WordWolf

"Out on the road today, I saw a Deadhead sticker on a Cadillac"

If he believed this site was contentious and hateful, he should have used the brains that God gave him and go to another site rather than spew vitriol all over it. (Which he's STILL doing- by sending nasty emails to Paw, and using posters here as his proxies. Actually, first I quoted the posts, and they mostly support the idea that he was using "untruths" with the 2 of you.Then you felt the need to jump in and defend him-almost certainly part of that's due to him crying to you privately over injustices. He's sold you and Jonny the same sob story. So, through 2 posters, he's still posting here. Therefore, he can take his lumps for it. If the evidence supports someone having been caught lying, I am free to say so- they are lying. Therefore, I feel no guilt over calling Bumpy A LIAR. Did I call him a liar? Yes- but I left it up to the individuals before he had you jump in. Once he ESCALATED matters, I saw no reason to just let it go. (That's why I didn't comment at all until he had someone else make a federal case and start a thread because he reaped what his bad behavior sowed.) Did I call him "basically worthless"? Not yet I haven't. I have no way of knowing if he gives generously to support widows and orphans in his spare time, or anything else. I can only judge the social behavior he's demonstrated here. So I did. To say the least, it added nothing to the discussions. To say the most, each usage of his keyboard detracted from legitimate discussions. Actually, he arrived at this site and has been consistent in wasting everyone's time, interrupting serious discussions, and otherwise behaving boorishly. When his behavior is already that poor, what difference does a LATER LABEL make? You're making excuses for his poor behavior. He's a grown man, and can take responsibility for what he posts- and the consequences of his actions. Or is there going to be some spirited defense of his using a sock-puppet online, based on his labelling the site as "naughty" or something?

Norah Jones, "Sunrise." It's too easy when the song title is in the lyrics posted.....

Paw's email address is public, unlike mine. It's stayed the same the entire time Bumpy's been here, and hasn't changed this week (that I know of.) If Bumpy somehow lost the address, was somehow unable to find it again, and WANTED it, it would be simple for him to say "please find me Paw's email address" instead of "I'VE BEEN BANNED WITHOUT WARNING OR EXPLANATION FROM GREASESPOT!!!1111!!!!" (which, BTW, I don't believe for a moment.) Furthermore, I don't see Bumpy actually saying OUTRIGHT "I don't have Paw's email address". I see an EQUIVOCATION- Jonny IMPLYING Bumpy doesn't have it ("How can he email you if he doesn't have your email address?"), and in my experience, people who make a point of equivocation (I'm not thinking of Jonny here, I'm thinking of Bumpy) are people who are deliberately attempting to deceive- to get people to think they're saying one thing, but provide "plausible deniability" later that they said it, since they only IMPLIED it and later will pretend they never meant it at all. So, I think Bumpy lied outright to Jonny (and probably to you), and also lied by IMPLICATION (using technically true words to lead the listener to a false conclusion.) This is of course my opinion. From what I'm getting, Bumpy's emailed Paw in the past, and didn't email him NOW until he was recommended to-almost as if he forgot he could, or forgot to send one. Forgive me for concluding Bumpy played both of you, and knew d* well how to contact Paw the entire time. (I hate it when people "cry wolf.") I thought it was obvious Jim was on staff-his posts that I've seen usually speak as staff, and often as the website's technician. I am not staff. A number of years ago, I told Paw outright that if he ever considered me for staff, I'd make a lousy choice, and gave the reasons. I was heading off any future consideration of that, since I felt being on staff would compromise my own ability to post my conscience unfettered. I have been staff on a number of OTHER boards, both as a moderator and as an admin, so I can empathize with the staff here, even when I don't agree with them (which isn't often.) I do think some people lack either experience on other messageboards, or experience STAFFING other messageboards, and thus are unable to contextualize the GSC experience properly. In other words, if they tried other boards enough, they'd be amazed we posters get away with so much on the GSC, and that the staff tolerates MUCH more than the staff of other boards. On the other hand, so long as I had no moderator or admin duties, I could technically be staff for the WEBSITE, but that's not what we're addressing-we're talking about the MESSAGEBOARD. I for one question whether there's any substance at all. Bumpy's posts reflect a distinct lack of substance,and I think all the Bumpy-speak is meant to HIDE that, allowing him to interrupt actual discussions and get some people to think he may actually have something to offer the site other than a negative example. I don't see either of them that way, as well. I see Jonny, in this instance, as being tricked by a deceiving person, and being used by them. I see Bumpy as a person whose social worth is so minor that his sole means of garnering attention revolves around either annoying people, or getting sympathy and pretending he didn't mean to go around taking shots at people, and pretending to be surprised when it blows up in his face. STANDARD internet rules would have turfed Bumpy on his behind long ago. The GSC is AMAZINGLY lenient and tolerant towards posters. That about sums it up.

For those who missed it, I thought I'd do a recap. I think the main positions may have gotten a little obscured. "He is wanting to know why because there was no word" Stated reason. Bumpy claimed he was given no reason for his suspension. Jonny chose to make a thread about it instead of just asking the staff with a pm or email or other method. Staff reply: PAWTUCKET: Has he considered emailing me? I don't see how emailing you would rectify anything. In fact, why would you start a thread instead of sending me a PM? " if he doesn't have your e-mail address?" "Why assume that his e-mailing me was his attempt to rectify anything?" " He is a friend" Staff reply: PAWTUCKET: And why are you making it a public thread instead of PMing me? Bumpy has emailed me numerous times, he knows my email address. ======== Bumpy told Jonny that he doesn't have Paw's email address. Paw told Johnny that Bumpy has emailed him plenty of times and knows his email address. Either one of them is lying (or Johnny's lying about Bumpy), or both (or all 3) are lying. All of them CAN'T be correct because the 2 positions contradict directly. Staff reply: PAWTUCKET: Linda, are you asking me to publicly state what someone did to get suspended? I will not publicly embarrass someone like that. And that is where Lingo was headed in my opinion. I wouldn't do it to Jonny when he got suspended. I sent an email to Bumpy which he could have responded to, but hasn't. In public, a simple question gets blown out of proportion. And suddenly, with this thread, I have volumes to answer based on assumptions. Nothing has changed philosophically with GS, but someone like Bumpy is putting those thoughts in threads and people start believing them. I'll do another post to cover that. PAWTUCKET: Opinions have not been suppressed. (snip) We are not suppressing or controlling anyone, that is in your mind. PAWTUCKET: Rhino, I'm not going to try to track down Bumpy. But I used the email in his profile, if that isn't correct not much I can do. he may remember calling someone something that exterminators search for. Not the first time he's done it Staff response: Staff response: PAWTUCKET: I'm not going to display it. Bumpy seems to enjoy having fun making digs at me -- I did the same thing for him with that notice. And he has been suspended numerous times for the exact same thing. We are not going to hold a public trial. And the fact that he has been in contact with me, this thread is now moot. And that email was sent days ago, by the way, Jonny. Bumpy really has you at his disposal. "Paw said that Bumpy had been suspended "numerous times" which according to Bumpy is completely untrue, non-factual, to him, a fabrication." "offered him no information as to why he was kicked out." PAWTUCKET: Jonny, Bumpy DOES know why. He is lying to you. He is doing very typical trollish things. Add confusion to the whole thing and you are buying into it. If you are so irritated with the management here, then leave. I can't please everyone. Is there a reason that Jonny, lacking access to all the information necessary to make an informed decision, is calling multiple staffers liars? So, there's what Jonny said that Bumpy said. I, for one, believe Bumpy said each of those to Jonny. There's what the staff replied-which refuted what Bumpy told Jonny. There's Jonny calling the staff liars. There's the reason Jonny's willing to believe Bumpy but not the staffers, despite knowing Paw much longer than he's known Bumpy. ======= Please excuse me putting Paw's quotes out of quotation marks. To include ALL the quotes, I had to drop some, and I dropped the ones around Paw's replies.

CORRECT! Thanks for taking time from partying every day to answer that.

Since I'm not staff, and you asked where the non-staff reply, you ended up with me replying. (Which was my point.) If you want the answers that directly address your question, you'll have to contact the staff. Otherwise, it's like posting in the political forum and asking what your local congressman's thinking instead of contacting your local congressman. The subject "came up for discussion here" not because someone wanted an answer-otherwise they'd just CONTACT THE STAFF- but obviously for a different reason, since this is not a way to contact the staff. What was that reason? You'd have to ask them-I just know what it WASN'T. Pretending this IS how you contact the staff is not going to convince most of us that you don't know better. The one thing I CAN say, I spoke on-which is that ANY method to circumvent a suspension becomes "wrong" AUTOMATICALLY, regardless of any other policy, as messageboards go.

If you REALLY want to know what the policy is at the GSC, contact the staff. If you want to pretend you want to know what the policy is at the GSC, but actually just want to start trouble, post that you want to know, and pretend that there's no convenient way to find out. On all messageboards, ANY means to circumvent a suspension are strongly discouraged-and generally earn a permanent ban for the poster under all screen-names forever. Let me know if you need me to explain why- but I think the reasons are obvious.

