aball001

Hi, M. L. Kent! Don't feel too bad about not having the correct translation to bring to class. In 1985 Mom got me a dramatized Kjv for Christmas, something I'd wanted since they'd begun advertising it on Tv, but the only ways to have access to the Scriptures for me at the time were through Braille and cassette tape. When I came to class, I didn't bring a Bible like my sighted peers. They transcribed the books for me in Braille, were a little late getting them but I was still thrilled to be able to follow along. Hey, don't feel bad about having the wrong translation! Before I took PFAL, that year at Christmas Mom got me a dramatized KJV on tape, something I really wanted to have ever since the ads for it appeared on Tv. I am totally blind, and the only two ways to have access to the Scriptures then were in Braille, which was much too cumbersome and on tape. When I attended class, I was unusual in that I didn't have a Bible with me at all or the means with which to take notes. They transcribed the books in Braille for the course. I was thrilled becausef God in Romney, WV, had been the only two who cared if the same literature my sighted peers were using was accessible. my Sunday school teachers in WV, one who taught first and second grade at the Baptist church and another one at the Church oFear and reverence are not bad things -- though I like what one poster here said about not being afraid to read f God in Romney, WV, most hadn't seemed to care if I had access to the same material my sighted peers were using.

Wow .. it's horrible and I believe you. In 1989 I read John Juedes's article about the splintering of the Way Tree and listened to John Lynn's two-tape set "Overview of Events" and got the impression then that they were scratching the surface, actually trying to avoid being too explicit in their descriptions. It's sad how when leadership is perverted and the head is sick all are devastated.

Thankfully, I was spared much of that but I did see a great d eal One of the women in the first Twig I attended actually mentioned how a sexual encounter with a man of God could be a healing experience, and there was a teaching going around that a fetus in the womb was no different from a plant because it hadn't taken its first breath and become a living soul. and perverted of It takes a tremendous amount of courage to share one's experiences of rape and sexual abuse, and my hat goes off too to all of you who have found the strength to come forward.idealization of Wierwille and LCM and, funny how that works, built up a similarly idealized imagemental picture of WOW was built up as an awesome experience -- though i saw the people in one Twig fellowship I attended who had only popcorn to subsist onin their house. Hearing your pain and rage is a sobering reminder of how horrible it could get.

To the group member from New York City, hi, and thanks for the welcome! I have used both the NIV and the NASb, found that I liked both! There is a free Bible software at http://www.e-sword.net which has seemingly every translation imaginable -- though as a totally blind person who uses a screen reader the interlinear layout can be a bit confusing. As to the law of believing, I would tend to fall in the third category, with the added observation that it is similar to the positive confession the Word of Faith teachers promote on TBN, with much the same results for people who don't get healed. One book I read after leaving TWI which may not be in print anymore is Dan R. McConnel's A Different Gospel. While it had nothing to do with Twi per se, it discussed the Faith teachers' reliance on Kennyon and the devastating results when people take doctrines like Positive Confession to their logical extreme. By the way, I love the Elie Wiesel quote at the end of your post; it really struck a chord with me!

After I left Twi, I really didn't want to think about what I might have learned from PFAL. These discussions have given me the freedom to sort through what attracted me to it in the first place, as well as the negative and damaging aspects of Twi. I grew up in a Free Will Baptist church background with strong emphasis on hellfire and brimstone. I found the environment to be very authoritarian and legalistic and the moment I turned eighteen ran away screaming. T year before I had flirted with atheism, so it was refreshing to hear a message of grace and forgiveness, not condemnation. It was a message I later found after I left Twi in the Presbyterian Church, and at least if Pfal did nothing else it showed me there were other ways to approach spirituality than the narrow upbringing of my parents. Some of the other aspects -- sonship rights, the belief that all could manifest the nine gifts of holy spirit, wereaspects I found refreshing at the time, having experienced elitism and second-class treatment at the hands of my Pentecostal peers at school as a teenager. That said, the negative flipside of the coin of the Law of Believing was one of the more damaging aspects of PFal which I experienced firsthand in the form of isolation the week I fell and broke my arm. I'm not sure if I would have reached different conclusions about God on my own than the ones taught in my upbringing without Twi and the Pfal course, but think in the end I came away more true to myself and more outspoken in standing up against spiritual abuse and legalism in religion that keep people in fear.

I am new to the forum and wanted to comment that I appreciate the honesty with which this issue is being addressed, both by those who believe in God and those who in the sorting-out process have reached the conclusion that God does not exist. I was only in the Way a short time, through the fall of 1985 and spring of 1986, and during that time saw what some of you described -- how Greek and Hebrew were used to dupe, and sometimes intimidate us into believing we couldn't question the experts. That said, since leaving Twi I still have a deep and long-standing interest in studying Scripture and to a lesser extent the Greek and Hebrew. I think this was mainly because of some Presbyterian friends in the peace movement who took me under their wing after I left Twi and let me vent as I began the sorting-out process and even wrestled with what translation to read (for quite some time I couldn't bring myself to open a KJV especially the book of Acts and the writings of Paul .. because immediately the Way interpretations would come immmediately to mind.) On a separate note, today I got through listening to the John Juedes interview about the Law of Believing and could have cried when he brought up the illustration V. P,. Wierwille used of the little boy who got run over by a car in which the mother's fear was blamed for the little boy's death. Has there been any discussion of the Law of Believing on the forums? Though John Lynn and CES did much to debunk this dangerous teaching, it never really occurred to me till Dr. Juedes pointed it out how dependent a lot of Twi's other teachings in the PFAL course were on the Law of Believing.