Acts20.com

There is this guy who makes youtube videos made from his audio clips. He claims to have been a Pentecostal preacher for 25 years and to have preached in COGs. He made an 'expose' of Tomlinson. Are any of these assertions of his true:That Tomlinson or the COG taught against eating pork or drinking Coke?That Tomlinson or the COG taught that speaking in tongues is the sign of salvation?That Tomlinson thought if you weren't a part of the COG denomination, that you weren't saved?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wszzTxAo3o8

I don't know about Tomlinson, but I know that at least the part about coke was true up into the 1950's in some COG congregations.I still cannot hear good without seeing the speaker, but if the closed caption was good, the man is right about many so called evangelists.The Pentecostal groups have been their own worst enemy! It is a shame the gullible dedicated people who follow crooks.. Some facts but mostly just my [email protected]://shipslog-jack.blogspot.com/

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In the early Church of God, at the General Assemblies, questions would come from the floor to Tomlinson, if I understand correctly. While he gave his opinion and many followed it, it was NOT an official position of the Church of God (i.e., voted on by the ministers and General Assembly).He was simply doing his best to shepherd our denomination as best he knew. Don't forget, there were multiple currents informing him:1) His Quaker background (which likely informed the early stance, if I remember correctly, against joining the military);2) His continual seeking of the right way for a church government to be set up, which led him to closely examine the examples of scripture...which might have given him a slight slant toward Jewish elements.

Talk to some of the old, old timers ---- couldn't drink Root Beer because it had beer in the title, wouldn't think of drinking Coke, or coffee! (I'm not sure if the church actually preached against these officially. I think it was more like: How could you have a good Christian testimony by doing these things?)I once heard one of our former general officials tell how his wife was brought before the Church and Pastor's Council because one of her dress sleeves came above her elbow while praying with someone at the altar! Have times changed or not? Do we even have altar calls anymore? (I guess that's another thread!)

I am not all that old but I do remember as a child being told that numerous things were wrong. I have heard the stories about drinking coke/rootbeer, etc. I remember the state meetings where the long haired, long dress wearing women would stare in disgust at them sinners - ladies who had short hair, wore make-up, pants....I remember as a child sitting on the pew at the Old Newport Church of God and thinking - what am I doing here. Why do I have to endure this. I hated church and purposefully listened to the satanic rock because at least it was good and I could feel something.

Some facts but mostly just my [email protected]://shipslog-jack.blogspot.com/

In my youth, there was a lot of that going around. Some facts but mostly just my [email protected]://shipslog-jack.blogspot.com/

Someone said for question 3, the answer was 'yes.' Are there any minutes from the GA or teachings from Tomlinson that other Christians that weren't a part of his denominational structure weren't Christians or were going to Hell? The COG seemed to think a genuine move went on at Azusa Street, and there were other Pentecostal groups around that time in the same general part of the country (e.g. PH, Firebaptized) that they would have interacted with. The COG started way back when. I hear in the old days, Coca-Cola had cocaine in it. They mixed them up in the pharmacies, too, back then, didn't they? It could have been quite an addicting substance. Doctors in the late 1800's would give out elixers that had opiates and cocaine in them, even to babies. Before the federal government started regulating medicines, there were a lot of companies selling dangerous elixers. Doctors had just learned to wash their hands after handling dead bodies and before delivering babies (a reason why so many women died in childbirth) just a few decades before. Medicine was just emerging from the deadly quackery that it had been. So being opposed to going to doctors may also have been good common sense back then.I asked a question a while back about whether the COG had cultish tendencies when it started out. I would say it was ever a cult, per se. But some of the legalism-- like if you could really get kicked out just for going to a county fair