"I Researched Convention" By Tom Schroeder - - "Part Two"
"Part One" has not been located..........When found, it will be placed here.
Hello again, to all you wonderful people.
Well, I said I would write again in a day or so and it is a little more on the "so" side. I don't know how the time can get by so fast, but I do keep busy. I walk Shadow about 4 hours a day and we both enjoy that, and I also do volunteer work for a part of humanity. It keeps me younger.
I need to get quicker to the heart of this topic today, but there is so much connected detail that I could tell you, ......maybe I can unload some of it at the other end of this letter,........or write part 3 in a week or so.
I do not like to use the word "truth" in referring to the 2x2 cult system name and you all know why.
Yes, we said it a million times all our life.
Did you ever hear a whisper in your ear, "Do you know that couple standing over there by that tree,........are they in the "truth??"
"Yes, I heard about them and they are still outsiders. It sure looks like it."
"Do the workers think they might get in the truth.........I mean, 'profess?'"
"Oh, they hope so, but the workers think they need at least 3 more months of gospel meetings after conventions are over.
"Well, I bet,.........cause they sure don't fit in with this crowd here."
Does that sound familiar???
Sure it does, and when outsiders asked us, "What is the name of your religion,"..........I always told them, "It does not have a name...............what we have is from the beginning.........started by Jesus and not by man.
Now, here I was, coming back onto the convention grounds that I was so familiar with, having grown up just about 10 miles from there and 5 years ago, it was my last time at a convention. I got out of the car, looked around and the first man I knew told me 5 years ago, that if I wasn't happy in the truth, I should get out, and I find out, HE NOW HAS A RADIO, TV, and a VCR. He seemed happy at convention so I hope that next, he gets a computer and gets into the websites.
Well, Peter Hunter, who is long gone, used to stand up on the platform and tell the audience to be careful when they walked around on the place because, "these are HOLY GROUNDS."
So I walked 'softly' to the machine shed and found a chair in the last row and sat down and I felt like, "I didn't fit into this crowd anymore."
But, it didn't matter, as I was only doing research. I didn't even bring a Bible with me as I didn't need to worry about finding something to get up to say at testimony time.
On Saturday afternoon, just 5 minutes before meeting, an older woman, like 60 years old, and sitting not to far from me, turned to me and said, "Are you the one that is sending letters around to people........have you sent any of those newsletters to my relatives?"
I said, "Sh, Sh..no - no, I haven't done that."
"Well," she said, "Don't you dare send any of that stuff to my relatives."
I calmed her down as quickly as I could and meeting started.
Whew, that was close!!!
I noticed all morning, that she was giving me the eye and she was good looking too. I just thought she was getting a crush on me.
It "IS" funny though, how a man can so misinterpret.
Oh well, I guess that goes along with research.
Oh, how sweet Convention is.........How sweet the People are!!!
When I heard that Loyd Brotherton was going to be there, I knew I had to go. You see, after Geraldine had died in 1982, and knowing how she felt about her life and her hope, I used to lay awake and worry........Did she go to heaven or not???
Yes, she had to be there because we are in God's Only True, Right Way. Oh how can I know for sure and I felt I would never know.
Well, in 1985, Loyd came back from South America, and he came to my house and we talked until 1 a.m. and I told him how I worried but that now, my worry was more about if this "way" did go back to Jesus day because in the history of it, I could never get beyond George Walker!!
Well, Loyd told me not to worry anymore because it went beyond,........waaaayy beyond to Jesus.
Well, after Loyd left, I still worried.
In 1987, my older sister handed me, "The Secret Sect" book. I saw a picture in there of George Walker with William Irvine. I read the whole book.
"Oh Loyd,........Loyd......what have you done to me???
You got a call from God to go and preach the truth and you were preaching for 40 years, when you came to my home when I was feeling so down and I gave you a good dinner............I gave you a bed.......and a roof over your head and you did not tell me the "truth" about the so-called 'truth!!!"
