This website is intended for people affected by the Worldwide Church of God, Living Church of God, Philadelphia Church of God; or any other splinter group. However, these essays may be helpful to anyone who was once involved in a Bible-based cult.

Thursday 3 April 2008

Armstrong's Apocalypse Illustrated


In an effort to really strike the fear of God into people's hearts, H. W. Armstrong commissioned Mad Magazine artist Basil Wolverton to make a series of illustrations. It was to be depictions of the Apocalypse, with inspiration taken from Armstrong's prophecies and the book of Revelations.

Looking at these images, I'm sure I have seen them before. Perhaps not in colour, but they are so very familiar. I remember these graphics in a book my Father carr
ied in his briefcase. I used to look at the pictures before services. (We always seemed to be there a half hour or more early to 'fellowship' with other people in 'God's one true church.')

These illustrations are a chilling look into the 'world tomorrow' I was taught about as a child. Once again, I can trace my constant nightmares about a zombie apocalypse to 'the church.' I've been having dreams about the end of the world since my parents left 'the church.'



I've included a whole series of illustrations here; click on the image for an enlargement.





7 comments:

The Third Witness said...

Hello, D.M.S., and greetings from Brussels! I just discovered your blog via a post you wrote on another site a couple of weeks ago.

I think some of these illustrations are from a booklet called 1975 in Prophecy!, although I only ever remember seeing them in black and white before. This booklet was discussed recently on the Ambassador Watch blog. It brought back a mixed bag of memories for me, as I was a little kid at school and thought I was being very clever discovering all this material. I even took it to school and proudly showed it to my teachers!

Anyway, I just wanted to take the chance to say Hi. You're absolutely right: it's important to be able to talk about some of our shared experiences with others who understand (to varying degrees, of course) what it was like. So let me encourage you to keep it up! I recently started a blog of my own, which I hope will also be a constructive contribution in the dialogue as as we all continue our journey.

With every good wish,

Graham Buik

D.M. Schofield said...

You are maybe right that these are not from 'The Bible Story,' and in fact are from '1975 in Prophecy.' Both had disturbing imagery, from what I remember.

Weinland Watch said...

The boils. The pictures of the people with the boils. That was in the Children's Bible Stories. In B&W albeit, but nonetheless horrific and unforgettable.

A lot of those pictures were also reprinted in the later levels of the YES lessons (particularly levels 7 and 8) as well.

Anonymous said...

hmmmm, I remember those drawings but they were black and white. They were our special Friday night bedtime stories. My parents joined when I was two, my father became a minister, and our lives were hell. We had to be perfect but weren't (who is), physical and emotional abuse was used to coerce and control. I 'escaped' when I ran away from home at age 17, the problem was I didn't know how to relate to people as we were only allowed to socialise with those in 'the church.' Relationships have been difficult and abuse has been mistaken for love many a time. I suffered from anxiety, depression and very low self esteem, taking many years to heal. I could go on and on, and have many many bizarre stories to tell, but that was a long time ago now, 23 years since I did a runner :-)

D.M. Schofield said...

Anonymous... your story sounds so much like my own. I've tried to blame so many things for my anxiety problems in the past, but it always comes back to 'the church.'

Good luck in the future.

Unknown said...

I hadn't thought about these pictures in many years! I'm shocked seeing them now. It reminds me of seeing a little cousin - maybe 6 years old return from FOT and tell me about the video she watched about the World Tomorrow and the Tribulation...I suddenly remembered all of the WWII pictures. All of the piled bodies and suffering. I completely forgot that I'd been watching those videos since probably 2 years old. Talk about programming!

Jason said...

This may explain why my wife (she divorced me two weeks ago after 11 rocky years) has so many problems.

No boundaries.

Big time sexual indescretion (risky, risky, risky behavior).

Chronic victimhood status.

Nightmares.

Highly unstable moods.