You may have walked in late on a discussion. We've been discussing this on and off since the original letter back in the late 1980s. Certainly we've been discussing it here for the past decade in one version or another of the GSC. If you think it's immature, short-sighted or lacking common sense to draw conclusions based on personal interactions with someone for 2 decades, and public announcements they've made of their opinions and positions, well, I will disagree. Oldies' posts here seem to reflect a position that conclusions can't be drawn one way or another based on the information at hand. I disagree strongly. Few here would begrudge you the right to review things and make up your own mindon your own time. I freely admit that, certainly at first, that a lot of things that are said here sound ridiculous, and almost don't make sense. They don't match the public image we were sold in twi, and certainly don't sound like things healthy (or even unhealthy) Christians would do. Over time, I've concluded, however, that looking at the WHOLE picture means that the claims here are well-supported, both by what twi said, and what eyewitnesses have said. Perhaps you will come to the same conclusion over time. Perhaps you will not. Either way, I respect your right to come to your OWN conclusions. Actually, sounds like you're agreeing with the rest of us. Based on the information at hand, you concluded, you perhaps got a commercial, but definitely didn't get what you think sound Christian counsel would give you. That's a lot of what the GSC is about. Thanks for posting. ======= Oh, and just something I noted about Bill Gaither's song, "the Family of God".... the lyrics are notably different than the ones twi used. Here's what Gaither wrote: "Chorus I'm so glad I'm a part of the Family of God, I've been washed in the fountain, cleansed by His Blood! Joint heirs with Jesus as we travel this sod, For I'm part of the family, The Family of God You will notice we say "brother and sister" 'round here, It's because we're a family and these are so near; When one has a heartache, we all share the tears, And rejoice in each victory in this family so dear. Chorus I'm so glad I'm a part of the Family of God, I've been washed in the fountain, cleansed by His Blood! Joint heirs with Jesus as we travel this sod, For I'm part of the family, The Family of God From the door of an orphanage to the house of the King, No longer an outcast, a new song I sing; From rags unto riches, from the weak to the strong, I'm not worthy to be here, but PRAISE GOD! I belong! Chorus I'm so glad I'm a part of the Family of God, I've been washed in the fountain, cleansed by His Blood! Joint heirs with Jesus as we travel this sod, For I'm part of the family, The Family of God

I would add that he has no problems dialoging "behind closed doors" where the process is HIDDEN, but refuses to do so where everyone can see- which are signs of dysfunctional processes. I would add that he had demonstrated that when people are willing to communicate with him privately, he uses that communication strictly as an advertising platform for ces/stfi product. That's not how people of God act if they want to earn or keep my respect- that's how people act if they see me as a source of income.

When JAL DID post here, the responses were quite civil. Even though he posted that he was only going to post once and then disregard any responses, directing anyone with questions to either look over his websites or contact him privately... And if you decide to contact him, make sure you give your legal name.... Many people, myself included, are VERY suspicious of the "let's engage in even the most general dialogue in PRIVATE, out of sight of everyone." Suspicion increases when stories begin coming in about what happens when one tries that- JAL gives them an earful of commercial instead of dialoguing, and when commercials hold no interest, JAL suddenly remembers he has to be elsewhere, and rushes off the phone. Forgive me for not viewing that, say, as having anything to do with responses of people like DWBH- who neither advertises anything nor blows off the questions nor views of others. Even vpw said that people don't care what you know until they know that you care- and JAL's made it clear that he only cares about CUSTOMERS for ces/stfi PRODUCT. Me, I was a LOT easier on him when there was even any hope he might come and communicate openly with us. If he's going to play "I'm only going to speak when I control the microphone and all reactions", then I'm giving him the responses I think he's painstakingly earned.

Nicely put. I still think more posters would have a realistic impression of what moderators had to do if THEY had to moderate a board at some point. It's not so hard when there's no disagreements and it's all a mutual admiration society. When that isn't the case, sooner or later someone will "go too far", and staff has to make that determination, and decide what reponses to make. In case I'm unclear, I'm NOT advocating anyone start HERE. That's just inviting trouble. I meant at an easy-to-manage board. Start with the bunny slope before trying to ski down Dead Man's Curve.

Well, ok, since you both insist....although I neither named the song nor any artist who performed it. (Like Manhattan Transfer, say.) "You show us everything you've got, baby, baby that's quite a lot"

Obviously a local....

"Private message." Sending a note to just them on this website. They'll see it the next time they log on. Or in a few minutes if they're logged on when you send it. Go to their profile, then select to "send a pm" or some similar option.

The text of Gordon Sinclair's writing is here: http://www.snopes.com/politics/quotes/sinclair.asp A different article by a Romanian is here: http://www.snopes.com/rumors/romania.asp#add

There's no established computer etiquette or custom that I am aware of. You may consider it a compliment-someone liked what they read of your posts and made a point to add you to your friendlist. You may choose to do nothing, or add them to yours, or send a pm to them with one polite comment or another. You may consider it a request for dialogue. All of that's optional.

Every other privately-operated board I've ever been on, if you attempt to go around a suspension through any means and are caught, you earn a PERMANENT BAN, NO DISCUSSION. The GSC is FAR too lenient, IMHO, to permit ANYONE to post who pulled that at all. Anyone with experience as a moderator or as admin would require very little explanation. Staff has to act in the best interests of the board-as they interpret those best interests. In other words, either you can give Paw and staff the benefit of the doubt, or you can't. If you can, you can take any questions to him privately, and accept his word as to any replies. That means making a federal case out of every decision is unwarranted, and a colossal waste of the staff's time. Having to stop and compose multiple posts justifying in excruciating detail every decision they make is ridiculous, and this is the first board I'm on that even entertains that. If you can't give Paw and staff the benefit of the doubt, you can do what I do when I don't trust the staff at a board, and just DON'T GO THERE and DON'T POST THERE. There is no inalienable right to post at the GSC in the US Constitution. And there's a right and wrong way to approach the staff at a messageboard. Don't think I haven't disagreed with Paw- but you'll be hard-pressed to find me posting publickly on it-I take it to him privately. I've disagreed with him a number of times, but I also acknowledge that all GSC decisions are, after all, HIS decisions, and just because they aren't the way I would do them doesn't mean they are wrong. You'd have a whole different perspective on this if you'd ever been a moderator or an admin on a reputable messageboard on your own. (I've been moderator AND admin, more than once, on a number of boards.)

Congratulations on finally finding something factual to disagree with. JAL has a real job. That having been said, you're missing the MAIN point of that- that objections to JAL doing "the ministry" as opposed to working fulltime at a job has certain marked differences, only SOME of which relate to MONEY. vpw didn't JUST do what HE did for money, or JUST for sex, after all.... If he can make a comfortable living doing the "ministry" thing, that's good for him. In the meantime, however, there's plenty of ego-massage thinking that there's all sorts of people who look to him as God's mouthpiece.

