Some of this stuff may be repeats from my other writings, but you’ll get over it.  When I write, I’m talking about the majority of F&Ws, not all.  There are so many thoughts I want to write about.  I think they can all be connected somehow in a single offering. 

So here goes.

•  BORN IN THE WAY

I remember back to when I was very young.  I was so thankful to be born in ‘the way’.  I was thankful I didn’t have to fight the blindness that the world has.  I equated it to being born in America.  What a blessing!  What a blessing to be born in the truth, the right way!  Now I look back and John 8:33 comes to mind:

Over the years, we have heard the following observations made about the 2x2 church:

• Judging and condemning

• Coldness and scorn toward the world

• Lack of charity toward the needy

• The pretense that the “way” has no change

• The evasiveness and veil of secrecy which crops up constantly

• The belief in being the only ones saved

• The many restrictions – the do's and don'ts

• The fear that holds folks in this “way” and keeps them there

In my opinion, being taught and believing a warped Gospel can help produce these things. Many have not rested on God's provision of a Substitute. They have relied on something else in the hope that God will accept them - - the work of their own hands, something they “DO” or “DON'T DO,” or some “way” that they identify themselves with, or some human mediators they rely upon.

These are self-efforts and not only are they ineffective, but they can produce the above list of problems.

^{What is a HERESY?}

• A heresy is an opinion or teaching that explicitly denies essential biblical truth.

• Aberrational teaching compromises or confuses essential biblical truth.

• Cultic doctrines deny the biblical teaching regarding the identity of God.

All three of those problems are found in William Irvine's system.

What is an Essential Biblical Truth?

The following information is in response to the many inquiries that have been made regarding the problems in the Alberta 2x2 fellowship.

This document consists of eight pages.

November 13, 2000

Alberta Excommunications

(1999)

Alberta Excommunication Tapes

Friends and Workers in Western Canada

PART ONE:

There is a huge difference between the way cult members and cult leaders

react to people who leave their society to the way that

Christians and pastors act when people leave a Christian church.

• Cults react with anger, derision and repudiation.

• Cults condemn the person to a lost eternity and warn their remaining members not to have anything to do with him. 

• The reason they act this way is because the cult is actually their god. 

• In their mind, to leave the cult is to abandon god. 

• They also view the departure as a personal rejection of them and an insult.

Christians don’t react at all. 

They continue to be friends with the person, they continue to love and pray for the person.  If the person goes to another church, they are glad that the person hasn’t stopped having fellowship with believers.  If the person falls into sin, they will sometimes try to reason with the person and help him see that he is hurting himself.  They don’t judge him as lost.  They may worry about him and pray for him.  But they don’t see his departure as an insult to themselves or as a personal rejection of them.  

^{Every new season,}

after convention is over and the workers get acquainted with their new fields,

the workers consider who and what will be their

Projects of the Year.

If you are selected as the focus of their attention, you will be the object of many conversations.

• Meeting sites will be located near your home.

• Meeting time will coincide with your time-off work schedule.

• The workers will look for a school house in your neighborhood or some building which they may rent at low cost.

• If either of those things are unavailable, they may ask someone with a large house and parking area for permission to hold gospel meetings.

^{Every family is different.}

Every person is different.

Every worker, locality and time period is different.

Therefore, what is the purpose of looking at a Two-by-Two childhood?

Maybe none.

But it is worthy of note that nearly every person raised as a Two-by-Two, mentions the same kinds of feelings and experiences. The Two-by-Two system has changed somewhat since it first began in 1897.

Therefore, care must be taken against the obvious fallacy of saying this is how it is, was or will always be.

If it's not a love letter, it's a hate letter!

I can give you good examples of how this Black or White thing works.

When a worker is in the work, he is worshiped and White.

No matter what this worker does or says, he is White.

If the worker wants to leave the work to get married, he falls off the pedestal and is Black.

Now, no matter what this worker says or does, he is Black.

He will be accused of any number of things.

He will not be as credible or right as a worker that is still White.