New book on Church of God Sabbatarian History coming! Click here for details.
For additonal information on the History of Doctrinal Development in the Church of God since the 1800s click here History of Doctrinal Development in the Worldwide Church of God

Twentieth Century Pioneers


Draft: The Herbert W Armstrong and Radio Church of God Historical Trail & Photo Album

The history of the early Work of Herbert W Armstrong and the Radio Church of God in photographs


Herbert W Armstrong. Man of God!

Little known information on HWA and WCG doctrines


Lists and Charts of the Early Years of the Ministry of Herbert W Armstrong

Lists and Charts of the Early Years of Herbert W Armstrong


The Final Year of Herbert W Armstrong

What happened during his final year? Was anything sinister afoot?


Herbert W Armstrong's Early Beliefs and Doctrines

Mr Armstrong changed some doctrines from his early years. We can learn from his willingness to change and improve


Greenberry George Rupert: A Significant Church of God Leader!

Additional information on Rupert


Greenburry G Rupert

Rupert was famous in the early 20th century but almost forgotten


Pioneers Or Senior Veterans Of The Worldwide Church Of God

Information on the pioneers of the WCG


WCG Pioneers Timeline

WCG Pioneers in Chart form


Herman L Hoeh

Herman L Hoeh played a key part in the WCG

The Church of God and Sabbatarians since the 17th Century


Church of God & Sabbatarian Timelines

Historical developments of the Church since the late 1700s in chart form


Church process towards Unification

Variety of charts simplifying aspects of Church of God history


A Note on Seventh Day Baptist Relationship to the Church of God

The Seventh Day Baptists relationships with other sabbatarians


A Note on Christian Israelite Church and the Sabbath

Information about a group that once promulgated God's Holy Days


The Independent Sabbatarian Groups

Is there a missing link in the history of the Church of God?


A Note on the name 'Church of God (Adventist)'

Was the Church ever known as 'Church of God (Adventist)'?


Historic Church of God Fundamentals of Belief

What Sabbatarians believed since the 1700s


History of Doctrinal Development


History of the Fair Chance Doctrine

Origin and development of the Fair Chance doctrine (original articles here)


Draft: The Doctrinal Heritage of the Church of God in the Nineteenth Century

Background to the origin of many doctrines


How the Israel Identity Truth entered

the Church of God

How the Israel Identity Truth entered the Church of God


Chart Summarizing the Development of WCG Doctrines & Titles

Summary of the development of WCG doctrines

 

Do Church Eras Exists?

Development of the Church Eras doctrine


History of the Place of Safety Doctrine in the Church of God

History of the Place of safety doctrine


The Identity of the German Peoples in Church of God Doctrine
How did the Church of God discover the Assyrian  origin of the German peoples?

Notes on the Third Resurrection Doctrine in the Church of God

History of the Third Resurrection Doctrine

 

History of the Sabbatarians since the First Century



Passover and Holy Day Observances since the First Century

Were the holy days observed by Christians since the first century? If so, is there definite proof...


Early Doctrines of the Eastern Churches

What became of the Church Jesus built and the congregations scattered throughout the East, particularly...


Sabbatarian Groups A Scattered and Little Flock

The Church of God sabbatarian groups have always been a scattered into various remnants...


Collection of Information on Various Church of God Groups

Doctrines of the Sabbatarians since the First Century

After the passing of the Apostles, did the Church of God consistently adhere to all of the original doctrines? Where doctrines...


Worldwide Church of God History


History of Worldwide Church of God Ministerial Conferences

In an article written to the members about the 1960 conference, Roderick Meredith stated: �The annual ministerial conferences...


History of Worldwide Church of God's Foreign Works

Little has been preserved or written about in various books on the history of the Church�s Work outside of the United States. Hereunder...


History of the Feast of Tabernacles in the Radio/Worldwide Church of God

In the article Passover and Holy Day Observances since the First Century, I point out that the observance of the Holy Days...


History of the World Tomorrow Broadcast

In The Wonderful World Tomorrow: Herbert W. Armstrong�s Vision of Life After the Apocalypse, Scott Lupo noted: �In 1985, the year before...


History of the Plain Truth magazine

�Surely nothing could have started smaller. Born in adversity in the very depths of the Depression, this Work...


History of Worldwide Church of God Publications and Booklets


A Chronological Overview of the Changes

 My suspicions from early 1986 proved correct � because of what I suspected, I kept a running log of the personnel and doctrinal changes. It pays to keep forever vigilan


Miscellanous


Church of God History. Tending to the Past. Preserving for the Future

Why and how to preserve our history and heritage


List of Sabbatarian Groups in Australia

(needs to be updated)


Did all the Waldensians observe the Sabbath?

Graphic source: Wikipedia

Articles by others on the Waldenses available  here (NB: not all of this information is about those that were called Waldenses who observed the Sabbaths. Most who were known as Waldenses did not observe the seventh-day Sabbath).

It must have been in 1977 or 1978 that I discovered Gerard Damsteegt, a SDA scholar who authored a fascinating book ‘Foundations of the Seventh-day Adventist Message and Mission’ in the SDA bookshop in Perth. 

The SDA bookshop also had a lot of old pre-SDA literature and original SDA literature. Years before, as a youngster, I read their literature in the Port Elizabeth, South Africa library as part of my research. Uriah Smith in particular interested me. The other SDA bookshops in Strathfield (a suburb of Sydney) and Avondale College also contained much old literature. Nowadays, that has changed and their bookshops are more and more mainstream and without depth. 

 I found the book by Damsteegt intriguing filled with all sorts of fascinating titbits – include a copy of the SDA 1872 Fundamentals. This included article V: 

 >V. That the new birth comprises the entire change necessary to fit us for the kingdom of God, and consists of two parts: first, a moral change, wrought by conversion and a Christian life; second, a physical change at the second coming of Christ, whereby, if dead, we are raised incorruptible, and if living, are changed to immortality in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. John 3:3, 5; Luke 20:36.<

 Some time later (2005), I obtained an article by him arguing for the Waldenses (or many of them) being Sabbath-keepers. The article was titled The Waldenses. An Analysis of Insabbatati.

 In June 2010 he advised me he was withdrawing the article, pending the publication of further research, after rigorous review. His new article was published in 2016 and is available  here (Decoding Ancient Waldensian Names: New Discoveries). Shows you how long it can take for scholarly articles to be reviewed and accepted for publication and to finally be published behind a queue of others!

 I think you will find the article of great interest – in particular the 16th page onward following the sub-heading Waldensian Sabbath-keepers. I think it shows that the Waldensians, much like the terms Adventist or Scythian, is an umbrella term for several groups.

 Finally, let me make this point: I have much literature on the Waldensians and from what I could gather, there were Sabbatarians amongst them. It was rather obvious from my readings that many Waldensians observed the 7th day Sabbath, but most didn't. We should not force history into our template, but deeply and honestly study the records.

 The old WCG papers by Lester Grabbe "Were the Waldenses a part of God's Church?" (1981) and Lawson Briggs “Did Peter Waldo Keep the Sabbath?” (1974) notwithstanding, some Waldenses did indeed observe the seventh day Sabbath.