God blessed us!

If you do a search on ubf.org for the word “weather”, you can read many cases of how ubf people look for signs from the weather. Here are a few examples:

“God blessed us with cool weather during the conference, even though it has been really hot…”
http://www.ubf.org/world-mission-news/asia/japan-united-summer-bible-conference-2014

“God gave us a beautiful and nice weather.”
http://www.ubf.org/world-mission-news/europe/switzerland-fall-bible-conference-2013

” thank God for giving us wonderful 3 weeks with perfect weather”
http://www.ubf.org/world-mission-news/europe/german-second-gens-sent-report-thanksgiving

“We also thank God, for he has given us beautiful weather during the conference providing us with a wonderful and safe environment to enjoy all the outdoor programs.”
http://www.ubf.org/world-mission-news/korea/korea-ubf-national-student-conference-2014

It is one thing to thank God for good weather. But reading all those reports by ubf people left me feeling they’ve gone too far, and are bordering on some sort of sign-seeking nonsense.

If God blesses, does God also curse?

Let’s just assume all those mentions about the weather are normal. They just want to thank God for good weather. Well what about bad weather? If good weather is God’s blessing, wouldn’t bad weather be God’s curse? The ubf mind is flabergasted when God doesn’t appear to bless one of their ceremonies. Take a look at this latest Samuel Lee worship report:

“On October 4, we held late Dr. Samuel Lee’s memorial service at a chapel in the cemetery. 130 leaders in the Chicago area, including 15 outside guests attended. On the day before our memorial service, we learned that the weather would be cold and that it would rain. But our God is always good. The cemetery manager allowed us to hold our service indoors. We praise God for this.”
http://www.ubf.org/world-mission-news/north-america/late-dr-samuel-lee%E2%80%99s-memorial-service

Note the comments I highlighted. The weather was bad. Yet the ubf mind cannot accept that this means God is cursing them. So they just say “But our God is always good”. The weather is clearly bad, and this reporter feels the shame.

On another note, notice how they moved indoors this time, instead of holding a tent worship next to Samuel Lee’s actual grave like last year.

Bigger Questions

Will ubf one day stop this Samuel Lee worship stuff? The man died in 2002 in a fire in Chicago. It was a strange event. He was reportedly trapped in a room, but someone told me the door wasn’t locked. Why didn’t he just leave the burning building?

Anyway maybe ubf people really should follow Lee’s teaching and “go back to the bible”. Maybe they should read Matthew 5 and the Sermon on the Mount again. The sunny days and rainy days are NOT signs of God’s blessing or curse. It is just sun and rain. There is nothing specially good about a sunny day at your conferences. There is nothing specially bad about cold rainy weather at your Lee worship service. The more important question to ponder is about what Jesus says here: How will you learn to love those of us who are now your “enemies”, we who have left your ministry with matters of conscience that you have ignored for decades?

“43 You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers,[i] what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? 48 You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Matthew 5:43-48 ESV

Mark 7:5-16 ESV also comes to mind.

Section II – Behavioral slogans the UBF lifestyle
8. House churches (arranged marriage and pioneering)
9. One to one Bible study (weekly individual meeting to answer Bible questions)
10. Disciple-making ministry (surrendering life events and life decisions)
11. Daily Bread (daily devotional meeting)
12. Testimony writing & sharing (weekly group sharing meeting)

The picture above is my visualization of the UBF heritage ideology as it was presented to me. At first it looked glorious! Then after 24 years, the image had degraded into the dark image below. Note how each of the images is connected to each other (i.e. notice the glorious flags above and how they become black flags below).

Catholic Church Apologizes to Galileo

After a 13 year investigation, the Pope finally apologized to Galileo.

Moving formally to rectify a wrong, Pope John Paul II acknowledged in a speech today that the Roman Catholic Church had erred in condemning Galileo 359 years ago for asserting that the Earth revolves around the Sun.

Incorrect Application of the Bible

The Pope further explains that the Catholic theologians incorrectly applied the Bible.

John Paul said the theologians who condemned Galileo did not recognize the formal distinction between the Bible and its interpretation.

This led them unduly to transpose into the realm of the doctrine of the faith, a question which in fact pertained to scientific investigation.

Might we not wait 359 years for such apologies?

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/1992/11/01/world/vatican-science-panel-told-by-pope-galileo-was-right.html

Source: Ex Word of Faith – Signs of a Shepherding Church

Having extreme accountability for sheep with little accountability for shepherds

1. It is common for there to be no accountability of leadership to the church body or to an ecclesiastical authority in some form of denominational body. This does not mean that all non-denominational, independent churches are Shepherding churches. It just seems that most Charismatic churches that are Shepherding churches are not accountable to any organization. And, as we will see later in this book, some major denominations are now practicing Shepherding techniques.

2. The congregation, however, is totally accountable to the leadership of the church.

4. Elders, deacons, associate pastors, cell group leaders, etc., are picked by the senior pastor, not by the congregation.

6. Leaders are untouchable. They remain aloof from the congregation. Attempts to get to know them or to question them are met with “Don’t touch God’s anointed!”

9. Oaths and vows are enforced on the congregation. Some of these include oaths of loyalty to the pastor, a promise to submit to the direction of church leaders, and vows of chastity by single people.

18. Church members do not have the right to vote on church decisions. Decisions are made by church leaders on behalf of the congregation. In many cases, church members have no idea how the church money is spent, even though it came out of their pockets. This will be called the New Testament model of the church.

Having an emphasis on the true family of God at the expense of family and friends

8. Loyalty to the pastor and the church is stressed, at the expense of loyalty to the congregation member’s family and to God.

Having little regard for the Person of the Holy Spirit as God’s Spirit

3. Extreme emphasis is placed on the authority of the pastors and the elders. Jesus, the Holy Spirit and the Bible take a back seat to the authority of the leadership of the church.

Having an incorrect or partial view of the gifts of the Holy Spirit

5. Emphasis on the full five-fold ministry, with an undue amount of attention given to the apostle and the prophet.

7. The prophetic gifts are used to manipulate the congregation. Doom will be prophesied over someone who does not fully submit to the authority of leadership.

Undue use of guilt to get blessings

10. Congregation members are told that the primary way to receive God’s blessings and to be protected from the power of Satan is to submit to the authority of the pastor and other leaders.

13. Undue emphasis is placed on the public image of the church and ministry.

17. Teachings are guilt and works based, instead of grace and salvation based.

Having a “gospel” of sin management 

11. There is great emphasis on proper behavior and “sin management.” The verse “avoid the appearance of evil” will be used repeatedly.

12. Cell groups are “accountability groups,” instead of Bible study or prayer groups. Cell groups are a great idea, but when they are used to control the congregation’s behavior, instead of studying the Bible on a more intimate level, there is something wrong.

14. Undue emphasis is placed on what is appropriate behavior by the congregation.

15. Leadership seems to spend more time telling the congregation what to do than in teaching the congregation how to be a witness for Jesus to a dying world.

16. Directions for proper behavior seem to be rather prying and intimate. The congregation is told that they must do these things to receive God’s blessings, live a Christlike life and be good disciples of Jesus. These directions are not offered as suggestions, but as commands. These direction include, but are not limited to, being told what to wear, what to read, what movies or television shows to watch, what to eat and drink, who to date, who to marry, how to have sex with one’s spouse, how many children to have, how to raise one’s children, who one’s friend will be, where one should live, what job one should have, how many hours per day to pray and read the Bible, and how much money to give to the church.

Using extreme or physical forms of punishment for disobedience

19. Small children in Sunday school or nurseries are subjected to corporal punishment to “drive the rebellion from them,” and are told that they need to repent for something as trivial as pulling the toys out of the toybox without permission. This happens at ages as young as two years old, an age that most theologians recognize as being too young to understand the concepts of rebellion and repentance.

20. Rejection or questioning of the authority, doctrines or teachings of the church is dealt with through “discipline,” which may include public humiliation of the congregation member or being kicked out of the church. At the least, the congregation member who does the questioning is called rebellious, and quite possibly accused of witchcraft.

21. Leadership encourages (sometimes demands) that congregation members become their “armor bearers,” basing this concept on one little guy who appears once in the Bible – Jonathan’s armor bearer in 1 Samuel 14. While Jonathan’s armor bearer as also his friend and advisor, Shepherding church armor bearers are assigned menial tasks such as cleaning the pastors’ toilets and carrying their jackets and Bibles. They are sometimes totally ignored by leadership, not being spoken to for years.

Having a bad view of former members, especially critical voices

22. Members who leave the church without the formal consent and blessing of leadership are shunned, or publicly slandered.

23. Former church members display a form of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. They report not wanting to go to church ever again, have difficulty reading their Bibles, and say that any thought of doing either causes them to be nauseated. They may also have stories of having been stalked or threatened by church leaders after they left.

Source: Slide 6 – UBF 2010 Seminar 102 – The Hardcore Contents of 1:1

Here is a slightly different look at the UBF hamster wheel.

Notice the importance of BS… :/

Source: Slide 8 – UBF Seminar 101 – Introduction to Fishing and Outreach

Click the image below to see a larger image.

