CG7 Continues to Distance Itself From Bible Prophecy

While yesterday I posted about some who are overly misfocused on prophecy as they falsely claim the end must begin in 2008, Church of God (Seventh day)-Denver seems to be on the other end of the spectrum.

It is not that CG7 does not believe any prophecies, it just seems to want to minimize the prophecies, and even prophetic books, of the Bible.

Here is what it is currently teaching in its Bible Advocate magazine:

The Apocalypse of Jesus Christ does not just signal the

end of the Bible; it discloses the very end of time. If the apparent doom it forecasts does not discourage us from further examination, then the bizarre imagery clinches it. The book is formidable, to be sure.

It is peculiar that a volume this obscure should be called Revelation…

The prophecy

The Apocalypse speaks the lyrical language of dream; our old senses cannot comprehend it. As with the seers Ezekiel and Daniel before him, what John sees defies rational explanation. To be “in the Spirit” is to be transported out of the prosaic confines of the literal and logical into the startling world of metaphor and mystery (1:10; 4:1; 17:3; 21:10). Seven times in twenty-two chapters (1:3; 11:6; 19:10; 22:7, 10, 18, 19) Revelation describes itself as prophecy. God will “show His servants — things which must shortly take place” (1:1; Amos 3:7).

But the future that John experiences and conveys is not brute history but more poetry. The divine glimpse of reality has urgency and grandeur that conventional discourse cannot contain. Heaven opens, human expression fails, and only inscrutable awe remains. Beauty is indefinable and melody unexplainable; they must be experienced, not translated, to be known.

Revelation is such a melody. It calls us to be a prophetic people, not just farsighted but capable of mediating in the Spirit the melodious beauty of encounter with the divine (1 Corinthians 12:10; 14:1-39; 2 Corinthians 12:1-7)…

The Word

The Apocalypse weaves the fabric of vision from the thread of memory. John states that his prophecy is the “word of God,” a phrase he uses seven times in the book (1:2, 9; 6:9; 17:17; 19:9, 13; 20:4). But this new song is taken from the old (5:9; Psalm 96:1).

(Overman, Jason. Songs of the Apocalypse. Bible Advocate Online, December 2007).

CG7 seems to discount biblical prophecy and the above simply is another indication of that CG7 is no place of safety. Those who went to it from the old Worldwide Church of God need to realize that CG7 is losing truths that it has, and that it has a name that it is alive but is dead.

I believe that this lack of proper prophetic emphasis is part of why Jesus warned the remnant of the Sardis era, “you will not know what hour I will come upon you” (Revelation 3:3).

And while CG7 does teach that Jesus will return and thus a few prophetic teachings, so do most non-COG groups. CG7 seems to wish to tell people that it accepts the fact that the Bible contains prophecy, but it does not really seem to wish to tell people much about what it means.

That is sad. Hopefully some with CG7 will heed Jesus’ warning in Revelation 3:2-3:

Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die, for I have not found your works perfect before God.

Remember therefore how you have received and heard; hold fast and repent. Therefore if you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief, and you will not know what hour I will come upon you.

Several articles of possible related interest may include:

Church of God, Seventh Day: History and Teachings Nearly all COG’s I am aware of trace their history through this group. Whaid Rose is the president of the largest CG7 group (Denver). Do you know much about them? Do you know what it really teaches about prophecy?

5. The Sardis Church Era was predominant circa 1600 A.D. to circa 1933 A.D. Discusses earl;y history of the Seventh Day Baptists, Seventh-day Adventists, and COG-7th Day.

The Churches of Revelation 2 & 3 from 31 A.D. to present: information on all of the seven churches of Revelation 2 & 3.

There is a Place of Safety for the Philadelphians. Why it May Be Petra This article discusses a biblical ‘place of safety’ and includes quotes from the Bible and Herbert W. Armstrong on this subject–thus, there is a biblically supported alternative to the rapture theory.