I came out of the Worldwide Church of God 30 years ago. Herbert W. Armstrong was the “Apostle “ of the church and his teachings were very attractive to the carnal mind because they made sense, they seemed right. Proverbs 14:12 Armstrong could never be challenged about his teachings and anyone who did would be disfellowshipped. The WCG was into law keeping; the Sabbath and Ten Commandments, the annual holy days, kosher food and dating and marriage within the church only. What caused my concern came after the death of Armstrong and the new “Apostle “ Joseph W. Tkach who was appointed by Armstrong before he died. The church came out with a booklet called “God Is …” and members were told to fill in the dots. Taped sermons began to arrive from headquarters in Pasadena, California to all the churches by a man named Doctor Stavrindea who was expert in Greek and was Greek himself. The things this man taught were done in a covert way to introduce the trinity into the church and began to explain the hypostatic union of God. Most all of the members of my local church were led like sheep to the slaughter except me and three others.
I began to feel that my religious life was being destroyed by the leadership of my church. I had nowhere to go except to God and I did. My prayer was that if God was willing to teach me His Truth I would believe it. God answered and the truth came, His Spirit to my spirit. I knew God was doing this because I was learning things that I had never know before. I was eventually disfellowshipped for speaking out about these things I had learned so I began to meet with the other three people who also had the Holy Spirit working with them. We did not yet have the Holy Spirit, the Spirit was working with us but soon would be in us. John 14:17 We all realized that no one in the WCG had the Holy Spirit including us. We also knew that the WCG teachings were idolatry and blasphemy and we repented of this . We were led to see that we needed baptized in the name of Jesus and asked God to lay His hands on us and give us His Spirit. We were in a false church where the top man was deceived and all who followed him were also deceived. This is how Satan works in all churches of this world but God calls out of them those who answer His call. 2 Corinthians 6:17 We learned the hard way to never trust any man ever again and by personal experience the Holy Spirit is our teacher and Jesus our leader. Deception by men has no chance to infiltrate our small group because truth has set us free from lies and deception. John 8:32 We believe that there are others scattered around the Earth that God has done the same things to but we do not know who or where. We live peacefully and quietly keeping ourselves unspotted from the world loving God and neighbor. We are watching and waiting for the kingdom of God at the return of Jesus which we feel is near. I joined Simply Christian to share with all of you the things we have been taught by the Spirit. I cannot give you the understanding of them, that is up to God. I seek no position or leadership role because that belongs to Jesus. I hope I can be used as a catalyst to motivate, stimulate or even agitate so as to inspire the looking and examining into the deep things of God. 1 Corinthians 2:10
I began to feel that my religious life was being destroyed by the leadership of my church. I had nowhere to go except to God and I did. My prayer was that if God was willing to teach me His Truth I would believe it. God answered and the truth came, His Spirit to my spirit. I knew God was doing this because I was learning things that I had never know before. I was eventually disfellowshipped for speaking out about these things I had learned so I began to meet with the other three people who also had the Holy Spirit working with them. We did not yet have the Holy Spirit, the Spirit was working with us but soon would be in us. John 14:17 We all realized that no one in the WCG had the Holy Spirit including us. We also knew that the WCG teachings were idolatry and blasphemy and we repented of this . We were led to see that we needed baptized in the name of Jesus and asked God to lay His hands on us and give us His Spirit. We were in a false church where the top man was deceived and all who followed him were also deceived. This is how Satan works in all churches of this world but God calls out of them those who answer His call. 2 Corinthians 6:17 We learned the hard way to never trust any man ever again and by personal experience the Holy Spirit is our teacher and Jesus our leader. Deception by men has no chance to infiltrate our small group because truth has set us free from lies and deception. John 8:32 We believe that there are others scattered around the Earth that God has done the same things to but we do not know who or where. We live peacefully and quietly keeping ourselves unspotted from the world loving God and neighbor. We are watching and waiting for the kingdom of God at the return of Jesus which we feel is near. I joined Simply Christian to share with all of you the things we have been taught by the Spirit. I cannot give you the understanding of them, that is up to God. I seek no position or leadership role because that belongs to Jesus. I hope I can be used as a catalyst to motivate, stimulate or even agitate so as to inspire the looking and examining into the deep things of God. 1 Corinthians 2:10
