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VPW taught that a person actually dies when they stop believing. As he grew older he began to say that a person dies when they become "tired of the fight and stop believing". This teaching was damaging to me personally in ways I did not understand at the time. First of all, when VP said a person died when they became "tired of the fight", I got a sense of hopelessness. The ramifications of this teaching are that at the end of everyone's life, they would become full of despair and die discouraged. Otherwise they would keep on living. On a more personal level, it just so happened my own father died when I was in TWI. My father was not a Way believer. For a long time I blamed my dad for dying. I believed he died because he stopped believing and he left us alone. He abandoned us, he abandoned me. I realize that denial and anger are a normal part of the grieving process, but this TWI doctrine fed my wrong thinking and probably made the grieving process last a lot longer than it needed to, like years longer. I did the bargaining thing too, by the way. I blamed myself for not praying well enough, or believing well enough, or not being a good enough son, or whatever. Could I have said something during our last conversation that would have made a difference? All that is part of the grieving process too. My father had heart disease, and that's what he died of. He went to bed one night and never woke up. He died at the ripe old age of 56. Death comes to us all, and it doesn't follow anyone's schedule. TWI imparted a sense of control that was not real. When life's circumstances proved that we were not in control, we found someone or something to blame. In the end, such a doctrine does a lot of damage. Peace is not found in controlling or eliminating negative or hurtful life (or death) experiences. Peace comes in knowing that, come what may, we are never alone. For me, and maybe I'm just weird, there's a certain peace in knowing today could be my last day on earth. With that being known, it is possible to die content and at peace.

hi calavicci and welcome pass the horn a plenty and stand speak in tongues and interpret