I want to present my testimony again. Due to some problems with my account, my previous testimony isn't associated with my username. I have added some material to it.
I was saved in 1985 after going through a long bout of anxiety and depression.
This bout of anxiety and depression started after I was blocked from entering my chosen profession, being a police officer or military officer. I had been looking forward to this career since childhood. My thought at the time was, there's no way I can be a part of these professions now, so what use was my life to me?
The anxiety and depression went on for months. I remember planning to wire both triggers of a double barrel shotgun together and then shoot myself.
Instead of doing this, I knelt beside the bed and told God that he could have my life if he could use it..if not I was going to kill myself to avoid the anxiety and depression. God answered my prayer for deliverance at that time, but I was not saved then..he simply gave me some peace of mind.
I experienced a great level of peace at that time. I knew I needed to find a local fellowship. I attended a few Baptist churches but I didn't seem very comfortable with their worship style or biblical knowledge...not the ones I attended anyways. I contacted a pastor at a church called Worldwide Church of God, because my mom attended there.
I met with the pastor and talked to him about some of the issues I was having. I started attending church there and liked their teaching style, although later I learned they had poor doctrine in a lot of areas.
I spent some months praying, studying Scripture and fasting. I asked God specifically to heal my mind and to increase my understanding of Scripture. My state of mental well being increased immensely over that time.
On one morning, maybe 4 months later, God caused my sins to be mentally replayed to me, along with the words of the Scripture, to convict me of my sins. I know this was a God thing...He caused it to happen.
I came to a point where I understood my sins, after my veneer of self righteousness was broken, and asked God to apply the sacrifice of Jesus Christ to my sins. I sensed the presence of God that day, ... a warm, glowing, loving presence, and it lasted for at least 3 days very intensely. I have felt it since then, but not as strong as that particular day usually.
After being saved, I continued attending Worldwide Church of God. They taught poor doctrine (cultic in fact), particularly in that they taught strict Saturday Sabbath keeping and other elements of the Old Covenant as being applicable to Christians.
Here are some of the major doctrinal beliefs that WCG had at one time or another while I was there (PLEASE NOTE THAT I NO LONGER BELIEVE THESE):
1. Christians were literally to become members of the God family, which is what they called the Godhead. Their human life and their overcoming of sins was for the purpose of qualifying them for salvation, and becoming a god being, to rule over their own planet. The Christian was viewed as being given only conditional eternal life, and their salvation process was described as being like the impregnation of the human egg cell by the sperm...and the spiritual pregnancy could be terminated by God at any point prior to the birth, which occurred at the resurrection.
2. Other Christian churches were in error. All other Christian churches, while sincere, were not really true Christians and were not saved. Their religion was formed through an amalgam of Christianity and pagan customs such as Christmas, Easter and birthday observances. There was a very strong anti-Catholic element, particularly because they claimed to change the day of worship from Saturday to Sunday. They were viewed as the whore of Babylon in Revelation, with Protestant churches being viewed as the daughters of the whore.
3. Herbert Armstrong, the leader, was viewed as being the sole representative of God on Earth. He was called God's apostle. He was the ultimate authority on what the Bible said, and published many books which were meant to interpret the Scripture for Christians. He claimed to have restored true Christianity to the world, which had not been taught since the early apostolic days. While the church taught to believe only your Bible, in reality they meant the Bible as interpreted by Herbert Armstrong and the church.
4. Christians were required to observe elements of the Old Covenant, including the Seventh Day Sabbath (Saturday), observance of the Holy Days of Leviticus 23, a tithing system that allocated about 23% of their gross income before tax to the church or festival observance, and observance of the clean/unclean meat laws. It was a very works oriented view of salvation.
5. A very complex eschatology (teaching about end time events) which taught that the 12 tribes of Israel are the ancestors of those who comprise the Western European peoples, and that events in prophecy can only be understood in this context.
6. A virtual universal salvation...the view was that most of mankind is not being called to salvation now...the Church is being called to salvation and being judged by God. The rest are spiritually blinded and won't be given an opportunity for salvation until a future resurrection after the Millennium, when they will be given an opportunity for salvation without Satan's influence.
