My innocent little act of acceptance allowed his master outline to dominate my outlook and how I processed input. To those outside TWI, I attempted to educate them on why their beliefs were flawed (I thought this was witnessing). Most of the time that inevitably failed – and I would quit wasting my time speaking to them – reasoning that they weren’t interested in hearing “The Word”. I was not a good listener.
Love this T-Bone - was it taken out of the Witnessing and Undershepherding class as I so relate to it!
2.wierwille’s egomania - excessive preoccupation with himself and his identity as the man of God teaching “The Word” to his followers. wierwille prided himself on being the authority on God and the Bible – providing definitive answers on many topics.
Such as seen in the quote below?
In jumping from one Google search to the next, I happened across "The Book of Acts - Corps Notes by vpw - all 467 pages of it. Amazing how these things happen .
"I want you to acquire an in-depth spiritual perception and awareness of the book of Acts and an awareness of the greatness of that Word and how it really fits. You can take any major piece of work that God has given in the Word and if you really work it with a minute accuracy, by the time you finish it you will have garnered the principles that then can be utilized in every other book in every other walk in your life where you are walking and developing that spiritual depth and awareness. ------------------- It’s not something you learn overnight; the new birth is something that happens like that. It’s like the first birth when you were delivered or brought forth. The new birth is an instantaneous thing, but the growing up is in many respects like growing up physically. Spiritual awareness and real sharp perception does not happen overnight. It’s a growth in your walk, your knowledge of the Word and your overall practice of the principles of the greatness of God’s Word."
In jumping from one Google search to the next, I happened across "The Book of Acts - Corps Notes by vpw - all 467 pages of it. Amazing how these things happen .
"I want you to acquire an in-depth spiritual perception and awareness of the book of Acts and an awareness of the greatness of that Word and how it really fits. You can take any major piece of work that God has given in the Word and if you really work it with a minute accuracy, by the time you finish it you will have garnered the principles that then can be utilized in every other book in every other walk in your life where you are walking and developing that spiritual depth and awareness. ------------------- It’s not something you learn overnight; the new birth is something that happens like that. It’s like the first birth when you were delivered or brought forth. The new birth is an instantaneous thing, but the growing up is in many respects like growing up physically. Spiritual awareness and real sharp perception does not happen overnight. It’s a growth in your walk, your knowledge of the Word and your overall practice of the principles of the greatness of God’s Word."
10 hours ago, Nathan_Jr said:
Lots to refute here, bless his little heart, but I’ll start with thie quote above.
Anyone know WITAF are the principles of greatness?
“your knowledge of the Word and your overall practice of the principles of the greatness of God’s Word”
principles are rules, beliefs, or values that guide or influence behavior or evaluation; something based on the laws of nature or a system, something that helps us know what is right and wrong.
Considering the context, it’s one of wierwille’s typical innocuous statements that can be interpreted in many ways. I tend to be wary of his word salads though – since they are often comprised of pat answers, dog whistles (using coded or suggestive language in messaging to garner support from a particular group without provoking opposition), jargon, and just pet phrases he liked to toss out to the audience.
When reading or listening to something wierwille said - as a TWI-cult-survivor I sometimes find myself mentally pressing the slo-mo button to analyze what he’s really saying. Depending on how you slice it and dice it – it could be interpreted as:
your knowledge of the Word [that you get from my class PFAL]and your overall [ complete and undivided ] practice [believing ]of the principles [rules – like the law of believing and all the other stuff I taught you in PFAL ] of the greatness of God’s Word [the vast untapped riches that I’ve already revealed to you in PFAL].
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Here now is the greatness of another T-Bone digression:
“The Word”
Remember the subtle crucial shift of importance in PFAL when wierwille says “The Word takes the place of the absent Christ"…and so instead of a moral imperative to follow Jesus Christ – having a genuine dynamic relationship with a person - Him ! which should be compelling enough – it is eclipsed by an intellectual directive to study “The Word”…that’s what probably led me to have a cold…clinical…book-knowledge approach to Christianity during my time in TWI - rather than pursuing a deeper…personally immersive experience through Jesus Christ.
I am also highly suspicious of the manner in which wierwille seemingly hijacked the term “The Word”. In the NT we know that’s it’s used by itself only a few times (in the Greek The Logos) where it refers to Jesus Christ. He is The Word. Most places it has something attached – “the word of truth”, “the word of God”, “the word of the Lord”, etc. to bring more specificity to the meaning…wierwille so drilled into my head the concept of “The Word” really being his interpretation of the Bible – his saying The Word takes the place of the absent Christ takes on a whole other sinister cult-like meaning.
wierwille so drilled into my head the concept of “The Word” really being his interpretation of the Bible – his saying The Word takes the place of the absent Christ takes on a whole other sinister cult-like meaning.
Like, "the word of God is the will of God."
Means, "the Bible as I teach it is the will of God as I interpret God for you."
From the TWI PoV, it certainly does NOT mean: "Jesus Christ [and what he preached] is the will of God." Particularly since we were actively discouraged from reading the gospels, those naughty OT records!
Means, "the Bible as I teach it is the will of God as I interpret God for you."
From the TWI PoV, it certainly does NOT mean: "Jesus Christ [and what he preached] is the will of God." Particularly since we were actively discouraged from reading the gospels, those naughty OT records!
Twinky, I am thrilled that we, who survived our time in twi and examine it backward, can share for those willing to live forward with our insight. This seems to be the entire purpose of studying history, and long-dead philosophers.
Therefore, I am SOOOOOOO thankful for wisdom like from writings of Kierkegaard, having too recently learned this:
134. Devoted PFAL grads consider the class to bethegold standard of interpretive tools for the Bible.
On page 4 of Power For Abundant Living: The Accuracy of the Bible, wierwille states:
This is a book containing Biblical keys. The contents herein do not teach the Scriptures from Genesis 1:1 to Revelation 22:21; rather, it is designed to set before the reader the basic keys in the Word of God so that Genesis to Revelation will unfold and so that the abundant life which Jesus Christ came to make available will become evident to those who want to appropriate His abundance to their lives.
End of excerpts
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Faithful PFAL grads are encouraged by their leaders to see the things taught in the class as a paragon of excellence. It is considered a benchmark to judge the accuracy of one’s interpretation of a passage. I remember reading an article in The Way Magazine that said “PFAL is the touchstone for truth”. Touchstone = a piece of fine-grained dark schist or jasper formerly used for testing alloys of gold by observing the color of the mark which they made on it; a standard or criterion by which something is judged or recognized; similar words: criterion, standard, yardstick.
24“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. 26But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”
It is ironic that PFAL is referred to as the foundational class.
And note Jesus spoke of a worst-case scenario for failure to heedHiswords. Where would His words be found?
Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written…John 21:25
Power For Abundant Living book, chapter 15 titled To Whom The Word is Written, pages 207ff, wierwille says the following – some comments by me are inserted in black font between brackets []:
Most people believe that the entire Bible – from Genesis to Revelation – is written to them. This is not true. Believing that the entire Word of God is written to everyone throughout history has caused confusion and contradiction in rightly dividing The Word…
[He quotes Romans 15:4 “For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope”, and also I Corinthians 10:11“Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come”, and then he states ]All Scripture before Pentecost is not addressed to us but is for our learning…
…Then what about the laws of Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers – all those things in the Old Testament? Are they addressed to us? No. To whom are they addressed to the Jews or to the Gentiles because the Church of God had not yet come into being…For instance, the Ten Commandments are not written to us, but we can learn from them…
…To this point, people usually understand. But now take this key a step further in accurately dividing God’s Word. To whom were the Gospels addressed? To a period before or after Pentecost? The Bible indicates that the four Gospels…took up with the birth of Christ and terminated with His ascension ten days before the day of Pentecost…
…One of the greatest errors in the translation of the Bible was placing the four Gospels in the New Testament. The Gospels logically belong in the Old Testament…
End of excerpts
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I can still remember around this point in the video how animated wierwille became , as I sat through the foundational class for the first time in 1974. He talked about how in terms of importance and appropriateness, preachers and most Christians thought the status of the Gospels were‘way up here’gesturing by holding his right hand above his head – but the church and leadership epistles were thought to be‘way down here’lowering his hand to just about knee height. There is no clearer example of a misguided cleric broadcasting erroneous interpretive methods than this particular session of PFAL – and the potential danger to those not familiar with the Bible and the basic tenets of Christianity.
