Pastor General Joseph Tkach joined Mr. Albrecht and Mr. Lapacka, manager of church relations, April 19, to talk with Ralph Woodrow, author of Babylon Mystery Religion--Ancient and Modern, a book that was once read and studied by many Worldwide Church of God members.
Mr. Woodrow revised some of the things he originally wrote in that book and has since written three 64-page booklets, which are offered below.
Mr. Woodrow was 16 years old when he first received our magazine in 1956. "The magazine impacted my life. It was interesting and stirred within me a greater desire to study things out in the Bible," he said.
"But I could not accept the teaching that one organization was `the one and only true church,' Mr. Woodrow continued. "Having already received Jesus Christ as my personal Savior, I believed I was already a part of the church, because of salvation."
At that time, the Worldwide Church of God would have labeled him a "falsely so-called Christian" because his Christian background was more mainstream, evangelical.
Mr. Woodrow mentioned that as an evangelist he has had the opportunity to speak to many churches over the years, but in his experience he has not found Christians who meet on Saturday to be necessarily more spiritual or victorious than those who worship on Sunday.
He referred to the book A True History of the True Church by Church of God (Seventh Day) ministers Dugger and Dodd, pointing out that some of the links that were used to trace the history back through earlier centuries did not seem conclusive.
Mr. Tkach added that some in the Church of God (Seventh Day) were surprised that we had historically given such credence to Dugger and Dodd's scholarship.
Mr. Albrecht commented: "You have changed some major points you have taught. What brought you to set the record straight?"
Mr. Woodrow replied: "After being in the Lord's work for a number of years, I began to look at the fruits of some doctrines that were needlessly divisive and even hurtful to the spiritual lives of Christians. On some things I began to ask: `Is this a major issue or not?' In the light of Romans 14, I don't believe we should major in the minors."
"Having read in Worldwide Church of God literature that the Bible condemns Christmas trees in Jeremiah 10, it was an interesting twist when a couple of men from the Worldwide Church of God phoned me differing from this position. They pointed out that the context argues against this conclusion. This was in the late '60s. I mention this incident in my book Christmas Reconsidered.
"In earlier editions of Babylon Mystery Religion--Ancient and Modern, I included negative material about Christmas. Because some took these things to unfruitful extremes that did not truly reflect my position, I removed the material from the book. Quite a few were upset about this, and so to clarify things, I wrote Christmas Reconsidered.
Earlier Mr. Woodrow had been influenced by Hislop's The Two Babylons. "Many of us would quote Hislop on pagan origins, just like Webster is quoted on dictionary words," he said. "Later I would realize that some of the things Hislop presented as history, were not history at all, but only an arbitrary piecing together of numerous ancient myths--not a sound basis for history."
Mr. Woodrow said he once visited a variety of churches one Easter morning. "All of them preached a victorious, positive message about Christ's resurrection. In whatever areas any of these churches need correction, it is not because they preach that Christ rose from the dead. On this they are right," a point he emphasizes in his book Easter--Is It Pagan?
Mr. Albrecht asked Mr. Woodrow about his views on the length of time Christ was in the tomb, the subject of Three Days & Three Nights--Reconsidered in Light of Scripture.
Discussion followed about the 20 verses that use the terms "in three days" or "the third day" as compared to one verse that says "three days and three nights."
Reference was also made to Christian writers of the early centuries who spoke of the resurrection as occurring on the first day of the week.
Mr. Woodrow said: "Changes come. Some people are going to be helped. Some may be hurt. But, the important thing is that we follow the Lord."
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