Is there any expert/book about this? Would you recommend me or guide for that matter?
I've read all TWI books and Classes and also CES,STFI books but I still feel ignorant about that topic
Wierwille took all these definitions, line by line and word for word, from another source. (Leonard, perhaps?) If you try to put this stuff into practice, one of three things is going to happen. One: You'll delude yourself into believing they actually work. Two: You'll feel ashamed and embarrassed you're the only one who doesn't quite "get it". Three: You'll come to the conclusion it was all a bunch of nonsense all along.
Wierwille took B.G. Leonard's definitions. Initially, he copied them word-for-word, but he quickly began changing the wording, making them more ponderous and less obviously plagiarized. (They were STILL plagiarized because changing the wording of something you plagiarized doesn't change how stolen it is, nor does it make this any less intentional. What it does is hide your tracks, and prove you knew it was wrong but tried to hide your sin and crime from others.) Since vpw didn't really understand Leonard's definitions, his changes didn't necessarily improve them in any way.
He had a technical, intellectual understanding of them, it that. What he did NOT have was a practical understanding. So, he repeated what other people said who DID have a practical understanding. This strongly suggests that he'd heard all about them but had never EXPERIENCED them. In other words, in these subjects, he was a FRAUD, a FAKE, who PRETENDED he had done these things but had never performed any of them. Otherwise, he would have understood them better and have had first-hand knowledge of them other than observing other people. Furthermore, his technical understanding of them- that is, his understanding of them based on description and the words of those who had performed them- was not deep. Otherwise, when he made changes, he would have actually made the definitions clearer rather than simply making them more multisyllabic and sesquipedalian. What those accomplished was to hide the plagiarism better (it was still plagiarism) and to make it sound more as if he knew what he was talking about by pretending to make them more scholarly-sounding.
All of this suggests strongly that a heavy study of what wierwille wrote and said on the subject won't bring you any closer than a cursory study of what he said. If there really is such a thing as an "expert" on this, it would be the late B.G. Leonard, who taught lots of people on this subject, and whom wierwille shamelessly plagiarized at great length.
Right this moment, it seems as if the website for "CTC of Texas" is down, but that would be the place to look. His "Gifts of the Spirit" class- still available on recording, if I understand correctly- is what wierwille plagiarized in its entirety when he presented "his" class on "Receiving the Holy Spirit Today." Word for word, this class was the same as Leonard's class. He taught it a few months after taking Leonard's class. It had no syllabus and no charts other than a blackboard. When he taught that class, he asked Leonard permission to reteach Leonard's class one time locally since Leonard could not be everywhere. Leonard agreed. What vpw told the class was, that this was vpw's class, and gave it a different name. At the end, he took a class photo and mailed it to Leonard, who considered the matter closed at the time. vpw then continued to teach the same class, never telling Leonard, continuing to plagiarize Leonard, and continuing to claim he himself was the sole originator of that class. Later, he padded it out with more material from Leonard's other classes, and with J.E. Stiles' book "GIfts of the Holy Spirit", material from E.W. Bullinger (like "How to Enjoy the Bible) and changed more phrasings, and added more stories, eventually constructing the 3 PFAL classes from plagiarizing those sources and hiding his actions by rearranging the contents. By doing this all locally, and avoiding all official notice, he was able to hide how completely "his" class ripped off his sources. (Anyone who doubts this can check a copy of Bullinger's book, and see how much of sessions 5-8 are lifted directly from "How to Enjoy the Bible.") Wierwille ripped off some other books of Bullinger. If you look at the list of all the references to "holy spirit" in the Bible, you look at something lifted directly from Bullinger's book on the Spirit. (And so on, and so on.)