No one church group or single believer has got it all right. But at the risk of sounding simplistic, Christianity revolves around Christ. It’s about Him…learning about Him…believing in Him…following Him...the whole idea is to have a genuine dynamic relationship with Jesus Christ...this is not school - you don't need a relationship with another book.
Sure, the Bible is involved – but it would be impossible to find out what Jesus is all about if the gospels were not written (cue the John 21:25verse). Why did wierwille degrade them? And it’s not just learning about Him. It would be impossible to follow Him if we didn’t know what He expected of us to do as His followers - cue the Matthew 7 stuff about hearing Jesus’ words and putting them into practice…That’s Christianity plain and simple...
...Opposite to that - TWI promotes busy work, wishful thinking ,andprocrastination– and they give it all biblical-sounding names or weird definitions and phrases, cult jargon: renewed mind, retemories, positive affirmations, lift list, abundant sharing, held in abeyance, holding forth The Word, under-shepherd someone.
At the end of the PFAL class wierwille encourages the new students to put aside any other reading material for the next 3 months and read the church epistles – and if memory serves – I think he says something like if you do that you won’t recognize yourself…The more I think about that, now as a cult-survivor – wierwille might have unintentionally revealed his goal as a cult-leader…when cults indoctrinate you…brainwash you…whatever you want to call it – it’s not an overnight process where they mold you into a radically different person…from my own 12-year involvement I know it was not shock-therapy but a gradual immersion into the cult lifestyle, slowly adopting the cult mindset. My personality and character were NOT totally replaced - some tendencies, preferences and goals were subjugated...sidetracked...infected,...twisted...but I believe humans are resilient so I believe in hope for every cult-survivor!
The key difference between personality and character is that personality reflects your tendencies, while character reflects what you do. Personality is more of a spectrum, with different levels of influence in different situations. Character is based on the choices that we make when no one else will know about them or see us for who we are…
...Cults make inroads to your heart - to subvert and pervert what drives you, what is allowed to influence you, what sways your judgement. Cults ‘prune’ our decision tree’ – get us to think in absolutes, and reduce the options you have to choose from – it does make life easier – if you want to look at it from a cult-leader’s perspective- your choice in a given situation is either do it our way(i.e., wierwille’s dictates) or do it the world’s way (what normal people do, i.e., put your marriage and family first, get insurance, go to the doctor or emergency room if you're in real serious pain, pursue the goals and career of your choosing - assuming they're legitimate ).
One’s personality and character become modified where it needs to be adapted to survive and ‘thrive’ in a cult environment. Even if you’re the squeaky-clean-Dudley-Do-right type who wouldn’t hurt a fly - if you stay in a harmful and controlling pseudo-Christian cult like The Way International long enough, you’ll learn to turn a blind eye to any moral depravity “for the sake of the ministry”.
Okay – so you’re not mimicking the bad behavior of sexual predators like wierwille or others. Your conscience may not be seared by a hot iron. perhaps you've just lacked opportunity...or maybe you are the squeaky-clean type But if following and supporting known sexual predators doesn’t bother you – maybe you left your conscience in the deep-freeze. And be forewarned unrepentant hypocrites will try to guilt-trip you into being forgiving and not judging others. Never mind that there is a double standard in TWI. Hypocrites prominently stand at the pulpit to preach we should obey "The Word" but don't expect them to walk the talk.
And hey - any of you newcomers to TWI who happened to sneak over to the forbidden Grease Spot Zone - wake up and smell the bull-$hit! Look up what Jesus said about those whitewashing hypocrites. Folks on Grease Spot are not making this stuff up!!!!!!!!! wierwille was a shyster! A plagiarist. A sexual predator. A megalomaniac. A user and abuser. A drunkard. A misogynist. A pathological liar. A malignant narcissist.
The history, teachings, policies, procedures, programs and such of victor paul wierwille are often being revised by upper leadership, under the direction of their lawyers to whitewash their beloved cult-leader. The excessive admiration we all had for him may have been partly due to a self-imposed paradigm shift that we as cult-followers experienced. I believe we all tended to view wierwille in a very positive light. But beyond whatever reasons anyone may have had to hold wierwille in such high regard – there is another more alarming explanation for wierwille possessing such favor - he demanded the utmost respect from his followers! That is something common in harmful and controlling cult-leaders. They REQUIRE excessive admiration...Consider some excerpts from a Joe Navarro article.
Joe Navarro, a former FBI Counterintelligence Agent and the author of What Every BODY is Saying , wrote an August 2012 Psychology Today article titled “Dangerous Cult Leaders: Clues to what makes for a pathological cult leader”. I recommend you check it out - Dangerous Cult Leaders | Psychology Today …when I read it – it has a list of 50 typical traits of the pathological cult leader – it’s sad and unsettling to realize that most of them are a spot-on reflection of wierwille. Another treacherous aspect of pseudo-Christian groups like The Way International is how their trap is already primed for unsuspecting victims who are much more likely to be attracted to traditionalbelief systems like Christianity – something many people are familiar with – compared to something like Scientology.
That leads me to think that to understand the power of harmful and controlling pseudo-Christian cults we should look more at their methods than their seemingly innocuous statements of belief. The trick is to see how these harmful and controlling cults put their “theories” into practice – by twisting Scripture…misinterpreting Scripture…misapplying Scripture to facilitate…to justify…to excuse their bad behavior and exploit others… pseudo-Christian cults want you to use their classes and programs as a filter (an interpretive tool…a skewed interpretive tool) to ‘properly’ understand the Bible.
My oh my…isn’t it funny? Me thinking the PFAL class was thegold standard of interpretive tools for the Bible. That took me on a 12-year detour through crazy town…I did pick up a few souvenirs…WOW pin…Advanced Class nametag…Way Corps nametag…met my future wife (still married – 47 years and loving it)…learned some valuable life-lessons…made some bad decisions…I’m still unpacking my luggage from the trip – sorting out the toxic doctrines, intellectual and emotional baggage. But at least it’s getting unpacked – and I’ve got an idea of what to work on.
PS - don't be alarmed by this picture...it's not me...I actually feel really good when I unpack my mental baggage.
oh crap...where did I put the charger for my Kindle?
135. PFAL teaches “keys to the Words interpretation” that mangle mathematical logic.
For example “things equal to the same thing are equal to each other”. This is kind of a fuzzy logic approach to the transitive property of equality in mathematics.
Buuttttt it’s different.
In PFAL you use this in the “where it’s used before” angles to come up with fantastic insights like Paul’s thorn in the flesh. Thorns are people you see by this “equality” principle. So the word means the same thing despite thousands of years separating the statements, different cultures, people, primary language. And that Paul talks about himself somewhat sparsely in his letters.
Buttttt this fuzzy equality certainly doesn’t apply to Jesus and God for example. And certainly not to “Holy Spirit”.
For those we have to have a separate apology book explaining why the keys in PFAL don’t work like advertised.
JCNG. To start there you have to unlearn all these fuzzy math principles from PFAL. “No they are not the same”. Even Jesus saying “I and my Father are one” that has to have a fuzzy logic interpreter attached. The I am statements further highlight this. But nooooo no transitive property of equality there.
RHST. Same thing. Even the exact same Greek words (nothing was capitalized or not in Greek texts) they don’t equal each other, but we need these charts with circles and triangles and capitalization on it to show you it’s not equal there - pneuma hagion.
But Word of God = Will of God
Hooh boy the fuzzy equality works for them there for sure. Especially that Gods will for your life is VPs scripture interpretations.
Oh and ministry is the Word and the Word is the ministry. That fuzzy logic there they will defend to the death.
136. PFAL students get accustomed to esoteric interpretations of the Bible.
This may seem counterintuitive to PFAL’s strain of fundamentalism. I use the word “strain” to mean the pervading tone of TWI’s curriculum (which is the whole enchilada of the PFAL series of courses – the Foundational, Intermediate and Advanced class). On other threads I have discussed there are at least4 distinct elements in wierwille’s theology here, and here which I’ve labeled signature intuition, fundamentalism, spiritualism and Gnosticism.
