(September 27, 2018 at 7:38 pm)wyzas Wrote: Welcome Woof!
Never heard of "The Way". Got some reading to do unless you can give me the skinny.
Glad you not one of those GD fence sitters.
Not entirely sure what you mean by a fence sitter, but I'll take the compliment.
IF the deists are correct, God created everything and then went on to play skeeball somewhere in New Jersey, which no one can really prove or disprove with the possible exception of Alanis Morrisette. Regardless, I see no reason to believe in Jesus, Allah, Buddha, Thor, Odin, Zeus, Ra, Rao, Mithra, Joe Pesci*, Isis, Osiris, Eshu, Oya, Mixcoatl, Divana, Podaga, Bendis, Ogoun, Jehovah, Yahweh, El Shaddai, Nodens, Pakhet, Qamaits or Donald Trump*.
* While I have it on good authority that these individuals actually do exist, the fact is they are not gods and anyone who treats them as such is a moron.
The only god whose existence I would even entertain is one whose existence would be, by definition, undetectable... which is to say, one who may as well not exist for all he cares, much less for all I care.
The Way is a wannabe cult out of New Knoxville Ohio that roped people into taking classes to grow, spiritually. The original series of classes was called Power for Abundant Living (PFAL), pioneered (to the extent that it wasn't plagiarized) by founder Victor Paul Wierwielle, who died in 1985. Wierwille was succeeded by L. Craig Martindale, under whose leadership the cult "snapped," shattering into a dozen pieces, some of which are likely larger than The Way itself. The Way continues to attract with its mixture of evangelicalism, fundamentalism and iconoclastic theology (Jesus Christ is Not God; the dead are not alive now and will not be until the return of Christ).
Everyone in the way claims to speak in tongues. Not one actually does. Some scholars call it "free vocalization." Most call it babbling bullcrap.
It's hard to tell how many followers of The Way there are. At its height, it boasted 100,000 graduates of PFAL. Today, I doubt they're even close to that number in terms of active followers. Most offshoots are tiny as well.
If you stumble on a church that does not believe in the Trinity, does not believe Jesus is God, but also is not Jehovah's Witness, I'd bet good money its roots can be traced to The Way International.