Some people claim- completely erroneously- that what vpw did was NOT plagiarism. By any sensible definition of plagiarism, it was plagiarism. He knew it was wrong- they'd said so in school, and he'd gone to actual schools all the way through getting his Master's degree. He tried to hide what he'd done, so we know he was aware of it. We know he claimed he was the sole source in the class and in the books of the class. Dissenting voices claim that his occasional comments on tape when not in the classes of learning from other people count as properly citing his sources. if he'd meant it, he would have failed pitifully to have accomplished this. However, he never claimed anything of the kind. He claimed he learned from other people, then worked it on his own, "and got the error out." When we all study, we all learn from other people, but we don't all plagiarize. Furthermore, if you find, somehow, a copy of the book, "the Way-Living in Love", buried somewhere about a hundred pages in is a passing comment he made that "nothing I teach is original" and that the original part was "putting together" the class. Supposedly, this also counts as citing his sources. Again, this is a pitiful attempt to smokescreen the issue. vpw meant for everyone to think he'd learned some things from other people, then went off and completely reworked what they taught, with God Almighty at his shoulder, and the result was what was in the classes. He implied as much all through the classes, he insinuated as much all through the classes. He gave himself some wiggle-room to allow for plausible deniability. That way, if he was caught, he could back-pedal and pretend he never meant for us to believe he really did that. Ever hear vpw was a basketball player on the Sheboygan Redskins? Well, technically, vpw INSINUATED he played on the team. His exact wording was he was "INVOLVED WITH" them. People all came away with the idea that he claimed he was a player. A check of the complete list of players that ever played for the team showed his name was missing. In other words, he never played for them. But he would have claimed- if anyone had caught him- that he never said he did. What he did was phrase things DECEPTIVELY to get people to believe he had said so outright, but he left himself an out. That's the kind of behavior one sees from a serial liar, from someone who is a complete fraud from start to finish, from someone who spends all his time deceiving people. He was caught lying occasionally, and his back-pedals were fascinating, and at least one has been documented and discussed here and elsewhere.
So, all of that is to say, if there's anything to learn on the subject, look up B.G. Leonard, look up his "GIfts of the Spirit" class, and look up his books. When the CTC of Texas website is back up, look at them, also.
In case there's any doubt, "Christian Training Centers of Texas" is the "CTC of Texas" to which I refer. Again, as of right this moment, their website is down, but it looks to me like a temporary thing.
Thanks to Both! I adhere wholeheartedly about VPW's lack of practical understanding - And that He plagiarized Leonard's OG as well as Stiles, Kenyon, Bullinger and so on. (There's a big amount of evidence)
I wanna go beyond what He taught for sure, I would really like to learn, even if that changes the "insight" I acquired at TWI.
It's easy to impress anyone Speaking in Tongues or with "Word of Prophecy".... but it is pretty different with Miracles, Word of Wisdom,etc.
If there's any other Author you know, I would be grateful to know too :)
Thanks to Both! I adhere wholeheartedly about VPW's lack of practical understanding - And that He plagiarized Leonard's OG as well as Stiles, Kenyon, Bullinger and so on. (There's a big amount of evidence)
I wanna go beyond what He taught for sure, I would really like to learn, even if that changes the "insight" I acquired at TWI.
It's easy to impress anyone Speaking in Tongues or with "Word of Prophecy".... but it is pretty different with Miracles, Word of Wisdom,etc.
If there's any other Author you know, I would be grateful to know too :)
I'm assuming that you are not finding what you want to know about revelation-and-impartation manifestations right from the bible or personally from asking God. Do you wonder why this could be? Nevertheless, if you or anyone else is able to find an author who has reliable evidence for the working of miracles, healing, faith, discerning of spirits, etc. which truly works for you as well, please be sure to share it on your thread. Thanks.
I'm assuming that you are not finding what you want to know about revelation-and-impartation manifestations right from the bible or personally from asking God. Do you wonder why this could be? Nevertheless, if you or anyone else is able to find an author who has reliable evidence for the working of miracles, healing, faith, discerning of spirits, etc. which truly works for you as well, please be sure to share it on your thread. Thanks.
Thanks Charity! Yes, I would like to know and live those aspects of the Bible. Power to help people with God's Word (not VPW nor twi's).
Is there any expert/book about this? Would you recommend me or guide for that matter?