About 1994, Loyd was at Seneca, IL., and he came up to me in the machine shed just before meeting and said to me, "Tom.......Tom....what is this I hear about you........that you are losing out......remember what I told you that night at your house???"
"Well, what I told you is true.....believe me!"
He then went up by the platform to sit down.
Some place in the Bible, there is a verse.........."God hates a lying tongue."
When God asked Eve, "What happened?," in my NIV Bible, she said, "The serpent deceived me," and God cursed the serpent.
Oh, Loyd, have you deceived me???
Have you deceived others???
Think about it!!!
Here is what Loyd spoke on Friday Morning:
"Jesus came from heaven revealing God....below, "John 10, I am the Son of God,"............to us He is the Son of God. He is our Savior. Jesus told the woman at the well, "I am HE!"
There are people in this world that think that Jesus was divine.
Jesus was flesh and blood and He did eat like us. John 4:9-10......."I am the son of God."
Jesus - the Son left heaven to come down for the sins of the world and the Father sacrificed His Son. Jesus said, "I am the light of the world," and He is our light because we are here today at convention.
There is a lot of junk going around out there to deceive us.
It is NOT the light.
Jesus said, "I am the bread of life.
We are not feeding on the internet or a lot of the junk floating around us......we are not feeding on the TV.
John 14, "I am the way, the truth and the life." He is our truth.
Do we know here that He is our truth?
I got a hold of one of those papers that are floating around out there and talking about "truth." I got so mad that I took it outside and burned it.
God's truth is so great and so strong and he can give us all we ever need here on earth.
There was a woman that had 2 sons and she did not keep true and the workers went to see her and tried to help her and it did no good. So one day, her house caught on fire and she got out but the sons did not come out, so she went back in and tried to help them and they all 3 burned up in the fire.
But that was only flesh, but her spirit shall burn for all eternity.
Back in South America, there is a man that has some sheep, and in the evening, the shepard calls the sheep down from the mountain, and when the sheep hear the call, you can see the dust stirring under their feet.......they are coming down. The shepard puts them into a big yard and brings into the yard, 4 dogs and then the shepard shuts the DOOR. The shepard has a cot in the sheep yard and the shepard and the 4 dogs stay in the pen all night. Those sheep have such peace all night.
Now, Jesus said, "I am the DOOR. WE have a DOOR. Now, just remember that Jesus is the only "truth" that can give you salvation.
Next meeting at 2:30!
On Saturday afternoon, Loyd came walking to the machine shed and still a lot of time and a lot of people still visiting and as he was going past me, he turned his head and saw me from about 20 feet away.................... can you believe that the "shepard" would not come over to care for one sheep???
So I ran up to him..........shook his hand......and I said, "Hello."
He said, "Hello," and kept right on walking.
I wanted to talk to him about "The Secret Sect" and about the letters but he would not stop, so maybe those 4 dogs in that sheep yard can look after me.
There is still some things that others spoke about that I would like to pass on and also some testimonies that would make your day and take all your depression away!
So, I can write part 3 in a few days unless you tell me you don't want to read anymore.
All for now,
Tom Schroeder
Posted on the Two-by-Two List on February 4, 2002
Part 3 has not been located as of yet.......when found, it will be placed here.
Hello J_ _ _,
I just read your letter to the list and you said, "In your 51 year observation and all your going to the meetings for 33 years, you have concluded that the 2x2's do not have a clue what a Christian is, or have a clue how to become one.'
J_ _ _, do you know that in all my 73 years and going to meetings from the day I was born in 1928, and plodding along in the "Secret Sect," until 1998, as well as, having meetings in my home on Sunday mornings for 20 years, I, too, did not have a clue either.
Yes, it was just plodding on with the blind leading the blind or the blind following the blind in the 2x2 socializing club.
J_ _ _, you are so right on what you wrote in your letter today, as it describes the 2x2 thinking pattern that has been so ingrained into the minds of its members. I want to thank you for writing your letter to the list today.
