waysider

These are all moot points. A. No one said (or implied) that capital punishment is a violation of "vengeance is mine". I simply posed a related, philosophical question, which you have subsequently morphed into this inaccurate extrapolation. B. The issuance of a speeding ticket is not a usurption of God's authority nor does it have any bearing on the subject of capital punishment. I fail to see the correlation. C. Why are you comparing the "slavery" of Biblical times with the "slavery" of modern times? They are two very different things. In fact, why compare life imprisonment with slavery at all? D. How does the death of Bin Laden have anything at all to do with the topic of this thread? That's a blatant attempt to create a straw man argument. I know you have a great disdain for higher education but, maybe, you should at least consider taking some classes that will enhance your use of logic and debate skills.

Well, for whatever it's worth, VP (you know he wasn't really an extraterrestrial) Wierwille taught that heaven is anything above Earth. Yup, fits like a fart in a spacesuit.

(Tippin' the hat to Eddie Taylor, the man who taught Jimmy to play.

Thanks, Socks J.R. deserves a LOT more recognition than he has gotten---in my opinion. Along with Muddy and The Wolf (probably even more so), he had a very major influence on the British blues explosion of the '60s.

John, what is in question here is the matter of "authenticity". A degree from Harvard is an "authentic" degree. You are correct is stating it is the responsibility of the degree holder to produce something meaningful, not the degree, itself. The education required to obtain it, however, is often instrumental in the holder's level of success. On the other hand, a degree from TWI is not "authentic".It's not based on obtaining relevant, useful information. So, if the holder of a "bogus" degree produces something meaningful, it is likely to be in spite of the degree, not because of it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARMSnUDgMhw

deleted by poster

This is one of the things that was so wrong about the whole thing. You weren't "allowed" to just say "No" to things you didn't really want to do. I mean, if my kid came to me in the middle of a big hockey game on T.V., asking for help with his bicycle chain, of course I wouldn't say "No". I blew the game off and helped him. But, that's how a family functions. These nimrods weren't my family.They were just some selfish bastages (that's the plural form ), making unreasonable demands on our time and good nature. We didn't owe them anything beyond common courtesy and they should have respected our decisions as individuals. But, of course, they didn't.

I'm still hung up on the vengeance thing..... "Vengeance is mine.", saith The Lord....But, capital punishment is, in essence, our way as a society of assuming that responsibility....What is the intended purpose of capital punishment? ... Is it to punish, seek vengeance, deter potential crime, ensure no further crimes will be committed... or what?....How have other similar societies dealt with the issue?

Congratulations. You've just stumbled on one of the peculiarities that helps define Way Theology.Here it is in a nut-shell: According to Way Theology, when a person is physically born, they are a two-fold being...body and soul. (soul being breath-life in way terms) When they become spiritually born-again, they acquire a third component, known as holy spirit (the gift), which is also known as Christ in you. Now, according to this whole concept, people who are only body and soul (as was the case of people in the O.T.) can not understand anything from a spiritual perspective, so, God had to talk to them in terms they could understand.... Here's where it gets tricky. Supposedly, since they couldn't understand spiritual matters, they could not comprehend the concept of a devil, since the devil is supposed to be a spirit being. So, these evil doings of God in the O.T. were really the doings of the devil but had to be explained in terms that could be understood by people with no spiritual perspective. Yeah, I know, it's complicated. But, that's how The Way explains why God appeared to do evil things in the O.T. edit: I'm not especially interested in a doctrinal discussion of this concept. I'm simply trying to give soul searcher, who was never in TWI, some perspective on how these things are seen within the framework of The Way.

She Loves You----The Beatles

Whatcha gonna do? I think I could stay with you for a while....Maybe longer if I do.

Maybe we could sentence them to a fate such as Sisyphus endured. He's that Greek God whose punishment was to roll a boulder up a hill, only to watch it roll back down, again and again. But then, wouldn't that just be a form of vengeance? I thought the Bible quoted God as saying, "Vengeance is mine." And, that leads to the even bigger question: How can a God who is all love be so bent on retaliation?

It has a bit of a local connection so maybe I've heard it more often than most. Still, it continues to get a lot of airtime on satellite stations.

What about cases of wrongful conviction? Death is pretty final. What about an 18 year old boy who is caught having consensual sex with his 17 year old (ie: underage) girlfriend? There are just too many variables to make this a black or white kind of issue.

Like Wierwille said, "Even if it never comes to pass, it's still God's Word fakin' it."

Hey! Here's something we could fake. Let's pretend fake that what we were involved with was some sort of noble cause. Maybe then the outcome will magically change. Yeah, that's it. Let's get a web page or something and talk about how we were once God's elite, front line troops.....Fake it 'til you make it.

Ha!...How do I know you're not faking it?

With Independence Day rapidly approaching, I though some might, perhaps, have an interest in this program that honors our military veterans. My father-in-law recently took one of these flights and found it to be quite a moving experience. Honor Flight

Don't you think the time is right for us to find All the things we thought weren't proper could be right in time? And can you see which way we should turn together or alone? I can never see what's right or what is wrong.

All the "fake it 'til you make it.", "If I act excited, I'll be excited.", "Life is tremendous!" sort of doctrine that was being promoted by The Way during the 1970s is straight out of secular sales training classes and books (ie:Life Is Tremendous!/Charlie Jones, The Greatest Salesman in The World/Og Mandino, How To Make Friends And Influence People/Dale Carnegie, etc.) So, then, you might ask yourself... why were we being groomed as salesmen instead of servants of our fellow man? Well, the answer is obvious, PFAL was VPW's product and we were his sales force. After that reality sets in, you can start to ponder this... If the Bible really has every thing you need to know about everything and anything, why weren't we trained using scriptural materials rather than all these non-Biblical/pseudo-Biblical sources?