I've read all TWI books and Classes and also CES,STFI books but I still feel ignorant about that topic
Hi Joe,
The following video has some interesting and unique perpectives on the gifts and particularly word of knowledge. It was held in Poughkeepsie about 6 years ago by a young lady who did a wonderful job explaining them, and from a catholic perspective no less. Her historical points were eye-opening to me. May you find the fullness of God's gift to help others, brother!
The following video has some interesting and unique perpectives on the gifts and particularly word of knowledge. It was held in Poughkeepsie about 6 years ago by a young lady who did a wonderful job explaining them, and from a catholic perspective no less. Her historical points were eye-opening to me. May you find the fullness of God's gift to help others, brother!
Thanks My Friend!! I really appreciate it. I will listen attentively
Is there any expert/book about this? Would you recommend me or guide for that matter?
I've read all TWI books and Classes and also CES,STFI books but I still feel ignorant about that topic
Hi - can you be more specific on what it is you're feeling ignorant about, "that topic"...? What is it you're looking for more of? Put another way, if there's a gap, how do you describe it - big? Small? this or that? etc?
Couple thoughts -
VPW interpreted and taught 1 Cor 12 as a hierarchical organization, and a taxonomy of "the spirit", of our new birth. A list of things that he organized into what he saw as logical groupings, of what he labelled the worship, revelation and importation manifestations. He had a very mechanical view of how it all "worked" which was a product of this approach.
VPW's teaching on these were predicated on his idea/explanation of "The Great Principle"..."God's spirit teaches His creation in you which is now your spirit and your spirit teaches your mind then it becomes manifested in the sense realm as you act."
I don't personally want to under value the teaching of spiritual life in Christ being an ongoing, current and active "spiritual" life, with the behaviors and qualities that are written about in Corinthians, so I did get value from that. But how it all "works" is where I think VPW took a detour, he was limited by his insistence on his teaching of "believing to receive" and the implications of what he taught in that "Great Principle". He didn't get clear about the relationship between the ideas of nous, psuche, pneuma, thelema and a few other terms used in the NT, again because he seemed insistent on keeping and defending what he knew, versus learning and growing what he knew.
For other sources, I'd agree that going to the B G Leonard courses, which are or were offered by the CTC group would be a place to understand the foundations of what the Way taught, from the source and might help you to move forward. Also, try the E W Bullinger books "How to Enjoy the Bible" and "The Giver and His Gifts", they cover all that ground too.
I don't have any other go-to sources currently other than to read a wide range of what people of all sects and churches are doing.
Edited by socks "I wouldn't go so far as to call a dog filthy but they're definitely dirty. But, a dog's got personality. Personality goes a long way."
The more I look into things and consider them, the more convinced I become that vpw faked ALL the "manifestations", from start to finish.
How he could fake the "utterance" manifestations, we've discussed before. Anyone could make sounds, anyone could claim they're reciting a message from God. Prime the pump first by instructing the gullible public how the things are SUPPOSED to look and sound- even if the results are nothing at all like the real thing- and you're golden. Your only danger is someone catching on- especially if they encounter the real thing or otherwise realize yours don't resemble what the real thing is supposed to look like.
It also explains why vpw had an explanation as to why there were 2 completely different types of prophecy, one of which had nothing to do with prophesying.
So, teach people to make sounds, teach people to compose a "message from God Almighty", and keep expectations high, and you'll convince them that the sounds and the "messages" both came from God Almighty and not their expectations. This is how it COULD be done.
(Start another thread if you want to discuss this further.)
How to fake the "information" manifestations is a bit trickier, but it's do-able. Don't overplay your hand, keep it low-key or people will catch on. Periodically pretend that you're receiving Divine Revelation at that moment. Reveal something people didn't know you knew. vpw was fond of listening to the John Birch Society's tinfoil hat conspiracies, then coming forth in private with "revelation" about conspiracies in the US. That's how twi got into thinking 1976 was going to be the end of the US. Did it stop with vpw's death? No- and if you were listening to twi as Y2K approached, you'd know that. That was ANOTHER time the world "ended."
