I was raised in a Christian family and as a child I was required to attend the Christian Reformed Church. But as a teenager I rejected the beliefs of my parents after I began reading The Plain Truth magazine and listening to Garner Ted Armstrong on the The World Tomorrow radio broadcast on. For the next twenty-five years my worldview was very strongly influenced by the Worldwide Church of God which I joined at age eighteen.
This church was not a mainstream Christian church. It was founded in the 1930s by Herbert W. Armstrong and he was its leader until his death at age 93 in 1986. He built a worldwide empire which included three Ambassador College campuses and a large-circulation magazine, The Plain Truth, which was offered free upon request.
Consistent with church teachings and as a sincere true-believer, I held the following beliefs:
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That the God of the Bible existed and was the one, true God.
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That I had been personally called by God to understand His truth.
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That the Bible was the word of God and contained truth not otherwise accessible.
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That Herbert W. Armstrong was God’s one, true apostle on earth today.
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That the whole world was deceived by Satan the Devil including Christian churches, and especially the Roman Catholic church, which were clever counterfeits of God’s true Church.
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That personal salvation meant being born again at the time of our resurrection from the dead and literally becoming the children of God for all eternity.
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That the seventh-day Sabbath was holy and that worshipping God on Sunday was contrary to His will.
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That the plan of God for mankind was revealed in the seven annual Holy Days and that their observance was still required in modern times.
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That prophecy revealed that we were living in the last days and that Jesus Christ would return to earth in my lifetime.
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That the lost ten tribes of ancient Israel were actual countries today and, specifically, that Manasseh today is the United States and that Ephriam today is what was the British Empire, and that this knowledge was the key needed to unlock the meaning of Biblical prophecies.
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That Bible prophecy revealed that a United Europe would arise and become the Beast of Revelation 13.
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That my purpose on earth was to support the Work of God and that its task was to warn the world of an imminent Great Tribulation.
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That certain Old Testament laws such as tithing and abstaining from eating unclean meats were still in force today.
At midlife I came to realize that the Worldwide Church of God was a benign cult and I rejected all of the above beliefs. After more than a little research, I also rejected mainstream Christianity as a worldview. With further research and much thought, I choose a new worldview, secular humanism.
The above beliefs now seem very strange to me. But I feel no shame or embarrassment for having held them for over two decades. I was a sincere true-believer trying to live the right way without hypocrisy as best I could. All things considered, my cult experience was a net positive one. However, many ex-members of the WCG would rightly claim that they suffered more than they benefited and a few were greatly harmed.
Today I actually feel some appreciation for the experience of having been so very wrong for so very long. It helps me question myself and to be open-minded. It stimulates me to read and think and learn. It gives me a lot of tolerance for people who hold different beliefs from mine and I find many of such people worthy of my respect. I have more than a little empathy for people ensnared by groups outside of the mainstream. It also impresses upon me how very difficult it is to understand worldviews contrary to our own. It motivates me to promote civil dialogue amongst those who hold differing worldviews. Although I paid a price for holding false beliefs as true, I value the opportunity to live two very different lives.
About the Worldwide Church of God
The first copy of The Plain Truth magazine that I received was February, 1967. For years I eagerly read the PT from cover to cover. In the 1980s I was very active distributing the magazine to newsstands around Calgary, believing I was doing The Work of God.
There is an extensive library of WCG literature available on line at https://www.hwalibrary.com/. I completed most lessons of the Bible Study course thinking that I was following the teachings of God not men. I read and believed many of the Booklets published by the WCG and several were particularly meaningful at one time.
THE UNITED STATES and BRITISH COMMONWEALTH in Prophecy
A TRUE History of the TRUE CHURCH
There is lots of information on wikipedia - Herbert W. Armstrong, the Worldwide Church of God is now Grace Communion International.
In my last year of high school, I applied for admission to Ambassador College in Pasadena, California and I was very disappointed that I was not accepted. Two years later I applied again with the same result, something I am very grateful for to this day. I cannot imagine any way my life would have been better had I been accepted for admission.