Greetings readers. It’s "Child Survivor" again. As some of you know, I spent a pivotal part of my childhood in the Worldwide Church of God from 1971 to 1977, then 3 years in an independent offshoot (or splinter group as they are now called) group that was basically Armstrongism “Lite”. Unlike EXHWA and probably the other contributors, I didn’t spend enough time in the WCG to fully embrace Armstrongism and it’s teachings. I never read the literature while in there except for those hideously animated children’s books about Genesis and Exodus. Anything else that I read from Herbert’s literature were usually quotes from anti-cult books that I began reading after we left. But I did indeed EXPERIENCE the teachings of the WCG, as they were heavily enforced on myself and my siblings with dire consequences for disobedience.
Anyway, the reason for this blog involves the very verse in the title. Jesus said His yoke was easy and His burden was light. Did Herbert Armstrong believe in the same Jesus who said this in Matthew 11:30? I seriously think Armstong did not. While I am not promoting “easy believism” where all you have to do is recite some sort of “sinner’s prayer” and whamo, you’re instantly saved and it no longer matters what you do afterwards. Jesus did also tell us this:
“Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.” (Matthew 16:24) (New King James Version)
But when it comes to forgiveness of sins, salvation, getting our “ticket to heaven”, this is something that Jesus took care of in a big way. We no longer have to worry about earning our salvation or appeasing the angry deity, as is so common in so many other religions and pseudo Christian groups like COG’s. I always loved how Paul referred to it as “canceling a debt”. One of the most controversial scriptures in the sabbath keeping community is found in Colossians 2 .
“having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.
So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ. “ (Colossians 2: 14-17) (NKJV)
What was required of the Children of Israel is not required of the church because we are under a new covenant that Jesus paid for with His own blood. And allow me to give one more passage of when the disciples were faced with the question of exactly what should the church should observe with all the incoming Gentile converts. This is a passage that generally receives little or no attention from the COG leadership. From Acts chapter 15:
"Now therefore, why do you test God by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? …… For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things: that you abstain from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well." (Acts 15:10, 28 & 29)
So I’m going to briefly look at 4 key elements of life inside the WCG and ask honestly, if the practices of Armstrongism lined up with the scriptures that I presented above. Hopefully we can all make the right analysis. But I want to look at the practices of the Sabbath, the Dietary laws, the Holy Days, and Tithing.
THE SABBATH
Is there more sacred of a cow to the COG’s and Adventism in general than the Saturday sabbath? Me thinks not. What were the typical and MANDATORY rituals? Everyone had to be home by sunset Friday. I live in New England which is on the far east side of the Eastern Standard time zone. For several weeks in December and January, sunset is considerably BEFORE 5pm. Those who had full time jobs, getting home by sunset could be a huge problem. Also, if someone had a job that required them to work Saturdays or weekends, they were screwed. Many people we knew were able to work out something out where they traded work days to keep their religious observance, but many others were not so fortunate and wound up losing their jobs after conversion to the “one true church”.
The other problem with the sabbath was the constant paranoia over what can and can’t be done on the sabbath. I won’t focus how that during the six years I was in the WCG that the sabbath laws changed like the wind. But I will tell you that the laws bordered insanity. If sunset was at 5:17 pm on Friday, the TV went of at that exact minute and everyone was to start the sabbath quietly. You were not allowed to go into a retail store for ANY reason, even if your baby needed a bottle of milk. (sorry junior, you’ll have to wait for sunset Saturday). Yet, dining in a restaurant on the sabbath, was okay, for those who could afford to do so. For those us as children, any school involvement on Saturday was forbidden. So any scholastic sports, drama, band, or other school involvement were forbidden if they were on Saturday. In my town if we wanted to join the school band, we had to do it in the 5th grade. After that, we couldn’t. I wanted to take up the clarinet and join the band. But I knew it would eventually involve Saturdays, AND it was a third tithe year that year, so I never even dreamed of bringing it up with my parents. So I did not join the school band, one of my big regrets in life. Other rules included no going to the park or beach on the sabbath, though playing board games at home was alright. Our family was forbidden from going to family swim at the YMCA on Friday nights, but swimming in our own pool on the sabbath was okay. Projects around the house such as a home improvement project or doing yard work were forbidden, but any work that was for the big sabbath gathering was okay. Oh and one more thing, you were allowed to have all the booze your wanted on the sabbath.
