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“They are evil”: Ex-Twelve Tribes members describe child abuse, control inside religious cult

Charlie — Fri, 03 Mar 2023 23:34:51 +0000

Source: The Denver Post

Sect spotlighted by Marshall fire abuses children, exploits followers and teaches racism, former members say

By SHELLY BRADBURY | sbradbury@denverpost.com | The Denver Post

PUBLISHED: March 3, 2022 at 6:00 a.m. | UPDATED: February 23, 2023 at 6:38 p.m.

John Post, pictured in Portland, Maine, on Feb. 12, 2022, was born and raised in the Twelve Tribes. He was subject to abuse as a child in the cult, and says as a deaf person he was particularly mistreated by the group. Post escaped in 1999 when he was 19. (Photo by Yoon S. Byun/Special to The Denver Post)

On a fall day in 1999, 19-year-old John I. Post packed up his birth certificate, Social Security card, state identification, favorite blanket and pictures of his family and prepared to leave the religious cult into which he’d been born and raised.He’d been taught his whole life that anyone who left the Twelve Tribes would die. He had no money. Agonized over the decision to leave. But he couldn’t stay. He planned to walk into town and call a friend for help.

When he finally stood up to leave the Vermont compound, some 15 cult members blocked his path outside, forming a wall. They prayed and warned there would be consequences if he walked out of God’s protection. He’d probably die. Post shook as he moved by them.

“My heart was just pounding and pounding. Was something going to happen to me? I didn’t know,” Post, who is deaf, said in an interview through an interpreter.

As he walked the mile into town, his father followed, imploring him to stay.

“I finally said to my father, ‘Look, please, accept this is my decision,’” Post, 43, said. “And finally he didn’t say anything and he walked away.”

Post was free.

“I’ll never go back,” he said. “Never, not at all. I just feel like, the Twelve Tribes, they are evil.”

The Twelve Tribes religious sect burst into the news in Colorado in January, when authorities confirmed they were investigating the possibility that the deadly Marshall fire, the most destructive wildfire in state history, might have started on the group’s compound off Eldorado Springs Drive in Boulder County. Investigators have not yet pinpointed the cause of the fire that destroyed more than 1,000 homes and are investigating other potential ignition points as well.

Few on the Front Range know much about the insular religious group, whose 3,000-some members live communally in Colorado and across the nation and world, and take pains to present an innocuous front to outsiders.

The Twelve Tribes attracts new members with a folksy peace-and-love, all-are-welcome message, but underneath that hollow promise of utopia lies a manipulative cult that seeks to maintain complete control of its followers, 10 former members told The Denver Post in 26 hours of interviews. The Post reviewed nearly 400 pages of Twelve Tribes’ teachings and combed through court, real estate, business and historical records in reporting on the sect.

In a series of three stories over the next week, The Post will detail accounts of ex-members about living inside the Twelve Tribes, spotlighting three major problems identified by former followers: that the group requires excessive corporal punishment and fails to protect children from sexual abuse, exploits members for labor and money, and espouses racist, misogynistic and homophobic teachings.

“Nobody understands the real horror underneath until you’ve lived it,” said Alina Anderson, a former member born into the cult who left in 2001 at age 14. Anderson, 35, now lives in Boulder and is going by her middle and former married names in this story to avoid being identified by current cult members.

Leaders in the Twelve Tribes contacted by The Post either declined to comment or spoke only briefly, saying they were wary of publicity after past bad experiences with the press. The group also didn’t respond to emailed questions. But those who spoke defended the Twelve Tribes and its practices.

“We try to do good to everyone,” said Tim Pendergrass, a current Twelve Tribes leader who lives in a Florida commune. “It’s amazing how everyone can think bad about you. It just comes with the turf.”

Provided by Luke Wiseman

Twelve Tribes members Bob Brooks, Gary Long and the group’s founder Eugene Spriggs seated together around 1982.

Physical restraint and discipline

Founded in Tennessee in 1972 by Elbert Eugene Spriggs, the 50-year-old Twelve Tribes blends Spriggs’ personal beliefs with elements of both Christianity and Judaism.

New members must give up their possessions and names, live in one of the Twelve Tribes’ three dozen worldwide communes and follow the cult’s strict rules, which, former members say, dictate everything from how much toilet paper a member should use (two sheets) to the shape of a member’s eyeglasses (round). Followers are encouraged to cut off all contact with the outside world.

The Twelve Tribes moved into Colorado in the early 2000s, first establishing a compound in Manitou Springs before expanding to Boulder in 2010; members now run the Yellow Deli in Boulder and a café in Manitou Springs. An estimated 40 people live at the Eldorado Springs Drive compound, and another 25 or so in a house in Manitou Springs.

The largest number of Twelve Tribes communities are in the U.S., but the sect also has a presence in South America, Europe, Canada, Australia and Japan.

The group can be considered a cult because it has a charismatic authoritarian leader, extremist ideology, an all-or-nothing belief system, and uses coercion to control and exploit members, cult expert Janja Lalich said. The Southern Poverty Law Center classifies the Twelve Tribes as a “Christian fundamentalist cult.”

In recent years, the Twelve Tribes has experienced a mass exodus among the first generation of children born and raised in the group. Many — most, by some counts — of the first kids raised in the cult have left, driven out by the group’s practices and leadership’s increasingly tight grip on the shrinking membership that remains.

For many ex-members, the decision to leave came with parenthood.

“I was under no circumstances going to beat my kids the way I was beaten,” said a former member who left in his 30s and spoke to The Post on the condition of anonymity to protect family members still in the cult. “I just could not do it. And you have to if you are there. If you are not beating your kids, you are going to be in big trouble.”

The Twelve Tribes taught that it was different from false religions — like mainstream Christianity — because “their children would follow them,” he said.

But the Twelve Tribes’ children fled in droves. And now, as adults still working through the trauma of their childhoods, they worry for the kids still caught inside.

When a toddler throws a tantrum in the Twelve Tribes, an adult might grab the girl, hold her tight on his lap — perhaps by throwing his leg over hers — restrain both her arms and put his hand over her mouth until she stops fighting back.

The toddler might scream and cry and struggle for an hour. She will not be freed until she surrenders, former members said. The idea is to break her will.

“Kids were supposed to be quiet. And when they weren’t, physical restraint over their bodies and mouths was expected,” said ex-member Jason Wolfe, 46. His brother, a leader in the Twelve Tribes, previously lived in Manitou Springs, and their father helped establish the Boulder community. Wolfe left the group in 2009 and now lives in Virginia; he was 6 when his parents joined.

Alyssa Schukar, Special to The Denver Post

Jason Wolfe sits in his home in Purcellville, Virginia, on Feb. 10, 2022.

Restraint is part of the Twelve Tribes’ overall approach to child-rearing, which focuses heavily on physical discipline. The Twelve Tribes teaches that children must be spanked with thin, flexible wooden rods — a practice the group has been consistently criticized for but has steadfastly defended, saying it is rooted in Biblical principles.

“Those are longstanding (concerns) that probably won’t be resolved until everyone comes to the understanding everyone will come to,” Pendergrass said.

A January 2000 version of the group’s 348-page Child Training Manual obtained by The Post says children as young as 6 months should be spanked, if they, say, wiggle away from diaper changes.

“The pain received from the balloon stick is more humbling than harmful,” the manual reads. “There is no defense against it… The only way to stop the sting of the rod is to submit. That is exactly what the child will do — submit to his parents’ will and end his rebellion.”

Ex-members who grew up in the Twelve Tribes described being spanked on their bare bottoms, on their hands and on the bottoms of their feet for the slightest perceived offenses; it was not uncommon for parents to spank their child 20 or 30 times each day.

“We were basically beaten down into absolutely nothing so that they could build you up into what they wanted you to be. Asking for seconds at breakfast could get you a spanking,” Anderson said. Adults in the cult were taught to discipline on the first command.

RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post

Alina Anderson, who requested to be identified by her middle name and former married name, displays old family photos from her time in the Twelve Tribes religious cult. She grew up in the Twelve Tribes before escaping as a teenager.

“If you have a 3-year-old son and you say, ‘Stop jumping up and down’ — the chances of that happening on the first time is zero. So that would be a spanking,” said a former 20-year member who previously lived with the cult in Boulder and left in 2016. He spoke on condition of anonymity because his family still lives in the group.

Like most everything in the Twelve Tribes, discipline is communal and guided by social pressure. Offenses that warrant spanking might vary from community to community, or even from family to family, but there is tremendous social pressure to discipline harshly, ex-members said.

Cult members meet once every morning and once every evening for mandatory “gatherings” — worship sessions at which leaders preach. They can be tedious and long, and children are expected to listen without fidgeting.

“If you don’t take your child out and spank them during the teachings, then you’re thought of as not being a good parent,” said Luke Wiseman, 46, a former member who left in 2013 and now lives in Virginia. “People tapped me on the back when I had a 2-year-old son and said, ‘Your son is not listening.’ Then if I don’t take him out and spank him, I’m not ‘receiving.’”

Adults considered to be out-of-bounds are ostracized, shamed and “cut off” from the community until they repent and leaders approve their return. Members who do wrong might also be the subject of a community-wide “public humiliation,” in which the community’s leaders shame the person during a gathering. Some wrongs might be codified into a new teaching that is sent to all Twelve Tribes communities, ex-members said.