Of the 4, in my opinion, Gnosticism may be the most mysterious undertone of PFAL. I use the term Gnosticism – not in a historical sense, referring to a collection of religious ideas and systems that coalesced in the late 1st century AD among Jewish and early Christian sects – rather, I’m highlighting wierwille’s emphasis on personal spiritual knowledge. And like the Gnostics, wierwille seemed to draw on similar themes: material existence being flawed or evil, the principal medium of redemption being a direct knowledge of the divine achieved by mystical insight, concepts of sin and repentance are addressed as devilish deception and enlightenment.
Many things taught in the Advanced Class would be so puzzling to the ears and minds of outsiders. I believe that’s because it is extremely enigmatic, intended for only a select group of people with the “highlyspecialized knowledge” from the formative indoctrinating programs of the foundational and intermediate classes on PFAL.
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On pages 107ff in Scripture Twisting by James W Sire the author addresses the esoteric interpretation of the Bible “…because itpresents itself as a way of understanding the true, spiritual meaningof the Scriptures. As Mary Baker Eddy says, “The one important interpretation of Scripture is the spiritual.”…
…Two separate but related strains in the esoteric tradition concern us. The first is the notion that the Bible… contains a secret, hidden, inner meaning that can only be spiritually discerned…the esoteric interpretation…
…The second is the practice not only of divining the hidden meaning of already existing texts but of receiving new revelation, special communication from the Other Side which tells us new information about reality and even about Jesus – supplementing biblical authority…
…Esoteric interpretation assumes that the Bible does not mean what it says on the surface. As Madam Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, the late nineteenth-century founder of the Theosophical Society, says in Isis Unveiled, “The greatest teachers of divinity agree that nearly all ancient books were written symbolically and, in a language, intelligible only to the initiated.” Unless one has the special insight given only to the few, the elite, one will remain forever on the outside.”
End of excerpts
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Whenever I review Sire’s book, I am always struck by the contradictory nature of wierwille’s theology. In the foundational class on PFAL, in the very first session, wierwille informs us the Bible is the revealed word and will of Godand that it means what it says and says what it means. The dominant theme of the foundational class is fundamentalism. It is not until a faithful TWI-follower gets to the Advanced Class that the other deceptive elements of his signature intuition, spiritualism, and Gnosticism come more into play. And it is because fundamentalism is the predominant “tune” of the foundational class on PFAL, that it is almost impossible to get newly minted grads to notice the anamorphic undertones.
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Next up is the 137th reason of why PFAL sucks:PFAL supplements Biblical authority.
This item was referred to in the previous point - # 136 - PFAL students get accustomed to esoteric interpretations of the Bible - mentioned in passing in the excerpts from Scripture Twisting by James W Sire . On pages 115ff of the same book the author continues:
The second strain in the esoteric tradition is not just to discern new spiritual meanings to old scriptural texts but to supplementthe Bible with new revelation or to add authorities other than revelation as such…
…The Mormons, of course, are an important example of those who supplement the Bible with other authorities. Not only do they add the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price , they also have a “living prophet,” the head of the Mormon church through whom revelation still comes…
…they believe that the Bible contains errors not found in the other scriptures ["other scriptures" = the author referring to supplemental “sacred texts” like The Book of Mormon, etc.] due to faulty translations and ignorance on the part of translators…
End of excerpts
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The similarities of The Way International and The Mormons are very striking.
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In the authorized book on TWI, titled “The Way Living in Love” (by Elena S. Whiteside, co 1972, American Christian Press, Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 72-89132), on page 178, Whiteside quotes wierwille:
… “I was praying. And I told Father outright that He could have the whole thing, unless there were real genuine answers that I wouldn't ever have to back up on. And that's when He spoke to me audibly, just like I'm talking to you now. He said He would teach me the Word as it had not been known since the first century if I would teach it to others. Well, I nearly flew off my chair. I couldn't believe that God would talk to me.”
On page 209 of Whiteside’s book wierwille comments on the content of what he teaches: “Lots of the stuff I teach is not original. Putting it all together so that it fit – that was the original work. I learned wherever I could, and then worked that with the Scriptures. What was right on with the Scriptures, I kept; but what wasn’t, I dropped.”
The subtle implication of wierwille’s claim shifts the Bible’s authority away from the text-in-context of the Bible and onto wierwille’s self-assumed authority.
Besides the fact that wierwille is trying to hide his abundant plagiarism in plain sight by referring to it as Putting it all together so that it fit , his fantastic claim that God would teach him “the Word” as it had not been known since the first century – it is worth noting that Christians back in that apostolic age had no Bible – the New Testament had NOT been written and The Septuagintwas not in circulation.
There is a huge gulf of differences in the cultures, the languages, and the worldviews that modern people find in the Bible. The problem is not the recognition of the gulf – but the method used to cross it. A modern-day reader of the Bible who wishes to treat the text itself as carrying some form of authority must pay attention to the values and priorities evidenced in the text itself, discernable through its composition and presentation, just as a translator who wishes to respect the integrity of the source document must be very attentive to the identifiable grammatical and semantic values of the ancient text… Some information from Demons and Spirits in Biblical Theology: Reading the Biblical Text in Its Cultural and Literary Contextpages 3ff.
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On page 83 of the PFAL book in the chapter “That Man May Be Perfect” wierwille states:
“…Let’s see this from John 5:39. “Search the Scriptures…” It does not say search Shakespeare or Kant or Plato or Aristotle or V.P. Wierwille’s writings or the writings of a denomination. No, it says, “Search the scriptures…” because all Scripture is God-breathed. Not all that Wierwille writes will necessarily be God-breathed; not what Calvin said, nor Luther, nor Wesley, nor Graham, nor Roberts; but the Scriptures – they are God-breathed.”
End of excerpts
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wierwille makes several insinuations here. First off, he suggests that not ALL that wierwille writes will necessarily be God-breathed; that implies SOME of it is…secondly, wierwille is not as generous with conferring the God-breathed status on others. For example - he does NOT say “not all what Calvin said was necessarily God-breathed, nor all that Luther said…& etc.” Rather he simply states “not what Calvin said, nor Luther…”which suggests that none of their writings are God-breathed whereas at least someof wierwille’s writings are God-breathed.
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As a TWI-cult-survivor reflecting on my 12 years of involvement it is obvious to me now how much I held PFAL in high regard. Without realizing it I used it as a supplement to Biblical authority. I have noticed that in debates on Grease Spot Café some huge PFAL fans argue as if the class material has the same divine authoritative status as the Bible. They cite a tenet of PFAL like the law of believing works for saint and sinner alike. A bogus claim like that is easily shot down by asking the huge PFAL fan, “Where does it say that in the Bible?”
Subjected to usually implies an unwelcome or unpleasant experience. That is certainly true of taking the same boring PFAL class repeatedly or getting corralled into working on the class crew. But I’d have to say the first time I took PFAL in ’74 it was an exciting experience and I welcomed the newness and promise of it all.
Subjected to wierwille's indoctrination is definitely fitting - by degrees - depending on variables – the individual, the class or program. And the subtle thing about indoctrination is how I adapted to it (got accustomed to it) – I was not aware it being done to me.
Supplement = something that completes or enhances something else when added to it.
Supplant = supersede and replace; displace.
I think both supplement and supplant speak to the overt and covert operations of a steady diet of PFAL…maybe it’s like getting accustomed to being subjected to indoctrination.
So, it could start out I think of PFAL as supplementing - completing or enhancing - my study of the Bible. That’s probably how the almost undetectable PFAL-filter slowly skewed my understanding of the Bible to see it wierwille’s way. Over time the PFAL-filter tends to dominate my thinking – supplanting…replacing a biblical concept with wierwille’s distortion. Going from love thy neighbor as thyself to anything done in the love of God is okay. Uh oh.
Subjected to usually implies an unwelcome or unpleasant experience. That is certainly true of taking the same boring PFAL class repeatedly or getting corralled into working on the class crew. But I’d have to say the first time I took PFAL in ’74 it was an exciting experience and I welcomed the newness and promise of it all.