Now this constant paranoia and fear that if we stepped out of line with all the sabbath regulations we would inflict the wrath of God on us….Does this sound like an easy yoke? Let’s move on.
DIETARY LAWS
Nothing was more embarrassing to a young boy than trying to explain why there was so much you couldn’t eat. I won’t even get into the matzo sandwiched during ULB. Now dietary restrictions because of certain ailments like allergies or medical conditions like diabetes are understandable. But strictly following such rules when scripture makes it clear that Christians are under no such laws, is sheer lunacy. But what were we required to do to follow these laws, Armstrong style?
There was the obvious rule, no pork or shellfish. Not eating shellfish wasn’t hard, because as a child I wasn’t fond of it. My parents did enjoy clams, but that was usually on special occasions. But there was so many times we couldn’t eat what was set before us at the relatives’ houses, and the worst part of it all...grocery shopping often took much longer than it should have. My mother was trained to read EVERY INGREDIENT on every can, box, and package of food items she purchased. The first holy day gathering we attended was in 1972, it was the first day of ULB, and the hotel staff where we were holding services and the meal, served Jello for dessert. We started eating it when some lunatic went around frantically telling everyone at their tables not to eat the Jello, THERE’S PORK IN IT! We had just entered the WCG not six months earlier and my parents were like..WAIT, WHAT??? My mom wasn’t sure what to make of it, but she let me finish mine, but there was no Jello in our house again until we stopped observing the dietary laws in 1978. There was also the stress of grilling wait staff in restaurants to make sure nothing was cooked in pork fat or the meatballs or meatloaf didn’t have ground pork in them or make sure they only served all beef hot dogs. (I actually prefer all beef hot dogs these days, please don’t spread it around). They also went one step further by telling people they should avoid sugar, salt, and white flour. So in reality, there wasn’t a lot we could eat during those years.
Now does this sound like an easy yoke or a stressful one? Today’s COG splinter groups still very much enforce these laws, in their own way, but they try to convince their followers that it’s for “health reasons”. When I’ve dialogued with such folks, I’ve asked them that since it’s about health, shouldn’t it be a private decision instead of being dictated by the church? Then they switch gears and say it’s God’s law. I’ll ask, is it necessary to be saved? Then they say it’s not about salvation, it’s about health, then I go back again and round and round and round we go. But those of us who survived being in the WCG know the truth. We KNOW that it was very much a salvation issue. They just know they can’t prove it from scripture.
"There is nothing that enters a man from outside which can defile him; but the things which come out of him, those are the things that defile a man.” (Mark 7: 15)
HOLY DAYS
At age 8, I was told we could no longer observe birthdays, Christmas, Easter, or Halloween. I was told we would be celebrating days that were much better and we weren’t even going to miss the old ways and that I’d be having much more fun than I ever imagined. I was lied to. I can’t begin to tell you how horrific the holy days were. We originally had to drive 2 HOURS away to sit through 2 services, one at 10am, the other at 2pm with a lunch served in between. Attendance was mandatory and noncompliance could result in being disfellowshipped. Attending meant keeping the kids out of school, unnecessarily putting us behind in class. Attending meant keeping an extra sabbath or two that week. Attending meant taking vacation time. Attending meant the possibility of being in trouble with work for taking the vacation time. Taking the vacation time meant less time with your family and less time to take care of things at home. Is this the easy yoke Jesus promised?
The Feast of Tabernacles meant taking a vacation. Sound good? Not so fast… on the first and last day of the feast and the sabbath during the FOT...DOUBLE SERVICES...MANDATORY. Then the other days, services at 10 am every day. After “fellowshipping” and eating lunch, it was the middle of the afternoon. That didn’t leave much time for family time. Is this the easy yoke Jesus promised?
