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EmeraldMyst
If you're REALLY feeling bold, you might want to take a look at this thread in another forum:

[promotional link edited out]

ER, AH, What is on that forum about R.B.Thieme, Jr? or any cults, for that matter? I found mostly skeptics and unbiblical and anti Biblical topics when I checked it out.

If there is really something relevant to this discussion, please post a direct link.

Sistersoap



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/08/2008 09:13PM by rrmoderator.

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Imjustme
RO7...

I've been studying under Bob Thieme for 37 years, and he has taught me all I know about the Christian life, and I'm profoundly thankful for it. My life is blessed, and I have a wonderful relationship with God, not because I worship Bob Thieme, but because I worship Him. I do, however, attribute my knowledge of God, and my ability to manage my problems, in part to the man who tutored me and showed me the way to stand independently before God.

I am an independent thinker, and always have been, and if Bob Thieme had ever said, or even intimated, that I must adhere to everything he says I would have been gone before he finished the sentence.

The fact is that the man documented every single statement he made about the Bible with detailed exegesis in the original languages and historical background. You know this to be a fact. He doesn't just talk without backing up what he says with, many times, tedious background information and cyphering the Manuscripts in the Greek and Hebrew. What more could a teacher do to provide proof of his logic?

I have known families that browbeat their kids, as your parents apparently did, about Bob's teaching, but is that his fault? Did you ever hear him endorse such conduct? To the contrary, you can no doubt recall, as I can, that he insisted time after time after time that he has no intention of telling people how to live their lives. His responsibility is to study and teach God's Word, and how that information is applied is up to the individual.

You say that you have come to realize that everything you think about your faith is based upon what Bob Thieme taught you. And this is a bad thing? The question is not whether you have learned from many teachers, but whether the one teacher has taught you the truth. Isn't that what's important? If Thieme teaches the truth, than what more do you need?

I read many posts that criticize Bob Thieme from people who, admittedly, have never studied a word he taught. They base their opinions on the slanders that a few people write, people who did sit in the Berachah congregation, but came to hate Theime. Literally all of them cite the reason for their hatred as parents who insisted on their attendance, and for no other reason that I can fathom.

And this is Bob Thieme's fault? He took absolutely no part in how they raised their children. He teaches the verses that address parents and children, but how parents use that information is their responsibility.

Now you are questioning your involvement with Berachah? You certainly have the right to do so, and no person on this planet would defend that right more vigorously that Bob Thieme, himself. You have heard him teach "the privacy of the priesthood" a thousand times, and he has never, to my knowledge, crossed that line. He further teaches that anyone who takes exception to his teaching is free to leave, and find a church they find more compatible.

I'm curious, what specific information that Bob taught you do you doubt? What in his manner and bearing do you disapprove of? What reason is there for you to be disenchanted with the life you live? What part does Bob Thieme play in your unhappiness? Did he personally advise you to take the wrong course, or even from the pulpit? Why are you questioning what you know about the Christian life, other than your exposure to just one pastor?

I will tell you what Bob would tell you if he read your post. If you don't want to be one of his flock, fine. You are free to go elsewhere. Nobody will criticize you for it. God has
raised up many men and given them the gift of pastor-teacher. No one man can minister to all of God's people. He never intended it so.

But I caution you about one thing, RO7, don't feed into these people who label Berachah as a cult. That is absolutely ridiculous, and you know it. I have posted this information elsewhere on this site; Berachah Church has none of the signal charactaristics of a cult, to wit;

A cult leader ALWAYS becomes heavily involved in the lives of his followers. Elsewise, he could not brainwash them and hold sway over their every decision. As you know, Bob has never done that, in fact, I have heard many people criticize him for not being involved enough.

A cult always has a gimmick, like the impending rapture, or the end of the world, that the cult leader claims to know about. Bob Thieme claims no such knowledge. He teaches that no man knows the hour of the rapture, and furthermore, he teaches the Word line on line, and does no hold his congregation by some scheme wherein he claims to be the only man in the Universe who God confides in.

A cult typically requires that its followers give everything they own to the leader, to be used as he sees fit. Bob teaches that giving is an individual choice, and if you wish to come and give nothing, that is your business. We used to call the collection plate "the fastest plate in the west".

A cult typically requires every member to submit to communal living, as a group, separated from the mainstream. Nonsense. Berachah has never done that, and never will.

Apparently, a few dissenters claim Thieme is a cultist because there are thousands of
believers who admire him and study his tapes and other materials. And this is grounds
for making such a claim? Billy Graham, Charles Moody, Calvin, Wesely, Swindoll, Lindsey, and hundreds of other noted ministers command large followings, and nobody claims they are cults. Why Bob Thieme?

Yes, Bob teaches with passion and authority. Why shouldn't he? He spent thousands of hours studying, and using his 12 years of preparation to learn and teach what the Bible says. Should he teach any other way? If he isn't confident of his knowledge, then he shouldn't be ministering to a Christian congregation. How would they have him act? Timid and self- demeaning? Apologizing for his dogmatic manner of teaching?

You say you believe Bob to be a "good man". I agree. If so, and yet you find some reason to be unhappy with your Christian life, then at least pay him the respect he is due, and depart from his company and teaching without contributing to the campaign of slander that others have waged against him.

Just my spin....

Fishbulb....

You ask; "Any Thiemites out there have any constructive advice for someone leaving this particular group?"

Yeah, I do. Just walk out the door and go somewhere else. Nobody will ridicule her, least of all Bob Thieme. He periodically advised this very thing for those who find fault in his teaching. This young lady has come to question the basis for her Christian life, but Bob Thieme had no part in her quandry. She says, herself, that she is wondering about things because she has no knowledge of Christianity apart from what Bob has taught her. You read my post, above; If he has taught her the truth, then what cause is there for concern? If she learned what she knows from a hundred men, and they all taught the truth, then she would know the same things. The number of people she has learned from, or lack of same, is inconsequential. It is WHAT she learned that counts, and I can attest to the fact that Thieme is without peer when it comes to parsing the Word. Even many prominent theologians have arrived at the same conclusion.
Some of them criticize him, but none of them deny his qualifications as a minister.

Just because some guy has come onto this site and claims Berachah is a cult, it doesn't follow that he is correct. I suggest that you examine the person doing the accusing. He has been cruising the web for years slandering Bob Thieme, and all because his parents made him attend Bible class, to the exclusion of the social life of his buddies. He sat there seething with resentment, and Bob Thieme, and the Berachah faithful, are taking the heat for his spite.

Pitiful!