In a few cases, you can remove the word "practically" from "practically worshipping the ground they walk on." vpw definitely wanted to be SEEN as authoritative, and lcm himself documented how he could explode into sudden angers if he even suspected he wasn't seen that way. If POP accurately reflects his statements, then- as soon as he wasn't the be-all and end-all of twi- he was deeply troubled and went to cg to vent at length and say twi was going to collapse. (Of course, he didn't say the reason it would collapse would be "I'm relegated to a secondary role"...) From what I've seen-what twi documented vpw himself saying, in a variety of sources, and from direct comments overheard live by people, and on tapes twi put out where vpw spoke for himself- I've formed an opinion. His first exposure to ministry was an "expert" from out of town who travelled in and got lots of respect. According to vpw, his reaction to that man was to say he wanted to be like him. Through vpw's childhood and teenage-hood (as reported by neighbors and his own brother), there were no signs whatsoever of vpw being interested in serving God, in the Bible, in church, in actually WORKING for God. His brother made an aside that he got in a little trouble, and a neighbor said he was a troublemaker and caused a lot of fuss to draw attention to himself as a teenager. vpw himself told the Corps that he had weighed ministry alongside entertainment and business, and selected ministry above the others, as if he didn't consider any of those PROFESSIONS different from any other. According to vpw himself, it was at least A YEAR into his work as a minister- and doing weekly sermons- that he actually BELIEVED THE BIBLE WAS THE WORD OF GOD. According to vpw himself, he considered quitting as a minister more than once in his first few years of ministry. Did vpw think himself called to the ministry, to serving God, by God Himself? I think all evidence supports the position he did NOT, and considered it a comfortable living. He was always seen as having "the gift of gab", able to talk his way around other people. It can be claimed that this is a strength in ministry. When vpw studied for the ministry, his chosen area of study was not "Bible languages" not "Church history." Go ahead, examine his understanding on both subjects. His limits on "Bible languages" was "whatever George Lamsa and EW Bullinger said", and his understanding of Church history is remarkably shallow. (You can learn more on the subject nowadays over the internet, and HE went to grad school.) His chosen specialty was "Homiletics", or PREACHING. Again, the "gift of gab" as a specialty. Any claims that God spoke to him (in 1942) were first claimed in the early 1970s, and even his wife never heard any such claim from him in the years between. I defy ANYONE to say they HONESTLY believe a minister can claim to have heard a fantastic promise of God, NOT be told "keep this secret" (he certainly spread his claim far and wide), and NOT tell his wife the same day if they were face-to-face and not having some sort of emergency. ======== So, it seems that the evidence supports a strong case of "he knew he wasn't called of God, he knew he was faking it, he knew it was a steady job and perks to him" over "he believed God selected him out of all ministers of that timeframe". His claims to have learned from God were bolstered by knowledge he had, which other Christians hadn't heard. This was BG Leonard's class-which he taught and claimed was his own- JE Stiles' book- which he retyped and claimed was his own- and Bullinger's work- some of which he retyped and claimed was his own, some of which was credited properly to Bullinger. He was able to impress the "Jesus People" of the late 60s/ early 70s, and "hijack the hippies" with his NEW claims that God spoke to him decades ago, the knowledge he claimed came from God (plagiarizing the other Christians), and the combination of Leonard's class and Stiles' book as its textbook. He'd been working with both for several years before he approached the hippies. The other question raised was: did vpw believe his own hype later in life, or was he fully aware all through life that he was almost entirely a fraud and taking credit for the work of others? This is a much tougher question. Was he capable of lying so completely? Yes. He himself said that a salesman who wants to sell you a toothbrush with only one bristle had to be very sincere to do so. He thought it was possible to be completely SINCERE, look people in the eye, lie to them, and sell them something of no value. But DID he lie completely, knowing he was a fraud? It's up to the individual opinion, the evidence can support either position. Having given it a lot of thought, I personally believe (if I MUST pick a side) that vpw succeeded in convincing HIMSELF that what he was doing was completely justified, that God was ok with him sinning, with him doing anything he wanted and forming any pretext to support what he wanted, to-in effect- say that whatever he wanted to do and say, that God supported it. It was as early as his approach to the hippies that vpw had already been DOCUMENTED as having done that. According to J1m D00p himself, vpw tried to find out about ORGIES, and vpw said that God was OK with ORGIES. To be specific and use the terminology vpw used, he said that God had made that "available", and that it wasn't BEST, but that it was permitted. He perverted the plain meaning of a handful of verses in I Corinthians to do so- verses he later taught by PLAIN MEANING to the majority of his "ministry", and taught his PRIVATE MEANING ("God's ok with fornication") to a handful of insiders, using it as a justification for manipulating, molesting, and raping young women of God. According to one person, vpw, when his final weeks dwindled to hours, said he was searching his mind, desperately trying to find where he'd missed the mark, since God was permitting him to die. Either vpw was STILL trying to deceive others, or he had completely deceived himself, had told himself God was fine with all the things he'd done, and was baffled as to why he wasn't able to use his magickal believing powers to blast his cancer clear of his body. (Of course, his inability to do so-when his most basic doctrines made this a cinch for a man of his proclaimed "believing" stature- demonstrates rather plainly that his most basic doctrine of "believing" fails miserably to perform as claimed.) vpw died as he lived- a fraud who used the name of God as a cloak to cover his vices, his sins, his indulged lusts. He was swifter to blame God Almighty for his own death than decades of abusing his own body with alcohol and tobacco, then getting cancer. (According to some people, it's unreasonable for me to suppose that the years of large amounts of alcohol and tobacco are directly related to him getting cancer afterwards. I leave that to the individual reader.) My opinion is that he was a COMPLETE fraud, and-in the end-had succeeded in being a fraud TO HIMSELF as well as to everyone else, and thought every grandiose idea that went through his mind either came from God or was endorsed by God.

He must have been reading different newspapers than I read. Right after the Katrina disaster, I read that other countries who HAD received aid during disasters where preparing to send aid here. I remember thinking that the SPECIFIC aid they were stating under preparation would come in handy under the circumstance, but that's all the thought I gave it at the time. Unless he's saying those countries CLAIMED they'd send aid, then didn't SEND any, he's unaware they WERE sending aid in the first place. Here's a news item I can find years later on the subject... http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-06/...ent_8323214.htm " The two countries are always helping each other in times of need, and China has donated 5 million U.S. dollars in aid to the United States when Hurricane Katrina struck southern U.S. states in 2005, he said."

It's a famous old joke I'm reminded of. A teacher wanted to show the harmful effects of alcohol. First, he dropped a worm in a glass of pure water, which didn't harm it at all. Then, he dropped the worm in a glass of pure alcohol, which killed it instantly. When he asked his class what they learned, one student in the back said "If you drink lots of alcohol, you won't have worms!" =========== If one is determined to only seeing things their own way, it doesn't matter what the subject is-they'll be able to cherry-pick, change the subject, and legitimize their point of view. "People project their own personalities, fears and desires onto everything they read and will argue black is white if need be." -Grant Morrison

Mstar responded to "In regard to your involvement in The Way, you could choose to be a victim, as many have, but may I suggest that is not the best perspective if you desire to live a fruitful life. Frederick Douglas, a former slave and then an abolitionist in the time of the Civil War, once said, "The limits of tyrants are prescribed by those whom they oppress." I like to look at my time in The Way in a more positive sense. I want to "eat the fish and spit out the bones." with

