The United Church of God is a very legalistic non-Christian cult. It is an offshoot of the Worldwide Church of God founded by Bob Dick and David Hulme in 1995 with headquarters in Milford, Ohio. An unknown number of members form this church. They claim to base their teachings on the original church that “Jesus founded in the first century.” But no further information is given on what this means or how they can base their teachings on such an assertion.
Like many other cults this one denies the Trinity and the true divinity of Jesus Christ, requiring baptism and strict adherence to the commandments in order to be saved. Another serious unscriptural teaching is that the wicked unsaved are not alive in hell but are annihilated. The Bible clearly teaches that there is a literal hell.
The predominant teaching of the United Church of God is that there is a “God family” which anyone can become a member of by keeping the Law. Jesus considered one of two divine beings and the Father is the second being. The Holy Spirit is considered only a force or power of some sort, but not the third Person of the Trinity and by their beliefs can only be received by the laying on of hands.
Members of this church are required to keep the Sabbath and observe certain festivals. Eating any type of “unclean” meat is forbidden. The rejection of military service is also a basic tenant of the church and idea of bearing arms for any reason is rejected. Conscientious objections to refuse military participation, is encouraged.
The one thing that they do understand is the pre-millennial teaching of the Bible. The United Church of God believe and teach the personal, visible, pre-millennial return of the Lord Jesus Christ to rule the nations on earth as King of kings and will continue His priestly office as Lord of lords. At that time, He will sit upon the throne of David. During His thousand-year reign upon the earth, He will restore all things and establish the Kingdom of God forever. But since they convolute who God actually is, one is left wondering how they think this accurate pre-millennial teaching really fits into their warped requirements for salvation and living.
It is important to keep in mind that very often within cults, some true biblical doctrines can often be properly adhered to, but then a whole slew of untruths are also mixed. This is very common and one should be very careful and mindful that just because a few teachings jibe with Scripture does not mean the rest of the group’s doctrines are correct. In fact they are usually very far from true biblical doctrine.
Resist any involvement with the United Church of God. It is a church that has reinvented most of the Bible’s teachings and added their own ideas. This method of worshiping a fictional god will leave members confused and suffering from an unattainable salvation by works. Only Christ’s blood atoning sacrifice can cover sin and fully redeem us. This church teaches a false God, a false Christ and a false gospel.
The United Church of God has a media presence on the Internet, television, facebook and promotes these publications: World News Prophecy, Vertical Thought Magazine and The Good News Magazine.