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When the rapture does take place, the world will not know it because so many people who CALL themselves Christians will still be here.

Considering one of my first posts on GSC was asking how to recover creativity and imagination after involvement with TWI, I have come a long way. The Way taught us that there was a devil spirit around every corner and all things bad were caused by them. I took this concept and made it part of the world my book is set in. And the way possession works in this book is very similar to the way it is explained in the Advanced Class. Treating their fictions and fiction felt really good.

Hearty congratulations, JavaJane! Book writing is no small feat, I know. I wish you much success with getting the word out about your story. You can rest assured that your efforts will help people near and far, and its journey will reward you with lots of surprises. Cheers to the healing process via writing and reading! Warmest wishes, Charlene Edge P.S. If you want to contact me, I would love to hear from you. Just send a message through https://charleneedge.com/contact

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07MHB47Z3/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_t1_5N-lCb644WFSC hey, fellow GreaseSpots. I wrote this novel as a way to help myself work through all the past s*** in my head from being involved in TWI. (Still haven't worked through ALL of it - that may take the rest of my life.) I started thinking about this main character in 2007 shortly before I left - mainly when I started really considering what free will actually is. The story morphed from there into what it is now. Some of it is based on my experiences in TWI, and some is based on others experiences. And some of it is from other churches I have attended. It is not a memoir by any means. It is fantasy. Urban fantasy to be precise. Full of angelic and demonic beings. The world is built using Christian writings as folklore, as well as drawing from worldwide myth and trying in local (to me) urban legends and magic traditions. Ray's voice is my current voice, post Way. Amanda's voice is my old self from the time I was in. You can read it for free on Kindle Unlimited, or download it for 2.99 in the Kindle Store. It is also available in paperback. If you decide to read it and you enjoy it, please leave a review on Amazon. I am writing under a pseudonym due to the subject matter. You Greasespotters really helped me a lot and I am grateful. I'm hoping this book can help some others gain some empathy for those of us who got trapped/are trapped by cults. Enjoy. I will post more later when I have time tonight. This feels like a big healing accomplishment for me, and without GSC I don't think I would have been able to do it.

Since we're going there: Greasespot has fewer posters than in prior years because 1. We shut down the political threads that brought people hear to tear each other's heads off. 2. The Way International shrunk. The need for a rebuttal site shrunk accordingly. 3. People were told over and over again to "get over it." The vast majority of us did just that. Greasespot became smaller for the same reason troops withdraw from a region when the war is over. Because it's over.

Apologies to those who grew up in TWI (i.e. Bolshevik and others) who endured noxious fundamentalism and survived. In the spirit of putting perspective to our dysfunctional cult background, I present to you, Educated by Tara Westover. It may be important for me to reiterate that I'm not excusing the oppressiveness and abuse inherent in the social structure of twi, nor am I suggesting it wasn't so bad. I do suggest that there's always worse. More importantly, Ms. Westover shows remarkable determination to overcome her upbringing in an isolated family in Idaho. Most importantly, Tara's story is a memoir of hope. Amazon.com Review An Amazon Best Book of February 2018: Tara Westover wasn’t your garden variety college student. When the Holocaust was mentioned in a history class, she didn’t know what it was (no, really). That’s because she didn’t see the inside of a classroom until the age of seventeen. Public education was one of the many things her religious fanatic father was dubious of, believing it a means for the government to brainwash its gullible citizens, and her mother wasn’t diligent on the homeschooling front. If it wasn’t for a brother who managed to extricate himself from their isolated—and often dangerous--world, Westover might still be in rural Idaho, trying to survive her survivalist upbringing. It’s a miraculous story she tells in her memoir Educated. For those of us who took our educations for granted, who occasionally fell asleep in large lecture halls (and inconveniently small ones), it’s hard to grasp the level of grit—not to mention intellect—required to pull off what Westover did. But eventually earning a PhD from Cambridge University may have been the easy part, at least compared to what she had to sacrifice to attain it. The courage it took to make that sacrifice was the truest indicator of how far she’d come, and how much she’d learned. Educated is an inspiring reminder that knowledge is, indeed, power. --Erin Kodicek, Amazon Book Review

Sommunumbatch stole my joke

Accidentally... it started out when I first allowed myself to daydream again. And then there was the thinking and questioning. I learn best through stories, so this is the one I told myself. It helped a lot. Stepping back from it being about ME and giving it some distance helped to see it all a lot clearer. More to say, but my battery is fast dying. Post more tomorrow.

Rocky, thanks for the music.

“We’re all gone now!”.....Daimon George.

