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In Reply to: Re: Peacemakers posted by Peace on November 18, 2009 at 23:31:06:
Peace...I might not be able to address all that you said in one "whoosh"...it's complex, having many different angels...contradicting opinions/thought/views/memories come to my mind...Remember Q& A...well, the "sexy" kind you still find in the pubs..briefly answered at the end of some letter or in special editions...I guess you remember.It must have been @ 83/84 when I thought to add a question myself in the monthly report (I was never a homeshepherd, really)...so I thought of asking free choice vs. "predestination"...some portions of the Bible really troubled intrigued me...needless to say...my question wasn't a hit...didn't get answered.
Now you can "synthesise" you own Peter & Zerby letter..."Peter & Mama are so thankful for all the questions recently asked...from near & far...from our precious full-time-members..to even our precious ex-members.Unfortunately we cannot address all of them here, but just the main ones...which were commonly asked...blah..blah.
If they want to...they can...they decide the priorities....what should be on their radar.In the old letters it was warned, that the false shepherds fleece the sheep to live of it and instead the real sheps. should rather lay down their lives...etc.Frankly..I am picturing other people to fit that picture.They created their own way of life (calling it following the Lord) and only if the water in the ship is may be kneedeep or higher, they think of may be anchoring/ pausing...lest it breaks apart.I don't know their financial sit....probably it's far from comfortable...so they cut down on WS-personel...Berg thought, that in the final analysis only him and Zerby and a few helpers were really needed.
To come to a point...they usually did something: a revoluuuuuuution...if it benefitted them in some ways....in the beginning it was more something for the kingdom of God ...if you reread your declaration of independence..one surely gets the impression, the outfit is not so important, rather whatfor, for whom we' re doing it...later they seemed more concerned about paying bills...they became more & more used to their hierarchy...the later successes might have gone to their head...so they thought of preserving their status quo.
So why should I trust any letter now, just because it sounds half way decent?If they really mean business, then they would follow with some tangible initiative.
Years ago, when they had become adults...my "foster-children" ("boy and girl") were approached by their flesh & blood father...he had come from the field.I think it was to find out, how useful they could still be, where they are at...so to speak...although I was not there & that is not the way it was portrayed to me...but that's what I think.
I still shudder at the exclusiveness they made out of their Combo...big home-vision...people were avoided...potential enemies...warning!!...who were before friends...all that is 2 decades ago for me...I wished I knew, what happened to Katrina and even to her brothers & sisters.
So it's difficult to say, whether they play mindgames again...to pacify the flock...that they do all in their power & blah, blah
If you think of it...the leaders think, they go the right way, following Jesus the closest...so sooner or later they expect something in return...some following closer of the flock...member or exmember...not giving up is something quasi instilled
With them it's not trusting/believing...it's seeing...them delivering.
I agree, it was a major part for me (TF that is)...emphasis on was...past...I do think, that I met extraordinary precious people in & through TF...kind of through the "gleaning" streetwork...but the teachings are just horrid, much of it anyway....it takes time to wake up to such cruel facts...that it wasn't t h e endtime movement...may be with some potential...it's Christ who will judge that one day & actually I am not so relaxed about that idea : ( ...
I need plenty of mercy/grace...it's possible to have "good intentions"...and still being wrong.
Forgot some major important question...what is your goal/incentive for a possible dialogue, what would you like to achieve?I am not sure if I would want to spend days and nights telling them all about their wrong teachings...the main ones yes...like one wife and a few others...you justhave to read the Bible without TF/Mo-glasses & it's there...
but for me I would like to find out, whether some people are still in & why
I mean if others get convicted for their crimes...you wonder why not Zerby...she appears...scott-free...at some conference...really strange
I usually try & am not vindicative...when it comes to my own interests/dmages etc....but I wonder, how the SGAs can endure all that???
So one danger would be, that TF tries to camouflage the past, by offering some peanut-dialogues....who knows their hearts???...their works should prove something.