“Most people in the Twelve Tribes really live in fear,” said Post, who now lives in Maine. He became deaf as an infant after a bout with meningitis, but his parents didn’t know he’d lost his hearing until he was 4. He was harshly disciplined as a toddler because his parents thought he wasn’t obeying them, when, in reality, he just couldn’t hear their commands, he said. Both parents are still in the Twelve Tribes today.

“Just last year, after 30 years, my parents approached me and apologized for what had happened to me growing up,” Post said. “It was over the top, it was severe and brutal.”

Yoon S. Byun, Special to The Denver Post

John Post, pictured on Feb. 12, 2022, was born and raised in the Twelve Tribes. He was subjected to abuse as a child in the cult, mistreatment he said was made worse because he is deaf.

Longstanding abuse allegations

The first generation of children in the Twelve Tribes largely grew up in the 1980s and 1990s, and former members described enduring extreme physical abuse during that time. The ex-member who left in his 30s remembered a practice called scourging, in which a child was stripped naked and beaten with a rod from head to toe.

Post and others said adults routinely withheld food from children as a form of discipline, sometimes for days at a time. When Anderson was 6 or 7, she was locked in a dark basement as punishment for taking from the refrigerator.

“The one time that I was locked in the dungeon — it wasn’t a real dungeon but it felt like it — I think that was for more than a day, because we fasted every Friday, so I was used to starving, and it was longer than that,” she said.

Click to enlarge

On a June day in 1984, authorities in Island Pond, Vermont, raided the Twelve Tribes’ commune there over allegations of child abuse. Police and social workers took more than 100 children into protective custody with plans to examine the kids for signs of abuse. But the plan fell apart when a judge determined the raid was unconstitutional because the search warrant was too general and not supported by concrete evidence of abuse. The children were returned to the commune within hours.

“The raid that happened in 1984, what should have happened is all the children should have been taken and placed in foster care and that should have been the end of the group,” Wolfe said. “There was so much child abuse going on at that time.”

For years afterward, the Twelve Tribes celebrated June 22 as a day of deliverance, a sort of Passover-like event in which God protected the group from the overreach of government. When the children in the raid grew up, some spoke publicly at June 22 remembrances to defend their parents and proclaim they had never been abused.

The day before the 20th anniversary of the raid, Wolfe was included in a meeting with other first-generation kids ahead of the celebration to prepare for the next day’s speeches. Jeanie Swantko, a former public defender who joined the group and married Wiseman’s father after representing him in a child abuse case, told the gathered young adults that they needed to clearly say there had been no abuse. (Swantko couldn’t be reached for comment.)

“I stood up and I was like, ‘You’re dead wrong,’” Wolfe said. “‘There was a (crap)load of abuse, it was everywhere and that was all there was. Why can’t we just say there was child abuse and we’re not OK with it?’”

He was escorted out of the meeting, he said. His brother who is still in the Twelve Tribes, Peter Wolfe, said in a short phone conversation in February that he had a “wonderful upbringing.”

“I did grow up here (in the Twelve Tribes),” he said. “…My wife grew up here. We don’t share any of those views as far as different things that other people might say.”

Both Peter Wolfe and Pendergrass said the Twelve Tribes welcomed visitors and questions, but a local leader denied a request by The Post to visit the group’s Boulder compound. The organization also did not respond to emailed questions about its treatment of children.

Photos by Alyssa Schukar, Special to The Denver Post

LEFT: Jason Wolfe shares a photo of his wife Abby and his daughter Ezrith at his home in Purcellville, Virginia, on Feb. 10, 2022. Jason’s wife Abby was killed in a car crash after he left the Twelve Tribes cult, and his young daughter Ezrith died by suicide. The fear of death after leaving the cult is used as a means of control to keep members in the group. RIGHT: Jason Wolfe shares a tattoo he got in memory of his daughter Ezrith.

Police calls in Colorado

For many years in the Twelve Tribes, physical discipline could be meted out by any adult on any child for any reason, former members said. Anderson was disciplined for wearing her ponytail too high and for looking around — not at her feet — when she walked.

“There was no safe space,” Jason Wolfe said.

In recent years, the Twelve Tribes seems to have shifted toward parents disciplining their own children with less emphasis on all adults disciplining all children, one of several modernizing changes the group has made in response to outside criticism. But ex-members say the Twelve Tribes would never fully abandon the practice of physical discipline, which is still a core tenet.

Logs of police calls to the Twelve Tribes’ compounds in Boulder County and Manitou Springs show that child abuse remains a concern. A 911 caller in May 2020 sent Manitou Springs police to the commune there after a young relative who had visited the group reported that children were being kept in a basement without electricity, according to records provided by Manitou Springs police.

That caller, who asked not to be identified to preserve relationships with her relatives, said police told her they knocked on the door of the commune, asked a few questions and left without going inside. The Twelve Tribes was known to be peaceful and everything seemed OK that night, they told her. Manitou Springs police records show officers spent 13 minutes at the compound; a police spokesman did not know whether officers went inside the home.

In September 2019, child welfare officials and sheriff’s deputies visited the compound in Boulder County and interviewed several people as part of a child protective services investigation, according to a report provided by the sheriff’s office. Deputies went along out of concern the group might be hostile, but the cult members welcomed the inquiry, the report says.

“The children living on the property seemed to be happy and healthy, and they even sang us a couple songs while we were there,” Deputy J. Ryan wrote in the report.

Police also responded to reports of teenagers who ran away from the Colorado properties.

In September 2020, a 16-year-old girl fled the Manitou Springs compound in the middle of the night, according to a police report. In June 2018, a 15-year-old boy who was living in the Boulder commune ran away, sheriff’s records show. The teenager returned after about two days and told deputies he’d ridden his bicycle from the Eldorado Springs Drive commune to Westminster, slept the night on a patch of grass, then continued to ride his bicycle all the way into the 16th Street Mall in Denver, where he spent the day before cycling back to the commune.

“(The boy) appeared very genuine in his statements saying he was not going to do this ever again and that he was sorry for putting his mother and father in such constant worry,” the deputy’s report reads.

The police reports also detail the Jan. 5 arrest of Ron Williams, 50, on a year-old outstanding warrant for felony sexual exploitation of children after Boulder County authorities discovered more than 1,000 images of child sexual abuse in Williams’ possession in 2020. At the time, he was living in a home in Superior; that home burned in the Marshall fire. When he was arrested in January, he’d been staying with the Twelve Tribes, though it’s not clear for how long.

As he was arrested a short walk away from the Twelve Tribes’ compound in Manitou Springs, Officer Ron Johnson described Williams to other officers as “a possible suspect in the Boulder fire” multiple times, according to body camera footage. But Carrie Haverfield, a spokeswoman for the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office, said Williams was never a suspect in the Marshall fire investigation.

“He was someone that was staying on the property at the time and so was loosely associated with the property, so he was indexed along with everybody else, but never a suspect,” she said.

RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post

Alina Anderson, who requested to be identified by her middle name and former married name, is pictured at her apartment in Boulder on Feb. 1, 2022. Anderson grew up in the Twelve Tribes religious sect before escaping as a teenager.

Failure to report

Sexual abuse of children is not condoned or allowed by the Twelve Tribes, former members said, but it does happen, and it is rarely reported to law enforcement when discovered.

Sometimes, a man accused of sexual abuse will be kicked out of the cult, ex-members said. But sometimes, he will be forgiven and allowed to stay. How a case is handled often depends on how much status the abuser has within the cult. Frequently, children who report sexual abuse are not believed; some are punished or told the abuse was their fault.

Anderson said she as a young girl told a woman she trusted about being sexually abused. That woman brought it to other adults, and Anderson was questioned by a male elder. She kept silent. Another elder’s wife then took her aside and questioned her.

“She said, ‘How do you have intercourse?’ And that is what threw me off. I said, ‘What is intercourse? And why would I have it?’ Then she said, ‘Is it anal or vaginal?’”

Anderson didn’t know what those words meant, and the elder’s wife concluded that she was lying about being abused in an attempt to get attention, Anderson said.

She still struggles to talk about it.

Provided by Alina Anderson

Twelve Tribes members dance together in Vermont at a public event in hopes of attracting new members to the group in 1997.

After escaping the group at 19, Post went to college and in his sophomore year poured out his heart in a 10-page letter to his father in which he detailed sexual abuse he’d suffered as a young teenager.

“He wrote me back and said, ‘I don’t believe anything in your story,’” Post said.

In a Twelve Tribes leadership meeting sometime around 2011, Wiseman asked why a particular case of alleged child sexual abuse wasn’t reported to outside authorities. Leaders told Wiseman that the girl’s father didn’t want to testify in court, Wiseman said.

He later followed up with the father, who said he was willing to work with law enforcement, but that a Twelve Tribes leader “told him not to testify because it would shame our Master’s (Jesus’) name,” Wiseman said, adding that the Twelve Tribes kicked out the accused abuser.

“It’s been sustained, spanning multiple eras in the Twelve Tribes, and they bury it,” the member who left in his 30s said. “They don’t advocate for the kids who are abused. They’re much more interested in their image than they are in protecting children.”

