Five Doctrines Which Identify God’s Church – Gary L Alexander hwalibrary.com

The linked Good News article from 1974 summarizes five key doctrines that are unique to the Church of God, as distinguished from counterfeit teachings of so-called Christianity. They are helpful reminders of the core defining doctrines of the true Body of Christ.

PLAN OF GOD
The weekly Sabbath and annual Holy Days describe God’s plan for humankind through seven steps and three annual seasons. The seventh-day rest reminds us of creation and a promised millennial rest after 6,000 years of man's misrule. The biblical Holy Days lay out each step of that plan, from Christ as Passover lamb to Judgment Day, and offer great hope and encouragement. False Christianity, conversely, replaces them with false Sunday worship and meaningless “hallow days” (holidays) based on pagan traditions and overlayed with materialism. These offer no transcendent plan of salvation.

PURPOSE OF HUMANKIND
Human beings were created to become God-beings, born into the family and likeness of God. God is a growing family, with more sons and daughters begotten every day. The expression "Son of God" is not merely any kind of religious person. Just like a son of man, a son of God has the potential to grow up to assume the same adult capabilities and responsibilities. The faithful will become God, as God is God. Conversely, popular Christianity proposes God as a trinity, in a closed-loop system that excludes human beings. This teaching is not found in the Bible except for wording inserted by copyists in the eighth century A.D. Its theological proponents admit the doctrine is incomprehensible, yet they assert the damnation of any who reject it.

REWARD OF THE SAVED
The destiny of the faithful is rulership in Christ’s Kingdom on Earth. The Bible is replete with references to rulership over planet Earth as the reward of the saved. They will serve as educators, rulers, and ministers to the millions and billions of physical human beings who will survive or be resurrected into the Millenium. Conversely, Christianity asserts that the saved go to heaven. Yet the Bible nowhere promises heaven as a reward of the saved. And even if one could go to heaven, who would really want to be there? All the good stuff anticipated in the Bible, like Christ’s rule, the New Jerusalem, and the recreation of a utopian world will happen on Earth.

PENALTY OF THE UNSAVED
Every human who has ever lived will have the chance to know Christ and be instructed in God’s way before judgment. Those who died without being called will be resurrected to live under God's laws in the Kingdom of God on earth, then to decide for themselves if they will accept Christ’s rule in their lives. If they willfully reject it, their judgment is all-consuming hellfire; i.e. instant and permanent erasure. The Hebrew and Greek words sheol and hades mean a literal "grave," not an ever-burning hellfire, and the Greek word Gehenna refers to a literal valley of burning refuse as a metaphor for the destruction of those who deliberately and permanently reject God. Conversely, popular Christianity teaches that God damns the unsaved to burn in tortuous flames for all eternity, including unbaptized babies and those hapless who are ignorant about Christ. More permissive versions suggest that God deems all “good” people saved, regardless of their faith. These ideas aren’t in the Bible.

NATURE OF MAN
Man is a physical, biological being with a separate "spirit in man" imbued at birth and taken away at death. When he dies, he dies, and no consciousness survives him. But while he lives, God imbues man with mental and spiritual capacity above animals, styled after God’s own creative mind, thus enabling human beings to seek and interact with Him through the addition of God’s Holy Spirit. Organized religions have displaced this with superstitions about immortal souls and the trappings of spiritualism and the occult. The idea of an "immortal soul" is not in the Bible, and Paul said that only Jesus Christ has immortality. A complimentary Gnostic doctrine called “dualism” makes the spirit good and the physical inherently evil. This philosophy originated in Babylon, was refined in Egypt then transferred into modern "Christianity" via Hellenism, or Greek philosophy. And it demeans the glory of God’s creation.