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| The original site that hosted this discussion was Waydale, as indicated below. Waydale gave way to the GreaseSpot Cafe, which was originally hosted at ezboards. Most of the links to the GSCafe were to the ezboard site. I have tried to update all of those links to point you to the Grease Spot's current home, but I may have missed a few. If you land on a page that says GreaseSpot has been "banned and locked down", don't fret. Just visit www.GreaseSpotCafe.com and join the party. If you wish to contact me for more information regarding the content of this website, you may reach me by e-mail at GBarraxjr@insightbb.com. |
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Welcome and God bless! |
| As you probably already know, Waydale, the web site launched in May of 1999 to expose the practices of The Way International, is now closed. During its year and a half on the internet, Waydale had an enormous impact on the "ex-way" community; those of us who have been followers of the Way Ministry. Paul Allen, the founder and moderator of Waydale, published information in the archives section gleaned from his experience in The Way Corps, the The Way International's leadership training program. Waydale also featured the most popular forum on ezboard.com. The forums and archives Paul Allen posted or moderated on Waydale were a treasure to the 'ex-Way" community which will be sorely missed. |
| As a result of the information Paul published in the Waydale archives and the input of my fellow ex-way believers on the infamous Waydale forums, I have come to the conclusion that the doctrinal foundation of The Way International, the Power For Abundant Living class, is riddled with error. Since my beliefs had been based on this doctrine since 1982, I found it necessary to undertake a thorough and critical review of the "PFAL" class in order to come to an accurate understanding of God and his Word. When I began this project and started to find startling errors in the PFAL class, I decided to share my findings on Waydale and created the PFAL REVIEW thread. Unfortunately, Waydale closed, so I transplanted the existing thread to this site so what's been posted thus far will still be available. I will continue working on the PFAL review as time permits and posting my findings here and on Waydale's successor, "The Grease Spot Cafe" . |
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By the way, the curious phrase "Grease Spot Cafe" comes from a favorite phrase of L. Craig Martindale, the second president of The Way International. Martindale warned his followers of the dangers of breaking commitments to the ministry by saying one would be " a grease spot by midnight" if he forsook his oaths. The Grease Spot Cafe was so named to satirize the fear tactics used by Martindale and The Way. |
| Feel free to browse the threads posted here. I've taken the liberty of removing all the Waydale hyperlinks, since those are now useless. I've also removed the subtitles under each contributor's name, most of which said "Waydale Citizen". I did however, in the interest of fairness and honesty, leave all of the original posts in the thread, both positive and negative. So what you see here is not just a presentation of my ideas and observations, but a collective study by many wonderful people, including Rafael Olmeda, Evan Pyle, Steve Lortz, "Orange Cat", "Sunlight8", "Ex10th", "Outin88" and others. You will also see, in the comments of "Rev2", "Twosum", and "L Anemone", opposing viewpoints and the intense devotion to Dr. Weirwille's teachings that once characterized the followers of The Way Ministry. Although Dr. Weirwille never explicitly claimed to be an Apostle or even a great man of God, his teachings supported this belief and the leadership and culture of the Way encouraged that belief. |
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I originally came to the "ex-way" internet community as a defender of PFAL and most of Weirwille's doctrines. But as I partook in these type of frank and free-wheeling discussions, I was challenged to reexamine my beliefs. The result is this PFAL Review and an ongoing pursuit of a greater understanding of God and His Word and a closer relationship with God and Christ. |
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What's it all about? The purpose of this project can be summarized by a statement I made 10/04/2000. |
| There are a great many valuable lessons in PFAL, but there are many deceitful and erroneous doctrines as well (some of which have yet to be discussed). My goal is not to completely discard what I learned in TWI, but to separate the wheat from the chaff, so I can keep that which is good and right and get rid of that which is wrong and harmful. In order to do that, we must be willing and able to see both. |
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At the top of each page, I've replaced
the original links to the Waydale forum with a link to Rafael Olmeda's excellent article, Actual
errors in PFAL. This article grew from a discussion Rafael written to refute the notion that the Power for Abundant Living Class is "God-breathed", perfect, and more reliable than the Bible itself. Yes, you read that correctly.