Inside the Twelve Tribes, sexual contact of any kind is forbidden outside of marriage. The punishment for young adults caught kissing or holding hands is marriage, ex-members said. Divorce is not allowed in the cult and interracial marriages are frowned on. Homosexuality is also forbidden; a 1990 teaching shared with The Post calls it “abominable,” and says gay or lesbian people “must be put to death.”

After co-ed education was banned, enough young men experimented with bestiality that Spriggs, the cult’s leader, in 2006 ordered young men to kill the animals they’d had sex with. At least 30 sheep, and several cows, goats and chickens were slaughtered, Wiseman said. He estimated around 10 men and boys confessed to bestiality around that time, both in the U.S. and abroad.

“That’s horrific psychological abuse,” Wiseman said. “These boys were repressed, not allowed to be normal kids, not allowed to talk to girls, and then when they confess their sin they’re made to go kill the animals.”

Pendergrass said the Twelve Tribes is about love, not punishment.

“Really all we are about, really, honestly, is loving people, loving our creator, loving our children and that’s really it,” he said. “All we know is if we love one another and we try to love everybody, it’s all going to work out. That might be kind of simplistic, but it sure does help me live a stress-free life and have lots of peace and be willing to do anything for love. That’s what I like.”

Periodically, the Twelve Tribes’ treatment of its children turns up in newspapers or TV news specials. In 2004, the Broward Palm Beach New Times in Florida published a story that featured an ex-Twelve Tribes member who said her husband molested her children and that the Twelve Tribes leadership denied her a divorce and attempted to cover up the abuse. She left the group, went to authorities and the man was convicted of sex crimes in 2006.

Daniel Karmann, DPA via AP

This Sept. 5, 2013, file photo shows the village of Klosterzimmern near Deiningen, Germany, which is one of the homes of the Twelve Tribes sect. The European Court of Human Rights on March 22, 2018, upheld Germany’s decision to take away the children of families in the Christian sect to protect them from being disciplined by caning, saying that it was a “last resort” but that authorities were left with no other choice.

Around the same time, a criminal case was proceeding against a 25-year-old man after a 6-year-old girl told a child welfare worker the man fondled her in 2001, that story says.

In 2007, a former Twelve Tribes teacher pleaded guilty to molesting two boys in the 1990s, according to The Boston Globe. In Germany in 2013, 40 children were taken from a Twelve Tribes compound amid concerns of child abuse, according to a story in The Telegraph.

But abuse cases that lead to criminal charges are the exception, ex-members said, and many more allegations are handled behind closed doors within the Twelve Tribes.

“The only time they’d ever consider taking it to the authorities is if it was already leaked out and they had no choice,” the ex-member who lived in Boulder said.

When cases do garner publicity, the attention tends to quickly fade, and the Twelve Tribes continues operating unimpeded, ex-members said. Some find it frustrating to watch.

“We believe in religious rights,” Wiseman said. “But at some point, there needs to be discussion of where does the line come in when religious rights start to psychologically manipulate and abuse children. This is a bigger discussion that needs to be happening.”

Ricky Carioti, The Washington Post via AP

Amanah Whittner, 12, rear, swings into the pond as Chalamiysh McShane, 12, watches from the grass as the two kids enjoy themselves on a hot summer day at the Twelve Tribes farm in Hillsboro, Virginia, on June 26, 2007.

High-profile betrayal

Around 2008, the Twelve Tribes learned that its founder’s wife, Marsha Spriggs, had carried out a series of extramarital affairs. Eugene Spriggs, the founder who died in 2021, ultimately decided his wife should be forgiven. The scandal rocked members’ faith in the group’s leadership.

“It wasn’t that she was a human and had fallen into sin, it was that she had personally been involved in sending away a lot of other families for much less serious infractions,” Wiseman said.

The affair revelations accelerated people’s departures from the group, and leadership at the Twelve Tribes responded by clamping down even more strictly on the dwindling number of families who remained.

In the past, followers could listen to traditional Irish music, go hiking or to the beach with their families on Saturdays, eat chocolate. Now, driving on Saturdays is forbidden, and Irish music and chocolate are banned. Women must part their hair in the middle; men must roll up their pant legs. Women can only wear dresses on weekends.

“It has slowly evolved into a very harsh, authoritarian-type of system,” the member who lived in Boulder said, describing the leadership’s reaction to the affairs as “total lockdown.”

Even before her husband’s death last year, Marsha Spriggs was the de facto leader of the Twelve Tribes, ex-members said, though the Tribes’ patriarchal organization would never formally reflect that.

Provided by Luke Wiseman

Marsha Spriggs, wife of Twelve Tribes founder Elbert Eugene Spriggs, sits with other members of the religious cult in this undated photo.

And there were subtle signs that Eugene Spriggs may not have approved of everything his group had become, ex-members said. In 2012, a year before Wiseman left the cult, he confessed to Spriggs, who used the name Yoneq, that he drank beer with his wife, against the cult’s rules.

“He said, ‘Just don’t talk about it,’” Wiseman said.

The ex-member who left in his 30s said he met one-on-one with Eugene Spriggs as a teenager in the mid-1990s and told the man about horrific childhood abuse he’d endured in the Twelve Tribes. He said the founder wept silently as he shared the details of the abuse.

But after just five minutes, Marsha Spriggs burst into the room and sent the member out. She spoke to her husband briefly then cornered the member in the hallway.

“She comes out and says, ‘If you ever tell Yoneq anything like that again, I’ll send you (away from us) that day,’” the member said.

Years later, that member sneaked out of a Twelve Tribes commune in the middle of the night with a duffel bag of clothes. He waited in the bushes for a ride from a man who’d left the cult years before. That night, he slept on his friend’s floor.

In the morning, he woke up.

He drank a cup of coffee, forbidden in the cult.

And he realized he was, for the first time in his life, completely in charge of his own choices.

“I felt like I could float away,” he said. “That feeling, it’s impossible to describe. That feeling of freedom. And honestly, I feel some level of that every day.”

Inside the tribe-Podcast featuring many TT ex-members

Charlie — Sun, 25 Dec 2022 02:56:45 +0000

Roger Griffin, former leader and 20 year member of “Twelve Tribes” Authoritarian Cult

Charlie — Wed, 05 Jan 2022 06:11:58 +0000

Kate Wiseman interview on Phish female fans radio

Charlie — Mon, 18 Nov 2019 07:00:34 +0000

PART 1 OF INTERVIEW aired on October 13, 2019

http://question12tribes.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Ep.-40-Part-1-12-Tribes-Cult-Interview-wex-member-Kate-Wise.mp3

Content Warning: This episode contains true stories of severe abuse Part one- 12 Tribes Cult- Interview with Kate Wiseman (ex-member), daughter of Ed Wiseman, the co-founder of the 12 Tribes Cult. Hear Kate’s experience of being born, bred and raised within this cult for 30 years. In the first part of this interview, Kate speaks about the early years of the cult and her childhood. Kate shares her intimate & tragic stories that are filled with the truth of her amazing life. This woman is so brave and incredibly strong. She speaks publicly for the first time…..

Source: Phemale-Centrics episode 40

PART 2 OF INTERVIEW aired on October 27, 2019

http://question12tribes.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Ep.-41-Part-2-12-Tribes-Cult-interview-w-ex-member-Kate-Wi.mp3

Content Warning: This episode contains true stories of severe abuse Part 2- 12 Tribes Cult Interview Hear Kate Wiseman, ex-member & daughter of co-founder Ed Wiseman, continued story of her life on the inside of the 12 Tribes Cult. In this episode, Kate shares her story of her arranged marriage, the beginnings of “the bus” on Lots, her love of Phish and her happy ending!

We’re part of the Osiris podcast network. Osiris is creating a community that connects people like you with podcasts and live experiences about artists and topics you love. To stay up to date on what we’re up to, visit our site and sign up for our newsletter. Osiris works in partnership with JamBase, which connects music fans with the music they love and empowers them to go see live music.

Source: Phemale-Centrics episode 41

Letter to Twelve Tribes members

Charlie — Sun, 24 Jun 2018 03:32:42 +0000

I have a letter for you and I hope you read it all the way to the end….

I first wrote this 12 years ago while I was in Meadow Haven with Bob and Judy Pardon as a resident in the only long term residential exit counseling program for cult victims in the world. http://meadowhaven.org/

The Twelve Tribes Communities still thrive and their damage is still occurring. I felt that I had to write it again and in this day and age of social media that it might get around a lot more then the first time and do a lot more good this time.

