johnj

The fact is... most of the evil and wrongs people do are not illegal. Think of the 10 commandments... other gods, ignoring the sabbath, dishonoring parents, certain types of murder (abortion, euthanasia, most warfare, inciting reckless behavior that can lead to injury), adultery, promiscuity, most lying, some stealing and all coveting are entirely legal. Many or most emotionally damaging things are legal as well (such as hate, disrespect, inciting conflict, anger, greed, damaging others' reputations and careers, etc).A lot of illness comes from legal behavior (STDs from sex outside marriage, cancer from smoking, etc). The legal system is designed just to address some types of clearly destructive behavior, no more. The tip of the iceberg. Furthermore, the legal system does nothing to induce good, godly behavior (for instance, it doesn't reward people for generosity, showing love, etc). Law is totally inept for producing goodness and godliness. This is why Jesus Christ came, to inspire, teach and enable us to love and truly good works.

I don't recall Chris Tomlin's version off hand. Recasting old hymns seems to be pretty popular, as is interweaving on old hymn with a new praise song into one. There are some choir books in which every selection is constructed this way. The practice honors, and lets people enjoy, both old and new. When we talked about this one day, my daughter had an interesting comment.... she thought that many people today are exposed to old hymns only in this remodeled format, and so miss the richness of the hymns in their original forms. I find it interesting that quite a few people (including some of my daughters) in their 20s are going "back" to traditional hymns and liturgies after knowing only praise music (or spending several of their young adult years in popular "praise band" type worship). There are many valuable things in traditional worship. TWI always slammed "tradition," not realizing its positive elements. Of course, an irony is that TWI never experienced any contemporary worship or praise songs, and was stuck in a very narrow tradition of its own.

no doubt John Newton would have been mad if he'd seen VPW's rewrite of his lyrics of Amazing Grace. Newton understood how deeply sin is in us all, something VPW never wanted to admit... even though there were thousands of women (and men)who would have been able to expose it in him. Newton's lyrics are in the public domain, and the tune. Oddly enough, though, people can still copyright certain music arrangements which use the melody of it or any old tune. I think doing silly stuff like singing Amazing Grace to the tune of Gilligan's Island or the old Coca Cola jingle ("I'd like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony...") was big in the 1970s, at the height of the Jesus Movement when so many young people were getting "turned on to Jesus." The only reason TWI grew was because it leached unsuspecting people away from the Jesus Movement. The Jesus Movement spurred a great burst of worship music writing. (Christian revivals throughout history have always spurred worship renewal.) This created the modern praise music movement led by Calvary Chapel/ Maranatha music (and Integrity, Vineyard/ Mercy, Hillsong, etc). But TWI never developed this, because VPW made TWI focus on himself instead of on Jesus Christ, who inspires praise music.

some notes about how hymns lyrics and tunes work... lyrics are just poems, and many authors are poets, not music composers. When matching lyrics to tunes, you count the number of syllables in each phrase. Amazing Grace, for instance, is 8-6-8-6 . "amazing grace, how sweet the sound (8), which saved a wretch like me (6), I once was lost but now I'm found (8) was blind but now I see (6)." This sequence was called "common meter" because it was a common lyric meter. There are lots of hymn lyrics written in this meter, and lots of tunes written in this meter. Song leaders and pastors did- and still do (as I do)- freely mix and match tunes and words to find a match that the people know and like. Sometimes a poem sat mostly unused for literally 50-100 years until a tune came along that helped it become popular. Writing a new lyric/song in any commonly-used meter is an easy way to introduce it to a congregation- just use a tune they already know. I've tried my hand at writing new verses now and again, with mixed results, because I'm not by nature a poet. It so happens that the theme song for "Gilligan's Island" is common meter with the last phrase repeated(8-6-8-6-6 go ahead and count the syllables for yourself) so will match the tune of amazing grace (the tune was not written by John Newton- he mostly just wrote lyrics) and of many other hymns. VPW did not like "wretch like me"... maybe because it is taken from the Bible? - Romans 7:24

calling evil good... "the Man of God" (man-worship) "the Teacher" the Way Tree (used to approve dominating control) calling good evil... the entire Christian Church (TWI ridiculed everyone who didn't follow them) tradition (TWI threw out good ones along with thew bad)

