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Sure, my pleasure. : ) There are certainly "dispensations" in the Bible. Administrations, "oikonomia" deal with "house-law". How things are done, engaged with, managed, carried out, between God and man. That's changed over time, since Genesis. Those periods of time and what went on in them are important to understand if we want to get a real handle on our own relationship with God and gain an understanding of our Creator and Father. It's much more than just dates on a calendar of course. There are covenants agreements, between God and man during these times and those provide the structure to how things are done between us. There's consistencies too of course. God's mercy and grace are consistent themes, God's justice. I'm now a bona fide part of God's family, a fully vested child of the Creator. I WAS a Gentile before that, as far as the Old Covenant pre-Christ arrangement and in those administrations God dealt with the other nations of the world differently than with Israel and the bloodline of believers. I can see the transitional phase out - phase in, in Acts during their first Council at which they determined that the new Gentile converts would not be required to become fully invested in Jewish observance of their traditions and laws. They were given a broad encouragement to steer clear of pagan practices and sexual promiscuity and basically live the faith of Christ. Etc. It's easy to see that some of the disciples viewed their faith through their heritage and wanted to maintain that. It was being revealed however that the new identity of God's people would no longer by Israel or the 12 Tribes, but rather this new "church" of all those who followed Christ and accepted salvation by grace. So, first the exegetical work and then the hermeneutics, right? And it's at the hermeneutical stage that this becomes very important because teaching the doctrine of salvation in Christ doesn't have any additional requirements or attachments, it's by grace - and a very simple way to understand that is from the Gentile's perspective, since we, I, wasn't part of the Abrahamic bloodline and would not come into the faith with any of the expectations of a Jew. Everything past and everything coming is clearly understood for me today through Christ, all things are of and will be in Christ. Which is pretty much what the N.T. teaches - when I share salvation therefore I never take the approach that PFAL or Dr. Wierwille did, as if I need to square up some previously misunderstood division of the "administrations". The important part right now is a relatively simple message that spans history in a snapshot of events. The topic of "sin" though - have to get back to that, I guess. Romans 5 covers most of it, for me. A lot of it anyway.

Mike B, [You probably know that this messageboard (the GSC) exists "to tell the other side of the story." There's differences of opinions, and that's refreshing after the mental confines of parroting whatever twi insisted was the party line. So, there's Christians here (like me), and non-Christians, both of many varieties. I'm sure opinions about me from off this site sound like they're talking about 2 different people or more, depending on what the speakers care about. I'm "yes" on the Bible, but "no" on anything twi that doesn't connect to it, and I care about the truth, not making anyone happy. (That's enough to make friends and enemies for exactly the same reasons.) So, please keep in mind that I've done my best to try to learn what was true in twi, what was rumor, and so on, regardless of whether I WANTED to believe it or not. It's with that in mind that I reply to you, agreeing on some points and disagreeing on others. ] [b[I agree with this:]]/b] "Until the Way leadership repents and apologizes for it's sins, sins either by commission or omission, then I will have nothing more to do with them. " [I'll go further and say we're separated for life because they will never change twi enough to make it something I'd seriously consider rejoining.] "I believe Dr. Weirwille did teach the Truth to the best of his ability and certainly challenged each of us to prove the scriptures for ourselves." [I think we were told to prove the Scriptures for ourselves, and that is correct and important. Unfortunately, I'm convinced- beyond any reasonable doubt- that wierwille ripped off the teaching styles and materials of others, and simply re-presented THEIR work, claiming it was his own. It doesn't appear that wierwille ever actually BELIEVED the Bible. In fact, he admitted that he'd completed his entire education for ministry, and had already begun his first year as a minister, before he'd ever believed the Bible was the Word of God. Removing that as a motive, it seems that he began as a minister because he could make a good presentation and make a comfortable living and get respect for doing it. All "his" best work can be traced directly to specific authors and teachers. vpw did that and did his best to make us think that it was all the results of HIS study and communication with God Almighty and nothing else. (He said he used the Bible as his textbook and workbook, period.) He made many claims, all designed to make it look like he had a special connection with God Almighty while hiding his sources of information. PRIVATELY, he said he'd heard from God, and claimed God gave him instructions all the time. All of that having been said, I think we were actually taught a lot of truth DESPITE THAT. It was meant to ensnare us- and sometimes it did- but it was