HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF GOD (SEVENTH DAY) (2025)
OUR BEGINNING: The Church of God (Seventh Day) grew from the efforts of dedicated followers of Christian living in western Michigan in 1858 called the Church of Christ, joined by a church in Iowa, established in 1863 called the Church of Jesus Christ. The influence of the Church of God (Seventh Day) began to expand into eastern and central United States, due in part because of the publication of a magazine, "The Hope Of Israel". This publication created an interest in the Church's "distinct" doctrines such as the seventh-day Sabbath as the day of worship.
Unified around these unique doctrines, the General Conference of the Church was officially organized in 1884 and incorporated in Missouri in 1899. The offices of the General Conference were located in Stanberry, Missouri, until 1950, when they were moved to Denver, Colorado, where they remain today.
Over the years, the "Hope of Israel" was moved from Michigan to Iowa, then to Missouri and eventually to Colorado. After several name changes, the magazine is now known as the Bible Advocate. After more than 150 years, this flagship publication of the COG7 continues to be published 6 times a year from the church's publishing house the "Bible Advocate Press" located in Denver, Colorado. The magazine Bible Advocate can be found online @baonline.org.
PRESENT DAY:
Today, the General Conference of the Church of God (Seventh Day) consists of approximately 235 congregations throughout the United States and Canada with affiliated conferences and churches in more than 40 countries, and have a "worldwide" fellowship of more than 200,000 members. Each church conference nation-wide is considered autonomous and regarded as a sister conference. Fellowship dialogue, evangelism, and doctrinal unity among worldwide members are coordinated through the Church's International Ministerial Congress.
(This information was taken from the official website of the COG7.)
This next section is taken from a history of the Church of God (Seventh Day) written by Connie (Johnston) James, a member of the church in Claremore, Oklahoma.
There are several church organizations that goes by Church of God (7th Day). These groups are composed of a number of seventh-day Sabbath-keeping churches, among which the General Conference of the Church of God (Seventh Day) or simply the COG7, is the best known organization of theses churches. These churches observe the Seventh-day Sabbath on Saturday the seventh-day of the week. (author's note: The observing Sunday, the first day of the week, as the day of worship is a man made tradition.)
The organization of the Church of God (Seventh Day), represents a line of Sabbatarian Adventist that rejected the visions of Ellen G. White. This was five years before the founding of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in 1863. Robert Coulter, a long time minister in the COG7, past-president of the General Conference, and the official historian of the organization, wrote a book entitled "The Journey: A History of the Church of God (Seventh Day)", in 2014. Coulter credits Gilbert Cranmer (1814-1903) of Michigan as being the founder of the Church of God. Cranmer was a Christian Connection Minister and a Biblical Unitarian. He was introduced to the seventh-day Sabbath in 1852 by Joseph Bates, known as the developer of the Sabbatarian Adventism.
Ellen G. White and her husband James Springer White, as well as Gilbert Cranmer were members of a movement called the Millerite Movement which began in the early 1800s. Their founder and leader was William Miller. This group was known as Adventists because they taught the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. Miller calculated the time of the Second coming of Jesus Christ through much study told his followers Christ would return in 1844. This event was called the Great Disappointment of 1844. Miller's prediction was wrong, Christ did not return in 1844. The leaders of the Millerite movement stated that Miller had miscalculated Christ's return so the second coming would be in 1845. After Jesus failed to return a second time, many members of the Millerite Movement returned to their original churches.
After leaving the Millerites, the Whites started a group, which Cranmer joined for a while. Ellen G. White began to have visions and shared them with the church. This group began taking White's Visions over the bible. Finally in 1858 Cranmer broke away from the White's, and formed an Independent Sabbatarian Adventist Group in Michigan and went by the name Church of Christ. In the state of Iowa in 1860 an Adventist group was organized and established. Both of these groups were seventh-day Sabbatarians. The group in Iowa went by the Church of Jesus Christ and in 1863 a publication called the "Hope of Israel" began being published in Iowa.
The General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ in Iowa sent out a letter to Conference members about an up-coming Meeting. Somehow the name of a member of Cranmer's Independent group received one of those letters. This is how the two churches came in contact with each other. The leaders of the two organizations met and realized they were teaching the same doctrine. After much study and prayer the two churches merged together in about 1884 and were incorporated under the name Church of God at Stanberry, Missouri in 1899.
