The COGs & the Internet in 2007 & 2008

The Above Map Show the Number of Internet Users By Country

The world is a big place, yet with the internet, much of it can be reached. Most of the COGs have some type of internet presence. Some, like the COGwriter site, reach the vast majority of the countries/territories of the world each year based upon independently tallied statistics.

In 2007, the COGwriter site had double the amount of unique visitors, double the amount of page views, and several times the number of “hits” compared to 2006. This increase is probably due to the ever increasing content at this site (though the increase in “hits”is mainly due to switching this news page to Word Press in June 2007 and adding pictures with most posts). The site also added a news feature that updates with additional world news items every ten minutes in 2007.

The top two dozen nations/regions who visited the COGwriter site in 2007 were recorded as follows:

United States of America
Canada
Australia
European Union
Great Britain
South Africa
Netherlands
China
Hong Kong
Sweden
New Zealand
Norway
Iceland
Singapore
Germany
Philippines
Malaysia
France
India
Jamaica
Switzerland
Russian Federation
Greece
Japan

One of my personal objectives was to increase responses in 2007 from throughout Asia including Russia, China, India, Japan, and that did happen–though I pray regularly that more will be reached there.

With the United Arab Emirates coming in at number 27, and Tunisia at number 127, and many others in-between, it appears that the reach to North Africa and the Middle East is increasing.

I am hoping for better results from the rest of Africa, the Caribbean, and Latin America in 2008, though the COGwriter site probably encouraged more people in those areas to actually support LCG in 2007 than the other listed Gentile areas. (In 2006, my focus was more on the Islands of the world as well as Europe.)

As more developments occur in Europe, I suspect additional information at the COGwriter site will be read by more in that region.

What about the other Church Of God websites sites?

The Living Church of God reported that it had record amounts of unique visitors to its official websites (Tomorrow’s World, LCG) in 2007. It also got a record television number of television responses.

The United Church of God got excellent results in 2007. From what I can tell, it probably record results for 2-3 of its official sites.

COGaIC’s main public site is its Vision website, which seems to be up some. COGaIC added a blog on early Christianity in 2007 to its public site (those interested in more information may also wish to visit the The History of Early Christianity page). (In early 2006 Church of God an International Community (COGaIC) effectively reduced access to its information online similar to the practices of PCG and now RCG–thus its “Church of God News” is no longer as public as it once was–it also changed the format of its other page in December 2007.)

The Philadelphia Church of God appears to have done well internet-wise in 2007 with its Trumpet website (which now has more world news than before), and it expanded one website related to S. Flurry’s Raising the Ruins book.

The Restored Church of God reported a record amount of hits to its websites in 2007. David Pack made an unusual appeal to supporters in November 2007 to liquidate assets and send them to him as he has “big” plans, including upgrading his websites in 2008 (see also David Pack of the Restored Church of God Declares: “Go get those assets and get them here”).

The unitarian CCG, which I am not convinced is a COG, seems to have received many internet responses in 2007.

Church of the Great God received excellent internet interest as its internet responses seem to be up in 2007.

Church of God International had its website offline the latter portion of 2007 as it is intending a relaunch. But it still received internet interest. (It still was not up when I checked this morning).

CG21’s site still lists as “New” items from 2005 and earlier, as this site does not appear to have received much in the way of updates (nor outsdie interest) in the past year or so (most likely because of Raymond McNair’s health condition).

The Enduring Church of God, contrary to its previous claims about a website, did not even have a functional public website until December 30, in 2007-but at least it finally got one (see GCG news page).

Legacy Institute‘s site was offline briefly in 2007. Legacy’s site still tends to be behind, however, in posting its own news–but of course, the internet is not really much of Legacy’s focus.

Christian Education Ministries primary website seems to have had a similar year as it did in 2006. A December 16, 2007, quantcast.com reports showed that BornToWin.net’s monthly unique visitors from the United States (“U.S. Reach: 9,250”) was almost as high as COGwriter (“U.S. Reach: 12,096”).

Christian Bibical Church of God’s primary website seems to have had a similar year as it did in 2006.

The two main HWA materials sites seem to have done well in 2007 and both seemed to improve the quality of some their materials.

Speaking of sites related to those who have died within the past 22 years, ICG’s GTA site as well as the G&S site of the late R. Nickels also seemed to do well in 2007.

Church of God (Seventh Day) did not seem to have much going on with its websites in 2007. Independent rankings (on 12/16/07) indicate that it has not made effective use of the internet for a group of its size (“U.S. Reach 5,537”).

According to the two independent places I checked, The Journal did not seem to do as well in 2007 as I recall from 2006. However, a later report from it states that its visits were up 51% from 2006.

Regarding the anti-COG sites in 2007, Gary Scott decided he should spend more time with his family and stopped posting at his xCG blog. Gavin Rumney tried to fill in by posting more on his Ambassador Watch site, but seems to have had a higher percentage of non-COG related items than in prior years and his relative rankings are lower than they were a couple of years ago.

Perhaps it should be mentioned that there are a lot of small and independent COG groups who believe that their websites are how they are effectively proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom to the world as a witness. However, they tend to be ineffective according reports I have seen (Church of God In Peace and Truth is one that comes to mind).

However, there are two notable exceptions to the really small groups getting few responses.

The first is Barnabas Ministries which reported that its number of visitors set a record for 2007. The website is somewhat of a collection of articles by those who consider themselves “independent” of “corporate churches” (an article of related interest may include Independent Members of the COG: Herbert W. Armstrong Comments, Plus Questions and Answers).

And the second is that one of Ron Weinland’s (of CGPFK) sites did very well due to the subject matter and advertising–Ron Weinland incorrectly claims to be one of the two witnesses and that the Great Tribulation will begin in 2008. The COGwriter article Concerns About Ronald Weinland’s Church of God-Preparing for the Kingdom of God has been receiving over 100 page views per day–hence many people are concerned that the end could come in 2008, but it will not (please see the news item At Least Two Wrongly Claim Great Tribulation Will Begin in 2008).

Notice that Ronald Weinland claims:

This phase of the Fifth Thunder is one of my own choosing, which God has granted me as part of His own will and purpose for the Church (2008 – God’s Final Witness, p. 92).

I suspect that Ron Weinland may later claim to have the power to change the date of “the end”, that by the end of 2008 (and perhaps he will announce that no later than the Feast of Tabernacles) he will . Otherwise, shortly thereafter, “the end” of his current internet impact will thus probably come for him and his group. Now, of course, I do not believe that Ron Weinland is actually in the Church of God any more, hence hope that he will not discourage people who he misleads from looking in to the biblical truths that the Church of God promotes (an article of related interest may be Why Be Concerned About False and Heretical Leaders?).

Those interested in the Church of God, may wish to read the article There are Many COGs: Why Support the Living Church of God? It not only mentions some COG differences, it has a summary of what the COGs are all about.