The Plague of Churches
Search the yellow pages of your local telephone book and you will find that the different churches wanting your presence are many. They come in all different flavors and sizes, with as many different beliefs, teachings and doctrines as there are churches. Some church groups are small, very small, local or are much larger. Some church groups are national or international in scope. Some may be in association with a particular creed or set of beliefs. Had you not gone to a splinter group of the Worldwide Church of God, but instead had gone to lets say a Baptist church or perhaps a Presbyterian, Pentecostal, Charismatic, Methodist or any one of countless others, such as the Church of the Latter Day Saints (Mormon) or the Jehovah Witnesses, then your beliefs, doctrines, practices and customs would have been totally different from the WCG splinter group you are glued to. And lets not forget the Roman Catholic Church or anyone of thousands of other groups, to numerous to mention.
Every church group on earth thinks they have "truth", while all others are the poor deceived humans who are so blind they cannot see. I wonder how many different church groups there will be in another two thousand years and beyond? Will the different church groups keep dividing and splintering until there may be a billion different groups and each with their own human church Pope standing before the people, proclaiming himself as the "pastor king" of his group? How many Herbert W. Armstrong's, Garner Ted Armstrong's, Rod Merideth's, David Pack's, Gerald Flurry's and so forth are yet to arise in the future, that will deceive many into worshiping at their feet as if they are God in the flesh? To any outsider not associated with this comedy, it is ludicrous beyond comprehension that people are sucked into man-made religion as if God Almighty is the author.
The world of churches is not really "Christianity", but rather "Churchianity" (man-made). Religion is as old as dirt and has long been a major means to control people, have power over people and the endless flow of free $money. All human governments on earth and all religions on earth are the twin means by which the whole human population is seduced by those who assume the posture of power over all others. Control and power over the common people is both psychological (as in religions), and physical (as in governments, which exists by brute force). The source book for deception is the "sacred" text, which has magically hypnotized the masses for thousands of years and as privately interpreted by the gods in the pulpits.
Like the mythical plagues of ancient Egypt, the modern day plague of fake churches is appalling and the simple minded are forever overtaken as church slaves.
Van Robison