Publisher's Synopsis
When The World in Flames begins in 1970, Jerald Walker is six years old. His consciousness revolves around being a member of a church whose beliefs he finds not only confusing, but terrifying. Composed of a hodgepodge of religious beliefs, the underpinning tenet of Herbert W. Armstrong's Worldwide Church of God was that members were God's chosen race and all other would perish in just a few years time. The membership was ruled by fear, intimidation, and threats. Anyone who dared leave the church would endure hardship for the remainder of this life, and eternal suffering in the next. The next life, according to Armstrong, would arrive in 1975, three years after the start of the Great Tribulation. Walker would be eleven years old. Walker's parents were particularly vulnerable to the promise of relief from this world's hardships. They were living in a two-room apartment in a dangerous Chicago housing project with four children. His father had been an alcoholic, and, most significantly, both of his parents were blind, having lost their sight to childhood accidents. They took comfort in the belief that they had been chosen for a better afterlife and dutifully sent tithes to Armstrong, whose church boasted over 100,000 members and over $80 billion in revenues at its height. When the prophecy of the 1972 Great Tribulation does not materialize, Walker is considerably less disappointed than relieved. When the End-Time 1975 prophecy also fails, he finally begins to question his faith and to see a potential future.
