Is John Schoenheit legit?

[chockfull]

On 2/19/2017 at 8:43 AM, ImLikeSoConfused said:

I don't know if there is any solution to the rise of millenials not going to church but I think its just part of the falling away talked about in the bible. People my age don't want God but things. I'll be a jesus freak to the day I die regardless of what others around me my age or not are doing. When thinking of the way I think is it okay for good to result from evil? And clearly an answer is not so easy to come by because evil harms people. I have been hurt by weirwille indirectly from his books but also i gained in some ways. The hurt came from what he said wasn't true but the gain came from the things in his message that was true. Although I know a lot of the stuff he said about the law of believing isn't true. You can't control others with your mind but I believe to a much lower extent that faith and believing are core christian principles and very important in our day to day life. We can't do just like Jesus and heal the lame or blind no matter how much we truly believe but if we believe in the correct things and have faith things will work out whether in this life or the next we can stand to benefit more than someone who is fearful. Not to say like in his example that fear can lead to the death of someones son but i believe fear is bad because it does bind you and make you trapped by it. So like I said I don't know what part of his books he wrote or didn't but I no longer care. All I can do is focus on what I learned from my experience applying his principles and what didn't work I throw out. What did work I keep. I don't want to just throw everything out because there was some benefit and truth to what some of he said. But you could say the same thing about what satan told adam and eve. Half truths are definitely from the enemy.

So while I won't recommend anyone read his material I'd like to write a free book combining everything I learned not just from his material but from my experiences with it, with what works and what doesn't and to what extent these things work to have something to read that is all good and all biblical. None of the half truths but give people the whole truth not just wishful thinking.

Hello ILSC thanks for posting up your struggle and ideas.  What I believe you are doing here is scriptural - proving all things and holding fast to the good - intended to be as such.  This is a very real struggle for all of us who experienced TWI.  Our faith to us was (and is) real.  

You are asking if JS is legit.  Well he sure was when he wrote that adultery paper.  So is he now I suppose is the underlying question, to the extent that you can trust him like we did teachings in the ministry?  I think we need to be more discerning now than we ever have before.  I've already spent a few decades of my life giving out unearned, unrequited, and unappreciated loyalty in my life in the name of blind faith.  Jesus taught you know people by their fruit.  This principle certainly applies to organizations as well.  I don't know JS personally enough to give an opinion there.   I will say that JS compared to VPW is definitely a Biblical scholar.   However, that is not saying much.  

MRAP was asking opinions on JS work the REV.  

Here is where issues with old wineskins impact things IMO.  The scholarly environment JS grew up in, trained in, was one of isolationism.  One where one hero, extremely dedicated to the scriptures, would take the over 300 verses on Holy Spirit, lock himself in a room, and write the piece RHST that revolutionized Christianity.  (We didn't see what was happening behind the scenes).  One where we had literal translations according to usage, one where we were the only ones resurrecting EW Bullinger's "Figures of Speech" of which modern literary works may use a handful of these.  We had the "only truth" on orientalisms, knowing the meaning of obscure scripture expressions like "apples of gold" and "for this purpose was I spared".   There was a whole logic rhetoric pattern built in to develop all sorts of mental acrobatics when scriptures contradict each other in ways.

You don't see all that stuff in yourself working scriptures.  This is why there is a body of Christ.  There is a need for collaboration.  Cross-denomination work.  Evaluating many different opinions.  One of the Way's biggest doctrinal error teachings is that around the family and household of God.  I mean somehow they can read those scriptures about the ONE body, and construct some inner elite circle called the "household of God".  In this inner elite circle you can trust people, do drugs, be a drunken idiot, abuse people mentally, verbally, and sexually, and act like a rock star.  That practical error of living an "elitist body of Christ" turned into doctrinal error, and now you have all these splinter groups constructing their own little "households of God" all over the countryside.  Not one gets along with the others.  Not one interacts with the other members of the body of Christ in their own communities, the other churches, Christians.   You see, with that doctrinal error there is also an isolationist perspective that is wrapped up.  

That is where the main challenges lie, IMO.  That's why I can say enjoy JS work as a commentary perspective.  I read other commentaries now studying scripture.  I remember taking a class in college on the Pauline epistles.  The Catholic priest with a doctoral degree taught us to study that way.  Read the commentaries.  Read what other members of the body of Christ are inspired by.  I was an idiot, and could only have stuck in my mind "remote context" and "where it was used before" and "Paul's thorn in the flesh".  Thus, VP's commentary was the only one that I did not discount in my mind.  Do you think that might have led to poor life decision choices?  Duh.  Oh, I failed the class too.  Hopefully by now I have learned something from it.

I know some post TWI have discarded Christianity.  I personally can't relate to that.  To me Christianity is all about a relationship.  I mean the same Lord Jesus Christ who was there for me in 7th grade pre-TWI when I was born again, the same one I talk to every day, He hasn't left me.  Praying, studying, being spiritual to me are all important aspects to life.  To me that is enough.  Sometimes my journey leads me among other churches and Christians other times it does not.  I trust Him and move forward.  The atheists can call me deluded.  It's OK.  I have to live my life with my vision, my eyes.