Although both times, the world was saved because people were in twi praying, and disaster was averted. (Some people really bought that. Both times. Some of the same people bought that both times. A few people still buy that.)
But it's harder to fake Divine Revelation when you don't have enough really good information to run with. So, you make up for it by having accounts of you getting revelation be either general ("he gets revelation") or second-hand with people inventing instances they "saw". You can also add a few "a few years ago, this happened but there are no witnesses" stories. We saw that with vpw's visit to India, where his account was full of miracles, and people loved him- but he never visited nor spoke to them again afterwards, not one word. Other people's accounts of the same trip (like Mrs W) skip virtually all the miracles and all the adoration, and are vague when they're not skipped entirely. So, we got stories like "vpw walked around a racetrack and got revelation showing people's hearts as white or black."
As for the "impartation/power" manifestations, those are harder still to fake. vpw had stories circulating about him doing things from people who supposedly were there. When it was time for actual results, vpw fell short. Either he had other people minister healing and so on, or when something went wrong, he screamed at someone for failing to predict problems and so on. There are no accounts of "the tent top was going to collapse from flooding, so he prayed, and all that water just vanished"- instead, someone cut a hole and he blamed people. There's no accounts of "we all got together, the electricity went out, we heard him praying faintly, then suddenly the generators came back to life and there was much rejoicing." Instead, we had him admit he was still standing there. For someone who allegedly gets all sorts of prayers answered in miracles, why didn't he even ASK for one then? The most sensible answer- he knew it was pointless, he knew he wouldn't get answered.
Oh, the further away the eyewitnesses were, the more miraculous things happened around him- miraculous healings in India, miraculous snowstorms kept happening to him in the US, and so on. As to the second of those, someone checked at the time, and found there was NO snowstorm at the time- he was caught lying. As to the first of those, the reaction was fascinating. Someone checked afterwards, and there was no snow. They went up to vpw, and said so. This was a man who insisted that he was snowed in, in a city. ALL traffic was STOPPED. NO trains. NO planes. NO buses. Sounds like a blizzard. I've lived through those. (For the record, in NYC, the subways usually can be kept running, even in a blizzard, and I used the subway in any blizzard or snow storm that stopped the buses.) He said this over and over. When someone came up and said there was no snow at all- not even one flake, what is the obvious response?
If someone claimed there was no snow in the last blizzard I trudged through, I would be rather emphatic. Check again! I spent most of an hour either standing or trudging, and did a lot of cardio just getting to and from the subway. To say nothing of the 10 hours that followed, all of which were affected by the heavy snow. I would be clear they either were checking the wrong date, or the wrong city. IF vpw had lived through one, his response should have been similar. (It would be like someone trying to tell me the Twin Towers never fell.) What was his reaction? Nothing of the kind! Immediately, he CHANGED HIS STORY. He claimed that there must not have been any actual snow at all, but instead when he tried to arrange passage, he spoke on the phone, repeatedly, to angels who lied to him each time. (So, you can believe angels lied, or you can believe wierwille lied. According to vpw, ALL men are liars.)
When it comes to teaching on the other 6, I think that vpw paid close attention to what other people said, and did his best to memorize them and regurgitate them at will. So, he could SOUND like he knew the subject, but that was only because he was RECITING what he memorized. His understanding was about as deep as that of a person who reads a wikipedia page aloud and people think he's an expert on that subject. His knowledge was spotty and intermittent. His definitions changed from Leonard's definitions. Those changes never made anything clearer, they just added syllables and ten-dollar words. That's not the actions of a man trying to make knowledge clearer- those are the actions of a man hiding that he doesn't know what he's talking about! Geer later came along and changed some definitions. In each case, each attempt at least TRIED to make things clearer. That was a man TRYING to make things easier to be understood. (Whether or not his conclusions were correct, I would not fault his intention.) IMHO, in some of the changes, he was successful, and in some, he was not because he let his interpretation guide things. Interestingly enough, in the case of at least one change, he fixed something that I thought was a rather basic problem with the definition. I went back later. That was part of Leonard's definition. Instead of fixing an elementary problem with it, vpw added lots of SAT vocabulary words to it, then taught it. I was a student who hadn't studied that subject under ANY of them, and I realized the definition had a problem- and what it was. vpw TAUGHT the thing for YEARS and never identified it. Why? He was reciting things, and only "understood" them in a rote way. If were forced to explain them using completely different words, he would have been unable.
