We Found Our Way Out (1964, 1975)

We Found Our Way Out

Edited by James R. Adair and Ted Miller

Baker Book House

Michigan

1964

1975 printing

First hand stories of people escaping from various cults in the United States - includes Armstrongism

The People and Their Stories

You already have an idea what you may find between the covers of this book.  The jacket design and the title, We Found Our Way Out, suggests that the writers – all living, flesh-and-blood people – were once ensnared in a web of dark beliefs and philosophies that failed to provide them peace of heart.  They were sincere-but sincerely wrong, they now confess.  Each believed something different from the other, and each eventually abandoned former beliefs to acknowledge Jesus Christ to be, as Himself said, “the Way, the Truth, and the Life.”  Independently of each other, they came to recognize the Bible as the supreme authority concerning God and His plan for mankind.  Each person received Jesus Christ as Personal Savior, according to John 1:12 truly became a member of God’s family.

The stories are from the pages of Power for Living, adult Sunday School take-home paper published by Scripture Press Publications, Inc. Wheaton, Illinois, and are used by permission….

Some readers may feel that this book is not in accord with the spirit of religious tolerance of our day.  Perhaps not.  While we respect the right of any individual to believe and worship as he wishes, we maintain our duty and right to challenge doctrines and systems that we believe lead people away from the true God. Each of the ‘isms’ presented in this book in some manner denies the Biblical way of salvation – faith in Christ alone for complete forgiveness of sin and full acceptance into God’s family.  Some of the philosophies represented here are radically contrary to the Bible.

The Bible has much to say about false religions and philosophies, and indicates that they will flourish when the end of man’s era is near: “…in the latter times…seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils” (I Timothy 4:1); “…the time will come when [people]…shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned into fables” (II Timothy 4:3, 4); “…there shall arise false Christ’s, and false prophets” (Matthew 24:24). The apostle Paul, in Galatians 1, speaks out intolerantly toward any that “would pervert the gospel of Christ.” He says, “But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.” 

These stories touch a few of the false philosophies deceiving men and women in our day. If you belong to one of these groups described, or if you know someone who does, you may profit from the experiences and spiritual insights of these true stories.  Paul’s admonition in II Corinthians 13:5 is applicable to everyone who genuinely desires to know God:

“Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith.”

The book then includes the following stories (chapters).

I Was a Mormon

I Was Brainwashed by the Jehovah’s Witnesses

I Was a Rosicrucian

I Am a Hebrew Christian

I Was a Christian Scientist

I Tried Communism

I Was a Humanist

Modernism Betrayed Me

I was a Seventh-day Adventists

I was a Hippie

We Escaped from Armstrongism

I Was a Theosophist

I Worshiped Satan

I Was an Agnostic Scientist

James R. Adair   Editor, Power of Living

Ted Miller            Managing Editor

               

Chapter 11

We Escaped from Armstrongism

By Wayne Leyendecker

(as told to Roger Campbell)

(pg 91)

Should we worship on Saturday instead of Sunday?  Are Americans really Israelites?  Is it sinful to celebrate Christmas?  Should we change our eating habits?  Are all churches preaching lies except Herbert W. Armstrong’s Radio Church of God?

These were a few of the questions that raced through my mind and demanded answers when I became interested in the dynamic radio preaching of Armstrong.

I first became interested in Herbert W. Armstrong in 1961 when some friends left their church and began to follow his teachings.  I became a regular listener to “The World Tomorrow,” as he titles his broadcast, and I awaited eagerly each issue of The Plain Truth magazine.

Religion had not held much interest for me in the past.  Most of the religious matters of ( pg 92) our family had been left to Ruth, my wife. She had attended church since she was a child and was not taking our three children Rosalyn, Gary, and Michele tot eh River Bend Bible Church, a mission style church which meets in a schoolhouse in the vicinity of our home near Grad Rapids, Michigan.

As the weeks passed and y interest in Armstrongism increased, I began to see that there were serious conflicts between the teaching my family was receiving at the church, and that which was persuasively presented on Armstrong’s broadcast and in his literature.

The church taught the doctrine of the Trinity, while Armstrong insisted this teaching was pagan in origin.  Songs about heaven were a regular part of the worship services at the church, but The Plain Truth publications declared that heaven was not the destination of the saved.  The church gathered for worship on Sunday, but the evidence presented by Herbert Armstrong seemed conclusive that Saturday was the proper day.

I pointed out these things to Ruth and the children.  I called Ruth’s attention to the authority with which Armstrong spoke, and we noted together the many Bible verses he presented as proof for his teaching.  And there was an impressive number of unfolding in world events that Armstrong neatly fitted into his prophetic teaching. Ruth was not fully convinced, but we (pg 93) decided to follow the teachings of Herbert W. Armstrong.

