I've read through much of the existing thread on Bob Thieme and Berachah, most of which deals with theological disagreements and cult behavior explored from the perspective of born-again christians. I'd like to offer a different perspective, if I may.

I studied and took notes on nearly 2,000 tapes, including the 1969 Basics, Protocol Plan of God, Faith Rest, and the first several hundred Spiritual Dynamics. I read RBT's books on Christian Integrity, Revelations, etc. In those years, I anticipated that his inevitable death would be as painful as the death of a family member. I walked away in 2004 when I finally accepted how elitist, self-absorbed, and deeply arrogant Thieme himself behaved. In 2009, I read Joe Wall's dissertation and C.G. Hunt's thorough repudiation of Thieme's personal history. Since then, I have become an atheist.

Bob Thieme's strong leadership talents and courage were wasted on christianity. Even worse, RBTjr relished his role as the condescending disciplinarian who called his congregation "stupid", "spiritual losers", and "arrogant", while embellishing his modest background. The Berachah Battalion has all the characteristics of a cult of personality. And after all the chest-pounding about dropping behind the pulpit, he went out with a whimper instead of a bang, ravaged by Alzheimer's. Thieme took all the ignorance, logical fallacies, and nonsensical supernatural appeals of orthodox christianity, crafted a unique vocabulary, and sold his braying dogmatism as the voice of god while playing a deft verbal game of "it's not me, it's God the Holy Spirit". He portrayed himself as a suffering servant of a god who, let's be honest, is worthy neither of love nor respect.

If Bob Thieme is a general in god's army, then christendom should lay down its arms and surrender immediately. I respect his WW2 service and nothing else. I hope his son Bobby finds the wisdom to escape the mind-forged manacle. After hearing one of Bobby's sermon tapes, I doubt that will ever happen.

So, do we classify Thieme's onset of Alzheimer's as Supergrace Testing or Sin Unto Death? Or, maybe things happen without the direction of a supernatural being who exists outside time and nature yet writes books and performs tricks for land grabbing, mass plundering, child raping, genocidal cattle herders from the Bronze Age. If you were a "taper" prior to Thieme's death and you feel (or THINK THINK THINK as "the Colonel" put it) that I have been unfair or unjust in my remarks, post a reply or IM me.

RBT is clearly not a cult. You 're getting into splicing hairs regarding blood, taking out of context. I d reference Dave Hunt or Walter Martin to prove my point. He s not taking away divinity of Jesus.

Hal Lindsey was a member of Thieme's Church. Thieme recommended him to be accepted to Dallas Theological Seminary. I think most of Hal's material is copied from Thieme. The faith rest was one of Hal's central theme for his book Combat Faith.

I was wondering if you have studied any of the psychological techniques that Thieme used in the faith rest theology. It appears to be the concept of diverting your attention away from the problem at hand in order to get through it. It may even be a Zen type of mind set. As you divert your attention away from what you're fearful of you are able to be present in a different way.

All I know is Thieme and Lindsey were familiar with psychology and used it in their theology.

Lindsey was divorced three times, made a stupid video about Halloween claiming a baby diaper he found at a satanic site pointed to a satanic sacrifice, claimed the 1980s were the countdown to armageddon and he's currently fleecing the flock for at least one million dollars a year per his tax return at citizen audit.