
                                            THE WAY INTERNATIONAL 
                                                   CRITIQUE SHEET

A Pubulication of Apologetic Research Coalition



    INCORPORATED NAME: The Way International, Inc. 
   COMMON DESCRIPTORS: The Way, Way Corps, WOW Ambassadors
              FOUNDER: Victor Paul Wierwille (d. 20 May,1985)
    CURRENT PRESIDENT: B. Craig Martindale
           MEMBERSHIP: 110,000
         DISTRIBUTION: U.S., U.K., Australia, South America
         HEADQUARTERS: New Knoxville, OH
          PERIODICALS: The Way Magazine (bi-monthly) 
           TV & RADIO: None (PFAL course is on films) 
            PUBLISHER: American Christian Press
EDUCATION INSTITUTION:Emporia, KA; Rome City, IN

                           HISTORY
     Victor Paul Wierwille, founder of The Way Intemational, was
     born in the kitchen of the family farm house on 31 December,
     1916. In school he was a "C" student and even flunked out of
     the 11th grade.  After high school he received a Bachelor's
     degree from Mission House Seminary (now defunct).  In 1941 he
     was granted a Master's degree in "Practical Theology" (no
     Greek or Hebrew studies included).  Wierwille's "Doctor's"
     degree was issued from Pikes Peak Bible Seminary which is a
     degree mill.  Furthermore, Wierwille claimed to have taken
     every correspondence course offered by Moody Bible Institute.
     However, Moody Bibie Institute has absolutely no record of Wi-
     erwille having completed a single course.  Still more serious,
     Wierwille's scholarship is seriously undermined since he
     incorporated many large blocks of direct quotations from
     others' works without attributing credit to them (some would
     call this plagiarism).  In 1942, after a year as a pastor,
     Wierwille came to a spiritual crisis provoking him to throw
     out his entire 3,000-volume theological library.  He was
     determined to study only the Bible and pursue the power of the
     Holy Spirit. Although his "healing ministry" began in the mid-
     1940's, it was not until November of 1950 that Wierwille
     actually spoke in tongues.  During the following three years
     Wierwille developed his "Power for Abundant Living" course. 
     In 1957 Wierwille was asked to resign from the Evangelical &
     Reformed Church. Upon resigning in May of 1958, he founded a
     "Biblical Research Center" on the 147-acre famiiy farm in New
     Knoxville, OH, calling it "The Way." The Way did not
     experience significant growth until 1968, when Wierwille
     filmed his "Power for Abundant Living" course and proselytized
     a couple of new-born Christians from the burgeoning "Jesus
     Movement." With the newly filmed PPAL course and a couple of
     dedicated converts, Wierwille parlayed his small, rag-tag
     group into a new religious force numbering over 110,000 in 61
     countries.  Since 1974 they have opened two training schools
     (Emporia, KA: Rome City, IN). This pseudo-Jesus Movement even
     has it's own "Rock of Ages" festival featuring Way rock bands
     like Takit and Good Seed . The government of the Way is highly
     centralized.  Wierwille himself likened it to a tree (root,
     trunk, limb, branch, twig), with the "twig" as the local
     "church.  "The informal "twig" meetings may occur several
     times a week and are conducted in a home wiM singing, praying
     and listening to Wierwille's tapes.  The Way's missionies,
     "W.O.W.  Ambassadors" (Word Over Me World), support themselves
     with part-time jobs.  While the Way's financial 'cords are
     closed, there is no doubt that they have taken in millions of
     dollars since they own both a publishing concern and a record
     company in addition to all the courses they  offer.  [The PFAL
     course alone has ranged from $20(1953) to $200(1980)
     back to $40 (1985).]

                       BELIEF SYSTEMS

     REVELATlON:  Way dogma rests entirely upon Wierwillie's inter-
     station of the Bible. His authority is carefully shaped,
     controlled and preserved.  While taking "the Doctor's" PFAL
     course you are not allowed to ask questions or take notes. 
     Whereas one cannot question Wierwille's interpretations, it is
     brought to light that Way members believe he spoke with
     supreme and enfallible authority.  His interpretations are
     elevated virtually the level of scripture itself since
     Wierwille claimed that God gave him a special revelation
     which conferred authority on him not known since the first
     century:

          "And that's when He [Godl spoke to me audibly, just like
          I'm talking to you now.  He said He would teach me Me
          Word as it had not been kno# since the first century if
          I would each it to others."