7. A system of 3 resurrections. The first resurrection is the resurrection of the righteous at Christ's return. The second resurrection is the resurrection of the unsaved unevangelized, which is the group in point 6. The third resurrection is the resurrection to eternal punishment, to be thrown into the lake of fire.
8. Soul sleep; that those who die are in a state of sleep until they are resurrected.
9. Eternal punishment involved annihilationism,and not eternal suffering in hell.
10. Taught a healing doctrine that basically discouraged seeking medical treatment and condemned it as a lack of faith. Healing was viewed as part and parcel of Christ's sacrifice. This view changed over the time I was there.
11. Viewed the rich as being spiritually superior to the poor...most of the deacons and elders were individuals who were fairly successful in their vocational careers.
12. Denied the bodily resurrection, instead teaching a spiritual resurrection much like the Jehovah's Witnesses teach.
13. Practiced strict rules regarding church discipline. For example, if a member questioned a point of doctrine, or a church leader's decision, he could very easily face being disfellowshipped. Since the church taught that it was the sole representative of God on earth, and salvation was tied to church attendance, being disfellowshipped was the same as losing one's salvation. They ruled with an iron fist in this regard. This made it easy for them to control the membership.
WCG rightly taught that the ultimate authority for Christians is the Bible, which was good. I will admit that I believed their teachings fully until about 1995, when the church itself came to understand that it was teaching false things, and they began to change them. This was 10 years after Herbert Armstrong's death.
I came to a deeper and fuller understanding of God's grace and the fact that Christians possess eternal life, not conditional eternal life, and came to more fully understand God's grace and love. The focus moved from my works and my battle against the flesh to focusing on Jesus Christ and what he had already done on the cross.
I went through a sort of deeper spiritual awakening of sorts through this time period. I consider it my own private Reformation, similar to the Protestant Reformation when Luther began to understand what the "righteousness of God" really meant...that Christ's righteousness is given to us as a free gift, and God views the saved person as being clothed in the righteousness of Christ, and not through their works.
Unfortunately, I went through a long period of backsliding after this. My physical condition also deteriorated due to obesity, over time, and this affected my fellowship. I got involved in sexual sin during this time period, and this didn't help anything at all..it totally messed up my intimacy with God.
Since 2014, I've been rededicating myself to God and feeling the joy of my salvation again. I've been attending a good fellowship which is about 35 minutes away.
In 2012, I became disabled due to health issues, after having several years of lucrative employment. Part of the reason for my disability involved obesity and part of it involved injuries.
At 6'0, I weighed about 545 pounds at my high point in 2012 when I became disabled. I have lost over 245 pounds (I am at about 308) since then through losing some on my own, and through bariatric gastric bypass (weight loss) surgery performed in September 2013. I am continuing to lose weight. I discontinued my high blood pressure drugs because of this weight loss.
I stopped using prescription anti-anxiety drugs after the surgery..I used them from about 2000 to 2013. I felt they were causing me spiritual lethargy. Things have improved a lot since then, and I feel no anxiety. I feel personally that doctors are overprescribing mind altering drugs today and these drugs can have a huge impact on our spiritual lives.
I know very committed Christians who have needed to take drugs due to mental issues, so please do not interpret the above to indicate that I am totally against using drugs to treat organic mental illness. Mankind is damaged by the Fall and Adam's sin, and sometimes this damage affects the mind.
I had a bad auto accident in September 2016, while on the way to church services, and am still recuperating from that. I would appreciate prayers for full healing. My neck, back, hip, and knee were broken during the accident..the knee injury was a tibial plateau fracture which can be especially problematic to recuperate from. I also have some issues with fluid retention that causes venous stasis.
I know that God uses suffering to further our sanctification, though, and that no suffering on the part of a believer is futile. God is in control of all things, including the bad things in our lives, and they work to our good (Romans 8:28-30).
Anyways, I'd like to praise God for, first, saving me, and second, liberating me from the cultic teachings of Armstrongites. God is good. Also, I am thankful for RoboOp and the moderators for providing a decent place for fellowship. There are some weird characters here (some heretical; don't get your theology from here), but also a lot of good Christians. I have been unable to attend church services since the accident (hopefully that is going to end very soon), so interfacing with some of my Christian friends here has been a gift from God. Thank you, RoboOp, for this fellowship opportunity. I encourage donations to the site as it is a worthy cause.
