The following is my testimonial of 18 long years in the Worldwide Church of God (HRM) Cult founded by Herbert W. Armstrong...While growing up, my father worked hard to support my brothers, sister and I with very little left over after paying income taxes and multiple tithes to the CULT. For years, my mother would cook simple meals and shop at thrift stores, grow gardens and sew clothes for us to make it - and my father made good money - but gave much of it to support the cult’s “iron-fisted” control to OBEY and PAY! There was 99 percent law mixed with their exclusive (we have the truth) spin within their doctrine claiming to being the ONLY one with the TRUTH while the rest of the world is lost. The other 1 percent was teaching on the work of Jesus Christ and His suffering on the cross for our sins which was quickly diminished and perverted by the other 99 percent false doctrine.
The real kicker is… their version of the Gospel was what they call the “Good News” – the kingdom of God during the 1000 year millennium to come and that we would all be small gods occupying our own planets - kind of like what the Mormons believe...However, my mother went along with it all those years from 1964 until she was fed up and then divorced my father in 1988. Six years later, in 1994, my father committed suicide due to a complete breakdown from guilt and failure of losing a marriage, and felt like he failed his children, including feeling he was a failure in that cult as a deacon. His death was extremely heart-breaking to us all… however we felt compassion on our dear dad who was caught in the destructive teachings of a cult...
My brothers and sister came out of it shortly after I did. I guess you could say I paved the way to coming out of the cult after many lost years under mind control and manipulation. My mother drank herself to death in 2009...
Unfortunately, there are several men online that have persevered [known as 'splinter groups' - info available at link provided above] and are pitching the teachings of the cult I grew up in. THEY ARE MISSING the mark big time leading people into bondage.
A brief note on the “Splinter Groups”:
“Most of the splinter cults of Armstrongism retain the name ‘Church of God’ somewhere in their title. They mix legalism, including strict Sabbatarianism, with a variety of Armstrong’s leading doctrines. Two other noteworthy groups among these are the Global Church of God, located in San Diego, California, and the United Church of God in Arcadia, California. The former has a television following on two superstations covering much of the United States, while the latter publishes The Good News magazine and covers thirty television stations with programming.” (Walter Martin, The Kingdom of the Cults, Ed. Hank Hanegraaff. Pg. 472)
Ravenous Wolves.
They’re everywhere.
“All of the Lent and Easter abomination is pagan and God clearly condemned it in scripture.”
“God doesn’t smile down on people who celebrate Easter.”
The words of cultists.