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Armstrongism For more info on this topic
contact: James Kieferdorf
Christian TV and Radio Promotes Armstrongism
From: Rushtyping@aol.com Date: April 3, 2006 7:12:15 AM PDT (CA)
The following SPLINTER GROUPS ARE ON Christian TV and radio. (Taken from a few Christian stations.) If you want to know if someone is a splinter group of Armstrong see the following website. www.thejournal.org/articles/issue30/coglist.html list 237 groups that trace their origins to the Worldwide Church of God, i.e., HWA. The following groups are on that list. 1. The Inspiration Network is now airing another Armstrong splinter group. They took the Church of God International's program Armor of God off, now they have the Living Church of God's program Tomorrow's World. This program airs on Saturday. They teach Armstrong doctrine as indicated on page 1 of their official statement of fundamental beliefs. I have again informed Inspiration Network. 2. The United Church of God AIA's program Beyond Today airs on KGMS 940 AM, Tucson, Arizona. What do they teach? Just read from one of their readers concerning their Good News magazine. "I have received and read the last two issues of the "Good News." It is very encouraging to see the same teachings that Christ restored to His church through Herbert W. Armstrong in your publications" (United News, Vol. 4, No. 7, September 14, 1998). The program airs on Saturday at 10:30 a.m., right after Dave Hunt's program "According to God's Word." As you can see the UCGAIA still teach Armstrong doctrine, no Trinity, the Holy Spirit is not the Third Person in the Triune Godhead, Jesus is not the Eternal Son, but because the Son, Jesus rose in a spirit-body, not physical read this on the web "Who is God" www.ucg.org/booklets/wg/christsrecurrection.htm. No heaven, hell, teach annihilationism, soul-sleep, Jesus bled to death on the cross, Sabbath, law on and on. They have changed a little on the born again issue. But they still agree with HWA that Jesus is John 3:1-8 is teaching spirit resurrection, "born of the Spirit." See their study paper on Born Again on their website. They also deny the believers' physical fleshy resurrection. (First Resurrection) They teach three resurrections. They still teach Anglo-Israelism. I sent an email to the GM at KGMS, Doug Martin, as well as one of the Program Director, Matt Mains on December 28, 2005, and a seven page follow-up letter documenting many of the UCG unorthodox teachings, on February 27, 2006. Still no response. 4. The Church of God International air their program Armor of God on The Word Network located in Southfield, Michigan. I left messages with the program director and VP. No return calls. 5. Ronald L. Dart's program Born to Win airs on many, many Christian stations. Dart is on many stations owned by The Crawford Broadcasting Company. One of the most popular stations that air Dart is KBRT 740 in Costa Mesa, California. KBRT has well known evangelical teachers on such as Drs. J. Vernon McGee, David Jeremiah, James Dodson, Woodrow Kroll, D. James Kennedy, and the late beloved Adrian Rogers programs, June Hunt, Greg Koukl, among others. On right before Calvary Chapel La Mirada, is Ronald L. Dart's program Born to Win. Again I ask WHERE'S THE DISCERNMENT! Born to Win airs at 9:30 a.m. Sundays. Other Crawford stations airing Dart are KLTT-AM 670, Denver, CO; KKPZ-AM 1330, Portland, OR; WDCX-FM 99.5, Buffalo, NY; WXJC-AM 850, Birmingham, AL; KCBC-AM 770, San Francisco, CA; KAAM-AM 770, Irving, TX. Ronald L. Dart's program also airs on the following Salem Communications stations: WYLL-AM 1160, Chicago, IL; WGKA-AM 920, Atlanta, GA; KPXQ-AM 1360, Phoenix, AZ; and WBTK-AM 1380, Richmond, VA. Other Christian stations that air Born to Win are KNOF-FM 95.3, St. Paul, MN; WJYI-AM 1340, Milwaukee, WI; KLGO-FM 99.3, Taylor, TX; KARI-AM 550, Blaine, WA, and many other stations in Washington and throughout the U.S. Many of Dart's doctrinal beliefs/teachings are not within Christian orthodoxy. Dart denies the blessed Trinity. He states, "As for the Trinity, the doctrine cannot be found in the Bible. Man reasoned his way to the Trinity, and I find myself unable to embrace that on the basis of what I understand in the Scriptures" (Letter to me, November 18, 1998, p. 1). In this letter and another dated December 9, 1998, Dart denies many Cardinal doctrines of the Christian faith. Mr. Dart states, "The word 'Trinity' is not in the pages of your Bible, so what lies behind the widely held belief of a mysterious, incomprehensible, Triune God?" (Ron Dart, Bible Correspondence Course, Lesson Four www.abcog.org/lesson4.htm, this website is also another Armstrong splinter group.) From lesson four Dart denies that the Holy Spirit is a person in the Godhead. Dart recently published a book The Lonely God. In it he denies the Trinity. Hopefully, Christians will not order this book through their Christian bookstore. 