CGGC Math

No big deal, really, but the following paragraph appears in Lance's latest eNews article,

By our 200th anniversary (2025), we will equip and release thousands of spiritually charged leaders to every man, woman, and child to whom we are sent.

It's the "our 200th anniversary (2025)" part that sticks in my craw.

Here's the thing. There can be no doubt  whatsoever that the Eldership of the Church of God was formed in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in October in 1830.

No doubt.

None at all.

The fiftieth anniversary of the beginning of the denomination was celebrated in 1880 and was marked, in part, by a reprinting of Winebrenner's critically important, and now profoundly ignored, 1829 (Pre-Church of God) book, A Brief View, of the Formation, Government and Discipline, of the Church of God...

(1880-50=1830)

My guess, though, is that, if you read Lance's sentence on the blog, you didn't blink. In spite of the actual history, you probably take for granted that what's now the CGGC body will be 200 years old in 2025.

Lance seems to be suggesting that, in 2025, there will be an acknowledgement, if not a celebration, of our beginnings 200 years earlier, in 1825.

So, how is it that a body that was formed in 1830 plans to celebrate 200 years of existence in 2025?

The arithmetic is not difficult. 2025-1830 does not equal 200.

Still, there's no doubt that the people who put together the General Conference Strategic Plan, which envisions so grand an achievement by our 200th anniversary in 2025, are employing conventional CGGC wisdom.

So, where did this peculiar new math come from?

To be honest, I can subtract well enough to know that the numbers don't add up, or, at least, subtract down.

I'm a fairly careful student of our history. Still, I only have an idea about how 2025-1830=200 calculation came to be. My idea is rooted in what I know about our history, but, it's only an idea.

I'd love comments here, on the blog, but I know some of you are cautious about making public the fact that you read this blog, so, on or off the blog conversation will be appreciated.