David Hulme’s COGaIC Remaining Vision-Less?

During the United Church of God (UCG) and COGWA crisis, I have occasionally mentioned COGaIC’s David Hulme. David Hulme was the first president of UCG.

Somewhere around February 1998, after a variety of governance and managerial bickering, the UCG Board decided to not continue David Hulme’s presidency. And at that time, he and one board supporter (Peter Nathan) decided to leave the United Church of God and form COGaIC. And until the formation of COGWA, COGaIC was the largest group to have split from UCG.

Without going into all the details, I felt that from what I studied that the UCG Board was justified for removing David Hulme, but I also felt that the two doctrinal issues David Hulme then raised (better governance and being more proactive in proclaiming the gospel) suggested that COGaic may have less doctrinal errors than UCG (who continued to have some doctrinal changes as are documented in the article Differences between the Living Church of God and United Church of God).

Now I am less sure about the gospel and prophetic doctrinal aspects of COGaIC. Especially since UCG seems to have done more to publicly proclaim the Gospel of the Kingdom now that David Hulme is gone than David Hulme’s current church does (though I still disagree more with UCG’s governance). My basic impression is that COGaIC believes that it reaches people a different way with a more intellectually modern message (mainly with its Vision magazine website) and hence that it feels that it adequately is proclaiming the gospel to the best of its ability. And it terms of prophecy, COGaIC’s unwillingness to teach “church eras” (nor, does UCG officially) and explain current events in the light of end time Bible prophecy has been disappointing to me.

Although he is repeatedly referred to at the Vision website as “Middle East scholar David Hulme,” as of this morning, the latest post shown on David Hulme’s Causes of Conflict: Thoughts on Religion, Identity and the Middle East blog is dated June 17, 2010. Apparently the “Arab Spring,” Middle East protests, and governmental changes in the past year have never been worthy of his thoughts and comments (I should perhaps add that David Hulme sometimes will tweet via Twitter an article on the Middle East from secular sources-but that is still not saying much). The “causes of conflict” in the region are leading to the rising up of a power that appears likely to fulfill the prophesies related to the final King of the South that the Bible tells of (Daniel 11:40-43).

Considering all that has been happening in the Middle East (like in Tunisia, Egypt, Iran, Yemen, Syria, and Libya, and in particular the rising of the Muslim Brotherhood), and the fact that David Hulme holds a doctorate in International Relations with an emphasis on the Middle East, this lack of coverage at the Causes of Conflict blog seems unusual. One might still ask, “Where’s the vision?”

And while the Vision website once had an Alexa ranking of about 100,000, which is quite good (COGwriter’s Alexa ranking is currently 147,699), Vision’s Alexa ranking dropped a lot and currently is 983,130 (the lower the Alexa number the greater the impact–Google and Facebook hold the first and second positions). This is a huge drop from a ranking of 496,317 for Vision as late as February 2011. These ranking drops suggests that Vision is having much less of an impact on the web than it once did. And the web seems to be the primary media of public proclamation that COGaIC is currently utilizing. There are less people going to COGaIC’s Vision site. The site has in many ways became vision-less.

If you are or were part of UCG/COGaIC/COGWA and are confused about what to do, please pray, fast, and study the Bible about this and the events of the past year, or even past 16-17 years. All should be “zealous” as Jesus said in Revelation 3:19 and not be satisfied with something less than a Philadelphia type of work and Philadelphia form of church governance.

Ask yourself what are the true priorities that the Bible indicates that the church most faithful to the words of Jesus would do and act appropriately. This Holy Day season may be an excellent time to reflect upon that.

Some articles of possibly related interest may include:

Church of God, an International Community (COG aic) This is the group led by David Hulme. It seems to minimize parts of biblical prophecy and be restrictive on doctrinal statements.
Polycarp, Herbert W. Armstrong, and Roderick C. Meredith on Church Government What form of governance did the early church have? Was it hierarchical? Which form of governance would one expect to have in the Philadelphia remnant? The people decide and/or committee forms, odd dictatorships, or the same type that the Philadelphia era itself had?
Unity: Which COG for You? Why so many groups? Why is there lack of unity in the Churches of God? Has it always been this way? What can/should be done about it?
Differences between the Living Church of God and United Church of God This article provides quotes information from the two largest groups which had their origins in WCG as well as commentary.
There are Many COGs: Why Support the Living Church of God? This is an article for those who wish to more easily sort out the different COGs. It really should be a MUST READ for current and former WCG/GCI members or any interested in supporting the faithful church. It also explains a lot of what the COGs are all about.
Concerns about Church of God, a Worldwide Association Known as COGWA, this seems to be the largest group that came out of the United Church of God. Here is some history and concerns about it.
Should the Church Still Try to Place its Top Priority on Proclaiming the Gospel or Did Herbert W. Armstrong Change that Priority for the Work? Some say the Church should mainly feed the flock now as that is what Herbert W. Armstrong reportedly said. Is that what he said? Is that what the Bible says? What did Paul and Herbert W. Armstrong expect from evangelists?
What is a True Philadelphian? Many claim to be part of the Philadelphia era of the Church, but is claiming enough? This article has biblical and historical evidence about who really are the Philadelphians.
The Philadelphia Church Era was predominant circa 1933 A.D. to 1986 A.D. The old Radio Church of God and old Worldwide Church of God, now essentially the Living Church of God.
The Laodicean Church Era has been predominant circa 1986 A.D. to present. These are non-Philadelphians who mainly descended from the old WCG.