I was saved in 1985 after going through a long bout of anxiety and depression.
This bout of anxiety and depression started after I was blocked from entering my chosen profession, being a police officer or military officer. I had been looking forward to this career since childhood. My thought at the time was, there's no way I can be a part of these professions now, so what use was my life to me?
The anxiety and depression went on for months. I remember planning to wire both triggers of a double barrel shotgun together and then shoot myself.
Instead of doing this, I knelt beside the bed and told God that he could have my life if he could use it..if not I was going to kill myself to avoid the anxiety and depression. God answered my prayer for deliverance at that time, but I was not saved then..he simply gave me some peace of mind.
I experienced a great level of peace at that time. I knew I needed to find a local fellowship. I attended a few Baptist churches but I didn't seem very comfortable with their worship style or biblical knowledge...not the ones I attended anyways. I contacted a pastor at a church called Worldwide Church of God, because my mom attended there.
I met with the pastor and talked to him about some of the issues I was having. I started attending church there and liked their teaching style, although later I learned they had poor doctrine in a lot of areas.
I spent some months praying, studying Scripture and fasting. I asked God specifically to heal my mind and to increase my understanding of Scripture. My state of mental well being increased immensely over that time.
On one morning, maybe 4 months later, God caused my sins to be mentally replayed to me, along with the words of the Scripture, to convict me of my sins. I know this was a God thing...He caused it to happen.
I came to a point where I understood my sins, after my veneer of self righteousness was broken, and asked God to apply the sacrifice of Jesus Christ to my sins. I sensed the presence of God that day, ... a warm, glowing, loving presence, and it lasted for at least 3 days very intensely. I have felt it since then, but not as strong as that particular day usually.
After being saved, I continued attending Worldwide Church of God. They taught poor doctrine (cultic in fact), particularly in that they taught strict Saturday Sabbath keeping and other elements of the Old Covenant as being applicable to Christians.
Here are some of the major doctrinal beliefs that WCG had at one time or another while I was there (PLEASE NOTE THAT I NO LONGER BELIEVE THESE):
1. Christians were literally to become members of the God family, which is what they called the Godhead. Their human life and their overcoming of sins was for the purpose of qualifying them for salvation, and becoming a god being, to rule over their own planet. The Christian was viewed as being given only conditional eternal life, and their salvation process was described as being like the impregnation of the human egg cell by the sperm...and the spiritual pregnancy could be terminated by God at any point prior to the birth, which occurred at the resurrection.
2. Other Christian churches were in error. All other Christian churches, while sincere, were not really true Christians and were not saved. Their religion was formed through an amalgam of Christianity and pagan customs such as Christmas, Easter and birthday observances. There was a very strong anti-Catholic element, particularly because they claimed to change the day of worship from Saturday to Sunday. They were viewed as the whore of Babylon in Revelation, with Protestant churches being viewed as the daughters of the whore.
3. Herbert Armstrong, the leader, was viewed as being the sole representative of God on Earth. He was called God's apostle. He was the ultimate authority on what the Bible said, and published many books which were meant to interpret the Scripture for Christians. He claimed to have restored true Christianity to the world, which had not been taught since the early apostolic days. While the church taught to believe only your Bible, in reality they meant the Bible as interpreted by Herbert Armstrong and the church.
4. Christians were required to observe elements of the Old Covenant, including the Seventh Day Sabbath (Saturday), observance of the Holy Days of Leviticus 23, a tithing system that allocated about 23% of their gross income before tax to the church or festival observance, and observance of the clean/unclean meat laws. It was a very works oriented view of salvation.
5. A very complex eschatology (teaching about end time events) which taught that the 12 tribes of Israel are the ancestors of those who comprise the Western European peoples, and that events in prophecy can only be understood in this context.
6. A virtual universal salvation...the view was that most of mankind is not being called to salvation now...the Church is being called to salvation and being judged by God. The rest are spiritually blinded and won't be given an opportunity for salvation until a future resurrection after the Millennium, when they will be given an opportunity for salvation without Satan's influence.
7. A system of 3 resurrections. The first resurrection is the resurrection of the righteous at Christ's return. The second resurrection is the resurrection of the unsaved unevangelized, which is the group in point 6. The third resurrection is the resurrection to eternal punishment, to be thrown into the lake of fire.
