| Author | Message | ||
     Anonymous |
As a child growing up in a professing home, I hated for someone to bring up the topic of religion. I felt my church (Truth) was right and others were wrong. Yet I felt stupid trying to explain this to others. I mean how do you mention this? Yet I believed this to be true and felt that the outsiders/unprofessing people should know about this. | ||
| Anonymous |
For years, I felt guilty because I never talked to anyone about my religious beliefs. And I knew I should be a good example in school or at work. I never brought anyone to gospel meetings because I didn't know how to approach the subject of religion. I even lied that I didn't attend any church. I always wanted to do more for "the kingdom". But I could never talk religion and would try to change the subject if the topic came up! | ||
| Anonymous |
Sometimes a worldly person could come up to me and say "What church do you belong to"? Or "what is the name of your church?" I despised this question. I wanted to run and hide. I even formed a dislike for people who loved to ask "religious questions". For a professing person, explaining that their church has no name (yet many unofficial names) is difficult. The name thing is a pain in the butt to any professing person. | ||
| Anonymous |
When someone asks a worker or friend for the name of their church, there is a pause and then something like "we don't take a name". Or Non-deniminational Christian Church. Or "New Testiment ministry". Different answers from different people. No consistent name which has baffled those who monitor sects and cults. | ||
| Anonymous |
Professing women stand out because of their dresses and hair on their head "in a bun". Yet when some unprofessing person asks them the NAME of their church, they stammer and have panic attacks. | ||
| Anonymous |
Some friends and workers say "Jesus never took a name and His followers never took a name". This is a way of dodging the question and making the person asking the question look stupid. | ||
| Anonymous |
The Truth has NO NAME and YET many names. Dozens if not hundreds of names. Workers have registered under many names. Some use the biblical passage in Genesis 11 about the tower of Babel when the children of men said "Let us take a name".. | ||
| Anonymous |
Some professing people argue that LOVE keeps the Truth alive. And how worldly churches or false churches have to have a NAME to keep their organization together. | ||
| Anonymous |
The head worker of North Carolina tells the friends not to tell outsiders that "we don't have a name". He said to tell them we attend the "Non-Denominational Christian Church". Now in the days of cult monitoring, the workers have to be more careful about saying something that might sound suspicious. | ||
| Anonymous |
Doug and Helen Parker wrote a book titled "The Secret Sect" about "the truth" way. Doug was going to go out into the work but Aussie head worker John Hardie wouldn't allow him to go into the work. | ||
| Anonymous |
Just a few "unofficial names" for The Truth: Cooneyites, True Wayers, Bunheads, Friendlies, Reidites, People of God, The Lord's people, Sheep, Little Lights, Jesus Wayers, Undenominational Christians, Way, The Elect, The Truth, The Testimony, The Jesus Way, The Friends, Meetings, Black Stocking Sect, Black Stockings, 2X2s, Two by Twos, Carrollites, Christian Church of America, Christian Church of Australia, Cooneyites, Damnation Army, Faith Missioners, Go-Preachers, Irvinites, Les Anonymes, Die Namenlosen, New Testament Church, No-Secters, Non-Denominational Church of America, Pilgrims, Tramps | ||
| Anonymous |
not having a name is a sense of pride among those professing! Proud of being different from "the religious world"! | ||
| Anonymous |
The lack of a consistent name has kept the Truth from getting much media scrutiny! | ||
| Pattie |
I am so thankful for finding this website, to know that i am not alone in my thinking. I am diffrent however in how I feel about the "Truth","Way","Friends" what ever we are used to calling them. I was raised in this Faith for forty two years and have just now stoped going. My heart is still there even if i know that a few of the teachings are wrong. So many of us that have left have done so and have almost built up a hate for what we have been tought. I feel that maybe its Our Fathers way of making changes. Things that only change if there are a few soft sopken, gentle people who are willing to make a stand. My hair has always been no longer then my sholders. I paid good money to make my hair look like the friends. Buying my hair already made into a pug, Once even losing it in a store parking lot. One sunday morning a young woman came into Meeting with her hair down, I was so please, i started to wear mine down also, only to find myself judged by the way I wore my hair and by how short I had cut it! Cut it? I didnt cut my hair, I have pictures on myself when I was 17 and my hair is the same. I have had such a strong revelation about this, all on my own. No Books to take me astray, No poor example to follow, no website to blame it on. Just a true love for mankind and dear friends outside the faith. My question is, Was this given to us by God? Is it our duty to set the example? I dont think that meny of us has lost the love for God and Jesus, or for what he did for us. We still have a Shephard but most of us find ourselves without a flock. | ||
| Anonymous |
I wished the workers could settle on a consistent name and write down their doctrine but to them "that would make them like the lost "religious world". | ||
| me2 |