Actually the Apostle Paul did all the work for me. I just put it in the communities language. It is like our Father knew there would come a time where there would be men that would speak a similar but yet different Gospel. One that taught that Messiah did not finish his work of salvation on the cross. That He did NOT fulfill the law and that we as believers still had works that we had to accomplish before He would return for us. To the true believers, Yahshua will return for His Bride but not due to anything that our flesh could accomplish. Have faith. He is coming and not because of a “race” performed by the flesh some deluded, lonely old man dreamed up. May God bless my efforts to open your eyes. I thank God for opening mine… Sincerely with Shalom… David T Pike aka Dahveed Yathed

A letter from the Apostle Shaul to the Disciples in the Twelve Tribes Communities…

1 Shaul, an apostle—sent not from men nor by a man, but by Yahshua Ha’ Mashiach and God the Father, who raised him from the dead— and all the brothers and sisters with me, To the churches in the Twelve Tribes Communities: 3 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Messiah Yahshua, who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. 6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Messiah and are turning to a different gospel— 7 which is really no gospel at all but rather the rantings of a delusional narcissist who claims to have heard from God directly but is just a sad, lonely old man. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Messiah saying that “We must accomplish this!” or “We must accomplish that in order for Messiah to return!” 8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse! 9 As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God’s curse! 10 Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Messiah. 11 I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel I preached is not of human origin. 12 I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Yahshua Ha’ Mashiach. 13 For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it. 14 I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers. 15 But when God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me by his grace, was pleased 16 to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, my immediate response was not to consult any human being. 17 I did not go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was, but I went into Arabia. Later I returned to Damascus. 18 Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Cephas and stayed with him fifteen days. 19 I saw none of the other apostles—only James, the Lord’s brother. 20 I assure you before God that what I am writing you is no lie. 21 Then I went to Syria and Cilicia. 22 I was personally unknown to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. 23 They only heard the report: “The man who formerly persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.” 24 And they praised God because of me. 2 Then after fourteen years, I went up again to Jerusalem, this time with Barnabas. I took Titus along also. I went in response to a revelation and, meeting privately with those esteemed as leaders, I presented to them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles. I wanted to be sure I was not running and had not been running my race in vain. Yet not even Titus, who was with me, was compelled to be circumcised, even though he was a Greek. This matter arose because some false believers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Yahshua Ha’ Mashiach and to make us slaves. We did not give in to them for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you. 6 As for those who were held in high esteem—whatever they were makes no difference to me; God does not show favoritism—they added nothing to my message. 7 On the contrary, they recognized that I had been entrusted with the task of preaching the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Cephas had been to the circumcised. 8 For God, who was at work in Cephas as an apostle to the circumcised, was also at work in me as an apostle to the Gentiles. 9 James, Cephas and John, those esteemed as pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship when they recognized the grace given to me. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcised. 10 All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I had been eager to do all along. Paul Opposes Cephas 11 When Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. 12 For before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles and ate non-kosher foods. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group (natural seed). 13 The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray. 14 When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of them all, “YOU ARE A JEW, YET YOU LIVE LIKE A GENTILE AND NOT LIKE A JEW. HOW IS IT, THEN, THAT YOU FORCE GENTILES TO FOLLOW JEWISH CUSTOMS? 15 “WE WHO ARE JEWS BY BIRTH AND NOT SINFUL GENTILES KNOW THAT A PERSON IS NOT JUSTIFIED BY THE WORKS OF THE LAW, BUT BY FAITH IN YAHSHUA HA’ MASHIACH. SO WE, TOO, HAVE PUT OUR FAITH IN YAHSHUA HA’ MASHIACH THAT WE MAY BE JUSTIFIED BY FAITH IN MESSIAH AND NOT BY THE WORKS OF THE LAW, BECAUSE BY THE WORKS OF THE LAW NO ONE WILL BE JUSTIFIED. 17 “But if, in seeking to be justified in Messiah, we Jews find ourselves also among the sinners, doesn’t that mean that Messiah promotes sin? Absolutely not! If I rebuild what I destroyed, then I really would be a lawbreaker. 19“For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Messiah and I no longer live, but Messiah lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God, for IF RIGHTEOUSNESS COULD BE GAINED THROUGH THE LAW, MESSIAH DIED FOR NOTHING!” 3 You foolish disciples of the Twelve Tribes! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Yahshua Ha’ Mashiach was clearly portrayed as crucified. I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by believing what you heard? 3 Are you so foolish? AFTER BEGINNING BY MEANS OF THE SPIRIT, ARE YOU NOW TRYING TO FINISH BY MEANS OF THE FLESH? Have you experienced so much in vain—if it really was in vain? 5 So again I ask, does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you by the works of the law, or by your believing what you heard? 6 So also Abraham “believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” 7 Understand, then, that those who have faith are children of Abraham. (natural or spiritual) 8 Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.” 9 So those who rely on faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. 10 For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, as it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.” 11 Clearly no one who relies on the law is justified before God, because “the righteous will live by faith.” 12 The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, it says, “The person who does these things will live by them.”(living by the LAW) 13 MESSIAH REDEEMED US FROM THE CURSE OF THE LAW BY BECOMING A CURSE FOR US, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.” 14 He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Yahshua Ha’ Mashiach, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit. The Law and the Promise 15 Brothers and sisters, let me take an example from everyday life. Just as no one can set aside or add to a human covenant that has been duly established, so it is in this case. 16 The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. Scripture does not say “and to seeds,” meaning many people, but “and to your seed,” meaning one person, who is Messiah. 17 What I mean is this: The law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise. 18 For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on the promise; but God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise. 19 Why, then, was the law given at all? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come. The law was given through angels and entrusted to a mediator. 20 A mediator, however, implies more than one party; but God is one. 21 Is the law, therefore, opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not! For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law. 22 But Scripture has locked up everything under the control of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Yahshua Ha’ Mashiach, might be given to those who believe. Children of God 23 Before the coming of this faith, we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed. 24 So the law was our guardian until Messiah came that we might be justified by faith. 25 Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian. 26 So IN YAHSHUA HA’ MASHIACH YOU ARE ALL CHILDREN OF GOD THROUGH FAITH NOT WORKS 27 for all of you who were baptized into Messiah have clothed yourselves with Messiah. 28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile,(the why does Yoneq pair up the natural seed with each other? Same with the Chammites?) neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Yahshua Ha’ Mashiach. 29 If you belong to Messiah, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. 4:1 What I am saying is that as long as an heir is underage, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate. 2 The heir is subject to guardians and trustees until the time set by his father. 3 So also, when we were underage, we were in slavery under the elemental spiritual forces of the world. 4 But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. 6 Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir. Shaul’s Concern for the Disciples of the Twelve Tribes: 8 Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods. 9 But now that you know God—or rather are known by God—how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable forces ? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again? 10 You are observing special days and months and seasons and years! 11 I fear for you, that somehow I have wasted my efforts on you. 12 I plead with you, brothers and sisters, become like me, for I became like you. You did me no wrong. 13 As you know, it was because of an illness that I first preached the gospel to you, 14 and even though my illness was a trial to you, you did not treat me with contempt or scorn. Instead, you welcomed me as if I were an angel of God, as if I were Yahshua Ha’ Mashiach himself. 15 Where, then, is your blessing of me now? I can testify that, if you could have done so, you would have torn out your eyes and given them to me. 16 Have I now become your enemy by telling you the truth? 17 Those people are zealous to win you over, but for no good. What they want is to alienate you from us, so that you may have zeal for them. 18 It is fine to be zealous, provided the purpose is good, and to be so always, not just when I am with you. 19 My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Messiah is formed in you, 20 how I wish I could be with you now and change my tone, because I am perplexed about you! Hagar and Sarah 21 Tell me, you who want to be under the law, are you not aware of what the law says? 22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman. 23 His son by the slave woman was born according to the flesh, but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a divine promise. 24 These things are being taken figuratively: The women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar. 25 Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children. 26 But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother. 27 For it is written: “Be glad, barren woman, you who never bore a child; shout for joy and cry aloud, you who were never in labor; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband.” 28 Now you, brothers and sisters, like Isaac, are children of promise. 29 At that time the son born according to the flesh persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit. It is the same now. 30 But what does Scripture say? “Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman’s son.” 31 Therefore, brothers and sisters, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman. Freedom in Messiah 5 It is for freedom that Messiah has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery and think that you can gain salvation through your works and not in faith that Yahshua has fullfilled all that was required when he declared on the cross “It is finished”. 2 Mark my words! I, Shaul, tell you that IF YOU LET YOURSELVES BE CIRCUMCISED, (OR YOUR CHILDREN!) MESSIAH WILL BE OF NO VALUE TO YOU AT ALL. 3 AGAIN I DECLARE TO EVERY MAN WHO LETS HIMSELF BE CIRCUMCISED THAT HE IS OBLIGATED TO OBEY THE WHOLE LAW! So why do you in the Twelve Tribes do this to your children? Whatever Yoneq tells you is wrong and fabricated. 4 YOU WHO ARE TRYING TO BE JUSTIFIED BY THE LAW HAVE BEEN ALIENATED FROM MESSIAH; YOU HAVE FALLEN AWAY FROM GRACE. 5 For through the Spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope. 6 For in Yahshua Ha’ Mashiach neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. 7 You were running a good race. Who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth? Yoneq? 8 That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. 9 “A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough.” It’s PRIDE! 10 I am confident in the Messiah that you will take no other view. The one who is throwing you into confusion, whoever that may be, will have to pay the penalty. 11 Brothers and sisters, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been abolished. 12 AS FOR THOSE AGITATORS, I WISH THEY WOULD GO THE WHOLE WAY AND EMASCULATE THEMSELVES! AND THE WHOLE CHURCH CRIED OUT “AMEN!”…. 13 You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free!. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. 14 For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”15 If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other. 16 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law! 19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft (including psychological manipulation); hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition (narcissism), dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Yahshua Ha’ Mashiach have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other. Doing Good to All 6 Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. 2 Carry each others burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Messiah. 3 If anyone thinks they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves. 4 Each one should test their own actions. Then they can take pride in themselves alone, without comparing themselves to someone else, 5 for each one should carry their own load. 6 Nevertheless, the one who receives instruction in the word should share all good things with their instructor. 7 Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. 8 Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. 9 Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. 10 Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers. ( I will take this opportunity to explain the two reasons why I am transliterating the Letter from Paul to the Church of Galatians into Shauls letter to the modern day intentional Communities of the Twelve Tribes. One is to remind the ex members why they were 100% scripturally correct in leaving the aberrant high control group and secondly to reach out to those who are still held in their mental and spiritual bondage and see that they can leave with no fear of God but actually the opposite and that they will be protected as they flee this bondage that Shaul detested! May Yahweh and Yahshua bless your journey home… There are people waiting for your return… ) Not Circumcision but the New Creation 11 See what large letters I use as I write to you with my own hand! 12 Those who want to impress people by means of the flesh are trying to compel you to be circumcised. (You must question Yoneq and the elders why they insist you do this. They will tell you extra-scriptural lies similar to the Catholics) The only reason they do this is to avoid being persecuted for the cross of Messiah. 13 Not even those who are circumcised keep the law, yet they want you to be circumcised that they may boast about your circumcision in the flesh. 14 May I never boast except in the cross of our Yahshua Ha’ Mashiach, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. 15 Neither circumcision nor un-circumcision means anything; what counts is the new creation. 16 Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule to the Israel of God. 17 From now on, let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Yahshua. 18 The grace of our Yahshua Ha’ Mashiach be with your spirit, brothers and sisters. Amen.

