Old Doctrines, New Light - an internet book

Although I welcome feedback, I have received a fair amount of strange and somewhat bizarre emails in over 10 years of this web site's presence on the Internet and, therefore, I had best give some indication of the sort of feedback that I do not welcome.

I don't wish to receive large emails espousing a particular point of either agreement or disagreement that you expect me to read unless I agree beforehand that I would like to receive it. A quick email telling me the text length along with the content and purpose of the email is sufficient as a starter and I can always get back to you if I want further information. When I receive extensive emails, I read the first paragraph or two and then delete them.

Please don't ask me a question if you already have an idea of the answer - there's no point in wasting either my own time or your own.

I am quite willing to enter in to a discussion on a matter but, judging from the emails I receive, most of the people who email me aren't. A 'discussion' is where two people both start out at a point where they are willing to challenge (usually by Scripture) personally held views in order to come to a better understanding of some aspect of God. It is not a method of bashing one another with words because neither is willing to reason. If you wish to express your belief and don't wish to discuss a matter, therefore, please don't email me.

If you wish to point out a spelling mistake, error (whether I agree or not!) or comment, please cut and paste a sentence from the web page in question and quote the url of the web page so that I can find it. There have been a few times over the years where additional information has helped me expand a matter, where alternative doctrines have been incorporated into the text, where some glaring errors have needed to be corrected and where some ambiguous statements have needed to be clarified.

You may not like my response if I disagree with you over a comment or suggested error so please understand that you may get an email back that takes up a contrary view to your own, asks you to think about a matter more fully or, even, asks you specific questions so I can determine what it is that you actually believe.

Remember also, please, that teaching is not telling someone what to believe but trying to lead them down a route where they can allow themselves to be taught by a direct revelation from God. If I - or anyone else - tell you what to believe, it is simply a Law and someone else will be able to give you another Law that contradicts the first (and so on). Disciples are not taught what to believe but are taught how to feed themselves - unfortunately, denominations have the tendency to only do the former.

I am quite willing to study subjects on behalf of individuals or groups of people (if I want to do it and I have the time) but if I take on a subject to study, it will probably take me several weeks to deal with and emailing me is not a quick fix to get yourself an answer. Make sure you realise that I would rather make you come to a point of receiving an answer from your own studies than rely upon me to supply you with an answer. A truth fought for is a truth held fast to - believing what teachers tell you doesn't seem to have the same depth of commitment.

All correspondence sent to me is done so on the basis that by sending it permission has already been granted to me to publish it on the Internet on this site or to forward it on if deemed appropriate with an attribution given as to its source (but nothing that is deemed by myself to be traceable - such as an email address - unless specific permission is granted). No exceptions will be made to this criteria.

Finally, if you do still wish to contact me, I can be contacted at the email address as below (please excuse the rather cryptic, do-it-yourself address but I'm trying to safeguard against my email address being trawled for the sending of spam). I always respond to reasonable email so, if you haven't received a reply within a week (it should be within 24 hours) please re-email me as I frequently have emails go astray, mentioning that you are re-sending it so I can gauge the problem I am having with the servers I use.

If you receive no reply at all (and you've emailed me in accordance with the above), I may be dead. We are currently trying to secure the continuation of the web site for a significant amount of time after we are no longer able to maintain it.