Here's John's latest advertisement to the GSC and anyone else.... ======================================= ======================================= The Way, It Was - June 2008 letter by John Lynn In the interest of truth, both small “t” (the facts about The Way International) and capital “T” (the Word of God it taught), I am compelled to propose why I think The Way International was (past tense), from a certain perspective, one of the most significant movements in the history of the Christian Church. I do so for the benefit of any graduate of the “Power For Abundant Living” class who still wants to live for the Lord and who may have been unduly discouraged, either by his/her own experience in The Way or by the ensuing barrage of negatives from other ex-Way saints about what was wrong with The Way. Given that I was one of the top ministry leaders from 1967-1987, I speak with experiential knowledge. Furthermore, I have spent the past 21 years continuing to dig into the Word of God along with knowledgeable Christians, and, in the process, re-evaluating everything we were taught. I speak with great thankfulness for the truth I heard in The Way (hereinafter TWI), with no doubt that God led me to it, and then away from it. And though I left with some wounds, I also took with me the resources I had been given that enabled me to be healed from those wounds and help others do likewise. I speak so that you can know “the rest of the story,” as opposed to all the disparaging things that have been said about The Way through the years by the media (much of that false), other Christians (much of that false), and disgruntled former followers (much of that true, some of it false). My purpose is to set forth a much more redemptive view of The Way than what I have thus far read from others with “ex-Way vision.” In some ways, this is a sequel to my March, 1988 letter in which I blew the whistle about what was then going on in TWI. Yes, there was more doctrinal error than I ever realized while I was in TWI, and there was corresponding practical error that became more evil than most of us involved ever imagined. Yes, many precious people were terribly abused. Yes, there was dishonesty about Scripture, there was plagiarism, and there was rampant sexual sin, all of which contributed to many people choosing to turn away from God and His Word. And as I realized these things, I did speak out about them, both publicly and privately, from 1987 until about 2000, after which TWI had marginalized itself in Christendom. Perhaps worst of all, a golden opportunity to make known the Word of God, as it had not been known since the first century, was squandered. I will elaborate upon why that is true from a doctrinal standpoint, but when else in the history of the Christian Church has there ever been such a cadre of thousands of young, energetic, enthused, biblically knowledgeable, logistically equipped, organizationally backed, diverse, multi-lingual, mobile, available, and committed-to-“It-is-written” men and women with leadership qualities who were willing to go anywhere and spread the Word? Certainly not often in the past 2000 years. Thank God that many of these students of the Word became teachers themselves, and were thus able to recognize the errors that crept into TWI. The Way. It was. What was it? First and foremost, it was, from about 1955-1987, the only place I know of where anyone could hear the amount of truth of the Word of God that we heard. Why? In large part because God led Victor Paul Wierwille to the work of E.W. Bullinger, whose approach to Scripture was virtually unique. That is what allowed Wierwille, and thus TWI to an even greater degree, thanks to the quality men and women with research ability whom it attracted, to put the Word together like it had not been known since the first century Church. The sad thing was that I, and many others, became too proud of our knowledge, and failed to couple it with enough of a humble, heartfelt desire to obey God and become like Jesus Christ. We became too arrogant toward other Christians, thinking that our study of truth somehow made us more “approved before God” than they. To a degree, we became more like hearers of the Word than doers, and often deceived our selves. BUT, the antidote to that is not to throw out the baby with the bathwater, because without knowledge of truth, there can be little practice of it. Why did God have a need for The Way International? Actually, He didn’t. But He did have a need for any group of people who would make known what, or close to what, the Apostle Paul taught once the whole of what we now read in the Church Epistles had been unfolded to him. Why was there such a need? Because true Christian doctrine had all but disappeared from the spectrum of Church history by the 4th century. It was then that the Roman Catholic Church began based upon a bunch of fables mixed with Christian verbiage, established a monolithic ecclesiastical hierarchy, and for more than a thousand years dominated the European religious landscape, killing countless dissenters and for the most part silencing the rest. When Martin Luther came along (1517 was when he nailed his 95 Theses on the church door at Wittenburg), thank God he did recognize justification by faith rather than by works, but what we today refer to as the "Reformation" of the Roman Catholic Church was very limited in scope. Much of the Roman Catholic doctrine was assimilated into Protestantism and is still being passed along as Christian groups continue to split off from one another. In a nutshell, that is why even the independent church in your neighborhood today most probably believes that there is a Trinity, dead people are alive, God is in control of everything that happens, the Four Gospels are written to Christians, water baptism is relevant, and maybe even that the Bible is not absolute truth. I don’t know where else we could have heard the “package” of biblical truth we heard in TWI. Admittedly, most of the major doctrinal components of that package were being taught by some Christians, with varying degrees of accuracy, but none that I know of put together as many into a package as TWI did. Let’s begin with what I mentioned about E.W. Bullinger’s contribution to TWI, which was HUGE, because his basic approach to Scripture is what facilitates one being able to discover its inherent keys and utilize them to derive the Author’s originally intended meaning. TWI taught us to approach the Word with the “It is written” conviction that it is what it says it is, and that it cannot contradict itself. That alone is enough to at least identify error about the Bible, and the keys to the Word’s interpretation we were taught enabled us to understand it, take its truth into our hearts, and apply it on a daily basis. Given that the identity of Jesus Christ is the world’s biggest deal, I would have to say that chief among the wonderful biblical truths we heard in TWI was that Jesus Christ is the Son of God (not God), the Man who mediates between God and men, and that the Trinity is a pagan fable. Some ex-Way saints now say this distinction is not that important, but I assert that God thinks differently, given what He says in His Word (e.g., 2 Cor. 4:3,4). Yes, TWI failed to teach us that we can have an intimate relationship with the Lord Jesus, but there were not too many other places where we could have heard that Jesus is not the “eternally begotten” Second Person of the Trinity. I’d have to say that the next most important biblical truth we heard in TWI was what we then called the “Mystery,” and, correspondingly, what parts of Scripture are written to Jews, to Gentiles, or to Christians regarding either the past, the present, or the future. For the record, we have since learned that “Sacred Secret” is a more accurate way of rendering the Greek, musterion. Ephesians is the apex of the Church Epistles (the primary curriculum for Christian living), and it clearly shows that the Body of Christ (the “one new man” of Chapter 2, verse 15) is the most unique group of people who have ever lived, chiefly because of the permanence of our salvation and our holy spirit equipping. 1 Corinthians 2:8 chimes in with the monumental (and generally overlooked) truth that had Satan known the Sacred Secret, he would not have crucified Jesus! In terms of biblical error that is practically debilitating to one’s quality of life, I see nothing more important than knowing what Scripture is written to whom, when, and in particular what is written to us as Christians today. The Church’s failure to understand this central truth has led to its trying to live in accordance with directives pertaining to other people at other times. It is only in the Church Epistles that a Christian finds his true identity “in Christ,” as well as his true Hope. Simply put, the Word of God will never fit together without contradiction if one does not understand the “administrations” therein, and in particular this current “administration of the Sacred Secret” (Eph. 3:9). Yes, there are quite a few Christians who have a “Dispensational” view of Scripture, but the vast majority of them fail to grasp that Jesus is not God and that he did not know the Sacred Secret. Most think that parts of the Four Gospels and of the Book of Revelation speak of the Christian Church, but that is not the case. The Gospels record the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies about Christ’s first coming to the earth to Israel (his suffering), and Revelation records the fulfillment of the prophecies about his second coming to the earth to Israel (his glory). Another major truth we learned in TWI, which is unknown to most Christians, is that of the Giver and the gift, and, correspondingly, that speaking in tongues is available to all Christians because it is a manifestation of holy spirit, not a gift. We also learned the indispensable truth that speaking in tongues is the only absolute proof that one is saved. How many tens of thousands of people did those truths alone set free? TWI also taught us that death is, in fact, the end of life, and that our true Hope for new life in the coming age is to be raised from the dead and meet the Lord Jesus in the air prior to the Tribulation (the “time of Jacob’s trouble” – Jer.30:7). What percentage of Christians do you think know this? Although TWI failed to teach us that Paradise (the new earth), not heaven, will be our everlasting home, thank God we learned that resurrection is much more than an incorporeal “soul” once again getting a body. And TWI pointed us toward an understanding of the figures of speech in the Bible (thanks to Bullinger), of which little is known in theological circles. This included the figurative language in the Old Testament that helped us see that God is not responsible for evil or suffering, nor is He in control of everything that happens. Like I, you may know of some ministries that do teach some of these truths, but I submit that until 1987 there was nowhere other than TWI to find all of them taught