This is not a widespread viewpoint, as most PFAL grads remember that Dr. Weirwille elevated the Bible above all of man's works, including his own. But the level of mindless devotion among some PFAL grads has degenerated to the point that there is at least one vocal and determined Weirwillite who's mission it is to convince us that God gave Power For Abundant Living to Dr. Weirwille as divine revelation, and that it is therefore, inerrant and infallible.
The Actual Errors in PFAL discussion was started as a simple demonstration of the fact that there are contradictions and erros in the class. It was hoped that a simple, logical treatise listing the blatant flaws in Weirwille's work (which he himself never claimed to be perfect) would dissuad Mike from espousing its divine perfection. As anyone familiar with cults and spiritual blindness can attest, such misguided devotion is not swayed by mere logic. So Mike remains undeterred in his PFAL crusade, as a casual visit to the GreaseSpot cafe will show. But those of you who are not immune to logic may find Rafael's article helpful. Due to the specific purpose of the article, not everything mentioned here will be relevant to that discussion. |
| PFAL REVIEW PART TWO |
| PFAL REVIEW PART THREE |
| False Hope: Problems and Contradictions Regarding the Rapture | |
| The Case Against James: Contrast between the Epistle of James and Paul's Epistles |
This essay was written before the PFAL Review, so some of its suppositions and conclusions are outdated. It was based on the Fundamentalist
belief that the Bible cannot contradict itself and therefore, anything that causes contradictions in the Bible must be false. Based on this premise, I set out to prove that the book of James must be false doctrine
because it causes numerous contradictions when compared with Galatians and Romans. I no longer believe in an inerrant Bible and don't see any need to call for the book of James to be stricken from the New Testament. However,
the essay has some value in its detailed comparison of the two factions that developped in the First Century Church; those who followed James and the legalists, and those who followed Paul and the gospel of grace. I have been asked to keep the essay available on the internet even though I have abandoned the basic premise of a perfect written revelation from God. So for what it's worth, here it is. I hope to update it in light of my current beliefs concerning Scripture and inspiration, but that will have to wait until my family and I are settled in a new job in another state. In the meantime, I hope you find the essay enlightening. Feel free to Email me with any relevant questions, barbs, or brickbats. |
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PFAL REVIEW TOPICAL INDEX |
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...index is under construction... |
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Session One; The More Abundant Life, Faith and Fear |
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| John 10:10 | |
| Five Keys to Receiving Anything from God: | |
| More on the Five Keys | |
| Believing Equals Receiving | |
| Fear is a Law? | |
| Fear of the Lord | |
| Faith in the Old Testament | |
| Two Types of Unbelief | |
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Session Two; II Timothy 3:16 & 17 |
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| The Profit of the Word: Doctrine, Reproof, and Correction? | |
| More on II Timothy 3:16 and still more on II Timothy 3:16: instruction as judgment | |
| King David & Nathan: Correction, Wierwille style. | |
| II Timothy 3:17: That "the man who speaks for God" may be "throughly furnished" | |
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Session Three; John 1:1, The Integrity of The Word |
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| John 1:1 and Pros. "...If any other Greek word were used for the word "with" other than pros, the whole Bible would crumble." | |
| John 1:1 and Logos. In the beginning was the Word. | |
| Trinity More Trinity ....And more Trinity | |
| "The Written Word Takes the Place of the Absent Christ..." | |
| The nature of Jesus' Resurrected body | |
| More on the nature of Jesus' Resurrected Body; That which is born of the flesh is flesh... | |
| "Nincompoop" and the Danger of Word Studies; This brief post deals with the inherent contradiction between Wierwille's teaching from II Peter 1:21 about how we got the Bible and his penchant for using word studies to extract very narrow definitions for the words used in the Bible. | |
| Spiritual Weakness and Inability and Matthew 4:4:Knowlege Vs Obedience | |
| Punctuation: Paul's Trip to Jerusalem | |