One last note to the Brothers and Sisters of Yahshua in the Twelve Tribes Communities. Please read this checklist and honestly answer the questions and tell me if the Twelve Tribes Communities does not fit each and everyone of these boxes. You may want to honestly reconsider your life choice to give your whole existence and that of your children to this “organization” May God Bless all who read this and may the grace and love of Yahshua open your eyes and may the Spirit guide your footsteps… AMEN.

Characteristics Associated with Cultic Groups – Revised
Janja Lalich, Ph.D. & Michael D. Langone, Ph.D.

Concerted efforts at influence and control lie at the core of cultic groups, programs, and relationships. Many members, former members, and supporters of cults are not fully aware of the extent to which members may have been manipulated, exploited, even abused. The following list of social-structural, social-psychological, and interpersonal behavioral patterns commonly found in cultic environments may be helpful in assessing a particular group or relationship.
Compare these patterns to the situation you were in (or in which you, a family member, or friend is currently involved). This list may help you determine if there is cause for concern. Bear in mind that this list is not meant to be a cult scale or a definitive checklist to determine if a specific group is a cult. This is not so much a diagnostic instrument as it is an analytical tool. If you find that the group you are in or wondering about fits at least 4 or 5 of these 15 entries you might want to get some professional advice about this group.
‪ □ The group displays excessively zealous and unquestioning commitment to its leader and (whether he is alive or dead) regards his belief system, ideology, and practices as the Truth, as law, as the word of God.
‪ □ Questioning, doubt, and dissent are discouraged, forbidden or even punished.
‪ □ Mind-altering practices (such as meditation, chanting, singing, dancing, speaking in tongues, denunciation sessions, and debilitating work routines) are used in excess and serve to suppress doubts about the group and its leader(s).
‪ ‪□ The leadership dictates, sometimes in great detail, how members should think, act, and feel (for example, members must get permission to date, change jobs, marry or leaders prescribe what types of clothes to wear, grooming practices, where to live, what to eat, whether or not to have children, how to discipline children, and so forth).
‪ □ The group is elitist, claiming a special, exalted status for itself, (chosen ones)its leader(s) and members (for example, the leader is considered the Messiah, a special being, Apostle, an avatar or the group and/or the leader is on a special mission to save humanity, bring back Messiah, etc).
‪ ‪□ The group has a polarized us-versus-them mentality, which may cause conflict with the wider society.
‪ □ The leader is not accountable to any authorities (unlike, for example, teachers, military commanders or ministers, priests, monks, and rabbis of mainstream religious denominations).
‪ □ The group teaches or implies that its supposedly exalted ends justify whatever means it deems necessary. This may result in members’ participating in behaviors or activities they would have considered reprehensible or unethical before joining the group (for example, lying to family or friends, or collecting money for bogus charities).
‪ ‪□ The leadership induces feelings of shame and/or guilt in order to influence and/or control members. Often, this is done through peer pressure and subtle forms of persuasion, shunning etc.
‪ □ Subservience to the leader or group requires members to cut ties with family and friends, and radically alter the personal goals and activities they had before joining the group.
‪ □ The group is preoccupied with bringing in new members.
‪ □ The group is preoccupied with making money.
‪ □ Members are expected to devote inordinate amounts of time to the group and group-related activities.
‪ □ Members are encouraged or required to live and/or socialize only with other group members.
‪ □ The most loyal members (the “true believers”) feel there can be no life outside the context of the group. They believe there is no other way to be, and often fear reprisals from God to themselves or others if they leave (or never even consider leaving) the group.
This checklist will be published in the new book, Take Back Your Life: Recovering from Cults and Abusive Relationships by Janja Lalich and Madeleine Tobias (Berkeley: Bay Tree Publishing, 2006). It was adapted from a checklist originally developed by Michael Langone.

2018 US podcast on Twelve Tribes-Elbert E. Spriggs/part 1 and 2

Charlie — Wed, 09 May 2018 03:38:13 +0000

Source: Parcast, series of podcasts on cults, May 2018

To go to Part 1 and Part 2 of this very special podcast on the Twelve Tribes and their founder Elbert Eugene Spriggs click on the image above and it will take you straight to the audio and start listening. To go to the page of the producers, click link above titled Source. Podcast available on Apple podcast, Stitcher, Google Play and TuneIn. Please leave a review on their site. Thank you for watching.

“About Cults

Mystery. Manipulation. Murder. Cults are associated with all of these. But what really goes on inside a cult? More specifically, what goes on inside the minds of people who join cults and leaders who start them? Every Tuesday, Greg and Vanessa (co-hosts of the podcast Serial Killers) explore the history and psychology behind the most notorious cults. Cults is part of the Parcast Network and is a Cutler Media production.”

“Elbert Eugene Spriggs Jr. felt he could never live up to his strict Christian father’s expectations. After three failed marriages and numerous jobs, Spriggs had a revelation that his duty was to bring people to God – but to do that he wanted to establish a new church…one where he would make the rules.”

Letter to members of the Twelve Tribes

Charlie — Tue, 08 May 2018 04:46:40 +0000

Letter to members of the Twelve Tribes

Letter to Twelve Tribes members: Letter to members of the Twelve Tribes is a 48 pages document written from a couple of ex-members to members of the Twelve Tribes. Please freely download, print and pass on to any member you care about. In this heart felt plea to reconsider their ways, these two members quote the 12T own teachings and hold it up to what they feel is the true heart and message of Yahshua (Jesus, Yeshua). If you can print it and give it to a member they would have a chance to rethink and view their life from another perspective.
Very important points of their doctrine and traditions are raised to scrutiny.These are 3 short extracts from the letter:

“The TT’s communities know very well how to emphasis people’s needs and to capitalize

on them. We know! They propose to fill the void of not knowing one’s purpose with

COMMUNITY, thinking that COMMUNITY LIFE will SAVE.

“Building up the Body in love can only be done in a community, which is growing with a growth from

our Father.” My Salvation to the Ends of the Earth, 2006 pg 4

JESUS DID NOT PREACH COMMUNITY, BUT PERSONAL REPENTANCE.

Matthew 4:17″

Are You Following a Human Leader–or the Divine Son of God?

Charlie — Sun, 18 Feb 2018 01:02:05 +0000

Source: TrueDiscipleship

Richard Hollerman

Somehow most of us go through life, following the religion of our parents, and give little thought about why that religion even exists. When did it begin? Where did it begin? Why did it begin? How did it begin? What caused the religion to begin years ago? Who was responsible for the particular church or denomination?

The result is that the Mormon is taught his Mormonism from his Mormon parents, and he remains a Mormon until the day he dies. He just assumes that the Mormons (“The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints”) are right. All that he hears and reads convinces him that there is abundant evidence that Joseph Smith knew what he was doing and the this man is to be trusted for one’s relationship to the church—and for one’s eternal life!

The same is true for the Watchtower Witness, the Catholic, the Lutheran, the Methodist, and the Presbyterian. Obviously, it is true for those religions that are not even related to any form of Christendom—such as Islam, Hinduism, Judaism, or Buddhism. Everyone doesn’t question his religion but gives ultimate confidence in someone—whether it be the (so-called) Pope, or Muhammad, or Buddha, or Baha’u’llah (Baha’i).

The logical (and theological) thinker will look at this situation and realize that this is not at all the way we arrive at truth! What are the chances that the Mormon just happened to be born into a Mormon family and that this is the religion of which God approves? There are about 15 million Mormons worldwide, and 7.4 billion people in the world. Thus, about one in 500 people in the world are Mormons. There is a one in 500 chance that a person would have been born into the “right” faith if Mormonism were true. But dare we ask: Is it really true?

