Raf

"How far up are we?" "If it rains, you'll be the first to know.

I see. Thanks Allan. Sorry if I sounded confrontational. I'd start with questioning the premise that TWI's record of deaths and tragedies was abnormally low. For one thing, the TWI population skewed young and healthy. So, yeah, you'd get fewer incidents of certain illnesses. But fewer accidents? I'd like to see how this comparison was done.

I've really listened hard to all the anti-CG stuff here. I'm so glad I left TWI when I did, so I have a hard time coming to terms with some of the uglier things that have been spoken about him. And I have a hard time thinking that people who followed him out the door (as most of NY did) had anything other than pure motives. Fortunately, I can see very clearly that most of the people I know who left during the Geer expulsion are disconnected from him now, so whether or not leaders' motives were pure, a good chunk of us "followers" learned the lesson of not accepting bunk from leadership just because of their position. Incidentally, I'm not saying I don't believe the uglier things said about Geer. I just have a hard time with it because my memory of him was so positive most of the time.

Or maybe it has something to do with "the power of positive thinking," which is a valuable way to go about life. Or it could have something to do with the fact that the TWI population was and always has been small enough to not constitute a representative sample. In other words, one incident of any of those things in TWI would have a far greater impact on a per-capita count than it would in most other religions, and the absence of one incident of any of those things would have a much greater impact in reverse. TWI was not a microcosm of society. Therefore, the numbers shouldn't reflect a microcosm of society. If we were to conclude that TWI and the Mormons experienced this low incidence (which I certainly do not believe in TWI's case, but let's take the info for granted), and we were to conclude that it is because of their doctrine on tithes and offerings, we would have to conclude that TWI and the Mormons worship the same true God. Is that what you're saying, Allan? I'll give you another example: The retention rate in TWI was and always has been far lower than most other religions/denominations/groups. Is it possible that's because of the tithes and offerings?

:) Actually, what I would be saying is: I find your gullibility amusing.

Un abrazo is a hug.

Notice that he says to master the classes, not just the collaterals that come with them? That means the classes carry the same weight to him as the writings. But we KNOW that the classes are full of crap because Mike himself discounts them as authoritative. Meanwhile Wierwille himself says to master them! There's a word for that. It starts with an H and ends with a yporcrisy. Guess what that spells? myyyyyy precioussssssss.

Batman Begins

There is simply nothing to forgive. It's a great thread to get to the bottom of this. It was either this or search for all those interminable threads. You got the Reader's Digest version. Enjoy it. Oh, and my soul is doing just fine. Thanks for asking. :)

What the Hey: If I'm ever in legal trouble, I want you to be my lawyer. Actually, I want 12 of you on my jury. Especially if I'm actually guilty. Because you don't know up from down, right from wrong, or the dark side from the side the rest of us are on. Mike lies, we point out and document his lies, and you criticize US for it? Wow.

Whether or not I agree with the above statement, it is not what I intended to say. It is, however, a reasonable interpretation of my statement: "VPWs character doesn't disqualify his writings from being God-breathed." So I won't call that a lie or a misinterpretation. It's more poor communication on my part. I clarified what I meant later: It's not VPW's character that disqualifies his writings as God-breathed. It's his writings that do so. He could have been of impeccable character, and his writings would still be disqualified as God-breathed on the merits.

I knew I'd pick the right one to read. :) BullsHit. First of all, when I find an ACTUAL error in PFAL, I don't lose any sleep over it because it has not overturned my foundation for existence. I note it and I move on. When you find an ACTUAL error in PFAL, you dodge, distract and deny, anything but admit that the ACTUAL error is an error. Then you PRETEND to go into your Mike cocoon to seek out the deeper answer. The result: not one of the actual errors has been refuted, answered, disproven by your methodology. As for my comment on Wierwille's character not disqualifying his writings to be God-breathed, perhaps you missed my larger point, which is that you don't HAVE to resort to his mendacious, dishonest, harmful and sinister character to come to that conclusion his work is not God-breathed. The quality of his work speaks for itself: it's not God breathed because it fails to live up to its own standard of what it means to BE God-breathed, thereby disqualifying itself according to PFAL's standards, not according to mine. The TRUTH that PFAL is a flawed work will never seek into your seared conscience, but I will not have you lying about me the way you lie about Wierwille, PFAL, God, Christ and the victims of Wierwille's lechery. By the way, nice lie/misinterpretation of what Garth wrote. But then, why should anyone expect you to represent him correctly when you've already lied about God, Christ, Wierwille, Wierwille's victims, my writings, WordWolf's writings, and even your own? Garth's post: No doubt or ambiguity about the identity of the "seriously deluded" here. Mike's lie about what Garth wrote:

VPW's character doesn't disqualify his writings from being God-breathed. VPW's writings disqualify his writings from being God-breathed.

John, I see that Ahithophel was Bathsheba's grandfather (took a little digging), but I do not see that he knew anything about what had happened prior to Uriah's death. If there's something there, could you point me to it? A little speculation, and maybe Ahithophel did some math, calculating the time between David's marriage to Bathsheba and the birth of Solomon, realizing it was less than nine months. But I don't see anything explicit enough to support "he made sure everybody knew."

I'll check that. Thanks for the correction.

WW raises a good point. There's nothing in the Word of God to indicate that Uriah's family ever knew David's role in what happened.

The "seven gifts" of the Holy Spirit should have been enough to persuade anyone that the provided origin is untrue.

Raf meets God... Raf: "Oh, Almighty One, I have a confession. I did not consider PFAL to be your Holy Word." God: "What's PFAL?" Nope. And PFAL is in my library.

That was almost two hours between picture and answer.

The Big Bad Bionic Boy has Been Here Baby! Shattered Glass is correct.

A snow leopard, Barry White, the Andes, Seven of Nine, D, Worf... I can't figure it out. Oh, wait! I know: The Neverending Story! No? Hmmm... Ok, well, I only figured that was a picture of the Andes because of the rest of the pix. Would never have recognized it on its own. Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. Here's an easy clue, but the movie is not terribly well known, so it might be tougher than I think.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/12/10/pryor.obit.ap.ap/index.html

Gonna miss that guy. Then again, missed him for years, since he did drop out of the public eye some time ago. Hope God washes out your mouth before letting you in, pal.