Subjected to wierwille's indoctrination is definitely fitting - by degrees - depending on variables – the individual, the class or program. And the subtle thing about indoctrination is how I adapted to it (got accustomed to it) – I was not aware it being done to me.
Supplement = something that completes or enhances something else when added to it.
Supplant = supersede and replace; displace.
I think both supplement and supplant speak to the overt and covert operations of a steady diet of PFAL…maybe it’s like getting accustomed to being subjected to indoctrination.
So, it could start out I think of PFAL as supplementing - completing or enhancing - my study of the Bible. That’s probably how the almost undetectable PFAL-filter slowly skewed my understanding of the Bible to see it wierwille’s way. Over time the PFAL-filter tends to dominate my thinking – supplanting…replacing a biblical concept with wierwille’s distortion. Going from love thy neighbor as thyself to anything done in the love of God is okay. Uh oh.
~ ~ ~ ~
Excellent alternatives in both cases, Rocky !! Good team work.
138. PFAL facilitates wierwille imposing his will on my life.
This is a tough one to figure out – and it took me a few years after I left TWI to do it. For me the difficulty was in sorting out what the Bible (and by extension God, and of course the mysterious inner working of the Holy Spirit) inspires me to do and what wierwille saidthe Bible demanded I should do.
In the first session of PFAL wierwille presents some problematic ideas:
1.The greatest secret in the world today is that the Bible is the revealed word and will of God.
2.It’s a secret because people don’t believe it.
3.The Bible means what it says and says what it means.
In one fell swoop wierwille paved the way for his esoteric interpretations ( see previous item # 136), an us-versus-them mentality ( see item # 34 ) , and fundamentalism(see item # 62 ).
Let’s look at this trinity of trouble:
1.Is it a secret?It’s almost funny …more like sad - how gullible I was – being young and naïve – that I bought into his contradictory concept that even though in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions The Bible is considered to be thesacred text for their belief system…who knew !
All kidding aside, I think the intention may have been to lure students into wierwille’s circle of trust. Being raised Roman Catholic I already trusted the Bible – even though it was a very simple understanding of its themes. I learned to trust wierwille because he seemed to know so much about it.
****
2. Do people believe it?This is where we separate the dogmatists from the cool cats. There is a world of behavioral differences between our cat and dog. Dogmatists are like the alpha dog – the dominant one in a pack setting – the pack submits. Alphas achieve and maintain their position by strength and aggression, social efforts and building alliances. In our home, I’m the alpha dog. Dogs are social animals. Anyone who sees the way I relate to our dog and cat will witness how much I love them…spoil them…I’m more of a pet valet, I enjoy tending to their every need.
Dogs are so compliant. We all know of someone who mistreats their dog – they could kick the dog for having a bad day at work – but that dog still loves the grouchy owner, and greets him with a wagging tail when he comes home from work tomorrow.
To me cats epitomize the free-spirited type. They’re independent, compliance is NOT in their DNA, they have their own hobbies and interests, and conduct extensive research in the art and science of chillax. zzzzZZZZ ZZZzzz (fyi our cat is a professor at the institute of research for long naps ... ...as you were, kitty zzzZZZ ZZZzzz )
Reflecting on my time in The Way International, I was more of a frustrated cool cat trying to fit into TWI's dogmatic group-think pack. The cult-leader (during my time in it was first wierwille, and then Craig ) wasthealpha dog and in a military-type chain-of-command instructions, directives, priorities, goals, agendas and such are passed down to the rank and file.
Truth be told, even though I decided to go into the way corps leadership training program (at the time thinking it was God’s will) being a leader…a pastor…a preacher…a teacher…an administrator…a motivational speaker…or a sales rep have never been goals for me.
I’m more of a technical research and support guy – something pretty much useless at TWI. If you haven’t already read it, you should check out Penworks’ book Undertow: My Escape from the Fundamentalism and Cult Control of The Way International . She worked in TWI’s research department. Amazon’s description of her book says after she “was promoted to the inner circle of biblical researchers, where she discovered devastating secrets: Wierwille twisted texts of Scripture to serve his personal agenda, shamelessly plagiarized the work of others, and misrepresented the purpose of his organization.
Worst of all, after Wierwille died in 1985, shocking reports surfaced of his secret sex ring. Amid chaos at The Way's Ohio-based headquarters, Charlene knew she had to escape--for her own survival and her child's. Reading like a novel, Undertow is not only a brilliant cautionary tale about misplaced faith but also an exposé of the hazards of fundamentalism and the destructive nature of cults.
Through her personal story, Charlene Edge shows how a vulnerable person can be seduced into following an authoritarian leader and how difficult it can be to find a way out.”
end of excerpt from Amazon page
When wierwille said It’s a secret because people don’t believe it – I think what he really meant was those outside of his ministry do NOT accept his unique interpretation of the Bible.
****
3. The Bible means what it says?What further compounds the problem of wierwille’s dogmatic fundamentalism, is his inane concept that the Bible interprets itself(see item # 22). Just pause for a moment and think about what an affront that is to logic, linguistics, historians, sociologists, anthropologists, and philosophers – not to mention Bible scholars, translators, and textual researchers. We’re talking about a compilation of 66 different books written by 40 different authors over the course of an approximately 1500-year period, using basically 3 different languages, spanning a variety of cultural, political, and geographical settings.
Scripture interpreting itself is nonsensical because it implies no other agency is needed. Even today when clear and accurate communication is essential an interpreter or translator is necessary to explain or express the sense of words and phrases between countries of different languages and cultures. Note there is an intermediary or go-between involved - a person who acts as a link between people of different languages / cultures.
The ancient biblical manuscripts were written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Koine Greek. A translator of those texts is building a bridge to connect disparate people of another time, culture, and language with people of today who speak English, Spanish, Chinese, Russian, Arabic, Hindi, etc.
~ ~ ~ ~
So how did PFAL make it possible for wierwille to force his will on my life?
The class pushes a materialistic attitude – where material possessions and physical comfort become more important than spiritual values. ( see item # 127) . To attain those things wierwille also asserts a student must use the law of believing (see item # 6 in starter post for this thread ) . One way to describe my 12 years of TWI is vicious cycles of cause and effect that would intensify, and aggravate each other…which frustrated and disappointed me to no end!
Like many prosperity-gospel ministries, wierwille fed followers a load of unbiblical expectations (aka cult-leader bull-$hit ).
Having a problem receiving those “promises of God” ?
Introducing the hard sell - the vicious cycle:
You need to sit through the PFAL class again to build your believing –
or
take this class or that class or go into this program or that program to gain experience and build confidence in how God can work mightily through your believing.
In a sense you’re not following God’s will. You’re conforming to the will of wierwille. You’re making choices based on the agenda and options the cult-leader has laid out for you.
139. PFAL is the first steps into a quicksand that pulls a person down into a mire of illogic ego and stupidity dedicating your life to help others take the same class.
No class output by man as a work product should do that. No class should be substituted for the new birth like “did you take THE CLASS yet?”
wierwille makes several insinuations here. First off, he suggests that not ALL that wierwille writes will necessarily be God-breathed; that implies SOME of it is…secondly, wierwille is not as generous with conferring the God-breathed status on others. For example - he does NOT say “not all what Calvin said was necessarily God-breathed, nor all that Luther said…& etc.” Rather he simply states “not what Calvin said, nor Luther…”which suggests that none of their writings are God-breathed whereas at least someof wierwille’s writings are God-breathed.
You didn't cite me here. You took my material nearly word-for-word in places, and idea-for-idea in places.
And assuming you and I have discussed this before, you switched positions on this issue of PFAL p.83 and come over to my side, the side I've been posting on here for 20 years, and I was always opposed by everyone on it.
I think I owe a thanks to Nathan Jr for first recognizing I was rightly dividing PFAL page 83.
I salute your progress, and am not that angry that you didn't cite me. It would have just cluttered up your post.
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penworks
VPW's statement that the Bible interprets itself is nonsense. The act of interpretation of any text is done by the reader of the text. People interpret what they read. They are the ones who give it me
waysider
And in doing so, he was violating his own "To Whom it is Written" rule.