as accurately as they were there. That is why The Way International stands out on the spectrum of Church history as an amazingly significant Christian movement. As far as I can see, TWI was also about the most disparate dichotomy of good and evil in the history of Christianity. Like the wheat and the tares growing up together, tremendous truth and egregious evil shared the ministry platform. Many people look back on their TWI experience with nothing but thankfulness, while others rue their free will choice to stay involved as long as they did because of the abuse they suffered. Some have been stymied by self-condemnation due to the abuses they themselves committed. No doubt there are also many who recognize that they heard the Word like they never had, who have allowed the Lord Jesus to heal any wounds they suffered in TWI, and who have since experienced spiritual growth far beyond what they ever imagined back in “the good old days.” I hope you are in that last category, and if you’re not, you can be. Even if people badly abused and disappointed you, you can turn to the Lord Jesus, he who is The Way to wholeness in all categories of heart and life. His love and truth will heal your heart and help you forgive and move forward with him toward the same goal you once had. You have a ministry in the Body of Christ, and he who is the Head longs to help you fulfill that calling. It was neither your heavenly Father nor your Lord who hurt you, nor does whatever happened to you change anything the Word says. God’s promises are still true, and they are yours for the believing. The Way, we were. If you once sat through PFAL, you heard the Word of God taught more accurately than the vast majority of Christians who have ever drawn breath. As a fellow PFAL grad, I identify with you, and have an affinity for you and a desire to encourage you to take advantage of the truth you once heard, if you are not already doing so. Along with me, you will one day stand before our precious Lord Jesus Christ, who will reward you according to how you have lived your life as a Christian. In essence, he will ask each of us something like this: “What did you do with what you knew?” For a detailed list of biblical subjects I think TWI mishandled, click here. If you would like to discuss with me about what I have written, please contact me at jalces@aol.com Please check out what we are doing to keep the Word alive and moving all over the world: www.STFonline.org and www.TruthOrTradition.com Your brother in Christ, John A. Lynn ============================= ============================= [And, again, with WordWolf's replies.] [Here's JAL's latest letter. Again, he's pretending it won't be seen and discussed at the GSC. And that he's not trying to insult the posters at the GSC.] The Way, It Was - June 2008 letter by John Lynn In the interest of truth, both small “t” (the facts about The Way International) and capital “T” (the Word of God it taught), I am compelled to propose why I think The Way International was (past tense), from a certain perspective, one of the most significant movements in the history of the Christian Church. [Actually, twi was a SUBVERSION both of BG Leonard's ministry (having his materials so coldly stolen by vpw was discouraging to Leonard, which is understandable) and a SUBVERSION of the Jesus People movement, since it had them interest Christians in hearing- then swapped the Jesus People they were listening to (like H33fn3r and D**p) for vpw and people he trained personally. From that perspective, it HINDERED the Christian Church on two levels. The one comfort is that, relatively speaking, the numbers of people who were affected (and some savaged) by twi were miniscule. Across a 35 year period, less than 100,000 people took pfal worldwide. That's less than CURRENT numbers of Christians in specific denominations in some major cities (including their metro areas.)] I do so for the benefit of any graduate of the “Power For Abundant Living” class who still wants to live for the Lord and who may have been unduly discouraged, either by his/her own experience in The Way [some were nearly destroyed by twi. A few WERE destroyed by twi. I think those who were will need more than a few slogans to heal up, and they certainly are going to need counselors more competent than those whose claims to "trained" are "I was trained in twi." They also will need approaches more compassionate and gentle than the 2 x 4 favored by Momentus grads in general.] or by the ensuing barrage of negatives from other ex-Way saints about what was wrong with The Way. [That's one of those "barrages of negatives" JAL intends to refer to the GSC without saying the name. Naturally, he's never noticed that some discussions have been neutral, others have been positive. From HIS perspective, the "negative" ones predominate, probably because they interfere with him prostelytizing ex-twi. Hard to tell people vpw was a man to admire when all his felonies and disgusting abuses of God's people are common knowledge.] Given that I was one of the top ministry leaders from 1967-1987, I speak with experiential knowledge. Furthermore, I have spent the past 21 years continuing to dig into the Word of God along with knowledgeable Christians, and, in the process, re-evaluating everything we were taught. I speak with great thankfulness for the truth I heard in The Way (hereinafter TWI), with no doubt that God led me to it, and then away from it. And though I left with some wounds, I also took with me the resources I had been given that enabled me to be healed from those wounds and help others do likewise. [Naturally, the methods for "healing" came from twi, the same twi that crushed Christians with dangerous doctrines and dangerous practices...but the ones JAL wishes to retain are all 100% safe, of course. Also of course, those who wish to be healed up from twi should go to JAL, and also retain most of the doctrines of the organization they need healing from in the first place. To heal up elsewhere is NOT to be recommended.] I speak so that you can know “the rest of the story,” as opposed to all the disparaging things that have been said about The Way through the years by the media (much of that false), other Christians (much of that false), and disgruntled former followers (much of that true, some of it false). My purpose is to set forth a much more redemptive view of The Way than what I have thus far read from others with “ex-Way vision.” In some ways, this is a sequel to my March, 1988 letter in which I blew the whistle about what was then going on in TWI. [in short, if you want to know the truth of twi, you have to discard anything you heard at the GSC, and take your information EXCLUSIVELY from JAL. All other former members, even former leaders, are not to be trusted. JAL's the SOLE exception, and the only approach is a careful PRAISING of twi. Can't be a COMPLETE praising, since the conclusion has to be "CES/STFI is the sole source of accurate Christianity", so praise must be qualified carefully.] Yes, there was more doctrinal error than I ever realized while I was in TWI, and there was corresponding practical error that became more evil than most of us involved ever imagined. Yes, many precious people were terribly abused. Yes, there was dishonesty about Scripture, there was plagiarism, and there was rampant sexual sin, all of which contributed to many people choosing to turn away from God and His Word. [i'd go so far as to say that most ex-twi are STILL CHRISTIANS. They turned to God for healing, but they turned away from twi and twi-style approaches. Of course, to those like JAL whose own "ex-Way vision" require he view EVERYTHING with the color-filters provided by twi, to turn away from twi-style is to "turn away from God and His Word." So, you can join CES/STFI, or you can be WRONG!] And as I realized these things, I did speak out about them, both publicly and privately, from 1987 until about 2000, after which TWI had marginalized itself in Christendom. [Of course, CES/STFI should NEVER be seen has having "marginalized itself in Christendom." Not even if there's spiders coming from people's noses.] Perhaps worst of all, a golden opportunity to make known the Word of God, as it had not been known since the first century, was squandered. [After 20 years of supposed investigating, JAL STILL labors under the thoroughly-discredited, and throughly-discredited- fiction penned by, and spread by, vpw that vpw was some great one, and unique in 2000 years of Christians. We've discussed it so often here. JAL has missed it completely, even though HE's supposed to be superior in understanding Scripture and wants us to come to HIM for understanding. If he could FAIL so miserably at something so SIMPLE to investigate- and had 20 years to find the answer- why would any of us (except the delusional) think he could be trusted in DEEPER matters of Scripture? I will elaborate upon why that is true from a doctrinal standpoint, but when else in the history of the Christian Church has there ever been such a cadre of thousands of young, energetic, enthused, biblically knowledgeable, logistically equipped, organizationally backed, diverse, multi-lingual, mobile, available, and committed-to-“It-is-written” men and women with leadership qualities who were willing to go anywhere and spread the Word? [One is supposing that ALL of those are actually TRUE, and not just how we WISH to have seen ourselves. After all, none of us WANTS to see ourselves as having wasted time, or learned harmful doctrines, or especially HURT OTHERS with harmful doctrines. An approach that embraces truth would admit, however, that those things happened, and suggest a wary approach about repeating the same errors as in one's youth. JAL's approach is an approach that embraces his twi experience, however, and the results are markedly different.] Certainly not often in the past 2000 years. Thank God that many of these students of the Word became teachers themselves, and were thus able to recognize the errors that crept into TWI. [using JAL himself as an example, however, that was only PARTLY successful. He addressed some errors as errors, retained other errors, and added new errors, and suppressed open discussion of doctrines that became the new dangerous doctrines. Since his group is the sole source of doctrine, and dangerous doctrines of theirs are to be embraced, I agree that it operates as a sort-of successor to twi.] The Way. It was. What was it? First and foremost, it was, from about 1955-1987, the only place I know of where anyone could hear the amount of truth of the Word of God that we heard. [JAL should get out more. He, apparently, has never even heard of BG Leonard, just to name ONE. Is it stretching credibility to suppose that NOBODY ELSE taught accurately BESIDES Leonard? I think it is. Leonard himself wasn't even acknowledged....] Why? In large part because God led Victor Paul Wierwille to the work of E.W. Bullinger, whose approach to Scripture was virtually unique. That is what allowed