The Word was used AGAINST us if we didn't want to conform. Remember that the Word = the ministry? As a commited wayfer, we didn't dare go against the Word. That was abusive IMHO.
In later years (right before he nixed the ROA), lcm used a yearly feast in the OT as the reason why at least the head of the house needed to attend AT LEAST one ministry event each year. I'm sure it had something to do with large attendance rather than the NEED for us to be there.
Hmm..looking at my quote, I don't say "doctrine", I say "teachings". In my mind there is a difference. One teaches by lifestyle, not just doctrine. But I still have the question...what doctrines specifically contributed to and intensified emotional entrapment?
ILB,
One twi doctrine that specifically contributed to and intensified emotional entrapment was....... "the present truth." By twisting and perverting the scriptures, twi was able to CHANGE SPIRITUAL STANDARDS from week to week.
Talk about an emotional roller coaster....or entrapment. With a changing standard....and wanting to stand approved before God via his leaders.....confrontation, confusion and fear become evil taskmasters.
Your ramblings make me think and have helped me sort some things in my own head...so...please keep rambling.
Part of what I think helped to ensnare me was the claim of "biblical teaching and research fellowship."
I was told, on the one hand, that I was to go to the Word to seek out and prove those "truths" that were being taught for myself.
BUT
The only language that was accepted, and seen as "truth" was that which came down through the tree, so to speak.
So...even though I was pretty skilled in research techniques, and when I left college the first time, I had 4 years each in Latin and modern Greek, and felt pretty confident with some of those skills. When I got here, the truth is, the actual use of research materials (at least where I was) wasn't really taught. Teachings were parroted, and the more I learn, the more I see that language was twisted, or even made up, to make certain doctrine fit.
This was exactly what was NOT supposed to happen.
So...did we really research? Were we encouraged to look and study deeply--at least people like me...the average believer type.
Nope.
I don't do ANYTHING in my life that I haven't really researched...looking up opposing opinions on everything from a car I might buy, to a novel I'm dissecting for a class.
Under the guise of providing sound research, we were inundated with a great deal of material...information that many of us never had the skills to process in the first place, and told to believe that as truth. Is that different from any other organization with an agenda? I don't really think so.
As was mentioned earlier, I think we were pummeled with "the Word" in such a way and in such amounts as to be designed to overwhelm the brain until you just gave in and believed...because it sounded plausible. It sounded thought out.
And those questions we all had...we suppressed them. But, I can say that I no longer buy things that just don't pass the "smell test."
I don't know if this fits with what you were thinking, but I've been thinking about it since I read your post.
ILB-------------You stated on your post that you felt like you were a rambler. May I most graciously disagree with you. I thing what you see as ramblings are valid points that many have pondered. You asked what doctrines/teachings may have set the stage for our thinking and tenets. I am reminded of how we studied math in a long past era of our lives. After basic arithmatic, we moved on to algebra 101. Without this foundation we could not understand any of the other mathmatical ideas. After all, what do we use to solve geometry probems, trig. problems, calc. problems, etc.? I hope the analogy makes sense. Early in the pfal class we were shown in great detail how the devil was able to deceive Eve. Bottom line was she "considered what he said". Now were in algebra 101. Never even consider. That's a twi parallel to the Pythagorum Theory. Your downfall starts when you start to consider, or so we were taught. If you can't consider, what's really left but to accept whatever is given you? Secondly, Annanias and Saphira syndrome. thou shalt never question the decisions of leadership lest GOD remove his hedge of protection and make way for the devil to consume thee. The rest,ILB, is just lots more math classes built on alg. 101. You also stated that the day may come when you no longer need to visit as part of your healing . I hope that day comes and you decide to stay anyway just 'cause the coffee tastes so good when you have it with good friends. I enjoy your so called "ramblings".
One thing that led to so much confusion IMO was the belief that we were to answer to and obey leadership about any detail they brought up. Other adults don't live that way--getting their homes and budgets inspected, being told to do specific things with children, like proper bedtimes etc.
Leaders had far too much power over people's daily lives and developed egos.(I'm your spiritual overseer!) It was easy for them to dog some one they didn't like, unless that disliked person had a good personal friend or family in a higher leadership ranking.