The Teaching and Research section of www.abouttheway.org has two articles that address VPW's "creative" interpretation of John 1, as well as others that address the nature of Jesus Christ. While the Greek text of John 1: 1-3 has only 36 words and the KJV uses 42, Wierwille's "literal translation according to usage" contains 91. Why did VP need so many more words than God did? (Because VP didn't like the way John 1 reads, and wanted to change it...)

They should set up a hospitality center... with a Stress Patrol that would frisk all the visitors before they got to the Welcome Window,and turn them away because they weren't on the standing list.

TWI LOSES BIG ON ROME CITY SALE The Way International sold The Way College of Biblical Research-- Indiana Campus at Rome City in northeast Indiana in December, 1999. The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette reported that Sylvan Springs paid $750,000 for the 197 acres of land, 30 buildings, furniture and equipment. Sylvan will use the facility for family enrichment programs. The campus had been unused for years due to dramatic decline in TWI's following, and the skeleton maintenance staff moved off campus after the sale was final. The group that became Sylvan Springs was the first group to tour the facilities when the Way put it on sale in December 1997. TWI offered no asking price, but asked for bids. It promoted the sale using a video of local news reports about the campus. It is likely that TWI lost well over $1 million on the campus, rivaling the $1 million loss on the sale of its Emporia, Kansas campus in 1991 (see the article "What's Wrong with This Picture?" for details on the Emporia campus' spotted history and $1 million loss). TWI bought its Rome City campus in 1976, and opened it in May 1977 . The location had been the Kneipp Springs Health Spa for 84 years, operated for all but the first ten years by Sisters of the Precious Blood, a Roman Catholic order. The Sisters had rejected TWI's initial bid of $345,000 with no explanation when private developer Ten Leininger purchased the property, then sold it to TWI for a profit (which was said to have been 10%). Leininger and his children were involved in TWI to some degree at the time. TWI initially invested over $1 million to renovate the facility (Sherman Goldenberg, "Secretive Sect Breeds Fear, Rumor," Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette, Feb 11, 1979). Ex-followers of TWI claim that TWI spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on a fire sprinkler system, swimming pool, new roofs, new water tank and general renovation. Recently TWI spent about $300,000 on a new boiler. The age of the buildings called for a high investment in maintenance. While TWI claims to have put at least $1.7 million into the campus initially, it is likely that TWI's investment exceeds $2 million. Since TWI sold it for $750,000, it apparently lost over $1.2 million-- nearly two-thirds of its investment. TWI teaches that prosperity follows believing and obedience, yet TWI lost over $2.2 million on two real estate deals. The loss is even more surprising in an age in which inflation is typically over 3% per year. Dr. John Juedes, C. 2000

Once in a while I check in to see what the recent topics are. All the crap with TWI makes... everybody sick. Because it's all about broken hopes, damage, hurt people. This is the legacy of VPW and TWI. From the opening hours of PFAL when VP attacked every Christian group and teacher (promoting VP and TWI as the only way), they didn't actually build anything, just tore down. Fortunately, God is not that way.

