Accountability: The gift ministry of a Teacher

[skyrider]

In twi, we were taught of the five gift ministries when Christ ascended up on high and gave gifts unto men [Eph. 4:11,12]......namely, 1)apostles, 2)prophets, 3)evangelists, 4)pastors and 5)teachers. And further, these were for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of Christ's ministry, and for edifying of the body of Christ.

Surely, there is accountability and safeguards in Scripture for people to discern truth from error, the true from the fraudulent. Yet, the *teacher* seems to be the most opaque and least transparent to discern. When one assumes the teacher mantle, does that come gifted with acts of plagiarism, wholesale class theft, and study guides? Absolutely not! What does it do to a teacher's credentials when "boasting of 12-hour-days of research for numerous years" is a blatant falsehood.....and the works of Stiles, Bullinger, and Leonard are presented in full transparency?

And further compounding the deception is the mantle of "The Teacher"......to babes [pfal students]. Is there any wonder why wierwille targeted the youth, hippies, loners, outcasts? Is there any wonder why wierwille didn't want "his" books out there in the public domain, in libraries? He dropped just enough crediting to other men's works to distance himself from the plagiarist label, all the while taking full credit for their work [and splicing it together in a class].

Wierwille's claim to "putting it ALL together" is outright laughable. Really? Twelve sessions puts the biblical keys together for a student to become spiritual mature? How many books and seminars and itineraries did Stiles take to teach keys and foundational truths?

Isn't there some 172 appendices in Bullinger's Companion Bible? Wierwille's big fat claim goes SPLAT to anyone that spends any effort of critical thinking and discernment.

Wierwille did his level best to deceptively slip in the back door with a "teaching ministry." But its clearly the easiest threshold that he could cross to gain access. Every parent is a teacher. Every older sibling teaches those who follow his ways. The only scriptural credentials [apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors] would have smoked wierwille out of this deception much, much sooner.

2 Corinthians 12:12

Truly the signs of an apostle were wrought among you in all patience, in signs, and wonders, and mighty deeds.

Deuteronomy 18:22

When a prophet speaketh in the name of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him.

2 Timothy 4:5

But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.

Jeremiah 17:16

As for me, I have not hastened from being a pastor to follow thee: neither have I desired the woeful day; thou knowest: that which came out of my lips was right before thee.

Romans 2:20

An instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, which hast the form of knowledge and of the truth in the law.

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Edited November 12, 2013 by skyrider

[Steve Lortz]

I enjoy teaching. I have for all my post high school life. I taught some life drawing courses as an "undergrad assistant" my first few years in college, and I was a ship's qualification Petty Officer (specializing in the anchor system), and an Engineering Department qualification Petty Officer (specializing in the gland seal and exhaust system) while I was in the Navy, years before I came to TWI. The Navy's where I learned how to give a lecture. I worked in the adventure game industry, where I wrote games and demonstrated them at conventions. Twig teaching seemed to come naturally, once I was a grad of PFAL. After I left TWI in 1987, I spent the years from 2003 to 2008 teaching humane letters to 7th graders at a small Christian interdenominational academy. I am currently working on a master's degree, nominally to acquire secular accreditation to teach.

Do I have "the gift ministry" of a teacher? I dunno! Does it matter? Again, I dunno. I'm just doing what I like to do.

I remember one time when I was preparing one of my first twig teachings, and I saw a verse and thought "I could really punch up my teaching if I tweaked this verse to make it say 'such-an-such'" and I even toyed with how I would present it that way.

But I wrestled with the notion that if I did so, I would be handling the Word of God deceitfully. I tried not to do do that myself. It wasn't until after leaving CES in 1996, nearly ten years after leaving TWI, and already beginning to become familiar with WayDale, that I realized just how deceitfully Wierwille had handled the Word of God.

Wiewille's deception could not have been accidental. He wasn't "The Teacher", he was "The Fraud".

Love,

Steve

[krys]

A teacher with a gift ministry of Teaching, would be teaching, expounding etc the truth. Maybe we cannot determine it's veracity at the moment, but at some time it will be shown to be true.

I believe that such a teacher would also know what his students need taught and would address those needs.

A "gift ministry" Teacher would not be plagiarizing .