When I first re-entered the workplace when our kids were much older, I met two women in an office setting.  The younger woman was the daughter-in-law of the older.  As I got to know them, I had a unsettled feeling in my spirit. They knew that I was a Christian and also that I had a church.  All they talked about to me was how I needed to come to a meeting of Christians, and how my life would be changed.

I told them that when I was born again, my life did change. I told them that I knew the truth about Jesus and His Word.  But I thanked them for the invitation. Nothing seemed to make them stop asking me to come to a “meeting.”  I felt the Holy Spirit urging me to ask them a question.  I asked “Do you believe that Jesus Christ is God?”

At first they danced around my question – not giving me a straight yes or no answer. Finally, the older woman became very angry. Her face was frightening to me.  It seemed that she growled  these words at me:  “NO – Jesus Christ is NOT God!”

Well, that was all I needed to hear.  I began to tell both women that they had been deceived. I talked about the triune Godhead – God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. These women did not even attempt to hide their rage. The younger one began to call me at home. She was relentless.  I finally had to quit the job. We were the only three people at this company. There was a boss, but he was seldom there.

The Way International

If you are part of this cult, you must break away from them!  If you meet people from The Way – do NOT attend any of their meetings.

From Gotquestions.org

What is The Way International?

Answer: The Way International was founded in 1942 by Victor Paul Wierwille as a radio program, then was renamed the Chimes Hour Youth Caravan in 1947. The name became “The Way” in 1955, no doubt a reference to Jesus’ statement that He is “the way, the truth and the life” (John 14:6). In spite of its name, however, The Way International is not a Christian denomination. By all rational tests, it fits the definition of a cult.

The Way International promotes the two beliefs that are consistent with every Christian cult—they deny the deity of Jesus Christ and they believe in works righteousness, the idea that we can get to heaven by our own effort. These two dangerous heresies are present in every cult and false religion, and both are in direct contradiction to the Bible.

Wierwille, a pastor and student of theology, turned to promoting false doctrines when biblical Christianity failed to give him the answers, experience, and “abundant life” he was looking for. He claimed to have heard from God, who supposedly told him, “I will teach you the Word as it has not been known since the first century if you will teach it to others.” This implies that, up until Wierwille’s revelation from God, believers throughout the centuries have not known the true meaning of God’s Word. This is another sign of a cult—only the founder and his followers have the truth and everyone else is wrong. Such a statement denies Jesus’ words in John 16:13, when He told His followers that the Holy Spirit would come and lead them into all the truth.

Wierwille, however, believed what was almost certainly the voice of a demon, and struggled to learn this alternate understanding of God’s Word that he believed would give him “the key to abundant life.” An Assemblies of God minister named Rev. John (Jack) Edwin Stiles, Sr., showed Wierwille how to get converts: teaching people how to receive the Holy Spirit with the manifestation of speaking in tongues. Wierwille used this charismatic approach to gather followers. He was denounced as a heretic by various reputable evangelicals, but he did not repent. More and more people began to follow Wierwille, who required tithing and charged a fee for “Power of Abundant Living” classes, until The Way’s assets were $9.7 million.

Wierwille wrote a book called Jesus Is Not God (now out of print) and continued to promote that heresy. Jesus, according to The Way, was a perfect man, but not God. He had no pre-existence before He was born. With all their emphasis on Bible “research,” they apparently missed Jesus’ own statements “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30) and “before Abraham was, I AM” (John 8:58) and numerous other biblical texts that refer to the incarnation.

Among the other unscriptural beliefs of The Way are the teaching that all believers receive the ability to speak in tongues and perform miracles including healing; therefore, those who do not speak in tongues are not saved; the teaching that baptism by immersion or sprinkling is not necessary; the teaching that the Holy Spirit is not God but an impersonal force; the teaching of soul sleep; and the teaching that the Gospels are useful for background material only and the Pauline Epistles and the book of Acts are the true Scriptures.

Various chilling accounts written by former members of The Way describe brainwashing, manipulation and control of followers, and sexual perversion and adultery that become increasingly more drastic toward the upper echelons of the organization. Like many cults, The Way marks those who appear not to agree with the cult or who fail to obey unquestioningly and purges them. Those who are purged are avoided and escorted off The Way campuses and utterly ignored, even by longtime friends.

Also as in many cults, the followers of The Way are lured into the group by the friendliness and acceptance they experience upon meeting The Way members. This is simply a marketing technique used by The Way International to gather followers, not genuine friendship. Although many of the followers of The Way are well-meaning people, they are deceived and they are deceiving others. Its members may describe their meetings, at first, as “home-churches” or “discussion groups.” It is always best to check to see what, if any, church or organization a home church is affiliated with and examine their statement of faith or mission statement before becoming involved. –source

Brethren -we must be so careful.  The evil one is the father of lies and the author of confusion.  Cults like this were founded by him.  He looks for weak Christians or people who are searching for the truth.  Remember what gotquestions said about all cults:

• Jesus is not God
• Salvation is by works

It is so vitally important for God’s children to read His word and also to sit under solid Biblical teaching.  The best way to know the counterfeit is to know the Word of God so well, that when you hear a false teaching – the Lord will bring to remembrance His Word which is ALWAYS true.

Be like the Berean church: 

“These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.”  (Acts 17:11).

Even though the Bereans were sitting under the teaching of the Apostles of God, they still went to the Word, just to be sure that what they heard was true.

The Whispers of the evil one

Have you ever been reading the Word, or just thinking about God, and then suddenly you get a random thought in your head that is opposed to what you know is true? I call these thoughts “whispers from satan.”   I would wonder why I even thought such a thing; and as I got older in the Lord, I could discern these “whispers” quickly. 

“Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5).

Shalom b’Yeshua

MARANATHA!