I have recently cut ties with a cult,1 with the Worldwide Church of God, after twenty years in its spiritual concentration camp. After surrendering twenty years of my early adulthood to this false church I am coming to terms with the expected regrets, repercussions and the inevitable journey of healing in Jesus. Thank you for being there for myself and others whose minds have ironically been opened by the rhetorical overtures being made by the WCG to pursue acceptance by mainstream Christianity.

Let me assure you that I have thoroughly and assertively proven that its rhetoric is a hoax; its changes are cosmetic, if anything; and it is as much an abusive cult toward its members as ever. It still engages in "spiritual" double talk in order to maintain control, and pathetically, substantially clings to the old covenant while purporting to embrace the New Covenant. It continues to execute the abusive administrative practices which are engendered by such a legalistic system. (E.g., while admitting that Christians no longer have to keep the old covenant festivals, during these same festivals they are preaching that we prove our passion for Jesus by keeping them. This implies that those in its fellowship who opt not to keep these days must somehow lack passion for Christ. This is typical of their pervasive double talk. And on it goes.) I have proven this as objectively, systematically and biblically as possible until there is no doubt in my mind whatsoever.

In fact, I have been as systematic about determining its hypocrisy and abuse as the WCG has been in persecuting true Christians both within and without its walls since its inception. It has been able to successfully dupe such cult-watchers as Hank Hanegraaff and Ruth Tucker--and that is a bit unsettling to know. Honestly, I must question the discernment and integrity of these individuals who have swallowed the blather of the WCG's historically abusive leadership because of the apparent historic magnitude of these organizational "changes." However, the WCG can't fool me anymore. Naturally, I am now what they classify as a disgruntled former member, who must obviously have mental problems. Because I dare to ask questions and expose their hypocrisy, I am labeled negative and rebellious. Nothing has changed except their rhetoric--and this is absolutely no proof of repentance whatsoever. I have provided innumerable opportunities for the WCG to prove that my conclusions about it are wrong, but they cannot because my conclusions are correct.

The spiritual abuse I have endured while proactively seeking healing from spiritual abuse within the WCG has been reprehensible. Members are still no more welcome to ask questions, pursue their ministries and develop their spiritual gifts than before these theoretical changes. While there was some lukewarm reaching out to members who left to go backwards into old covenant splinter groups, there has been no attempt to reach out to those who depart to go forward into Jesus and New Covenant churches. In fact, those with a spiritual reawakening to Jesus are not even remotely encouraged to stay and are practically blamed for leaving in order to be fed and nurtured in Christ-centered fellowships in which their gifts will be used and in which pastors are accountable for the way in which they deal with their flocks.

My most recent local pastor, presumably for self-preservation, has lied to Headquarters about reasons for people leaving and has even skewed the local attendance roster, maintaining names of those who have no attended services in over three years. (Yet he was very quick to remove my name. Furthermore, he has never called to survey me for my reasons for leaving, although he has for others.) He has a strategically misplaced, spiritually abusive local elder and a lay crony of extremely questionable morals and integrity running the local show for him; all the while abusing or neglecting the needs of the flock and attributing local attrition to anything but that from which it really stems. After I responsibly and biblically attempted to expose him and his wife for what they are and have done to me, they rallied a ready-supply of "yes men and women" to their side in true WCG cult fashion. It's an incredible sham that Headquarters seems quite pleased to knowingly allow to continue and pay for, while claiming to be a spiritually healthy organization to its cult-watch friends.

The pastor-general [Joseph Tkach Jr.] himself is blind-sided by the fact that he has grown up in the WCG and has never had another church experience. He has publicly questioned why those who had left previous fellowships for the WCG "in order to seek a closer relationship with God" would now depart for whence they came. Since I am not handicapped from having grown up in this cult and am not limited in church experience, let me shed some light on it for him. In twenty years in the WCG, I have never met anyone (myself included) who had come to this fellowship from a previous church experience who did not come for only one of the four reasons below:

1. Intellectual vanity: This is the One True Church and all others are false. We are special in God's eyes because only we have the plain truth.
   