Gosh if anyone takes the time to read this and respond...thanks.
One day I'll quit thinking about this so much...won't I? Geez!!!!!!!
I was reading the "caged" thread in tears today, and "the best of times," and "sense of loss," and "lessen the pain," and "unwritten policies." It all helps.......and confuses. Just more proof of the web.
Bagpipes, you had me at "Rambler" - so I guess it's okay if I ramble too. When you mentioned those threads as proof of the web – I thought of this quote:
"Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive!" Sir Walter Scott
Four of the words stuck out to me: "tangled web we weave."
Tangled – knit together in intricate confusion [was one of the dictionary definitions].
Web – an intricate pattern or structure suggestive of something woven; a network [two of the definitions listed].
We – we were all a part of this complicated snare – whether or not we had deliberate intentions to deceive – we were trained to do so through error prone TWI doctrine, policies, practices, leadership's example. It's like a twisted Soylent Green movie line, "TWI's web of deception is made of people!" We – as followers of TWI were the web – we were not the spider that makes the web! So, lest you think I forgot the real architects of this stupefying maze I leave you with a quote from the chief architect VPW, "Nothing happens without leadership."
Weave – to form by interlacing strands; to make by intertwining; to produce by elaborately combining elements; to move in a devious, winding, or zigzag course esp. to avoid obstacles.
It was not one single thing – one single person – that pulled this off. All the definitions above suggest a complexity of many elements. The snare is challenging to unravel – typically, we don't see the forest for the trees. Or to put it another way – after I left TWI, I spent a number of years looking inward – analyzing this one measly little strand of the web [me], feeling guilty and ashamed for being so dumb as to have believed their hogwash.
I have cut myself some slack since then. Especially since I discovered TWI has a knack for disabling people's thinking – like VPW's classic line, "You can't go beyond what you're taught." Now there is a potent little pill that can knock you back to the Stone Age if you swallow it – in my opinion…It does get extremely complicated as you try to figure out what went on, what happened to you, why you got involved, why you left, why you did certain things, thought a certain way…Don't want to end on such a downbeat…I have such freedom and enjoyment of life now – I'm really doing okay – just every once and awhile – for therapeutic reasons I gotta rant!
I think that the so-called "law of believing" was responsible to a great extent in people becoming emotionally trapped within twi.
It was a catch 22...when anything went wrong...it was YOUR fault for "not believing". No matter what the situation was, twi would turn it around so that it was YOUR fault...this produced co-dependancy on the ministry that "had the answers"...This, combined with their heirarchy structure (the way tree), provided both the "chain of command" and the NEED to use it. God was taken out of the equation to a certain extent...the power was in YOUR mind to make thing happen by your "believing"...of course, when things didn't turn out right, we were attached to the umbilical cord of twi's magical kindom of spiritual truth and right answers...and we were set up to be manipulated and lorded over.
I think it was a slow process that accelerated when a person went in residence in the corps...and after we leave, there's a residual effect that disapears over time...especially when we know that many of twi's doctrines were wrong.
Too right about the "research" - if individuals' work showed something a little different, they didn't have the spiritual understanding.
If you asked a question you weren't "meek" enough. Actually most of us probably really were meek enough to the Word, just not meek enough to TWI dogma.
ILB:
Great post. "Disabling thinking" - maybe we should all wear "Disabled" badges instead of name tags? :blink:
My brain has done more thinking and pondering real spiritual issues in the last few months than for years in TWI.
Thank you for all the replies. I've had to stay away from this subject for a few days.
(Decompression...too much, too fast gives one the bends. One needs some time to acclamatize.)
I know I need to get back to it...not ignore it.
I'm gonna read through your responses a little more and make some notes.
It is important to me to understand (to a point...not all...but at least some...though all would be nice :) ) how much the teachings/practices of TWI influenced this part of my life (emotional entrapment).
And quite honestly, I want to be able to articulate it..so that when someone else (still in) asks me specifics...I can verbalize it. Perhaps it will shake their braincells enough to consider changing directions.
