The Way International Options

[keithnurse]

Is there anyone on this forum who has ever been a part of "The Way International"? I was for a year in the early 1980s. It is controversial organization that claims to represent "true Christianity".

[Jim]

Is there anyone on this forum who has ever been a part of "The Way International"? I was for a year in the early 1980s. It is controversial organization that claims to represent "true Christianity".

I haven't been a part of it, but I certainly heard of it. One of my ex-wife's relatives was a part of it I believe and made me aware of the organization.

What do you think of it?

[godisone]

Is there anyone on this forum who has ever been a part of "The Way International"? I was for a year in the early 1980s. It is controversial organization that claims to represent "true Christianity".

How do we know what "true Christianity" is?

[Westwind]

How do we know what "true Christianity" is?

We can read the New Testament, and learn about the cultures represented in it and how they would understand what was written. It isn't that hard, but it does take some effort.

[keithnurse]

I haven't been a part of it, but I certainly heard of it. One of my ex-wife's relatives was a part of it I believe and made me aware of the organization.

What do you think of it?

I was involved with The Way International for about a year in 1983. I had a pretty good experience with them at that time. At that time I had not heard of lay people getting as deep into biblical study as the "Wayfers" did. Most long time members had a "Strongs's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible" so they could do word studies of the Greek and Hebrew words of the Bible and many of them used Gree-English interlinear new testaments to study and all kinds of other bible study tools. The Way does not start churches with buildings but has home based fellowships all over the US that meet weekly. I would not recommend the Way to anyone because they are way too dogmatic. They believe The Way is the only true Christian church, all other Christian groups are false and leading people to hellfire. They make extravagant claims about the Peshitta Aramaic language text of the New Testament being more accurate than the Greek manuscripts even though the Peshitta is not as old as the oldes Greek manuscripts. They are also a "King James Bible" only group. They also place a great deal of stress on the power of believing to cure all diseases and all other problems, so that if you have a disease and you are not cured, it's your fault because you don't have enough faith. The founder, Victor Paul Wierwille, died of liver cancer in 1984 which his faith did not cure. The Way declined a lot after his death. Today they way people I have met seem very defensive about The Way and are not very open to anyone coming to their meetings who was involved in The Way back in the 80s. There are a few splinter groups that split off from it after Mr Wierwille's death which are much more open to whoever wants to come to their meetings. I forgot the names of those groups. If you go to the Way International article on wikipedia.org it lists the breakaway groups.

[Jim]

Thats very interesting Keith... sounds a bit cultish in the end. But the premise of at home fellowship is attractive to many Christians. Ive been a part of a number of them.