Days of Unleavened Bread, you had to rid your home of all “leavening”. You had to clean out EVERYTHING….cabinets, toasters, ovens, refrigerators, even your cars. Then you had to eat only unleavened things. Kids had to bring matzo sandwiches to school. That was soooo humiliating. Is THIS the easy yoke Jesus promised?
Day of Atonement. We had a 24 hour mandatory day of fasting. But this fasting ventured into the danger zone. Fasting can always be a good thing if done properly, but members were denied even drinking water. Most religions that encourage fasting, don’t forbid water or make it mandatory 24 hours. This can cause health risks and dehydration. Plus, Herbert didn’t follow it himself. He didn’t follow any of his own laws. Is THIS the easy yoke Jesus promised?
TITHING
Nothing infuriates me more than thinking about the triple tithe system that Armstrong enforced. During the WCG years, our family lived like we were in poverty. And yet, for part of the year my dad worked 2 jobs. My mother also had a part time job after my younger brother started school, and yet they made it very clear that as a family, we couldn’t afford ANYTHING. If it involved paying for something, we couldn’t afford it. I went to movies as a treat ONCE A YEAR, and even that was the matinee. I wore clothes that originally belonged to my brother who was 7 years older than I was. Do you know how radically styles had changed from 1965 to 1972? I got laughed at a lot for my clothes and my haircuts. Oh, and my mother cut my hair for me because they couldn’t afford a barber for us kids. It wasn’t fun walking around looking like Moe from the Three Stooges. When we would go out to eat, we were always instructed to get the cheapest thing on the menu and dessert was out of the question unless it was Howard Johnson’s, who at the time had 28 flavors of ice cream. We were ordered to keep lights on at a minimum, thus I had to learn to navigate from room to room in the dark. We also had to make do with one car, but fortunately, dad worked nearby so my mother could drive him to work. And when my dad had to replace his ‘66 Dodge Coronet in 1974, He bought a ‘74 Colt wagon, which was a very tight squeeze when my older siblings were home and we all went in the one car. Family vacations were out of the question because all money was given to the church or saved for the Feast of Tabernacles. Plus, my dad used most of his vacation time to observe the holy days. We also knew a few families that went as far as to sell their homes to give to the church or prepare for their “escape to Petra”.
All this was because of the church’s extreme system of tithing, something never even instructed to Christians. (I expect to get a couple of negatives comments for that one). Does this sound like a system that people would stand in line for to sign on the dotted line? Is it any wonder that they didn’t inform new converts of the third tithe until they were fully indoctrinated and had already pledged their loyalty to Armstrong and the WCG? Is it proper for ministers to live in fairly big houses and drive luxury cars while many of their members couldn’t make ends meet? Was this the way of Jesus? And IS THIS THE EASY YOKE JESUS PROMISED????
FINAL THOUGHTS
I could go onto other hardships from being a WCG member like denial of medical care, isolation from neighbors and relatives, and women not being allow to make themselves look prettier with makeup or men having their hair cut like they were in the service. (this was the 70’s folks!!!) But I think I’ve made my point here. Life in the WCG was extremely burdensome, and many of the splinter groups continue much of this today, though some have eased up a bit on enforcing the rules. Our Lord came to bring us life and peace, even in the trials and tribulations this world brings us. The church, the community of believers should be a refuge from the trials of life, NOT THE CAUSE OF THEM!
I’m going to end here, but just wish to encourage you that if you are in a COG or follow some of the beliefs of Herbert W. Armstrong, but you KNOW something just doesn’t add up, you’re not alone. In fact, you’re very fortunate that we live in this age where a world of information is right at our fingertips. There are many websites that expose cults and isms, but I would recommend you begin with this blogspot. EXHWA has written countless blogs comparing Herbert’s teachings to the Word of God, and so has Martha and a couple others. I would suggest you make best use of this site and study, and most importantly ask God to give you wisdom. I guarantee you that He will do so.
Peace and Blessings, out!
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It is important that you understand; Everything on this blog is based on the current understanding of each author. Never take anyone's word for it, always prove it for yourself, it is your responsibility. You cannot ride someone else's coattail into the Kingdom. ; )
Acts 17:11
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