nevertheless TAUGHT.] " He said the Way never makes anybody leave, just anybody." [He also said, of "the Zero Corps" that he "gave them the privilege of leaving." vpw was not above kicking people out PRIVATELY while claiming he NEVER did it. Yes, he was a hypocrite- moreso than most people, and unapologetic about it.] "Well, the homophobic, self righteous bastard that followed him certainly dispelled that myth." [The thing is, wierwille KNEW he was conning us, so he knew where to draw the line and when to silence the microphone. He trained lcm, making him two-fold the child of hell that he himself was. lcm was convinced vpw was serving God- so he didn't know it was all a con and that there was a time to shut up. Periodically, with the corps- and thus in private- vpw kicked out all of a corps class, then turn around and offer to let them return if they rededicated themselves to twi. This almost always worked, and vpw knew he could count on those drones that stayed. Later, lcm tried the same thing with people who were NOT the corps- and this resulted in people walking away and not looking back. Yes, lcm was homophobic and self-righteous.... He was partly homophobic because he was a jock in college, and went straight from there into twi leadership full-time. He learned NOTHING in twi to dispel his attitudes, so they remained at a jock level. vpw's training of him never addressed that. It DID address self-righteousness. If anything, vpw MADE lcm self-righteous. vpw modeled the opposite of humility, and taught lcm accordingly. lcm was as much a victim of vpw as anyone else- which is why he made victims of others. Ever heard how abuse survivors often abuse others later in life? This worked the same way. vpw personally picked lcm. He did not choose him for any competency. He chose lcm because lcm never questioned vpw, but instead would have driven off a cliff at vpw's instruction. It's an awful reason to pick the leader of a Christian organization, but vpw gave that as his reason when asked once. Yes, lcm ruined many lives and has a LOT to answer for, and never went to prison despite committing crimes. However, that's NOT the whole story, so I feel a little bad for him among all this. Please consider that.] "I had a very long talk with Wanda Weirwille right after everything came out about the sex scenes. She openly admitted it was happening, unlike any of those in leadership positions. I told her I care about TWI but I can't stand in support of what leadership was doing behind closed doors. Teaching one thing and doing another is NOT okay, it's hypocritical at best and insidious. Letting the Devil in even a little bit means you've lost any legitimacy you might have ever had. " [I agree fully. vpw did it first, and taught lcm to do it. This does NOT EXCUSE lcm for doing it, he had free will and chose to do what he did. twi's "lockbox" doctrine- THEIR name, not mine- said to keep this sort of thing hush-hush, so vpw's victims were often silenced early on without further coercion. lcm participated fully in this, and bears responsibility for his own actions regardless of who taught him.] "I'm sorry but I don't see anywhere in the Word that it's ok to lead a double life, nor is it ok to yell at and berate people. Being especially good to those of the household of faith means you have to actually BE that! What Martindale did and the rest of them, and yes, even VPW is not something that is tolerable in least sense. Excusing it is even worse." [There's some who claim it's evil for us to expose what vpw and lcm did- but those same people are not outraged that they did it. To them, it's worse to expose vpw as a plagiarizing rapist who drugged women than for him to have drugged and raped the women. I'm NOT exaggerating.] "I entered the Way when I was completely lost. I was healed by the Word. I thought we were surrounded by good men and women. I never put my faith in man, my faith is and always remained having my faith in God. " [I'm with you there, but some people are not, and that's ok. They're free to disagree, and we ALL have a "right to be wrong". We all bear responsibility for our decisions, and, frankly, I prefer it that way.] " I believe we were taught more Truth than any other organization on the planet, and I still believe that to be true. " [Due to vpw plagiarizing some quality Christians, I believe we were taught some Truth while in twi, but not everything we were taught there was Truth or truth. Furthermore, there's plenty of quality Christians who've never heard of twi, vpw, or anyone connected with twi. vpw did his best to put forth that himself was some great one, that ALL the quality teachings he had were from him, and that all Christians everywhere else were flawed and INFERIOR to twi Christians. I believe all of that was error- to say the least. The idea that God wasn't relying solely on a plagiarizing rapist to get things done is rather comforting- and rather sensible, IMHO.] "There were faults that crept in, having superiority complexes for a start, perpetuated over and over again, especially by Craig Martindale. Of course VPW did that as well, anyone born again is of the household of faith, not those just in the Way." [For twi, that's awfully subversive. ;) Christians being equal is repugnant in twi and to twi. Yes, arrogance and superiority was taught in twi as a matter of course, and the top cadre- with vpw and lcm leading- were generally the worst at it.] I'll reply to the rest later, but that's plenty for now. I hope you're well and are in touch with some Christians who won't do to you what twi did to us.