6. The resurrected body of Jesus. What Dart means by body is not what orthodox Christianity means by body. I personally wrote and asked Dart some questions concerning Jesus' Resurrection. His answers were very equivocal concerning the physical, fleshy, bodily resurrection of our Lord Jesus. Mr. Dart wrote me December 9, 1998 the following. "It is obviously very important to evangelical Christianity. Perhaps you can explain to me the significance of whether Jesus was raised in spirit form or raised bodily." Dart's asking for an "explanation of the significance of whether Jesus was raised in spirit form or raised bodily" seems to show his ignorance of the Bible and Christian theology. Dart believes Jesus was raised as a spirit being. "Jesus is the first to have the 'new life form,' to be a spirit-being and to enter into God's kingdom from the dead" (tape Rev 1-2). You can see the Armstrong teaching here, and Dart's teaching on born again. Another tape from Dart's ministry says "Jesus Return to his Pre-human form" (Tape 99LTS, I Love to Tell the Story). It should also be noted that Dart denies the physical, fleshly bodily resurrection of Christians. His teaching is in reference to being born again. He, like Armstrong, doesn't believe you can be born again in this life. "But the moment when we are born again is the moment of the resurrection of the dead, when you are changed from flesh to spirit" (letter December 9, 1998). It is said that when John Wesley was asked why he preached so often on the subject "Ye must be born again" that he answered, "Because you must be born again." Wesley's definition of the new birth, however, would never satisfy Dart, or any of the many Armstrong splinter groups, because their teachings are that you cannot be "born again." Dart's teaching concerning John 3:1-8, he states, "Here Jesus is talking about the resurrection when you are changed from flesh to spirit ... at the resurrection people who are born of the spirit are like ghosts." ... "A resurrection you and I hope for is not sinews, and bones and flesh, it is spirit." ... "We're put in the grave a human being, we're raised a god." ... "We all will become spirit beings." (Tapes 8109, 9121, 79F8, Immortality of the Soul, Can Man Become God? Shadows and the Great Last Day.) Dart's tape Can Man Become God? and his October 1, 1999 newsletter, shows that he continues to be an admirer of Herbert W. Armstrong. In this tape he favorably quotes Armstrong five times, makes a clear connection between his theology and that of Herbert W. Armstrong. Dart even credits him as the source of the teaching man can become God. Hell is made a joke in this tape, as well as Mr. Dart characterizing the orthodox view of the believer's position as being a "spiritual lapdog" more observations could be made concerning this topic. 7. Dart denies the biblical doctrine of hell. He teaches annihilationism. He also denies the immortality of the soul, teaches the doctrine of soul-sleep, the believer does not go to be with Christ at death, denies Jesus died on the cross, he like the Jehovah Witnesses believe the stake doctrine. Dart still thinks that Garner Ted Armstrong "knew the Bible as well as any man I have ever known ... and he was gifted of God." (Tape 0338, September 20, 2003, "The Indispensable Man"). I ask how could Ronald L. Dart make such a statement when Garner Ted Armstrong (besides his person life), denied and attacked many of the orthodox doctrines of the Christian faith, calling them pagan, false, and Satan's greatest deception. Dart is a former Baptist who attended Hardin Simmons University, a Baptist affiliated college to prepare for the ministry as a pastor, even preaching in some of the local Baptist churches. During this time Dart would have discussions about the teachings of Herbert W. Armstrong with his wife's brother who himself was a former Baptist, but then a member of the Radio Church of God (the original name of the Worldwide Church of God). While reading material and listening to both Herbert W. and Garner Ted Armstrong's The World Tomorrow radio program, Dart became convinced that, "Things we were being told by Herbert W. Armstrong had the ring of truth, and God was working through Mr. Armstrong, and our heart followed." Dart states, "We've [he and his wife] finally came to the place where we had had it with the Baptist church, we knew it was not right. I wanted to be in God's college." In 1958, Mr. Dart left Hardin Simmons to attend Ambassador College in Pasadena, California, and joined Herbert W. Armstrong's Church (tapes 7804, 7800, 00 APT, "Faith Without Compromise," "Called of God," And A Personal Testimony). Dart became very influential in the Worldwide Church of God, and reported directly to Mr. Armstrong. Dart left the church with Garner Ted Armstrong in 1978 and became Vice President of the Church of God International with Garner Ted Armstrong as President. Dart left CGI in 1995 to form CEM. Many groups have splintered from the Worldwide Church of God. Dart's niche in this Armstrongite scene is one of "tolerance." That is, he differs from Herbert W. Armstrong in this way: Armstrong used a very strong, adversarial approach to pry people away from the Christian churches (for example, by calling the Protestant churches the daughters of the Great Whore and the churches of Satan). Armstrong also claimed that his church was the only true church and the only place where salvation could be found. Dart, on the other hand, says he is tolerant of others' beliefs. But he reveals his hand when he says that he is willing to let others make their own mistakes. He does not consider