Charity
What I see in what you wrote Chockfull is that we were meant to have a relationship with the class - you know the one that replaced our relationship with Christ. It was our lord in that it had power,
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Charity
In jumping from one Google search to the next, I happened across "The Book of Acts - Corps Notes by vpw - all 467 pages of it. Amazing how these things happen
.
http://eternallyblessed.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Acts-Corps-Notes.pdf
Here's a quote from page 7
"I want you to acquire an in-depth spiritual perception and awareness of the book of Acts and an awareness of the greatness of that Word and how it really fits. You can take any major piece of work that God has given in the Word and if you really work it with a minute accuracy, by the time you finish it you will have garnered the principles that then can be utilized in every other book in every other walk in your life where you are walking and developing that spiritual depth and awareness. ------------------- It’s not something you learn overnight; the new birth is something that happens like that. It’s like the first birth when you were delivered or brought forth. The new birth is an instantaneous thing, but the growing up is in many respects like growing up physically. Spiritual awareness and real sharp perception does not happen overnight. It’s a growth in your walk, your knowledge of the Word and your overall practice of the principles of the greatness of God’s Word."
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Nathan_Jr
Lots to refute here, bless his little heart, but I’ll start with thie quote above.
Anyone know WITAF are the principles of greatness?
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Charity
Too funny - ask Mikey, he knows everything!
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Nathan_Jr
Well, he has hunches, but he’s no bishop.
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T-Bone
“your knowledge of the Word and your overall practice of the principles of the greatness of God’s Word”
principles are rules, beliefs, or values that guide or influence behavior or evaluation; something based on the laws of nature or a system, something that helps us know what is right and wrong.
Considering the context, it’s one of wierwille’s typical innocuous statements that can be interpreted in many ways. I tend to be wary of his word salads though – since they are often comprised of pat answers, dog whistles (using coded or suggestive language in messaging to garner support from a particular group without provoking opposition), jargon, and just pet phrases he liked to toss out to the audience.
When reading or listening to something wierwille said - as a TWI-cult-survivor I sometimes find myself mentally pressing the slo-mo button to analyze what he’s really saying. Depending on how you slice it and dice it – it could be interpreted as:
your knowledge of the Word [that you get from my class PFAL] and your overall [ complete and undivided ] practice [believing ] of the principles [rules – like the law of believing and all the other stuff I taught you in PFAL ] of the greatness of God’s Word [the vast untapped riches that I’ve already revealed to you in PFAL].
~ ~ ~ ~
Here now is the greatness of another T-Bone digression:
“The Word”
Remember the subtle crucial shift of importance in PFAL when wierwille says “The Word takes the place of the absent Christ"…and so instead of a moral imperative to follow Jesus Christ – having a genuine dynamic relationship with a person - Him ! which should be compelling enough – it is eclipsed by an intellectual directive to study “The Word”…that’s what probably led me to have a cold…clinical…book-knowledge approach to Christianity during my time in TWI - rather than pursuing a deeper…personally immersive experience through Jesus Christ.
I am also highly suspicious of the manner in which wierwille seemingly hijacked the term “The Word”. In the NT we know that’s it’s used by itself only a few times (in the Greek The Logos) where it refers to Jesus Christ. He is The Word. Most places it has something attached – “the word of truth”, “the word of God”, “the word of the Lord”, etc. to bring more specificity to the meaning…wierwille so drilled into my head the concept of “The Word” really being his interpretation of the Bible – his saying The Word takes the place of the absent Christ takes on a whole other sinister cult-like meaning.
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Twinky
Like, "the word of God is the will of God."
Means, "the Bible as I teach it is the will of God as I interpret God for you."
From the TWI PoV, it certainly does NOT mean: "Jesus Christ [and what he preached] is the will of God." Particularly since we were actively discouraged from reading the gospels, those naughty OT records!
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Rocky
Twinky, I am thrilled that we, who survived our time in twi and examine it backward, can share for those willing to live forward with our insight. This seems to be the entire purpose of studying history, and long-dead philosophers.
Therefore, I am SOOOOOOO thankful for wisdom like from writings of Kierkegaard, having too recently learned this:
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T-Bone
134. Devoted PFAL grads consider the class to be the gold standard of interpretive tools for the Bible.
On page 4 of Power For Abundant Living: The Accuracy of the Bible, wierwille states:
This is a book containing Biblical keys. The contents herein do not teach the Scriptures from Genesis 1:1 to Revelation 22:21; rather, it is designed to set before the reader the basic keys in the Word of God so that Genesis to Revelation will unfold and so that the abundant life which Jesus Christ came to make available will become evident to those who want to appropriate His abundance to their lives.
End of excerpts
~ ~ ~ ~
Faithful PFAL grads are encouraged by their leaders to see the things taught in the class as a paragon of excellence. It is considered a benchmark to judge the accuracy of one’s interpretation of a passage. I remember reading an article in The Way Magazine that said “PFAL is the touchstone for truth”. Touchstone = a piece of fine-grained dark schist or jasper formerly used for testing alloys of gold by observing the color of the mark which they made on it; a standard or criterion by which something is judged or recognized; similar words: criterion, standard, yardstick.
Philosophically, this is one of the many fatal flaws ( see Why PFAL sucks item # 133, posted 4/18/2023 4:18 PM ) that may ultimately lead to ruining a life. Consider the words of Jesus Christ:
24 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. 26 But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”
Matthew 7 NIV
It is ironic that PFAL is referred to as the foundational class.
And note Jesus spoke of a worst-case scenario for failure to heed His words. Where would His words be found?
Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written…John 21:25
Power For Abundant Living book, chapter 15 titled To Whom The Word is Written, pages 207ff, wierwille says the following – some comments by me are inserted in black font between brackets [ ]:
Most people believe that the entire Bible – from Genesis to Revelation – is written to them. This is not true. Believing that the entire Word of God is written to everyone throughout history has caused confusion and contradiction in rightly dividing The Word…
[He quotes Romans 15:4 “For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope”, and also I Corinthians 10:11 “Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come”, and then he states ] All Scripture before Pentecost is not addressed to us but is for our learning…
…Then what about the laws of Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers – all those things in the Old Testament? Are they addressed to us? No. To whom are they addressed to the Jews or to the Gentiles because the Church of God had not yet come into being…For instance, the Ten Commandments are not written to us, but we can learn from them…
…To this point, people usually understand. But now take this key a step further in accurately dividing God’s Word. To whom were the Gospels addressed? To a period before or after Pentecost? The Bible indicates that the four Gospels…took up with the birth of Christ and terminated with His ascension ten days before the day of Pentecost…
…One of the greatest errors in the translation of the Bible was placing the four Gospels in the New Testament. The Gospels logically belong in the Old Testament…
End of excerpts
~ ~ ~ ~
I can still remember around this point in the video how animated wierwille became , as I sat through the foundational class for the first time in 1974. He talked about how in terms of importance and appropriateness, preachers and most Christians thought the status of the Gospels were ‘way up here’ gesturing by holding his right hand above his head – but the church and leadership epistles were thought to be ‘way down here’ lowering his hand to just about knee height. There is no clearer example of a misguided cleric broadcasting erroneous interpretive methods than this particular session of PFAL – and the potential danger to those not familiar with the Bible and the basic tenets of Christianity.
No one church group or single believer has got it all right. But at the risk of sounding simplistic, Christianity revolves around Christ. It’s about Him…learning about Him…believing in Him…following Him...the whole idea is to have a genuine dynamic relationship with Jesus Christ...this is not school - you don't need a relationship with another book.
Sure, the Bible is involved – but it would be impossible to find out what Jesus is all about if the gospels were not written (cue the John 21:25 verse). Why did wierwille degrade them? And it’s not just learning about Him. It would be impossible to follow Him if we didn’t know what He expected of us to do as His followers - cue the Matthew 7 stuff about hearing Jesus’ words and putting them into practice…That’s Christianity plain and simple...
...Opposite to that - TWI promotes busy work , wishful thinking , and procrastination – and they give it all biblical-sounding names or weird definitions and phrases, cult jargon: renewed mind, retemories, positive affirmations, lift list, abundant sharing, held in abeyance, holding forth The Word, under-shepherd someone.
