Yeah...supposedly back in the 70s/80s, you could walk up & down many Southern California cities and see "The Plain Truth" magazines offered up for free in the same kind of vending machines that newspapers would come in.
I remember seeing them around here, a lot more recently than that.
Yeah, one of the break-off splinter group leaders, David C. Pack...claimed to be either THE key (or one of) the instigators of the Worldwide Church of God newsstand distribution programs.
Pack said in one message still online that 80% of the membership of the Worldwide Church of God either went with Grace Communion International (see post #15) or left the "Church of God" entirely.
In that same message, Pack then said 80% of the major break-off group (headed then by Roderick C. Meredith) wound up leaving that group...which...if I do my math correctly, tells me that ONLY 4% of the original Worldwide Church of God stuck with the BIGGEST remnant cultic portion of the splinters...
And, per this thread article, The Worldwide Church of God peaked at 150,000 in the late 80s...
Therefore, 20% of 150,000 = 30,000...and then another 80% left after a further split...whittling it down to just 6,000.
Yup...that's a "cult" which claims that their 6,000 is the ENTIRE worldwide REMNANT of God's church...
I mean, that's worse than the JWs saying ONLY 144,000 will be in heaven!