In this final entry on Church of God history, our church historian reviews the development of thinking on the end times.

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The Church of God (Seventh Day) has observed two ordinances since our inception in 1858. We have always baptized new converts by immersion in water, in the name of Jesus. But our observance of the Lord’s Supper service evolved from “whenever” to annually. Unfortunately, our observance of the Lord’s Supper service has been beset by […]

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The Church of Christ, later known as the Church of God (Seventh Day), of the 1860s did not have a written position on Christian lifestyles. Apparently she left standards of morality and Christian living up to the Christian community as a whole. The church’s theological concerns were weekly Sabbath observance, the second coming of Jesus, […]

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In 1664, Stephen Munford introduced the Seventh Day Baptist Church and its observance of the seventh-day Sabbath to North America. Nearly two centuries later, the Sabbath was introduced to, and accepted by, a portion of William Miller’s failed Adventist movement. A member of the Seventh Day Baptist Church named Rachel Oakes convinced Frederick Wheeler, a […]

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The Church of Christ (early 1860s) in Michigan was the earliest predecessor to the Church of God (Seventh Day). Her doctrine of salvation through Jesus Christ, or soteriology, was stated by Enos Easton, editor of The Hope of Israel magazine: “As principles we shall maintain . . . ‘That sin entered the world and death by sin;’ […]

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Statement 1: The Bible The Church of God (Seventh Day) has always taught, in various forms, “The Bible containing the Old and New Testaments, is God’s inspired Word. Inerrant in its original writing, the Bible is the only authoritative and infallible rule of faith and conduct for humanity.” But this commitment was tested in our […]

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From the 1920s through the 1980s, many students of prophecy in the Church of God taught that the second coming of Jesus Christ and the battle of Armageddon were inseparable. Further, they taught that when the state of Israel declared independence in 1948, it was a sign that His coming was near, surrounded by prophetic […]

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When my father was converted in the late 1930s, he and Mother began looking for a Sabbathkeeping church as an alternative to the Seventh-day Adventist Church in our hometown of Parkersburg, West Virginia. They found the Church of God (Seventh Day) and became members. When they began attending its services, they took my brothers and […]

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The Holy Spirit is found throughout the Bible, but His role in the life of God’s people develops significantly from the Old Testament to the New as all God’s good promises are fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Beginnings The Holy Spirit is introduced in the creation narrative of Genesis 1:1, 2: “In the beginning God created […]

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As a teenager in the 1940s, I attended a Salem branch of the Church of God (Seventh Day). At that time the Church was preaching the imminent return of Jesus and the third angel’s message as a warning of impending judgment upon worshippers of the beast (Revelation 14:9, 10). Other elements of this teaching were […]

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