Source: Slide 25 UBF Hardcore Contents of 1:1

Click the image below to see a larger image. Notice how the slide teaches the following:

• A UBF leader is not approachable
• A UBF leader must build walls around himself
• A UBF leader must build bridges because of the walls
• A UBF leader is on top of the pyramid hierarchy of power

Source: Slide 16 of UBF Fishing and Outreach 2010 (Directors Conference)

I am glad to finally visualize the life I lived for 24 years. And I rejoice that I got off the hamster wheel and my family will no longer be in danger of being chewed up and spit out. (click the image below to see a larger image)

Source: Slide 10 of UBF Fishing and Outreach 2010  (Directors Conference)

To see the UBF presentation that I am reviewing, please see part 1. This review covers section 8, the last section:

1. Introduction: Why? (slides 5 – 6)    2 slides
2. Definition (slides 8 – 9)      2 slides
3. Origin (slides 11 – 14)      4 slides
4. Importance (slides 16 – 18)     3 slides
5. Advantages & Potential (slides 20 – 26)    7 slides
6. Obstacles vs. Motivation (slides 28 – 31)     4 slides
7. Practical Application (slides 33 – 39)     7 slides
8. Conclusion: God’s hope! (slides 41 – 44)     4 slides

Slide 41 sets up the last section with two questions: What is the fruit of 1:1 bible study? What happens when we do 1:1 bible study?

I have a list of my answers to these questions… I’ll spare you that and just move on to the answers given in the next slide.

Slide 42

Here are the “fruits” of UBF 1:1….

• We become happier and more beautiful, truly satisfied
• We get to know Jesus
• We grow in Jesus’ image
• We grow to a global leader, to a servant for the world.

This is the UBF wishdream in a nutshell. The corollary is that if you don’t do these things, you are not happy, don’t get to know Jesus, you are not growing and are an ugly failure.

Slide 43

In case you missed it, the perceived outcome is listed in four bullet points.

“1:1 bible study is the way to help one person very personally”
(What the heck does that mean?)

“1:1 is the way to raise global leaders”
(Really? I wonder what global leaders have to say about that…)

“1:1 is God’s way to fulfill his salvation work”
(Oy, the binding of UBF to “God’s way” infuriates me!)

“1:1 is the way to double our ministry, to make Germany, Russia, USA, England, Portugal, Czech Republic a kingdom of priests and a holy nation!”
(I just knew KOPHN would get in here somewhere! Can anyone say “world domination”? How about 1:1 is the sure way to depression?)

To see the UBF presentation that I am reviewing, please see part 1. This review covers section 7:

1. Introduction: Why? (slides 5 – 6)    2 slides
2. Definition (slides 8 – 9)      2 slides
3. Origin (slides 11 – 14)      4 slides
4. Importance (slides 16 – 18)     3 slides
5. Advantages & Potential (slides 20 – 26)    7 slides
6. Obstacles vs. Motivation (slides 28 – 31)     4 slides
7. Practical Application (slides 33 – 39)     7 slides
8. Conclusion: God’s hope! (slides 41 – 44)     4 slides

Slide 33 introduces this section with a question: How should we practically do 1:1 bible study? This appears to me to be the “meat” of the presentation; what UBF really wants to get you to learn and accept, without much thinking.

Slide 34 – Practical Application

Four things are mentioned here: Observation, Interpretation, Application, In UBF: question sheets, testimony writing.

Apparently this is talking about a Bible study approach. I know that as a UBF insider. UBF 1:1 is all about studying the Bible with question sheets and then writing your testimony. In fact, such things are the essence of the UBF lifestyle. If you do this, you are highly praised. But you must do it faithfully every week, 52 weeks a year.

My questions: Is it possible to form “lasting friendships” and overcome fears and hesitation just by answering question sheets and writing a testimony? Maybe to a point. But this approach is fraught with failure. Relationships built this way become icy-cold, transactional acquaintances that almost always do not stand the test of time unless something else happens in the relationship.

Slide 35 asks us “What is important when you do 1:1 bible study?” Many things are presented in the next several slides:

• Gospel must be the central focus
• Present the whole picture
• Emphasize personal application of God’s word
• Be an example
• Lead people to God!
• 1:1 is a life time mission
• Do your very best!
• Know what your bible student believes
• Pray!!!
• Be a friend
• Share your strengths AND your weaknesses
• Don’t lost focus
• Help bible student to focus on God’s word
• Keep time, smile, eye contact, remember important dates
• Listen.

These are basically good ideas. But what are we trying to do through UBF 1:1? In my experience for 25 years, the goal is to create a “junzi man”, that is, a super-apostle type person (preferrably male) who can inherit the UBF heritage. In the end, UBF directors care almost nothing about the good ideas above, if only UBF heritage is preserved and passed on– that is the goal of 1:1.

Shouldn’t we be leading people to Jesus and making an environment for the Holy Spirit to make disciples of Jesus?

To see the UBF presentation that I am reviewing, please see part 1. This review covers section 6:

1. Introduction: Why? (slides 5 – 6)    2 slides
2. Definition (slides 8 – 9)      2 slides
3. Origin (slides 11 – 14)      4 slides
4. Importance (slides 16 – 18)     3 slides
5. Advantages & Potential (slides 20 – 26)    7 slides
6. Obstacles vs. Motivation (slides 28 – 31)     4 slides
7. Practical Application (slides 33 – 39)     7 slides
8. Conclusion: God’s hope! (slides 41 – 44)     4 slides

Slide 28 – Setup Questions 

The motivation section begins with two questions: If 1:1 bible study is so good, why do we hesitate to do 1:1 bible study?  And why should we do 1:1 bible study in spite of all these obstacles?

These are loaded questions. Did we actually prove that 1:1 is so good? How do we know that people are hesitating to do 1:1? What obstacles are we facing?

Before we can process this material, these questions plant the following concepts: 1) UBF 1:1 is good  2) UBF members are hesitating  and 3) UBF 1:1 faces many obstacles.

Slide 29 – A list of obstacles

Six obstacles to 1:1 are presented. I added what I think is being planted by each of these “obstacles”:

• “I don’t want to die” (fear of death)
• “1:1 is too hard” (fear of complexity)
• “I’m too young” (fear of authority)
• “I’m too busy” (fear of failure)
• “That’s not my thing” (fear facing one’s true self)
• “I don’t want to be rude” (fear of offending people)

Slide 30 then asks, “How can we overcome all these obstacles?” I would ask, “Are these obstacles real? Should Christians be motivated by fear? Where is love for people in this? Why all the negative pushing? What about positive drawing and striving to please God?”

Slide 31 – Reasons to do 1:1

We are then presented with 5 reasons why we should want to do 1:1 and led to believe these would over come the six obstacles above. But are these 5 reasons even related to the 6 obstacles?

• Thankfulness for God’s grace
• Sense of obligation
• Understand God’s heart
• Practical obedience!!!!!!
• 1:1 -> deep and lasting friendships

These “motivators” don’t quite make sense. Are these valid drivers for Christian behavior? Is UBF 1:1 the main outcome of such reasons?

What is double ministry?

Well the idea is that each UBF member, chapter and region should “double” in size (or in “heart”) within a certain time period. If you’ve been in UBF for any length of time, you certainly heard this “prayer topic“. In experience and reality however, “double ministry” is a doomed-to-fail mechanism to enslave people in the UBF heritage. They keep trying, and keep failing, year after year, to double the ministry.

The problem is that UBF shepherds end up in a hopeless hamster wheel, falling prey at times to the “han syndrome” and ripping through thousands of young people in search of “the one” or “the two” who will remain “faithful” to the “true family of God”.

Quotes 

“we prayed to be spiritually inspired and be used for the double ministry in 2012″
2012 Asia Director’s Conference

“(2) To have double ministry by having 40 1:1s and 30 SWSA, 1 Abraham and 1 Sarah”
2012 Humber UBF prayer topics

“Double ministry in each chapter by the next Canadian SBC”
2011 Canadian National Summer Conference

“What did Jesus who had compassion on them do? “So he began teaching them many things.” (Mark 6:34b) We have a clear prayer topic to double our ministry by 2010. We should not do this with business minds. First of all, we must double our shepherd hearts and we must learn the compassionate heart of Jesus for the campus students. For this, we must know the clear reason why they are so pitiful and pray for them earnestly. Then God will surely give us burning shepherd hearts for them. With this shepherd heart, we must teach them the word of God. With burning shepherd hearts of Jesus, ubf shepherds and missionaries must prepare the life giving word of God and give them God’s word.”
TO DOUBLE THE WORK OF GOD by 2010 

The first half of this presentation tells us that UBF 1:1 is God’s way and is necessary in order to pass on the UBF legacy to future generations.

(see Hardcore 1:1 – Part 1 for the actual UBF presentation)

The second half of the presentation gives us motivation to participate in 1:1. So the entire presentations comes down to: “God said do UBF 1:1, now go do it!”

This part 2 of my review covers section 5:

5. Advantages & Potential (slides 20 – 26)    7 slides
6. Obstacles vs. Motivation (slides 28 – 31)     4 slides
7. Practical Application (slides 33 – 39)     7 slides
8. Conclusion: God’s hope! (slides 41 – 44)     4 slides

Slide 20

The “Advantages & Potential” section begins with two questions: “What are the advantages of 1:1 bible study compared to other ways of studying or teaching the bible?” and “What potential does 1:1 bible study have?”

Slide 21

Instead of presenting any other way of bible study, the next slide immediately tells us some supposed advantages of 1:1. While there are some advantages of a one-to-one approach to bible study, those reasons are not listed in the presentation. The six advantages given are rather weak and lamely thought out. Here they are:

“You can focus to help one person.”   This can also be done in a group setting and is not unique to UBF 1:1.

“It’s a personal encounter.”   Such personal encounters can happen in a group setting. Isn’t the point of study to encounter God?

“EVERYONE can do 1:1.”   Well, not everyone can do UBF 1:1 for very long. But most people can do group study just as well. Why is EVERYONE required to do this? Are all teachers? Are all shepherds?

“You can do 1:1 with EVERYONE.”   Not sure what this means…some people are not open to such a relationship.