What we say of this religion is true of all of the others. It just isn’t rational to think that we just happened to be born into the “true” religion, without personal examination of that religion. If you see the point that I’m making, don’t you think it is obligatory of you to study and examine your religion in light of the objective standard of the Word of God? Only in this way can you be protected from false reasoning, ecclesiological tradition, and religious charlatans.

Human Religious Leaders

We know that the Lord Jesus Christ is the only foundation of the faith of which God approves. Scripture says, “No man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 3:11). Jesus Himself said, “I will build My church [or assembly]” (Matthew 16:18). Paul says that we are “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets; Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone” (Ephesians 2:20). Jesus said that He is truth personified (John 14:6) and God’s Word is truth (John 17:17). If our religion isn’t based on the infallible Lord of glory, the Savior of the World, and the infallible revelation of Scripture, we should rethink the wisdom of staying in our particular religion or church!

Have you considered the danger of following a human leader, teacher, or founder and assuming that he or she is the source of all truth, the key to secret knowledge, the dispenser of saving faith, and the guide to spiritual life? There is no indication in the written Word of God that the Lord would begin His church, body, denomination, or movement through an earthly leader! Yet repeatedly we learn of a human teacher or fallible overseer who claims to be God’s mouthpiece on the earth in our day! Isn’t this the height of foolishness? Isn’t it utterly precarious?

The Lord Jesus warned His followers: “Every plant which My heavenly Father did not plant shall be uprooted. Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind. And if a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit” (Matthew 15:13-14). Although this may be a reference to the Pharisees of Jesus’ day, the principle applies to our own day. If God didn’t “plant” the church, sect, community, or movement, then it will be uprooted! If the leader is spiritually “blind” about one or more major areas of truth, his leadership will lead many others into a spiritual pit!

Spiritual Leaders and Founders

Since this is true, we need to ask ourselves about the spiritual founder of the religions and churches around us. Who were they and why is it that they hold the ultimate source of what is right and wrong?

Joseph Smith (1805-1844) wrote the Book of Mormon, claiming that God had revealed Golden Plates to him at the hill called Cumorah, hear Manchester, New York. This New York self-proclaimed prophet says that God had singled him out, among all people on earth, to translate these esoteric plates (that no one can see and have not been preserved) and reveal the truth of God to the world in the early nineteenth century. Today, some 15 million people follow the teachings of Smith and claim that he was the unique dispenser of God’s will in the latter days. Yet, as we examine the Mormon teachings, we find that they are polytheistic since they claim that God had many “baby” gods and good Mormons will become gods themselves, with their own domains in the universe! Dozens of false teachings have been promulgated under Smith’s banner!

Are You Following a Human Leader–or the Divine Son of God?

Charles Taze Russell (1852-1916) made a diligent search of the Scriptures and wrote Studies in the Scriptures. Originally being influenced deeply by Adventist teachings, Russell went on his own and gathered a following himself. He not only spoke extensively, but also wrote at length about various Biblical topics, especially prophetic themes taken from Daniel and Revelation. Today there are over eight million Witnesses in the world who earnestly visit door-to-door with the intention of setting up Bible studies and leading unsuspecting people into their human religious system, even though many of their doctrines deviation from the plain teachings of the Word of God. Has it never occurred to the devoted Witness that Russell’s system is filled with error and outright heresy?

Are You Following a Human Leader–or the Divine Son of God?

Mary Baker Eddy (1821-1910) is known as the originator of a mind-science group called “The Church of Christ, Scientist’ (which has been revealed as neither the Church of Christ nor is it Scientific!), in Boston, Massachusetts. She is the author of the esoteric book, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (1875, 1883). Eddy denies major portions of the Word of God, including the nature of God, the nature of Jesus Christ, the nature of the Holy Spirit, the nature of humanity, the inspiration of the Bible, the atoning death of Christ, the resurrection of Christ, and much more! Only about 85,000 members continue to exist in the world. Don’t these members ever doubt that Eddy was a prophetess of God who rejected nearly everything that Christendom has taught for two millennia?

Are You Following a Human Leader–or the Divine Son of God?

Ellen G. White (1827-1915) began as a disciple of William Miller who predicted the return of Christ in 1843. When Jesus did not return that year, he again predicted Jesus’ return in October of 1844. When the Lord didn’t return at that time, Miller gave up in despair, but Ellen Harmon (who married James White) was able to redeem the movement, claiming that the Lord had entered the “Heavenly Sanctuary” at that time. She also emphasized the fourth commandment as she sought to promote Sabbath-keeping. This latter day “prophetess” became the virtual head or leader of the moment until her death in 1915. Today there are about 19 million members around the world, especially since the church is known for their missionary zeal as well as their “health message.”

Are You Following a Human Leader–or the Divine Son of God?

Herbert W. Armstrong (1892-1986) began as a minister in the Church of God (Seventh-day) in Oregon, and went on to begin a radio program and ministry called the “Radio Church of God.” Eventually Armstrong moved to California and named his church the “Worldwide Church of God” in 1968. In 1947 Ambassador College in Pasadena, California was begun. Armstrong emphasized Old Covenant regulations and imposed part of the Law of Moses on his growing number of followers (e.g., Holy Days, the Sabbath, food laws). This founder and leader emphasized British Israelism (Anglo Israelism), in which he taught that the United States and Britain descended from Ephraim and Manasseh of the Northern Tribes of Israel. Armstrong wrote Mystery of the Ages in 1985 and promoted the idea that his followers would become “God” (or be part of the God Family). One statement sums up what his followers thought of him: “Worldwide Church of God (WCG) members believed that Herbert W. Armstrong was Christ’s apostle in the 20th century. Armstrong taught that God only works through ‘one man at a time’ and that he was God’s selected representative on earth for his time” (Wikipedia).

Are You Following a Human Leader–or the Divine Son of God?

Aimee Semple McPherson (1890-1944) was a talented and flamboyant preacher, teacher, and leader who began the “International Church of the Foursquare Gospel.” In some respects, McPherson’s church was similar to other Pentecostal Churches, but she was the undisputed head, leader, and motivator of the denomination. People found her somewhat questionable in her lifestyle and morality. Today, some eight million followers are found around the world.

Sun Myung Moon (1920-2012) was rejected by the Presbyterian Church in Korea and launched out on his own. He taught that Jesus didn’t finish his work, and this work was given to Moon to accomplish. His unique message and principles are described in his book, The Divine Principle. Much deception is found in the group and they have various front organizations that hide their identity. Generally they are officially called the “Unification Church” (the “Moonies”).

Are You Following a Human Leader–or the Divine Son of God?

Victor Paul Wierwille began “The Way International,” an organization that today has groups in some 30 countries. The headquarters is located in New Knoxville, Ohio. Wierwille rejected Christ’s deity and eternality. Today the group is headed by Rosalie F. Rivenbark along with two other members.

Witness Lee (1905-1997) was born in China and became part of the ministry led by Watchman Nee. Later he immigrated to the United States and formed Local Churches in various large cities (especially in the United States and Taiwan). He began Living Stream Ministry and emphasized personal subjective experience. When I visited a Local Church in this city years ago, they expressed their disfavor of Biblical “doctrine” and their emphasis on inner life. Witness Lee was the undisputed leader and all he spoke was accepted as God’s truth.

Are You Following a Human Leader–or the Divine Son of God?

David “Moses” Berg (1919-1994) founded the “Children of God” group in 1968. They began as part of the Jesus Movement but began to follow Berg and his writings (Mo Letters) as inspired of God. Eventually they began an evangelistic outreach called “Flirty Fishing” in which their members practiced a form of religious prostitution. Many branches were formed overseas, some of which are to be found today.

Are You Following a Human Leader–or the Divine Son of God?

Elbert Eugene Spriggs founded the “Twelve Tribes” religious movement, based on the Law of Moses. This leader claimed to have a vision that led to the formation of about 30 communities scattered around the world as well as in the United States (especially New England). I visited their Island Pond (Vermont) community a couple decades ago.

Jim Jones was a liberal pastor of the Disciples of Christ but eventually began a group called the “Peoples Temple” in California. This leader had paranoid tendencies and began to think the government and others were beginning to persecute this small cult. Some claimed that he began to proclaim himself to be divine and rejected the Scriptures. Jone moved his people to Guyana in South America and eventually, in 1977, convinced the community of over 900 members to commit suicide by drinking poison.

Are You Following a Human Leader–or the Divine Son of God?

David Koresh (1959-1993) was a radical Pentecostal preacher in Waco who took radical views and proclaimed himself God’s special agent. He began to stockpile munitions in their well-fortified compound. Eventually, the compound and most of those inside went up in flames in 1993.

Are You Following a Human Leader–or the Divine Son of God?

Chuck Smith (1927-2013) founded the Calvary Chapel movement in 1965 in Costa Mesa, California. Originally propelled by the budding Jesus Movement of the 1960s and 1970s, eventually Calvary Chapels spread around the world. Breaking away from the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel (of Aimee Semple McPhereson) in 1968, Smith launched out on his own. He promoted the idea that Jesus would return in 1981, but when He did not reappear, many left the movement. Today there are about 1,500 chapels in the world, led by a 21-member “leadership council” (since the death of Smith). Although Smith never claimed direct inspiration (as in the case of some of the other leaders we have examined), he was the undisputed head of the movement until his death.