At the end of the PFAL class wierwille encourages the new students to put aside any other reading material for the next 3 months and read the church epistles – and if memory serves – I think he says something like if you do that you won’t recognize yourself…The more I think about that, now as a cult-survivor – wierwille might have unintentionally revealed his goal as a cult-leader…when cults indoctrinate you…brainwash you…whatever you want to call it – it’s not an overnight process where they mold you into a radically different person…from my own 12-year involvement I know it was not shock-therapy but a gradual immersion into the cult lifestyle, slowly adopting the cult mindset. My personality and character were NOT totally replaced - some tendencies, preferences and goals were subjugated...sidetracked...infected,...twisted...but I believe humans are resilient so I believe in hope for every cult-survivor!
The key difference between personality and character is that personality reflects your tendencies, while character reflects what you do. Personality is more of a spectrum, with different levels of influence in different situations. Character is based on the choices that we make when no one else will know about them or see us for who we are…
...Cults make inroads to your heart - to subvert and pervert what drives you, what is allowed to influence you, what sways your judgement. Cults ‘prune’ our decision tree’ – get us to think in absolutes, and reduce the options you have to choose from – it does make life easier – if you want to look at it from a cult-leader’s perspective
- your choice in a given situation is either do it our way (i.e., wierwille’s dictates) or do it the world’s way (what normal people do, i.e., put your marriage and family first, get insurance, go to the doctor or emergency room if you're in real serious pain, pursue the goals and career of your choosing - assuming they're legitimate 
).
One’s personality and character become modified where it needs to be adapted to survive and ‘thrive’ in a cult environment. Even if you’re the squeaky-clean-Dudley-Do-right type who wouldn’t hurt a fly - if you stay in a harmful and controlling pseudo-Christian cult like The Way International long enough, you’ll learn to turn a blind eye to any moral depravity “for the sake of the ministry”.
Okay – so you’re not mimicking the bad behavior of sexual predators like wierwille or others. Your conscience may not be seared by a hot iron. perhaps you've just lacked opportunity...or maybe you are the squeaky-clean type
But if following and supporting known sexual predators doesn’t bother you – maybe you left your conscience in the deep-freeze. 
And be forewarned unrepentant hypocrites will try to guilt-trip you into being forgiving and not judging others. Never mind that there is a double standard in TWI. Hypocrites prominently stand at the pulpit to preach we should obey "The Word" but don't expect them to walk the talk.
And hey - any of you newcomers to TWI who happened to sneak over to the forbidden Grease Spot Zone - wake up and smell the bull-$hit! Look up what Jesus said about those whitewashing hypocrites. Folks on Grease Spot are not making this stuff up!!!!!!!!! wierwille was a shyster! A plagiarist. A sexual predator. A megalomaniac. A user and abuser. A drunkard. A misogynist. A pathological liar. A malignant narcissist.
The history, teachings, policies, procedures, programs and such of victor paul wierwille are often being revised by upper leadership, under the direction of their lawyers to whitewash their beloved cult-leader. The excessive admiration we all had for him may have been partly due to a self-imposed paradigm shift that we as cult-followers experienced. I believe we all tended to view wierwille in a very positive light. But beyond whatever reasons anyone may have had to hold wierwille in such high regard – there is another more alarming explanation for wierwille possessing such favor - he demanded the utmost respect from his followers! That is something common in harmful and controlling cult-leaders. They REQUIRE excessive admiration...Consider some excerpts from a Joe Navarro article.
Joe Navarro, a former FBI Counterintelligence Agent and the author of What Every BODY is Saying , wrote an August 2012 Psychology Today article titled “Dangerous Cult Leaders: Clues to what makes for a pathological cult leader”. I recommend you check it out - Dangerous Cult Leaders | Psychology Today …when I read it – it has a list of 50 typical traits of the pathological cult leader – it’s sad and unsettling to realize that most of them are a spot-on reflection of wierwille. Another treacherous aspect of pseudo-Christian groups like The Way International is how their trap is already primed for unsuspecting victims who are much more likely to be attracted to traditional belief systems like Christianity – something many people are familiar with – compared to something like Scientology.
That leads me to think that to understand the power of harmful and controlling pseudo-Christian cults we should look more at their methods than their seemingly innocuous statements of belief. The trick is to see how these harmful and controlling cults put their “theories” into practice – by twisting Scripture…misinterpreting Scripture…misapplying Scripture to facilitate…to justify…to excuse their bad behavior and exploit others… pseudo-Christian cults want you to use their classes and programs as a filter (an interpretive tool…a skewed interpretive tool) to ‘properly’ understand the Bible.
My oh my…isn’t it funny? Me thinking the PFAL class was the gold standard of interpretive tools for the Bible. That took me on a 12-year detour through crazy town…I did pick up a few souvenirs…WOW pin…Advanced Class nametag…Way Corps nametag…met my future wife (still married – 47 years and loving it)…learned some valuable life-lessons…made some bad decisions…I’m still unpacking my luggage from the trip – sorting out the toxic doctrines, intellectual and emotional baggage. But at least it’s getting unpacked – and I’ve got an idea of what to work on.
PS - don't be alarmed by this picture...it's not me...I actually feel really good when I unpack my mental baggage.
oh crap...where did I put the charger for my Kindle?
Edited by T-Boneemojis that interpret themselves
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chockfull
135. PFAL teaches “keys to the Words interpretation” that mangle mathematical logic.
For example “things equal to the same thing are equal to each other”. This is kind of a fuzzy logic approach to the transitive property of equality in mathematics.
Buuttttt it’s different.
In PFAL you use this in the “where it’s used before” angles to come up with fantastic insights like Paul’s thorn in the flesh. Thorns are people you see by this “equality” principle. So the word means the same thing despite thousands of years separating the statements, different cultures, people, primary language. And that Paul talks about himself somewhat sparsely in his letters.
Buttttt this fuzzy equality certainly doesn’t apply to Jesus and God for example. And certainly not to “Holy Spirit”.
For those we have to have a separate apology book explaining why the keys in PFAL don’t work like advertised.
JCNG. To start there you have to unlearn all these fuzzy math principles from PFAL. “No they are not the same”. Even Jesus saying “I and my Father are one” that has to have a fuzzy logic interpreter attached. The I am statements further highlight this. But nooooo no transitive property of equality there.
RHST. Same thing. Even the exact same Greek words (nothing was capitalized or not in Greek texts) they don’t equal each other, but we need these charts with circles and triangles and capitalization on it to show you it’s not equal there - pneuma hagion.
But Word of God = Will of God
Hooh boy the fuzzy equality works for them there for sure. Especially that Gods will for your life is VPs scripture interpretations.
Oh and ministry is the Word and the Word is the ministry. That fuzzy logic there they will defend to the death.
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T-Bone
136. PFAL students get accustomed to esoteric interpretations of the Bible.
This may seem counterintuitive to PFAL’s strain of fundamentalism. I use the word “strain” to mean the pervading tone of TWI’s curriculum (which is the whole enchilada of the PFAL series of courses – the Foundational, Intermediate and Advanced class). On other threads I have discussed there are at least 4 distinct elements in wierwille’s theology here , and here which I’ve labeled signature intuition, fundamentalism, spiritualism and Gnosticism.
Of the 4, in my opinion, Gnosticism may be the most mysterious undertone of PFAL. I use the term Gnosticism – not in a historical sense, referring to a collection of religious ideas and systems that coalesced in the late 1st century AD among Jewish and early Christian sects – rather, I’m highlighting wierwille’s emphasis on personal spiritual knowledge. And like the Gnostics, wierwille seemed to draw on similar themes: material existence being flawed or evil, the principal medium of redemption being a direct knowledge of the divine achieved by mystical insight, concepts of sin and repentance are addressed as devilish deception and enlightenment.
also see:
Gnosticism - Wikipedia
Gnosticism - Britannica
Gnosticism | Theopedia
Gnosticism explained - learnreligions.com
Welcome - Gnosticism Explained )
~ ~ ~ ~
Many things taught in the Advanced Class would be so puzzling to the ears and minds of outsiders. I believe that’s because it is extremely enigmatic, intended for only a select group of people with the “highly specialized knowledge” from the formative indoctrinating programs of the foundational and intermediate classes on PFAL.