Workers refuse to believe that their "Truth" could be an organized religion with a hierarchy or chain of command. They say it is a fellowship. A way of life. The truth of God or "the kingdom". But they deny that "The Truth" could be a religion or sect. They claim that it is hidden in the world but once people are willing to give up their way of thinking, they can possess the greatest treasure on earth-GOD'S TRUE WAY leading to everlasting life. | ||
| Anonymous |
Workers often tell "outsiders" the following: "We as God's people don't take a name because Jesus didn't take a name". And "the religious world (Pharisees and Saducees) took a name but the followers of Jesus didn't take a name". Charles Steffen told the Albany NY paper that we take the "greatest name" the "name of our Father". I think the no conistent name has confused sociologists and enabled the workers to recieve less media scrutiny. | ||
| Anonymous |
Workers are becoming more secretive fearing worker lists, speaking lists, convention/special meeting lists and address lists fall into wrong hands or "enemies of truth". Notes from convention or other meetings are NOT TO BE PASSED AROUND! What are the workers hiding? Why be so secretive? Why be so paranoid about "outsiders" learning more about the fellowship meetings. | ||
| Anonymous |
The work is a secretive ministry. The information filters from the top (regional head workers) down to the peon professing masses. And last of all, unprofessing people aren't supposed to know ANYTHING about the inner workings of "the work". Workers had a big worker's meeting at Carsonville MI in 1993 at the Jim Klaty farm. All workers had a brief part in this meeting and a photo of the meeting was passed around to the friends. But the secretive regional head worker meetings where "business of the kingdom is discussed" are secret and only attended by high profile workers. | ||
| Anonymous |
Workers often feel superior to the saints. And the saints/professing people often feel inferior to the workers because of the "sacrifices of the workers". Workers often preach about sacrifice. Some say "the world thinks the life of a child of God is sacrifice but to God's people, it is a privilege. It is taboo to think a worker could be wrong about something they say in meetings. When a worker speaks in meeting, he or she is said to be the voice of heaven. | ||
| Anonymous |
Workers love to bash denominational churches for "taking a name". Some of them point to Genesis 11 and the construction of the Tower of Babel as the beginning of false churches taking a name. Taylor Wood told the friends in USA to say that they are "Non-Denominational Christians". Often in obituaries of "the friends" you will notice the name of their church being "Non-Denominational Christian Church". | ||
| Anonymous |
For some professing people in the "Truth", having no name is a source of pride! Or at least a source of satisfaction claiming to only take the name of Jesus. Another way the workers have of making distinctions between themselves and the "religious world". If the professing friends and workers would take a consistent name, they wouldn't be called so many different names by so called "outsiders". Some workers state in meetings that the worldly ways have to have a NAME to keep them together but "God's way is held together by divine love". | ||
| Anonymous |
Early workers were wise to avoid taking a name. In a way some professing people considered the lack of a name as an act of humility. A nameless sect with no official name (or known official name) avoids the scrutiny that the JWS, Mormons, and Brethern groups have endured. I think the lack of a name has caused many born and raised professing people to think God started their fellowship instead of the Irish workers circa 1900! Some professing people love to speak about the thousands of denominational churches out there and yet "God's way" doesn't take a name or creed. | ||
| Anonymous |
What to call this nameless sect is a problem for professing people and outsiders (those not a part of their group) alike. Some workers say "We don't take a name because Jesus didn't take a name". Or "The New Testiment Church didn't take a name". Or "man likes to give his ways a name because Jesus isn't in it". You see professing people feel their "truth" is more than just a creed or religion. It is the only true way that Jesus established on the earth and His Servants are still bringing this way to "lost souls"! | ||
| Anonymous |
When people ask me what religion I was raised in, I simply refer to it as "the cult." If I have further questions, I explain to them the various names, and the multiple forms of ignorance that exist. My mother just recently passed, and she professed until the day she died. I respect her beliefs, and had people from "the truth" sing at the funeral. However, to this day, it is difficult for me to be around any of them. | ||
| Anonymous |
I find the older ones to be very exclusive and strict in their thinking. They cannot fathom salvation outside the sect. They realize that there are good people in other churches but consider these good Christians to be just as lost as anyone else. Only through attending their church, taking part, and respecting the authority of the workers can you have a chance of being saved. The professing people don't even know if they are saved or not! | ||
| Anonymous |
Taylor Wood once asked the friends at a convention to not tell outsiders that "we don't have a name". He said to tell them that we are "Non-Denominational Christians". With all due respect to Taylor Wood, head worker of North Carolina, I don't hear the workers calling "the truth" by this name when they aren't around unprofessing outsiders!! In newspapers, professing obituaries are labeled "undenominational church", Non-Denominational Church and sometimes "Non-Denominational Christian Church". Again no name and yet so many different names. All of this name confusion does keep this group from much negative media scrutiny! | ||