“You can do 1:1 EVERYWHERE.”   The last time I checked, group study can also be done in most places.

“1:1 brings the church to the people.”   This is an extremely troubling statement. It reveals to me a very skewed theological thought. Aren’t people themselves the church? What is it we are bringing to people in the case of 1:1?

Slide 22 

Now we get into some wild statements. Slide 22 changes gears without shifting and tells us: “1:1 has the potential to raise global leaders!” Six pictures are presented. Who are they? Did they go through UBF 1:1? Are they proponents of 1:1? Are they indeed global leaders? If so, were they raised through UBF 1:1?

Slide 23

Now we switch back to advantages… Not only is “raising global leaders” a potential of UBF 1:1, it is an advantage of UBF 1:1.

Slide 24 – LINEAR GROWTH!

Again, we jump back to Potential… “1:1 has the potential to double our ministry!” Ah now we get to the infamous “double ministry” line. UBF leaders always talk about double ministry, usually based on Elisha’s request to Elijah for a double portion of his spirit. Slide 24 presents a pyramid that is supposed to show linear growth of everybody raising one student: somehow 1 person raises 10, after 1 year we still have 10, then after 10 years we are supposed to have 100 bible students. Indeed, this is linear growth.

The problem? The “linear growth” model assumes 100% success. Every year, every UBF shepherd successfully raises 1 bible student, and that bible student sucessfully remains in UBF for the rest of his/her life (or in this model for 10 years).

This “linear growth” model is full of built-in failure points. First, the success rate is not 100%. Second, not every person is called by God to teach the Bible. Third, most UBF bible students leave within 1 year of study. Many leave after 10 years, so the likelihood of all 100 bible students remaining is rather low.

Zero Success Rate

How many UBF chapters have patterned this “linear growth model”? My claim is that ZERO chapters have done this. No one in UBF over the past 50 years has successfully met the goals of “linear growth”. Zero. None. Nada. It is a failed approach.

Slide 25 – EXPONENTIAL GROWTH!

UBF clearly is not satisfied with “linear growth”. They want “exponential growth”. Their ideal is not that everyone raise just 1 student, but that everyone should raise 2 students. And even 2 is a low standard– many in UBF say you must raise 12 students or even 120!

The amount of guilt, self-loathing and emotional punishment created by these concepts is astronomical.

Slide 25 claims that after 10 years UBF should not only have 100 students, but should really have 1,024… if all those shepherds just weren’t so lazy… And after just 20 years UBF should have 1,040,000 students.

Nothing Strange?

This is the classic “penny a day” problem. Ever hear of the worker who agreed to work for a penny a day in service to a king? The only request is that his pay double every day. After a couple weeks, the king’s entire treasury did not have enough money to pay him!

Such ludicrous bullshit is behind the “UBF 1:1” paradigm. It just won’t work. The math doesn’t add up. People are getting hurt. Slide 26 says it all… and I share this with tears of repentance for believing such lies:

NOTE: This article is part 1 of 5 articles and part of a series of reviews of official, public UBF teaching material. My series is here: Hardcore 1:1

The UBF title of the slideshow is:
“The Hardcore Contents of 1:1 Bible Study”

If I was going to mock UBF and make up a title for fun, my title would be:
“The Hardcore Contents of 1:1 Bible Study”

This presentation was given at an event that is highly regarded in UBF and intended to convince an entire “second generation” to pass on the UBF heritage.

Official Links

Here are the links published by UBF in Germany. Before reading my review, please watch these presentations. I’m not making this stuff up and it might be hard to believe unless you see for yourself.

http://www.slideshare.net/germanyubf/seminar-102-introduction-to-the-hardcore-contents-of-the-11-bible-study

http://www.europeubf.org/2010/07/leadership-forum-seminar-slides/

My Previous Post

I blogged about this material before, but only partially. On my link below you will find some of my screenshots of the UBF slideshows, in case the links above stop working.

http://www.priestlynation.com/archives/775

My Review

Slide 2 – Who am I? What do I do?

The person presenting this material is an older “second gen” (i.e. son of a UBF missionary). He tells us who his parents are and some personal details. This is how UBF almost always introduces themselves. It seems normal enough– and it is fairly normal. UBF “comes down” to a personal level before the orientation begins. The odd thing is that we immediately get distracted by the good qualities of the person giving the presentation.

Slide 3 – Key Verses

The presenter continues to focus our attention on himself by quoting his life key verses. While having life Bible verses is a good thing, I wonder why we need to know this in the presentation? How do these verses relate to the topic at hand? What is the topic at hand? Oh yea, I’m still wondering what “hardcore content” means…

Slide 4 – Outline

Still not sure what we are talking about here, but we now are given an outline of talking points. Here they are. This Part 1 of my review covers sections 1 through 4:

1. Introduction: Why? (slides 5 – 6)    2 slides
2. Definition (slides 8 – 9)      2 slides
3. Origin (slides 11 – 14)      4 slides
4. Importance (slides 16 – 18)     3 slides
5. Advantages & Potential (slides 20 – 26)    7 slides
6. Obstacles vs. Motivation (slides 28 – 31)     4 slides
7. Practical Application (slides 33 – 39)     7 slides
8. Conclusion: God’s hope! (slides 41 – 44)     4 slides

Observations about the Introduction section 1

Asking “why” before “what”.  Before we know “what” the presentation is really all about, we are asked “why”. Why do we have to think about 1:1 bible study and why is it relevant to us today? Well the assumption by the presenter is that the audience already knows what 1:1 bible study is. Perhaps that is true, but I think the audience might still be wondering about “hardcore content”. What does “hardcore” mean?

Only one purpose: propagate UBF. On slide 6 we get the one and only “why”: “to inherit the great legacy of UBF”. No other reason is given. We simply “have to know what 1:1 bible study is about”. This clearly reveals the heart and mind of UBF leaders. Don’t fool yourself into thinking that a UBF director cares more passionately about anything besides passing on UBF heritage.

Observations about the Definition section 2

1:1 is defined as a permanent, spiritual relationship. On slide 9, UBF reveals here their all-important teaching that UBF is your “true family of God” and that your bible teacher is your “parent”.

Observations about the Origin section 3

1:1 is bound to God’s way to save the world. If you think there might be many ways to carry out Christian discipleship in various contexts and cultures, this presentation tells you that you are wrong. UBF 1:1 is “God’s way” and apparently there is no other way. In these slides, UBF ties UBF heritage to Moses, Jesus and Paul, as well most other important Bible figures.

UBF is the only result of Jesus, Bible and Church. Slide 14 says it all. What do you get when you mix Jesus, the Bible and Church together? Well according to this world-class slide, you get UBF, which is apparently the best of all worlds.

Observations about the Importance section 4

There are no alternatives to UBF 1:1.  I think, perhaps, we have hit the “hardcore” part of the presentation. In the form of questions, UBF teaches that UBF ways of 1:1 are the “best way of teaching the bible and serving God in our generation” and there are no alternatives to be seen.

Christian pragmatism 101. Not sure what slide 17 is about… but it certainly is the place where UBF would normally bash all other “hallelujah” Christians who aren’t worth anything because they aren’t part of the supremely disciplined UBF group.

More to come…

I have to stop here. I am so nauseated by these teachings that I have to stop for now. The presentation goes downhill fast from here.

An invitation to a 1 hour Bible study on campus equates to full obedience to the ideology in this Blue Book.

It was rather shocking to read the blue book lectures because it codifies some of the things former members have been saying for more than 30 years.

I’ve written extensively on the content of this Blue Book. Here are my blog posts about this book:

The UBF blue book

Oh and just make sure you ask for the $10.00 paperback version. It contains a very important lecture that was changed for the public to see online, filtering out some statements that UBF leaders believe but don’t want you to see.

NOTE: Here is my series of over 30 articles explaining this further: “50th Anniversary book” (i.e. Blue Book).

The movement was fraught with problems. Some of those problems, displayed in several pseudo-Christian organizations that grew out of the movement, have been discussed openly for many years. Most notable in this discussion is Ron Enroth’s book, Churches That Abuse.

The face of the failed Shepherding Movement was Bob Mumford, who became a sort of poster-boy of the movement. In 1989, Mr. Mumford offered a public apology to those hurt by the movement’s teachings and practices.

In his formal statement of repentance Mumford said:

Accountability, personal training under the guidance of another, and effective pastoral care are needed biblical concepts. True spiritual maturity will require that they be preserved. These biblical realities must also carry the limits indicated by the New Testament. However, to my personal pain and chagrin, these particular emphases very easily lent themselves to an unhealthy submission resulting in perverse and unbiblical obedience to human leaders. Many of these abuses occurred within the sphere of my own responsibility.

The movement began to disintegrate in 1986 when its magazine, New Wine, folded due to steady loss of revenue. In the latter years of the 1980s Baxter, Basham, and Mumford officially “released” their disciples from their previous pyramidal authority structure-Prince had already severed his formal ties with the others in 1983.

Yet even with Mumford’s public statement of apology-and in spite of Buckingham’s obituary of the “discipleship era”-the abuse of discipleship and spiritual authority continues unabated by other men (and women) in other churches and movements. (source)

University Bible Fellowship is one of those organizations who continue the abuse of discipleship and spiritual authority through aberrant teachings.

Here are some excerpts from another blog that describe two main reasons why the original Shepherding Movement failed in the United States. The descriptions below also describe why UBF continues to be labeled as a cult by eight organizations. As of 2012, UBF has not addressed these issues adequately and continues to teach covering theology.

“Most of the Christian church doesn’t believe in covering theology. It appeared on the scene in North America about 40 years ago through something called the shepherding movement.  That movement was completely discredited and some of the leaders have publicly repented of their involvement.”

