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The Church of Bible Understanding (first known as the Forever Family) was founded in Allentown, Pennsylvania, in 1971 by Stewart Traill (1936–2018).[1][2] It is a communal organization, teaching a form of evangelical Christianity.[3]
Traill underwent a conversion experience in the early 1970s in Allentown, joined a Pentecostal church from which he was expelled, and began teaching Bible and developing a following.[3][5] He changed the name of the "Forever Family" to the "Church of Bible Understanding" in 1976. Ex-members complained that they worked for very low wages, with all the money going to the church. The group had a communal lifestyle, with Traill maintaining that only he can understand the true meaning of the words of God. Traill encourages his group members to break off contact with their families. Over time, the members decreased in number.[6] The group has been accused of being a cult, and it has been estimated that Traill became a millionaire from it.[5Rev. Bruce Ritter of Covenant House accused The Church of Bible Understanding of enticing 17 youth out of the shelter with promises of salvation, and a state court enjoined them from housing or transporting youth under age 18 without parental permission.[5d
More about this cult can be found here: Church of Bible Understanding - Wikipedia
It is sad that so many people have and are blind to the truth. You might ask why God would allow them to be. Why doesn't he stop all the craziness?
Don't worry, there will come a time when he will do that. In the mean time, he gives us a choice to decide for ourselves who we follow. God is a gentleman. He does not force or manipulate how we live our lives.
Members of cults sometimes do escape from them, thank God. One of the members of this particular group (James LaRue) did and wrote about his experience in a book titled: CAPTIVE CONGRGEATION-THE CHURCH OF BIBLE UNDERSTANDING 14 TEARS IN A MIND CONTROL CULT
I have not yet read his book but I do plan to If you are interested in knowing more, go to: Captive Congregation - The Church of Bible Understanding | Fourteen Years in a Mind Control Cult. This book and others on this subject he has written can also be found on Amazon.
People start out with the desire to understand what they don't understand. They sometimes don't even realize that it is the true God of the bible that they are seeking, and trying to fill an empty void in their lives. It is why many go the way of drug and alcohol addiction, or chasing after the material things of this life. Others want to understand God and are easy targets for the kind of groups that get them in under fraudulent teachings to use what they can get from them.
When we diligently seek the God of the Bible, he promises that we will find him. Proverbs 8:17 But for those that are seeking some other god in a man, they will perish in the end. God does not want this. He wants no one to perish. 2 Peter 3:9.
But being the kind of man he is, he leaves that decision entirely up to us. And if we choose the wrong way, we can't stand before him some day and give him excuses. Anything less will be unacceptable to him and it will be too late for those that did not heed his warnings during their lives.
Above all Friends, that will be the saddest thing I could imagine.
Thanks for coming by today. God bless,
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