You've probably seen one of the bad infomercials, an unseen "host" confronts people (usually students) on the street and employing a standard shallow patter, tricks the victim into admitting that they are a lying, stealing, blaspheming SOB who deserves to burn forever in unending torment. BANG! Another unwashed heathen slug ready to be saved. Bring on a whole lot of weeping, and another satisfied customer with a fast-food conversion.

They have named this slightly sleazy method: "The Way of the Master," with the "Master" allegedly being Jesus. I don't think that the tricksters running this scam actually ever come out and claim that Jesus employed similar tricks to "save" people, or that He ran around with a video camera and embarrassed the people with the "reality-cam" stuck in their face into "gittin' saved!" or that Jesus ever told people that they were going to hell because they broke the law but if they said a quick and easy blurb then not only would they NOT go to hell but that they also wouldn't have to keep the law (in other words, now they can break it impudently without any fear of consequences); the infomercial carnival barkers may never quite claim that Jesus did all this, but that IS the premise in their "ministry," in the very name of their "ministry."

These great showmen take a snippet from one of Jesus' parables, about the seeds falling here and there, and one guy receives his salvation with happiness but then when troubles come he falls away, and they claim this, above everything else, provides the foundation for their infomercial. Their pyramid cap they get from Matthew 13:20-21 -- but for context you must read the entirety of Chapter 13, wherein Jesus talks about those who receive the truth, and those who reject it; those who understand, and those who do not understand.

The deceivers pick out this snippet:

But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it; Yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended.

 The tricky little "doctrine" they base their entire ministry upon is that if you receive the Good News and are happy, buddy, it ain't gonna last. The Secret is to be sad and then receive the Good News.

Pretty much, their whole shebang is about that stupid (as in antilogic) (understand, there is nothing wrong with the Scripture, it is the twisting of the Scripture that produces the abomination). That petty. That pathetic. And the fact is, in their context, Jesus absolutely never taught it. So you have to ask yourself, WHAT Master are they serving, WHAT Master is the "way" they proclaim? If not Jesus? It is the "another jesus" that the New Testament talks about. That same ole guy.

But people are stupid enough to keep sending in their money. 

Read Chapter 13, however, and you find no such "doctrine." Jesus presents what happens when you scatter seed upon the soils, how some react to it, and how some choose NOT to react to it. Obvious in it all is the free will choice of how the person accepts or does not accept, and those who fully accept yet later reject, and those that might reject and yet later accept. Pretty much, wholistically, it is what the Bible teaches from Genesis through Revelation, Jesus really did have a knack for doing that -- but these guys would rather pluck a tiny seed right out of a parable, and use it like the very tip of a pyramid, and they flip this tip over, jam it down into the dirt, then start building their very own new and improved "Way of the Master" brick by brick on top of the tiny seed.

What a country. What a creed.

Suckers born every second.

Squeeze 'em till they bleed. 

Jesus presents absolutely no such "method." What you CAN get from Chapter 13 is that "The Way of the Master" (e.g., Jesus, not child sitcom stars) is to tell parables, and without a parable He did not speak. The True Way of the Master is to tell the Truth in Parables, NOT to make people sad in order to "gittem saved!" Tell the TRUTH, not a new and improved TRUHT. Yet, in a few small ways, "truht" is pretty close to "truth," don't you think? Is that good enough for you (probably if you have already sent them money, it will be good enough for you, that is the way most cults work today)?

A rule of thumb about bad ministries and very bad ministries is in their handling of the Law of God. Most of the bad "ministries" shout that "law is bad and grace is good" -- steer clear of these simple, deviant rubes. But this "Way" cultic infomercial actually offers a way around God's Laws. Use our "Master-approved" system and you don't have to obey God anymore, you got yer fire-proof suit! Turn to someone and say idiocy is good.

It's one of the worst, and most deceptive.

Jesus talks MUCH about those who "work iniquity." And "iniquity" means "lawlessness." They, the teachers of lawlessness, are considered the least in the Kingdom of God, the very least in the Kingdom of Heaven.

If your "group" preaches about The Ten Commandments and yet doesn't keep the TEN Commandments, flee from them, get away from them, don't go out and see them, not only do they have something to sell you, but they also have something to steal from you. And they sure are busy little bees in stealing away the honey of God, they keep the truth from you, that the Law of God is sweeter than honey. And they have something else to steal from you, something major, something that is your choice to hand over to them and their true master, their master of truht.

Your soul. 

WHAT IS THE TRUTH?