advance.

We know the things we propose are scary. We get it that you are pulled by your current beliefs away from what we are sharing and back towards the safety and familiarity of the law. So were we! We didn't trust any of this. We came to what we believe now kicking and screaming. Our investigations were meant to prove our doctrines, not destroy them. Yet, the truth is what the truth is and here we all are. Us, trying our best to share what we've learned, and you questioning but uncertain about it. Ready to bolt back into the law at any moment.

Beloved of God, do not simply believe everything, but test the spirits; prove things for your self. Investigate. Drill down. We cannot ride someone else's coattails into the Kingdom.

(Acts 17:11) [NIV] 'Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.'

Our goal is to help others understand & receive the Grace & Freedom that is in the New Covenant through Christ Jesus our Lord & Savior. 

ETIQUETTE

We welcome your questions and comments. It’s wonderful and refreshing to hear different views on Biblical matters from fellow believers in Christ.

If a debate should result, we ask you for patience and temperance. A debate in a spirit of seeking truth, and not of competition & self-aggrandizement, is desirable for stimulating thought and is a good resource for individuals in coming to their own conclusions. 

(However, due to past experiences that left a bad taste in our mouths, we will not debate the existence or non-existence of God).

A healthy debate is not an argument. If each view point were identical, there would be little point. We will write as if we are certain that our beliefs are true, since to say otherwise would be an inaccurate representation of ourselves, but that doesn't mean we're always right. Just keep in mind that everything is based on the current understanding of each author. We expect nothing of you that we don’t ask of ourselves; so we expect that you, the reader, must research with more than just the scriptures and notes we provide. With God's guidance, prove for yourself.

The reader should be confident of being afforded a forum for civil faith-based discussion and a place to present their opinions and evidences so that everyone involved might increase in understanding.

This final thing we ask of you: give us a fair hearing.
Please do not dismiss outright the points we offer you. Yes, they are likely very different from what you are used to. That difference brings discomfort, which brings dissonance. We apologize in advance. But we assure you, if you give us a fair hearing, you may just come to see we have our reasons for believing as we do.

May God bless you in your quest for His truth!