The Way International
The Way International is one of the many cults within Christianity. It was founded by Victor Paul Wierwille in 1955. Wierwille introduced the Way International through a course in the Bible called "Power for Abundant Living." The movement was founded in 1955. The name of the group was taken by the early name of Christianity which was "The Way." Wierwille calims to have received audible revelations from God who promised to teach him Christian truths that had been lost in the 1st century. Wierwille, a former Evangelical and Reformed Church minister, died in 1985. The organization is noew headed by a biard of trustees led by President L.Craig Martindale. The group believes that when a person receives salvation, they also receive the 9 gifts described in I Corinthians 12:4-12. These are speaking in tongues, interpreting tongues, prophecy, discernment of spirits, wisdom, miracle-working, knowledge, faith, and ability to heal. The only visible and audible proof that a man has been born again and filled with the gift from the Holy Spirit is always that he speaks in a tongue or tongues. The movement does not baptize ,e,bers, but rather regard the giving of the gifts as baptism. They do not accept the Trinity, but rgard the Father as a single entity. They teach that jesus, the Son of God, was a perfect man and that God created a single sperm without sin and caused it to fertilize an ovum of Mary. They teach Jesus had no pre-existence before he was born. His birth, miracle, death, resurrection, and ascension are all accepted as spiritual truth. They teahc that when a person dies, they remain without consciousness until Jesus returns to resurrect the dead. They believe that Jesus was crucified on a stake on a Wednesday, and was raised on the Jewish Sabbath. They view the Holy Spirit when capitalized as a reference to God. In lower case, they view the holy spirit as an impersonal force that originates from God and resides within the believer. They teach that the Gospels belong to the Old testament and are useful only as background learning material. They teach that the real guidance is found in the Pauline Epistles and the book of Acts. They also teach the original Christian scriptures were written in Aramaic. They teach that Humans like all animals, are born with a body and a soul (or breath). They teach that the human spirit component was lost when Adan and Eve sinned. They hold the traditional Christian view of Pentecost. They teach that when an individual is saved, God creates a spirit to augment the individual's body and soul. Sin is viewed as a breaking of God's laws by a persons body-soul. President Martindale describes homosexuality as "devil-spirit possession." TThe followers of the movement view the organization as a tree with roots representing their physical locations. The headquarters is located at New Knoxville, Ohio; the Way College of Biblical research in Rome City, Indiana; the New Culutral Center in New Bremen, Ohio; and the Way International Fine Arts and Historical Center in Sidney, OH. The trunk represents the national organization. Limbs are the individual and provincial organizations. Branches are local groups. Twigs are home study groups, sometimes called the Abundant Live Church. leaves are the individual members. Potential members were first intorduced through a course entitled "The Power for Abundant Living." Now there are three other classes offered. A foundational class claled "Receive with Meekness", an Intermediate Class called "Retain with Conviction", and an advanced class called "Release with Boldness. The new course is only given to individuals who have attended meetings of a twig for at least one year. Graduates from the advanced class are eligible to become disciples and go on personal evangelism tours. The Way has held annual meetings of membership, called "Rock of Ages" since 1971 in New Noxville, Ohio. Members are expected to tithe, giving 10% or more of their income to the organization.
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