By the publication of the magazine The Hope of Israel, the church's influence was extended to other groups in the area. Through this publication the doctrines of the Second Advent of Christ and the Seventh-Day Sabbath were promoted. Other Christians were invited to gather for meetings with the Church. This extended the movement into Missouri, Nebraska and other states such as Arkansas and Oklahoma. The General Conference of the church was incorporated in 1899. The "(7th Day was added to the church name around 1949-1950 to distinguish the Church of God (7th Day) from the Churches of God that worshiped on Sunday.
Herbert W. Armstrong's story with the Church of God (Seventh Day) begins in 1927. He was challenged by his wife Loma, to find a biblical justification for keeping Sunday as the Christian Sabbath. Loma had come under the influence of Emma Runcorn, who was a member of the Seventh-day Church in Willamete Valley, Oregon. Loma became very ill and asked the elders of the Church of God (Seventh Day) to come and lay hands on her and pray for her to be healed. God answered those prayers. After Loma was healed, her husband Herbert, joined the church and received his ministerial licenses in 1933. He also became a writer for the Bible Advocate Journal, the church's monthly magazine. Within a few years, Armstrong began teaching the British-Israel Theory. This Theory was an alternate history, which regards the Nations of Western Europe and North America as the literal descendants of the "10 Lost Tribes of Israel" --- and teaching it is mandatory to keep the Feast Days and Holy Days as listed in Leviticus 23. This teaching is not a doctrine of the Church of God (Seventh Day). It is noted in history that Armstrong disassociated himself from the Church, but the truth is the General Conference of the church revoked his license because he kept preaching about it being mandatory to keep the Feast and Holy Days. Armstrong was warned many times not to teach those doctrines from the pulpit because it wasn't a doctrine of the Church. After Armstrong's license were revoked, he began associating with the Church of God (7th Day) in Salem, West Virginia. This group is a split from the original Church of God (Seventh Day). He was issued a licenses from the Salem Conference, but later his licenses with them was revoked over the same two issues that the Church of God (Seventh Day) in Stanberry revoked his license.
By 1934 Armstrong was well established with his own Radio Church of God which flourished for many years. It was a well known Seventh-day Sabbath keeping organization. Later this church was reorganized and the name was changed to the WorldWide Church of God. After Armstrong's death in 1986, his son Ted Garner Armstrong became the leader of the WorldWide Church of God. It continued to be a thriving organization world-wide for many more years. The WorldWide Church of God organization no longer exists here in 2025. There are many groups who broke from the organization and started their own Seventh-day Sabbath organizations.
The following information concerning the division of the Church of God (Seventh Day) was taken from an online history book, The History of the Seventh-day Church of God. by Richard Nickels
The Church of God (7th Day) was unified from its beginning in 1884 up until 1933, thirty-four years after the church's incorporation in 1899. According to A.N. Dugger, a Church of God historian, and leader of one of the fractions at the time. He states that many in the church organization felt the need for a "Bible organization" of the church. This group also wanted to move the church's world-wide headquarters to Jerusalem. They held a conference in Salem, West Virginia, on November 4, 1933. Pressure was mounting for more unity from roughly half of the membership, while others felt that they were being denied freedom of expression. Dugger and his followers wanted a reorganization of the church doctrine, which included clean meats, no tobacco and observing the Passover on Nisan 14. In earlier years the Lord's Supper, not Passover, was being observed on the 15 of Nisan. Bert Marrs led a group of Independents who believed pork and tobacco were fine and that the Passover be observed on Nisan 15. At this point, Dugger and his followers decided to establish the Salem Conference with headquarters in Salem, West Virginia, at which point they started publishing the Bible Advocate. As a result, from 1933 to 1949 there were two separate Church of God organizations, one in Stanberry, Missouri, and the other in Salem, West Virginia. The Church of God (7th Day) in Salem still exists today with members world wide. They are formally organized under the Apostolic Model (twelve apostles, seventy elders and seven men to oversee the business affairs of the church.) Shortly after the Salem Conference was reorganized, Dugger left the Salem Conference.
The following information concerning the reunification in the 1940s is taken from a "History of the Seventh Day Church of God" written by Richard C. Nickels.
