God's Protection or Satan's Punishment?

 

As we have all been watching the news about the horrific tornado devastation that ripped through over 200 miles of the midwest the other day, we cannot escape the immediate crowing by Church of God leaders about members who escaped destruction. They gloat many times over how fortunate their righteous members are as their neighbors who suffer horrendously.

Those backslapping platitudes work wonders till church members are hit with destruction or suffer along with their neighbors around them, then the tune changes rather quickly. It was Satan's punishment that God allowed in order to wake them up. Someone must have done something wrong and needs a wake-up call or worst of all, God has withdrawn his protection.

Bob Thiel and Gerald Flurry are the worst offenders of this kind of gaslighting. These two also immediately start bellowing it out as a sure sign of the end times. The malarkey gets deep with these two.

"The Two Witnesses" Podcast

The Two Witnesses Podcast

"The Two Witnesses" podcast, where two former AC students discuss the beginnings of the WCG and different ways the hosts joined the cult

This podcast is a new idea by a couple of older Ambassador College graduates, myself and former WCG member and student Ralph. The first 2 episodes are now available to listen to, for those who may find it interesting.

The basic idea is to express in audio format some of the experiences we had, and how Herbert W. Armstrong's inimitable style hooked people into and indeed kept them in the Worldwide Church of God cult.

In addition, since we both eventually left the WCG (before many of the current WCG splinters were born), in future episodes we will discuss how we managed to leave, but first things first!

Episode #1 ("Unto Us A Cult Is Born") is more introductory, certainly nothing new to anyone who has ever been a member. We try to explain some of the history of the WCG, as well as the HWA mindset and formula that led to what would eventually be a church with members numbering in the 6 digits, and a multimillion-dollar, worldwide multimedia corporation. This cult leader with no credentials or political following would also somehow manage to get himself personal audiences with many of the world leaders of the 1970s and 80s. What was it about him that managed to attract people and create the Worldwide Church of God? Why do so many of the splinter groups, even now, follow and virtually idolize this man and his teachings?

(Apologies for some aspects of the audio in this initial episode which came out a little rougher around the edges than planned.)

Episode #2 ("Fifty Ways To Join a Cult"), focuses more on how the two hosts managed to find themselves in the cult: one by hearing HWA as a young man, which led to his coming into the church "cold turkey" as a new prospective member. The other by being born and raised in it on his mother's knee. We also touch on some of the well-known evangelists like Rod Meredith and Gerald Waterhouse with clips from their old sermons.

We don't know where this idea will take us, if anywhere, in which direction ultimately, or indeed even how many episodes. At some point it would be great to focus on some of the current splinters, which are in fact the living legacy of HWA's empire. Certainly merely a shadow of the original organization but not irrelevant by many measures.

For those interested please feel free to listen at your leisure, and of course non-trolling comments are welcome (a contact email is on the website). I will also try to check Banned semi-regularly.
There is a general plan to post at least 2 more episodes after this, with anything beyond that yet to be decided.

We hope some may find this entertaining, informative or nostalgic or, which would be best of all, even helpful.

Michael

Sigh. Still on Track and I Was Just Kidding About Giving That Last, Last Sermon.

From Engineer Pack...

 "P.S. to brethren. ENORMOUS additional things have been learned—ALL wonderful!—that are shocking! I plan several more messages that God surely wants delivered in order to FULLY reveal ALL He plans to do. While there is STILL a little time available to do this, we are still on track. You will soon learn this AS NEVER BEFORE."