Bagpipes...Take your time in absorbing all the things that are flying in your direction. 28 years is a long time to be involved...you need time to absorb, assimilate, and come to some sort of conclusion. My prayer for you is that God will not only show you what you need to know...but that He will hold your heart tenderly and massage it with His grace and comfort.... :)
I think as, Tbone said, it was a web, each small point of doctrine seemingly innocuous but when spun together and accepted it becomes a sticky, tangled snare very hard to escape from.
The “Eve considered his words” point is a great one.
Then there is the “private interpretation” teaching, which is both taken out of context and misinterpreted to stop you at the next step. If you go so far as to consider something, then you must remember you must not privately interpret. In other words if you don’t come to the same conclusions that you have been taught, you are privately interpreting. VPW, LCM, and any other person at a podium or in the hot seat at someone’s home was not performing a homily, or their take on things, it was the “rightly divided Word of God.”
2 Tim. 2: 15 or to be as noble as the Bereans and “search the scriptures daily whether those things were so,” “biblical keys to the Words interpretation,” “biblical truths we must adhere to” (says who), were all just a song and dance, a smoke screen. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain, you, yes you, are still the one with the power to discern right from wrong and good from evil. This was all just false empowerment for so called abundant living, for as we all know, to come to any other conclusion was to be PI’ing. Which means not only have you have already considered, you have added, subtracted, and or changed THE true meaning of THE Word, which has already been rightly divided for you in a three part series.
Besides “the Word is the Ministry and the Ministry is the Word,” and “the Word of God is the Will of God,” and “you can’t separate God from His Word,” and “logic comes from logos.” So THE Ministry is the Word and Will of God and you can’t separate THE Ministry from God therefore THE Ministry is God. Anything else is illogical PI which is sin and most likely a doctrine of the Devil.
So screw being noble and screw being a real workman of the Word. They have given you the road map, even the “title deed,” and explicit directions, to arrive at any other destination than the one they have showed you obviously means you have “turned to the right or to the left” and deviated from the “path that has been laid before you.”
You also have doubt, worry, and fear being labeled negative believing, which as you know, is believing in reverse. So if you doubt any of the rightly divided Word of God you have been taught, you actually don’t believe it at all. So lets not do that. Don’t worry either, after all, God will protect you if and only if you do the Word we have taught you and you stay in THE Household that has taught it to you…otherwise all bets are off. No need to fear either. Fear is believing in reverse, or not believing, so how can a believer be a believer if you don’t believe. Always remember: THE Ministry’s hedge of protection will keep you safe, so fear not.
To act as the Bereans is now actually impossible while adhering to twi’s doctrine, it would require doubt…doubting until you have found “whether those things are so.” Twi wanted you to search and research what you had been taught daily, but do not doubt or come to any other conclusion for you will be wrong.
So put your shoulders back and hold your head high and say look out world, I am right and you are wrong.
My last two posts may not be exactly what you were thinking, ILB, in light of emotional entrapment but as T Bone, said it is a web. This is where it all starts in the foundational class and from there it affects everyone differently and to different degrees. Emotional entrapment isn’t possible unless someone has gained your trust. By session twelve we have just been given “proof” of God, eternal life, and that what we had just been taught was right on the money. We have also relinquished and/or demonized doubt, worry, fear, and some very important steps to critically looking at what we are taught, such as: considering opposing thought and using our own perspective in interpreting and analyzing what we read, hear, and see concerning “all that pertains to life and Godliness.”
I won’t argue faith and trust in God. That is between you and your God. This is not about that. This is about very early on, twi’s doctrine requires this same type of faith and trust in the organization and it’s leaders. Big difference. Once they have that kind of trust, they use it later to manipulate and pressure people and part of that is emotional entrapment.
The biggest doctrine I saw used to keep peoples emotions in check was epiluo (sp?). This is also tied to that very early teaching of PI, “letting loose” “one’s own” (ability to critically read). This was also used along with the other Greek word that I can’t think of off hand that was used by LCM in the “fog years” tapes or what ever they were called. It was interpreted as “emotionally out of control.” It was used in reference to Chris G and others trying to show how they let grief get them emotionally out of control leading to devil possession. Anyone remember that Greek word?