Reason 1 – They replaced Jesus as master.

“In this context, a group of older, more experienced charismatic ministers came together to bring a corrective. The occasion of their meeting was a moral failure of a ministry in Fort Lauderdale, FL. Believing themselves to be equally vulnerable to moral failure apart from better accountability they mutually submitted themselves to one another. When this happened, they described themselves as having a supernatural experience binding their ministries together for life. Initially the group was made of Derek Prince, Don Basham, Bob Mumford, and Charles Simpson. Eventually, former Branham campaign manager Ern Baxter was added to the group, and they became known as “The Fort Lauderdale Five.”

“The five very talented men immediately began to teach on authority, submission and discipleship. Although there were a number of important doctrines, the central doctrine—the one that reshaped the church—was that every person must be submitted to another person (Shepherd/Pastor/Discipler), and that all of your major life decisions should be submitted to this person. Effectively, if unintentionally, this put the individual in the position of having two masters– Jesus and a personal shepherd. With time the personal shepherd gains more power, as Jesus gets less. And in time, this creates a system where those who have unquestioning obedience to man are promoted. All kinds of ungodly things came in through these doors. Several books have been written detailing the kinds of abuse suffered as a result. The scary thing about the whole system is that it started out with the intent of promoting accountability, and eventually enslaved people.”

Reason 2 – They made their shepherd/sheep relationships permanent

“The second dangerous doctrine had to do with “Covenant” relationships or “Spiritual Family.” If being absolutely submitted to another person was an imprisonment, then the covenant relationship was the iron padlock on the door. The idea here is that when you enter into these discipleship relationships, they are permanent, and more broadly that your association with a specific group of believers is permanent. You were in a “Covenant” and if you left the relationship or the fellowship group, you were breaking a covenant. This quickly becomes a very dangerous situation: no matter how terrible your experience becomes with a group or person, you can not leave, and if you do, you believe that you’ve broken a covenant with God, so to get right with God you’d have to go back to the abuse! You slowly become enmeshed with the other members of the group and separated from the outside world. Your “spiritual family” becomes more important than your natural family or other believers you’ve had relationship with. You slowly become more and more isolated and more and more dependent upon the group or leader. At a certain point if your leaders do not check the pattern, it becomes a full fledged cult. Normally, however this pattern is held in tension with Biblical expectations so these groups rarely become true cults, while still exhibiting cult-like features. Scary.”

Result – The fruit of absolute obedience to human authority

“After a couple of years, the fruit of these doctrines became obvious to those outside of the movement such as Jack Hayford, Pat Robertson, Demos Sharkarian and others, and they confronted the “Five” in the infamous “Shootout at the Curtis Hotel,” in 1975. The result was that the Five issued an “apology” which did not really represent repentance on their part. They rejected the excesses of some who had followed their teachings to their logical conclusions, without accepting that the doctrines they were teaching had been the direct cause.  Their persistence created a split in the charismatic movement between those who accepted the authority teaching, and those who did not.”

“This split is still evident today but under different names. No one dares be associated with the “Shepherding Movement” by name because it was so discredited.  But many still believe in the basic principles to some degree or another, and find support in classic authors such as Watchman Nee. The “Prophetic” stream of the church became the branch of the church that did not accept authority teachings, and the “Apostolic” branch became that which did. The tragedy is that the basic observations of the Five were correct (i.e. need for discipleship, accountability) but their solution of hierarchical personal submission was not. Therefore the “prophetic” stream still tends to reflect the lack of authority that the rebellious hippies brought into the church through the Jesus Movement. Chaos in the meeting is welcomed and even praised as spiritual, and generally everyone does their own thing, hears from God totally in isolation, etc. On the other hand, those with the Shepherding heritage value “order” over all else. While they speak in tongues and claim to be charismatic, often in practice, the gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy are not welcomed, because order is valued over the moving of the Spirit.  Or prophecy can only come through an established authority in the church hierarchy.”

Jesus is Lord

“In summary, the Shepherds were right right to raise the issue of authority, but they were wrong about submission to other men. Christ is Lord of all, and each should be in submission to Him by the conviction of the Holy Spirit.  Because we need order and peace, we should submit to those who lead ministries over us just like we would to our bosses at work.  But this is far different from owing them allegiance in our personal or spiritual lives. And when we come to the place where following them violates our conscience, it’s time to move on.”

(source)

Set Me Free

Sing Your Freedom

Do I Stand Alone?

Here is the public link to the message, delivered in Toledo UBF on July 1st, 2012:

http://www.utchristians.com/index.php/resources/biblestudymaterials/doc_download/140-gal-48-31-msg-july-2012/Gal-4.8-31_qst-L_July_2012.docx

Here is the link to a PDF of the message, in case the link above disappears:

http://www.priestlynation.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Gal_4.8-31_msg_July_2012.pdf

The Background

Toledo UBF (a ministry of about 75 in 2010) went through a disastrous 2011, watching 7 or 8 leader’s families either leave the ministry or dis-engage from the ministry almost entirely. That’s about 40 people. The recent Toledo UBF conference photo confirms that the ministry has been cut in half in the last couple years.

A visiting messenger is asked to deliver a message on Galatians, which somehow ends up being a chopped up passage from Galatians 4:8-31. This visiting messenger is the highest-ranked, official authority in UBF outside the Korean missionaries, Ron Ward. So when Ron gives a message, people in Toledo UBF are going to listen. When Toledo UBF is in trouble, this is often the solution: to invite some authority from Chicago UBF to deliver a message. That has happened many times the past 25 years.

The ministry leadership in Toledo UBF is currently a Leadership Council. For the most part, this has been a good move. The 22-year-term Moses-style director may be stepping down soon and the plurality of leadership concept is really starting to take hold.

There is much more context here which I won’t share publicly. But the people involved know what I’m talking about.

The Message Structure

Here is how the message is structured with the main points:

I. Paul’s zeal for Christ to be formed in the Galatians (8-20)

• First, Paul rebuked them for returning to slavery (8-11).
• Second, Paul pleaded to restore their love relationship (12-16).
• Third, Paul’s zeal to win them over to Christ (17-20).

II. “We are children of the free woman” (21-31)

Problem 1: Dictating what to learn

The UBF mindset is to tell you what you will learn. This message is no different. In the last sentences of the introduction, we find what we “need to learn”:

“Today let’s realize that though we are saved by faith in Christ alone, we need to grow to maturity. And let’s learn from Paul how to care for God’s children.”

The introduction sets an ominous tone for anyone hearing this message who knows what just happened the past 11 months. Immediately, thoughts of “Who is immature?”, “What does it mean to be mature?”, “How should we care for God’s children?” and “Who is caring for God’s children?” come to mind. Is Galatians 4 about growing in maturity, as if that is something greater than faith in the gospel? No. But that is the kind of thing we are called to learn even though we haven’t even learned anything yet!

Problem 2: Using a trigger word “rebuke”

The word “rebuke” is used a lot in UBF. It has special meaning but I won’t go into that here. The messenger quotes verses 8 to 11, claiming that these verses are Paul’s rebuke to the Galatians. When we look at the various Bible translations and the titles they insert above this section, we can learn that the Bible translators understood these verses correctly. The verses here are Apostle Paul’s concern, questioning and his love for the people. But rebuke? That’s very strong language. But in UBF, all negative words are automatically a “rebuke”! They normally make no distinction between correction or discipline or encouragement: it’s all “rebuke” and usually with a harsh tone. And Apostle Paul’s rebuke? That was in Galatians 3.

Problem 3: False appeal to American author

Normally, you’ll find a jab at America or American churches in UBF messages. This one is no different. But it also has an appeal to a popular American preacher/author, Tim Keller.

“While most Americans do not bow before statues and figures,we still find rampant idolatry in our nation. Dr. Tim Keller, in his book, “Counterfeit Gods,” has exposed them: money, sex, power, and success. Moreover, many have created gods in their own imaginations by mixing various elements from many religions and new age ideas. In fact people are in bondage to forces that make them miserable. Though idols may seem to be nothing, behind them is Satan’s power.”

I would agree that idolatry is a key problem in America. But what “false gods” did Tim Keller refer to in his book? I personally have not read this book, but I did read the excerpt from Tim Keller’s website. Ron says the idols in America are four: money, sex, power, success. (Note: if you don’t know these are four key “sins” UBF often fights against. If you are free of these, you are considered “pure”, which seems to me to be very Eastern-thought oriented.)

Tim Keller says there are far more than these four… “anything can be an idol” (Introduction, page xv). Keller also mentions many things that can become idols: beauty, money, family, sex, power, glory, success, military discipline, fame, marriage, etc. In fact, this Keller quote from “Counterfeit Gods” would have been far more appropriate for this message:

“The biblical concept of idolatry is an extremely sophisticated idea, integrating intellectual, psychological, social, cultural, and spiritual categories. there are personal idols, such as romantic love and family; or money, power, and achievement; or access to particular social circles; or the emotional dependence of others on you; or health, fitness, and physical beauty. Many look to these things for the hope, meaning, and fulfillment that only God can provide.”
Counterfeit Gods, Introduction, page xix

Problem 4: Thinly veiled attack of ex-UBF members

One favorite game UBF messengers like to play is “attack the R-Group”. The pulpit in UBF often turns ugly, but such “messages” are only picked up on by certain people. After some brief words on Galatians 4:9-11, this messenger quickly implores emotional control and takes a jab at those who just left Toledo UBF in protest last year.

