The Church of God in Wales

Founder: Herbert W. Armstrong

Headquarters: Wales

Membership: Unknown

Origins: Mr. Armstrong headed up the "Worldwide Church of God," a non-Christian cult. He died in 1986 and there was a large movement within the Worldwide Church of God that included converting to Christian orthodoxy. It is in light of this conversion after the death of Herbert W. Armstrong, that the Church of God in Wales formed and proclaimed that the "Worldwide Church of God" had fallen from the truth.

Doctrines: The website at http://www.cogiw.org/whoWeAre.html specifically states that they do not publish a statement of belief. However, the group denies a Trinity, denies the deity of the Holy Spirit, and the deity of Christ. On the website it states that there was an apostasy in the truth and it is the restoration. They believe in the future 1000 year millennium. Furthermore, the website says some interesting things such as...1

"That God IS reproducing us and that MAN CAN BECOME God!"
"GOD IS NOT A TRINITY! GOD IS NOT A SINGLE PERSON! God is a Family of persons, and the Family began with God and the Word."
"the book of John should be placed first in the New Testament, although it was not written first. That God is a family and it began with the two, and we can be born into that family."
"...the human spirit IN man. No other Church knows about that. That has been revealed to the Church. That is knowledge that has been restored to the Church of God."
"The Holy Spirit, like water or a fluid, can be "POURED OUT." Can you pour out a person from one into another--as from God into those assembled there?"
"That we will become born at the time of the second coming of Christ...That is when you're born in the Spirit you will BE Spirit."
"We [within the USA] are the tribe of Manasseh of the lost ten tribes of Israel." [bracket addition is in the original]
"And the fact that Satan, the devil, has deceived the whole world. Brethren, Satan is the one who is guilty. Those people in the Catholic Church and the Protestant churches have been deceived."

Practices: N/A

Texts: Mystery of the Ages, by Herbert W. Armstrong. Various articles and tapes from Herbert W. Armstrong, Bible.

Comments: The Church of God in Wales is a non-Christian cult. People should be warned about his false teachings, and Christians should be educated about what it teaches so they might warn others not to be deceived by this cult.