r/formergospelassembly

So recently, I did a search to see how many new religious movements/cults/high control groups had a founder or a leader that claimed God spoke to them directly. Telling them he wanted them to tell his truth or that they were the only ones that could speak the truth or perhaps restore his church. I narrowed my search from the late 1800s to the late 1980s, there is over 2000 group leaders in that time frame to make such a claim. I peared down that list of more exact and confirmed claims to 40 individual groups. I won’t be going into great detail with them, but you can look up one of the groups mentioned and find further information. If you read the entire list, you can see that not all of them are even Christian groups. however, they claimed to have had some sort of spiritual or divine experience. each one of them claiming a unique calling. I’ve mentioned this before, the Bible is very clear about this.( test, the spirits)…1 John 4:1 “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.”

Some of these people may have truly had a spiritual experience… But whose spirit was it?

Galatians 1: 8 “But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.”
The Bible is very explicit about getting the gospel correct. most of these groups have perverted that and deviated from what the gospel tells us.

Each one of these individuals made claims. But is God the author of confusion? Would he tell all these people that they have the truth and the other is wrong? I think not.

What are your thoughts? Is there a group in particular that you would be interested in talking about? Is there a group not on this list that you know of making the same claims feel free to comment and add info to this list.
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The list will be laid out like this. Group name: group leader: verbal claim of Devine revelation or conversation with

Latter-day Saint Movement
Founder: Joseph Smith
Quote: “I saw a pillar of light… I saw two Personages…”

Seventh-day Adventist
Founder: Ellen G. White
Quote: “I was shown in vision…”

Christian Science
Founder: Mary Baker Eddy
Quote: “The discovery… was the result of revelation.”

Jehovah’s Witnesses (Bible Students)
Founder: Charles T. Russell
Quote: “Guided by Jehovah into truth.”

Baha’i Faith
Founder: Baháʼu’lláh
Quote: “The voice of the Spirit came upon me…”

Spiritism
Founder: Allan Kardec
Quote: “Truth revealed through spirits.”

Swedenborgian Church
Founder: Emanuel Swedenborg
Quote: “The Lord appeared to me…”

Theosophy
Founder: Helena Blavatsky
Quote: “I received instruction from Masters.”

Pentecostal Movement
Founder: Charles Parham
Quote: “God revealed the baptism of the Spirit.”

Azusa Street Revival
Leader: William Seymour
Quote: “God gave me my Pentecost.”

Church of God (Cleveland TN)
Founder: A.J. Tomlinson
Quote: “This is the church of God.”

Assemblies of God
Founders: Early leaders
Quote: “We received the Holy Spirit.”

Foursquare Church
Founder: Aimee McPherson
Quote: “The Lord called me to preach.”

Worldwide Church of God
Founder: Herbert Armstrong
Quote: “God restored lost truths to me.”

House of David
Founder: Benjamin Purnell
Quote: “God appointed me as prophet.”

Pillars of Fire
Founder: Alma White
Quote: “God called me to preach.”

United House of Prayer
Founder: Daddy Grace
Quote: “I am sent by God.”

Latter Rain Movement
Leader: George Hawtin
Quote: “God restored apostolic power.”

Church of God (Anderson)
Founder: D.S. Warner
Quote: “God restored the true

New Thought
Founder: Phineas Quimby
Quote: “Truth of healing revealed to me.”

Unity Church
Founder: Charles Fillmore
Quote: “Divine illumination came to me.”

Religious Science
Founder: Ernest Holmes
Quote: “Truth came through spiritual revelation.”

I AM Activity
Founder: Guy Ballard
Quote: “I met the Ascended Master.”

Summit Lighthouse
Founder: Elizabeth Prophet
Quote: “I received messages from masters.”

Anthroposophy
Founder: Rudolf Steiner
Quote: “I can perceive the spiritual world.”

Aetherius Society
Founder: George King
Quote: “This is the voice of higher beings.”

Kimbanguist Church
Founder: Simon Kimbangu
Quote: “God called me in visions.”

Celestial Church of Christ
Founder: Samuel Oshoffa
Quote: “An angel appeared to me.”

Zion Christian Church
Founder: Engenas Lekganyane
Quote: “God gave me a vision.”

Nazareth Baptist Church
Founder: Isaiah Shembe
Quote: “The Lord appeared to me.”

Aladura Churches
Founders: Various prophets
Quote: “God revealed healing power.”

Harrist Movement
Founder: William Harris
Quote: “An angel sent me to preach.”

Peoples Temple
Founder: Jim Jones
Quote: “I was chosen by God.”

Branch Davidians
Founder: David Koresh
Quote: “I am the one to open the seals.”

Heaven’s Gate
Founder: Marshall Applewhite
Quote: “Truth was revealed from higher beings.”

Children of God
Founder: David Berg
Quote: “God spoke through visions.”

Aum Shinrikyo
Founder: Shoko Asahara
Quote: “I received enlightenment and power.”

Manson Family
Leader: Charles Manson
Quote: “I see the coming revelation.”

House of Yahweh
Founder: Yisrayl Hawkins
Quote: “Yahweh revealed His law to me.”

Nation of Yahweh
Founder: Yahweh ben Yahweh
Quote: “I am sent from God.”

Move of God Movement
Founder: Sam Fife
Quote: “I heard God speak directly.”

Church of Bible Understanding
Founder: Stewart Traill
Quote: “God called me to lead.”