“Sometimes we feel like Paul did. We work hard to serve God‟s sheep with the word of God, prayers, counseling, delicious food, and so on, so they can grow in Christ. Then, through a false teacher or a bad influence, they suddenly change, becoming crazy. They have become slaves of Satan. By the time we recover from shock, we realize that we are powerless and don‟t know how to help them. It is easy to give up. What did Paul do?”

This is utterly out of context with Apostle Paul’s thoughts here in the text. But Ron W. sticks it in anyway. Who is this “false teacher” in Toledo UBF? Why it is me of course! Well, me and my friends who left. But of course such thoughts won’t be expressed in writing.

Problem 5: Preaching UBF ideology

What is Ron’s conclusion from verses 12-16? Here is verses 12-16:

“12 I plead with you, brothers, become like me, for I became like you. You have done me no wrong. 13 As you know, it was because of an illness that I first preached the gospel to you. 14 Even though my illness was a trial to you, you did not treat me with contempt or scorn. Instead, you welcomed me as if I were an angel of God, as if I were Christ Jesus himself. 15 What has happened to all your joy? I can testify that, if you could have done so, you would have torn out your eyes and given them to me. 16 Have I now become your enemy by telling you the truth?”  Galatians 4:12-16

Here is the conclusion from this part:

“Here we learn that our attitude toward shepherds or mentors in Christ can be a barometer of our spiritual condition. When we have the gospel in our hearts, we love God‟s servants even if they have a serious weakness. But if we lose the gospel, our relationship with our shepherds can become very burdensome. Then we become critical; we can even treat them like enemies. At such times, we must stop struggling with people, come back to Christ, and restore our gospel faith. Then our relationships with God‟s servants will also be restored and we can have peace.”

He could have preached some teaching about brotherly love, or a pastor’s love, or bearing one another in love when someone is sick, or even something like “wounds from a friend” as in Proverbs 27:6.

Instead, what does he preach from Galatians 4:12-16? Well first of all he leaves out the first part of verse 12 and all of verse 16. Then he teaches that the only way to have “peace” and “restoration” is to stop struggling with people and have a “good” (meaning totally submissive) attitude toward UBF shepherds. This is twisting Scripture text to preach the UBF ideology of shepherd-sheep relationships. This means, for the un-indoctrinated, “no criticism of shepherds or missionaries; listen and obey what you are told to learn.”

Summing it all up

There is much more I could criticize here in this message. However, the main point is the conclusion. The summary paragraph drives home the teaching we “must” learn from this:

“In conclusion, let’s read the key verse, verse 19: “My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you…” In truth, this is God‟s heart for sinners. God’s love never fails and God never abandons his children. In his mercy, God gave his one and only Son Jesus Christ as our Savior. Whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life (Jn 3:16). Our Lord Jesus Christ suffered more than the pain of childbirth on the cross to save us from the power of sin and Satan. Though we betray him, Jesus has mercy on us. Jesus faithfully forgives and restores us, and helps us grow in his image. As we trust in his love alone, Christ is formed in us. We grow in his love toward his dear children. We are willing to suffer the pains of childbirth to save lost souls and raise them until Christ is formed in them. Let‟s pray to be mature in the love of God so that we may pray with tears, even for those who act like enemies. Amen!”

We learn here that it is not Apostle Paul or God, but Ron W. and UBF leadership who “rebuked them (8-11), pleaded with them (12-16), and decided to go through the pains of childbirth all over again until [UBF] Christ was formed in them (17-20).”

The message here to Toledo UBF is: stop struggling with people, fall in line with UBF ideology and begin rebuilding the UBF heritage in Toledo.

The Unity Committee

UBF used to have a “Public Relations Committee”. I have their reports. But now the same guy who led the PR Committee is heading a new committee…wait for it… the Unity Committee! And how is he leading this committee? Isaiah 45:21 is his direction. Just “declare what is to be”. Just coerce people into unity. Be united! Just command it, and it will be so…that’s what the 2012 UBF Newsletter says, in essence, on page 35 (see screenshot above). The goal of this Unity Committee is the same as the old Public Relations committee, which was also led by Jacob Lee. The goal is to create a good public face for UBF.

God quieted all critical people

Unity, in UBF terms can be described as “shouting slogans all together”. Ready… “Praise God for declaring what is to be in 2011. God quieted all critical people to UBF so that UBF may be used as God’s instrument for the world mission.” (2012 UBF Newsletter, page 35).

Apparently, God cannot work if there are critical people. Apparently God won’t bless people who think for themselves or ask questions or try to reform or improve things. Apparently God’s arm really is too short…

I will not be silent!

So according to the Director of Unity in UBF, God quieted all critical people in 2011? Really… so I guess Jacob Lee didn’t read my emails. I guess he didn’t read all the ubfriends articles or my priestlynation articles, and the world-wide discussions that ensued in the USA, Russia and China? I guess he didn’t read the recent Wikipedia entry or the Freedom of Mind entry? I guess the inclusion of UBF on 8 cult-watching groups world-wide doesn’t count as criticism?

Criticism of UBF in 2010, 2011 and 2012

In case you missed it…

Undocumented beliefs in UBF

UBF Spiritual Heritage

UBF Business Mission

UBF Official Teaching Material

Mission/Legalism/Tradition Hinders Spiritual Growth

Racism in the Church

Rethinking Genesis: Man Equals Mission

Shepherds or Sheep: Who Sacrifices More?

Sexual Sin and Church Leadership

Spiritual Abuse: Shape Up or Ship Out

An Explanation of the Excessive Control in UBF

The Myth of Multiplication, Part 1   Part 2   Part 3

First of all, understand that “To be a disciple-maker” is a UBFism. It is a phrase that means “live as a UBF loyalist every week and reproduce that obedience in someone else, preferably a college student.” The answer to this question, is no, I do not believe I am called to be a UBF disciple-maker.

However, I don’t believe the person asking this question meant it as a UBFism. No one else on the planet defines “be a disciple-maker” like UBF does. I believe that the person asked sincerely, and honestly based on Jesus’ command to “go and make disciples of all nations” as in Matthew 28:16-20:

16 Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Here is my answer: No.

I do not believe I am called to be a disciple-maker as my personal task. In fact, I contend that no person ever was given the task of making disciples. What? Someone will say, what about the verse you just quoted? Bear with me and I will explain.

To whom was the command “to go” given? It was given to the Eleven. It was given collectively and publicly; it was given at least once when only the Eleven were gathered; it was given other times when other disciples besides the Eleven would have heard the command. At least one time when Jesus gave this command, it was on the mountain, according to Matthew.

16 Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go.  17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. — Matthew 28:16-17

And “make disciples” is not mentioned by Luke. But even Luke’s words in Luke 24:46-49 were given to “the Eleven and those with them, assembled together.” (Luke 24:33-34).

Therefore, I contend that Jesus’ command to make disciples is primarily a community command, not to be understood as a personal mission, but as a community mission. I believe God will give various gifts to individuals and then wants to use those individual believers for a collective purpose, in addition to their personal purpose from God:

27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.  28 And in the church God has appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, also those having gifts of healing, those able to help others, those with gifts of administration, and those speaking in different kinds of tongues.  29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles?  30 Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues ? Do all interpret?  31 But eagerly desire the greater gifts. And now I will show you the most excellent way. — 1 Corinthians 12:27-31

What is our witness to the world as a community of believers? I believe that one person is not called to the task of making disciples. That is something we are directed to do together. The old saying fits well then: “It takes a village to raise a child.” I contend that “It takes the body of Christ to raise a disciple.”

Clearly, God gave the “go and make disciples” command corporately, so that the whole body of Christ would be a witness. God uses the community of believers to make disciples, as we see all throughout the book of Acts.

No amount of human effort or ambition will ever make even one disciple of Jesus. Only by the Holy Spirit will anyone believe (1 Corinthians 12:3). I believe this community witness to the gospel is something sorely lacking in Western Christianity. And it is something wonderful that I believe Korean Christianity can contribute to the body of Christ.

Is there, then, any personal calling related to making disciples? Yes! The best example of the personal direction Jesus gave is found in John 21: “Feed my sheep.” This command was indeed given personally to Peter, and in a private session.  Only some of the Eleven were present when Jesus said “Feed my sheep”. John records that in fact only seven were on that boat fishing that day (John 21:1-3). And it is likely, by observing the sequence of events in John 21, that only Peter heard all of Jesus’ words, though some others must have heard something of what Jesus said.

“Feed my sheep” was in direct relation to Jesus’ words earlier to Peter in regard to denying Jesus three times. This breakfast on the beach after a night of failure was an intensely personal moment between Jesus and Peter.

The command “Feed my sheep” is not equivalent to “go and make disciples”. The commands are different, they were given in different contexts, and they were given to different audiences for different reasons. Personally, Jesus’ direction is to take care of His lambs. Each believer does have a task of showing love to fellow human beings. When I understand “feed my sheep” without the UBFism “feed my sheep”, I see things quite clearly.

The command “go and make disciples” then refers to the work of the Holy Spirit among the body of indwelt believers who are feeding Jesus’ sheep.

The command “feed my sheep” then refers to the personal direction each believer has, that is to obey Jesus’ new command to “love one another”.

We learn to love; God makes disciples among us. There is but one Overseer and Shepherd of our souls (1 Peter 2:25).

I have gotten to know four ordained pastors lately, all of whom show evidence of being indwelt with the Holy Spirit, and all of whom have demonstrated a vibrant faith and love for God’s word and for people. All of them approach “making disciples” as the Lord’s work, something our Lord does. By watching them, I have learned that we are mere facilitators of our Lord’s work. We are important partners with Christ in this evangelistic work, but we are not called to individually “make disciples”.