V. P. Wierwille honored and learned from Albert Cliffe. Wierwille compliments Cliffe in the "About the Author" section in most of his books, which was printed either as a separate section before the Introduction, or on the book flap. "About the Author" stated that Wierwille learned from and worked with Cliffe and others, who "were guests of Dr. Wierwille's local congregation." Wierwille wrote in The Twenti-fifth Anniversary Souvenir Booklet, p. 13, Wierwille took many of his teachings from Cliffe and his books Let Go and Let God- Steps in Victorious Living (LGLG) and Lessons in Successful Living (LSL). Cliffe uses terms and concepts followers of Wierwille would relate to, such as "positive and negative faith," "perfect faith believing," "the ministry of healing," "tithing and the law of prosperity," "sowing and reaping," "the law of cause and effect," "your enemy- fear," "Faith- how to get it.""abundant living" and making "mental images" of things you want to produce by believing (many of these are chapter titles in Lessons in Successful Living). For example, Cliffe proudly claims to be a medium and psychic. The Way has always opposed mediums (sometimes called spiritualists or channelers). The "Burn the Chaff Weekend" brochure (March 16, 1985) noted that followers of The Way International "brought their books dealing with spiritualism... and burned them." Apparently, they never burned Wierwille's copies of Cliffe's books, though they should have done so. Cliffe freely admitted he was a medium, "Many of the subjects I have given in my Bible class have been dictated to me by my loved ones long since passed on." He calls this his "psychic work." A longer article and photo on Cliffe is in the Photo Gallery section of abouttheway.org

www.abouttheway.org has a few good articles on Lamsa and Aramaic. Check the "Biblical Research" and "Reviews" sections. The article in the Reviews section reviews TWI's own interlinear Aramaic New Testament, showing how it contradicts TWI theology on several important verses, such as John 1 and Gal 4 (the deity of Jesus Christ), John 21, Philp 3 (death), Mat 28:19 (the Trinity). Regarding the "cry"... it translates the word as "spared" but two chapters earlier translates the same word accurately as "forsaken." Contrary to what Lamsa thought, Aramaic was never ignored by New Testament scholars. Greek NTs put Aramaic variant readings in the footnotes where they are signifcant. It's peculiar that TWI latched on to Lamsa. Lamsa had his office at Unity School of Christianity, which is a "New Thought" group like Christian Science. His actual beliefs contradicted TWI theology on almost every signifcant point. There is a lengthy article on Lamsa in the "Research" section of abouttheway.org Wierwille liked authors that said wild things, no matter how ignorant and inaccurate they were.

The point is not just the lack of Hebrew texts of New Testament books until the 13th century (and then only 2 of the 26 books of the NT), but that instead there are literally thousands of Greek copies (whole or partial). Many of these were produced in places like Syria and Israel (bishop Eusebius who had copies made of the Greek NT was from Caesarea)-- places where Trimm imagines most or all of the believers were Aramaic speakers. If in fact the Churches were full of Aramaic speakers and had few Greek speakers (as Trimm imagines), the opposite would be true. We're looking here at what the actual evidence of the huge numbers of Greek copies and utter lack of Hebrew NT copies tells us about the nature of the Church at the time, rather than just speculating about what it was like.

The point is not just that there is an utter lack of any actual Hebrew texts of NT books until the 13/14th century... But instead there are literally thousands of Greek copies (whole or partial) of NT books. And many of these were produced in places like Syria and Israel (the famous bishop Eusebius who had Greek NTs produced was bishop of Caesarea), where Trimm imagines everyone spoke Aramaic. If in fact the early church was full of Hebrew/ Aramaic speakers and had a complete lack of Greeks, as Trimm imagines, the opposite would be true. We're looking at actual textual evidence here, not speculation.

The chart of a alleged Hebrew Matthew is very imaginative. The most striking thing about it is that the oldest copy of any Hebrew Matthew is 1,300 years after it was allegedly written. In contrast, there are about three copies of small portions of the Greek NT written before 200 AD, lots of them written during the 200s, and even Rom 13:3 preserved in a mosaic in a public building in Caesarea (that's in Israel)from the 300s. If you were looking at the actual evidence (rather than speculation) for a Hebrew or Greek Matthew, what's the obvious choice?

The chart of a alleged Hebrew Matthew is very imaginative. The most striking thing about it is that the oldest copy of any Hebrew Matthew is 1,300 years after it was allegedly written. In contrast, there are about three copies of small portions of the Greek NT written before 200 AD, lots of them written during the 200s, and even Rom 13:3 preserved in a mosaic in a public building in Caesarea (that's in Israel)from the 300s. If you were looking at the actual evidence (rather than speculation) for a Hebrew or Greek Matthew, what's the obvious choice?

