Hi prebound, You said:
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preboundTruthtesty opined:
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Once again we have thiemites enter this forum with false information.
Hey 'testy, I thought this forum suppressed personal slanders. I'll make a proposal--if you will assume I'm not a thiemite, I will assume you're not trapped in the gall of bitterness. Fair enough? ;)
I simply thought some folks would like to know the man died. I have no idea about the validity of his biography. It came directly from the Berachah website obit; I wouldn't waste either time or money to pursue the veracity (or lack thereof) of those points.
The doctrinal issues are another matter. Like you, I disagree with many of Pastor Thieme's "discovered" doctrines. But I do agree with more than a few things he taught.
We'll leave it there for now---I need to leave for my "non-clone church" Wed. night Bible study.
Thanks for posting the notice of Thieme's death. I did not know about it and was glad to learn the fact. I never rejoice when someone dies, as it is a most solemn moment and not to be a source of delight or satisfaction.
The validity of his biographical information IS VERY RELEVANT to this forum and the issues we discuss here. Thieme spun a number of yarns about himself and his organization swallowed them all. Propagating them is not an honorable thing to do. It is not surprising that nothing he said about himself would be challenged by his faithful followers of which I was one for many years, almost thirty years.
C.G. NUNT'S brief and factual biography of Thieme is very useful in that it sticks to verifiable public records and does not deal with any issues arising from his ministry and teachings. Hunt shows clearly some things commonly thought to be true are not true at all. Thieme TOLD SOME BIG ONES about himself.
Click here to see the book:
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www.buy.com]
So buy this book and keep it in print. We need it. Anyone interested in reaching Thieme followers should have this book to give out. It can be the initial "breakthrough" (pun intended) you are looking for to try to show dedicated followers that their great teacher had feet of clay.
I am especially interested in THIEME BIOGRAPHY because I had an amazing exchange on the subject with some of the denizens of DELPHI'S pro Thieme BIBLE DOCTRINE STUDY GROUP. They were shocked that anyone would want to write a biography of Thieme. They also said it was because Thieme did not want to take valuable time away from his studies. It was not a good idea for anyone else to write a biography of him either. They would have to interview Thieme to do it and that too would take up his time. I insisted that a biography would be very desirable for all interested in Thieme for any reason, and that it would be a good way to honor his life long work. I WAS TURNED DOWN IN NO UNCERTAIN TERMS!
Doesn't that say a lot? I think so.
PREBOUND SAID:
The doctrinal issues are another matter. Like you, I disagree with many of Pastor Thieme's "discovered" doctrines. But I do agree with more than a few things he taught.
SISTER SAYS:
I can honestly say that Thieme correctly saw the need for verse by verse teaching through the Word of God. It is even rarer these days. He made a mess of it in the end with his peculiar doctrines and methods. His personal isolation from his followers and the rest of Christendom is reflected by the isolation he created for his listeners. He became more and more unbalanced as he aged. The recognition of this need in the Churches of this country was a powerful motive for Thieme to do what he did. But his cultic aspects grew from his personality and that was formed long before he arrived at Berachah.
The other thing Thieme got right has been mentioned before lately and that was his handling of GIVING. It was entirely voluntary with no chance of embarrassment or coercion.
But the things Thieme got wrong were so glaring that they posioned the good. THE MIXTURE OF TRUTH AND ERROR IS MORE DANGEROUS THAN PURE ERROR ALONE.
That is why I think people who see this erroneous teaching ought to leave him completely alone. You can find the truth apart from Thieme's terrible mixture. The method of exegesis Thieme used included his imposing upon Scripture what he "discovered" instead of clearly finding it there in the first place.
I first began to ask questions about Thieme's teachings when it occurred to me that all this special vocabulary and "categories" of his that took up so much time and space was simply not in the Bible. It never dawned on me before that. And when he told me not to bother to read the English Bible myself because I could not get truth from it, I NEVER EVEN BLINKED. I should have gotten up and left and never returned or listened to another tape or attended another "taper's conference." THE FACT THAT I DID NOT LEAVE AT THAT OUTRAGEOUS STATEMENT is a testament to the EFFECTIVENESS OF HIS CONTROL OVER ME.The real question I asked myself was: " IS THIS THE SAME THING AS TEACHING THINGS NOT IN THE BIBLE IN THE FIRST PLACE?" And of course, the answer is YES, THIS IS THE SAME THING AS TEACHING THINGS THAT ARE NOT IN THE BIBLE AT ALL.
That is mind control. Thieme did it. His control increased with every tape I listened to.
There is no telling what variations CLONE CHURCHES make of Thieme's teachings. I tend to believe that they can only get worse.
So as to your church, if there is Thieme doctrine in it, it is in trouble.
Sistersoap