Wierwille, and thus TWI to an even greater degree, thanks to the quality men and women with research ability whom it attracted, to put the Word together like it had not been known since the first century Church. [vpw cut corners, and saw nothing wrong with plagiarizing the work of others rather than doing his own. He insisted on using the title "Doctor" when the place he got it from was unaccredited, rather than going to a reputable theological institute for his doctorate. Until Rosal!nd R!nk3r told him the Bible was God's Word, he had been a practicing minister WHO DID NOT BELIEVE IT WAS SO, BY HIS OWN ADMISSION. (Flip through your copy of "The Way:Living in Love.") vpw claimed God spoke to him about God Almighty teaching him His Word like it hadn't been known since the First Century, if he would teach it to others. For the next 11 years, vpw's ministry coasted and none of this "teaching" business happened, neither from God nor any other source. Then, vpw was ministered to by Stiles, and vpw took the contents of Stiles' book, retyped it, and claimed it was his own book. vpw pushed his way into BG Leonard's class (again, by his own admission), and then taught Leonard's class (with the same contents) as HIS OWN. Plagiarism, and stealing the credit from others, are not unique. To this, after someone told vpw that Bullinger wrote like vpw taught (which must mean Bullinger was like Leonard and Stiles), vpw then added the complete works of Bullinger. Sometimes he gave Bullinger credit (like using "How to Enjoy the Bible") and sometimes he didn't (like the entire contents of Bullinger's book on the Holy Spirit, which vpw claimed was his own work.) Let us not forget that JAL's assuming that Bullinger's mechanized, systematic approach-which DID result in Bullinger making MISTAKES, like the "kingdom of heaven/kingdom of God" mistake- is all correct, and what God wanted, that God wanted a scholarly approach to be the exemplar for Christians, whereas we were told a man should be found "FAITHFUL", not "SCHOLARLY". Finally, if Bullinger's approach was so exemplary, why, then, did vpw renumber Bullinger's "dispensations" into "administrations" with a change that made them make LESS SENSE? This whole "since the first century Church" thing was a fiction from vpw. That anyone is still pushing it is a sad statement on behalf of the person pushing it. Has he truly never read through the book of Acts? There was no "scholarship", no concern about translations from Hebrew to Greek, no intellectual teachings. They had RELATIONSHIPS-with each other, with God. They were concerned with LIVES, with LOVE, and the only money collected was to feed poor Christians. They were decentralized. They were inclusionary- Jesus said anyone who wasn't against him was for him. twi's approaches were the opposite of those of the first-century Church. Further, the entire claim is silly to those who've put in a little look into history. The first-century Christian church did not have Gutenberg's printing press. Until the 2nd century, copies of the books of the New Testament were nearly nonexistent. So "the Word like they knew it in the first century" was the TORAH, the OLD TESTAMENT- and "The Word" as existed IN THEIR HEARTS, not ON THEIR PAGES. Knowledge puffs up, and God's Love BUILDS up. THEY BUILT up. vpw PUFFED up.] The sad thing was that I, and many others, became too proud of our knowledge, and failed to couple it with enough of a humble, heartfelt desire to obey God and become like Jesus Christ. We became too arrogant toward other Christians, thinking that our study of truth somehow made us more “approved before God” than they. [HEY! If you're still claiming you "knew the Word like it hasn't been known since the first-century Church", YOU ARE STILL TOO PROUD OF YOUR KNOWLEDGE. If you're still claiming OTHER Christians don't have it, but your group does, YOU ARE STILL TOO ARROGANT TOWARD OTHER CHRISTIANS.] To a degree, we became more like hearers of the Word than doers, and often deceived our selves. BUT, the antidote to that is not to throw out the baby with the bathwater, because without knowledge of truth, there can be little practice of it. [i noticed this unhealthy obsession with analogies whenever it's time to put all things to the test, and hold fast to what is true. The problem here is, what is JAL's "baby" in his analogy? If I were to say this expression, I might mean "truth" no matter what, I may mean "God's People", I may mean "God's Love." It appears that JAL's "baby" is "an organization that teaches the Bible and is above being questioned"- because that's what he's spent the last 20 years retaining. He may TALK of "truth", but that's not his obsession...] Why did God have a need for The Way International? Actually, He didn’t. [i agree! God is Almighty. He doesn't NEED any of us. He gives us the pleasure in sharing many tasks with us. He didn't, and doesn't, NEED any group of people.] But He did have a need for any group of people who would make known what, or close to what, the Apostle Paul taught once the whole of what we now read in the Church Epistles had been unfolded to him. Why was there such a need? Because true Christian doctrine had all but disappeared from the spectrum of Church history by the 4th century. [JAL hasn't done ANY more reading on Church history beyond what's in "Jesus Christ is Not God", apparently. Among MOST Christians, knowledge BEYOND this is considered EASY TO FIND. There's even information on the internet-he wouldn't even need to go to a library or bookstore for some of it. If it REALLY had all disappeared, there would have been nothing for us to find in the 20th century.] It was then that the Roman Catholic Church began based upon a bunch of fables mixed with Christian verbiage, established a monolithic ecclesiastical hierarchy, and for more than a thousand years dominated the European religious landscape, killing countless dissenters and for the most part silencing the rest. [We agree that establishing monolithic ecclesiastical hierarchies and suppressing dissenters is bad. Why, then, does one of us embrace it when vpw does it?] When Martin Luther came along (1517 was when he nailed his 95 Theses on the church door at Wittenburg), thank God he did recognize justification by faith rather than by works, but what we today refer to as the "Reformation" of the Roman Catholic Church was very limited in scope. [if the doctrine-and the Scripture- was all obliterated in the 4th Century, why, then, was Luther able to FIND "justification by faith" at all? If the Roman Catholic Church hadn't PRESERVED GOD'S WORD by having monks painstakingly hand-copy it in the centuries before Gutenberg's printing press, there would have been nothing for Luther TO find. Once the printing press was invented, the stage was set for an explosion of Bible reading, which resulted in an explosion of Bible discussion and understanding.] Much of the Roman Catholic doctrine was assimilated into Protestantism and is still being passed along as Christian groups continue to split off from one another. In a nutshell, that is why even the independent church in your neighborhood today most probably believes that there is a Trinity, dead people are alive, God is in control of everything that happens, the Four Gospels are written to Christians, water baptism is relevant, and maybe even that the Bible is not absolute truth. A) A lot of Christians believe Jesus is the Son of God, no matter what their group teaches. I've spoken to Catholics who do. B) Lots of Christians believe the dead are dead. C) God IS sovereign over all- but, as we know, things in the short-term are allowed to proceed without direct control by Him. Many Christians have no problem understanding this, and there's books about why there's suffering. D) That which was written before the Epistles was "for our learning". The Gospels address the time before Pentecost, but are written TO Christians-the Gospels were written AFTER the Epistles. Don't confuse their order in the book with their order of writing. Even vpw said Thessalonians was the first Epistle written, but the last one in the order in the book. E) Many Christians consider water baptism to be a SYMBOL. Symbols ARE RELEVANT. F) So-called "higher-criticism" is taught in some academic circles, but rarely in churches. I'm sure you can find a church SOMEWHERE that teaches it, but most churches do NOT. In the past 20 years, JAL hasn't learned that other Christians are not all uniformly a bunch of idiots. He's not gone beyond the self-serving claims of vpw, who insisted that to leave his group was to leave any hope of knowing the truth. In fact, JAL's promulgating that HIS group is now the sole source of truth on earth.] I don’t know where else we could have heard the “package” of biblical truth we heard in TWI. Admittedly, most of the major doctrinal components of that package were being taught by some Christians, with varying degrees of accuracy, but none that I know of put together as many into a package as TWI did. Let’s begin with what I mentioned about E.W. Bullinger’s contribution to TWI, which was HUGE, because his basic approach to Scripture is what facilitates one being able to discover its inherent keys and utilize them to derive the Author’s originally intended meaning. TWI taught us to approach the Word with the “It is written” conviction that it is what it says it is, and that it cannot contradict itself. That alone is enough to at least identify error about the Bible, and the keys to the Word’s interpretation we were taught enabled us to understand it, take its truth into our hearts, and apply it on a daily basis. [And yet, supposed mastery of these principles provided NO protection from embracing Momentus as something EVERY Christian should take, and the bizarre "personal prophecy" doctrine that was a major scandal in CES/STFI. The supposed unenlightened Christians out there didn't make those mistakes....] Given that the identity of Jesus Christ is the world’s biggest deal, I would have to say that chief among the wonderful biblical truths we heard in TWI was that Jesus Christ is the Son of God (not God), the Man who mediates between God and men, and that the Trinity is a pagan fable. Some ex-Way saints now say this distinction is not that important, but I assert that God thinks differently, given what He says in His Word (e.g., 2 Cor. 4:3,4). [Must be why he spent whole chapters of Scripture explaining it in clear, unambiguous terms. What? He didn't? Then, he must surely have stated that salvation is dependent upon this. What? He didn't? Then, perhaps God doesn't think this distinction is that important. I assert that matters that are critical, are made clear BY God, and don't require specialized study. God gives light to the simple.] Yes, TWI failed to teach us that we can have an intimate relationship with the Lord Jesus, but there were not too many other places where we could have heard that Jesus is not the “eternally begotten” Second Person of the Trinity. [There were a number, actually. If one is set on making that the doctrinal make-or-break.] I’d have to say that the next most important biblical truth we heard in TWI was what we then called the “Mystery,” and, correspondingly, what parts of Scripture are written to Jews, to Gentiles, or to Christians regarding either the past, the present, or the future. For the record, we have since learned that “Sacred Secret” is a more accurate way of rendering the Greek, musterion. Ephesians is the apex of the Church Epistles (the primary curriculum for Christian living), and it clearly shows that the Body of Christ (the “one new man” of Chapter 2, verse 15) is the most unique group of people who have ever lived, chiefly because of the permanence of our salvation and our holy spirit equipping. 