Worldwide Church of God - more grist!

I have had a few responses to my post regarding the WGC (GCI), some posted here, others by email. Here's three of them:

1. "They're now very very kosher - defo mainstream Evangelical, but still keeping the Sabbath on Saturday. There's a great book by one of the lead pastors - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Transformed-Truth-Joseph-Tkach/dp/1576731812/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1289214167&sr=8-1"

2. "If by 'very kosher - defo mainstream' you mean you can use your pencil and tick off the thing that make them 'Christian' without dialogue with the past and the amazing sea-change that has occurred such that pretty much everything previously believed has been 'binned' so that evo's can cheer and unquestioningly accept what they see before them because it look like what they want to see - then you've been conned."

3. "They are now a cult dressed in sheep's clothing. This is purely for the purpose of continuing in the way they were but with the approval, and a therefore wider assisted net, of those who would merely extend open-arms without first examining the facts."

A couple were rather harsh and vitriolic and so have been discounted.

Another urges caution and bemoans the trend to accept anyone without question as long as they give the right answers and points out that there is a long history and a number of 'uncorrected erros and assumptions' within the WCG and its offshoots that lead one to a place of unease and concern.

I post the links for four pieces, two on either side of the fence and await responses, evidence, experiences and anything that will assist me in this topic area. There is a can of worms before me and am (having read the material below) firmly stuck on the fence, for I don't want to label people but then again I don't want to send sheep into a place of danger either!

Letters to Janis Hutchinson

A cult in transition

From the fringe to the fold

The road to orthodoxy

Apart from the specifics of this organisation, I have to say that this whole issue has raised some interesting questions which I intend to take a look at. What makes a group authentically, and safely, Christians?

Pax