that others might be right. He simply takes a smoother approach. It is difficult to know when listening to Dart's Born to Win radio program that his beliefs are very different from orthodox Christianity. He woos his listeners rather than beats them over the head. A publicity statement for Dart that is intended to be positive (but to me sounds scary), says, "People around the world have become addicted to Ron's intimate Bible studies." Although there are some details in Ron Dart's teachings that differ from the old Herbert Armstrong teachings of the Worldwide Church of God, just as there are differences between all of the Armstrongite groups. Dart is still without question an Armstrongite. Regarding Ron Dart being on Christian radio, I believe in free speech and freedom of the press. Ron Dart has a right to be on the air&emdash;on secular radio stations, just as was Herbert Armstrong. We would then have to counter his teachings with the truth. But I believe that there is a relationship of trust between a Christian radio station and its listeners. Listeners expect Christian radio to be Christian. Christian stations should hold those who broadcast on them to a standard of the basic tenets of Christianity. I believe we would agree that a station that called itself Christian, but was broadcasting programs that espoused the tenets of Hinduism was violating the trust its listeners place in it. The same would be true of a Christian station airing Jehovah's Witnesses programs. I think we would agree that a line must be drawn somewhere. But where? Certainly, it must at least be drawn at the basic tenets of Christianity. The problem is that Ron Dart is not on our side of that line, yet he is airing his program, Born to Win on a great many Christian stations. In order to get onto Christian radio stations, Ron Dart has learned to be less sensational and more subdued than Herbert W. Armstrong. He also chooses to discuss less theologically controversial subjects on the air. These he only introduces later in his literature and tapes. Therefore, when the listening audience hears a program such as Born to Win on KBRT and other Christian stations, they are even more vulnerable to being hooked into the organization behind it because they have their guard down. Is there something you can do? Yes, you can contact Christian TV such as Inspiration Network (airing the Living Church of God), and radio stations that air Born to Win, and other Armstrong splinter groups, and tell them you are aware of the program's connection to Armstrongism, that you are offended they would air such a program, and that you will stop listening to their station if they do not cancel the program. Freedom of speech protects pseudo-Christian groups' rights to buy airtime on secular radio and television. But the FCC agrees that Christian stations can legitimately establish criteria based on their religious beliefs that program producers must meet. There is a relationship of trust between Christians and Christian radio and television stations that the programs they air are produced by groups that a least meet the basic criteria of orthodoxy. Otherwise, we will soon have more Armstrong groups, Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, and other counterfeit Christian organizations using Christian stations to draw unsuspecting listeners into their folds. UPDATE: Many Christian stations are realizing Ronald L. Dart is not orthodox. His program Born to Win has been cancelled from many stations. Also the Church of God Modesto's program The Wonderful World Tomorrow has been cancelled from many Christian stations. God bless these Brothers and Sisters who take a stand for orthodoxy.
Until He Comes,
Dallas, TX
I was encouraged to see that Inspiration Network cancelled the Church of God International's program Armor of God. I am writing to inform you that Inspiration Network is now airing another Herbert W. Armstrong splinter group, Tomorrow's World produced by the Living Church of God. It's founder is Dr. Roderick C. Meredith who is also the main speaker on Tomorrow's World. Dr. Meredith was a writer for the late Herbert W. Armstrong at the Worldwide Church of God for many years. He was one of the original evangelists ordained by Mr. Armstrong in December 1952. Dr. Meredith still teaches and believes the major teachings of Mr. Armstrong. Dr. Meredith's official statement of fundamental beliefs states: "Our doctrines, practices, policies, and traditions have their roots in the Worldwide Church of God under the leadership of Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong" (p. 1). This certainly should cause alarm to those who are familiar with Armstrongite doctrine. My concern is that by airing programs of organizations, when examined more closely are actually unorthodox, people are deceived. This deception is enhanced when programs to promote their ministry are placed among well-known evangelical ministers and ministries. PLEASE, for Jesus' sake, do something about stopping this heresy from making further inroads when young, weak and/or immature Christians are influenced by it. It has no place in any Christian ministry. I will be sending documentation for your viewing. Sincerely in Christ, James Kieferdorf
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