PFAL and Born Again

[chockfull]

So most of mainstream Christianity has a focus on the new birth.  Peoples experiences of being “born again” are magnified and many times Christians get to know one another by how they became born again and the story involved, much as learning about Paul from his road to Damascus account.

The Way Int has a focus instead on “taking the class”.  Similar stories are told in Way circles not about the born again story but about the I first took the class story.  The classes themselves don’t focus on the new birth, the culmination of the class is SIT in a group, which they say is the same thing.

After some time and reflection I am thinking not so much.

About a decade ago a few years after freeing myself from the bondage of being under the way BOD rule I was traveling around for work.  This is something that I never would have been able to do in the way, and work itself was not very plentiful with a Way Corps work resume, so I took what I could get and hit the road.

After work one night on a Wed night the hotel I was staying at was right next door to a Baptist church, and I saw a flyer about free dinner so I went over and checked it out.  They were wrapping up the food and putting it away nobody else around but they broke out the containers fixed me a plate and sat down and chatted me up while I ate.

I finished the meal and enjoyable conversation and cruised into the auditorium.  The church was maybe a medium sized church that had been established in the local area for 30 years and was starting a church plant at a new location.  The meeting was not the normal one, but was one of their baptism celebrations.  They kind of apologized for the format departure when starting and got into it.  It was a water baptism ceremony, and each candidate had a little slide show they made about the deliverance they experienced with Jesus, and their experience with members of the church and the church.  Then they had some reading baptism of Jesus I think, then did a partial immersion of the person in a tank.  This tank is permanent and covered usually but they can uncover it for this.

The person then did a live sharing.  At the end the pastor over the ceremony basically said thanks for coming see you later not a huge teaching no grandstanding or anything.

So I’ve ran a lot of PFAL classes and run many people through them.  My own parents took PFAL more to relate to me than any interest directly.  They did the 12th session group thing then went back to their church and regular prayer patterns.  I really see a huge difference between the celebration of the new birth like that Baptist church did, and the Way International.

The Way International twists the experience of the new birth and embeds SIT in a mandated directed format as a replacement.  The performance in this is evaluated and discussed in leadership post class.  The focus was always on “did this person manifest” as opposed to any celebration of the new birth or focus on Jesus story and change in the persons life.

The Way is Jesus Christ.

The Way International is a man made organization Tower of Babel that is anti Christ as it takes the worship and adulation due our Lord and Savior and redirects it to an organization and a class and the control of them established.

 

[Twinky]

That's somewhat how it's done at my Anglican church, well, at the parent church.  Baptising tank in the middle, where everyone can see, usually covered.  Full immersion.  Usually people prepare a speech or vignette about their lives and saying why they want to be baptised.  Many report feeling different afterwards - that something special but indefinable happened as they emerged from the water.

There were baptisms this Easter and one woman, a Christian and church attender for years, felt compelled of the holy spirit (as she put it) to go forward to get baptised.  Completely unplanned, so she'd be in wet clothes for the rest of the service.

Always there is applause and cheering as people emerge from the water.  Often (obviously when it's a planned occasion) well wishers present gifts to the baptised person.

 

None of this is expected, required, demanded, or in any way forced.  Just celebrated, when it happens.

[Twinky]

I too ran classes; some people SIT, some didn't.  Some of those I led into SIT on later occasions - and sometimes, before taking the class.  They saw something in our WoW family and wanted it.  Wanted what they saw - not wanting the class.

I loved the people in our twig, the ones we'd introduced.  And I hated what became of them once they got to know others of the believers, and the abuse that happened to at least two of them, who'd been awesome helpers to our WoW family.  I felt that their precious lives, that had been so damaged but that the Lord had repaired, had been smashed around even more badly.

[T-Bone]

11 hours ago, chockfull said:

The Way International twists the experience of the new birth and embeds SIT in a mandated directed format as a replacement.  The performance in this is evaluated and discussed in leadership post class.  The focus was always on “did this person manifest” as opposed to any celebration of the new birth or focus on Jesus story and change in the persons life.

The Way is Jesus Christ.

The Way International is a man made organization Tower of Babel that is anti Christ as it takes the worship and adulation due our Lord and Savior and redirects it to an organization and a class and the control of them established.

Yes!!!!

In PFAL wierwille said “The Word takes the place of the absent Christ”. I would like to submit a reinterpretation of that phrase as a Christian now free from a cultic mindset. But first let me just say wierwille probably thought his class was guiding students in the right direction - but as the old proverb goes “the road to hell is paved with good intentions” ...and sometimes... even good intentions when acted upon may have unintended consequences... 

… as always in analyzing PFAL there’s usually more of a mess to untangle than just the obvious like proof-texting. Among other things there’s lots of hidden assumptions. 

There’s at least two HUGE false assumptions within wierwille’s “The Word takes the place of the absent Christ”:

1.    It was assumed that WHATEVER wierwille taught in PFAL was “rightly-divided”  - and as such was equivalent to the original Word of God, when “holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost”.  Thus, PFAL equals “The Word”.

2.    It was assumed that Jesus Christ was/is absent...which means the compelling authority defaults to # 1   wierwille / PFAL.

So…to decrypt…or de-cultify (if that’s a word    ) wierwille’s phrase in order to expose the old switcheroo I present the following reinterpretation of his phrase:

wierwille / PFAL  replaces Jesus Christ
 

 

And I'd like to say to all you Christians in TWI - why do you let those anti-Christs run your life? Repent! Run! Get as far away from TWI  (its doctrine and influence)  as possible...

...and let Jesus Christ be lord in your life again!

Edited June 5, 2022 by T-Bone
baptism by typos

[Nathan_Jr]

21 minutes ago, T-Bone said:

Yes!!!!

In PFAL wierwille said “The Word takes the place of the absent Christ”. I would like to submit a reinterpretation of that phrase as a Christian now free from a cultic mindset. But first let me just say wierwille probably thought his class was guiding students in the right direction - but as the old proverb goes “the road to hell is paved with good intentions” … as always in analyzing PFAL there’s usually more of a mess to untangle than just the obvious like proof-texting. Among other things there’s lots of hidden assumptions. 

There’s at least two HUGE false assumptions within wierwille’s “The Word takes the place of the absent Christ”:

1.    It is assumed that WHATEVER wierwille taught in PFAL is “rightly-divided” and as such is equivalent to the original Word of God, when “holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost”.  Thus, PFAL equals “The Word”.

2.    It is assumed that Jesus Christ is absent.

So…to decrypt…or de-cultify (if that’s a word    ) wierwille’s phrase in order to expose the old switcheroo I present the following:

wierwille / PFAL  replaces Jesus Christ
 

 

And I'd like to say to all you Christians in TWI - why do you let those anti-Christs run your life? Repent! Run! Get as far away from TWI  (its doctrine and influence)  as possible...

...and let Jesus Christ be lord in your life again!

Concise and well said TBone. It's a fair reinterpretation. It's so subtle, but this is how the thief operates.

In a diligent effort to make me obedient and renew my mind for me, I was taught, admonished with the same logic: imitate vic because Vic>Paul>Christ>God or Victor reveals Paul; Paul reveals Christ; Christ reveals God; therefore, victor reveals God.

As absurd as this sounds, I still have the messages as proof. This sinister deception is real.

 

Edited June 5, 2022 by Nathan_Jr
Glove fitting