GeorgeStGeorge

PFAL 77 was a year before my time, but I believe teh Bible thumper was Jed Smock. He used to "preach" at the University of Illinois when I was there, and I recall someone saying they saw him at TWI headquarters.

George

Her other son is Gavin. Suz, do let us know if you find her. I haven't talked with her in over five years, but I'd love to know how she's doing.

George

Back to the thread...

When I first took PFAL (1978), it was my first real introduction to the Bible. As a scientist, the fundamentalist logic really appealed to me. (Still does, by the way.) Plus, Twig fellowship was fun, and no one "made" me do anything. :)-->

I was able to resist the "nudgings" over the next several years to go WOW or Way Corps. It was stil assumed that one could have a secular job and still move the Word. I was a TC for several years in the Houston area when classes were running back to back, and Twigs were growing. Leadership (at least from the Limb down) was loving, though the pressure to keep up the pace was wearing a lot of believers out. -->

LCM took over. Wouldn't have been my choice, but I saw the need for a dynamic leader, and he certainly was THAT. Then came all the schisms. I chose to stay with TWI because I thought that any problems would be resolved from within. -->

By the mid-90's there were no other believers close to me, so I started attending another Twig about 40 miles away. It was about that time that every aspect of my life was being scrutinized. Most troubling was the BC's insistence that I sell my house so I could move closer to Twig. I'm glad I resisted, becase that Twig was merged with another shortly thereafter, and I would have had to move again! Now the keys to Biblical research were being used to "prove" things that clearly weren't Biblical, and Twig was less and less fun. And I had fewer friends who were still in. :(-->

But I hung in there. Fear? Pride? Optimism? Probably a little of each. I hung in there until they tossed me out.

The point of the guardian angel stuff was that once you got born again, you don't need a guardian angel, because you have a direct link with God via His spirit. the doctrine was derived from Heb. 1:14, saying that angels were to minister to those who would become heirs of salvation, not those who already were. And I think the teaching began with VPW, not LCM.

(My God, have I become an apologist for Loy?)

Ex: see Jim's post. OSC was a pretty huge warehouse, with some office space, as I recall.

Ex: see Jim's post. OSC was a pretty huge warehouse, with some office space, as I recall.

Quoth Jim:

"EOB - Executive Office Building, where the higher-ups had their offices along with accounting and legal."

I always remembered the EOB as the Ermal Owens Building (Ermal being the first VP of The Way). The name was probably changed during the "de-Wierwilleization" of TWI.

Quoth Jim:

"EOB - Executive Office Building, where the higher-ups had their offices along with accounting and legal."

I always remembered the EOB as the Ermal Owens Building (Ermal being the first VP of The Way). The name was probably changed during the "de-Wierwilleization" of TWI.

quote:

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Originally posted by Goey:

Posted by GSG

quote:

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I simply mentioned that in the Bible it says that it is impossible for God to lie.

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Aparantly God has a loophole to get around that annoying little restriction. He gets humans to do the lying for him. This way God gets off on a technicality and your whole bible does not fall apart.

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Goey (and Garth),

Are your responses tongue-in-cheek? (If not, you appear to be agreeing with LCM.) Obviously, God does not lie, or tell others to lie. There is no "contradiction." The Bible does, however, faithfully record lies as they were spoken. God didn't tell the Pharisees to say that Jesus, "was a Samaritan" and had "a devil." It's true that they said it, even if what they said wasn't true.

I don't always agree with WordWolf and Goey, but I do, here. Jesus is God's Son, the perfect man, who died for our sins, was raised by God three days later, ascended into heaven, and will return for his church. He is my intercessor, and a mediator for the unsaved. He is THE way to salvation.

I haven't had my IQ tested recently, but I am a Ph.D. chemist, so my intellect "is still breathing," too.

And, yes, this probaly does belong in the Doctrinal section.

At the risk of leading this thread down a side road, I have to agree, sadly, with the previous post. At the last Rock of Ages, I remember my BC telling me that we were no longer reaching out to "nerds." He seemed a little surprised when I remarked that those were the people we could actually help.

George

On a slightly different tack, I think the dumbest thing LCW did was to put all the Corps on salary. Beyond the problem of giving the Corps far too much time to meddle in other people's lives, it was financially devastating. Putting people who could have been contributing $ on the payroll (while kicking out almost everybody else who was contributing) was either 1.) believing for a miracle, or 2.) incredibly stupid. I believe history has shown the latter to be true.

George

Grizz,

Well, let's see. There was Eve bringing down Adam, Ahab bringing down Jehoshaphat, Delilah bringing down Samson, Solomon's wives bringing Solomon down, and those are just the biblical references that come to mind without careful deliberation. There are plenty of secular examples, too. As I recall, LCM said that weakness brings down strength, "unless strength is very good." The examples you cite are evidence of that.

I'm obviously no big fan of LCM, but not everything he said was stupid.

Sorry, wrong thread!

George

quote:

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Originally posted by Bob:

"Weakness brings down strength."

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I'm not sure that that was dumb. In a lot of cases, it's quite true.

I think "go until you break glass" was a basketball reference.

George

Seeing another poster's "handle" reminded me of another acronym: SOGWAP: son of God with all power. Uses "all nine"* manifestations "all the time."

George

*To Refiner: in addition to Tongues, Interpretation, and Prophecy (Sometimes, collectively, TIP), there are Word of Knowledge, Word of Wisdom, Discerning of Spirits, Faith (always read "Believing"), Gifts of Healing(s) and Working of Miracles, as per 1 Cor. 12:8-10).

