Cult of Christianity

Originally posted by kozmo

Originally posted by amitheone

I found a refutation of that:

www.bible.ca...

By the way, Armstrong is a cult leader of the early WCOG. Today, most of his teachings are abandoned and his church split.


What you refer to as a "Cult" many recognize as the one true Church of God and that which you refer to as a "leader" of the cult was and is recognized by many as being the End-Time Elijah. The "Cult" to which you refer many recognize as God's prophesied Phildelphia Era Church. The abandonment and split which you refer to many recognize as the prophesied arrival of God's Laodecian Church Era - for Armstrong spoke of it's future arrival as well.

I was a former member of the cult group when I was a kid and I regretted having been controlled by this church. It is a cult because it seeks to control its member through fear. It has this exclusivity mentality that only this church is the one true church and this church is the only way to be saved. It is a cult because they control people and it is forbidden for ladies to wear make up. It is forbidden to be a doctor. It is so ridiculous.

It is a white supremest church which emphasized Caucasians to be much superior race in the article of British Israelism. Many were offended because of this and left the church. You are not allowed any type of entertainment beginning on Friday evening and ending on Saturday evening. You are not allowed to eat seafoods, only fish with scales. You are not allowed to eat pork. We have so many end time dates and warnings, all came to failure. They told us they will call us anytime when the end time date was announced by Armstrong and we were to pack up and go at any moment and to leave everything we are doing and hide somewhere in a middle eastern desert cave called Petra in Jordan during the end times. All came to naught. Only the 144K select few will go to heaven.

Anyone who still believe Armstrong the Elijah wannabe will be in error. I was a fool before, only because I was still a kid. I now read the Bible thoroughly. I see many omissions by the so called only true church. They only teach you according to what Armstrong wants you to know.

I have totally no respect for this man who made use of people for his own financial gain, used the Bible distort it to control people and get away with it. He sure got away when he molested and raped his own daughter and his son in law got to know about it and nearly shot him.

Anyway, everyone should be really on alert and very careful with wolves in sheep's clothing who use religion for control, power, and money. You cannot just trust anyone today. Having a good skeptical mind and daily Bible study will protect you.

However, the former Worldwide Church of God saw Armstrong's errors when he died and they overhauled everything and now the church is already accepted and recognized as an Evangelical Church today.

Please do reply to those who was a victim of a cult leader or a cult organization.

Discuss your experiences.

Thank you.

If you're going to call the church Armstrong led a cult, then you might as well call all churches cults, some people need to look up the definition of "cult". I was never in his church but have been doing some research on him and I think there are alot of baseless accusations against this man. Is it not possible, as Jesus states something along the lines that without a shephard, the flock scatters? I'm not aware of any other church that was scattered as much as the WCG was shortly after Herbert Armstrong's death.

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[edit on 5/1/08 by masqua]

Cult: 1. a particular system of religious worship, esp. with reference to its rites and ceremonies.
2. an instance of great veneration of a person, ideal, or thing, esp. as manifested by a body of admirers: the physical fitness cult.
3. the object of such devotion.
4. a group or sect bound together by veneration of the same thing, person, ideal, etc.
5. Sociology. a group having a sacred ideology and a set of rites centering around their sacred symbols.
6. a religion or sect considered to be false, unorthodox, or extremist, with members often living outside of conventional society under the direction of a charismatic leader.
7. the members of such a religion or sect.
8. any system for treating human sickness that originated by a person usually claiming to have sole insight into the nature of disease, and that employs methods regarded as unorthodox or unscientific.
–adjective 9. of or pertaining to a cult.
10. of, for, or attracting a small group of devotees: a cult movie.

answers.yahoo.com...

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[edit on 5/1/08 by masqua]

Cults are also defined as being a closed system; no ideas that are "different" from the cult's dogma are allowed.

A cult is also something that when you try to leave, you are met with resistance. It usually has a charismatic leader, who determines what the cult members can and cannot do. They also tend to be quite rigid in their thinking.