Anyways I saw this a number of times used to “tame” “overly emotional” women in one area I was in. By the mid 90’s we were at a point where even though we were supposedly “fully equipped” and “more than conquers” and etc etc. fully grown adult humans, advanced class grads even , couldn’t make simple life decisions without checking with an “overseer.” This checking and checking in and checking back and “getting wise council” replaced trusting your own instincts, emotions, and common sense at times.
The short of it is that to a varying degree each of us relinquished personal control of our lives to THE ministry in part or in whole. Emotional entrapment is not hard to believe when you consider that many people are still physically and mentally trapped in the organization today. As I said, it effects people differently, but the doctrine is there from the beginning.
Lindyhopper, I think that Greek word is tarazzo. (Not sure of the spelling.)
And no need to apologize. You add much to help this process. Your input is greatly appreciated. You made so many valid points. If I am not mistaken, it seems at one time TWI taught intuition does not exist, and that intuition (my own instincts) is really devil spirit influence/possession. (I could be wrong on this, but it seems I heard it at some point...from LCM.)
That whole "these were more noble than those in Thessalonica": I came home from a teaching feeling awful a few years ago. Thoughts about how ignoble I was for not searching this stuff out every freaking day. I started thinking, most these people back then couldn't even read!!..much less have the time to search it out every day!! Getting food on the table was MAJOR work!! So I did a study of the context of that verse...and boy was I enlightened! It is comparing the Jews of Berea who received Paul to the Jews of Thessalonica who wanted to injure Paul and his crew! Nothing to do with those that were already born again and living it up!
All these replies help. I'm not going to reply to each of your posts, but please know that they each help. The specifics that hit home with me are:
I used the word against myself countless times by stuffing my thought/emotions, covering them over with scripture.
Approval...it continues to haunt me. I remember Ex10 telling me not long after I left that TWI breeds approval into people. Approval before leadership equated approval before God...but of course this was not verbalized as such. So much of the entrapment (for me) (I think) is tied into this approval stuff.
The changing present truth...and sometimes we weren't told it changed (like M & A, obedience to the MOG, mortgage debt)...just sort of tried to figured out what was still in force. But there was (even as of late 2005) the air that you don't talk about them...these "truths" that were no longer enforced. And you certainly don't talk about the past without thinking that you're wrong for doing so. Just flip the "forget the past" switch and life is rosey...grrr...
T-bone, I never really thought of myself as part of the web. But I was. (duh) I thought about being caught in a web, but that I became part of that web...quite enlightening to me. I was part of the web! Gosh!Speaks volumes about entrapment. BTW, love your rantings.
The whole household teaching....kept me in for a long time, and keeps others there as well. Within TWI, there is a constant suspicion of anyone outside the walls of Zion; a constant discearning of how the devil is trying to decieve; a constant scrutinizing of folks outside the walls and how those outside are wrong, missing the mark, could do work/set up/ etc. better if they only had TWI training.
Authoritative research, etc. Another biggy. I remember LCM stating (or rather yelling), " They wouldn't know an orginal thought if it fell on them!!" It would make me feel like I was an orginal thinker because I had all this authoritative instruction. (barf) I do remember having the thought after hearing that one time, "I wonder if I would recognize an original thought."
Do not consider, question, etc. This was taught in context of not to consider what the enemy tempts one with. (But if I don't consider, is it really a temptation? Hmmm...) If I don't consider how will I learn? Anyway the unwritten teaching was to not question the answers given by authority from leadership. If one didn't agree with the authoritative response, one wasn't meek. This perhaps is part of what breeds that approval. Spins my brain cell...uugh. (Thanks Waysider...I'm sure I'll stick around. I like the coffee. :) )
Self blame....and the law of believing. Control, control, control. It made me so nervous...if I made a mistake then I must have missed revelation. I would sometimes feel guilty for another's mistake!!! If I was an overseer in that situation, I should have gotten revelation regarding their mistake and taken care of it before it happened.
Perfectionism. This wasn't listed as such in your responses, but it is there. Demonizing doubt, worry, and fear...the law of believing....approval before leadership.
This all involves emotion (lightbulb!).
This helps. I'll have to print this stuff...so that when I feel the confusion I can read some of this and help clear the sticky silk.
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Nottawayfer
The Word was used AGAINST us if we didn't want to conform. Remember that the Word = the ministry? As a commited wayfer, we didn't dare go against the Word. That was abusive IMHO.
