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Ok, so, to sum up where I'm at now: I obviously don't believe there is such a thing as "god-breathed." Clearly these writings are not history. To the extent that they are sincere, they are an attempt by flawed men to understand the will of a God whose attributes evolved over time. In doing so, they fell all over each other. "I am the Lord! I change not! Except for that thing. I changed on that thing. Oh, and the other thing. It was a different time. But I didn't change! You know, just, times changed." Some of their musings turned out to be wonderful and stood the test of time. "Love your neighbor as yourself" is, understood properly, better than any other law man could come up with. "Here's the correct way to handle a runaway slave" is less worthy of admiration. There's also an extent to which this book is an effort by some people to control other people. There's nothing to admire there. I would never say there's nothing good in the Bible, just as I would never say there was nothing Biblical in TWI. I would say that whatever is good in the Bible is good because good men put it there. And what is bad is God's fault. Just kidding. Wanted to see if you were still reading. What is bad in the Bible is bad because the men who put it there were bad, or wrong, or mistaken, or evil, or... human.

I started having doubts about the organization of TWI sometime during my sophomore year of high school (1984-85) but at that time I still bought into the fallacy that VPW had the most accurate interpretation of the Bible and held him in high regard. From personal observations I noticed that things had deteriorated shortly thereafter and by my senior year of high school (1987) I wanted nothing to do with TWI, although I still participated so that I would not upset my mother. When my mother declined the loyalty oath in 1989 there was such a release and sense of freedom that I began reading from a variety of sources outside of TWI. It was exhilarating to say the least to be able to read from other perspectives. As time went on and my own personal research continued, I began to take the Bible less literally. I've come to the conclusion that the bible is mostly symbolic or figurative but true nonetheless. I still believe in the basic message that God has provided a means of redemption of mankind from it's fallen state. Regarding doctrinal changes... the biggest change I've made since leaving TWI is my switch to partial preterism.