Leaderboard

I found this passage to be particularly interesting: "Dr. Cath defined a cult as a group of people joined together by a common ideological system fostered by a charismatic leader, where, he said, ''the expectation is that they can transcend the imperfections and finitude of life.'' He said: ''Often they set up a we-they philosophy: We have the truth and you do not.'' In what Dr. Clark called healthy, valid groups, conversion is achieved in good faith without coercion, and the individual is encouraged to reconcile himself to his history, his family and his culture, even when he may be working for change in his society. ''But in destructive cults,'' said Dr. Clark, ''current and prior connectedness is denied.'' Dr. Clark said that the pattern of manipulated cult conversions may not appear especially radical to outsiders, since no one is beaten or otherwise physically harmed."

While I will concede that it is remotely possible for Wierwille to have come up with this on his own (complete with identical grammatical error), it seems unlikely that a man (Wierwille) whose lifelong quest was, supposedly, to discover "The Truth", had somehow missed the works of a man (Bullinger) who had been dead since 1913. HERE How To Enjoy The Bible had been in print since 1916. HERE Wierwille was so academically lazy, he didn't even bother to try to understand why this concept was grammatically incorrect and thus rephrase it to disguise his plagiarism. He did, however, make the effort to change "dispensations" to "administrations". I suspect he did this because there was a pre-existing awareness of "Dispensationalism". He just didn't care because (IMO) he didn't think he would ever be caught in his deception.

On the other hand, it could be a way to give kudos for a post.

And that lack of healthy respect or fear of the Lord might just have lead us to some pretty odd interpretations of scripture. Here is the irony. We worshiped the "Word". . . we allowed supposed "MOG" into positions of authority over our lives. Many were complete strangers to us. We acted as if they spoke ex cathedra. . . . . YET, let anyone say they actually worshiped Jesus Christ and the world was coming to an end. . . . we screamed idolatry so quickly. . . let them drop the Christ and worship Jesus. . . HA! They were possessed for sure. :)

erkjohn, your post touched me -- i wasn't a big leader or anything like that, dear brainfixed. i was a corps grad. i know it has taken me years. when i first left, i felt like a deaf and dumb mute around mostly everyone. then after that i started sharing way too much. i don't know how to explain it, but i was always mouthing off with my bad taste for religion, etc., and telling too much personal crap. lately (after how many years since poo poo), i find that i'm a much more balanced sociable person and people really like me (not talking about greasespot lol)

Also Shellon, if you look at the bottom of the page where the reply button would usually be(bottom right). . . . there are two little icons. . . one is an green arrow. . . run the mouse over it and it should come up "reply". It just isn't marked. I did the same thing you did, until I found the little green arrow. Just to add: The other icon is a page and is to start a new topic(I think). They are next to each other.

Where do we begin? Those of us who sat through that class a few times still don't get half the stuff LCM was teaching. And it wasn't because he was more spiritual than the rest of us... IMO - it was because IT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE! He started it off pretty normally - basic scriptures, John 14:6, 10:10, etc. About 20 minutes into it - he's screaming that if you don't like what he's saying you can leave - GO TO CHURCH! Shortly after that - maybe session 2 - he goes into "the deep" - teaching that the universe is encased in a womb-like saltwater solution. That is "the deep". That's where the debbil took his 1/3 of the angels and that's where he hangs out when he's not busy attacking TWI. He goes into Pangaea - which is a term used for the one superconinent that divided into the land masses and continents of today. While this theory is valid, LCM teaches that the continents were split "in the days of Peleg" (he gets this from Genesis 10:25)! Geologically - it took MILLIONS and MILLIONS of years for the the continental drift to occur - yet LCM says that the bible teaches that it happened in a few years - "... for in his days was the earth divided". Someone else please elaborate more - I'm just sitting here stunned that I actually TOOK this class and didn't SCREAM OUT LOUD when this session ended...