OP, sounds indeed like you were part of a cult. I'm very glad you got out and I'm glad you're talking about your experiences there, so others will be aware.

I can relate to you quite a bit OP. I'm familiar with the WCOG, but I personally had experience with Jehovah's Witnesses. They too are a mind controlling cult.
Like you, I was young, and I didn't realize what all was going on because I had been so conditioned(brainwashed). JW's are also led around by fear. Fear of not going out in service enough(door to door work). Fear of displeasing Jehovah or having a judicial meeting with the elders. Fear of Armageddon. Fear of being or acting "wordly". Fear of being disfellowshipped.
It's easy for people to say they don't see it as such a big deal because they've either never been, or not been long enough to see the true colors of their religious organization.
It took several years before I figured out about the secret books, the purposes of the 2nd and 3rd editions of JW books, false prophecies, their denial of the divinity of Christ, etc., etc, and it took several more years before I could finally accept that it wasn't the "truth" and move on.
I'm seriously gonna write a book one day about this organization and my experiences. I've got ton's of notes and lots of interesting stuff.
The OP is being brutally honest when he says these people are wolves dressed in sheeps clothes. I have a good friend who is a member of the WCOG. He frequently quotes Armstrong too. We've talked about God and religion many times. I've gotta say there are so so many similarities between WCOG and Jehovah's Witnesses. JW's believe in only 144,000 go to heaven, paradise earch, hell is symbolic, etc. etc.
I don't mean this post to be offensive, and if it is, I apologize. Most of the Jehovah's Witnesses I knew were really nice, loving people who are unaware of what they are a part of. I'm just relating a fraction of my experiences, along with the OP's. Hopefully, before people join these groups, they will at least research things out a bit before hastily jumping in to save their soul at armageddon and giving away alot of money in the process.

Christianity……cult…?
Scientology…cult..?
Buddhism…. cult..?
Muslim….cult..?
Judaism…cult..?
Yep……………….

Originally posted by jnthemyst

Cult: 1. a particular system of religious worship, esp. with reference to its rites and ceremonies.
2. an instance of great veneration of a person, ideal, or thing, esp. as manifested by a body of admirers: the physical fitness cult.
3. the object of such devotion.
4. a group or sect bound together by veneration of the same thing, person, ideal, etc.
5. Sociology. a group having a sacred ideology and a set of rites centering around their sacred symbols.
6. a religion or sect considered to be false, unorthodox, or extremist, with members often living outside of conventional society under the direction of a charismatic leader.
7. the members of such a religion or sect.
8. any system for treating human sickness that originated by a person usually claiming to have sole insight into the nature of disease, and that employs methods regarded as unorthodox or unscientific.
–adjective 9. of or pertaining to a cult.
10. of, for, or attracting a small group of devotees: a cult movie.

answers.yahoo.com...

Yep... this just about describes every man-made organized religion out there. People are very quick to label what they don't understand as a "Cult".

[edit on 5-1-2008 by ReginaAdonnaAaron]

The terms

CULT
SECT
and
RELIGION

all mean the basicly the same thing.

If a Group of people that share a belief structure come together the only thing that makes them one of those 3 terms is the number of people that belong to the group of the belief structure.

Originally posted by jnthemyst

If you're going to call the church Armstrong led a cult, then you might as well call all churches cults, some people need to look up the definition of "cult". I was never in his church but have been doing some research on him and I think there are alot of baseless accusations against this man. Is it not possible, as Jesus states something along the lines that without a shephard, the flock scatters? I'm not aware of any other church that was scattered as much as the WCG was shortly after Herbert Armstrong's death.

A cult of Christianity is basically a false church who uses deception, twisting and omission of scriptures, have extra biblical scriptures and aligning it according to what suits them, according to their inventions and man made traditions.

