Ray Franz -- Worldwide Church of God (Armstrongism) , scarily similar to JW's (Franz freedom 287)

[thumbnail pic: the repentance of the Worldwide Church of God -- one of the most remarkable religious stories of the 20th century] Ray Franz notes the frightening parallels between this cult, founded by Herbert W. Armstrong, and the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses (Watchtower/JW.org). Not only were the teachings of WCG very similar, but its methods, institutions and especially its way of controlling members. What Ray did NOT mention, of course, is the remarkable repentance which happened just a few years after the publication of his book in 1991: the Worldwide Church of God officially repudiated its past, most of its major teachings, and its claim to be the only true church. Amazingly, the Worldwide Church of God became completely orthodox and was embraced by the mainstream of Christianity. This story is told by J. Michael Feazell, Executive Editor of the denomination's flagship magazine, "The Plain Truth. Feazell's book is entitled "The Liberation of the Worldwide Church of God" (Zondervan, 2001).
[Ray Franz, "In Search of Christian Freedom", chapter 16 -- "An Appealing Promise, Unfulfilled"]

[@yvonpoulin8771]

Tanks to both of you to have partake yours expériences in différents churches .Its help us to never give all our confidence in men. Yhwh bless u.

[@musicalnomad8]

I was in the WWCG as a kid and it wasn’t until I was 8 or 9 when they started making changes to become a regular church. I now go to a different church and I love Jesus with all my heart.

[@JeremyMcGuire-mq3ye]

I'm Armstrong McGuire Senior AKA Hebrew Lord Joseph of Bible

[@mjb7517]

Been there, done that. Raised a JW as a child, gave up religion completely as a young adult. Discovered I couldn't live without God in my life. Fell in with an Armstrong splinter group from Tyler Texas. Moved on to another group from Charlotte NC. Found no inner peace, only guilt from not measuring up to what I believed were God's impossible standards. Found a non denominational church and finally found the saving Gospel of Jesus and that ever elusive inner peace from the Holy Spirit after baptism and discovering I am a Gentile and not a Messianic Jew subject to burdensome Mosaic Laws and customs.

[@davidvivianaspinall3498]

Thank you mjb for sharing your experience. We are so glad to hear you have found peace that comes from the grace of God. If you ever wish to connect with us directly our email is [e-mail]

[@floridalaureen]

Eerily similar. This is the one Anthony Buzzard came out of.

[@annabizaro-doo-dah]

Do you mean the academic??

[@constpegasus]

This is really incredible. I actually considered going to ambassador college in the 1980’s. I stopped reading religious books and magazines for a while and never realized all of this was going on at the time. I might buy that book to see what I missed at the time. Thank you for making these books known to us. Another thing that gets me is that Armstrong wrote some pretty stupid and shocking articles in the past. It’s on the level of the stuff the studies in the scriptures were to someone who never read them before.

[@darrengreen9273]

My God, you would think you were speaking about the witnesses

[@totsblanca1528]

From the Philippines - WHAT "liberation"? I was a member and walked away sometime in 1996 " to obey God rather than men" Acts 5:29 It was GREAT to be w/ like-minded believers in the WCG... A BLESSING TO BE CALLED INTO GOD'S FAMILY, HIS CHURCH! Until Herbert Armstrong's death, new leaders WATERED DOWN Biblical TRUTHs! Rev. 14:12"... the saints WHO OBEY GOD'S COMMANDMENTS and REMAIN FAITHFUL to JESUS" is Clarion clear! - Sir Ma'am You simply lacking in rightful infos... APOSTASY SET IN, and WCG WAS DESTROYED! We were led to lies by people from WCG headquarter, that you don't know about!

[@davidvivianaspinall3498]

Hi Tots Blanca -- Herbert Armstrong created a cult just as surely as Russell and Rutherford created a cult called Jehovah's Witnesses. In fact, their belief systems are quite similar to Armstrong's cult. The new leaders which you refer to as apostates recognized the truth about Armstrongism, and are to be commended for their honesty. Have you seen our 3 part videos on characteristics of cultic groups: "Slaves of men (part 1) -- 5 characteristics of cultic groups" kzbin.info/www/bejne/rGi1oWeJaLN3ask

[@justinthyme3396]

After 46years as a jw I'm now conscientious objector to the GB.

[@clahring52]

I actually attended Ambassador college for one semester and I agree with you that they were in some ways similar to JW"S but I would have to say they were no where near as "strict" in following Herbert Armstrong. The WWCG was sort of a collection of several groups. The thing most like the JW's I think was Kingdom of God is coming to rule over the Earth. The were always talking about the end coming. I was not a member but wanted to learn more about there beliefs and what better way than to go right to the center of things. I took 4 classes and we did read a lot of things out of the Bible but like the JW's they stressed their interpretation of the scripture. When I went there I thought, Wow, I am going to be amongst all these very devout people but it was not a whole lot of difference than any other college I have attended. The students were there for a good time as much as they were there for study. I met liars, cheaters, thieves and all sorts of worldly types of people. One of the odd similarities is Armstrong had a lawyer named Stanley Raider and when Armstrong died he did his best to take over a Garner was sort of on the outs at the time. SO just like the Judge was Russels lawyer that took over the same thing happened at Ambassador. Garner split off and took a bunch of people and so did Stanley and over time other spit off. Years later I was very surprised to learn that most of them went mainstream. Although there are still small splinter groups.

[@lms2379]

The liars and thieves you met became “pastors” who aided and abetted abuse of various manifestations among the members.

[@perceive8159]

What’s interesting about the similarities between these two organizations? According to Edmond Gruss’ book, The Four Presidents of the Watch Tower Society, page 239, ―It was common knowledge that Fred Franz, Raymond’s uncle, subscribed to a large number of religious magazines, and that he had a personal collection of Bible commentaries written by qualified scholars of other denominations. Supporting the suspicion that Fred sometimes plagiarized others, one former member of the headquarters staff told the author that he picked up a copy of The Plain Truth magazine, a publication of the World Wide Church of God, in Franz’s living quarters. It was an older issue, and the young Witness was startled to find a somewhat subject-by-subject outline of a current Watchtower article in it. Read also interesting similarities = www.outofthecocoon.net/PDF/WhichCameFirst_TheWorldwideChurchofGodOrTheWatchtowerBibleandTractSociety.pdf

[@dabiededoo]

i thought this too even the type of making videos and the styles.. the way of speaking and being is all the same only armstrongisms just take the normal bibles so maybe just seems little better

[@stevenfrasier5718]

It's a shame that after escaping the pan, the escapees fell right into the fire of Trinitarianism. There's an assumption that the WCG was wrong about "everything", which is a stupid conclusion to make. Even a dead clock gives the right time twice daily. It's a classic "throw the baby out with the bath water" syndrome. BOTH Armstrongism AND Orthodoxy deserves a pox on both their houses. Ex-WCG, ~Steven of Montreal

[@clahring52]

I have also wondered if the same thing will eventually happen to JW"S. Most of GB is quite old and how can they get new people when all the anointed are also diving off. Will they change the rule or just end up dissolving. And they are having all kinds of money problem. One or the other is going to finish them off I believe.