So, if you find vpw's approach is too mechanical, you're probably right. His "understanding" was from a shallow, intellect-only level of book-learning, and lacked completely any actual EXPERIENCE of subjects explaining EXPERIENCE.
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waysider
Wierwille took all these definitions, line by line and word for word, from another source. (Leonard, perhaps?) If you try to put this stuff into practice, one of three things is going to happen. One: You'll delude yourself into believing they actually work. Two: You'll feel ashamed and embarrassed you're the only one who doesn't quite "get it". Three: You'll come to the conclusion it was all a bunch of nonsense all along.
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WordWolf
Wierwille took B.G. Leonard's definitions. Initially, he copied them word-for-word, but he quickly began changing the wording, making them more ponderous and less obviously plagiarized. (They were STILL plagiarized because changing the wording of something you plagiarized doesn't change how stolen it is, nor does it make this any less intentional. What it does is hide your tracks, and prove you knew it was wrong but tried to hide your sin and crime from others.) Since vpw didn't really understand Leonard's definitions, his changes didn't necessarily improve them in any way.
He had a technical, intellectual understanding of them, it that. What he did NOT have was a practical understanding. So, he repeated what other people said who DID have a practical understanding. This strongly suggests that he'd heard all about them but had never EXPERIENCED them. In other words, in these subjects, he was a FRAUD, a FAKE, who PRETENDED he had done these things but had never performed any of them. Otherwise, he would have understood them better and have had first-hand knowledge of them other than observing other people. Furthermore, his technical understanding of them- that is, his understanding of them based on description and the words of those who had performed them- was not deep. Otherwise, when he made changes, he would have actually made the definitions clearer rather than simply making them more multisyllabic and sesquipedalian. What those accomplished was to hide the plagiarism better (it was still plagiarism) and to make it sound more as if he knew what he was talking about by pretending to make them more scholarly-sounding.
All of this suggests strongly that a heavy study of what wierwille wrote and said on the subject won't bring you any closer than a cursory study of what he said. If there really is such a thing as an "expert" on this, it would be the late B.G. Leonard, who taught lots of people on this subject, and whom wierwille shamelessly plagiarized at great length.
Right this moment, it seems as if the website for "CTC of Texas" is down, but that would be the place to look. His "Gifts of the Spirit" class- still available on recording, if I understand correctly- is what wierwille plagiarized in its entirety when he presented "his" class on "Receiving the Holy Spirit Today." Word for word, this class was the same as Leonard's class. He taught it a few months after taking Leonard's class. It had no syllabus and no charts other than a blackboard. When he taught that class, he asked Leonard permission to reteach Leonard's class one time locally since Leonard could not be everywhere. Leonard agreed. What vpw told the class was, that this was vpw's class, and gave it a different name. At the end, he took a class photo and mailed it to Leonard, who considered the matter closed at the time. vpw then continued to teach the same class, never telling Leonard, continuing to plagiarize Leonard, and continuing to claim he himself was the sole originator of that class. Later, he padded it out with more material from Leonard's other classes, and with J.E. Stiles' book "GIfts of the Holy Spirit", material from E.W. Bullinger (like "How to Enjoy the Bible) and changed more phrasings, and added more stories, eventually constructing the 3 PFAL classes from plagiarizing those sources and hiding his actions by rearranging the contents. By doing this all locally, and avoiding all official notice, he was able to hide how completely "his" class ripped off his sources. (Anyone who doubts this can check a copy of Bullinger's book, and see how much of sessions 5-8 are lifted directly from "How to Enjoy the Bible.") Wierwille ripped off some other books of Bullinger. If you look at the list of all the references to "holy spirit" in the Bible, you look at something lifted directly from Bullinger's book on the Spirit. (And so on, and so on.)
