E. W. Bullinger

Dear Fellow Greasespotters: Does anyone remember the “unproductive evil” teachings from '93 to'94? I think it looked at the differences of a few Greek words for “evil”. If memory serves me right one word was porneos and the other kakos. Sincerely, E. W. Bullinger

Dear Fellow Greasespotters: I was wondering what reasons people were given for being Marked and Avoided. So I have done this little poll to see what they were told was their “sin”. Please feel free to elaborate or any personal stories. E. W. Bullinger 1). You were in debt. 2). Someone had a “genuine spiritual suspicion’ that you were homosexual. 3) Leadership said you had a chronic weakness in your life. 4). You turned down opportunities to be in a greater leadership capacity. 5). You verbally challenged leadership.

Thanks for all of your input. I guess I was fortunate with regard to the leadership in my area. It seemed that things were good until the mid 1990’s when all of the crazy rules started to come into play. I remember there was a girl in my twig who wanted to take an adult education cake decorating class and she had to get permission from the Limb coordinator! The rules about reading the bible and witnessing never bothered me because I always thought that these were things that you were supposed to do as a Christian. Sincerely, e. w. bullinger

Dear Fellow Greasepotters: When did The Way get extremely legalistic? I remember when I first started attending fellowship it was a joy because we were taught freedom in Christ. Yet in the mid 1990’s you could not go to the grocery store alone because of the 2 by 2 rule. When did this legalism first start? E. W. Bullinger

Dear Mother of 2: Your starting this thread has got me to think a lot about the deliverance I have seen in people’s lives. I agree with Potato. Your thinking behind why God heals some people and not others for His glory is a bit difficult to follow. I have to tell you that while I do think that there are some scriptural problems with they Way’s doctrine of believing, your explanation that God sometimes “lets the chips fall where they may” seems to be a rehashing of a pagan Greek mythology. The ancient Greeks explained the randomness that they saw in life with the Fates. These were three spinners with one who made the thread, the second wove it and the third cut it with her shears. So if you had a child with a deformity it was because the spinner made the tread of their life that way. If someone seemed to catch a lot of breaks in life it was because the weaver made the fabric of your life that way. Lastly if someone died prematurely it was because the scissors of last Fate cut your life short. You could pray to these gals, but they rarely changed their minds about your lot in life. So perhaps Mother of 2 I did not understand your explanation. Could you please give try to explain it again. I can not ask the people that I go to church with this question. They already think that I have a lot of crackpot theories and to bring this up would open another can of worms. Sincerely, E. W. Bullinger

Dear Mother of 2: It is nice to meet you here at the café. My memories of teachings about healing in the Way was that it was God who was responsible for all healing. They taught that was God who put in our bodies it’s ability to heal itself. So if you went to someone for prayer or to a doctor it was still God who got the glory for your healing. I will admit I knew people who felt like they were second rate believers because they had to go to a doctor for a physical problems. However I have been an eyewitness to many people’s miraculous healings. I left the Way 10 years ago and have been to several churches. I have yet to see the healing that I saw in the 70’s and 80’s. It is kind of funny, as the Way got more legalistic in the 90’s it seemed that fewer people got delivered from physical problems. E. W. Bullinger P. S. I am not just talking about people who were healed from a cold or a headache. I have known people who had physical deformity or disability and were delivered at Way functions.

Dear Patric and Sarah: You certainly seem to have started no small stir here at the café! First let me welcome you. It is always great to meet another former Wayfer here at the Greasespot. I agree with you in your posting that the Way was wonderful in the 70’s and 80’s. I have so many fond memories from that time period. However in the mid 90’s things started to get very legalistic and unpleasant. People did not have as much joy manifested in their lives and it seemed that healing and deliverance was a thing of the past. And then the Marking and Avoiding began. In one two week period my twig coordinator was M&A, then the twig area coordinator and his wife, than more than one third of the believers in the branch and then the Limb coordinator was gone! I have since learned that while my experiences were wonderful from that early time period, others were terribly used and abused; physically, mentally and spiritually. So while it might be nice to reminisce with others here about how you were blessed please remember that some people here are still healing from their Way experiences. To the best of my knowledge things are still very legalistic at New Knoxville with very little of the love of God that was the hallmark of the early Way. This breaks my heart because I can remember when the love of God was so real at fellowship it was something that you could almost taste or feel. I have since belonged to two churches and while the people there were very nice, it was not like it was in the Way. I certainly have not seen the spiritual growth or the healing that I saw twig. It is all so very, very sad. E. W. Bullinger

Dear Nandon: The reason that they said that Bullinger did not believe in the trinity was that as he got older in his writings he appears to contradict himself with regard to some scriptures about who is God. Loy boy said that this was because he was on the verge of embracing Unitarianism. A good friend of mine who has deeply studied Bullinger believes that E. W. B. was tired of all the controversy his writings caused in the church. As he got older his health declined and he did not publish anything on this topic because he did not have the energy to defend his position. It sounds quite plausible to me. I am a huge Luther fan and I have not read or seen anything that he believed in Unitarianism. E. W. Bullinger

I can remember when I went WOW (as the anniversary wave of the last year of the program) we were told "to keep it in our pants" by old Loy boy himself. E. W. Bullinger

Dear Café: It was great to read everyone’s comments. I had no idea that LCM had such a fetish with office supplies! The only thing that made me sad was that as the legalism increased it seemed that the love and caring decreased. This is such a shame because the love was very real. At the present I am still looking for a church where the caring and sense of community is a palpable as it was in the Way. Thanks for your thoughts….. Sincerely, E. W. Bullinger