Seeing another poster's "handle" reminded me of another acronym: SOGWAP: son of God with all power. Uses "all nine"* manifestations "all the time."

George

*To Refiner: in addition to Tongues, Interpretation, and Prophecy (Sometimes, collectively, TIP), there are Word of Knowledge, Word of Wisdom, Discerning of Spirits, Faith (always read "Believing"), Gifts of Healing(s) and Working of Miracles, as per 1 Cor. 12:8-10).

I've gotten bolder now, so I thought I'd start a thread. What's the dumbest thing you ever actually heard LCM say?

I've got many possibilities to choose from, but I think my personal pick would be when, at the ROA teaching from Exodus, he said that if the midwives were lying about the male Hebrew births, then it was because God told them to! The Big Tent actually went silent for a couple of seconds! Shortly after the "teaching," another member of my Twig expressed his awe at the new "revelation." I simply mentioned that in the Bible it says that it is impossible for God to lie.

Okay then, how about some others? (And no fair popping in VPW quotes. Save that for another thread!)

George "I don't need no stinkin' pseudonym" St. George

I just woke up, so forgive me if I go back a few posts. I married late in life (41), so I shall have no children of my own; but it has nothing to do with TWI. I just enjoyed being single. My wife has four children, however, and they all live in the Houston area, so we spend a lot of time together. And my first grandchild turns 1 in about a week!

George

,Refiner,

Actually, according to TWI, the tithe is sufficient for God to supply all one's physical needs. Abundant sharing and plurality giving are indicative of greater spiritual depth, and the rewards are in that category.

I'm confused by your statement that ex cult victims "have no generations to continue their bloodline on." I'm not sure how you're connecting financial giving with posterity.

George

I've mentioned this in other threads, but I might elaborate some, here. When I took PFAL years ago, I thought that the keys to understanding the Bible were great. They made sense to me, a scientist. I was also told that questions were fine, because if my TC couldn't answer them, he would ask the BC, etc., until someone knew the answer. That person would send the answer down the line so that everyone would know. Open belligerence wasn't respected, but thoughtful questions were answered as best as people could. (I even wrote to VPW once, comparing "Uncle Harry Day" to Roman Catholic feasts. He sent me a very peaceful response. Although the gist of the response was "Uncle Harry Day is OK," I don't think it's a coincidence that the day was re-named the very next year.

Unfortunately, as the years rolled on, questions were not considered a desire to learn but a rebellion agains authority. Since I don't accept BS easily, I was branded a troublemaker and was reproved on a number of occasions. Of course, since I wasn't homosexual, had no debt, and gave above the tithe, there wasn't much they could oust me on.

Finally, I and my new fiancee (we had been engaged about a month) were dragged into a kangaroo court, where I was chastened for pridefully leading songs in Twig that almost nobody new, and for refusing to believe LCM's statement that the only reason for a space program is military dominance. A quick call to the LC confirmed my excommunication. My fiancee was given the choice of leaving me or TWI; she wisely chose the latter. We've been married for over six years and fellowship with other ex-wayfers in the Houston area. :)-->

Of course, I was stunned when it happened, and I really didn't say much in my defense (not that it would have mattered much, I suppose). I did have a major "esprit d'escalier" a couple of days later, though. Part of the "gallery" at my tribunal was my TC, who worked for NASA. I'm sure she wasn't working on military secrets, so her involvement seemed a bit hypocritical. (Frankly, though, I find Psalm 19:1 a perfectly good reason for a space program.) Also a "Corps Grad" who had praised me for leading lesser-known songs a couple of weeks prior just sat there watching me be berated. I don't really blame him or my ex-TC, though. They were all scared to death of being booted themselves.

The group I presently fellowship with has no problems with questions. We just crack open the Bible, pull out our Greek texts and concordances, and go to work. Biblical RESEARCH -- what a concept! :D-->

Refiner,

One belief held by The Way, only briefly touched upon by Garth, is that a major key to the abundant life is tithing and then some. God's blessings to Israel were dependent on the tithe, and since Christians have been given so much more by God than Israel was, surely Christians can give more. In Wayspeak, giving above the tithe is called "abundant sharing"; and giving everything beyond your need is called "plurality giving."

Incidentally, I still give my present ministry more than 10% of my income, not because some psycho screams at me but becuase I do feel blessed by all God has given me.

George (not Aar)

P.S.: There really are a lot of posts for a new thread here. It's going to be a long weekend!

Hope,

I'm not one to use a lot of chat room abbreviations, but FOFLMAO! Your description of each event in the series, punctuated by the APPROPRIATE response, was hysterical!

Maybe you and OldiesMan need to start a new thread: Bodily functions at The Way... :D--> :D--> :D-->

When I would occasionally post on WayDale, I used the pseudonymn lantrn because Green lantrn was always my favorite comic book hero. I had my '67 Chevelle painted green with his insignia on the hood. Unfortunately, Texas only allows six letters or numbers on a license plate, so I went for LANTRN. (The beauty of that, for comic-book afficionados, is that it can be pronounced "lantern" or "lantrin," as the 1940's Green Lantern was called by his sidekick.)

But I digress. I now simply use my own name. (Yes, that really IS my name!) I picked what to me looks like a spaceman avatar, because it was the most comic-book-y. If I figure out how to use the Green Lantern insignia (and hopefully avoid copyright issues), I'll probably change to that.

George St. George