What happens if we do enforce an individual disciple-making effort? The logical conclusion is that we then make disciples of ourselves, disciples of our program, disciples of our church or disciples of our philosophy. No matter how noble our starting intentions are, an individual view of disciple-making inevitably leads to propagating an ideology that we desperately want others to conform to. And we end up like the Pharisees in Jesus’ time: we necessarily redefine our neighbor as “God’s people” or only as “those nearby”. We end up loving ourselves.

Thoughts, concerns, questions?

First of all, “spiritual heritage” is a trigger phrase. UBF people reading this already know what I’m talking about. Let’s identify what these words mean so the rest of the world can understand. UBF material mentions “spiritual heritage” a lot… for example:

“God did not call us to be ordinary people who does ordinary work. Among all peoples of all nations, God called us to be shepherds for students. Our mission does not end in gathering students. God called us to be disciple-makers who raise up spiritual leaders and shepherds. May God help us to keep this spiritual heritage of God’s specific calling to us as disciple-makers among college students to the end.” http://ubf.org/node/155

“They don’t like to be absolute because it requires struggle. Rather, they choose to be relativistic because it does not require any struggle. In place of struggle, compromise became a virtue; rationalization in place of repentance. As a result, they are perishing, not being able to overcome the temptations of sin and physical desires. In this generation, God gave us solider spirit and fighting spirit as our spiritual heritage. ”
http://ubf.org/node/155

“On the first day of the conference, we are going to have a time of reviewing and appreciating the 50 years of UBF ministry and the spiritual heritage well presented during the missionary seminar from May 30-June 2 in Korea. I pray that God may raise young UBF leaders through the European YLC who can change this world.”
http://ubf.org/content/4th-european-cbf-conf-report

“When I came to the States in 1995 after 10 years, I saw him wearing the suit with its button holes worn out. From his deep love and union with Christ came the giving and manger spirit, sacrifice and love for one soul which became the spiritual heritage of UBF. We must remember that we were created in Christ Jesus. We too should be filled with Christ through our love and submission to Christ and grow in His image by following His footsteps.”
http://www.ubf.org/content/memorial-service-late-dr-samuel-lee

“I thank God for greatly blessing the 50th Korea UBF anniversary, the 2011 World Mission Report, and the missionary seminar. Most of all, I thank God for Dr. John Jun’s message that will direct the next 100 years of our UBF ministry.  …  First, we pray to raise the next generation leaders as professional Genesis Bible teachers. Using the late Dr. Samuel Lee’s Genesis lectures, we are going to intensively and thoroughly study all of Genesis in 6 days and 5 nights. Second, we are going to study topics covered at the missionary seminar in Korea again and give young leaders a chance to inherit UBF’s spiritual heritage and philosophy.”
http://ubf.org/content/europe-young-leaders-conference-preparation-report-germany

What is UBF Spiritual Heritage?

As you can see from the quotes above, UBF spiritual heritage is very important to UBF people. But rarely is it clearly defined and documented. Each member seems to define this heritage in their own terms, making it into something they can live with.

In my experience the past 25 years, UBF spiritual heritage is a collection of inspiring slogans proof-texted from the Bible. The heritage is a classic example of eisegesis Bible study. I have heard 5-point heritage, 7-point heritage, 8-point heritage and 12-point heritage mentioned as UBF leaders attempt to codify what they really mean by “spiritual heritage”.

God bless your soul if you start to question what these mean. And may your soul rest in peace if you criticize these points.

The 12-Point Heritage

Here is how UBF spiritual heritage was defined for me, in my part of the UBF world. We have a framed picture of this, which used to hang in our house.

“A kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”

1. Back to the Bible
2. World mission
3. Campus evangelism
4. Manger ministry
5. A spirit of giving
6. Spiritual order
7. Lay missionaries
8. House churches
9. One to one Bible study
10. Disciple-making ministry
11. Daily Bread
12. Testimony writing & sharing

The 8-Point Heritage

This is how UBF USA defines the spiritual heritage.

1. Campus evangelism and leadership training
2. Bible-centered ministry
3. One-to-one ministry
4. Manger spirit
5. Giving spirit
6. Soldier spirit and fighting spirit
7. Absolute obedience to the world mission command
8. Earnest Prayer

http://ubf.org/node/155

There are some clear reasons why the para-church movement (which begain in the 70’s) has re-surfaced in UBF since 2000.  The para-church groups I am referring to are the “Seed” or “Narrow Gate” campus groups that UBF has formed. Twenty years ago, in America, these groups did not exist.

1. Official link to campus

In the 1980’s, American campuses were still “open doors”. In fact, openness is a hallmark of the American university system. America is the land of the free. However, in recent years, that openness has been challenged. The Yale lab murder. The Virginia Tech massacre. The Ohio State shooting. All these have contributed to danger and fear on campuses. Often, these open universities are forced to increase campus police and begin closing doors to the openness that once existed.

My point is this: You can no longer just walk on campus, grab some students for Bible study and create a ministry. It is not so easy. Universities require “official club status” to use campus rooms or even to be on campus. For years, campus ministries such as InterVarsity, were officially registered clubs or organizations. UBF was kicked off a few campuses early on, but flew under the radar, for the most part.

Now UBF finds that in order to remain connected with new college students, they must register as an official club. So they create “Narrow Gate” or “Seed” or “Deeper Roots”, appointing a “president”, “vice president”, etc. I found this rather easy to do. On the campus near me, I could create an official club with just two students and one faculty adviser.

2. Retention of Second Gens/Students

The 50th Anniversary Book mentions the fourth “crisis” in UBF. This crisis is yet another exodus of long-time leaders and members, this time from chapters around the world. UBF members are still pondering whether to leave or not. One of the high ranking search terms that leads people to this blog is “how to leave UBF“.

The real crisis for 1st Generation Korean UBF missionaries however, is their 2nd Generation children. In the past 10 years, those children in America have become adults. They have gotten married and gone to college. And they have rejected the spiritual heritage of UBF, in many cases. A rather surprising number of these 2nd Gens dutifully play along with their parent’s UBF activities, but secretly question whether God even exists. Many of them have become trapped.

Where will you find the 2nd Gens in UBF chapters? You’ll find them in the seed groups. UBF church has become irrelevant to young people, but the seed groups have found ways to not only attract students, but to help them. As UBF church stifles and struggles, UBF para-church is even thriving in some chapters. The recent event called “The Well” is evidence of this.

3. Mutually Beneficial

So then the Bible study front groups on campus became a sort of contract of compromise. The 2nd Gens would have left UBF all together en masse. The seed groups allow them to be counted as UBF members, but have the freedom to express themselves. UBF senior leaders like this because they get to count all the numbers. They can say “See, UBF is still relevant to students!” And the 2nd Gens like it because they get their parents off their back, for awhile.

This is all “well and good”… pun intended :)  But where are the American families in all this? They are squeezed in between UBF church and UBF para-church. There really is no good place for them. They are simply demanded to suffer and sacrifice their family life in order to remain part of the campus ministry. For example, my wife and I had to live like single college students for 15 years in order to remain part of UBF ministry. The solution for American shepherd families is often to leave or pioneer a new UBF chapter.

What do you think? Are there other reasons for the rise of the para-church groups? Am I understanding this correctly?

Could you live one month with no UBF activity? What would you do if you were told you could not participate in any UBF programs or go to the UBF center or campus for 30 days? How do you think UBF leaders would react to such an absence?

On February 9th, 2012, there was a public commission meeting in a Chicago suburb regarding the DuPage UBF use of a residential house in the Village of Glen Ellyn. The public attendance was rather large. This was a continuation of earlier meetings, and the end result of a year-long process.

The quotes from the public neighbors of DuPage UBF are a snapshot of how UBF has operated in America since 1977 when the first UBF Korean missionaries came to America.

Here are some facts:

• 13 neighbors of the UBF center raised issues at the hearing
• 35 neighbors of the UBF center were in attendance
• All 9 commissioners voted against granting the special-use permit

Here are some quotes from neighbors at the meeting:

Authorities had been notified in 1998

“Ms. Abaravich stated that when the subject church first moved into her neighborhood, she called the Village of Glen Ellyn to ask how a house can become a church. She stated she was told to call the police, and the police told her that the church can do whatever it wants to do. She added that she disagreed with the statement that no one had previously mentioned that a church was in the neighborhood.”

Sidewalks covered with cars

“Ms. Traynor stated that she supports people gathering in their home to study the Bible. She added, however, that she has some safety concerns regarding parking at the subject site and that the sidewalk has been covered by cars on recent Sundays.”

Documented concerns had already been sent

“[Ms. Micklo] read a letter dated January 3, 2012 for the public record that had been sent from Nancy Barbeau of 571 Dawes to the Glen Ellyn Plan Commission. Ms. Micklo stated that Ms. Barbeau has lived on Dawes since 1960. Ms. Micklo stated that the letter contained Ms. Barbeau’s objections to the subject house becoming a church as parking and traffic problems will occur and the tax base will be affected.”

How could they not know?

“Mr. Yurcus stated his family was totally devastated to learn a church was operating in the neighborhood. Mr. Yurcus stated he is an ordained minister and permanent deacon at St. Petronille Church in Glen Ellyn, a teacher and music director at St. James Church and the founder and member of the Glen Ellyn Ministerial Group. Mr. Yurcus stated he finds it hard to believe that UBF was unaware of zoning regulations.”

Shocked

“Mr. Yurcus stated he was shocked that the Village was unaware that a church located at the subject site had not paid taxes in 12 years and he also expressed concern regarding precedence. He also suggested that UBF rent space in another church or a storefront in town and added that UBF is not the right fit for this neighborhood.”

Why does the pastor not speak?