In later years (right before he nixed the ROA), lcm used a yearly feast in the OT as the reason why at least the head of the house needed to attend AT LEAST one ministry event each year. I'm sure it had something to do with large attendance rather than the NEED for us to be there.
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skyrider
ILB,
One twi doctrine that specifically contributed to and intensified emotional entrapment was....... "the present truth." By twisting and perverting the scriptures, twi was able to CHANGE SPIRITUAL STANDARDS from week to week.
Talk about an emotional roller coaster....or entrapment. With a changing standard....and wanting to stand approved before God via his leaders.....confrontation, confusion and fear become evil taskmasters.
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QuietThinker
ILB,
Your ramblings make me think and have helped me sort some things in my own head...so...please keep rambling.
Part of what I think helped to ensnare me was the claim of "biblical teaching and research fellowship."
I was told, on the one hand, that I was to go to the Word to seek out and prove those "truths" that were being taught for myself.
BUT
The only language that was accepted, and seen as "truth" was that which came down through the tree, so to speak.
So...even though I was pretty skilled in research techniques, and when I left college the first time, I had 4 years each in Latin and modern Greek, and felt pretty confident with some of those skills. When I got here, the truth is, the actual use of research materials (at least where I was) wasn't really taught. Teachings were parroted, and the more I learn, the more I see that language was twisted, or even made up, to make certain doctrine fit.
This was exactly what was NOT supposed to happen.
So...did we really research? Were we encouraged to look and study deeply--at least people like me...the average believer type.
Nope.
I don't do ANYTHING in my life that I haven't really researched...looking up opposing opinions on everything from a car I might buy, to a novel I'm dissecting for a class.
Under the guise of providing sound research, we were inundated with a great deal of material...information that many of us never had the skills to process in the first place, and told to believe that as truth. Is that different from any other organization with an agenda? I don't really think so.
As was mentioned earlier, I think we were pummeled with "the Word" in such a way and in such amounts as to be designed to overwhelm the brain until you just gave in and believed...because it sounded plausible. It sounded thought out.
And those questions we all had...we suppressed them. But, I can say that I no longer buy things that just don't pass the "smell test."
I don't know if this fits with what you were thinking, but I've been thinking about it since I read your post.
cheers,
qt
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waysider
ILB-------------You stated on your post that you felt like you were a rambler. May I most graciously disagree with you. I thing what you see as ramblings are valid points that many have pondered. You asked what doctrines/teachings may have set the stage for our thinking and tenets. I am reminded of how we studied math in a long past era of our lives. After basic arithmatic, we moved on to algebra 101. Without this foundation we could not understand any of the other mathmatical ideas. After all, what do we use to solve geometry probems, trig. problems, calc. problems, etc.? I hope the analogy makes sense. Early in the pfal class we were shown in great detail how the devil was able to deceive Eve. Bottom line was she "considered what he said". Now were in algebra 101. Never even consider. That's a twi parallel to the Pythagorum Theory. Your downfall starts when you start to consider, or so we were taught. If you can't consider, what's really left but to accept whatever is given you? Secondly, Annanias and Saphira syndrome. thou shalt never question the decisions of leadership lest GOD remove his hedge of protection and make way for the devil to consume thee. The rest,ILB, is just lots more math classes built on alg. 101. You also stated that the day may come when you no longer need to visit as part of your healing . I hope that day comes and you decide to stay anyway just 'cause the coffee tastes so good when you have it with good friends. I enjoy your so called "ramblings".
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Bramble
One thing that led to so much confusion IMO was the belief that we were to answer to and obey leadership about any detail they brought up. Other adults don't live that way--getting their homes and budgets inspected, being told to do specific things with children, like proper bedtimes etc.
Leaders had far too much power over people's daily lives and developed egos.(I'm your spiritual overseer!) It was easy for them to dog some one they didn't like, unless that disliked person had a good personal friend or family in a higher leadership ranking.
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Abigail
Gosh where to start.
Only TWI had the Word.
Leave the household (TWI) and you are outside God's hedge of protection.
I have no friends when it comes to The Word (which translated into I have no friends outside of TWI)
No privacy, financially, physically, or emotionally.