Some people claim- completely erroneously- that what vpw did was NOT plagiarism. By any sensible definition of plagiarism, it was plagiarism. He knew it was wrong- they'd said so in school, and he'd gone to actual schools all the way through getting his Master's degree. He tried to hide what he'd done, so we know he was aware of it. We know he claimed he was the sole source in the class and in the books of the class. Dissenting voices claim that his occasional comments on tape when not in the classes of learning from other people count as properly citing his sources. if he'd meant it, he would have failed pitifully to have accomplished this. However, he never claimed anything of the kind. He claimed he learned from other people, then worked it on his own, "and got the error out." When we all study, we all learn from other people, but we don't all plagiarize. Furthermore, if you find, somehow, a copy of the book, "the Way-Living in Love", buried somewhere about a hundred pages in is a passing comment he made that "nothing I teach is original" and that the original part was "putting together" the class. Supposedly, this also counts as citing his sources. Again, this is a pitiful attempt to smokescreen the issue. vpw meant for everyone to think he'd learned some things from other people, then went off and completely reworked what they taught, with God Almighty at his shoulder, and the result was what was in the classes. He implied as much all through the classes, he insinuated as much all through the classes. He gave himself some wiggle-room to allow for plausible deniability. That way, if he was caught, he could back-pedal and pretend he never meant for us to believe he really did that. Ever hear vpw was a basketball player on the Sheboygan Redskins? Well, technically, vpw INSINUATED he played on the team. His exact wording was he was "INVOLVED WITH" them. People all came away with the idea that he claimed he was a player. A check of the complete list of players that ever played for the team showed his name was missing. In other words, he never played for them. But he would have claimed- if anyone had caught him- that he never said he did. What he did was phrase things DECEPTIVELY to get people to believe he had said so outright, but he left himself an out. That's the kind of behavior one sees from a serial liar, from someone who is a complete fraud from start to finish, from someone who spends all his time deceiving people. He was caught lying occasionally, and his back-pedals were fascinating, and at least one has been documented and discussed here and elsewhere.
So, all of that is to say, if there's anything to learn on the subject, look up B.G. Leonard, look up his "GIfts of the Spirit" class, and look up his books. When the CTC of Texas website is back up, look at them, also.
Edited by WordWolf.
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WordWolf
In case there's any doubt, "Christian Training Centers of Texas" is the "CTC of Texas" to which I refer. Again, as of right this moment, their website is down, but it looks to me like a temporary thing.
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Nathan_Jr
The website appears to be up now. https://ctcoftexas.com
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WordWolf
*checks*
That's the correct URL, but it's not coming up for me, and when I queried the website checker
https://downforeveryoneorjustme.com/
they confirmed it's down. Maybe their server's unstable and going up and down.
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Joe Maslow
Thanks to Both! I adhere wholeheartedly about VPW's lack of practical understanding - And that He plagiarized Leonard's OG as well as Stiles, Kenyon, Bullinger and so on. (There's a big amount of evidence)
I wanna go beyond what He taught for sure, I would really like to learn, even if that changes the "insight" I acquired at TWI.
It's easy to impress anyone Speaking in Tongues or with "Word of Prophecy".... but it is pretty different with Miracles, Word of Wisdom,etc.
If there's any other Author you know, I would be grateful to know too :)
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Charity
I'm assuming that you are not finding what you want to know about revelation-and-impartation manifestations right from the bible or personally from asking God. Do you wonder why this could be? Nevertheless, if you or anyone else is able to find an author who has reliable evidence for the working of miracles, healing, faith, discerning of spirits, etc. which truly works for you as well, please be sure to share it on your thread. Thanks.
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Joe Maslow
Thanks Charity! Yes, I would like to know and live those aspects of the Bible. Power to help people with God's Word (not VPW nor twi's).
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oldiesman
Hi Joe,
The following video has some interesting and unique perpectives on the gifts and particularly word of knowledge. It was held in Poughkeepsie about 6 years ago by a young lady who did a wonderful job explaining them, and from a catholic perspective no less. Her historical points were eye-opening to me. May you find the fullness of God's gift to help others, brother!
