The Athletes of the Spirit teaching wasn't that God's blessings were limited to jocks and didn't refer to literal athletic ability. It was a figure of speech comparing our walk as believers to an athletic contest.
Yes, I know what the athletes of the spirit teaching was about (I hung around 23.5 years in TWI, including WOW and Corps) but all the emphasis on athletes of the spirit during that time really vaunted the idea IMHO that if you had developed yourself as a literal athlete that you would, in turn, because of the "many" places there were athletic analogies, be a more powerful believer.
Not trying to pick a fight ... I just don't care for the condescending tone.
I bought all of it because I was a kid and I didn't know any better. Sometimes I don't know how my parents got so into it since they were adults when they joined. Then again they were in an area with nicer people with families that actually loved their kids. We moved to another area and it went from bad to worse. When things started getting really awful my dad uprooted us (thank freaking goodness).
In a weird kinda way.. I felt it was 100 percent bullsheet from day one of my involvement.. the promise of being "family" being only an illusion of sorts..
I think I "went with the flow" so to speak.. path of least resistance, the path that would provide the greatest stability at the time..
I wanted to be special. TWI's super secret information made me feel special.
I wanted to have close "family" and friends. I had no really close friends going into TWI that weren't on drugs, so it was a step up socially - or so I thought.
I wanted the relationships. Who better to fellowship with than the family of God?
I have no relationship with any of the people I was so "close" to. Some of that was because we left, and they stayed, but mostly because the relationships were not real.
Not to sound like a broken record (I've mentioned this recently on other threads)...but if you believed the snow on the gas pumps story, you pretty much bought into the whole deal.
...and it's worth mentioning that as easy as it was to swallow the whole taco, it's just as easy to dismiss it as being bogus.
There are some people in this world that if they say, at noon, that it's daytime, ya better look outside before you say 'oh yeah'
But it doesn't mean that they aren't telling the truth when they say something like "I stubbed my toe"
It's not so cut and dried as that, in my opinion.
Maybe it makes it more important to decipher when/where/what/who they are telling the truth about. It's too much energy and work, for me, but there it is anyway.
We do know the differance btwn truth and not so much.
There are some people in this world that if they say, at noon, that it's daytime, ya better look outside before you say 'oh yeah'
But it doesn't mean that they aren't telling the truth when they say something like "I stubbed my toe"
It's not so cut and dried as that, in my opinion.
Maybe it makes it more important to decipher when/where/what/who they are telling the truth about. It's too much energy and work, for me, but there it is anyway.
We do know the differance btwn truth and not so much.
I guess now I'm at the point where I believe some of the things people said were true and some where exagerations and some were lies. But I do feel more free knowing that I no longer buy the whole ball of wax. It doesn't have that kind of control over me anymore.
Not to sound like a broken record (I've mentioned this recently on other threads)...but if you believed the snow on the gas pumps story, you pretty much bought into the whole deal.
...and it's worth mentioning that as easy as it was to swallow the whole taco, it's just as easy to dismiss it as being bogus.
Groucho, hi. I did believe the snow on the gas pumps story, lol! Mainly because I'd see miracles in nature before.
I didn't NOT believe the "snow on the gaspumps" story. I got snowed upon in northern Wisconsin once in August (1969, I think), and it snowed 4 inches in June right here in Leslie and Marshall, Arkansas in the 50's. I just figured since it was way up north in Ohio, why not? At that point in time, I'd not ventured further, and knew little of the world, north of Denton, Texas (except for short trips to Wisconsin and Arkansas when I was a kid), so why not? I didn't pray or anything when those two incidents occurred and I hadn't taken PFAL, yet, so God wasn't speaking to me at the time...He certainly wasn't spitting, much less snowing, in MY direction.
I thought it just another anomolie. I assumed (BIG mistake) that sooner or later there'd be a news article from a local paper on display somewhere proving it...kinda like that shrine to E.W. Bullinger they had. But, of course, that never happened and I kinda forgot about it when deluged with all the other cognitive dissonance put upon us in the Way days.
Groucho, I don't know that the gas pump story is such a big deal, since anomolies do occur and the fact that the snow in an old perverts imagination can be very real to him.
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DogLover
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Nero
I bought all of it because I was a kid and I didn't know any better. Sometimes I don't know how my parents got so into it since they were adults when they joined. Then again they were in an area with nicer people with families that actually loved their kids. We moved to another area and it went from bad to worse. When things started getting really awful my dad uprooted us (thank freaking goodness).
Sorry I think I went
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Tzaia
Yup. I met my to-be husband the week after he took the advanced class. He was engaged at the time and took the class with his fiancée. He broke up with her on the way home. I had been to a few twig fellowships and took the class because he paid for it. For a brief period of time I went along with things. By the time my first son was born, I was through. We were in and out until the whole branch left in '87.
I wanted to be special. TWI's super secret information made me feel special.
I wanted to have close "family" and friends. I had no really close friends going into TWI that weren't on drugs, so it was a step up socially - or so I thought.
I wanted the relationships. Who better to fellowship with than the family of God?
I have no relationship with any of the people I was so "close" to. Some of that was because we left, and they stayed, but mostly because the relationships were not real.
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GrouchoMarxJr
Not to sound like a broken record (I've mentioned this recently on other threads)...but if you believed the snow on the gas pumps story, you pretty much bought into the whole deal.
...and it's worth mentioning that as easy as it was to swallow the whole taco, it's just as easy to dismiss it as being bogus.
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rascal
Groucho, it isn`t that I wanted to believe the snow on the gas pumps, it was that I didn`t want to believe that anyone would lie about God.
I wanted to believe that he loved me, that I had a family that loved me, that I was important and needed in the spiritual battle.
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Shellon
There are some people in this world that if they say, at noon, that it's daytime, ya better look outside before you say 'oh yeah'
But it doesn't mean that they aren't telling the truth when they say something like "I stubbed my toe"
It's not so cut and dried as that, in my opinion.
Maybe it makes it more important to decipher when/where/what/who they are telling the truth about. It's too much energy and work, for me, but there it is anyway.
We do know the differance btwn truth and not so much.
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finallyunderstand
I guess now I'm at the point where I believe some of the things people said were true and some where exagerations and some were lies. But I do feel more free knowing that I no longer buy the whole ball of wax. It doesn't have that kind of control over me anymore.
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waterbuffalo
Groucho, hi. I did believe the snow on the gas pumps story, lol! Mainly because I'd see miracles in nature before.
But, I didn't buy into a lot of other things :)
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Ron G.
I didn't NOT believe the "snow on the gaspumps" story. I got snowed upon in northern Wisconsin once in August (1969, I think), and it snowed 4 inches in June right here in Leslie and Marshall, Arkansas in the 50's. I just figured since it was way up north in Ohio, why not? At that point in time, I'd not ventured further, and knew little of the world, north of Denton, Texas (except for short trips to Wisconsin and Arkansas when I was a kid), so why not? I didn't pray or anything when those two incidents occurred and I hadn't taken PFAL, yet, so God wasn't speaking to me at the time...He certainly wasn't spitting, much less snowing, in MY direction.
I thought it just another anomolie. I assumed (BIG mistake) that sooner or later there'd be a news article from a local paper on display somewhere proving it...kinda like that shrine to E.W. Bullinger they had. But, of course, that never happened and I kinda forgot about it when deluged with all the other cognitive dissonance put upon us in the Way days.
Groucho, I don't know that the gas pump story is such a big deal, since anomolies do occur and the fact that the snow in an old perverts imagination can be very real to him.
YMMV
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