~ ~ ~ ~
On pages 107ff in Scripture Twisting by James W Sire the author addresses the esoteric interpretation of the Bible “…because it presents itself as a way of understanding the true, spiritual meaning of the Scriptures. As Mary Baker Eddy says, “The one important interpretation of Scripture is the spiritual.”…
…Two separate but related strains in the esoteric tradition concern us. The first is the notion that the Bible… contains a secret, hidden, inner meaning that can only be spiritually discerned…the esoteric interpretation…
…The second is the practice not only of divining the hidden meaning of already existing texts but of receiving new revelation, special communication from the Other Side which tells us new information about reality and even about Jesus – supplementing biblical authority…
…Esoteric interpretation assumes that the Bible does not mean what it says on the surface. As Madam Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, the late nineteenth-century founder of the Theosophical Society, says in Isis Unveiled, “The greatest teachers of divinity agree that nearly all ancient books were written symbolically and, in a language, intelligible only to the initiated.” Unless one has the special insight given only to the few, the elite, one will remain forever on the outside.”
End of excerpts
~ ~ ~ ~
Whenever I review Sire’s book, I am always struck by the contradictory nature of wierwille’s theology. In the foundational class on PFAL, in the very first session, wierwille informs us the Bible is the revealed word and will of God and that it means what it says and says what it means. The dominant theme of the foundational class is fundamentalism. It is not until a faithful TWI-follower gets to the Advanced Class that the other deceptive elements of his signature intuition, spiritualism, and Gnosticism come more into play. And it is because fundamentalism is the predominant “tune” of the foundational class on PFAL, that it is almost impossible to get newly minted grads to notice the anamorphic undertones.
~ ~ ~ ~
Next up is the 137th reason of why PFAL sucks: PFAL supplements Biblical authority.
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T-Bone
137. PFAL supplements Biblical authority
This item was referred to in the previous point - # 136 - PFAL students get accustomed to esoteric interpretations of the Bible - mentioned in passing in the excerpts from Scripture Twisting by James W Sire . On pages 115ff of the same book the author continues:
The second strain in the esoteric tradition is not just to discern new spiritual meanings to old scriptural texts but to supplement the Bible with new revelation or to add authorities other than revelation as such…
…The Mormons, of course, are an important example of those who supplement the Bible with other authorities. Not only do they add the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price , they also have a “living prophet,” the head of the Mormon church through whom revelation still comes…
…they believe that the Bible contains errors not found in the other scriptures ["other scriptures" = the author referring to supplemental “sacred texts” like The Book of Mormon, etc.] due to faulty translations and ignorance on the part of translators…
End of excerpts
~ ~ ~ ~
The similarities of The Way International and The Mormons are very striking.
~ ~ ~ ~
In the authorized book on TWI, titled “The Way Living in Love” (by Elena S. Whiteside, co 1972, American Christian Press, Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 72-89132), on page 178, Whiteside quotes wierwille:
… “I was praying. And I told Father outright that He could have the whole thing, unless there were real genuine answers that I wouldn't ever have to back up on. And that's when He spoke to me audibly, just like I'm talking to you now. He said He would teach me the Word as it had not been known since the first century if I would teach it to others. Well, I nearly flew off my chair. I couldn't believe that God would talk to me.”
On page 209 of Whiteside’s book wierwille comments on the content of what he teaches: “Lots of the stuff I teach is not original. Putting it all together so that it fit – that was the original work. I learned wherever I could, and then worked that with the Scriptures. What was right on with the Scriptures, I kept; but what wasn’t, I dropped.”
The subtle implication of wierwille’s claim shifts the Bible’s authority away from the text-in-context of the Bible and onto wierwille’s self-assumed authority.
Besides the fact that wierwille is trying to hide his abundant plagiarism in plain sight by referring to it as Putting it all together so that it fit , his fantastic claim that God would teach him “the Word” as it had not been known since the first century – it is worth noting that Christians back in that apostolic age had no Bible – the New Testament had NOT been written and The Septuagint was not in circulation.
There is a huge gulf of differences in the cultures, the languages, and the worldviews that modern people find in the Bible. The problem is not the recognition of the gulf – but the method used to cross it. A modern-day reader of the Bible who wishes to treat the text itself as carrying some form of authority must pay attention to the values and priorities evidenced in the text itself, discernable through its composition and presentation, just as a translator who wishes to respect the integrity of the source document must be very attentive to the identifiable grammatical and semantic values of the ancient text… Some information from Demons and Spirits in Biblical Theology: Reading the Biblical Text in Its Cultural and Literary Context pages 3ff.
~ ~ ~ ~
On page 83 of the PFAL book in the chapter “That Man May Be Perfect” wierwille states:
“…Let’s see this from John 5:39. “Search the Scriptures…” It does not say search Shakespeare or Kant or Plato or Aristotle or V.P. Wierwille’s writings or the writings of a denomination. No, it says, “Search the scriptures…” because all Scripture is God-breathed. Not all that Wierwille writes will necessarily be God-breathed; not what Calvin said, nor Luther, nor Wesley, nor Graham, nor Roberts; but the Scriptures – they are God-breathed.”
End of excerpts
~ ~ ~ ~
wierwille makes several insinuations here. First off, he suggests that not ALL that wierwille writes will necessarily be God-breathed; that implies SOME of it is…secondly, wierwille is not as generous with conferring the God-breathed status on others. For example - he does NOT say “not all what Calvin said was necessarily God-breathed, nor all that Luther said…& etc.” Rather he simply states “not what Calvin said, nor Luther…”which suggests that none of their writings are God-breathed whereas at least some of wierwille’s writings are God-breathed.
~ ~ ~ ~
As a TWI-cult-survivor reflecting on my 12 years of involvement it is obvious to me now how much I held PFAL in high regard. Without realizing it I used it as a supplement to Biblical authority. I have noticed that in debates on Grease Spot Café some huge PFAL fans argue as if the class material has the same divine authoritative status as the Bible. They cite a tenet of PFAL like the law of believing works for saint and sinner alike. A bogus claim like that is easily shot down by asking the huge PFAL fan, “Where does it say that in the Bible?”
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Rocky
Intriguing and salient points in both cases.
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T-Bone
studentsare subjected to Wierwillian indoctrination and become accustomed to esoteric interpretations of the Bible.Subjected to usually implies an unwelcome or unpleasant experience. That is certainly true of taking the same boring PFAL class repeatedly or getting corralled into working on the class crew. But I’d have to say the first time I took PFAL in ’74 it was an exciting experience and I welcomed the newness and promise of it all.
Subjected to wierwille's indoctrination is definitely fitting - by degrees - depending on variables – the individual, the class or program. And the subtle thing about indoctrination is how I adapted to it (got accustomed to it)
– I was not aware it being done to me.
Rocky's alternate: PFAL supplements [supplants?] Biblical authority
T-Bone's response:
Supplement = something that completes or enhances something else when added to it.
Supplant = supersede and replace; displace.
I think both supplement and supplant speak to the overt and covert operations of a steady diet of PFAL…maybe it’s like getting accustomed to being subjected to indoctrination.
So, it could start out I think of PFAL as supplementing - completing or enhancing - my study of the Bible. That’s probably how the almost undetectable PFAL-filter slowly skewed my understanding of the Bible to see it wierwille’s way. Over time the PFAL-filter tends to dominate my thinking – supplanting…replacing a biblical concept with wierwille’s distortion. Going from love thy neighbor as thyself to anything done in the love of God is okay. Uh oh.
~ ~ ~ ~
Excellent alternatives in both cases, Rocky !!
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Rocky
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T-Bone
138. PFAL facilitates wierwille imposing his will on my life.
This is a tough one to figure out – and it took me a few years after I left TWI to do it. For me the difficulty was in sorting out what the Bible (and by extension God, and of course the mysterious inner working of the Holy Spirit
) inspires me to do and what wierwille said the Bible demanded I should do.
In the first session of PFAL wierwille presents some problematic ideas:
1.The greatest secret in the world today is that the Bible is the revealed word and will of God.