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T-Bone
Bagpipes, you had me at "Rambler" - so I guess it's okay if I ramble too. When you mentioned those threads as proof of the web – I thought of this quote:
"Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive!" Sir Walter Scott
Four of the words stuck out to me: "tangled web we weave."
Tangled – knit together in intricate confusion [was one of the dictionary definitions].
Web – an intricate pattern or structure suggestive of something woven; a network [two of the definitions listed].
We – we were all a part of this complicated snare – whether or not we had deliberate intentions to deceive – we were trained to do so through error prone TWI doctrine, policies, practices, leadership's example. It's like a twisted Soylent Green movie line, "TWI's web of deception is made of people!" We – as followers of TWI were the web – we were not the spider that makes the web! So, lest you think I forgot the real architects of this stupefying maze I leave you with a quote from the chief architect VPW, "Nothing happens without leadership."
Weave – to form by interlacing strands; to make by intertwining; to produce by elaborately combining elements; to move in a devious, winding, or zigzag course esp. to avoid obstacles.
It was not one single thing – one single person – that pulled this off. All the definitions above suggest a complexity of many elements. The snare is challenging to unravel – typically, we don't see the forest for the trees. Or to put it another way – after I left TWI, I spent a number of years looking inward – analyzing this one measly little strand of the web [me], feeling guilty and ashamed for being so dumb as to have believed their hogwash.
I have cut myself some slack since then. Especially since I discovered TWI has a knack for disabling people's thinking – like VPW's classic line, "You can't go beyond what you're taught." Now there is a potent little pill that can knock you back to the Stone Age if you swallow it – in my opinion…It does get extremely complicated as you try to figure out what went on, what happened to you, why you got involved, why you left, why you did certain things, thought a certain way…Don't want to end on such a downbeat…I have such freedom and enjoyment of life now – I'm really doing okay – just every once and awhile – for therapeutic reasons I gotta rant!
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GrouchoMarxJr
I think that the so-called "law of believing" was responsible to a great extent in people becoming emotionally trapped within twi.
It was a catch 22...when anything went wrong...it was YOUR fault for "not believing". No matter what the situation was, twi would turn it around so that it was YOUR fault...this produced co-dependancy on the ministry that "had the answers"...This, combined with their heirarchy structure (the way tree), provided both the "chain of command" and the NEED to use it. God was taken out of the equation to a certain extent...the power was in YOUR mind to make thing happen by your "believing"...of course, when things didn't turn out right, we were attached to the umbilical cord of twi's magical kindom of spiritual truth and right answers...and we were set up to be manipulated and lorded over.
I think it was a slow process that accelerated when a person went in residence in the corps...and after we leave, there's a residual effect that disapears over time...especially when we know that many of twi's doctrines were wrong.
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Twinky
Good thread, this.
Quiet Thinker:
Too right about the "research" - if individuals' work showed something a little different, they didn't have the spiritual understanding.
If you asked a question you weren't "meek" enough. Actually most of us probably really were meek enough to the Word, just not meek enough to TWI dogma.
ILB:
Great post. "Disabling thinking" - maybe we should all wear "Disabled" badges instead of name tags? :blink:
My brain has done more thinking and pondering real spiritual issues in the last few months than for years in TWI.
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I Love Bagpipes
Thank you for all the replies. I've had to stay away from this subject for a few days.
(Decompression...too much, too fast gives one the bends. One needs some time to acclamatize.)
I know I need to get back to it...not ignore it.
I'm gonna read through your responses a little more and make some notes.
It is important to me to understand (to a point...not all...but at least some...though all would be nice :) ) how much the teachings/practices of TWI influenced this part of my life (emotional entrapment).
And quite honestly, I want to be able to articulate it..so that when someone else (still in) asks me specifics...I can verbalize it. Perhaps it will shake their braincells enough to consider changing directions.
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GrouchoMarxJr
Bagpipes...Take your time in absorbing all the things that are flying in your direction. 28 years is a long time to be involved...you need time to absorb, assimilate, and come to some sort of conclusion. My prayer for you is that God will not only show you what you need to know...but that He will hold your heart tenderly and massage it with His grace and comfort.... :)
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lindyhopper
ILB,
Great topic you have here.