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Session Four; How the Word Interprets Itself:/ The Dead are Not Alive |
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| Private Interpretation: II Peter 1:20 | |
| More on Private Interpretation | |
| ...aaaand MORE on Private Interpretation; Does the Bible really interpret itself? | |
| Words In the Verse: Matthew 27:46, "The Cry of Triumph" | |
| Scripture Buildup: "Four Crucified" Part 1 Allos and heteros | |
| Scripture Buildup: "Four Crucified: Part 2 Chronology | |
| Scripture Buildup: "Four Crucified" Part 3 "On either side one"; The testimony of John | |
| In the Context: Life after Death: Various PFAL teachings about death and the afterlife. Comments here are drawn from material both from PFAL itself and from Dr. Wierwille's book, Are the Dead Alive Now? | |
| More on Life After Death: Body, Soul, and Spirit. Dr. Wierwille's teaching that everything must go back to its original source contradicts his assertion that Christians don't go to heaven when they die. | |
| More on body, soul, and Spirit re: death. Does the soul die or go back to God? | |
| More on death and the soul | |
| Enoch's Translation More on Enoch | |
| The Transfiguration on the Mount and still more on Enoch | |
| The Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus | |
| In its Previous Usage: A Valid Principle of Biblical Research | |
| In its Previous Usage: Problems with Paul's Thorn in the Flesh | |
| II Timothy 2:15 How To Stand Approved Before God. | |
| The Idiom of Permission and I John 1:5 | |
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Session Five; Administrations and the Kingdom of God |
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| To Whom the Word is Addressed | |
| To Whom Addressed vs. For Our Learning | |
| Administrations | |
| The Great Principle: The "...chasm between the natural man and God" . God cannot communicate with people via their senses? This is a central issue that affects the teachings about salvation, creation, revelation, God's power and His relationship with man. | |
| The Natural Man and the Five Senses: more on the error of God's inability to communicate with people except by holy spirit. | |
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Session Six; Body, Soul, Spirit, Formed, Made, Created and other doctrines from Genesis |
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| Formed, Made, and Created | |
| More on Body, Soul, and Spirit. Genesis and the Biblical use of the word "body" and the Image of God. | |
| "The Battle of the Senses" | |
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Session Seven; The Mystery, The New Birth, Sonship Rights and the Renewed Mind |
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| The Absent Christ Apostolic Authority | |
| More on fellowship with Christ | |
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Contradictions in The Bible |
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| The Resurrected Christ: Spirit or Flesh --Luke 24:39 Vs II Corinthians 15:44 & 45 | |
| Can a Murderer Be Saved? -- Romans 3:22-24, Acts 22:4 Vs. I John 2:25 | |
| Do We Need Teachers? -- Ephesians 4:11 & 12 Vs. I John 2:27 | |
| Are We Under the Law or Not? -- Romans 7:6, 10:4, Vs. James 2:9, I John 3:4 | |
| The Manifestation of Prophecy: For Believers or Unbelievers? -- I Corinthians 14:22 Vs. I Corinthians 14:24 & 25 | |
| Does God tempt people or not? James 1:13 Vs. Genesis 22:1 | |
| Paul's Companions: What did they see and hear? Acts 9:7 Vs. Acts 22:9 | |
| Does God kill or condone killing? (The Idiom of Permission) I John 1:5 Vs. Exodus 32:26-28 | |
As you peruse these threads you may find acronyms with which you're not familiar. Here are some definitions you may find helpful.
VPW: Victor Paul Weirwille, founder of The Way International, also known as Dr. Weirwille, "VP" (his self-ascribed nickname), or "Doctor".
MOG: "Man of God" a term by which Weirwille, and later Martindale were sometimes known. Weirwille was presented as "the man of God" by The Way International and its followers who thought of him as the world's foremost minister and the most enlightened Bible teacher since the first century AD.
LCM: L. Craig Martindale, second President of The Way International. Martindale was chosen by Weirwille as his successor and was installed in October 1981. He recently resigned his position under the cloud of a sexual scandal and has since been banished from The Way International's headquarters and properties.
MOGFOT: "Man of God For our Time", an acronym for the title later applied by The Way International to Weirwille's successor, L. Craig Martindale. This acronym is most often used sarcastically by "ex-ways"
Ex-Way: a former follower of the Way International.
