Raf

There is nothing rude about a private topic, Refiner. But the appropriate forum would be the Doctrinal. I'll post there. EDIT: oops: you beat me to it. We now return to "Flirting with Excy."

In the words of Socrates, pthpthptphtphpthppthpthppthppthptphptphth! I think that was Socrates, anyway. Oh, no, wait. That wasn't him. That was Plato. Socrates is the one who said, "I drank what?"

Didn't say you weren't allowed to talk, excy. Say what you want. Feel free. And by the way, I have the right to start a private topic and I don't need your permission or blessing to do so.

Goodness, take a pill. We're taking a discussion on parallel dispensationalism to private topic out of consideration for others who might be BORED by such a thing. If you'd rather we discuss it publicly, then say so. And I'm old enough not to have to put up with your ....y mood if I think it's uncalled for, which, by the way, it is.

Ok, look at the top of this page. See my picture? And above my picture, my name? And above my name the words "Rate It!" And above the words Rate It, it says "Go." Click on Go and a pull down menu will appear. The first item on the pull down menu is "My Space." Bring your mouse over that and another pull down menu will appear. "Private messaging" is the fifth item on that menu. Click on that, and we can pick up the chat on Parallel Dispensationalism.

Where all these new people coming from? Sheesh, we're gonna need a lot of Java to keep up:

Well, I'm fascinated. Maybe others are bored but I sure ain't. I'll start a private topic: do you know how they work? By the way, it's 8 p.m. Friday in Florida. What time is it in Oz? P.S. Two pages in less than two hours! GREAT THREAD!

Craig Martindale, the former president of The Way apparently said that if you leave the organization, you will be a "greasespot by midnight." Hence the slogan: "and it's way past midnight." Martindale is to The Way what Rutherford was to the Jehovah's Witnesses, except Rutherford was better at keeping a base of followers. As for failed predictions, I'll leave that to those who heard them.

:P-->

Regarding Jesus Christ: The difference between TWI and JW comes down to pre-existence. JWs teach that Christ existed before his birth as an angel (the archangel Michael, if I'm not mistaken). TWI teaches that he did not exist at all prior to his birth, except in the foreknowledge of God. Witnesses agree with TWI on the nature of death, but not on eschatology (the order and timing of the "end times). I won't be shocked over there. I still consider myself Christian, but the warning on that board is pretty straightforward, so to be forewarned is to have forearms. Or four arms. Or something. I forget how the saying goes.

I'm signing on to that site. Looks interesting. 1245 members! On ONE message board! I'd like to see someone go over there and try to post a "why don't you just get over it" message. :)--> Raf

Hi Refiner. How do you take your coffee? "More than abundant life" and "more abundant life" are terms that are used by a number of groups. I don't hear many people talking about a "rightly-divided" Word, but Wierwille pulled that one straight out of Scripture, so I never really had a problem with the term. I don't know that there's an individual "key belief," but there's certainly a key core of beliefs. 1. Jesus Christ is not God. He's a man whose existence began at birth. He was unique because he had no human father and was uniquely able to live without sinning. He's the Son of God and our savior. 2. The dead are not alive now. When someone dies, he ceases to exist until the return of Christ. 3. History is divided into "administrations" distinguished by different ways in which God deals with mankind (different rules based on what has been accomplished, the physical location of Jesus Christ, etc). Other denominations who hold to this belief call it "dispensationalism." 4. The law of believing: "believing = receiving." 5. All believers can and should speak in tongues, interpret and prophesy. 6. A pre-tribulation rapture. Christians will not have to go through any of the Great Tribulation. Take away any one of those beliefs, and you no longer have a Way believer.

I left because they fired everyone in NY, didn't tell any of us who was now in charge, and started exalting LCM wayyyyyy to highly for my taste.

Catcup, I believe your admonition is wise, but possibly misplaced. Wonder did receive a warm welcome here. "His" positions were challenged, but he was treated with nothing but respect when he showed up (even though some might interpret his first post as a tad abrasive). He has started two threads, both of which question the motives of posters here and both of which judge the posters here (albeit softly). In the first thread, he gently chastises us for expecting a ministry to be "perfect." Of course, that accusation simplifies what most of us think a ministry should be, but nonetheless, the responses were by and large equally gentle. Then he starts this thread, which is far more confrontational. In other words, I would have gotten over it by now: why don't you just get over it? Fair question. Except this time the responses are a bit more commensurate with the tone of his first post. Goey threw his tone right back in his face (not the approach I would have taken, but I'm trying to remember the part where he asked me and, son of a gun, I can't find it)! Shellon's response was even better: No insults. No attacks. Wonder came in with an attack. Maybe he didn't intend it, but that's what it was. No, he doesn't owe any apologies. But neither should he be surprised that people here reject his simplification of this board's purposes and posts. "Try being courteous," you say? Sorry, Catcup, but we gave Wonder plenty o'courtesy. I don't know about turning tail and running. For all I know his mom died yesterday and GSCafe suddenly became a non-entity in his life. I try not to speculate on the reasons people stop posting. But don't tell us to try politeness. We did that already. And some of us still are.

Diazbro: I have never said or suggested otherwise. In fact, I agree with you wholeheartedly: on the moral merits, TWI had the opportunity to register the domain name and was specifically told to do so by a member advising them. The fact that they're whining about it now makes them a bunch of crybabies, in my eyes. Looking forward to the outcome of both trials.

Paw did it for me. What happened was, I re-registered under the new name, but Paw was able to just go in and change the old name. Made life a lot easier. PFALBMO: (Yeah, I can see why you might want to change that :)-->) You only have six posts to date. If you have an alternative e-mail address, I would recommend that you just re-register under the new name that you want, confirm it, and start posting away.

Shouldn't it be: THE, Lord of the Peeps ?

Me too. But "hope" and "expect" are two different things. Diazbro, I know you didn't address your post to me, but mind if I take a crack at it? There are some common sense differences between Pat's claim and TWIM's. TWIM arguably came to use the name "The Way International" without ever having heard of TWI and with no intent to lead anyone away from TWI. Pat cannot say the same thing. Pat is not The Way International. TWI is. So is TWIM. TWI and TWIM have a reasonable fight: it's inarguable. Say what you want, Pat's fight with TWI is (if nothing else) arguable. Pat is acting pro se and blabbing his strategy all over the Internet. TWIM is using lawyers and limiting its discussion to court filings. Let's not make this thread about Pat, please. This thread is about TWIM v. TWI, and we should keep it on that subject. I thought I wrote this before, but maybe I didn't post it: My objection to Pat's fight was that Pat is not The Way International, but TWI is. Well, TWIM is The Way International. So is TWI. Let them fight it out. Pat, See? We can agree on something!

I've heard conflicting accounts, but most agree that the ee will be released in November. I was expecting it to be out in August for some reason.

Since 2002.

I told you, you would probably do just fine to quote the Geer book. Doesn't that book have an intro explaining that some of these were articles which appeared in The Way Magazine?

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

My God, do you know what this means? It means these guys (The Other Way International:)-->) have done more of God's Word in two years than that Ohio wannabe cult has done in 60. That's Power For Abundant Giving, baby!

Yeah, what the ™ happened to that thread, anyway?

Actually, that part strains credibility. You cannot tell from an internet search how many organizations use the words "The Way" in their names, as opposed to somewhere in the copy on the site. For example, a web site about a buzz saw might talk about improving the way you cut wood. Or something. I kind of feel like that cab driver right before the climactic battle in Superman II. "Man, this is gonna be good!"