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notmuch4games
Its been a slow week at the office, so I went through this thread(whew!) Alot has been said, but Judge Notmuch4games is ready to render his/her verdict. Considering all the people coming out of the woodwork to defend the questionable tactics of this organization, I say.....CULT! You can see how devoted, or blinded, these folks are and how unwilling or unable they are to even question their own leader. I suggest that all the defenders in this thread go through this most informative site and read about the tactics of other cults and the attitudes of those members involved. Strikingly similar! If it walks like a duck, looks like a duck, and quacks...........Duck for dinner it is!
Well, I just erased my reply to the above, so I have to try to reconstruct what I said!
It continually amazes me that Thieme defenders, of which I WAS one for a long, long time, almost to a man, express the same attitudes, the same beliefs, the same excuses for their reverence for their leader. These folks come from all over the nation or world, they have not conspired together to present "their side" and likely they did not even attend the same tapers' gathering or even Berachah itself. Doing that would not result in much interaction either.
So here we find an almost totally uniform blindness to all who dare to say anything against the teachings of their leader. And HE IS THEIR LEADER. Despite the many years of personal experience "under Thieme" those of us who have come out simply
MISUNDERSTOOD THE TEACHING, or, even after twenty or thirty years, because we left, HE MUST NOT HAVE BEEN OUR "RIGH PASTOR-TEACHER" AFTER ALL. That about sums up the replies most give to us.
Scripture twisting is not unique to the Thieme system, but what I find fascinating having been there myself is how so many people's personal experience is discounted and rejected by those still inside. Not one seems to be able to really hear what has been said on this forum. Not many even try to rebut claims. I would have thought RADAPH for example, would have listened to Pastor Graves presentation on MY EXPIERENCE WITH THE TEACHINGS OF R.B.THIEME JR. in which Graves gives AUDIO CLIPS FROM THIEME'S TEACHING of him saying "LIKE IT OR NOT, YOU ARE DEPENDENT ON ME!" and YOU CAN'T LEARN BIBLE DOCTRINE AND GROW SPIRITUALLY BY READING THE BIBLE." It is a waste of the believer's time to study and read the Bible on his own, at least until he reaches "SPIRITUAL MATURITY" at which time one will be "SPIRITUALLY SELF SUSTAINING" and can read with profit God's bible.
Wait! What is 'SPIRITUALLY SELF SUSTAINING" in the Thieme universe? The next "breakthough" will add even more to learn in order to "MATURE" into an even higher level of "supergrace, ultra supergrace" ete etc and all keeping the flock firmly anchored to THE LEADER. What Thieme offers with one lesson is negated with the next series revealing new doctrines to master and believe implicitly.
One can never "arrive" in this system of teaching.
Notice that I have said not one word about Thieme's character, his personal relationship with the Lord, or his eternal fate. I have not called him IGNORANT, LAZY OR STUPID like he regularly calls other pastors, teachers, or just regular Christians in any other churcn not like his.
It is THIEME WHO BASHES, and it is his followers who refuse to recognize serious problems because they have lost their ability to think independently of their teacher and to evaluate critiques of others objectively. For them anything short of total agreement IS SUBJECTIVE, IGNORANT, AND NEGATIVE VOLITION TO "BIBLE DOCTRINE." All such people are under divine discipline for not staying with Thieme's program.
It is cultic. The duck walks, quacks, and looks just like a duck.
Sistersoap