“Mr. Yurkus asked why the paid pastor of the church is not speaking on behalf of the petition and why Mr. Hajek has the authority to speak. Mr. Hajek responded that he has been an understudy/assistant of the pastor for 10 years and was asked to speak at the Plan Commission meetings because he speaks publicly in his career and lived in the subject house for several years.”

Parking/safety concerns for children

“Ms. Robinson felt that the depth of the subject driveway is not sufficient to support the four cars parked there by the petitioner and is a safety concern for children. She also expressed concern regarding cars parking on Parkside as that street is narrow and parking is allowed on both sides of the street. Ms. Robinson also expressed a concern regarding strangers in the neighborhood who attend the subject church as there are many children in the neighborhood.”

Disregard for parking regulations

“Mr. Adamczyk stated that his biggest concern is traffic and that the neighborhood is impacted by the petitioners 2-3 times per week and 52 weeks per year with 7 to 10 cars at the site. Mr. Adamczyk stated that the intersection is uncontrolled and cars parked on both sides of Parkside create a one-way street. He also stated that bottlenecks and blind spots are created in that area. Mr. Adamczyk displayed two photographs of the subject site with four cars in the driveway blocking the sidewalk. He stated that photographs on the church’s website show 30 people on the subject property and information stating that a 4-day Bible conference will be held at the site in August.”

Claim of ignorance

“[Ms. Johnson] began by stating that she has nothing against the church or its members. She responded to issues from the previous meeting that the church was ignorant of the Village’s zoning laws and that the church typically goes into neighborhoods and buys single family residences/condos which they use to operate as churches. Ms. Johnson stated she found it difficult to believe that this is the first time the subject issue has come up for the church. She stated that when purchasing a home, documents are present, one of which states who will be living in the property as a permanent resident, which the church is not doing at the subject property. She also stated that a member of the church was living in the home and not paying taxes because the church owned the property.”

Safety concerns for children

“[Ms.Bauerle] lives kitty-corner from the subject church. She stated that she has a child with special needs and had searched for a home within a good school district in a family focused community. Ms. Bauerle stated she saw 13 cars at the subject home last weekend and stated she believes the church will grow. She stated she does not let her 12-year-old son go outdoors on Sunday because of the amount of traffic at the subject site. Ms. Bauerle stated that the community cannot support the needs for a church that will grow because there is not adequate parking and it is not fair to the residents who pay taxes. She also expressed concern regarding several years of taxes that have not been paid by the petitioner for a residential home.”

No effort since last hearing

“[Ms. Nachman] stated that since the previous meeting, the church has made no efforts regarding parking issues at the subject site. Ms. Nachman stated that cars at the subject house continue to be parked across the sidewalk which is one of the biggest concerns of the neighbors. She added that the church representatives could have taken care of some issues regarding the subject site since the previous meeting.”

Contradiction of information

“[Mr. Krebs] spoke at the previous meeting and stated at this meeting that there have been more people, more cars and more occasions at the subject house. Mr. Krebs added that the answers that were provided directly contradict information in the special use application, narrative and application for variation. He added that the current use of the property is not consistent with residential usage and leads to traffic interference on the streets, alters the essential character of the neighborhood, could be detrimental to public welfare, and could be a hazard or disturbing to future use.”

The fifth and final allegation from the Korean staff shepherds in Korea in 1976 is that the UBF ministry depended entirely on one man, Lee.

The claims were:

• Paralyzed function of UBF committees
• Dictatorship style leader’s meetings

What follows these claims in the 1976 letter is a rather long and severe rebuke, recounting Lee’s teaching methods and actions. I will leave my readers to read this for their own if they choose.

I will simply conclude this series of reviewing the 1976 UBF reform letter with the Korean shepherds’ own words:

We have wrongfully thought you are the spiritual father of UBF. You take advantage of your authority as the spiritual father, teacher and leader of UBF. However, God, our lord, is the only father, teacher and master. We are all brothers (Matthew 23:8-11). We understand that you should be respected as a spiritual father to establish spiritual order. Saint Paul also called Timothy son. The equality in UBF is, however, broken. Under the broken equality, calling you a spiritual father leaves UBF members in the relation of master and servant. You are nothing but a cult leader because you tried to become God. As a result, Satan works in UBF in several areas. We cannot but conclude that your words and deeds are tied up to the evil spirit of lying, killing, and fear (Roman 8:15).

Shepherd Lee! You might think that we lead a rebellion against you for political reasons or we are Satan led by one shepherd. We, including you, should repent together before God. You know well that UBF becomes a problem as a cult in our society. You made an excuse saying that UBF is strict. You also criticize the religious leaders. Why, then, do you flatter them by spending money inviting them? We cannot but think that you flatter them because you fear the disclosure of UBF’s wrongdoing.

We will not keep silent about all the evil in the name of God’s glory. We will not allow the evil ministry that idolizes you and manipulates our sheep. We pray that you repent and resign from UBF. This is the only way to restore the ministry of UBF for the glory of God. We are going to wholeheartedly pray for  you. Please pray for us that we might continue to serve the ministry of God. We sincerely pray that the Lord of Lords, the righteous God, may win the victory.

April 15, 1976

Samuel H. Lee
Barnabas Chang
Peter Suh
Nathaniel Ahn
Matthew Sohn
Joseph Lee
Jonah Kim

As a former Director in UBF and member for 24 years (1987 to 2011), it is very easy for me to see how the claims against Lee can be levied against numerous current UBF leaders and in fact against the official teachings and practices of UBF as an organization. It is even more apparent to me that a core problem in UBF is doctrinal error. The teaching of UBF, and the methods used to perpetuate that teaching, are indeed non-Biblical. This is extremely ironic, given the inordinate amount of time dedicated to Bible study in UBF. But even that is not so ironic to me. It is very easy to see that “Bible study” in UBF is not critical thinking or exploritive learning, but is almost exclusively “Pavlovian response technique” and “Bible memorization”. UBF repeatedly trains people to ask certain questions based on certain Bible passages until they can respond in the UBF-ordained manner.

But I’m getting ahead of myself…

1976 Allegation #4 – Non-Biblical Education Methods

Forced Repentance

CLAIM: The 1976 claim was that Samuel Lee ordered a missionary candidate to put red pepper in his eyes and bang his head on a wall to demonstrate his repentance. The letter also claims many more physical abuses, but does not name them.

FACTS: The forced repentance is well-known in UBF and well-documented. In the book “Churches that abuse“, a statement is recorded: “Preparation for Summer Conference [in UBF] usually reached fever pitch the three weeks prior to the event. It was during these times that extensive spiritual manipulation and indoctrination occurred. Lee would meet nightly with all the UBF staff, accusing some of “playing Satan,” and actually saying that he had prayed they would die if they did not repent.”

COMMENT: The 1976 Korean shepherds said it best: “Missionaries who experienced inhumane training have bitter and askew hearts. We can not bear it any longer. Isn’t repentance originated by the Holy Spirit?”

Forced testimony sharing

CLAIM: The 1976 letter acknowledges that testimony sharing can be used as a good educational method through which we can accept God’s word into our hearts. The claim is that Samuel Lee abuse this method, forcing shepherds to confess their sin so that he could give them some kind of suffering or penance, and so that he would know their weak points.

FACTS: UBF teaches a “shape up or ship out” attitude.

COMMENT: Coercion is a major contradiction of Jesus’ teaching methods. Such forcing of testimonies is a form of BITE control.

Personal (Lee) philosphy

CLAIM: The 1976 letter claims that the essence of Christianity is Jesus’ death on the cross and his resurrection, and that this essence was tainted by Lee’s overstressing of Genesis Bible study. The claim was that this resulted in Bible study methods that were not those of Apostle Paul or of Jesus. They further claim that Lee’s personal philosophy was infused into messages and Bible materials in a way that blocked free and creative thinking, and as such, hindered the faith of students.

FACTS: Nearly all the question sheets and messages used for UBF Bible study are heavily influenced directly (almost verbatim) from Samuel Lee’s material. Some recent effort has been made to create new material, but such effort is simply a rewording of Lee’s material at best.

COMMENT: 24 years of UBF study and UBF life clearly demonstrates to me that Lee’s philosophy is very much alive. If you don’t believe me, then read the UBF 50th Anniversary book. A precious few leaders in UBF in 2012 have begun to question the Genesis-based philosophy that permeates UBF.

Inhumane training

CLAIM: The 1976 claim was that Samuel Lee was absorbed with all kinds of training, to the point of becoming proud, thinking himself to be the best trainer in the world. They claim that Lee’s training was spiritual, mental, emotional and physical abuse, using harsh language, beatings and torture. The claim was that this resulted in all UBF shepherds becoming nearly identical and also universally feeling horror, guilt, shame and self-accusation.

FACTS: The UBF motto is declared on their UBF history page: “We are soldiers of the Lord Jesus Christ. By correctly handling the word of God, we want to establish a Christian view of life.  We are soldiers of the Lord Jesus Christ. For the sake of Bible Korea and World Mission, we participate in the sufferings of Christ voluntarily.” Such soldier mentality was not accidental. Thinking and living like “holy soldiers” gives rise to submitting to inhumane suffering as training.

UBF further admits to training shepherds in Korea to be “pillar-like”… “But from 1967 we trained students and raised them up as messengers. Through this training, student leaders grew to be independent Bible teachers. Even after graduation, they continued to study the Bible and struggled to live according to the word of God and later grew to be pillar-like shepherds in each UBF center.”

COMMENT: Again the 1976 Korean shepherds have the most appropriate comment: “You are proud that you are the best trainer in the world. We have been proud that we have wonderful trainer like you. What are the fruits of your training for the last 10 years? You were proud that you chose us from the best intellectuals. We tried our best to accept your training. But according to you, we turned out to be useless. Is there any problem in your training?”