Dear Pink Lady: I understand that you just left the Way. Is it still as legalistic as it was in the 90’s? If things are different what did they say for their explanation of why they changed? Dear Ron: To have to ask Loy boy for permission to pray over your son……that does take the legalistic cake! I wonder if my friend Ellen learned how to make ‘legalistic cake’ in her cake class? Dear Trust and Obey: Our area was small (three twigs) so you had to tell everyone everything. Also we were top heavy with Corp grads. Each Corp ran a twig. Dear ChasUFarley: How did you “pay” for going to the school reunion alone? Dear Twinky: Ellen always used to bring along the fruits of her labor to the Believers. When it was her turn to bring refreshments for a class or meeting there were always high expectations for what she would bring. Your story about Rev Thomas was very sad. Following the loss of his daughter is when he MOST needed the love of the household. Dear Lori: I hope the ‘quality’ of your life has improved since you left! Were things still legalistic in 2004? Dear Bramble: You hit the nail on the head. When you said that you were too tired to think about those days. I laughed so hard after I read your comment. That this whole situation could occur is what amazes me. What does this say about what the Way believed about God? That you can’t be under His protection if your travel alone? Also many of their rules flied in the face of logic. Lets look at the cake example. I bet Ellen could have met many more people who would be more receptive to speak with her because they shared a common interest. That is always more successful that witnessing door-to-door or at wondermall. Sincerely, E. W. Bullinger

Dear Greasespot: I sometimes wonder why I stayed with the Way after it got so legalistic in the 1990’s. So in light of this I thought it might be interesting if we could share legalism stories. Here is one that makes me sad just to remember it: In 1995 fellowship started to become a real drag. There were twig meetings held three times a week plus a mandatory witnessing night. If you did not show up for one activity you were called on the carpet and your commitment to God was questioned. However, I remembered past deliverance in my life so I faithfully attended twig. In our fellowship was a tender-hearted woman named Ellen who was an excellent cook. She could make the most flavorful and wholesome meals from virtually nothing. In ministry parlance she had a “longsuit” in the domestic arts. A local high school was offering an eight week evening class in cake decorating that she wanted to attend. She discovered that it was held on a night without a twig or witnessing commitment so she asked the coordinator if she could take the class. He asked her why she wanted this class. She said she loved cooking and it would be her pleasure to make birthday, anniversary and class cakes for the Believers. The coordinator was not sure if he could grant this request so he asked up the way tree. It seems that this was such a big decision that the limb coordinator had to make the final judgment. So after all of this discussion she was allowed to take the class. However there was trouble right around the corner. It seems that the teacher of the class had a friend who had baked the first president Bush’s inauguration cake and she was coming to town to teach a master class of how she did it. This was literally a unique event; she was going to discuss how to bake a cake for thousands of guests in borrowed facilities with the Secret Service looking over your shoulder. There were also special considerations of the cake itself. The first Bush had made his “thousand points of light” speech and this cake was to have one thousand electric lights in it. She had to invent a special icing that would not melt from the heat given off by the lights and the cake had an ingenious wiring system so that it could be served easily. This gifted baker was going to give a master class for one night only and the teacher of the high school class had managed to get an invitation for all her beginning students to attend. This event was so highly anticipated that pastry chefs were vying for a seat in this class. The only problem is that this event fell on twig witnessing night. As soon as Ellen found out about the schedule conflict she asked for permission to attend this class. She promised that she would witness to everyone that she met and that this would be a great opportunity for outreach. However leadership was wary, as they demanded that she bring another Believer so she could go two-by-two. However the class was full and it was audacious to ask for exception especially since she was a beginning student in a master class. She was persuasive and was reluctantly given permission by leadership to attend. However this came to bite her in the foot. A few months later when about one third of our twig area was Marked and Avoided she was in that group. I never learned the reason that she was M & A, but I have a sneaky suspicion that this was why she got the boot. E. W. Bullinger P. S. What irked me about this situation is that was based on crazy Loy boy’s ideas of commitment. I remember how in the old days it was expected that if you had an outside interest God would bless it. I am thinking about Pro 18:16 where a man’s gift makes room for him. I am convinced that this was an example of God blessing her life and the legalistic ministry stepped on her heart.

Dear Greg: I think I recognize you by your writing style. Were you a WOW in Charleston, West Virginia? Sincerely, e. w. bullinger

Dear Carl: E. W. Bullinger was born 1837 so he would not quite be 200 years old. Your story about the ectoplasmic TV was quite interesting. By the way, welcome to the Greasespot Cafe. E. W. Bullinger

I came from a family that was deeply involved in spiritualism and the book “The Challenging Counterfeit” explained many things in a clear, biblical and dispassionate manner. In fact I stuck with the Way in spite of increasing legalism because I felt so thankful for them giving me clear answers to this topic. I think the main beef that many have with the book is it’s discussion of physical mediumship. You have to realize that most spiritualists are mental mediums. They do not have physical phenomena (levitation, ectoplasm or teleportation) in seances or when they go into a trance. In all the seances I have been I have never seen any physical phenomena, yet I knew the mediums were tapped into a spiritual power. I currently belong to a conservative mainline denomination and I feel uncomfortable telling people about my past. Not because I am ashamed of my former activities, but because people just do not believe there is real spiritualism. E. W. Bullinger