| Anonymous |
Friends love to say that love holds them together instead of a denominational name or creed.You see they like to make their little church seem mysterious! It isn't a denomination. They see their little meetings as the true way Jesus established. As a professing man in Michigan said in his testimony, "we aren't a denomination, we are a way of life". "If we were a denomination, we would be no different than the religious world". | ||
| Anonymous |
I understand why the workers think their "truth way" shouldn't take a name. But why get so lifted up because your church don't have a name and other churches take a name!! Yet because the friends and workers see taking a name as such a sin, worldlings have given their nameless fellowship so many names. Workers often say that "Jesus and his followers in the bible never took a name". Workers discuss the difficulty of telling unprofessing people why we "don't take a name". Workers also say that divine love holds the friends together instead of an organizational name or creed. You might think : A small band of people meeting in a home without a name would seem like a humble group of people!! Think again: Professing people take so much PRIDE in belonging to the only true church which meets in a home and doesn't take a name. | ||
| Anonymous |
Workers take pride in the fact that their nameless meetings called "The Truth" has 3 things: 1. meetings in the home 2. workers (preachers) who don't maintain a home and live with the members/friends 3. lack of a consistent name Workers stress the top 3 things above other things in the bible. That is why the ministers often abuse the members and the professing people feel they cannot stand up to the workers!! Professing people are so spiritually dependent upon the workers! When workers make their distinctions between "The Truth", "God's way" or whatever they call their nameless house church, friends feel they are in the only true church. Some feel that other churches are wrong because of the name, collection plate, ministers maintaining homes and other things. Yet "truth" goes by so many names that it is hard to research the "truth" of the workers and friends!! | ||
| Anonymous |
Actually the original Irish workers around the turn of the century were smart to avoid a consistent name for their group. The lack of a name has allowed the "Truth" group to operate with minimal exposure. Thus truth/2x2s/no name church can be secretive and low profile. When some worker E Mails an account of "the gospe" in some foreign land, professing people are encouraged not to make copies or spread the information around. This is a secretive and clandestine organization. Workers keep much information secretive from the friends. Many of their beliefs are secretive until one has professed for awhile and deemed worthy to have an open home for God's servants. Workers don't want some TV station or newspaper writing about this group of people who feels they alone are "God's true chosen people." | ||
| Anonymous |
Workers don't want the friends passing notes of meetings or conventions around fearing these notes might end up in "wrong hands". Workers fear that former "enemies of truth" who are bitter and unwilling for the lowly way of sacrifice might write bad things about the "people of God". Only members of their little church as true "people of God" and there is mistrust toward non-members. When a worker is confronted by a newspaper or television reporter, they usually decline to participate. When the workers or friends do participate, they conceal many of the group's beliefs such as the only way doctrine, requirement that women wear dresses and don't trim their hair, television ban in a professing home, esteemed status of the workers because they give up their homes etc.. Workers love to show much friendliness to first time visitors at their gospel meetings. But once one professes, there are certain expectations or "standards" that are required. You must be WILLING to fit in and fill your place in the "kingdom". Much is mentioned about self denial, giving up worldliness, making changes, upholding the standard, living the life of Jesus before outsiders, avoiding worldly friends and avoiding television. Shunning and spying to the workers may occur in order to encourage conformity to these unwritten and inconsistent rules or standards. | ||
| see |
What a lonely looking lot you are. | ||
| Anonymous |
Some professing people believe that it is divine love that holds the "truth" religion (they call it God's way or God's kingdom) together. Workers love to mock religious groups for splitting up. The workers love to say that their religion has continued since the days of Jesus. The friends do have love for one another especially toward those who uphold their standard! Several things has kept this invisible sect alive for 107 years! Fear of a lost eternity, family ties among members, pride in belonging to God's only way on earth, limited interactions with unprofessing people and other things has kept this "truth" alive on the earth. But with the internet, professing people have more exposure to testimonies of former members that the workers used to brand as "enemies of truth". Most professing people grew up in a professing home. It is rare for people born into another religious group (especially a larger mainstream religion) to profess this faith. The secrecy and low profile nature of the sect has kept the way hidden from non-members. Some professing people feel that the workers are humble and not seeking to draw attention to themselves unlike the worldly churches. Despite declining numbers, there are still many Sunday morning meetings in homes and annual conventions on earth today. Something has held the truth together. Professing people continue to promote the notion that they are "God's family on earth". | ||