I think as, Tbone said, it was a web, each small point of doctrine seemingly innocuous but when spun together and accepted it becomes a sticky, tangled snare very hard to escape from.
The “Eve considered his words” point is a great one.
Then there is the “private interpretation” teaching, which is both taken out of context and misinterpreted to stop you at the next step. If you go so far as to consider something, then you must remember you must not privately interpret. In other words if you don’t come to the same conclusions that you have been taught, you are privately interpreting. VPW, LCM, and any other person at a podium or in the hot seat at someone’s home was not performing a homily, or their take on things, it was the “rightly divided Word of God.”
2 Tim. 2: 15 or to be as noble as the Bereans and “search the scriptures daily whether those things were so,” “biblical keys to the Words interpretation,” “biblical truths we must adhere to” (says who), were all just a song and dance, a smoke screen. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain, you, yes you, are still the one with the power to discern right from wrong and good from evil. This was all just false empowerment for so called abundant living, for as we all know, to come to any other conclusion was to be PI’ing. Which means not only have you have already considered, you have added, subtracted, and or changed THE true meaning of THE Word, which has already been rightly divided for you in a three part series.
Besides “the Word is the Ministry and the Ministry is the Word,” and “the Word of God is the Will of God,” and “you can’t separate God from His Word,” and “logic comes from logos.” So THE Ministry is the Word and Will of God and you can’t separate THE Ministry from God therefore THE Ministry is God. Anything else is illogical PI which is sin and most likely a doctrine of the Devil.
So screw being noble and screw being a real workman of the Word. They have given you the road map, even the “title deed,” and explicit directions, to arrive at any other destination than the one they have showed you obviously means you have “turned to the right or to the left” and deviated from the “path that has been laid before you.”
That is just a part of it….
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lindyhopper
You also have doubt, worry, and fear being labeled negative believing, which as you know, is believing in reverse. So if you doubt any of the rightly divided Word of God you have been taught, you actually don’t believe it at all. So lets not do that. Don’t worry either, after all, God will protect you if and only if you do the Word we have taught you and you stay in THE Household that has taught it to you…otherwise all bets are off. No need to fear either. Fear is believing in reverse, or not believing, so how can a believer be a believer if you don’t believe. Always remember: THE Ministry’s hedge of protection will keep you safe, so fear not.
To act as the Bereans is now actually impossible while adhering to twi’s doctrine, it would require doubt…doubting until you have found “whether those things are so.” Twi wanted you to search and research what you had been taught daily, but do not doubt or come to any other conclusion for you will be wrong.
So put your shoulders back and hold your head high and say look out world, I am right and you are wrong.
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lindyhopper
Sorry for going on and on...
My last two posts may not be exactly what you were thinking, ILB, in light of emotional entrapment but as T Bone, said it is a web. This is where it all starts in the foundational class and from there it affects everyone differently and to different degrees. Emotional entrapment isn’t possible unless someone has gained your trust. By session twelve we have just been given “proof” of God, eternal life, and that what we had just been taught was right on the money. We have also relinquished and/or demonized doubt, worry, fear, and some very important steps to critically looking at what we are taught, such as: considering opposing thought and using our own perspective in interpreting and analyzing what we read, hear, and see concerning “all that pertains to life and Godliness.”
I won’t argue faith and trust in God. That is between you and your God. This is not about that. This is about very early on, twi’s doctrine requires this same type of faith and trust in the organization and it’s leaders. Big difference. Once they have that kind of trust, they use it later to manipulate and pressure people and part of that is emotional entrapment.
The biggest doctrine I saw used to keep peoples emotions in check was epiluo (sp?). This is also tied to that very early teaching of PI, “letting loose” “one’s own” (ability to critically read). This was also used along with the other Greek word that I can’t think of off hand that was used by LCM in the “fog years” tapes or what ever they were called. It was interpreted as “emotionally out of control.” It was used in reference to Chris G and others trying to show how they let grief get them emotionally out of control leading to devil possession. Anyone remember that Greek word?