1 Corinthians 2:8 chimes in with the monumental (and generally overlooked) truth that had Satan known the Sacred Secret, he would not have crucified Jesus! [i reject the claim that any ONE Epistle is greater than the others. Romans explains the path of salvation. Thessalonians explains the hope of Christ's return. Without those subjects, Ephesians doesn't matter much. Furthermore, since JAL took vpw's word that the Gospels are not written to Christians at all, I question just how accurate OR useful the distinctions are between "to whom." Few Christians read the Old Testament and claim it's of equal relevance to Christians as the New Testament-all of which was written after Pentecost, and is thus written TO us, no matter what vpw said.] In terms of biblical error that is practically debilitating to one’s quality of life, I see nothing more important than knowing what Scripture is written to whom, when, and in particular what is written to us as Christians today. The Church’s failure to understand this central truth has led to its trying to live in accordance with directives pertaining to other people at other times. It is only in the Church Epistles that a Christian finds his true identity “in Christ,” as well as his true Hope. Simply put, the Word of God will never fit together without contradiction if one does not understand the “administrations” therein, and in particular this current “administration of the Sacred Secret” (Eph. 3:9). Yes, there are quite a few Christians who have a “Dispensational” view of Scripture, but the vast majority of them fail to grasp that Jesus is not God and that he did not know the Sacred Secret. [Nothing like making an arbitrary distinction between YOUR group and other Christians to define the line between "us" and "them", and make "them" a bunch of idiots.] Most think that parts of the Four Gospels and of the Book of Revelation speak of the Christian Church, but that is not the case. The Gospels record the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies about Christ’s first coming to the earth to Israel (his suffering), and Revelation records the fulfillment of the prophecies about his second coming to the earth to Israel (his glory). [i haven't heard Christians claiming these errors JAL is claiming they do, and, apparently, I interact with them in a meaningful way a LOT more than he does.] Another major truth we learned in TWI, which is unknown to most Christians, is that of the Giver and the gift, and, correspondingly, that speaking in tongues is available to all Christians because it is a manifestation of holy spirit, not a gift. We also learned the indispensable truth that speaking in tongues is the only absolute proof that one is saved. How many tens of thousands of people did those truths alone set free? [if that was the make-or-break, surely God Almighty is not so impotent that all the Christians between 99AD and 1941 would have been left in darkness, and nearly all those in the 20th century likewise. As for the manifestation of holy spirit, there's a spectrum of Christian beliefs concerning this. "Charismatic" Christians put this into practice to varying degrees. Also, it's obvious Stiles and Leonard understood this subject better than vpw, if you bother to look into them.] TWI also taught us that death is, in fact, the end of life, and that our true Hope for new life in the coming age is to be raised from the dead and meet the Lord Jesus in the air prior to the Tribulation (the “time of Jacob’s trouble” – Jer.30:7). What percentage of Christians do you think know this? [More than 1%, certainly, which would not be the case if it was a twi exclusive. twi's taught this one, and the non-Trinity, to a tiny fraction of people in comparison to, say, who the Watchtower Society has taught either.] Although TWI failed to teach us that Paradise (the new earth), not heaven, will be our everlasting home, thank God we learned that resurrection is much more than an incorporeal “soul” once again getting a body. And TWI pointed us toward an understanding of the figures of speech in the Bible (thanks to Bullinger), of which little is known in theological circles. [Depends on the figure of speech. Most common figures are evident to a casual read-simile, metaphor....] This included the figurative language in the Old Testament that helped us see that God is not responsible for evil or suffering, nor is He in control of everything that happens. [Yet God is sovereign, which IS the main point.] Like I, you may know of some ministries that do teach some of these truths, but I submit that until 1987 there was nowhere other than TWI to find all of them taught as accurately as they were there. That is why The Way International stands out on the spectrum of Church history as an amazingly significant Christian movement. [Perhaps. On the other hand, where else outside of twi would you have found a supposed Christian organization where its founder claimed to have heard from God when he didn't, where he funnelled the money for his creature comforts and his vices, where the progress of genuine Christians (Leonard, the Jesus People) was STRANGLED to strengthen the organization, where its founder required leadership candidates to write a biography which was then used to help select which of them he was going to rape or molest, or where he implied all his doctrines came directly from God while some of them came from conspiracy/rumor mills? All while claiming everyone else walked in error? In all this, The Way International stands out on the spectrum of Church history as an amazingly corrupted Christian movement. It takes a backseat to the Branch Davidians, but it also damaged more people than Koresh's group did. Harsh? Well, you were the one who wanted to compare twi to other Christians... I think few Christians would be willing to accept a group doing that to anyone in exchange for a greater understanding of the Bible- presuming twi had a greater understanding of the Bible. And most Christians love God and would accept knowing Him better. I think they consider God's Love more important than God's Knowledge. I think they're right, too.] As far as I can see, TWI was also about the most disparate dichotomy of good and evil in the history of Christianity. Like the wheat and the tares growing up together, tremendous truth and egregious evil shared the ministry platform. [i agree about the "egregious evil." I assert that the "tremendous truth" position was largely a matter of "believing one's own press releases", and that this was an unrealistic position, relying only on the constant repetition in twi that it contained "tremendous truth." Many FELT like they had "tremendous truth." I certainly did- but I was young and naive. I have learned things in the past 20 years about God Almighty and about my fellow Christians, and I feel no need to attempt to "continue to wear the footsie pajamas" of twi doctrine when I can "put on the jacket-and-tie" of God's Love and mature Christianity.) (Hey, if JAL can make silly analogies about bathtubs and plates of food, I can make ones about wardrobe.)] Many people look back on their TWI experience with nothing but thankfulness, while others rue their free will choice to stay involved as long as they did because of the abuse they suffered. Some have been stymied by self-condemnation due to the abuses they themselves committed. [And some live in utter denial that they inadvertently took part in things that hurt others, and some KNOW they did INTENTIONALLY and refuse to face it.] No doubt there are also many who recognize that they heard the Word like they never had, who have allowed the Lord Jesus to heal any wounds they suffered in TWI, and who have since experienced spiritual growth far beyond what they ever imagined back in “the good old days.” [And many more recognize that vpw and twi was overblown and didn't match its hype, but think we learned SOME accurate things, went on to Jesus healing us, maturing in our understanding, and grew once we were free of the mental straitjacket of the twi paradigm. Many of us who can say that have posted, or currently post, at the GSC.] I hope you are in that last category, and if you’re not, you can be. Even if people badly abused and disappointed you, you can turn to the Lord Jesus, he who is The Way to wholeness in all categories of heart and life. His love and truth will heal your heart and help you forgive and move forward with him toward the same goal you once had. You have a ministry in the Body of Christ, and he who is the Head longs to help you fulfill that calling. It was neither your heavenly Father nor your Lord who hurt you, nor does whatever happened to you change anything the Word says. God’s promises are still true, and they are yours for the believing. The Way, we were. If you once sat through PFAL, you heard the Word of God taught more accurately than the vast majority of Christians who have ever drawn breath. [if you keep telling yourself that over and over, and hide from all the evidence otherwise, you can spend the rest of your life believing that piece of fiction, that rural myth. If you can't live without embracing a lie, it's not that unbearable. Many of us would rather suffer the consequences of seeing and accepting the unvarnished truth, no matter how ugly the truth is, and no matter how pretty the lies are. Take your pick.] As a fellow PFAL grad, I identify with you, and have an affinity for you and a desire to encourage you to take advantage of the truth you once heard, if you are not already doing so. Along with me, you will one day stand before our precious Lord Jesus Christ, who will reward you according to how you have lived your life as a Christian. In essence, he will ask each of us something like this: “What did you do with what you knew?” [Jesus' question will be dependent upon our intellectual knowledge? Chapter and verse, please.] For a detailed list of biblical subjects I think TWI mishandled, click here. If you would like to discuss with me about what I have written, please contact me at jalces@aol.com [Lest we forget, here's the commercial one last time....] Please check out what we are doing to keep the Word alive and moving all over the world: www.STFonline.org and www.TruthOrTradition.com Your brother in Christ, John A. Lynn

