In the early 70's I was teaching fisheries and general science in the Dinagat Fishery High School. I was 19 when I first taught and left after two years. See here for the reason I quit.
I was living with Mano Boning and Nang Tolang and their twin children; an older son was studying in college somewhere I cannot remember now but probably Cebu City. Manong Boning was a utility man of the school while the wife was an elementary school principal.
One evening the couple asked me to go with them and the twins to the big house of Mayor Ecleo. They said that a big earthquake would happen that night and the only safe place would be the home of the Mayor which was then newly finished and located on a ridge of a hill which had a good view of the Dinagat harbor.
Out of courtesy to my hosts, who treated me like a son, I went. At any rate, I was also curious to see the interior of the mansion. I found assembled there the top aides of the Mayor and other government officials including the DepEd school supervisor. I asked him, in amusement, what the heck the two of us were doing there as we were not members of the sect founded by the Mayor. And, by all means, we did not believe that doomsday was indeed coming.
After midnight we were told that it was already safe to go home. Somehow the calamity was abated.
Surmising now, I think the supervisor was just there to show his support for the Mayor as I was just for Mano Boning and family. But I was pretty sure then that there was no great calamity coming because it was still to be in 1975 as taught by Herbert W. Armstrong, the leader of the Worldwide Church of God to which I belonged.
Armstrong had this booklet 1975 in Prophecy which shaped the thinking of church members about doomsday. It was the reason that in 1968 I chose to study fisheries in Zamboanga City instead of accepting the offer of my father to send me to FEATI (then one of the better technological schools) to take up electronics engineering. 1975 was coming and the world - society, not the earth - was coming to its end. I took the two and half year fishery curriculum which would give me ample time to prepare before 1975 came. All members of the Worldwide Church of God were supposed to become rulers in the world tomorrow after the crisis of 1975 and should be prepared to be leaders. Whew!
The Armstrong church has since split into many branches. I left the church, a few years after the death of Armstrong, having learned of its cultic nature first here and in many other places. This site is highly recommended for an in-depth knowledge of the cultic practices of the original Armstrong group.
I forsook religion altogether and its many doomsday predictions. And what a relief it has been ever since. Alas, the 1975 booklet is still reproduced here. This is one of the typical illustrations from the booklet:
Been there, done that!