The WCG is not without a shepherd. When Armstrong died, Joseph W. Tkach took over and started to introduce changes and took the courage to admit the mistakes in the teachings. I think they knew the errors of the teachings all a long. I don't think they have the courage to go against Armstrong. So, when he died, the truth must come out. They can't teach lies anymore. Some of the ministers did not take this lightly. So, they quit the church and started to form little churches on their own still adhering to the old Armstrong doctrine. Its really difficult to shake it when you have been brainwashed all your life.


"2 Peter 2:1

But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them--bringing swift destruction on themselves."

It takes one to know one. I'm glad I'm out of this cult. The teachings omitted so much of the new testament. One of the minister said a bad joke about Jesus during the Youth Camp. Is this Christian? Christians should glorify Jesus and not make any insulting comments.

My dad and mom nearly separated because of this cult. It requires total obedience, no matter the cost. My dad was not a member, my mom was. They fought frequently because of this cult. Not only that, it is financially draining. We not only pay 1 tithe, but 2nd, and 3rd! Members also have a hard time in their jobs because, Saturday is also a work day. The Church requires that day to be a sabbath day and no work is allowed. You are torn in between. Either face being fired or face being disfellowshiped. It's madness!

Apart from that, we also have the feast of tabernacles, where it is a high sabbath. You are not to work for 7days. You have to attend this occasion. Its a totalitarian system. It is like if you don't do what they tell you, you are going to the lake of fire. They always like to mention this, "Lake of fire".

This church is so self centered that anything which happens to it, they are the ones mentioned in the Bible. Its like the Bible was tailor made for this Church . They feel so exclusive. With only 50,000 to 70,000 members worldwide, the millions of Christians out there are false and they are only ones qualified to go to heaven. Jesus Christ is not central to this cult. This is but a false church. They deny Jesus and all His glory.

When I attended an Evangelical Church, first time in my life, I felt freedom. I felt no condemnation and Jesus Christ and love is central to this Church. Everyone was praising and glorifying His name. I felt no judging eyes and the only way to be saved is through Jesus Christ.

Originally posted by awakened
I can relate to you quite a bit OP. I'm familiar with the WCOG, but I personally had experience with Jehovah's Witnesses. They too are a mind controlling cult.
Like you, I was young, and I didn't realize what all was going on because I had been so conditioned(brainwashed). JW's are also led around by fear. Fear of not going out in service enough(door to door work). Fear of displeasing Jehovah or having a judicial meeting with the elders. Fear of Armageddon. Fear of being or acting "wordly". Fear of being disfellowshipped.

If JW has a twin, the former WCOG is the one.

I have the same experience as yours. The fear is so much emphasized as if it is used as an instrument for control. I feel so shut out to the world as if my world is so contained in this church. I've been labeled "worldly" because the way I dress. I'm just a teen following current trends. If I dress according to trend then I'm a candidate for the lake of fire. This is so ridiculous as if the way I dress has the power to decide whether I go to hell or not.

Afer the church became divided, I did not attend anymore as I don't know who is telling the truth anymore. I was really confused and angry. All these years I've been lied to. I became aloof and distrusted many people. I don't just believe anyone. I became very skeptical. For 12 years, I did not attend Church ever since. But I read the Bible and pray to God regularly and find the truth for myself. I pray to God to guide me to the truth and increase my knowledge even more. I always knew God to be real in my heart. I did not abandon the faith, rather I abandoned man made doctrines.

With the current trend running through the Church of God, and this present day leader, Ronald Weinland, it is easy to see that the same spirit that thrived in Armstrong is well alive and functioning.

For Weinland to step forward as he has and declare himself as one of the two witnesses of the book of Revelation is a bold stretch. I doubt that the Jewish people will listen to a white man, dressed out in fine, expensive suiting and have them believe that he is anything from God.

Unfortunately, Weinland has enough persuasion amongst his hearers to convince them that he is something from God. In my opinion, Weinland is God, to those under his doctrine and controlled by him, who have lifted him up to the status he so boldly proclaims. One only need to listen to who they defend more, Jesus or, Ronald Weinland.