Revised September 2007 Dearest brother/sister in Christ, God bless you richly in the mighty name of Jesus Christ our Lord, our Savior, our Mentor, the one whose perfect trust in his heavenly Father made it possible for us to do likewise and walk with him. This is John Lynn, and I am writing this letter to anyone who is or ever was involved in The Way International, that is, those with "ex-Way vision." The Real Me, by the grace and mercy of God, is still standing, and still "living in the eye of the storm." The first thing I want to say is, "I love you." The second thing is that, as it has since I was dispatched by TWI in 1987, my heart goes out to everyone who ever sat through the “Power For Abundant Living” class. We certainly did hear much of the Word "as it has not been taught since the first century," and the truth is that there was nowhere else on earth we could have heard what we heard. We were in the right place at the right time. The main problem was that we had an "absent Christ," and therefore, practically speaking, we were like a body without a head. I was only one of the "poor substitutes" that people looked to when they should have been looking to the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank God that I was taught the inherent keys to the Word’s interpretation. They are still true, and they are what enabled me, along with my dear friend John Schoenheit (and many others), to see the wrong doctrine mixed in with the right doctrine we were taught, to correct it, and to move forward. If you are interested, we have a list of 26 biblical subjects about which we believe the Word says differently than we were taught in The Way, with links to our books and tapes that cover those topics. Wrong doctrine always leads to wrong practice. I am more aware than most of the grievous abuses laid upon many of God’s precious people when they were in The Way. Perhaps you are one who was so abused. The point is that now the choice is yours as to how you see your past involvement in The Way. In our lives, we are not the sum total of what has happened to us, but rather how we have responded to what has happened. As such, you can ask the dear Lord to help you arrive at a healthy perspective of whatever events have comprised your life. In his infinite resourcefulness, he can somehow turn it into something you can use to help someone else. In regard to your involvement in The Way, you could choose to be a victim, as many have, but may I suggest that is not the best perspective if you desire to live a fruitful life. Frederick Douglas, a former slave and then an abolitionist in the time of the Civil War, once said, "The limits of tyrants are prescribed by those whom they oppress." I like to look at my time in The Way in a more positive sense. I want to "eat the fish and spit out the bones." There are many things I could say here, but I’m trying to keep this letter as brief as possible. I know thousands of people who, in my opinion, have "thrown out the baby with the bathwater." They have spit out the whole fish because of some bones. I know many others who are "tired of the fight," that is, of "not fitting in" with traditional Christianity, primarily because they are branded as heretics for not believing that Jesus is God. In regard to that subject, I encourage you to read our book titled One God and One Lord: Reconsidering the Cornerstone of the Christian Faith. Since 1987 we have been helping people around the world, many who have never heard of The Way, move forward, most especially by getting Jesus Christ in the right place as Lord. Spirit & Truth Fellowship International (formerly Christian Educational Services) is a full service ministry with a wide range of activities and materials for everyone. We are seeing people's hearts healed and seeing them come together to reach out to others in the love of Christ. I encourage you to listen to or read for yourself what we have produced. If you like, we are most happy to send you a Spirit & Truth Fellowship statement of beliefs, and/or put you on our mailing list for our bi-monthly magazine, The Sower. Each issue has an order form listing all the materials we have. I also encourage you go to one of our three websites and see if you are blessed by what you find. They are: STFonline.org, TruthOrTradition.com, and BiblicalUnitarian.com. In closing, let me say that I honestly believe that Dr. Wierwille (TWI Founder) would be very proud of what we are doing. We have taken the keys to the Word’s interpretation that he taught us and used them to evaluate his own teachings, correcting those that did not agree with Scripture. We have never lost sight of the goal of moving the Word around the world. If that is still your goal, or if you think there is any way we could be of service to you, please do not hesitate to contact us. Once again let me say that I love you. I wish that I could adequately communicate to you how thrilling life is when the Lord Jesus Christ is a daily reality. Understanding who he is as "the Lord" and living accordingly exalts both him and our heavenly Father. The Lord Jesus is the glue that can knit our hearts together so that we can enjoy the "camaraderie of the committed" and stand together for him. Your brother in Christ, John A. Lynn =================================== =================================== =================================== [For those who have forgotten, JAL has claimed he was around 20 years in twi. After that, he wrote the previous letter. Some 20 years after that-about as long as he was in twi, he's been out, and part of his own organization- he has considered this letter the revision of the previous letter. Having had 20 years to review his previous letter, what insights has he gained since then? Has he gained a full perspective on what happened, on what motivated vpw, how he operated, why he did what he did?] Revised September 2007 Dearest brother/sister in Christ, God bless you richly in the mighty name of Jesus Christ our Lord, our Savior, our Mentor, the one whose perfect trust in his heavenly Father made it possible for us to do likewise and walk with him. This is John Lynn, and I am writing this letter to anyone who is or ever was involved in The Way International, that is, those with "ex-Way vision." The Real Me, by the grace and mercy of God, is still standing, and still "living in the eye of the storm." The first thing I want to say is, "I love you." [still leading off with some flattery, I see. Well, that's the same as the old letter. 20 years hasn't changed this- except to make the opening lengthier.] The second thing is that, as it has since I was dispatched by TWI in 1987, my heart goes out to everyone who ever sat through the “Power For Abundant Living” class. We certainly did hear much of the Word "as it has not been taught since the first century," and the truth is that there was nowhere else on earth we could have heard what we heard. We were in the right place at the right time. He's had 20 years to be exposed to Christians outside twi and outside his OWN organization, but his perspective, if anything, is no LESS narrow-minded than it ever was. Everybody ELSE among us are well aware that the claim vpw made of "the Word as it has not been taught since the first century" was full of hot air, and never approached what was demonstrated in twi. Further, there are plenty of Christians who learned things we did NOT, and demonstrate more love and heart than ex-twi'ers do. If JAL meant to say "only the doctrines that match what we heard" count-which is silly, but he seems to mean that- is he totally ignorant that BG Leonard's ministry is still teaching and still going strong? The genuine of which vpw was the counterfeit? Or is he aware of that and refusing to acknowledge it entirely?] The main problem was that we had an "absent Christ," and therefore, practically speaking, we were like a body without a head. I was only one of the "poor substitutes" that people looked to when they should have been looking to the Lord Jesus Christ. [ONE of the main problems was that vpw declared Christ was "absent", and set himself up as the Head of the Body in any practical sense. ANOTHER was that "special knowledge" and "secret knowledge" took the place of God's Love. Knowledge puffs up- and in twi, that's exactly what it does. JAL seems to have forgotten that, judging from this letter. Oh, and, JAL, can the false modesty, with the "poor substitute" thing. If you thought you were THAT "poor", you wouldn't be making the commercials for your group. Give us a little credit for seeing an attempt to snow us coming.] I thank God that I was taught the inherent keys to the Word’s interpretation. They are still true, and they are what enabled me, along with my dear friend John Schoenheit (and many others), to see the wrong doctrine mixed in with the right doctrine we were taught, to correct it, and to move forward. If you are interested, we have a list of 26 biblical subjects about which we believe the Word says differently than we were taught in The Way, with links to our books and tapes that cover those topics. [We cut to the commercial a LOT sooner, this time around. Personally, I find that an improvement. Let's not pretend this ISN'T a commercial. Oh, and the assumption that they found ALL the error and deleted it is not only arrogant- it is WRONG. Just in this letter ALONE we had errors that haven't been fixed in TWENTY YEARS. Just because JAL has DIFFERENT doctrine from twi in some places does NOT mean they removed ALL the critical errors, or that everything they removed was error. Moreover, DIFFERENT does not guarantee BETTER- "different" includes the "Momentus" program that some people found useful, some people found disastrous, and JAL QUIETLY promotes PRIVATELY but never speaks of PUBLICKLY. "Different" also includes the "spiders-in-the-noses" business that JAL ALSO hasn't repudiated. Also, JAL's clamped down on QUESTIONING and DISAGREEING with EITHER of those. (Probably more as well, but I know of these two doctrines that have proven to be quite harmful to a number of people.) 20 years ago, he lauded the ability "to think, question and disagree." In revising this letter, he's dropped that little detail- probably because those "thinking", "questioning" and "disagreeing" would be thinking about HIS doctrine, questioning HIS doctrine, and disagreeing with HIS doctrine. What a difference 20 years CAN make.] Wrong doctrine always leads to wrong practice. [And sometimes wrong practice arrives all by itself.] I am more aware than most of the grievous abuses laid upon many of God’s precious people when they were in The Way. [No he's not, unless everyone at the GSC is also "more aware than most".] Perhaps you are one who was so abused. The point is that now the choice is yours as to how you see your past involvement in The Way. In our lives, we are not the sum total of what has happened to us, but rather how we have responded to what has happened. As such, you can ask the dear Lord to help you arrive at a healthy perspective of whatever events have comprised your life. In his infinite resourcefulness, he can somehow turn it into something you can use to help someone else. [True. He's made it possible for us to work through what was needed, and find other Christians who can teach us lessons about love and substance that are long overdue for twi survivors. We also heal at the GSC. (Does JAL ever give the GSC credit where it's due for helping there?] In regard to your involvement in The Way, you could choose to be a victim, as many have, but may I suggest that is not the best perspective if you desire to live a fruitful life. Frederick Douglas, a former slave and then an abolitionist in the time of the Civil War, once said, "The limits of tyrants are prescribed by those whom they oppress." I like to look at my time in The Way in a more positive sense. I want to "eat the fish and spit out the bones." ["You could chose to be a victim." Cute little "false dilemma" there. You can just dismiss the harm done in twi- which, coincidentally, was also at the hands of many people who switched over to CES/STFI and retained MOST of the doctrines they learned from the self-serving felon vpw, and claimed they dismissed ALL the harmful doctrines. If you don't, you're "choosing to be a victim." Cute quote-if one wants to SILENCE people. So is "eat the fish and spit out the bones." But, see, this fish was almost all bones, and much of what little meat WAS there, was spit out WITH the bones, and then more bones from a DIFFERENT fish were added. (Some were from the Momentus fish, some were from the PP fish.) I wouldn't bring all that up in the analogy, but HE was the one who wanted to replace DISCUSSION with PITHY SAYINGS. Colossians 2:4 (KJV) "And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words." Beguile: "paralogizomai", to use words that don't touch logic "enticing words": "pithanologia", pithy sayings, slogans.] There are many things I could say here, but I’m trying to keep this letter as brief as possible. I know thousands of people who, in my opinion, have "thrown out the baby with the bathwater." They have spit out the whole fish because of some bones. I know many others who are "tired of the fight," that is, of "not fitting in" with traditional Christianity, primarily because they are branded as heretics for not believing that Jesus is God. In regard to that subject, I encourage you to read our book titled One God and One Lord: Reconsidering the Cornerstone of the Christian Faith. [Then again, lots of Christians survived twi, and aren't swelling the coffers of CES/STFI. What a shame that is! JAL wants to sell the CES/STFI bony fish to those who lost their taste for bony fish after twi. Although, in honesty, after the abuses of twi (which were delivered by JAL and others besides JUST vpw), I can understand why some people don't want to claim being Christians, or associate with them. They were told all Christians EXCEPT OURS sucked, and then they saw that OURS sucked as well. So, they concluded all Christians sucked. QED. Oh, and JAL's still saying the other Christians suck, without using those words. Scroll up-"nowhere else on earth", "as it has not been taught since the First Century".] Since 1987 we have been helping people around the world, many who have never heard of The Way, move forward, most especially by getting Jesus Christ in the right place as Lord. Spirit & Truth Fellowship International (formerly Christian Educational Services) is a full service ministry with a wide range of activities and materials for everyone. We are seeing people's hearts healed and seeing them come together to reach out to others in the love of Christ. I encourage you to listen to or read for yourself what we have produced. If you like, we are most happy to send you a Spirit & Truth Fellowship statement of beliefs, and/or put you on our mailing list for our bi-monthly magazine, The Sower. Each issue has an order form listing all the materials we have. I also encourage you go to one of our three websites and see if you are blessed by what you find. They are: STFonline.org, TruthOrTradition.com, and BiblicalUnitarian.com. [We saw a REPEAT of the commercial. He must be SERIOUS about advertising his "product"-a lot MORESO than the previous version of this letter. Shorter letter and TWO commercials.] In closing, let me say that I honestly believe that Dr. Wierwille (TWI Founder) would be very proud of what we are doing. We have taken the keys to the Word’s interpretation that he taught us and used them to evaluate his own teachings, correcting those that did not agree with Scripture. We have never lost sight of the goal of moving the Word around the world. If that is still your goal, or if you think there is any way we could be of service to you, please do not hesitate to contact us. [20 years later, he "honestly believes" that a man who lied about the voice of God, who took credit for the work of others and claimed God gave it directly to him, who carefully arranged a ministry for God's people to satisfy his lusts for filthy lucre, creature comforts, and raping innocent daughters of God "would be very proud" of what he's doing. This is JAL's claim, not mine. He believes that he would have the endorsement of a corrupt subverter of God's people, a human parasite who fed off God's people. Considering his practices have damaged numbers of people and exerted leverage and control over them in God's name (Momentus and Personal Prophecy), perhaps vpw WOULD admire the results! However, it still falls far short of vpw's "accomplishments" since he hasn't been raping the women. Oh, and again, they found ALL the error, and eliminated it, and didn't add errors of their own. JAL says so.] Once again let me say that I love you. I wish that I could adequately communicate to you how thrilling life is when the Lord Jesus Christ is a daily reality. Understanding who he is as "the Lord" and living accordingly exalts both him and our heavenly Father. The Lord Jesus is the glue that can knit our hearts together so that we can enjoy the "camaraderie of the committed" and stand together for him. Your brother in Christ, John A. Lynn