About five years ago, I was sitting in a Sunday morning meeting with 54 professing people, including a man worker, and a lady got up to give her testimony. She spoke about herself and her husband going into a novelty shop and as they talked with the owner for a while, he asked them if they were Christians.
She said she answered him, "Well, we think we are!"
Well, they talked a little more and then the shop owner said to them, "I am a Christian."
Now, she said, "How could he think anything like that as he is just a worldly man."
Then he told her that his wife also was a Christian,.............now, what do you think that she said?
So, after they walked out of the store, she said she thought about their conversation with the shop owner and how she "thought" she was a Christian. Now, she said, she had been thinking it over some more, "because so many times we don't really know if we are Christians or not, so I wonder if I gave him the right answer......... I hope I did."
Well, I looked around the room to see the expressions of all the professing friends, and it gave me a sad feeling to see the worried frowns on their faces.
Then, I looked over at the man worker, but I couldn't see his worried face because he had his head bent down as if reading in his Bible.........no doubt worrying about what he was going to speak about when it became his turn. So, I thought, "I'm going to really pay attention to him when he speaks, as surely he will preach something about what a Christian is or how to become one and try to dismiss the fears that the poor, troubled woman had expressed in her testimony."
But do you know, he never uttered a word about the subject and here he was the "Shepherd!"
Oh my, didn't he know his job,......didn't he know or remember that Jesus said to the preachers, "feed my lambs and feed my sheep?"
How many times we have been sitting in meetings and there was no Peter there, and the lambs and sheep have to try and feed each other!!
Now, at 5:00 that same Sunday afternoon, I went with the same group of people, about five miles away to a farm, and in a large shed, we were all sitting in "gospel meeting," and the same worker and his younger companion spoke in that meeting and they never said a word about what a Christian is or how to become one.
In that gospel meeting, they spoke about that God does not dwell in temples made with hands, ................only in houses.
Now, just think about it,.......we ran and ran, far and wide, to meetings for years and years, to listen to that kind of stuff!!!
I have not written on the list since last summer when I was visiting my son and his family up in Alaska. I have been so busy since coming back to Chicago but it is letters like yours today, that inspire me again, to try to contribute to the list and try to be a help to others that are just coming out of the abusive church that we were all so deeply in.
Yes, when I read your letter today, it brings to my mind, experiences all the way back to my childhood, for the things that we suffered because of people we feared and worshiped.........whom we called "workers," and totally believed in the William Irvine System.
Again, J_ _ _, thanks for writing your post to the list today.
All for now,
Tom Schroeder
Posted to the Two-by-Two List on February 4, 2002
Our Code Is a Character
"I give you a new commandment: love one another. Just as I have loved you, you must also love one another."
JOHN 13:34
What other teacher has taken the Ten Commandments and had the right to add another commandment to them? But this is precisely what Jesus did, as we see from our text today.
"I give you a new commandment,"He says. "Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you must also love one another."
The Old Testament and other religious writings enjoined loving one another. What was new was this: "As I have loved you."Our Lord's conduct - "as I have loved you" - produced a new code for the human race. Paul, writing to the Philippians, catches the spirit of it when he says: "Treat one another with the same spirit as you experience in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 2:5).
Here morality reaches its high-water mark. From the moment Jesus uttered the words that are occupying our attention, there came into human life something more than a code - there came a Character.
Now, therefore, our code is a Character - the Character of Jesus.
When someone asks me if I believe in the Ten Commandments, I say:
- "Yes, and very much more besides. I believe in Jesus."
- The Ten Commandments are an injunction - and a God-given one.
- But Jesus is an injunction plus an inspiration.
To follow an injunction is to obey imposed morality, but to follow a Person and do the things He does is an inspired morality.
- One is legalism, the other love.
- One binds you, the other frees you.
- One makes you feel trammeled, the other relaxed and spontaneous.
Our code is not a commandment but a Character. One greater than the commandments is here.
Daily Prayer:
O Christ, Your law lays upon me an injunction, but Your life entering into my life inspires me to live up to that injunction. It is this that makes Your yoke so easy. I am deeply, deeply grateful. Amen.
