For many years in the Worldwide Church of God we made a big deal about the "fact" that the Bible promises earth, not heaven. On the World Tomorrow broadcast, we offered $10,000 to anyone who could prove that the saved go to heaven. We had (and many of us still have) a scenario that goes like the one I outline below, which was our version of pre-millennialism, the doctrine of "soul sleep" and the doctrine of annihilationism.
- We have a physical life now in which some are given the opportunity to accept Christ (they are "called"). And some just don't understand enough to accept or reject Christ now (they are "not called".)
- If the called respond and remain faithful in their relationship with God until death, they are what Paul calls the "dead in Christ" and are destined for eternal life.
- The dead in Christ are in a state of non-consciousness until the return of Christ to the earth and a "first resurrection" (a term from Revelation 20). At this first resurrection the dead in Christ become immortal.
- The millennial reign of Christ will follow where those made immortal will rule over the remaining physical people on earth in a governmental and priestly sense for a 1000 years. During this period, those physical are given their opportunity for salvation. In this time period, Satan will be totally restrained from influencing humans.
- After the 1000 years, there is a "great white throne judgment" (again, based on Revelation 20) where those who were never called throughout all human history will be resurrected to a physical life.
- Then begins a 100 year period where those in the Great White Throne Judgment will be given the opportunity to be called - i.e. they will be given an opportunity to accept or reject Christ. (The length of time was always admitted to be speculation based on an uncertain text in Isaiah.)
- After the 100 year period, everyone will have had an opportunity to accept or reject Christ and there will be a resurrection of the unrepentant to physical life for permanent destruction in the lake of fire.
Over the years, the "old" Worldwide Church of God "revealed" a lot more specific details on this scenario - particularly in regard to naming nations and specific events preceding the return of Christ. But what I listed above is the skeleton of the plan of God as we saw it.
This is a scenario is worth considering because
- We recognized that accepting Christ was the deciding factor as to where we go - although we incorrectly felt that Christ's presence in us individually would automatically produce certain external identifying works, in particular the keeping of the seventh day Sabbath and the Biblical Holy Days.
- It is a scenario that shows God to be the merciful God that is emphasized in both the Old and New Testaments, One who will not issue the sentence of ultimate condemnation unless one deliberately rejects a relationship with God.
- We are forced to use the temporal to describe the eternal.
This temporal-language description of the hereafter may be just as good as any other church's temporal-language description!
But there are some theological problems with this scenario. That is not so bad, since we are forced to use the temporal to describe the eternal. But we also had some serious attitude problems. The problems were
- Attitude
- In its booklets, articles, and preaching, the "old" Worldwide Church of God put itself in the position of judging who was called and who was not - both in Church history and at the present time. We based our judgments more on the external keeping of the weekly Sabbath rather that a life-transforming belief in Christ.
- Attitude
- We felt that this was the only way to look at "eschatology" (the study of end-time events) and we looked down on those who believed differently. We saw ourselves and others who had the sign of the seventh day Sabbath as primary recipients of the privilege of the first resurrection. We ridiculed people who talked about "going to heaven".
- Theology
- This scenario cannot have credibility without relying on a very few verses in Revelation 20 and we emphasized it and celebrated specific aspects of it during our annual Holy Days. The theological flaw is that we put heavy emphasis on what the Bible does not heavily emphasize.
- Theology and Attitude
- We proclaimed that the annual Biblical Holy Days reveal this scenario. In particular, the Feast of Trumpets points to the return of Christ, the Day of Atonement points to the restraint of Satan, the Feast of Tabernacles points to the Millennium, and the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles points to the great white throne judgment. We saw this as special truth revealed to "God's True Church" and as signs that identified who was "God's True Church". In truth, the Holy Days do not reveal the plan. Rather, it seems clear to me that Mr. Armstrong over a period of years 1) presumed that he shepherded the "only true" modern Christians on earth 2) presumed that the Holy Days are requirements for Christians 3) presumed that the Holy Days have an ultimate meaning for us now 4) worked out the scenario described above, and finally 5) matched events of the scenario with specific holy days. I might add that we still worship on these days but the focus of our worship is salvation in Christ.
- Theology and Attitude
- We felt that the plan as I outlined it - and specifically, our version of the Millennium - was the basis of the Christian Gospel. We even called the Gospel "about the person of Christ" a false Gospel and we taught that we were the first to proclaim the Gospel in 1900 years. That's embarrassing, to say the least.
- Theology and Attitude
- We felt privileged in knowing a lot of details about 1100 years of eternity. We somehow never grasped that 1100 years is nothing compared to eternity. Yet we thought we knew a lot more than everybody else.