     Wierwille claimed that the New Testament was originally
     written Syrian Aramaic. moreover, Wierwille deified the
     Christian scriptures when he proclaimed "The Word is as much
     God as God is God."

     GODHEAD: Wierwille rejected the Biblical view of one God
     existing in three persons.  He argued that the word "Trinity"
     not in the Bible and that it was instituted at the Council of
     Nicaea (325 AD). By contrast, the Way teaches that God is
     Holy" and God is "Spirit, "therefore God is the "Holy Spirit"
     (capital 'H' and 'S').

     CHRlSTOLOGY: Like the Jehovah's Witnesses, the Way
     International adamantly rejects the deity of Jesus Christ.
     Wierwille maintained that the Bible calls Jesus "Son of God"
     50 times while calling Him "God" only 4 times.  Therefore, 50
     to 4, Jesus cannot be God. He also taught that the early 

     church did not believe that Jesus was God. Instead, Wierwille
     asserted that Jesus existed only in God's foreknowledg before
     Bethlehem. Wierwille also rejected the virgin birth of Jesus
     Christ, holding at Mary was a virgin only at the conception of
     Jesus. 

     ATONEMENT: Originally, according to Wierwille, God deeded the
     earth to Adam. At this time man (Adam) was a whole person, 
     body, soul and spirit.  Supposedly, he was to receive
     instructions on ruling creation through his spirit.  But when
     Adam fell, man lost his spirit.  Therefore, Adam deeded the
     earth over to Satan, all very legal.  Now, another complete
     man was required to legally win back the deed to the earth.
     Enter Jesus Christ, who was created with supenatural sperm
     placed in Mary. Although He had no sin (sin is passed on
     through the blood), Jesus was still not a complete man for he
     lacked the requisite human "holy spirit'(notice small case 'h'
     and 's' refers to the gift).  Jesus received His human "holy
     spirit" at His baptism from the "Holy Spirit" (notice capital
     case 'H' and 'S' refers to God). At this time Jesus became
     the only complete man (body, soul and spirit) since Adam.
     After he ascended he imparted the gift of the human "holy
     spirit"(small case 'h' and 's') to the people in the upper
     room. Now they became complete and eternal: they were 'body,
     soul and spirit.' This was evident from their exhibiting one
     of the nine manifestations of the "holy spirit" gift -
     speaking in tongues.  And when we accept what Jesus did for us
     on the cross we too receive our human "holy spirit" (we are
     'born again'), which also is exhibited by speaking in tongues. 
     As a consequence of receiving our 'holy spirit' we are
     entitled to perfect health, success in everything we do and
     eternal life.


                       CHRISTIAN RESPONSE

     REVELATION: It must be underscored that Wierwille's claim to
     a "woo-woo" revelation from God does not confer any special
     authority on him.  God's word declares that scripture is not
     of any private interpretation (II Pet 1:20), including Mr.
     Wierwille's. Weierwille's pontification, "the Word says what
     it means and means what it says," exemplifies his overly
     simplistic approach to scripture.  It is absolutely necessary
     in extracting the meaning of any text to take into
     consideration the language, history and cultural context in
     which the text was written.  Dr. Edwin Yamauchi, in his paper
     entitled "Creek, Hebrew, Aramaic, or Syriac?" utterly refuted
     Lamsa's belief (which was Wierwille's authority source) that
     the New Testammt was originally written in Syrian Aramaic,
     since the Syrian form of Aramaic did not evolve until the
     third century.  Jesus spoke "Palestinian" Aramaic, if any. 
     But most certainly the New Testament autographs were penned in
     Greek!

