Cartwright’s Journal out: Ron Dart’s death and David Jon Hill’s life

The latest issue (says #180, print date January 31 2016) of The Journal was sent out electronically and just received. This was another relatively short edition.

Items covered included information on Ron Dart’s death and the life of the late David Jon Hill. Actually, most of the issue had to do with Ronald Dart, ads, and David Jon Hill.

Here is information related to Ron Dart as reported in The Journal :

TYLER, Texas—Ronald Lee Dart, 82, founder of Christian Educational Ministries and the Born to Win radio broadcast, died Jan. 23, 2016. The official cause of death was a “prolonged battle with cutaneous T cell lymphoma,” a type of skin cancer, announced CEM office manager Linda Benton. Ms. Benton said Mr. Dart “died peacefully in his sleep.” He had never fully recovered from an injury to his head caused by a fall at his residence in 2010. …

Mr. Dart served as a pastor of a congregation of the Radio Church of God and returned to Ambassador in Pasadena, Calif., to work on his master’s degree in theology. He later did graduate work in communications at the University of Texas, Austin. Mr. Dart eventually taught speech and theology at Ambassador College, as well as serving as the school’s deputy chancellor and executive vice president.

Alongside his college duties, he served as pastor of the Big Sandy Worldwide Church of God 1973-76. Joined CGI in ’78 After Garner Ted Armstrong left the WCG in 1978, Mr. Dart joined up with him in his new Church of God International, based in Tyler.

After differences with the CGI in 1995, Mr. Dart left the church and founded Christian Educational Ministries, based in nearby Whitehouse, with his wife, the former Allie Driver, in November of that year. (CEM is known as Christian Educational Services in some countries.) Mr. Dart’s Born to Win is heard on several radio stations throughout the United States.

Mr. Dart was preceded in death by his father, mother and sister, Nana Williams. He is survived by his wife of 62 years. Mr. Dart’s funeral took place at Stewart Family Funeral Home in Tyler, with a United Church of God elder, Jonathan Garnant of Yorba Linda, Calif., officiating.

After Dixon Cartwright contacted me, I reported about Ronald Dart’s death here a couple of weeks ago (see CEM’s Ronald Dart died and Ronald Dart’s funeral). Information on CEM is included in the article Teachings of Christian Educational Ministries.

In its previous couple of issues, The Journal re-ran an article from David Jon Hill who died November 23, 2003, that he had written for The Journal in 2003. In this issue, Brian Knowles wrote the following about David Jon Hill:

Jon the teacher

Jon Hill taught several classes at Ambassador College in Pasadena. His most famous was Old Testament Survey. He owned that class.

Many a student roared with laughter as Jon made those OT stories of Abraham and Sarah live. His sense of humor was unique, based on a keen and penetrating understanding of human nature.

Jon understood that the best writing and the most memorable sermons are built around stories, not “string of pearls” concordance like Scripture passages. Much of the Bible is narrative. Jon was one of the WCG’s best speakers and writers because he was a natural storyteller. His memories of life were told in anecdotes.

He seemed to see the Bible as a series of scenes in which people acted out minidramas that depicted life’s great spiritual truths. Jon saw the humor in everything, even in the direst of situations. Jon also taught a class called Theological Journalism.

Eventually he passed that class on to me to teach and I became an official faculty member at AC. I also guest-lectured in his OTS class and speech classes and occasionally in Epistles.

I am not certain if I ever met David Jon Hill. He did a lot of research on Catholic private prophecies and how some of them will be used to mislead people in the end times. Two of his articles related to that were published by the old Radio Church of God. Here are links to both of them: Christ or Antichrist? and Will You Be Deceived by Antichrist? He also wrote about how to study the Bible: How to Study the Bible.

Additionally, The Journal also had the usual letters to the editor and other advertisements, various comments, and opinion articles. The advertisements mainly seem to be from possibly Laodicean groups and/or individuals (not all seem to be COG) who seem to think that the ads are somehow doing the work. More of the real work the COGs should be doing are in the article The Final Phase of the Work.

The Journal itself is available by paid subscription (though Dixon Cartwright says some subscriptions are free to those who cannot afford it). It tends to have a non-Philadelphian approach to many matters.