Why Do We Criticize TWI Doctrine?

[Jbarrax]

How so Jb?

How is that the doctrine gets the credit?

Hi Dancing. Sorry for the delayed reply. I'd forgotten about this thread til this morning.

Well Wordwolf explained it pretty well. But the basic premise comes from the gospels. Jesus told his audiences to believe him for the works' sake. In other words, the miracles he did were to be seen as God's stamp of approval and authenticity on what he said. Or to paraphrase Mark chapter 16, when "the gospel" is preached and someone believes it, signs will follow. I have been told that this happened in TWI. People to whom I witnessed told me that they saw signs that confirmed for them that they should believe what I told them. Some of these "signs" were purely subjective. Others, like the instance of miraculous healing I referred to, are not.

Who heals? What heals? Not doubting your statement about being healed.

Just how it came to pass.

Deborah, my then-fiancee now-wife of 22 years and 2 days, healed me from sudden onset ashtma. I grew up suffering from many allergies (most of which I still have) and sudden onset asthma. An ashtma attack could be triggered by just about anything and last for days. I would have to just lie in a lounge chair wheezing for days on end. No fun. Anyway, I had one of these attacks when I went to visit Deborah who was at the time a W.O.W. in Cleveland. She ministered to me, and, as she was praying, it was like someone put a bellows to my mouth and pumped fresh air into my lungs. The attack ceased immediately. That was the fist time an asthma attack stopped suddenly,and it was the last time I had one. That was in January of 1983.

Now if I wanted to be an absolutist, I could cling to those experiences and reason that since God had delievered me from asthma by the hand of a W.OW., and since other people claim they had signs confirming what I told them, that God has annointed TWI and I should never doubt their doctrine or leadership.

That of course would be foolish. But some people continue to think this way. That's why there are so many Weirwillites who, to this day, think PFAL is the greatest thing to hit the Christian Church since the Pauline epistles. What I see is that God honored the hearts of some good people who got involved in a not-so-good organization and did what good he could despite the rottenness at the top of the tree. On balance TWI did more good than harm for a while. At some point that changed and, in my opinion, it began to do more harm than good. That's when it began to split and collapse. But that's all ancient history.

The point is, there are some who are unable to separate the wheat from the chaff when it comes to a group's doctrine, and, if they receive salvation or any additional deliverance from that ministry, will, as WW said, confuse correlation with causation. Many of us did this for years. And some of us continue to do so.

Peace

JerryB

Edited November 13, 2006 by Jbarrax

[waysider]

JerryB.-----------My post is not directed toward your healing. I believe God can and does heal.

What caught my attention was that your deliverance happened in Jan. '83.

When I left Cleveland in Aug. '75, it was not unusual to see 50 or 60 in attendance at our weekly branch meetings. There are others here who could probably confirm that. Within 7+ years , there were WOWs being

sent there. From sending missionaries out to bringing missionaries in seems like a pretty big step backwards.

I don't believe it was caused by the people who stayed in Cleveland and stood for what they believed.

In my opinion, there had to have been doctrinal error at the root level to have caused such a drastic change.

On a more somber note: I saw in the news that the company that makes "pink flamingoes" is closing its' doors

and going out of business. What's next, white socks and chrome gazing balls? How much pain can one town endure?!!

[Jbarrax]

lol. Such tragedy! No more pink flamingoes. What IS the world coming to? :)

Well the WOW's that were sent to Cleveland in `83 were, I believe, part of the Way's "Ebony Outreach". Most were black and were sent to the urban areas of the city. The neighborhood to which Deb and her sisters were sent was a high crime area beset by crack dealers. There was an incident on her street involving a bereaved man standing in the middle of the street shooting into a house trying to kill a crack dealer who had caused a relative of his to OD.

....I don't know exactly how that all fits with your statement, but I thought it might somehow be relevent. :-)

And finally this travel note. If you're planning to visti Cleveland, January is perhaps the worst time of the year to go--unless you love arctic winds and lake effect snow. :)

Peace

JerryB