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The Church of God General Conference (CoGGC) is a nontrinitarian, Adventist Christian body also known as the Church of God of the Abrahamic Faith. The Church of the Blessed Hope, some of whose congregations also use the name Church of God of the Abrahamic Faith (CGAF), are a separate denomination, although they share the same origins.
The Church of God General Conference has roots in several similar groups in North America that eventually united in 1921 in Waterloo, Iowa, to form the current national organization. These small groups had reached similar doctrinal convictions through independent Bible study. In the mid-19th century, some of the individuals and groups, including Joseph Marsh of New York, Nathaniel Field of Indiana, and the Wilson family of Illinois (Benjamin Wilson's family), began to circulate religious writings which made the groups aware of one another. This led to fellowship, the development of state conferences, and an attempted national organization in 1888. Strong convictions on the autonomy and authority of individual congregations, though, led to the demise of the original attempt. In 1921 the groups divided, with the larger becoming the Church of God General Conference, and the smaller the Church of the Blessed Hope. The Church of the Blessed Hope held to the beliefs shared by Benjamin Wilson, and the Church of God General Conference expanded their belief system to embrace doctrines (e.g. the existence of a personal Devil) previously not held by the group Wilson helped co-found.
Doctrines of the Church of God General Conference include belief in the authority of the Bible as the rule of faith, one God, who is the Father, Jesus is God's Son, who came into existence beginning with his miraculous conception in Mary's womb, repentance is lifelong change, the literal premillennial second coming of Jesus Christ, those who have accepted the gospel will be resurrected at the return of Christ, and promises of God to Abraham will be literally fulfilled, referred to as the "Kingdom of God" being established on Earth.
The Church of God General Conference statement of faith states, [1] and Atlanta Bible College advocates [2] as follows:
A significant distinctive doctrine of the Church of God General Conference is denial of the personal pre-existence of Jesus Christ, but acceptance of the virgin birth; a position in Christology historically known as Socinianism, although adherents of this view today often prefer the term "Biblical Unitarianism". The main distinguishing doctrinal difference between Church of God General Conference (CoGGC) and Christadelphians and Church of the Blessed Hope (CGAF) is that the majority of CoGGC members believe that Satan is a literal fallen angel, although a minority do not. Anthony Buzzard of Atlanta Bible College has debated Christadelphians and written defending the traditional view of the devil. [3] [ page needed ] However, there is no mention of the devil in the CoGGC Statement of Faith, and this doctrine is not considered a fundamental.
The Churches of God are congregational in government, yet cooperate in publications and missions ministries, and the Atlanta Bible College. International headquarters are located in McDonough in Henry County, Georgia in the metro-Atlanta area. The Restitution Herald is the official periodical of the church, and is published bi-monthly. A journal dealing with the doctrines of the movement, A Journal From the Radical Reformation, has been published quarterly since 1991. The Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches states the Church of God General Conference had 89 churches and 5,018 members in 2002. The 2010 US Religion Census listed the CoGGC as having 3,842 members in 84 churches. [4] Korean Extension: The Korean Extension is a Korean ministry of the Atlanta Bible College. The Korean Extension was officially started in the fall semester of the 2003 school year by Pastor Steve An. The Korean Extension is led by Pastors Steve An & Sam An, and the campus is located in Duluth, Georgia. As of the year 2010 there are approximately 100 students in the Atlanta Bible College Korean Extension.
Adventism is a branch of Protestant Christianity that believes in the imminent Second Coming of Jesus Christ. It originated in the 1830s in the United States during the Second Great Awakening when Baptist preacher William Miller first publicly shared his belief that the Second Coming would occur at some point between 1843 and 1844. His followers became known as Millerites. After Miller's prophecies failed, the Millerite movement split up and was continued by a number of groups that held different doctrines from one another. These groups, stemming from a common Millerite ancestor, collectively became known as the Adventist movement.
The Christadelphians are a restorationist and nontrinitarian Christian denomination. The name means 'brothers and sisters in Christ', from the Greek words for Christ (Christos) and brothers (adelphoi).
Community of Christ, known from 1872 to 2001 as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (RLDS), is an American-based international church, and is the second-largest denomination in the Latter Day Saint movement. The church reports approximately 250,000 members in 1,100 congregations in 59 countries. The church traces its origins to Joseph Smith's establishment of the Church of Christ on April 6, 1830. His eldest son Joseph Smith III formally accepted leadership of the church on April 6, 1860 in the aftermath of the 1844 death of Joseph Smith.
Socinianism is a Nontrinitarian Christian belief system developed and co-founded during the Protestant Reformation by the Italian Renaissance humanists and theologians Lelio Sozzini and Fausto Sozzini, uncle and nephew, respectively.