8. Soul sleep; that those who die are in a state of sleep until they are resurrected.
9. Eternal punishment involved annihilationism,and not eternal suffering in hell.
10. Taught a healing doctrine that basically discouraged seeking medical treatment and condemned it as a lack of faith. Healing was viewed as part and parcel of Christ's sacrifice. This view changed over the time I was there.
11. Viewed the rich as being spiritually superior to the poor...most of the deacons and elders were individuals who were fairly successful in their vocational careers.
12. Denied the bodily resurrection, instead teaching a spiritual resurrection much like the Jehovah's Witnesses teach.
13. Practiced strict rules regarding church discipline. For example, if a member questioned a point of doctrine, or a church leader's decision, he could very easily face being disfellowshipped. Since the church taught that it was the sole representative of God on earth, and salvation was tied to church attendance, being disfellowshipped was the same as losing one's salvation. They ruled with an iron fist in this regard. This made it easy for them to control the membership.
WCG rightly taught that the ultimate authority for Christians is the Bible, which was good. I will admit that I believed their teachings fully until about 1995, when the church itself came to understand that it was teaching false things, and they began to change them. This was 10 years after Herbert Armstrong's death.
I came to a deeper and fuller understanding of God's grace and the fact that Christians possess eternal life, not conditional eternal life, and came to more fully understand God's grace and love. The focus moved from my works and my battle against the flesh to focusing on Jesus Christ and what he had already done on the cross.
I went through a sort of deeper spiritual awakening of sorts through this time period. I consider it my own private Reformation, similar to the Protestant Reformation when Luther began to understand what the "righteousness of God" really meant...that Christ's righteousness is given to us as a free gift, and God views the saved person as being clothed in the righteousness of Christ, and not through their works.
Unfortunately, I went through a long period of backsliding after this. My physical condition also deteriorated due to obesity, over time, and this affected my fellowship. I got involved in sexual sin during this time period, and this didn't help anything at all..it totally messed up my intimacy with God.
Since 2014, I've been rededicating myself to God and feeling the joy of my salvation again. I've been attending a good fellowship which is about 35 minutes away.
In 2012, I became disabled due to health issues, after having several years of lucrative employment. Part of the reason for my disability involved obesity and part of it involved injuries.
At 6'0, I weighed about 545 pounds at my high point in 2012 when I became disabled. I have lost over 245 pounds (I am at about 308) since then through losing some on my own, and through bariatric gastric bypass (weight loss) surgery performed in September 2013. I am continuing to lose weight. I discontinued my high blood pressure drugs because of this weight loss.
I stopped using prescription anti-anxiety drugs after the surgery..I used them from about 2000 to 2013. I felt they were causing me spiritual lethargy. Things have improved a lot since then, and I feel no anxiety. I feel personally that doctors are overprescribing mind altering drugs today and these drugs can have a huge impact on our spiritual lives.
I know very committed Christians who have needed to take drugs due to mental issues, so please do not interpret the above to indicate that I am totally against using drugs to treat organic mental illness. Mankind is damaged by the Fall and Adam's sin, and sometimes this damage affects the mind.
I had a bad auto accident in September 2016, while on the way to church services, and am still recuperating from that. I would appreciate prayers for full healing. My neck, back, hip, and knee were broken during the accident..the knee injury was a tibial plateau fracture which can be especially problematic to recuperate from. I also have some issues with fluid retention that causes venous stasis.
I know that God uses suffering to further our sanctification, though, and that no suffering on the part of a believer is futile. God is in control of all things, including the bad things in our lives, and they work to our good (Romans 8:28-30).
Anyways, I'd like to praise God for, first, saving me, and second, liberating me from the cultic teachings of Armstrongites. God is good. Also, I am thankful for RoboOp and the moderators for providing a decent place for fellowship. There are some weird characters here (some heretical; don't get your theology from here), but also a lot of good Christians. I have been unable to attend church services since the accident (hopefully that is going to end very soon), so interfacing with some of my Christian friends here has been a gift from God. Thank you, RoboOp, for this fellowship opportunity. I encourage donations to the site as it is a worthy cause.