We began to keep Saturday as our day of rest and worship.  We dropped all pork from our diet. We even considered driving weekly from our home to South Bend, Indiana, a distance of one hundred miles, to attend a gathering of followers of the Radio Church of God.

Our decision to follow this new way of life was made near Christmas season 1961, as we decided there would be no recognition of Christmas, except for gifts to those who would expect them, since, according to Armstrong, all Christmas festivities were rooted in paganism. We sent no greeting cards to friends or relatives. We had no Christmas tree.

We must have been expecting a great blessing from that ‘no Christmas” experience, but instead it seemed so barren and empty.  We truly missed remembering Christ’s birth that year.

Somehow, following the “Armstrong way of life” was not nearly as satisfying as I had anticipated. The conflicts grew rather than subsided. Unanswered questions pressed upon my mind every waking hour.  My work required me to be alert, but my inward struggles demanded attention.  Every part of my life was affected by the awful uncertainty as to my relationship with God.

While I had little instruction in the Bible, I (pg 94) had always held a great respect for the Scriptures.  The thought struck me that God must have the answer to my spiritual struggle, and that His answer must be contained in the Bible. I determined I would seek out the truth in the Bible, and I would not rest until I had found peace with God.

It was about five o’clock in the evening when I opened my Bible to begin my search. I read with an urgency and interest greater than I had ever experienced.  I read carefully and yet swiftly. It was as if I were trying to devour the whole Bible in an evening, and yet to sift from its pages some single truth that would be the key to this crisis in my life.

The hours passed quickly. That night I read for eleven hours, and when I closed my Bible at four o’clock in the morning it was only because my eyes were too weary to continue.  At seven o’clock I was awake and back to the Bible again.  All the next day I continued my study.  It would have been useless for me to attempt to carry on the usual business of the day.

My Bible reading did not end until evening.  When I finally closed the Bible that evening, I still did not have the answer.

A few days alter a business trip took me away from the city. I had pulled myself together enough to carry on my work, but the struggle continued.  On the return trip the battle within (pg 95) became more intense, and I brought my car to a stop beside the road and once again opened the Bible.

Nearly all of my Bible searching had been in the Old Testament.  Much of what I had read had seemed to substantiate Armstrong’s doctrines.  God had indeed given instructions to the Israelites concerning the eating of meats, the keeping of feast days such as Passover, the Feast of Tabernacles, and the Sabbath days, all of which Armstrong insists are to be kept today.

That cold winter day as I sat in my car, however, the story of Christ and His love in the Book of Matthew made a new impression upon my heart.  As I finished reading the twenty-eight chapters and resumed my journey home, I felt sure the end of my search was near.

The following Sunday our family attended the River Bend Bible Church.  I listened with interest to everything the pastor had to say that day.  Many of his comments from the Bible called to my mind the picture of Christ’s death that had been portrayed so clearly in my reading of Matthews’s gospel. Before we left the church, I invited the pastor to visit our home.  I thought perhaps his knowledge of the Bible might enable him to help me.

A few years earlier, I might have been careful to avoid a meeting with the minister, but I awaited this visit of Pastor Wright Van Plew (pg 96) with real anticipation. I wondered if he would really have the answers.

When Pastor Van Plew arrived, I found that he had not come to debate on Herbert Armstrong, but rather for my decision to trust Jesus Christ.  Repeatedly he maneuvered the conversation from “questions” to “Christ.”

I was brought to see that my real need was to receive Jesus Christ by faith. That night in my home, I was able to see myself as a lost sinner in need of the living Savior. I saw that my real need was not laws, but faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.  I told Christ of my sin and I trusted Him as my personal Savior.

After the pastor had given me verses of assurance from the Bible, he turned to my wife and asked how things were with her soul.

Ruth says now that at that moment she was angry and offended.  After all, she had been brought up in church and had been trained in the teachings of the Bible since she was a child. She had taken the children to Sunday school and church services.  Why should anyone question her salvation, even if she had yielded to some of her husband’s wishes to follow the teachings of Herbert W. Armstrong?

Before the next Sunday arrived, however, Ruth also had realized her personal need of Christ. She is thankful now for that question which shocked her into the realization that (pg 97) even religious training does not guarantee salvation.  She rejoices now in faith in her living Savior.

Since Christ has come into our lives, our daily experience is truly much richer. There are ways in which we still need to grow in Christ, but with His help we are determined to do that. We want to do so yielded to Christ that He will be able to use us in our local church to carry the message of salvation to others of our community.

We are grateful to God that He guided us out of the errors of Armstrongism into the truth of Christ and His salvation. It was such a relief to find that all the demands of God’s law were fulfilled in Jesus Christ, and our heart’s demands for peace and assurance are also fulfilled in Him.