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Articles for the Benefit of Members and Ex-Members of the WCG

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31
The Deviousness and Deceit of the WCG

Worldwiders are, generally, abysmally unaware of the accuracy and poignancy of Jesus' warnings to them about deception!


Jesus said: Take heed that no one deceives you... (Matt 24:4, NKJV).

While this warning was directed to His disciples, it was not meant for them alone. Those words have been recorded because they are relevant for all time, especially for us, on whom the end of the age descends! Satan is a master craftsman. He is a master at craft!

The deceit and deviousness of those whom he uses as his stooges is striking! Unsuspecting and well- meaning people whose motive in life is dedicated to doing what is right, are easily fooled!

The example of Herbert Armstrong proves that. He was a deceiver of the first order! I have explained in previous articles [see footnote 1] how he deceived the minds of his followers in such a way that they looked to HIM. He diverted their attention away from Christ and caused them to listen to, heed, adore, and follow HWA! It all happened so subtly! No one in the Worldwide Church of God was really aware of the subtlety of this transfer of loyalties and of the depth of his guile until drastic things happened which opened their eyes.

The late Joseph Tkach was equally devious. He lied to the church to bolster his self-image, so that he could get the people to follow him, just like his predecessor. He put on a good front. He seemed a very nice man. You would think very highly of him from meeting him. But his private life was far from exemplary. He had an adulterous relationship with his secretary, and the several lies which he palmed off on the church members were never withdrawn. He was happy for the people in his spiritual domain to believe lies!

He introduced new teachings into the church with an alacrity that has amazed the evangelical sector of Christendom. WHY he did this has been explained by Jacob I Myers in Tkach's Big Heresy. Tkach did not tell you, as a WCG member, the real reasons for these changes. He wouldn't want you to know - even if he understood his own psychology! Probably he himself could not see what was really motivating him! A deceived man does not know he is deceived. When he is in tune with the devil because of unrepented sin in his life, the devil uses him as his instrument. This is what happened to HWA, to Jo Tkach, and is still continuing with the present church leader, Jo Tkach junior!

In the context of the WCG, it is why Jesus warned: Beware that no man deceives you! Leaders can be the biggest deceivers! Paul expanded this caveat to the elders at Ephesus:

For I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God [1 - see below]. Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers [2 & 3], to shepherd the church of God [3] which He purchased with His own blood. For I know this that after my departing savage wolves will come in among you [4], not sparing the flock. Also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves [5] (Acts 20:27-30, NKJV).

It is easy for the devil to get your mind. He knows how to do it, and he can do it wholesale through church organisations. He simply gets the leaders hooked in some way, and then he has managed, with the minimum of fuss and effort, to get most of the people deluded as well!


Analysing WCG Deceit

Take a closer look at that text from Acts again. The number in square brackets in the text above refers to the part of the text immediately preceding it. Several weaknesses in the church are revealed here:

  • 1. Paul dared to preach the WHOLE counsel of God, but not all will do that. It is more expedient for church leaders to tone down the truth and only preach or emphasise part of it. This leads to apostasy. It is what is taking place wholesale now in the WCG. Yet, the leaders call the heresies "new truth"! They are old lies!!
  • 2. It is the Holy Spirit which makes men ministers, not a decision from a hierarchy with the subsequent laying on of hands for "higher ministerial approval". That is all a sham. Ordination should be from God, not from men.
  • 3. The ministers are supposed to be overseers NOT overlords! (Matt 20:25,26.) They should be shepherds, watching over their flocks in love and genuine spiritual care.

The real meaning of the term "minister" has become lost in the WCG. Service for the spiritual well-being of members has been substituted with lordship of ministers OVER members. When a servant serves, he is not above those whom he serves. This concept is entirely lost in the WCG, where a Babylonian concept of hierarchic autocracy is in place. God tells you to COME OUT of everything that is contaminated by the Babylonian Mother of Harlots (Rev 18:4).

  • 4. Savage wolves have taken over the flock, and devour it. Physically, nothing seems wrong. You can't see a devouring wolf. His devastation is created in your mind - in the spiritual dimension. And because it is shrouded by deception, the devouring nature of his work is unseen to those who fall prey to him.