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Joe Maslow
Thanks My Friend!! I really appreciate it. I will listen attentively
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socks
Hi - can you be more specific on what it is you're feeling ignorant about, "that topic"...? What is it you're looking for more of? Put another way, if there's a gap, how do you describe it - big? Small? this or that? etc?
Couple thoughts -
VPW interpreted and taught 1 Cor 12 as a hierarchical organization, and a taxonomy of "the spirit", of our new birth. A list of things that he organized into what he saw as logical groupings, of what he labelled the worship, revelation and importation manifestations. He had a very mechanical view of how it all "worked" which was a product of this approach.
VPW's teaching on these were predicated on his idea/explanation of "The Great Principle"..."God's spirit teaches His creation in you which is now your spirit and your spirit teaches your mind then it becomes manifested in the sense realm as you act."
I don't personally want to under value the teaching of spiritual life in Christ being an ongoing, current and active "spiritual" life, with the behaviors and qualities that are written about in Corinthians, so I did get value from that. But how it all "works" is where I think VPW took a detour, he was limited by his insistence on his teaching of "believing to receive" and the implications of what he taught in that "Great Principle". He didn't get clear about the relationship between the ideas of nous, psuche, pneuma, thelema and a few other terms used in the NT, again because he seemed insistent on keeping and defending what he knew, versus learning and growing what he knew.
For other sources, I'd agree that going to the B G Leonard courses, which are or were offered by the CTC group would be a place to understand the foundations of what the Way taught, from the source and might help you to move forward. Also, try the E W Bullinger books "How to Enjoy the Bible" and "The Giver and His Gifts", they cover all that ground too.
I don't have any other go-to sources currently other than to read a wide range of what people of all sects and churches are doing.
"I wouldn't go so far as to call a dog filthy but they're definitely dirty. But, a dog's got personality. Personality goes a long way."
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WordWolf
The more I look into things and consider them, the more convinced I become that vpw faked ALL the "manifestations", from start to finish.
How he could fake the "utterance" manifestations, we've discussed before. Anyone could make sounds, anyone could claim they're reciting a message from God. Prime the pump first by instructing the gullible public how the things are SUPPOSED to look and sound- even if the results are nothing at all like the real thing- and you're golden. Your only danger is someone catching on- especially if they encounter the real thing or otherwise realize yours don't resemble what the real thing is supposed to look like.
It also explains why vpw had an explanation as to why there were 2 completely different types of prophecy, one of which had nothing to do with prophesying.
So, teach people to make sounds, teach people to compose a "message from God Almighty", and keep expectations high, and you'll convince them that the sounds and the "messages" both came from God Almighty and not their expectations. This is how it COULD be done.
(Start another thread if you want to discuss this further.)
How to fake the "information" manifestations is a bit trickier, but it's do-able. Don't overplay your hand, keep it low-key or people will catch on. Periodically pretend that you're receiving Divine Revelation at that moment. Reveal something people didn't know you knew. vpw was fond of listening to the John Birch Society's tinfoil hat conspiracies, then coming forth in private with "revelation" about conspiracies in the US. That's how twi got into thinking 1976 was going to be the end of the US. Did it stop with vpw's death? No- and if you were listening to twi as Y2K approached, you'd know that. That was ANOTHER time the world "ended."
Although both times, the world was saved because people were in twi praying, and disaster was averted. (Some people really bought that. Both times. Some of the same people bought that both times. A few people still buy that.)
But it's harder to fake Divine Revelation when you don't have enough really good information to run with. So, you make up for it by having accounts of you getting revelation be either general ("he gets revelation") or second-hand with people inventing instances they "saw". You can also add a few "a few years ago, this happened but there are no witnesses" stories. We saw that with vpw's visit to India, where his account was full of miracles, and people loved him- but he never visited nor spoke to them again afterwards, not one word. Other people's accounts of the same trip (like Mrs W) skip virtually all the miracles and all the adoration, and are vague when they're not skipped entirely. So, we got stories like "vpw walked around a racetrack and got revelation showing people's hearts as white or black."