Why was Antioch not called Syrioch? Was it a Syrian city? It was founded by Seleucus, one of the Greek rulers who ruled the territory conquered by Alexander the Great, to promote Greek culture and rule. He called the city Antioch after his father, who was a Greek. It was in an area historically called Syria, but was not a Syrian city. Acts 11 calls the believers "Greeks," not "core group of Aramaic Jews." Read the text, you can't miss it unless you want to. This began 300 years of Greek rule in which Greeks systematically promoted Greek language, culture and religion and quashed Aramaic culture. The English language was unknown in Kenya 200 years ago. Now it is the national language (there and in other African and Eastern countries) and all education, most trade, etc, goes on in English. Everyone in the country learns and uses it. Why? Because superpower Britain made it common. This is what happened with Greek in the world from the Mediterranean to India. Greek replaced Aramaic when Assyria and Babylonia were defeated by Alexander. After 300 years of Greek rule (longer and more oppressive than British rule in recent times) Greek was the “lingua franca” (common language) of the world.

There are even more examples of Paul obviously speaking with Gentiles. When people at Lystra wanted to sacrifice to Paul, thinking he was Hermes (a Greek god), Paul talked them out of it in Greek, since they were certainly not Aramaic speaking Jews. Paul mentioned in Galatians that he and Peter were eating with Gentile believers, but when Jews came (they weren't there before) Peter withdrew. In Jerusalem, when the Roman commander asked Paul "do you speak Greek" it was surprise, because Paul had already said to him "May I say something to you" and the commander understood his Greek. The important followup was not Paul saying "I am a Jew" (of course he was- he was worshiping in the temple), but the next few words, "from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen"- that is what gave Paul credibility in the commander's eyes. When you look at the people Paul actually spoke to in Acts, the vast majority were not Jews. Paul says repeatedly that he was a missionary to the Gentiles. It makes no sense that God's primary missionary to Gentiles, who spent about 20 years of his life evangelizing Gentiles, couldn't speak the language. You're a lousy missionary if you work full time for 20 years among Greeks and don't know the language.

The believers at Antioch are clearly called "Greeks," not "core group of Aramaic speaking Jews" as James calls them (Acts 10:20). If Acts had been first written in Aramaic, most of the conversations in it would have to have been translated from Greek. Paul's trials before Festus, Felix, Gallio, Sergius Paulus had to have been in Greek. Romans rulers don't know (nor want to know) Aramaic. The riot in the Ephesus theater after Paul's healing of a fortune teller was certainly in Greek. Cornelius the centurion was certainly not a Jew and would not have known Aramaic. He and his friends are clearly called "Gentiles." Nor did the Greeks in Antioch who first accepted the Gospel, who are clearly called "Greeks." The Romans soldier who rescued Paul spoke Greek and Paul had no trouble defending himself in Greek. Paul's nephew spoke to a Roman commander about the Jews' plot to kill Paul in Greek, the nephew apparently fluent. Paul spoke to the centurion and soldiers of the Imperial Regiment on ship on his way to Rome. After the shipwreck, Paul spoke to Publius, the chief of Malta, and the Maltese, again in Greek. When Paul gave up on the Jews at Corinth and said he was going to the Gentiles, they would not have known Aramaic. Throughout the book of Acts, both before and After Paul began his mission trips, the vast majority of the conversations recorded were clearly with Gentiles who could not have known any semitic language. It would make no sense for the vast majority of the original events in the book of Acts to have occurred in Greek and written down after the start of the Roman-Jewish war by a guy (Luke) with a Greek name to Theophilos (who is never identified as a priest in either the NT nor church history) and yet be recorded in a language (Aramaic) foreign to them all. I noted the above examples before, but there are even more examples of actual Greek (or Latin) conversations in Paul's ministry. A few occasions, he spoke to anyone in the marketplace (eg- Athens), and it names Greeks. While there, he spoke to philosphers who invited him to speak at the Areopagus, where his speech was certainly in Greek. Some of his listeners there believed, including Damaris and Dionysius a member of the Areopagus, and they certainly did not speak Aramaic. A letter from Felix to Emperor Claudius is recorded in Acts. Damaris is another in a long list of believers' names which are Greek. The almost total lack of Hebrew names among Paul's converts is in stark contrast to the mostly Hebrew names of the 12 apostles (though some of them too had Greek names- Philip and Simon). If the believers were Aramaic speakers, it makes no sense that 95% of them would give Greek names to their children. The Jerusalem council (Acts 15) was convened to discuss the many Gentile believers, and wrote a letter to "the Gentile believers in Antioch, Syria and Cilicia." When you look at the actual people who had conversations with Paul in Acts, it is obvious that the vast majority were Greeks who had no background in Aramaic or the Hebrew Scriptures.