Church of God is a name used by numerous denominational bodies. The largest denomination with this name is the Church of God.
Nontrinitarianism is a form of Christianity that rejects the mainstream Christian theology of the Trinity—the belief that God is three distinct hypostases or persons who are coeternal, coequal, and indivisibly united in one being, or essence. Certain religious groups that emerged during the Protestant Reformation have historically been known as antitrinitarian.
The Statement of Fundamental Truths is a confession of faith outlining the 16 essential doctrines adhered to by the Assemblies of God USA. These doctrines are heavily based on other evangelical confessions of faith but differ by being clearly Pentecostal. Of the 16 articles, four are considered core beliefs "due to the key role they play in reaching the lost and building the believer and the church". They are the doctrines concerning salvation, the baptism in the Holy Spirit, divine healing, and the Second Coming of Christ. The Statement of Fundamental Truths has undergone several permutations since its original adoption in 1916 despite common claims that it has remained largely unchanged.
The Church of the Blessed Hope is a small first-day Adventist Christian body. The churches have common roots with the Christadelphians and the Church of God General Conference.
In Christian theology, the doctrine of incarnation teaches that the pre-existent divine person of Jesus Christ, God the Son, the second person of the Trinity, and the eternally begotten Logos, took upon human nature and "was made flesh" by being conceived in the womb of a woman, the Virgin Mary, also known as the Theotokos. The doctrine of the incarnation then entails that Jesus was at the same time both fully God and fully human.
Church of God of the Abrahamic Faith may refer to the following two modern Christian groups that had the same origin and common history from the 1850s to 1921:
Benjamin Wilson (1817–1900) was an autodidact Biblical scholar and writer of the Emphatic Diaglott translation of the Bible. He was also a co-founder of the Church of God of the Abrahamic Faith.
Biblical unitarianism is a Unitarian Christian tradition whose adherents affirm the Bible as their sole authority, and from it base their beliefs that God the Father is one singular being, and that Jesus Christ is God's son but not divine. The term "biblical Unitarianism" is connected first with Robert Spears and Samuel Sharpe of the Christian Life magazine in the 1880s. It is a neologism that gained increasing currency in nontrinitarian literature during the 20th century as the Unitarian churches moved away from mainstream church traditions and, in some instances in the United States, towards merger with Universalism. It has been used since the late 19th century by conservative Christian Unitarians, and sometimes by historians, to refer to scripture-fundamentalist Unitarians of the 16th–18th centuries.
The Unamended Christadelphians are a "fellowship" within the broader Christadelphian movement worldwide, found only in the United States and Canada. They are, like all Christadelphians, millennialist and non-Trinitarian. The term Unamended Christadelphians is not the formal name of this community but is used informally to identify the grouping since a statement of faith traditionally used by many in this community is the "Unamended Statement of Faith". Similarly, most of the much larger grouping of Amended Christadelphians traditionally use a statement of faith that has been amended and therefore, in North America is known by the prefix "Amended". Nevertheless, Christadelphians worldwide and both Amended and Unamended Christadelphians in North America share fundamentally the same doctrines, with a few exceptions.
The Berean Christadelphians are a Christian denomination.
Sir Anthony Farquhar Buzzard, 3rd Baronet, ARCM, is a biblical scholar, Biblical unitarian Christian theologian, author and professor on the faculty of Atlanta Bible College.
Joseph Marsh (1802–1863) was an American Millerite Protestant preacher, and editor of The Advent Harbinger, Bible Advocate and The Voice of Truth and Glad Tidings of the Kingdom at Hand".
The pre-existence of Christ asserts the existence of Christ prior to his incarnation as Jesus. One of the relevant Bible passages is John 1 where, in the Trinitarian interpretation, Christ is identified with a pre-existent divine hypostasis called the Logos. There are nontrinitarian views that question the aspect of personal pre-existence, the aspect of divinity, or both.
The following is a bibliography of books in the English language relating to the general topic of Christadelphians.
In Christianity, heaven is traditionally the location of the throne of God and the angels of God, and in most forms of Christianity it is the abode of the righteous dead in the afterlife. In some Christian denominations it is understood as a temporary stage before the resurrection of the dead and the saints' return to the New Earth.
The Pillars of Adventism are landmark doctrines for Seventh-day Adventists. They are Bible doctrines that define who they are as a people of faith; doctrines that are "non-negotiables" in Adventist theology. The Seventh-day Adventist church teaches that these Pillars are needed to prepare the world for the second coming of Jesus Christ, and sees them as a central part of its own mission. Adventists teach that the Seventh-day Adventist Church doctrines were both a continuation of the reformation started in the 16th century and a movement of the end time rising from the Millerites, bringing God's final messages and warnings to the world.
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