   

2. Unique point of doctrine: Seventh-day Sabbath, Old Testament Festivals, "unclean meats," etc. This goes hand in hand with salvation by works--attempting to somehow earn salvation and God's favor.
   
   

3. Prophecy: The WCG has the only true view of prophecy and those who embrace it will be protected from physical harm during the coming Great Tribulation in a place of safety that the appointed apostle will make known.
   
   

4. Spiritual immaturity: Need a charismatic leader such as Mr. Herbert Armstrong was. Need for structure and control offered by cults.

It would have not been possible for anyone to become a WCG member for a closer walk with Jesus because they would not have found him there. Mr. Armstrong influenced us all for years with his anti-Jesus remarks. I attempted to address these issues with WCG Headquarters personnel, especially in the past three months while seeking redress for blatant spiritual abuse (a la` pages 71 through 76 and 96 through 116 of Healing Spiritual Abuse) from my then current pastor and his wife. There has been no response to the former and no resolution on the latter concern. I did them a favor by walking away, because I was the perceived trouble-maker anyway.

This pastor and his wife, in what proved to me our last "counseling session," alluded to a secret file they had on me, told me that I had no right to ask questions of any kind, disparaged the concept of spiritual abuse, and outright lied about previous conversations we had had in which she accused me of being unconverted and recommended I should leave the WCG and get help because I must  have had a childhood trauma to cause me to be so negative and rebellious towards authority. At the end of this charade, they suggested we get "our stories" to match so in case Headquarters got involved, we would both "agree" that I had left of my own free will and was not asked to leave. I guess it's all right that they were making and would continue to make my life in the WCG so miserable that I would be frustrated and forced into leaving. Just as long as I wasn't "asked" to leave. Can you believe how insane this system is? I would not have expected a truthful, clear response from Headquarters about this anyway because the WCG  is well-entrenched in its indefensible position. It will ignore or persecute those who think, challenge or dare to disagree with it as it has always done. And its "professional" ministry would never be expected to apologize for wrongs or repent of sin--that's the realm of the laity, who exist to serve the ministry in this organization. With the Holy Spirit as my witness, this is the truth, no matter how much the WCG denies it or covers it up with its well-rehearsed rhetoric.

For the record, I did have a running dialogue with a Headquarters' representative following this incident. It lasted several weeks and consisted of three phone calls from him and four letters from me. The obvious solution has completely evaded him--probably because, as he admitted to me, he has known the pastor's wife since childhood. So familiarity wins out over the truth. He mentioned he would pass the situation off to the regional pastor for handling--that was weeks ago, now; but, I'd already tried to directly appeal to him in vain so I didn't expect anything to come of it. I once thought if there was anyone with the combination of integrity, guts and a direct, personal knowledge of me and my convictions it would be he. It didn't take too long to find out how wrong I was about him, also. So my pastor and wife and their henchmen win the battle; but I've won the war through my Lord and Savior. They get to stay in their comfortable cult, wallowing in legalism and pseudo-Christianity; and I get to move forward into the exhilarating challenge of walking with Jesus. Boy, do I feel sorry for them.

At the risk of you thinking I am some kind of a flake, I am going to make myself vulnerable anyway. Although God has never dealt with me this way before, and may never again, He did reach down to me in a dream recently. Now before you go ballistic on me, please listen. I am of above average intelligence, no history of mental illness in my family and have typically uneventful dreams. this one, however, was vivid, in color and I remember each detail as if God branded it on my mind. It went like this:

I was standing in a lovely green meadow. I was aware of a number of members of my local WCG congregation standing nearby. Along came the sweetest, little lamb anyone could imagine. It wandered over to me as if to allow me to reach down and pet it. I did so and it immediately snared one of my fingers in its jaws. It clamped shut, locking my finger with its razor-sharp teeth. The pain was enormous as I attempted to pry my finger loose. I cried out for help from the crowd, but no one stepped forward. I tried shaking off the lamb, whose eyes increasingly took on a look of evil. I tried to lead the lamb over to a high wooded gate, on the other side of the field from the crowd, hoping to shake it loose and shut the door behind it to keep it from attacking me further. I made it to the gate, but could not manage to dislodge it, so I gave up and tried again to move toward the crowd to seek help there. Halfway back across the field, I tried one more desperate measure. I flung the lamb straight up toward heaven in attempt to free myself. On the way up, the lamb let go of my finger. I looked down at my finger to find a huge gaping wound, yet it wasn't bleeding. And there was an immediately cessation of the pain. A moment later, the lamb came crashing back to earth, landing on its neck. As it lay dead of a broken neck, its mouth was opened wide to reveal its wolf-like jaw and fangs. Although that is the end of the dream with its obvious implications, might I add an additional observation. It was not until after my finger was out of the false lamb's grip and it was lying dead on the ground, that those in the crowd were able to clearly see the lamb for what it really was. During the course of the entire incident, all that was evident to them was that I was mistreating this sweet, little lamb.

I'd also like to clarify, it was not until after I had walked away from the WCG that God gave me this gift of the dream. It was not the catalyst for my leaving. That decision was founded on much more substantive experience, research and prayer than the dream offers. Yet, it is profound in its significance for me and I praise the Lord for it. I awoke from this dream with a serenity I would not have expected, given the brutal nature of it. For sure, the peace of Christ does pass all understanding!

Thank you and may God bless your outreach. May your ministry be a blessing to many more. I'm not sure where the Lord is leading me at the moment, but I know that His grace is sufficient for me and I am complete in Jesus. It's been utter joy to visit many churches in my area, while I continue to research many different Christian denominations. My husband remains a WCG member, who is an enabler (as Toxic Faith identifies) and naïvely expects his continued presence can be a catalyst for real change; so, I expect a battle that he can actually continue to throw his support to something that has clearly abused me and he needs prayers for intervention and understanding. Please pray for me and my family. Please pray for those in the WCG whom I already know have the eyes to see the same things, but lack the courage to act and depart.

Alive in Jesus and loving it.

By Cathy Chase   
1995

cc: Hank Hanegraaff, CRI
     Ruth Tucker, Trinity University
     David Covington, WCG
     Craig Bacheller, WCG
     Peter Ditzel, Personal Freedom Outreach*
     Exit & Support Network

Footnote by ESN:

1 The word "cult" is used in the context of a deceitful, abusive, mind-manipulating organization. While WCG may not be labeled a "religious cult" by the media today, we have given reasons in our OIU newsletters and in our other articles why we do not endorse them, but rather expose them.

Read 2007 testimony: Abused by Worldwide Church of God When I Decided to Leave Their Fellowship (shows ongoing cultic mindset in WCG - 2007)

Outsider's Inside Update Newsletters (Important reading which looks behind the scenes at the real activities and associations pertaining to the "transformation" of the WCG; shows how doctrine was used as a massive propaganda tool; OIU 4, Pt. 1 has a section on Propaganda and Dialectical Materialism)

An Open Letter to Our Acquaintances in The Church of God (Very important letter which enabled many to question deception and to exit WCG and its authoritarian offshoots. One interesting part shows how WCG used thought reform in order to instigate their new changes.)

Letter Exposing Outright Lies, Abuses, and Sociopathic Behavior (Tells the truth about what was really going on at the time of the WCG changes)

Was God Behind the Worldwide Church of God Changes?

A Cult in Transition?

Exiting an Exploitive, Deceptive Group (Transcription of Tape EX-3 by L. A. Stuhlman; originally made for those exiting WCG, but contains very helpful info for those who were involved with any of the high demand offshoots)

Research Letters Concerning Worldwide Church of God Changes (Excellent exposé of WCG's history and agenda; including deceit surrounding the new changes.)

Letter to Worldwide Church of God, Philippines (On Apostasy--A Radical Proposal) (Reveals the disturbing direction WCG is headed doctrinally; includes New Age authors WCG has endorsed. This Oct. 2006 letter was later forwarded to over 300 WCG ministers, including those at Headquarters. Includes link to a rebuttal to Michael Morrison's reply.)

Back to Research Information on Worldwide Church of God

The New Age Ties of the Apologetics Ministries

Evangelical Ministries to New Religions (EMNR)