The disciples were first called "Christians" in Antioch. "Christ-ians" is a Greek word. If the believers were speaking Aramaic and Luke was writing in Aramaic, they would have been called "Messianians." This was a name for the group, and as such it would not have been changed to "Christians" even if it was first written in Aramaic and translated to Greek. The believers at Antioch are clearly called "Greeks," not "core group of Aramaic speaking Jews" as James calls them (Acts 10:20). Much has been made of Josephus. But by the time he wrote, the Hebrews as a society were virtually dead (and most of their language users with it). At the fall of the temple in 69 AD, literally one half of the 2 million population of Israel were dead as a result of the war. The slash and burn strategy of the Romans made much of the country unlivable. They literally burned and uprooted every house, building and tree over many square miles. Politically, it's a language of disgraced losers-- something the Romans actually put on coins.(The coins say, "Judea captive") If Acts had been first written in Aramaic, most of the conversations in it would have to have been translated from Greek. Paul's trials before Festus, Felix, Gallio, Sergius Paulus had to have been in Greek. Romans rulers don't know (nor want to know) Aramaic. The riot in the Ephesus theater after Paul's healing of a fortune teller was certainly in Greek. Cornelius the centurion was certainly not a Jew and would not have known Aramaic. He and his friends are clearly called "Gentiles." Nor did the Greeks in Antioch who first accepted the Gospel, who are clearly called "Greeks." The Romans soldier who rescued Paul spoke Greek and Paul had no trouble defending himself in Greek. Paul's nephew spoke to a Roman commander about the Jews' plot to kill Paul in Greek, the nephew apparently fluent. Paul spoke to the centurion and soldiers of the Imperial Regiment on ship on his way to Rome. After the shipwreck, Paul spoke to Publius, the chief of Malta, and the Maltese, again in Greek. When Paul gave up on the Jews at Corinth and said he was going to the Gentiles, they would not have known Aramaic. Throughout the book of Acts, both before and After Paul began his mission trips, the vast majority of the conversations recorded were clearly with Gentiles who could not have known any semitic language.It would make no sense for the vast majority of the original events in the book of Acts to have occurred in Greek and written down after the start of the Roman-Jewish war by a guy (Luke) with a Greek name to another guy with a Greek name (who no one can verify was a Jew of any kind) and yet be recorded in a language (Aramaic) foreign to them all.

Timothy, Tychicus, Aristarcus, Trophimus, Onesimus, Appollos, Tryphinia, Triphosa, Hermogenous, Erastus, Philemon, Rufus, Peter, Paul, Silas, Phoebe, Epinetus, Andronicus, Hermes, APpelles, Narcisus, Lucius, Jason, Tertius, Gius, Quartus, Mark, Demas, Chloe. If the early church was so full of Hebrew converts who rejected Greek, why were nearly all their names Greek and Latin? (you very, very rarely see Hebrew names like Bartholemew, Simon, Jacob in the epistles or Acts) And why were several of them even named after Greek gods (Apollos, Hermes)? And why did Paul say to the Jews in Corinth, "your blood be on your own heads! I am clear of my responsibility. From now on I will go to the Gentiles!" (Acts 18:6) Most Hebrews in the world in the first century used the Greek Septuagint Old Testament, not Hebrew. But the Jews came to see it as "the Christian Bible," so at the end of the first century a Rabbi wrote a Greek translation of the OT to replace the Septuagint among the Hebrews. There would be no need for either of them if Hebrews didn't speak Greek like everyone in the towns in which they lived. Today the Hasidic (ultra-orthodox) Jews who live in America speak English, just as the Pharisees in Thessolonica spoke Greek in their daily life and knew it more fluently than Hebrew.