The first attempt for a merger between the Stanberry and Salem Conferences occurred in 1942. A copyright lawsuit concerning the Bible Advocate magazine and the publication of the Bible Home Instructor hindered the merger. In 1947, the Salem Council of Ministries asked Stanberry to appoint a committee to meet with their committee to discuss a new attempt of a merger. The two churches committee's met in Fairview, Oklahoma on February 12-17, 1948. Because of the laws under which the Stanberry group was incorporated, the earliest possible time the union of the two groups could take place was August of 1949. The merger was voted on August 12-20, 1949, and the first issue of the combined Bible Advocate came out on October 3, 1949. Charles Monroe, who wrote a Synoptic History of the Churches of God in the latter days, (Facts On our Faith, January 1969, pages 12-25) related "the merger" did not unite all of the Church of God.
The following information concerning the "Back to Salem Movement of 1950" was taken from a "History of the Seventh Day Church of God by Richard C. Nickels
As early as 1949, ministers F.L. Summers and his son-in-law Chris Royer went back to Salem and established a headquarters there. It seems as if not everyone was on board for the merger. The "Back to Salem" movement broke into at least three factions: 1. The original Salem people who stayed at Salem with the headquarters; 2. Dugger and Severson, who went to Jerusalem; and 3. Olson and Groshans who formed the Seventh Day Church of God in Caldwell, Idaho. The Salem Conference started to publish a magazine, The Advocate of Truth, in February of 1950. Salem is purported to believe that the Saints will be raptured to the Sea of Glass. While the seven last plaques will be poured out. It differs with the Denver Group in the date for the annual "Lord's Supper", which they calculate according to the Spring Equinox. In September of 1952, Dugger, after returning from an extended trip to Nigeria, Africa to visit Church of God groups, decided to move to Jerusalem to start the Mount Zion Reporter. Possibly doctrinal issues led Dugger's exit to Israel. The 1948/49 Stanberry-Salem merger of the Church of God (Seventh Day), also known as the Denver Group, contains the largest number of Church of God people today, but it is not the only significant Church of God center. The Stanberry Conference with headquarters moved to Denver, Colorado and typically uses the name Church of God (Seventh Day). A number of Churches of God (7th Day) in Salem, West Virginia still stand with locations all across the United States and around the World. These usually follow a set of 40 points of doctrine.
This section is called the Doctrine and Practices: is mainly used in the General Conference of the Church of God (Seventh Day), Denver, Colorado. They use the Statement of Faith which is included in their Points of Doctrine. Although doctrinal beliefs among the General Council Churches of God, Inc. in Meridian, Idaho and different Churches of God (7th Day) are very similar, some major points of disagreement still remain, either concerning Christological beliefs or church organization.
The Statement of Faith of the General Conference of The Church of God (Seventh Day) --- Denver, states the following:
*Christology has been a long debated issue in the Churches of God (7th Day). Gilbert Cranmer left the Methodist Church over the doctrine of the Trinity. Cranmer was a biblical Unitarian (Ebonist) that doesn't believe Jesus preexisted his birth. He believed the Father alone is God. Today in the Church of God (Seventh Day) God is revealed in Scriptures as Father and Son. The General Conference had a Arian Christology for most of the 20th Century, before reverting to a more a more classical view of Christ. The Salem Conference previously affiliated or linked to the Jerusalem Conference and a number of independent Churches of God (7th Day) still believe that Jesus Christ, as the Word of God is a created being. (author's note: Scriptures say Jesus is the "only" begotten "Son" of God. God did not created Jesus,
he pre-existed with God before the beginning of time. At creation God said to Jesus, let us make man in our own image.)
*According to the Denver Conference, Salvation is by God's Grace, received by faith in Jesus Christ apart from good works, human merit, or ceremony. Obedience to the moral law, is encouraged (note: this was changed from the original doctrine it used to be mandatory) as an important part of Christian living. Eating of unclean meats such as pork and shellfish is discouraged, as is the observance Christmas, Easter, Lent, and Sunday due to their pagan roots.
(note: all these changes to our doctrines in recent years, I do not agree with. The changes in wording to our doctrine said to be changed because the leadership of the church doesn't want to offend others. God set forth these doctrines of the church for his people to go by. He didn't change any wording of the doctrines at any time. We are to be a set apart people. The leadership of the Church of God (Seventh Day) is going toward the teachings of men, not God.
(This is very aggravating. On my blog there is a page to start a new post. After you compose it, you post it. When the blog is published, it doesn't look the same as the one you typed up.)
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