2. It’s a secret because people don’t believe it.
3. The Bible means what it says and says what it means.
In one fell swoop wierwille paved the way for his esoteric interpretations ( see previous item # 136 ), an us-versus-them mentality ( see item # 34 ) , and fundamentalism (see item # 62 ).
Let’s look at this trinity of trouble:
1.Is it a secret? It’s almost funny …more like sad - how gullible I was – being young and naïve – that I bought into his contradictory concept that even though in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions The Bible is considered to be the sacred text for their belief system…who knew !
All kidding aside, I think the intention may have been to lure students into wierwille’s circle of trust. Being raised Roman Catholic I already trusted the Bible – even though it was a very simple understanding of its themes. I learned to trust wierwille because he seemed to know so much about it.
****
2. Do people believe it? This is where we separate the dogmatists from the cool cats. There is a world of behavioral differences between our cat and dog. Dogmatists are like the alpha dog – the dominant one in a pack setting – the pack submits. Alphas achieve and maintain their position by strength and aggression, social efforts and building alliances. In our home, I’m the alpha dog. Dogs are social animals. Anyone who sees the way I relate to our dog and cat will witness how much I love them…spoil them…I’m more of a pet valet, I enjoy tending to their every need.
Dogs are so compliant. We all know of someone who mistreats their dog – they could kick the dog for having a bad day at work – but that dog still loves the grouchy owner, and greets him with a wagging tail when he comes home from work tomorrow.
To me cats epitomize the free-spirited type. They’re independent, compliance is NOT in their DNA, they have their own hobbies and interests, and conduct extensive research in the art and science of chillax. zzzzZZZZ
ZZZzzz (fyi our cat is a professor at the institute of research for long naps ... ...as you were, kitty zzzZZZ 
ZZZzzz )
Reflecting on my time in The Way International, I was more of a frustrated cool cat trying to fit into TWI's dogmatic group-think pack. The cult-leader (during my time in it was first wierwille, and then Craig ) was the alpha dog and in a military-type chain-of-command instructions, directives, priorities, goals, agendas and such are passed down to the rank and file.
Truth be told, even though I decided to go into the way corps leadership training program (at the time thinking it was God’s will
) being a leader…a pastor…a preacher…a teacher…an administrator…a motivational speaker…or a sales rep have never been goals for me.
I’m more of a technical research and support guy – something pretty much useless at TWI. If you haven’t already read it, you should check out Penworks’ book Undertow: My Escape from the Fundamentalism and Cult Control of The Way International . She worked in TWI’s research department. Amazon’s description of her book says after she “was promoted to the inner circle of biblical researchers, where she discovered devastating secrets: Wierwille twisted texts of Scripture to serve his personal agenda, shamelessly plagiarized the work of others, and misrepresented the purpose of his organization.
Worst of all, after Wierwille died in 1985, shocking reports surfaced of his secret sex ring. Amid chaos at The Way's Ohio-based headquarters, Charlene knew she had to escape--for her own survival and her child's. Reading like a novel, Undertow is not only a brilliant cautionary tale about misplaced faith but also an exposé of the hazards of fundamentalism and the destructive nature of cults.
Through her personal story, Charlene Edge shows how a vulnerable person can be seduced into following an authoritarian leader and how difficult it can be to find a way out.”
end of excerpt from Amazon page
When wierwille said It’s a secret because people don’t believe it – I think what he really meant was those outside of his ministry do NOT accept his unique interpretation of the Bible.
****
3. The Bible means what it says? What further compounds the problem of wierwille’s dogmatic fundamentalism, is his inane concept that the Bible interprets itself (see item # 22 ). Just pause for a moment and think about what an affront that is to logic, linguistics, historians, sociologists, anthropologists, and philosophers – not to mention Bible scholars, translators, and textual researchers. We’re talking about a compilation of 66 different books written by 40 different authors over the course of an approximately 1500-year period, using basically 3 different languages, spanning a variety of cultural, political, and geographical settings.
Scripture interpreting itself is nonsensical because it implies no other agency is needed. Even today when clear and accurate communication is essential an interpreter or translator is necessary to explain or express the sense of words and phrases between countries of different languages and cultures. Note there is an intermediary or go-between involved - a person who acts as a link between people of different languages / cultures.
The ancient biblical manuscripts were written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Koine Greek. A translator of those texts is building a bridge to connect disparate people of another time, culture, and language with people of today who speak English, Spanish, Chinese, Russian, Arabic, Hindi, etc.
~ ~ ~ ~
So how did PFAL make it possible for wierwille to force his will on my life?
The class pushes a materialistic attitude – where material possessions and physical comfort become more important than spiritual values. ( see item # 127 ) . To attain those things wierwille also asserts a student must use the law of believing ( see item # 6 in starter post for this thread ) . One way to describe my 12 years of TWI is vicious cycles of cause and effect that would intensify, and aggravate each other…which frustrated and disappointed me to no end!
Like many prosperity-gospel ministries, wierwille fed followers a load of unbiblical expectations (aka cult-leader bull-$hit
).
Having a problem receiving those “promises of God” ?
Introducing the hard sell - the vicious cycle:
You need to sit through the PFAL class again to build your believing –
or
take this class or that class or go into this program or that program to gain experience and build confidence in how God can work mightily through your believing.
In a sense you’re not following God’s will. You’re conforming to the will of wierwille. You’re making choices based on the agenda and options the cult-leader has laid out for you.
~ ~ ~ ~
About 6 months after I left TWI, while developing a list identifying the doctrinal and practical issues (after dusting off 12 years of ignored red flags I had sensed
) in TWI, I read a thought- provoking book Decision Making and the Will of God: A Biblical Alternative to the Traditional View by Garry Friesen, J. Robin Maxson (note this is a 2004 edition, the one I bought was a 1980 edition ). To whet your appetite, you might like my brief notes on another thread about God’s sovereign will vs God’s moral will – click here > my post Feb 10th 2023 4:22 PM God's sovereign will vs moral will . This and another book Beyond Seduction: A Return to Biblical Christianity by Dave Hunt were extremely helpful in the effort to extricate myself from the wierwille-centric decision-making process and the delusion of magical thinking.
Edited by T-BoneThesaurus R Us
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Nathan_Jr
Well done, Mr. Bone.
There were dozens, even hundreds of "Huh?" moments for me throughout "the class."
Number 2 here may have been the very first. If anything ever is a secret, it has nothing to do with whether or not someone believes it. WTAF!
Such a statement is so profoundly nonsensical and stupid, it boggles the clear and sharp mind to explain why.
Here's a statement analogous to number 2. Let's see if anyone has the mettle and in-depth, spiritual awareness and perception to refute it:
"The distance between Austin and Dallas is simply bird's nest cellophane."
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waysider
Orange. Because ice cream has no bones.
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Nathan_Jr
I really didn’t think anyone had the in-depth, spiritual awareness and perception to rise to the challenge.
You are 100% correct, Waysider!
100,000 Unpainted Arizona points for you!
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T-Bone
over the years many fahrvergnügens have gushed over my grapeness and asked me "how's come you so smart and figure eight all this stuff?"
With some Gleem Toothpaste in my eye and tapping on the side of my head I say one turd "Kidneys"
take that Norm Crosby !
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T-Bone
All you really need to do is find 11,780 upvotes for Waysider's post.
oops - is veiled political humor a no-no?
Edited by T-BoneEditing Unveiled
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Rocky
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OldSkool
Ahhh...lots of gelatinous diconium peptides though.
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chockfull
139. PFAL is the first steps into a quicksand that pulls a person down into a mire of illogic ego and stupidity dedicating your life to help others take the same class.
No class output by man as a work product should do that. No class should be substituted for the new birth like “did you take THE CLASS yet?”
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Mike
You didn't cite me here. You took my material nearly word-for-word in places, and idea-for-idea in places.
And assuming you and I have discussed this before, you switched positions on this issue of PFAL p.83 and come over to my side, the side I've been posting on here for 20 years, and I was always opposed by everyone on it.
I think I owe a thanks to Nathan Jr for first recognizing I was rightly dividing PFAL page 83.
I salute your progress, and am not that angry that you didn't cite me. It would have just cluttered up your post.
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