TWI: The Way International.
TWI II: The Way International after the Passing of A Patriarch scandal. roughly 1985 to the present.
PFAL: Power For Abundant Living, the foundational class offered by The Way International from 1958 until about 1992. The "foundational class" was approximately 33 hours long and was taught live by Dr. Weirwille until 1977 at which time it was filmed. After that it was usually presented on film, audiotape, or videotape. The live or taped teaching was supplemented by a collection of Weirwille's books, including the book version of Power For Abundant Living. Since PFAL was The Way's introduction to its doctrines, almost all followers of the Way were "PFAL grads".
RTHST: Receiving the Holy Spirit Today, Weirwille's companion book to Power For Abundant Living. In RTHST, Weirwille set forth his theology regarding the gifts and manifestation of holy spirit and detailed teaching on speaking in tongues, including step-by-step instructions. This material was the sole subject of the last 9 hours of the PFAL class. At the end of each class, all new students were instructed to speak in tongues, so almost all PFAL grads speak in tongues.
SIT: Speak in Tongues.
TWIG: The home fellowships run by the Way. The Way did not build churches, as Christian denominations do. They supervised home fellowships ostensibly designed after the biblical model of the first century Church. The terminology used by The Way to describe its structure is arboreal. The organization was called "The Way Tree", with the headquarters called "roots" and the various regions called "trunks" and what most denominations would call parishes were known as "branches". Each twig had a local head, known initially as a "twig leader" then, in the early 80's this term was changed to "twig coordinator" (perhaps to remind the local people that their "leaders" were Weirwille and his associates at the "root" locales). Twig Coordinators operated under the supervision of Branch Coordinators, who operated under the supervision of Trunk Coordinators, who were usually ordained clergy (ordained by Weirwille and The Way) and operated under the supervision of the root locals and the Way's Board of Trustees.
TC: Twig Coordinator. see above
BC: Branch Coordinator: See TWIG.
BOT: Board of Trustees, the governing body of the Way. The Way's Board of Trustees was made up of the President, Vice President, and Secretary-Treasurer. The original President was Weirwille, the original Treasurer was his brother Harry, and the second Vice President was his son Donald. From its inception in 1942 until just a few years ago when Donald resigned, there had always been a member of the Weirwille family on the Board of Trustees.
WAP: Walk of Abundance and Power, the foundational class taught by L. Craig Martindale, Dr. Weirwille's chosen successor. Martindale replaced Power For Abundant Living with WAP about 1992.
ADAN: Are The Dead Alive Now? a book written by Weirwille to explore the Bible's teachings about death and resurrection.
JCNG: Jesus Christ Is Not God, Dr. Wierwille's book denouncing the Trinity as a Biblically unsound doctrine.
IMO: In my opinion.
IMHO: In my humble opinion
BTW: by the way
"THE BLUE BOOK": Affectionate slang used by followers of The Way International in reference to , a book entitled The Bible Tells Me So, published by The Way International as Volume One of Studies In Abundant Living. There were four books in the series. These publications were also known as "the collaterals". They were supplied with the foundational class materials until 1982, after which "PFAL" students received only a syllabus, and their Power For Abundant Living and Receiving the Holy Spirit Today books.
Thread: Internet term for a topic on a message board. Also referred to as a 'string'
Post: Internet term for an individual message on a thread.
Poster: Internet term for one who places a post on a message board.
This basic glossary of Way jargon and acronyms may help readers who come to this site and its threads from outside the Way "household". Any further questions may be directed to me via e-mail or you may be able to reach some of the participants of these forums via their ezboard usernames and email addresses.
I would also like to thank Evan Pyle, Rafael Olmeda, Danny Mahar, Larry P, "Orange Cat", and all the other "Waydalers" who provided encouragement and support during a very difficult unlearning process. Last and first, thanks go to God Almighty for be willing to reveal His Word to a little old former cult member who thought he knew it all. At this point the work of the PFAL Review continues and I trust that God will continue to enlighten the eyes of my understanding.
Jerry Barrax
February 2, 2003