| Anonymous |
The Truth seems so strange to non-members but friends and workers often have a smug comment that "outsiders are blind to the peace and joy we have in God's way." Satan is believed to have blinded non-members from seeing the "truth" as the only right way. Workers often comment about how outsiders "don't understand why God's people don't take a name". Then the worker will reply that "love holds this way together and not a denominational name". You cannot argue with the friends and workers. They are so sure that their way is right but so insecure about their own state of grace. They take pride in no name since they alone are the only true way on the earth. They believe the form of their ministry is closest to the New Testament so they use that as a way to control various aspects of the friend's lives. | ||
| Anonymous |
Looking and acting different from those in the "world" is strongly encouraged by the workers! Workers do little advertising for their "meetings' and hope that the simple and strict lifestyle of the "friends and workers" will attract "outsiders" (or non-members) to their true way of Jesus! Professing folks believe that either you belong to their church or you won't be saved but they don't want to run you off before you discover the peace and joy that they have in their fellowship! | ||
| Anonymous (157.89.46.110) |
Professing people have a difficulty explaining that their religion doesn't have a name! And that it is the only true way on the earth. And that other religions are of satan! Confusing for a kid to explain his religion in this no name church! | ||
| vicki (216.104.78.166) |
You always hoped no one would ask you what church you went to..as a child....I would pretend I didnt belong to a church dare I have to answer that question!!!!!!!!!!!!! | ||
| Anonymous (157.89.46.110) |
They don't have a name because: 1. Their founder was kicked out by the head workers under him for false doctrine. 2. They claim Jesus' followers never took the name of any organization. 3. They want to be different from the "religious world". 4. They want to be low profile and secretive. They don't want any published lists of conventions/workers/bible studies getting into the hands of the media or published in a periodical. | ||
| vicki (216.104.73.149) |
As a Child I did not know that this church has tons of names...........hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Oh well after xanax I can rest from guilt and obsessive compulsive disorder..along with other meds to dull the mind of knowing I WAS going to HELL. I now believe that I have accepted Jesus and through his GRACE... not all those WORKS that my family trys to keep up with. | ||
| Vicki (216.104.73.149) |
NO I KNOW I accepted Jesus!!!!!!!!!!! Typo error or the Devil having his way at my mistake of words  | ||
| Anonymous (209.27.62.170) |
"Loved with Love as strong as death, I am HIS FOREVER" I'm from the Caribbean,have been born and raised as a believer. I've read many negative impressions regarding "The Truth", unfortunately, I've not had any of your embittered experiences, I think that it is unfortunate that you've become so embroiled in bitterness, that the positive meaning of Serving God in this lowly way has been completely eroded. Perhaps had the workers you were exposed to been a little more sensitive and caring, your focus would have been more on trying to know JESUS rather than understanding why they are the way they are... it's so unfortunate, because it's really the "the way of righteousness and peace". The workers are human and will make blunders sometimes... but one has got to look beyond that, after all they are mere mortals in feet of clay ..... | ||
| Anonymous (209.27.62.170) |
Dear Vicki, I hope you're keeping well and finding deeper and fuller meaning to life... Your friend..... | ||
| Anonymous (157.89.46.110) |
it is unfortunate that you've become so embroiled in bitterness, that the positive meaning of Serving God in this lowly way has been completely.---------------------------------------------------------- In the Caribbean, workers and friends may be lowly. But in the Eastern US (Taylor Wood region), I see plenty of spiritual snobbery! They feel better than the "religious world" they often mock in meetings. They are soooo proud to know God's only true religion. | ||
| Vicki (63.135.202.141) |
Apparently the workers and the friends have had a different TRUTH in the USA, than those of other nations. Believing in the TRUTH as in the 2x2 way was very negative and doom and gloom, not much freedom from the fear the workers instilled in the believers. Definte layers in the cult from the worshipped workers to the levels of respect one iis given. Lots of shunning when the one that was lavished a year ago starts asking questions. Thank you for asking, I'm doing well and the meaning of life gets clearer all the time. | ||
| sojourner_truth_2005 (sojourner_truth_2005) New member Username: sojourner_truth_2005 Post Number: 3 Registered: 3-2005 Posted From: 24.195.250.1 |
Yes, I think it is a matter of pride or smugness that they point to the so-called faults of the "worldly " churches, totally disregarding the "log" that's in their own eyes. It took me years to enter a "worldly" church but when I did I realized even more how much I had been lied to. The Spirit of God is not limited to those in the "Truth," not by a long shot. I feel very grateful to know this God-fearing people, and I'm talking about the Baptists. |