Nuwaubian Nation
Founder: Dwight York
Quote: “I received divine knowledge.”

Gospel Assembly Movement
Founder: Sowders (with Shelton/Aubrey influence)
Quote: “God told me to preach His gospel.”

For me, I remember the beginning of my doubts about gospel assemblies beliefs. There were many, but one interaction In particular.

I was riding in the car with an older relative, and I asked a question. “ why doesn’t our young people do any witnessing or mission work?” You see I had a small group of mainstream Christian friends, who were talking about spreading the gospel. Whether it be in soup lines, relief work or mission trips to different parts of the world. They would say things like, it’s in the great commission, go into the world and make disciples of all the nations!

It sounded foreign to say out loud, but I had remember reading it somewhere at some point in my Bible. It sounded great! It’s what Jesus told us to do with his message. And since we were taught we had the most truth, I felt we were missing out on a huge opportunity for our church to grow.

So I asked this question, why aren’t we spreading the truth to as many people as possible?

The response….. that’s not our job. That is for the rest of the religious world to do. I was very confused. They went on to say, our job is to reach perfection and help teach these other Christian’s the real truth in the first resurrection. We will help them become perfect then. But if they don’t accept it, they will perish in the second death.

This was hard to hear. My other Christian friends were all in with their faith. They lived it, talked about constantly and with passion. Most of them knew their scripture FAR better than I did. There’s no way they could be that far off.

It was this very conversation that happened 2 decades ago, that caused me to start questioning my faith.

I’m curious, if anyone is willing to share. What did that moment look like for you?
How did it feel in that moment?
How long did you stay in after?

Feel free to post or message me and tell me your story,

For those of us who have grown up in the gospel assembly community, we’ve all heard the story. William sowders was on a river boat, when the Lord audibly rang out, in a booming voice. It was so intense that William sowders said his life left his body, and that his eardrums almost ruptured from God‘s voice. He then stated that when the experience was over, he had a mysterious golden glow shining around him almost like a Moses experience. But I’m sure he was not implying that being the case, because we all know Moses had to wear a veil over his shining face for the rest of his life, because it shine so bright, and Williams experience lasted only but a few moments.

My intentions are to do a full history comparison of the life of William Sauders leading up to in the future with scriptural and historical refutations. However, this will suffice for now seeing as it is freshly on my mind.

William sowders was born shortly after a man named Charles Taze Russell was building his empire known to most as the Watchtower And Track Society. Russell‘s influence was gaining quite the traction amongst loosely devoted, Pentecostal circles and non-believers alike. His doctrine included the 144,000 ruling and raining on second earth, no literal hell and only two in the Godhead being probably the biggest departure from mainstream Christianity. He also had quite the habit of prophesying the end of the Earth and Jesus‘s return.

By 1916 William sowders was building his own empire of churches. But how does one stick out in a sea of new Pentecostal movement? It’s simple, you take the ideas of other radical movements and make them yours.

I will be in more detail with the full post in the future. But William Sowders had many “experiences where God spoke to him audibly” giving him “new“ insight and revelation about the scriptures. Claiming that God had revealed to him that there was only two in the Godhead, that Jesus was the first and greatest creation of God. And from Jesus, God then created everything.(of course giving Jesus some…. of the credit, like we can’t forget, Jesus contributed a little).
William sowders also claimed that he himself, discovered through scripture and revelation that there is no literal hell. I wonder where he got the 144,000 idea from?

If we are to dig further into both of these men’s lives, you would find men, (who at minimum) could not accept what they were reading as the gospel truth and somehow had to fix it. Both Charles and William felt as though they had to restore something, that God promised the gates of hell would not prevail against. they feel as though they are fixing something that fell away that God said would last forever. Until my next post about this curious parallel, I urge any of those who are willing. Go and look this up yourself. The claims of William sowders are not unique. They’re not earth shattering, and they were not his to begin with. men even before Russell had ramble around ideas like these before. What does make them successful, is totalitarian control and a fear of asking the wrong questions.

Today we have access to so much technology, so much information. These accounts and these stories, are no longer hiding in the shadows, no longer hard to find. A quick Google search, will pull up Both of these men. I will add Russell is not the only man that Sowders ripped off, there are a few more. We will dive into those later. until then, I hope this is beneficial for anyone who is interested.

John Collin’s, started and operates a very good you tube channel along with a web sight documenting and discussing a group that he came out of Called The Message. He has done extensive work on gathering information about accounts within The Message along with his and others testimonies while in the group.

Through watching his content I learned by accident, that there was a loose connection with William sowders and his teaching. John has had a couple of former GAC member on to interview. One being the video attached. I recommend watching it and looking up John’s you tube channel named, Leaving The Message. Lots of good content, he is a very good interviewer.

The most holy of bibles. It’s like other bibles except it was William sowders Bible!

Hello! And welcome to former gospel assembly!
Some times they referred to themselves as The Body, BOC, GAC, a few of them go by different names.

A few suggestions before you start posting

Please be respectful to everyone.

Please refrain from using your actual name on group chats. If you are sharing your real name, use DM’s to do so if you feel comfortable.

Please know that there are quite a few current “zealous” members who are on Reddit. So please keep your identity anonymous, and please be as courteous as possible…… unless you’re a thrill seeker like that.

Otherwise enjoy connecting, reconnecting or sharing stories about your time with GAC or feel free to share why you’re still with them.