Church of God (Seventh Day)

Another independent Sabbatarian Adventist body formed in Iowa in 1860, and joined with the Church of God (Seventh Day) in 1863.

This extended the movement into Missouri, Nebraska and other places, and in 1884 the General Conference of the Church of God was organized.

A. N. Dugger and C. O. Dodd (1935)[5] wrote a book attempting to trace the Church's history back to the Apostles through various medieval groups that they believed were Sabbath-keeping.

In 1927 Armstrong was challenged by his wife, Loma, to find a biblical justification for keeping Sunday as the Christian Sabbath.

Loma had come under the influence of Emma Runcorn, a member of the Seventh Day church in the Willamette Valley of Oregon.

Within a few years, Armstrong began teaching the British-Israel Theory – the alternative history that regarded the nations of Western Europe and North America as the literal descendants of the "Lost Ten Tribes" of Israel – and the mandatory keeping of the Feast Days and Holy Days as listed in Leviticus 23.

While Burt F. Marrs led a group of "independents" who believed pork and tobacco were fine, and that the Passover should be observed on Nisan 15.

As a result, from 1933 to 1949 there were two separate Church of God organizations, one at Stanberry, Missouri, and the other at Salem, West Virginia.

[10] They are formally organized under the apostolic model (twelve apostles, seventy elders and seven men to oversee the business affairs of the church).

The following information concerning the "Back to Salem" Movement of 1950 are taken from History of the Seventh Day Church of God by Richard C.

It differs with the Denver Group in the date for the annual Lord's Supper, which they calculate according to the spring equinox.

In September 1952, Dugger, after returning from an extended trip to Nigeria to visit Church of God groups, decided to move to Jerusalem to start The Mount Zion Reporter in 1953.

A number of Churches of God (7th Day) in Salem, West Virginia still stand with locations all across the United States and around the world.

[31] As for the Denver Conference, the worldwide membership in its International Ministerial Congress is over 200,000 members, with affiliated ministries in more than 40 countries.

Central offices for the US and Canada local churches are in Denver as of 2015, with Elder Loren Stacy serving as president.