There are 16 articles on www.abouttheway.org with a wealth of description of how TWI leaders recruited women, what was (and was not) in the Way sex class, first person memoirs of people involved in some way in sexual misconduct, Way "theology" of sex, lawsuits over sexual misconduct, and so forth. It's the most detailed and broadest ranging material you can find on the subject. The disease was systemic- it started in the root and spread throughout the whole Way tree. There was much more harm done than anyone will ever know. Go to www.abouttheway.org , click on the "Lawsuits/ Sexual Misconduct" tab and you will see brief overviews of the 16 articles. John

LC also didn't promote himself as an author. What is there- one book to his name? Plagiarism is more an author's failing than a speaker's failing. A speaker like VP could plagiarize as he spoke (VP did this during PFAL). But plagiarism is most easily tracable when an author sits down with someone else's book at his side and copies what he reads into his "own" book, as VP did with many of "his" books. LC didn't write enough to plagiarize much. For the most part, he didn't pretend to be an author of books. Instead, he pretended to be a dancer. That said, I'll add that people (Like C Geer) did plagiarize when they wrote syllabuses. But it seems LC even let others write his syllabuses for him.

The gap theory of creation has been around a long time and is promoted by many people. Derek Prince, an early charismatic/pentecostal teacher promoted it. That's the kind of source VP could have picked up on his tour of the early charismatic circuit (of which JE Stiles was a part) and passed on to LC. Or LC could have found it elsewhere. I'm sure LC didn't come up with that on his own. LCM did not promote himself to the degree VP did-- as one who dumped all of man's teachings and heard from God alone, word for word. In that sense, there wasn't a need to prove plagiarism on LC's part as there was to show plagiarism on VP's part. LC's claim to fame was that he bought VP's line, word for word.

Unripe figs aren't worth eating any more than a green peach (or any other green fruit outside of an avocado). Not many people have ever had a fresh fig. We have 2 kinds of fig trees in our yard. The fruit is nothing whatsoever like the dried figs in fig newtons, just as raisins are nothing like fresh grapes. Pink and white flesh, many tiny seeds inside, sort of sticky inside. A thin, velvety, edible skin. But the point wasn't whether or not it was the season. The point is that the fig tree (like the olive tree) stood for Israel, which was fruitless, faithless, worthless even after God waited a thousand years for it to produce. The same message, though more vivid, as Jesus' story about a fruitless tree and the gardener telling the owner to wait one more year to see if it would bear before it would be cut down. (Which indirectly is an argument for at least a 2 year ministry for Jesus). delusional, melodramatic, sensationalism.... plagiarism, stupidism, falsism.... excellent descriptions of most of VP's stuff

The Church Lamsa refers to as "Eastern" is actually Nestorian, a very small branch of Eastern which held a view of Christ that the rest of the church believed is heretical. Lamsa himself was not just Nestorian- he was "New Thought," which we know as Christian Science or Unity School of Christianity (USOC). It holds a metaphysical interpretation of the Bible far different from either TWI or orthodox Christianity. He spoke at USOC events and had his office on their campus in Kansas City. From the standpoint of Church history, the "eastern" church is primarily Greek-speaking and covers an area including Egypt, Israel, Lebanon, Turkey and all points east of there. This includes today primary the Eastern Orthodox Churches which go by ethnic names- Greek Orthodox, Serbian Orthodox, etc. The western church is Latin speaking, primarily the Roman Catholic Church, and the Protestants as their descendants from a historical point of view. None of the Eastern Churches hold to Lamsa's New Thought idea of "for this I was spared," because it is not accurate in either Greek or Aramaic/ Syriac.