As for the "impartation/power" manifestations, those are harder still to fake. vpw had stories circulating about him doing things from people who supposedly were there. When it was time for actual results, vpw fell short. Either he had other people minister healing and so on, or when something went wrong, he screamed at someone for failing to predict problems and so on. There are no accounts of "the tent top was going to collapse from flooding, so he prayed, and all that water just vanished"- instead, someone cut a hole and he blamed people. There's no accounts of "we all got together, the electricity went out, we heard him praying faintly, then suddenly the generators came back to life and there was much rejoicing." Instead, we had him admit he was still standing there. For someone who allegedly gets all sorts of prayers answered in miracles, why didn't he even ASK for one then? The most sensible answer- he knew it was pointless, he knew he wouldn't get answered.
Oh, the further away the eyewitnesses were, the more miraculous things happened around him- miraculous healings in India, miraculous snowstorms kept happening to him in the US, and so on. As to the second of those, someone checked at the time, and found there was NO snowstorm at the time- he was caught lying. As to the first of those, the reaction was fascinating. Someone checked afterwards, and there was no snow. They went up to vpw, and said so. This was a man who insisted that he was snowed in, in a city. ALL traffic was STOPPED. NO trains. NO planes. NO buses. Sounds like a blizzard. I've lived through those. (For the record, in NYC, the subways usually can be kept running, even in a blizzard, and I used the subway in any blizzard or snow storm that stopped the buses.) He said this over and over. When someone came up and said there was no snow at all- not even one flake, what is the obvious response?
If someone claimed there was no snow in the last blizzard I trudged through, I would be rather emphatic. Check again! I spent most of an hour either standing or trudging, and did a lot of cardio just getting to and from the subway. To say nothing of the 10 hours that followed, all of which were affected by the heavy snow. I would be clear they either were checking the wrong date, or the wrong city. IF vpw had lived through one, his response should have been similar. (It would be like someone trying to tell me the Twin Towers never fell.) What was his reaction? Nothing of the kind! Immediately, he CHANGED HIS STORY. He claimed that there must not have been any actual snow at all, but instead when he tried to arrange passage, he spoke on the phone, repeatedly, to angels who lied to him each time. (So, you can believe angels lied, or you can believe wierwille lied. According to vpw, ALL men are liars.)
When it comes to teaching on the other 6, I think that vpw paid close attention to what other people said, and did his best to memorize them and regurgitate them at will. So, he could SOUND like he knew the subject, but that was only because he was RECITING what he memorized. His understanding was about as deep as that of a person who reads a wikipedia page aloud and people think he's an expert on that subject. His knowledge was spotty and intermittent. His definitions changed from Leonard's definitions. Those changes never made anything clearer, they just added syllables and ten-dollar words. That's not the actions of a man trying to make knowledge clearer- those are the actions of a man hiding that he doesn't know what he's talking about! Geer later came along and changed some definitions. In each case, each attempt at least TRIED to make things clearer. That was a man TRYING to make things easier to be understood. (Whether or not his conclusions were correct, I would not fault his intention.) IMHO, in some of the changes, he was successful, and in some, he was not because he let his interpretation guide things. Interestingly enough, in the case of at least one change, he fixed something that I thought was a rather basic problem with the definition. I went back later. That was part of Leonard's definition. Instead of fixing an elementary problem with it, vpw added lots of SAT vocabulary words to it, then taught it. I was a student who hadn't studied that subject under ANY of them, and I realized the definition had a problem- and what it was. vpw TAUGHT the thing for YEARS and never identified it. Why? He was reciting things, and only "understood" them in a rote way. If were forced to explain them using completely different words, he would have been unable.
So, if you find vpw's approach is too mechanical, you're probably right. His "understanding" was from a shallow, intellect-only level of book-learning, and lacked completely any actual EXPERIENCE of subjects explaining EXPERIENCE.
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WordWolf
*checks* As of right now, I can't get in, and the website checker confirms it's down. I hope this is temporary.
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