The Journey - A History of the Church of God (Seventh Day)

By Robert Coulter

5 Stars

Religion/History

Adult

For me, this is an important historical work as I have been a Sabbath-keeping Christian for more than fifty years. The subject matter is something I have studied in the past, and when I became aware of this book, I sought it out and bought my own copy. Once it was delivered, I read it cover to cover.

Other works that I have read on the subject are: “History of the Church of God (Seventh Day)” by Richard C. Nickels, “History of the Church of God (Seventh Day)” by John Kiesz, “A History of the True Church” by Andrew N. Dugger and Clarence O. Dodd, “The Autobiography of Herbert W. Armstrong Volumes I and II. In addition, I have listened to a number of sermons touching on the subject as well as some lectures while I attended Ambassador College in Pasadena, California, back in the 1980s. Most of these works can be obtained online for anyone interested. I got free PDF files of all except the Autobiography, which I have in hard copy.

For a reference work, I found this quite easy to read. That is not the case with some of the books in the above paragraph. This is well researched, and it does reference some of the works above. What impressed me the most about it was its simple, logical, chronological organization. I also appreciated the author's efforts at complete honesty on the subject. He is critical of some of the other books, and he supports his points.

One point I’d like to make is that the separate organizations were not as separate as some of the writers seem to indicate. Herbert Armstrong started “flying solo” with the Radio Church of God, but I do recall a high ranking minister in a lecture at college mention that in the early days, when they were traveling, sometimes they would find themselves in an area without a directly affiliated congregation and would sometime visit Church of God Seventh Day congregations and at times deliver sermons while visiting. So I don’t think organizational borders were very rigid. 

This is a valuable reference to anyone within the broader Church of God community and anyone interested in studying the subject.