Questions, Dialogue and Insight

[skyrider]

Questions are a good thing.....as it stimulates an inquisitive mind to find answers.

Dialogue, the interchange and discussion of ideas, concerns and matters.....yields encouragement.

Insight, reaching far and wide.....can be measured by the quality of questions and healthy dialogue.

Waydale and Greasespot Café have opened a treasure-trove of insight and learning.

Time and time again, I marvel that so many HAD THE SAME QUESTIONS UNANSWERED

after taking pfal that I had. But while pondering a certain question, and not

taking the time to write it down.....the class presentation moved onward.

Questions like "Why did pfal start with John 10:10 and, right from the get-go highlight

the thief and his three-fold mission? Or, mention him at all.....in opening the class?"

Surely, there was a better way to teach this class and highlight Christianity, without

spotlighting the devil in the opening scene...ON STAGE?

Questions, questions and more questions.....

I had so many questions after the pfal class that never adequately got answered.

But......simply asking questions implied that I didn't seem to get it. Like so many other

forms of peer pressure, it was just so much easier to keep quiet and move along.

YET......posters at Waydale and Greasespot have been coming forward since May 1999

asking these pertinent questions and exposing verses, Greek words, and contexts that

are contrary to sound biblical doctrine.

A MAJORITY OF POSTERS.....have moved on, yet left a trail of insight

that still helps us to find our way thru the forest.

Fifteen years of dialogue.....and some have gone on to start websites,

dismantle the errors in pfal, or write books about twi-abuse.

If you delve into some deep-thinking dialogue, check it out.

One such website........A Biblical Analysis

[waysider]

One of the most enlightening things for me, when I discovered GSC, was that I discovered I was not alone in wondering why I had seen so many discrepancies, incongruities, inconsistencies in both doctrine and behavior when I was involved with The Way. Stated more simply, I found myself saying, "Wow!, I wasn't the only one!" It was so hard to talk to anyone while still involved because we had been specifically instructed (session #5 of PFAL) to NEVER allow ourselves to give introspective thought to the materials we were studying or the lifestyle we were living. (Having done all..Stand!") We were conditioned to believe that nothing good could come out of honest, suspicious questioning of Way Theology. Looking back, I think that may be part of why "outsiders" don't understand how we could have been so thoroughly hoodwinked. It was a catch 22. Greasespot is a place where honest discourse can take place without fear of falling from grace like Eve did for simply "questioning". When you relinquish your ability to think critically, you enter a dark place that's hard to escape.

Edited December 7, 2014 by waysider

[skyrider]

It was a catch 22. Greasespot is a place where honest discourse can take place without fear of falling from grace like Eve did for simply "questioning". When you relinquish your ability to think critically, you enter a dark place that's hard to escape.

And....not only were we categorized like Eve for questioning, wierwille flat-out told us

that when it came to biblical research HE would tell us WHAT TO THINK.

Where was the two-way dialogue?

It is SO REFRESHING to have back-n-forth dialogue on subjects of interest.

Twi was an indoctrination camp that suppressed ANY and ALL QUESTIONING.

[Rocky]

And....not only were we categorized like Eve for questioning, wierwille flat-out told us

that when it came to biblical research HE would tell us WHAT TO THINK.

Where was the two-way dialogue?

It is SO REFRESHING to have back-n-forth dialogue on subjects of interest.

Twi was an indoctrination camp that suppressed ANY and ALL QUESTIONING.

I will give you a hearty AMEN to that point.

[Twinky]

And yet ... ancient rabbinical teaching was based very much on the question/answer/dialog model. We see the young Jesus sitting at the feet of the temple leaders of the day - and they were amazed at his ability - his questions, responses, etc. I'm sure the young Jesus asked some very challenging and searching questions. And he probably got honest attempts to answer those questions, too.

And since that was the modus operandi for teaching - it appears to have carried through into Jesus's ministry and that of the apostles. That is - those very apostles who set up the first century church that TWI supposedly modeled itself on.

[waysider]

“The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently.”

-Nietzsche

[newlife]

I remember when I was taking the class for the first time and I remember my class instructor said, look some of these things up and you'll see that we teach what the bible says. So I did. I went and bought a Young's concordance and checked the word "Receive". We were taught there were two greek words for it. Decomai and Lambano. I thought those definitions just didn't seem right. So I got my Young's and looked it up and neither of those greek words were listed nor the definitions we had been given. So the next night I took my Young's to class and after class I showed my class instructor what Young's said and said, that's not right what was taught in the class. She replied, well, Dr. has gone way beyond Young's. He has done a lot of research beyond what you could know so you just accept what he says because he knows what is truth. And that set the stage for me for the rest of the 13 years I was in. No reason to ask or question anything cause they knew more than I did no matter what I had found to prove they were in error.

[Bolshevik]

I had similar experiences, newlife. I eventually ended up going to HQ and walking up to every leader I could find. The popular statement at the time:

"The Research has been done" . . . largely referring to the idea that there is no more "revelation" to be revealed, what you've been taught is it. Wierwille did the heavy lifting, *makes sign of the dove* (I'm sure similar to the phrase "That was handled in The Class")

Which is funny because you keep jumping through classes and at the end of each class, you've got questions, to which the answer is always, "Well, now you need to take this class or go Way D or go to HQ."

So I did those things, short of corps *wew*. There's nothing new, just loose ends that YOU have a problem with. Time to serve, because you're thankful, you little b****.