follower of Eric Wilson, abusive to single women covered by paying sums of money to support Beroean Pickets tourism trips. (page 3)

buzkid

When Eric Wilson says those who complain about being abused in his group are slandering him, he is making it all about himself and he is using gaslighting techniques which is a favorite of narcissistic personality as another post pointed out. He refuses to acknowledge how others have been harmed in his group, to the point of suicide. He has become a cult leader who only cares about himself and how much money he gets.

Journeyman

I used to watch Beroean Pickets quite regularly, and generally found Eric Wilson calm, reasonable and honest. I've not looked at his material for quite a while though, and I don't particularly intend to dive into this row either. But again, it does show the danger of putting too much trust in "mortal man in whom there is no salvation".

It's always instructive to see how someone reacts to an accusation. Recently in the UK, we've had a well-known TV personality accused of making sexual advances and offensive comments to female guests on his programme. His response was, in part, to say that his critics were all "middle-class women of a certain age" - hardly the statement of someone who is contrite or is humble in defending himself. Again, it was a dispute I hadn't followed closely and I had no personal view of the celebrity concerned either way, but hearing his choice of words in defence instantly made me suspect the accusations were fully justified.

As regards jumping from one "cult" to another, I think these words are apt:
Jesus answered: Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, 'I am the Messiah,' and will deceive many [...] and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. [...]
At that time if anyone says to you 'Look, here is the Messiah!' or 'There he is!' do not believe it. For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect."

Vanderhoven7

I like many of Eric's videos. But I notice a cultlike rigidity when he deals with the Trinity and Jesus worship.

I get the distinct feeling that he would, like JWs, exclude the possibility that Trinitarians might be Christians.

Of course many Trinitarians would return the sentiment.

I've lived in both worlds, first as a Bible Student who did not believe the Trinity, but like Pastor Russell, believed Jesus was divine and could be worshipped and prayed to. So coming to accept the Trinity did not change or influence my personal relationship with Jesus.

I never believed Jesus was a created being.

slimboyfat

others have been harmed in his group, to the point of suicide.

Really? WTH is going on? This guy was supposed to be a friend of James Penton too?

liam

others have been harmed in his group, to the point of suicide.

It's probably a little bit of both. The person who committed suicide was probably already in a deep place where she/he already was spiraling down.

And Eric Wilson was spiraling up, placing himself as God's spokesman.

All religious ideas are bad because they are based on a false premise, instead of the truth about reality.

As the sayings goes; "I rather have the hard truth about life than the comforting fantasy."

“The truth may hurt for a little while, but a lie hurts forever."

I'm sure most of us here at one time believed with all our heart that we would get to see the paradise earth without dying because we were told a comforting LIE.

But all that did was steal our only life. And when we found out it was all a COMFORTING LIE, .........That's enough for some to conjure up suicidal thoughts at one point or another.

Simon

I don't understand the need of ex jw's to get themselves so involved in these groups. After coming out of a high control group, the last thing anyone should do is get themselves involved in another group, literally from the frypan into the fire.

Shows the importance of "doing the work" after leaving Watchtower to avoid simply jumping into another cult.

A sad truth is that people who are most likely to fall for a scam and those who have fallen for scams before. If people don't learn and don't step back and evaluate their mindset to change how they think, they just end up repeating the same mistakes again. It applies in all manner of situations - investing, picking partners, and following religious leaders.

How do you know if someone isn't suitable to be a religious leader?

If they are one. It's that simple.

Beth Sarim

This is how & why critical thinking skills are essential. To avoid & prevent one's mind from succumbing & being victimized by such groups

Mike & Kim were talking about this on a video a few weeks ago. Straw man arguments are what draws people into the Borg.

liam

I found this post on reddit. It explains very well why people like Eric Wilson take it upon themselves to be a Spokesman for God. And what happens when people follow "Humans" who claim to speak for God.

If any lesson is to be learn from the story of Moses, is that a Creator of the entire Universe and all life in it, would NEVER use a Human to relay his message to other Humans.

Post from reddit

Anyone find the story of Moses disappearing into the Mountain for 40 days and 40 nights a little bit off?

Here is this God, that supposedly created the entire Universe with trillions of galaxies and solar systems, who tells Moses that He will speak to him in a Thick Cloud so that the Israelites know that God is using him to speak to them.

What the Hell. Why didn’t Jehovah just talk to them all directly and avoid having to slaughter 3,000 of them for miscommunication?

So Jehovah has Moses, an 80 year old man at this point in his life, climb Mt. Sinai which was about 7497 ft high, so as to receive a message that he can relay to the Israelites. Imagine an 80 year old man doing such a thing. So Moses climbs up the mountain and gets the message, and down the mountain he goes to tell the Israelites what the message is.

The Israelites respond and up the mountain goes Moses to tell Jehovah what they said.

In one verse it tells us that it took Moses 6 days to make the ascent up the mountain, then he had to wait 40 days and 40 nights for the two stone tablets plus some other instructions. And on the way down Moses gets angry and breaks the tablets.

So up the mountain he goes again to get a copy of the two tablets with the 10 commandments.

And this back and forth goes on for about eight times.

And here is why this story is ridiculous.

Would the Creator of the entire freaking Universe actually work this way? God knows everything. Hell just send an Email to everyone. Or talk to everyone at the same time.

The poor people did what humans normally do, they thought the 80 year old man died in the Mountain since there was no communication for 40 days and 40 nights. So they made a calf thinking that maybe Jehovah was a calf. Who knows what they were thinking in such a desperate situation. They were in the wilderness with no food or water, so they had to do something. And Jehovah killed some three thousand of them without considering how humans react in desperate situations.

This is not a God of Understanding, Compassion, and Love. He wanted to wipe them all out but Moses intervene.

It seems like whoever wrote this story of Moses was trying to establish the idea that God uses certain MEN TO SPEAK FOR HIM. Maybe the writer wanted that position, as God’s Spokesman.

And as a result of this story, THE IDEA OF RELIGIOUS LEADERS AS SPOKESMEN FOR GOD WAS BORN!

The Governing Body, the Catholic Pope, Jim Jones, and any human that takes it upon himself to speak for God is the result of this story of Moses…...The Spokesman of Jehovah.

Anna Marina

When I left the Jdubs my only friend (briefly) was Raymond Franz. But he was old and not well, so it was impossible to stay in touch. Time passed. Then a website called Discuss The Truth opened up. It was run by Apollos. He had a moderator called Meleti Vivlon, aka Eric. They both had different approaches on how to moderate.

Apollos was tolerant and allowed people great freedom to say what they wanted. The problem is if you let anyone say anything, then valuable comments get hidden beneath rubbish comments. Also you get people who are there to cause arguments and try to stumble you into one so that you lose it mentally.

Eric was more of a defender. His control was tighter but to some extent it stifled freedom of speech and spontaneity. But, let’s face it, if you set up a website, you are going to have your view and support it and be friendlier toward people who share your view. Its just the same on this website. This is Simon’s territory, we are just guests.

A little background that may not be general knowledge – I knew Eric’s first wife Reta. I liked her a lot.

I left the Jdubs before Apollos, Eric and Reta left. But of their group, Apollos was the first to wake up. He realized that there was something wrong with the date and months to do with 1914. He shared this information with Reta who promptly saw through Watchtower’s lies. It took Eric longer and Reta had to handle matters carefully because Eric was an elder and had firm views. However, in the end he listened to her and both of them left the Watchtower.

Beth Sarim

Hello Anna.

Great seeing you on the forum again !

follower of Eric Wilson, abusive to single women covered by paying sums of money to support Beroean Pickets tourism trips.

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