Saw enough wrote in part: “if you've blurred the line between the Lord and Gary & Marilyn to the point where they're identical in your mind,”

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Governing principle of the JRS empire = Accept the control of earthly leaders over your life.

Jesus in Matthew 23 = Call no one on earth leader. One is your teacher, He who is in heaven.

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Seems pretty black and white. In fact, the two above statements are opposites.

Making the decision between the two should be a “no brainer,” but after spending years in “TLWF Hammer Mill” things get really blurry.

Thanks, Saw enough.

Saw,

I too was thinking about what you wrote about the children and young people blurring the line btwn the Lord and G&M to the point where they are identical in your mind. It is probably one thing to have grown up as a child with that indoctrination and another to have been coerced to accept it as an adult.

I left the Walk as an adult before the strong emphasis on the spiritual leaders beings viewed as little gods. I wonder if TLWF is the only cult/fringe Christian group where this is occurring, where Christ has incarnated himself. There have been a few posts from those who grew up in the LW and left and apparently rejected the LW doctrine and those posters were concerned about how to reach their friends still in TLWF.

I scanned on google bits of a new book, Perfect Children: Growing Up on The Religious Fringe, Oxford Press, 2015. In one section, the author talks about the "baddies" or those who seemed to have more rebel like characteristics and upon leaving their group pretty much viewed the doctrines as rubbish. Interesting. I thought of changedagain when reading that section due to the self described discipline he received while in TLWF. lol

On the other hand, some who left their group struggled to fit into the world sometimes finding acceptance through drugs and sex. However, the author concludes that there were many variables that went into each person's story and each story was unique.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/13/2015 07:54AM by lily rose.

Have to love the thought: “The baddies had enough rebellion in themselves to 'save' themselves.”

Ah, in your face TLWF.

There really are very few leaders that claim to be Christ in the flesh as does TLWF. A couple you might want to Google are Victor Arden Barnard of River Road Fellowship and Jose Luis de Jesus Miranda. They certainly are strange bedfellows, but you will notice similarities to TLWF. One obvious tragedy to all three is that the leadership cannot deliver on the promises they've made to followers to get them to be followers. It's all smoke and mirrors and the followers end up spiritually and sometimes physically abused and then discarded. While TLWF attempts to sanitize their website to appear mainstream, other mainstream groups are not claiming to be Christ in the flesh and demanding blind obedience behind the scenes. I would have far more respect if they would just say their goal is to get people connected and obedient to Marilyn instead of lying and pretending to be something they are not. It is not okay to mislead the innocent until are properly deceived - or I mean have a revelation - and then the "deeper truths" can be revealed. The end does not justify the means - it's still bearing false witness. People would not join if they knew up front what they were getting into.

larry bobo Wrote:
"I would have far more respect if they
would just say their goal is to get people
connected and obedient to Marilyn instead of lying
and pretending to be something they are not."

Yes

Yes. It is total "bait and switch".

Saw enough wrote in part: “By cutting people off from their personal relationship with the Lord and mocking their seeking of God as looking to "God in the sky" or "God in your brain" -- they installed themselves as the representatives of Christ-in-the-flesh to whom people had to submit.”

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Bait and switch. Bait and make war against the words of Jesus. Unquestionably one of the greatest concepts ever presented to each individual was for God to live in their own spirits (Gospel of John). The “TLWF Hammer Mill” was never satisfied with enjoying God, but rather wants to be God and rule over each individual as well as all the earth. Seems like the same ambition Satan has.

There was some speculation as to whether there were any other leaders that claimed to be Christ or to be Christ in the Earth, or whatever. There are some. I imagine it's not allowed on the forum to discuss them in length. I'll only mention that Rev. Moon is referred to as the Messiah, and the father etc, there are a few today that are claiming to be Jesus Christ Himself, returned, Oprah Winfrey even said that Barack Obama is the Messiah, along with Louis Farakahn, he too said that Barrack Obama is the Messiah at first, before he got disillusioned with him. So it's not anything new.

One thing to think about, Rev. Moon was born not long after John Robert Stevens. Just a curiosity.

It seems to me that the when the Jesus movement came along, there were lots of people just waiting for a father figure to follow. Some of theme dispersed into the Children of God, some into the Moonies, some into Hare Krishna, some into the Walk, the whole generation it seems to me were looking for some alternative to traditional Christianity, some politcal and spiritual savior to come on the scene in person to take away their responsibility to think and make decisions for themselves.

I heard a long time ago that the Walk leadership suggested that the people of the various churches close down and move out west, and other than a couple of the churches did just that. I was wondering what everybody knows about that.

I am wondering if any of the churches decided among themselves to stay open and just not affiliate themselves with Living Word any more.

AD,

The only person I read of who started his own church (in the San Diego area) was David Cokas and one poster on fact-net said there were some similarities btwn the Walk and Cokas's church. Cokas pastored the Valley Church in the late 70's but I don't know when he left the LW. I read that some folks from Coniah transplanted themselves into the Cokas church. Paleface or jhorning may know more about it.