True. For those who did not say (most of the posters who left), we won't know PRECISELY for sure. I still consider their numbers, as a whole, as success stories. They got what they needed from here, and moved on with their lives. They "took their revenge" on twi by living well. :)

Ah, she's a former poster who left because of people complaining. Well, she is free to do that. Nobody's required to agree with you or to disagree with you. We would, however, like to understand what you're trying to say. This is yet another request for you to make an effort to focus on one of your points and make it clearly. Or, at least clearly state what you were trying to communicate even if you don't include the rationale or support for your position.

Wow.....and you think you are the one to say anything about anything

Can anyone here actually show how or point to where anything written in the Old Testament speaks of an eternal afterlife, living in heaven (i.e., any place other than on earth)? Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think it's there. All I've honestly been able to find or see there is the promise and hope of new (resurrected) life in what might be aptly described as "heaven on earth." And, even if (yea, when) at some point that requires new heavens and a new earth (Isaiah 65:17 and 66:22), there appears to be no indication of man living anywhere aside from here on earth. All of which raises the question... If these prophets of old (and the nation of Israel) didn't actually have or believe in this apparently much latter view of heaven (i.e., inherent within the Pauline epistles), then what logic exists in thinking that they actually had any more of a belief in any sort of eternal life and everlasting torment in hell? The grave was the grave. It was not a place or torment, nor was it a place where man could know or experience anything. There was no conscious or awareness of anything. Thus, as I see it, this "mythology of hell" - as it is referenced in this thread - seems to be a rather pagan invention, and never had any other place in Old Testament scriptures. But, if you think otherwise, please feel free to show me where this is wrong.

Scripture is a bottomless pit of hell by itself. The further it's taken the worse it gets. Time after time this has proven to be true. I've proven it to myself after more than 20 years of practicing the bible. As well as others here who have done the same. Clear thinking was replaced by words in a book. We took what we called spirit and demanded it to do our will and called it walking by the spirit. The spirit, Christ, is not a tool to be used, never will be.

Rocky, it simply requires spiritual insight from God, the father, to understand spiritual content and concepts. This is seen in 1 Corinthians chapter 3. However, perhaps you also do not understand this. From the New International Version verses 10-14. This is what I see as some of the less complex parts of scripture. Other people are understanding scriptural content here. Do you even want to understand scriptural content?

Thanks Raf. I prefer previews prior to clicking on youtube links.

The moral of Job: S#!t happens. You gonna let that take your faith away? You really shouldn't. He's still God. I'm not saying I agree with that. I'm just saying, that's the upshot. Elihu rules!

Jesus TOLD his disciples that they would have trouble. There was no "but if you believe, there will be no trouble" or "if you believe, the trouble will vanish" or anything like that. As has been said before, by putting the blame on Job, twi aligned themselves with his miserable comforters. Look- trusting God, believing God, is one thing. Believing in your own believing is something entirely different. Your will be done.

When I first read this, I didn't think it was a "fear" thing for Job. I thought it was something that a loving and responsible parent might do, to pray for his children. It took PFAL to show me that it might be a fear-filled thing to do. Don't parents in our time also pray for their children, to ask for their safety, and to ask for mercy if/when those kids have done foolish things? God help us all, if the slightest smidgeon of doubt or fear were to open the doors of hell upon us.

I'm gratified that you are very proud of you. I would be too.

If you do say so yourself.

Can we all agree that this topic, however it started, has become almost entirely doctrinal since TLC's act of necromancy? I mean, you can almost make the case it belongs in the European forum, but About the Way? not seeing it.

Geisha, not only do I have TWO Companion Bibles, I also have Bullinger's Figures of Speech used in the Bible. What I want to know is: does anybody else recognize this figure of speech - idiom of permission? Or was it Bullinger's invention, and glorified by VPW? Maybe it is a figure of speech in Hebrew or Aramaic or Latin or some other language - but not in English? @ Naten: it's when the Bible says God did something, brought on some catastrophe. As God is good always, he clearly doesn't bring on catastrophes. Therefore, it is a figure of speech to say that God allowed (gave permission) for that catastrophe. EG: Gen 7:4 - "every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth." The "will I destroy" is this FoS - God allowed it to happen. (By the by - but this is NOT the idiom of permission - God, of course, intervened so that Noah, his family, various animals, etc survived. And the earth was not destroyed). Bullinger says (under section Idioma (i)(4), on page 823: "Active verbs were used by the Hebrews to express, not the doing of the thing, but the permission of the thing which the agent is said to do." This link might work: Companion Bible pages (Bet you wish you'd never asked, huh?) Waydom made such a big deal of this FoS. Looking at it again in Bullinger's books, it's such a small section you'd wonder how VPW found it -- the Companion Bible doesn't mention it.