     Jesus would renounce Wierwille's view that the Scripture is
     "God just as much as God is God." Jesus proclaimed that you
     "Search the scriptures: for in them ye think ye have eternal
     life: and they are they which testify of me" (John 5:39).
     There is no life in the scriptures!  They are not God and do
     not have life in themselves!  The Father has life in Himself
     (John 5:26), the Son is the bread of life (John 6:33) and the
     scriptures testify of the one who has life (John 5:39).

     GODHEAD: While it is quite due that the word "Trinity" does
     not occur in the Bible, that does not mean that the idea which
     the term "Trinity" represents is also absent.  The word "Trin-
     ity" is simply a technical term used as a short-hand notation
     to refer to the God of the Christian scriptures.  To attack
     the technical term of a particular Biblical concept is not to
     address the concept itself.  This persuasion technique
     employed by Wierwille is common to many forms of propaganda
     referred to as the "straw-man" technique.  Without using the
     technical term "Trinity," we see that in the Biblical view
     there is only one God (Deut.6:4). Further, there three who are
     identified as God: the Father (l Pet. 1:2), the Son (Hebrews
     1:1-12) and Me Holy Spirit (Acts 5:3,4). However, must also
     remember that the Father is not the Son (John 17:5), the Son
     is not the Holy Spirit (John 16:7) and the Holy Spirit is not
     the Father (luke 3:22).  Wierwille's view that the "Trinity,
     was instituted at Nicaea in 325 AD is a total
     misreresentation.  In fact, Wierville's lack of scholarship is
     pointed the facts that he thought that the Council of Nicaea
     was in Nice, France (Nicaea was in Turkey) and that the
     majority of the bishops were from the the West (in fact
     "Occident" means East).  Over one hundred years before the
     Council, Tertullian, one of the great defenders of the faith,
     clearly enunciated a Biblical trinitarian view of God. There
     is absoulutely no Biblical reason for Wierwille's division
     between "Holy Spirit," (denoted by capital 'H' and 'S') and
     the 'holy spirit" (denoted by small case 'h' and 's'). This is
     a fictional invention on Wierville's behalf. 

     CHRISTOLOGY: The argument forwarded by Wiereille that Jesus 
     cannot be God because he is called the "son of God" more than
     "God" is extremely simplistic (to be kind).  If this reasoning
     were employed throughout scripture, Jesus could not be the
     "son of God" either because He is called the of "son of Man"
     even more times (88).  To the shock of any historian,
     Wierwille claimed that the early church did not believe Jesus
     was God. In fact, Polycarp, a disciple of John the apostle,
     adamantly taught the deity of Jesus, as did Irenaeus'  Wartyr, 
     Justin Martyr, and Clement. A cursory study of the Christian 
     scriptures reveals that the Word declares Jesus is, 'God
     mamifest in the flesh" (l Tim.3:16: John 1:1:John 5:38: Heb.
     1:1-2; John 8:58; John 20:28: etc.).  EvidenUy, in studying
     the virgin birth, which he rejected, Wierville must have
     passed over Mat 1:25 - "And [Joseph] knew her not till she had

     brought forth her firstborn son: and he called his name
     Jesus."

     ATONEMENT: Wierwille taught that man does not have a "spriti"
     until salvation after Pentecost. The Bible disagrees:

          Job 32:8 - "But it is the spirit in a man, the breath of
          the Almighty, that gives him understanding." Psalm 32:2
          - "Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord does not count
          against him and in whose spirit is no deceit." Ecc. 12:7 
          -"... and the dust returns to the ground it came from,
          and the spirit returns to God who gave it." Luke 1:47 -
          ". my spirit rejoices in God my Savior..."...
          John 20:21,22 - "Again Jesus said, 'Peace be with you! 
          As the father has sent me, I am sending you.' And with
          that He breathed on them and said, 'Receive the Holly
          spirit.'''

                                                                 
Jesus gave his disciples the "Holy Spirit" (the person!, capital
letters) before the day of Pentecost! In reality, Wierwille's 
entire "spirit" scheme, "Adam lost it-Jesus found it-Jesus gave
back," is pure fantasy. It is not enunciated anywhere in scripture
It is merely a speculative model constructed in Wierwille's mind to
justify his preconceived conclusions.  Clearly, Mr. Wierwille did
not "rightly divide the Word."
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