If we were to search earlier church history, we would see certain other religious leaders:

Martin Luther began what we know as the Lutheran Church, composed of many different Lutheran denominations.
John Calvin might be seen as the originator of various Reformed denominations.
John Wesley is the undisputed founder of the Methodist Church, consisting of the liberal United Methodist Church and many other more conservative denominations.

Who Are You Following?

It is one thing to notice various religious leaders who are responsible for beginning a number of well-known denominations as well as non-traditional groups generally called “cults” (although they would deny this). The question we should be asking ourselves is whether it is safe or right to follow any human being! Is it wise and good to heed the teachings, directives or theology of important, even charismatic, leaders who gather a following and instill trust in people?

Sadly, most or even all of these human leaders were deceived in various ways. They may have been able to see certain truths but they were mistaken on other important doctrines. Many of these doctrines were heretical or plainly false teachings. In other words, many of the ones we have briefly examined were clearly false teachers or false prophets!

Earlier we noticed that Jesus said of the Pharisees, “Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind. And if a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit” (Matthew 15:14). This means that if a “blind” false teacher seeks to lead people into his or her false teaching, all of those affected will fall into a doctrinal “pit”!

We might also notice that various of these leaders and teachers were women! These feminist women were active before the modern “feminist” movement arose! Think of Mary Baker Glover Patterson Eddy. Think of Ellen G. White. Think of Aimee Semple McPherson. Think of the many women preachers, teachers, and leaders in our own day! It is almost as though they either never read or simply denied plain scriptures like Paul’s words: “A woman must quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness. But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet” (1 Timothy 2:11-12).

Would any of these women teachers and leaders obey these solemn words? Do they “receive instruction” or do they boldly “give instruction”? Do they “teach or exercise authority over a man”? Do they “remain quiet”? No, these brazen feminist women proceed to do what the Holy Spirit says not to do! Scripture says that “women are to keep silent in the churches; for they are not permitted to speak, but are to subject themselves, just as the Law also says” (1 Corinthians 14:34). It is plainly wrong “for a woman to speak in church” (v. 35). But such women as McPherson, Eddy, and White boldly speak publicly and exercise authority over men.

The Word of God says, “Keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching which you learned, and turn away from them” (Romans 16:17). What about the men and women who began the church movements we noticed earlier? Did they teach anything “contrary to the teaching” of Scripture? Did people “turn away from them”? Do we turn away from them? The Scriptures go on to say, “Such men are slaves, not of our Lord Christ but of their own appetites; and by their smooth and flattering speech they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting” (v. 18). Did their “smooth and flattering speech” propel them into leadership and cause multitudes to follow them and their authoritative teachings?

Are You Following a Human Leader–or the Divine Son of God?

This is a serious matter and all sincere men and women who value their own soul and that of their family must beware of the spiritual dangers that are to be found in such teachers. We must refuse to be sucked into their movements and taken in by their theology. Remember, your spiritual welfare is at stake!

Information from “Handbook of Denominations in the United States” as well as Wikipedia. See also “Fast Facts on False Teachings” by Ron Carlson and Ed Decker, “Christianity, Cults and Religions” by Carden, “What’s the Big Deal about Other Religions” by John Ankerberg and Dillon Burroughs, “Understanding Non-Christian Religions” by Josh McDowell and Don Stewart, “The Illustrated Guide to World Religions” by Dean Halverson, and “World Religions” by Rick Billingsley.

Truediscipleship

More on Christianity/Quotes from teachings of Spriggs on Christianity

Charlie — Thu, 01 Dec 2016 09:11:01 +0000

All that Christianity can produce is a false assumption based on a wrong postulation by which a person must draw a wrong conclusion about a puny Jesus called Christ by ignorant and deceived men. – Heresy 1

Christians have no problem serving two masters. Their god and mammon are completely compatible. They do not hate one of the two. They say they love God but they serve mammon, so it cannot be the God of Abraham, but a Christian god, a baal-Jesus. – Confusing Gods, part 2

Every preacher is only speaking with no authority beyond himself. That is why there is no reconciliation going on. – The Aroma of Messiah

The world can’t see Christians working together in one place because Christians work independently and individually among the Gentiles. The world can’t see the unity, and the love, and the care, and the order, and the cleanliness among them, but they can see all those aspects among us as we work as a team.- They shall run and not grow weary

Christians live as gentiles and so they sacrifice or serve or worship demons but call them god or Jesus. They have become sharers in demons. – Confusing Gods, part 2

The nicolaitan clergy-laity system is the very fountain head of Satan himself. It is the abominable practice of Roman and Protestant churches. As a result, all Christianity is filled with what God hated over 1900 years ago. – Heresy 1

Christianity is the thief. She became a den of robbers. – Three Eternal Destinies # 97 Those Who Claim To See

Christianity is a man-made religion based on philosophy or mere knowledge which puffs up in the unspiritual mind…. It is a dead religion without love…. – The New Age Movement Philosophy

Christianity is a monstrosity – out of the common order of nature – shockingly, hideously, enormously, irregular in nature and behavior. – Confusing Gods, part 2

The Bible schools train people that the little country churches won’t make them money. They need to get a job in First Presbyterian downtown. That’s where the money is. They hire whoever speaks best, and they go around to churches seeking to find the best preachers. – No Unrighteousness In Us

Christianity is probably worse than any religion in the world today. Rev. 8:2 talks about how diabolical and demonic Christianity is. It’s full of all kinds of evil spirits. They, especially the Catholic church, have been murderers all the way down through history. …..Her sins are piled up as high as heaven. – Two Kinds of Wisdom

Both Jews and Christians sins are piled up as high as heaven. They have no high priest or temple (Rev. 18:5). The house was finally destroyed (Heb. 3:6) as the clergy-laity system was developed. The nicolaitan system conquered the people. You can see that God detests every so called meeting of Christian worship with a passion. – Heresy 1

Gnosticism was the beginning of the religion called Christianity at the turn of the first century…. Gnosticism is a word derived from the Greek gnosis, meaning knowledge, which was no more than mental enlightenment. The very same gnosis that all Christians are converted by today. Christianity, like most other religions, provides a mental enlightenment to their converts. All Christians adhere to a mental belief in the essential gospel, as expressed in I Cor. 15:1-5 -Little children, it is the Last Hour

The Christian church is the same as the Jewish religion. They have no temple, no high priest, no mediator, no advocate with the Father . No one can be justified by his Jesus or the gospel he preaches, but all are under the law (principle) of religion trying to be justified by the works which they don’t do) of going to church and giving their 10% as the law requires. – Three Eternal Destinies # 49 Overview 2 The Judgment of God

In Rev. 17 and 18 mystery Babylon is none other than Christianity, and Christianity has a god named Jesus-Jesus Christ. Bel is the god of which Jesus is the anti-type. Bel Jesus, the god of Babylon/Christianity. – The Walls of Christianity

The problem is that Satan has a “glory” that is an imitation. 2 Cor. 11:2-4, 13-15 You can see it even in movie stars, politicians, and especially television evangelists like Billy Graham. To the degree an “evangelist” (as an example) has given himself to his own glory and the pursuit of it, so does that “glory” reflect the false Jesus in him. In his own mind, he thinks he is giving glory to Jesus. – Three Eternal Destinies # 73 Fallen From Glory

For 1900 years the church has been abdicated to Satan. The true church died and has been in abeyance until the time of the restoration of all things. All who are in “her” today are without Messiah and are aliens to the commonwealth of Israel. They are strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope of restoration to God’s image. They are without God in the world. They are lost. – The Significance of Passover

Rev. 18:2 is the nature of all Christianity today. Go to church and see. All the spiritual degenerates go on Sunday morning to a building they call a church and listen to a liar who loves lying. – Three Eternal Destinies # 155 Social Degeneration

The house of Christianity was built by false apostles and prophets, with Satan himself as the chief cornerstone. In him (Satan) the whole building rises to become evil temple in Satan being built together to become a dwelling place of demons, a dwelling place in which Satan lives by his spirit. – The Anatomy of the Fall of the First Church

Not one Catholic, the Pope included, and not one Protestant either, has the Holy Spirit. It’s a house of demons. They fell in the first century…. – Grumbling and Complaining – A Sin Unto Death

Christianity is the vomit from Yahshua’s mouth – the aftermath of destruction. One billion today are wallowing in their own vomit…. – Yoneq

The first church was not faithful. They waned like the moon. They lost their first love. They stained their garment. Only a few maintained their spotless garments and so they waned and were not passing on the Holy Spirit to anyone else. – Breaking of Bread 3/17/90

Christianity paints a false light of unity with diversity. – Desire

Denominationalism is the full blown outcome of the diversity that people tolerated in themselves in the first church. The first church was not perfected in unity, so Satan started driving wedges between people. Thus, the outcome is Christianity. – Ahavah

The first church started out being a sheepfold, but the sheepfold turned into a zoo of non-sheep like characters, especially the wolf preachers in sheep’s clothing. – Three Eternal Destinies # 99 Introduction

