Church of God Preparing for the Kingdom of God
Encyclopedia
The Church of God, Preparing for the Kingdom of God (COG-PKG) is a small Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...

 church that claims to provide "support, education and warning to the scattered Church that was formerly united in the Worldwide Church of God
Worldwide Church of God
Grace Communion International , formerly the Worldwide Church of God , is an evangelical Christian denomination based in Glendora, California, United States. Since April 3, 2009, it has used the new name Grace Communion International in the US...

". It is one of many groups that left the Worldwide Church of God after doctrinal changes took place there, and as such forms a part of the Seventh Day Churches of God tradition.

The church is led by Ronald Weinland. Recently they have adopted an apocalyptic belief in the imminent end of the world. This view has been expressed in Weinland's books The Prophesied End-Time and 2008 – God's Final Witness. Weinland has identified himself to be "the spokesman of His two end-time witnesses" which are mentioned in the Bible (Revelation
Book of Revelation
The Book of Revelation is the final book of the New Testament. The title came into usage from the first word of the book in Koine Greek: apokalupsis, meaning "unveiling" or "revelation"...

 11:3), Weinland claims that he and his wife Laura are both Prophets, also that he is an end-time apostle to the Church, the end-time Elijah to come as mentioned in Malachi
Book of Malachi
Malachi is a book of the Hebrew Bible, the last of the twelve minor prophets and the final book of the Neviim...

 4:5-6 and Zerubbabel
Zerubbabel
Zerubbabel was a governor of the Persian Province of Judah and the grandson of Jehoiachin, penultimate king of Judah. Zerubbabel led the first group of Jews, numbering 42,360, who returned from the Babylonian Captivity in the first year of Cyrus, King of Persia . The date is generally thought to...

 who will rebuild the temple, which Weinland teaches is The Church of God PKG. According to his blog, "the final countdown has begun, as the 1,335 days before the actual day Jesus Christ returns began on Tuesday, September 30, 2008." In a sermon given for April 18, 2008, he identified his wife Laura, as the other witness of Revelation 11 and called Pope Benedict XVI
Pope Benedict XVI
Benedict XVI is the 265th and current Pope, by virtue of his office of Bishop of Rome, the Sovereign of the Vatican City State and the leader of the Catholic Church as well as the other 22 sui iuris Eastern Catholic Churches in full communion with the Holy See...

 a "false prophet." Weinland has changed the prophesied date for the return of Christ to Pentecost of 2012 (May 27) and recently began to ordain women in his church as elders.

Weinland delivers his sermons weekly on Saturday afternoons on a live basis to members throughout the United States and Canada via streaming audio on the Internet. The COG-PKG has a number of members overseas who listen to recordings of the sermons the following Saturday – in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Belgium, New Zealand and Australia. The church's headquarters are in Cincinnati, OH.

External links

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