NotElisah – Thanks for posting. It’s always great to have fresh input. There are definitely wonderful and loving people in TLWF who all of us miss. However, there is also a dark side in the leadership that wants to remain hidden. Turning on the lights is not only helpful to those who have been spiritually abused and are trying to sort things out, but also gives a heads up to those who are still in TLWF and are now running into trouble. I was there for all of the 70’s, and honestly - for the most part- it was a wonderful time. I’m sure others who were there would also agree and it would be great to hear their input. I would suggest it was a much clearer picture of John than what later developed. By that, I’m not saying it was all scriptural, but it sure provided a consuming purpose for our lives and a desire to be connect to him and his special calling.

My most difficult days were the 90’s (I left in 99). I can’t even imagine substituting Marilyn’s name for God in worship songs in the 70’s – we didn’t have the “revelation” of that then. The thing that jumps out of your post to me is the effort to re-write history to make it more palatable now. If you were to speak up at the time about the actions of men who would later be called “false shepherds”, you - not them - would be shown the door. Submission was far more important than whether you suffered spiritual abuse or not. The system was far more important than the people. (Perhaps it’s the reason there’s now a camaraderie with the Catholic Church.) Another red flag to me was last year, when one of the Shiloh pastors was interviewed, he didn’t recall praying for John to be resurrected after his death. That’s a blatant lie – it’s all we did that summer. I think they are just embarrassed about it now in their effort to appear mainstream.

The 70’s were overshadowed by John’s vision of breaking into the kingdom in 1979 (which I happen to think is doctrinally incorrect now) and the coming world destruction. We were into survival training including food storage and studying herbs, the silver mine that would release finances for the word to be published, cutting off family ties, focusing away from personal higher education and careers and working in kingdom businesses, and the knowledge that we – the sons of God – would be ruling and reigning with him. John – not some outlying weird church – initiated all of it. When it didn’t happened, there was talk of it happening in the spirit realm where only the enlightened were privy to see. FYI, a lot of survival food went bad in the new kingdom. I personally spent a year on the bench (the first of 3 times) for questioning what DIDN’T happen. Even though I had questions myself, it was others who prompted me to stick my neck out and ask. It was a very touchy subject and nobody was surprised at the response. It was my first introduction to,”Don’t ask – don’t tell” and apparently I’m still a work in progress. The 1979 version of the kingdom has apparently become misplaced and now hopefully Marilyn will be able to help usher it in from the other side - if her followers are obedient enough.

Two things I learned not to do during my tenture in TLWF:
--joke to to Marilyn about her being an Apostolic fathering ministry
--kid Gary about him commissioning an obviously intoxicated person to pastor our local church.
As you might guess, my levity was not received warmly.
Ahh...the memories!

Another response to Jan's question from a while back, maybe it's was the loss of those deep relationships that continues to have a powerful affect on us and that keeps us coming back for closure.

I watched the Scientology cult piece and added another note to self question to ask a church before joining: Do you have any far fetched secret doctrines?

To sum it up I would always ask to see all the church doctrines in writing in addition to the ones posted on a website along with any secret doctrines which are most likely the most telling about what a church is up to.

Larry said I was there for the 70's and for the most part it was a wonderful time. I think the early 70's were better than the last 5 years of the 70's when the death prayers began, submission really became the mantra, as well as elevating John became more common place by some, not all.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/01/2015 01:47AM by lily rose.

I was a little further out from LA in Des Moines in the 70's, so it took a couple of years longer for the death prayers to reach us. I did spend a lot of time at Shiloh, so I was not completely isolated. I remember telling someone at Shiloh that we were praying for a free Bob and a dead Martha in Des Moines too, and I was welcomed into the intercession.

Another fond memory was my first corporation meeting in LA. I was a little taken back to see Gary with a cigarette and using the f... word quite freely. Now I understood a little better where my local pastor got it from. I had to learn to move up to a higher level and drink hard liquor instead of beer to be in the flow. It was a pretty hazy couple of days. I think we handed over all the local church assets to the apostolic fathering ministry (which included Marilyn) if there should be a disagreement among the local church corporation, but I don't quite remember. It was a far cry from any local church service I had attended up to that point. Later on, we could drink with the best of them and unfortunately, so could our kids.

oh my...so true, Larry

changedagain Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Two things I learned not to do during my
> tenture in TLWF:

tenture...I like that word.
But I meant tenure

What is all this giving people a "word" all the time? People having to "get a word." If I were the overseer of a church I would make it a major rule that nobody give anybody personal direction about anything. If somebody asked for it, then any pastor or elder there would be rebuked or even removed from office if they gave somebody a word to divorce, or marry or get a job, or keep a job, or whatever. Now the right thing is to pray with somebody that THEY get direction directly from God, that they hear the voice of the Lord themselves, and then confirmation follow, instead of giving them a word as if it were from the Lord and then some yes man or two confirm it, that is not right.

I go to a church with over 700 people in a Sunday service, and it is inevitable that somebody wonder up and say they just heard from God about something personal about you, it happens once in a blue moon, but if it is known by the leadership that somebody is doing that, they are taken to the side and gently instructed that this isn't allowed in the church. If a pastor or elder does that, then they could well be taken out of office. That just is no way to help someone find the mind of God and it does not teach anyone how to seek the Lord for themselves.

Timid, meek, unassuming types get hammered in churches where the bullies always have a “word” for everyone else. It’s nothing but an ego booster for the Alpha Super Know It All’s.

larry bobo Wrote:

> I had to learn to move up to a higher level and drink hard liquor
> instead of beer to be in the flow.

The combination of hard liquor and worshiping to The Doors songs (Break on Through, Riders on the Storm etc.) really liberated many of us in our local church. We were more cutting edge than most.

I was thinking more about Larry's above comment that the 70's were a wonderful time because for me I think eventually God blew on it. The 70's were like the best of times and the worst of times (I think that is from Les Miserable). The 70's to me was a bubble that would burst and cause a lot of folks to crash and burn. But for some folks the bubble lasted into to the 80's and 90's. And the bubble allowed some to gain status as prophets of the Word of God as Apostle Dog mentions above and God blew on that too. Those so called Words fell to the ground. But the alpha super know it all's with the huge ego's that FCSLC describes above, they continued and created the worst of times for some of the meek who were seeking God. I think God has been blowing on that. If the bubble now is to believe that M will assist TLWF in their pursuit of pulling down the Kingdom, that Word too will fall to the ground in time, but I think Lampschamp may have made a valid point that the good folks who live in this bubble have now invested too much to walk away from the so called Word G speaks to them.