Anyways I saw this a number of times used to “tame” “overly emotional” women in one area I was in. By the mid 90’s we were at a point where even though we were supposedly “fully equipped” and “more than conquers” and etc etc. fully grown adult humans, advanced class grads even
, couldn’t make simple life decisions without checking with an “overseer.” This checking and checking in and checking back and “getting wise council” replaced trusting your own instincts, emotions, and common sense at times.
The short of it is that to a varying degree each of us relinquished personal control of our lives to THE ministry in part or in whole. Emotional entrapment is not hard to believe when you consider that many people are still physically and mentally trapped in the organization today. As I said, it effects people differently, but the doctrine is there from the beginning.
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I Love Bagpipes
Lindyhopper, I think that Greek word is tarazzo. (Not sure of the spelling.)
And no need to apologize. You add much to help this process. Your input is greatly appreciated. You made so many valid points. If I am not mistaken, it seems at one time TWI taught intuition does not exist, and that intuition (my own instincts) is really devil spirit influence/possession. (I could be wrong on this, but it seems I heard it at some point...from LCM.)
That whole "these were more noble than those in Thessalonica": I came home from a teaching feeling awful a few years ago. Thoughts about how ignoble I was for not searching this stuff out every freaking day. I started thinking, most these people back then couldn't even read!!..much less have the time to search it out every day!! Getting food on the table was MAJOR work!! So I did a study of the context of that verse...and boy was I enlightened! It is comparing the Jews of Berea who received Paul to the Jews of Thessalonica who wanted to injure Paul and his crew! Nothing to do with those that were already born again and living it up!
More in my next post. ......
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I Love Bagpipes
All these replies help. I'm not going to reply to each of your posts, but please know that they each help. The specifics that hit home with me are:
I used the word against myself countless times by stuffing my thought/emotions, covering them over with scripture.
Approval...it continues to haunt me. I remember Ex10 telling me not long after I left that TWI breeds approval into people. Approval before leadership equated approval before God...but of course this was not verbalized as such. So much of the entrapment (for me) (I think) is tied into this approval stuff.
The changing present truth...and sometimes we weren't told it changed (like M & A, obedience to the MOG, mortgage debt)...just sort of tried to figured out what was still in force. But there was (even as of late 2005) the air that you don't talk about them...these "truths" that were no longer enforced. And you certainly don't talk about the past without thinking that you're wrong for doing so. Just flip the "forget the past" switch and life is rosey...grrr...
T-bone, I never really thought of myself as part of the web. But I was. (duh) I thought about being caught in a web, but that I became part of that web...quite enlightening to me. I was part of the web! Gosh!Speaks volumes about entrapment. BTW, love your rantings.
The whole household teaching....kept me in for a long time, and keeps others there as well. Within TWI, there is a constant suspicion of anyone outside the walls of Zion; a constant discearning of how the devil is trying to decieve; a constant scrutinizing of folks outside the walls and how those outside are wrong, missing the mark, could do work/set up/ etc. better if they only had TWI training.
Authoritative research, etc. Another biggy. I remember LCM stating (or rather yelling), " They wouldn't know an orginal thought if it fell on them!!" It would make me feel like I was an orginal thinker because I had all this authoritative instruction.
(barf) I do remember having the thought after hearing that one time, "I wonder if I would recognize an original thought."
Do not consider, question, etc. This was taught in context of not to consider what the enemy tempts one with. (But if I don't consider, is it really a temptation? Hmmm...) If I don't consider how will I learn? Anyway the unwritten teaching was to not question the answers given by authority from leadership. If one didn't agree with the authoritative response, one wasn't meek. This perhaps is part of what breeds that approval. Spins my brain cell...uugh. (Thanks Waysider...I'm sure I'll stick around. I like the coffee. :) )
Self blame....and the law of believing. Control, control, control. It made me so nervous...if I made a mistake then I must have missed revelation. I would sometimes feel guilty for another's mistake!!! If I was an overseer in that situation, I should have gotten revelation regarding their mistake and taken care of it before it happened.
Perfectionism. This wasn't listed as such in your responses, but it is there. Demonizing doubt, worry, and fear...the law of believing....approval before leadership.
This all involves emotion (lightbulb!).
This helps. I'll have to print this stuff...so that when I feel the confusion I can read some of this and help clear the sticky silk.
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