A person might have no fellowship, but they do things in their own strength, their own flesh. They’ll do great works and the evil one will even start doing magic through them. This will go on until even the elect would be deceived if possible. Christianity is full of this. – Suffering, Thoughts, Revelation 12

Christianity today and yesterday is a brood of ordained liars, taking hordes to the second death. These liars are ordained by the spirit of Satan – his “ordained ministers.” – Three Eternal Destinies – The God of Christianity is not the God of Creation

The Roman Catholic church with her pope and the Protestant churches with their doctors of divination are not what God had in mind. But it is what Satan, its federal head, had in mind …. When one heretic was sent away, he simply founded another church and then all men accepted it’s mystical unity and oneness. Can anyone admit that God did not start the massive religion of Christianity? James 1:1 describes its decline and the Roman church in its total and absolute apostasy, a murderous religion, along with Calvin and Luther and other Protestant branches of Satan’s tree. – Yoneq

Christianity down through the centuries is reduced to intellectualism – a gymnastic exercise of rote and rot. Men today are like ants on the kitchen table – where one pours honey to set the trap and they all gather to have their feast – they are wiped out, even as Christianity will be in Rev. 17:16-18. – Three Eternal Destinies # 124 The Enigma of Man

All Christian preachers are liars, inspired by the father of liars, as are all religionists, especially Christian. – Three Eternal Destinies # 143 – The Goodness of God, part 4

Every preacher in Christianity – Seventh Day Adventist, Jehovah’s Witness, Anglican, Baptist, Presbyterian, Methodist, yes and Lutheran – they’re all sent by the evil one, because 2 Cor. 11:15 says they are. They even tried to come to true disciples in the first church and betroth them to another husband, by deception-trying to bring them away from the simple devotion to Messiah and loving Him. – The All Inclusive Gospel, part 3 (Without Deceit or Falsehood)

The present condition of the Christian church demonstrates how far Christians are from God, by deviating from the truth of God’s word. The Bible, as regards its commandments, is very unrealistic to all Christians. Christianity is merely reaping the cursing that resulted from receiving the other Jesus and the different spirit by their different gospel 1900 years ago- the cursing due to disobedience. – Child Training II part 2: Parental Accountability

Christianity has within her all of God’s enemies, which she cannot put under His feet since she is under Satan’s feet herself, and he is enthroned on her praises. – Receiving a Sent One

The guilt of Christians as well as Jews is piled up as high as heaven since they have no high priest over their fallen house. Instead they rely upon a “spirit” and a “gospel” and a “Jesus” and a “God.” Jews and Christians are in the same boat. That is why worldly people are better than they are; the more religious they become, the more wicked. – Three Eternal Destinies # 8 Sin and Separation

Christianity began after the first church began. They gave themselves over to the evil one. It was given over to the enemy who took possession of God’s temple. Therefore the evil one has been a ruler for 1900 years. They crucified the very Son of God – YHWH in the flesh. They killed him! It proves who is in control of the world – Satan rules the whole world. – The Fall of the First Church

What about Billy Graham? Has he worked for his own glory all his life? Absolutely. There’s no doubt about it. I have faith to believe that he is a man who has lied to millions of people. They do not have eternal life. Do any of his converts know the purpose or will of God on earth? Are they bringing it about? Not one person has received eternal life through Billy Graham. But to the contrary they will go to the Second Death. “Woe to you when all men speak well of you.” – The All Inclusive Gospel, part 3 (Without Deceit or Falsehood)

But the church became a harlot-Babylon the great. Where it was something marvelous and wonderful before, where it had the fear of God and the holy angels, yet now it’s become a dwelling place of demons. – The Fall of the First Church

The first church was supplanted by the false apostles. It was supplanted – it was taken over by false apostles coming in the name of Yahshua, but with a demonic spirit masquerading as true apostles of Messiah. – The Fall of the First Church

The Roman church in name only has existed for 1900 years – only in the sovereignty of YHWH for a demonstration purpose at the end of the age. It has existed as a harlot and her sins are piled up as high as heaven. This church along with her daughters – the mother of harlots and the abomination of the earth – the Greek Orthodox, the Lutheran and Protestant churches and Christian ministries and clubs and shows, denominational churches – all who dwell in disunity and division. – Israel I

Billy Graham is the number 1 huckster that most others try to emulate – a peddler of God’s word. – Three Eternal Destinies # 127 The last Judgment

Christianity is not simply a poor representation of the truth; rather; it is a mockery of the truth. – Christianity is a Parody

Christianity is a parody. A parody is an imitation, a feeble or ridiculous imitation. A parody is a mockery of another’s work. It could be done in a poem, song, or a humorous satire. It is a presentation through an exaggerated imitation, a misrepresentation, a satire, caricature, mockery, irony, ridicule, a joke; it is to mimic, copy, deride, jeer, or impersonate in a joking way. In Christianity today, Christian theology demands that their interpretations be accepted as authoritative enactment’s of the scriptural verses that made the church what it was in the beginning. But they have only the dead letter, not living examples to imitate and follow. – Christianity is a Parody

Most of the money sent in to evangelists is from little old ladies (silly and gullible women). The evangelists “creep in” by means of radio and TV while their husbands are away to work. These evangelists enter by their doors and bedrooms in their so-called “visitation program.” These so-called “preachers” are characterized by all kinds of self centered and unnatural perversions, while claiming the power of the Holy Spirit is upon them. Yet, they deny its power by their hidden motives and self-glory. – The Last Generation

Christianity is a feeble or ridiculous imitation of the first century edah. They made sport with God’s word. What they do not live, they must instead merely interpret – which is, as Webster says the act of expounding or unfolding what is not understood or not obvious, as the interpretation of dreams or prophecy. So much interpretation is required to make the world understand and make themselves believe what cannot be seen or evidenced in their lives. – Christianity is a Parody

Christianity is a fable – just as Easter eggs, Santa Claus, and the manger scene, even the cross has become a fable or myth. – The last Generation

Christianity is a false religion according to the word of God. Martin Luther said the letter of James was an “epistle of straw.” All Christians are spotted – soiled by the world. This happened 1900 years ago. All Christians who claim to see are blind, you see. – God’s Will

Christianity

Charlie — Thu, 01 Dec 2016 09:02:54 +0000

What do they really think about Christianity?

Christianity is full of deceptive birds. – The Personality of God in Us

8/25/94

In Christianity, there are no apostles, prophets or elders. There are only hirelings who care nothing for the sheep. – Elders and Deacons

Christianity has mistranslated the Scriptures. A spirit caused them to purposely distort the bibles according to their beliefs. Every Study bible every translation of the bible has a different diversification behind it. – Ahavah, First Day Teaching 4/23/89

Christianity is reckoned with the nations. They eat dogs, cats, snails, buzzards and hedgehogs because ‘everything is clean,’ not just pigs.

More on the First and Second Death 11/19/85

….Christianity is no longer scorned by the heathen but accepted as one of them…. This is because they are no different from the rest of the world system …. All the world needs is one more Christian. One more would make 1 Billion and one …… All Christianity is leveled, lukewarm and nicely conformed to this world’s evil system. – The Disciple, part 1

Christianity is not valid because sheep are not in a pasture; it is only possible in the Edah, the true pasture. – For Shepherds Only

The word Christian has come to mean ‘an adherent of Christ,’ but what a joke. – The disciple

Christianity has hirelings who just want a position with a good salary. They don’t care about the sheep, they just feed off them. – Elders, part II

Christianity is a folk religion based on myths.

Seeking First the Kingdom/Washing/the Narrow Road

Christianity twists and distorts the Scriptures because they are untaught – they have been taught by the wrong people. – More on the First and Second Death

There’s no forgiveness in Christianity. They all go to church having committed every sin imaginable and don’t confess it to anyone.

Seeking First the Kingdom/Washing/the Narrow Road

Christianity is a mountain, a high place, where you worship idols, a false place of worship – Stone

The harlot [Christianity] is filled with demons, unclean birds, hatred sins piled up to heaven, and is responsible for the blood of martyrs. Her sorcery has corrupted the whole world. – Stone IV

The Christian church is good for nothing – not even good enough for the dung heap. – The Disciple

Christianity has fallen – a big tree, a false growth, which our Father will destroy someday. He will replace it with spiritual Israel who obeys Him…. – Sabbath Eve, Sus 3/30/90

A little white wafer that melts in your mouth represents Christianity. It does not represent His body. – The Loaf

Question 12 Tribes » E.Spriggs

“They are evil”: Ex-Twelve Tribes members describe child abuse, control inside religious cult

Sect spotlighted by Marshall fire abuses children, exploits followers and teaches racism, former members say

Physical restraint and discipline

Longstanding abuse allegations

Police calls in Colorado

Failure to report

High-profile betrayal

Inside the tribe-Podcast featuring many TT ex-members

Roger Griffin, former leader and 20 year member of “Twelve Tribes” Authoritarian Cult

Kate Wiseman interview on Phish female fans radio

Letter to Twelve Tribes members

2018 US podcast on Twelve Tribes-Elbert E. Spriggs/part 1 and 2

“About Cults

Letter to members of the Twelve Tribes

Are You Following a Human Leader–or the Divine Son of God?

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