These tools of the devil come as angels of light (2 Cor 11:13-15). They appear OK. In fact, they even appear good! You naturally believe them and are inclined to follow them! You would even obey their injunctions not to listen to those who are trying to warn you about them. They will label them "dissidents" and paint the ones God is using in a negative light.

All this is happening right now in the WCG! Jesus' words are very up to date!

  • 5. Finally, there is the aspect of these deceivers having the effect of buying you. They draw away your mind in favour of them. They draw away your loyalty to Christ, and cause you to replace it with an inferior substitute - a human loyalty to a man - in this case, to Joseph Tkach!


Drawing Away Your Mind

"Drawing away disciples after themselves" is a major problem in the church. It was what was emphasised time and again in WCG circles. "Submit to Church authority" was the WCG swan-song which kept the people in line. It maintained "law and order". But the WCG became like a police state, where members lost the freedom to think for themselves. They became subservient to their masters, their overlords, who determined what they were to believe, how they were to behave, and what spiritual direction they were to take. Many members feared to "transgress" the authority of their "ministerial" overlords!

Effectively, members were following and obeying men, not God! Through clever psychology, coercion, fear and deceit, members were induced into this human subservience, and robbed of true spirituality which comes from following the lead of the Spirit directly (Rom 8:14).

None of this is sanctioned by Jesus, who meant ministers to be shepherds leading the sheep up front as spiritual examples, not by driving them with coercion from behind. This beautiful true shepherding analogy is lost on most today because farming techniques are so different in the west.

If you are in the WCG you probably think I am overstating it by contending that all this is the result of devious and deceitful church leaders.

If so, let me ask you something. Do you think it is right to follow a man who lies? Do you think it is right to follow a man who allows another minister to sleep with his wife in return for favours of promotion? Do you think it is pleasing to God for you to give such men your unfailing trust and loyalty? And, do you think they deserve to have your tithe while they are doing Satan's work?

If you answer "yes" to any of those questions, you are mindless or seriously deluded!

All those heinous sins - and more - have been perpetrated by Joseph Tkach in his bid to gain domination and leadership of the WCG. No wonder he is dead!

As for his son, the present Joseph Tkach, he has no right to assume headship over the WCG. If the office of head over a church were scriptural - which it is not, because Jesus is meant to be Head (Eph 1:22) - nepotism is nowhere sanctioned in the Bible. Ministers such as apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers should be appointed by God, not by other men. You can tell when a man is appointed by God. His works declare the authenticity of his appointment (2 Cor 12:12; Matt 7:15).

Just in case I am not making myself plain - JOSEPH TKACH HAS NO DIVINE RIGHT TO RULE OVER THE WORLDWIDE CHURCH OF GOD!

The means he uses to retain his position are riddled with deviousness and deceit. It is unavoidable for him. It's the way the machine operates. Armstrong set it in motion, and the 'animal' has not been tamed.

I mentioned in The Deceitfulness of HWA that he plagiarised the works of others, took the information he wanted for his own devious ends, and gave no credit to his source.

The WCG leadership has done the same with our material - the parts it wants to use.

I once received a letter from a lady in California, close the church's HQ. She asked me some loaded questions about tithing at a time when the WCG was in a state of flux and felt a great need to modify its teaching. I suspected that this person was not writing for their own benefit, but was a 'plant'. She had been put up to it by someone in WCG HQ.

My son Richard received a word from the Lord at that time, telling me to answer the letter as fully as possible, as if it was a genuine inquiry. So I did.

My letter answered the various specific questions about tithing that were posed. It contained some concepts and phraseology which were new to the WCG. The letter was not short. It took some hours to write. I received no acknowledgement or reply.

Some weeks later a new WCG publication about tithing and /or giving came off the press. In places it contained remarkable similarities to what I had written! I was not fooled! We know the WCG mentality.

This is not slander. It is fact. HWA began this trend. His successor perpetuated it, and Jo Tkach junior is merely following in the footsteps of his mentors. You should not follow deceivers!

Malcolm B Heap, February 1998


1
The deceit of Herbert W Armstrong is revealed in The Deceitfulness of H W Armstrong and in The Corrupt Leaders of the Worldwide Church of God, available for £2.00 from the above address.

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