Here is a presentation from 2005 regarding the teaching of “business mission” by some high-level UBF missionaries:

UBF Business Mission

UBF has already created some businesses and front-groups, especially in Europe.

Bible Study front-groups

Seed at Penn State:
http://seed.pennstateubf.org/

Seed at NYU:
http://www.nyuseed.com/

Seed at University of Waterloo:
http://seedsofwaterloo.blogspot.com/

Narrow Gate at University of Toledo:
http://www.utchristians.com/index.php/resources/biblestudymaterials/cat_view/14-narrow-gate-resources

UBF Club at York University:
http://www.yorkubf.org/XE/Forum/3162

“EMPNG” – Empowering The Next Generation:
http://www.empoweringubfnewgen.org/

Medical Mission:
http://www.ubfmedicalmission.com/

ABC Bible Study Group:
https://sites.google.com/site/bonnubfabcbibelkreis/

Businesses:

Honors Review: Princeton Branch (New Jersey ties)
http://princetonhonors.com/en/?page_id=72

“5L2F” – 5 Loaves & 2 Fish Orchestra (New Jersey/Germany ties):
http://newjerseyubf.org/fiveloavestwofish

CO-WORLD GmbH: Ximeta Technology partner (defunct?; Germany ties)
http://www.coworldcs.com/en/products/sd_dualdrive.php Note: CO-WORLD stands for “conquer the world” per the UBF Business Mission document link above.

FIAA GmbH (precursor to Nest41?; New Jersey and Bonn/Germany ties)
http://www.linkedin.com/company/fiaa-gmbh
http://www.fiaagames.com/

Nest41 GmbH (successor of CO-WORLD GmbH?; Germany ties)
http://www.nest41.com/company_1.php
Note: The “41” is curiously similar to the Business Mission prayer topic to raise 100,000 UBF missionaries by 2041.

UBF employs a business-like, B.I.T.E model of ministry which has become a religious machine intended to produce super-apostles to lead the world. UBF activities are geared toward behavior control, information control, thought control and emotional control.

These seminar presentations have the look and feel of a classroom-style lesson. Could these be the foundation for the textbooks to be used in the new private schools: UBF K-12 curriculum, UBF University (as mentioned on  page 150 of the “blue book”)?

Here is a summary of teachings from Lecture 101:

1. The success of UBF comes from a great strategy (slide 6).

2. The UBF lifestyle is an endless cycle of work (slide 8).

3. UBF fishing is done in order to keep the UBF workforce young and dynamic (slide 15).

4. One purpose of UBF fishing is to reproduce 2 UBF people, derived from a woman’s average number of children (slide 17).

5. Another purpose of UBF fishing is to hand down the UBF ministry to children of UBF people (slide 18).

6. The odds are against UBF fishing being fruitful (slide 40).

7. UBF fishing is intended to make a good impression and break down emotional defenses (slide 47).

8. UBF fishing is an exercise in ruling situations (slide 52).

I will leave it up to my readers to see what UBF officially teaches in these lessons. Such things make me sick, and I never would have believed all this was official teaching, except that I lived UBF for many years.

I’ll just leave it to this picture from one of the UBF presentations. I think this says it all…

And this slide makes it clear that UBF really, really, really wants to raise super-apostles:

And what does this teach? If this is serious, it is bad. If it is a joke, it’s even worse:

And yes, UBF is attempting to follow a pyramid-scheme model of making disciples:

Screen-captures of the presentations:

ubf-lecture101

ubf-lecture102

ubf-lecture103

Official UBF links:

2010 Leadership Forum Presentations

Seminar 101: Introduction to Outreach and Fishing

Seminar 102: Hardcore Contents of 1:1 Bible Study

Seminar 103: Discipleship Explored

Bonn UBF Public Presentations

Three times in the Bible we find God gave His chosen people the message: I desire mercy, not sacrifice. Each time God gave this message, His royal priesthood had fallen into strict legalism. I therefore believe God’s message to UBF today is the same, God desires mercy, not sacrifice.

First, the prophet Hosea spoke God’s message to Israel in a time of crisis. In Hosea’s time, Israel was in a crisis. Hosea says that it was God who had “torn them to pieces”, the very people who were God’s treasured possession. God had injured them. Through Hosea, God called Israel to “Come, let us return to the LORD. He has torn us to pieces but he will heal us; he has injured us but he will bind up our wounds.” (Hosea 6:1) Why did God do such a thing to the very people He called and loved? Why did God injure his holy nation, his royal priesthood? Hosea tells us why: “For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.” (Hosea 6:6).

Second, Jesus spoke God’s message to people of God who separated themselves from unclean people.  Once Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house with tax collectors and other “sinners” (Matthew 9:10). The Pharisees could not understand why Jesus would eat with such people who had lost their godliness. The Pharisees had a noble desire to be holy. They hated anything that was unclean. Why then did Jesus eat with people who lived such unclean lives? Jesus tells us why: “But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Matthew 9:13)

Third, Jesus spoke God’s message to people of God who taught people to obey God. The Pharisees taught people to know the Bible and to live according to its teachings. They taught people to obey God and respect the Sabbath. Why then did Jesus rebuke them? Jesus tells us why: “If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent.” (Matthew 12:7)

Paying respect to the dead is one thing. Taking group photos and creating a special service in a cemetery… that’s disturbing to me. It always has been, and probably always will be. As an American from the midwest, I just have not seen such behavior except for my prior religious organization.

The photos and reports are here:

http://www.ubf.org/content/memorial-service-late-dr-samuel-lee

http://www.ubf.org/content/9th-annual-founders-day-program-chicago

What is so disturbing?

1. I’m disturbed by the yearly glorification of a man who died in 2002. If there was a public, realistic mention of that man’s life, I might not be so disturbed. As it is, every year in October, the man is glorified as if he had no shortcomings. Not only is there a memorial service, there is a religious holiday being developed around the event called “Founders Day”.

2. I’m disturbed by the “spiritual Godfather” power struggle. If you know the people in the photos at the gravesite and notice how they are sitting/standing, you will clearly see that there are quite a few top leaders in UBF who love power and authority. The photos are not random; each leader specifically is sitting or standing in the spot that portrays their own power and authority (except for the few Americans there who are probably unaware of such a power struggle)

I see these yearly events as not merely paying respect to a dead person. I see them as a display of religious power.

A recent report on the history of Asia pioneering is a clear example of what I’m talking about. Here is an excerpt for the positive-only UBF report:

“She offered her five loaves and two fish for HK pioneering mission. As a result, HK UBF has grown rapidly by raising 6 native Sunday messengers and more than 115 Sunday worshipers. Now 5 chapters are having worship service independently and 6 Korean missionaries are co-working together. We thank and praise God for using M. Angela so preciously as a mother of prayer for HK campus souls.” (source)

However, in spite of the rosy picture painted by the UBF report, the reality is very different from their perception. Clearly there has been an ongoing exodus of leaders in Hong Kong UBF. The report also includes glorious-sounding words about India UBF, completely glossing over the exodus of leaders that happened there recently.

The UBF reporter and those who posted the report and those who approved the report all know about the painful reality going on for more than a decade in Hong Kong. Yet the UBF report focuses on the sacrificial life of one missionary and ignores the division completely, just as the majority of UBF leaders continue to ignore any differing opinions regarding their ministry methods and beliefs. I pray that UBF leaders will face the facts and begin to report honestly and factually.

Praise God and ignore division? Serve God and forget about your neighbor? Sacrifice your life and mitigate the mercy of God? I don’t think so. Abraham repented of doing such things, and was blessed for it. We dare not talk about faith and serving God and obeying Christ if we cannot face the facts of our reality. How can I claim to know God if I do not attempt reconciliation, love my neighbor and fall at the mercy of God? We are in danger of becoming mystical fools if we do not face the facts of our situation.

“Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead–since he was about a hundred years old–and that Sarah’s womb was also dead.” Romans 4:19 (NIV84)

Pre-reading for this lesson is Genesis 1 and 2, Psalm 65 and Chapter 15 (part b) of “Systematic Theology” by Wayne Grudem: “Creation is Distinct from God Yet Always Dependent on God”. Also pre-reading is Psalm 103:19-22, Matthew 4:1-12, Revelation 15 and “Jesus: Infinitely Superior to Angels” by John Piper.

The Bible begins with these words:

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Genesis 1:1

God must have existed prior to His creation to be its Creator. The Psalms have much to say about God’s creative power bringing everything into existence. The heavens and the earth testify that God is Sovereign and has all power and authority over His creation.

God not only created the visible world, but many things that are unseen. God is the sovereign ruler of both the seen and the unseen worlds.

19 The LORD has established his throne in heaven, and his kingdom rules over all. 20 Praise the LORD, you his angels, you mighty ones who do his bidding, who obey his word. 21 Praise the LORD, all his heavenly hosts, you his servants who do his will. 22 Praise the LORD, all his works everywhere in his dominion. Praise the LORD, O my soul.” Psalm 103:19-22

One important part of the unseen creation is the created beings called angels. We often may try to help someone or we may feel helpless in certain life situations. Have we forgotten that angels are everywhere? Do we realize God’s angels serve and minister to believers?

“Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?” Hebrews 1:14

Christian Doctrine Series:
Lesson 1: Scripture – Be Armed! Lesson #1
Lesson 2: God – Be Armed! Lesson #2
Lesson 3: Jesus – Be Armed! Lesson #3
Lesson 4: Holy Spirit – Be Armed! Lesson #4

For example, there is a lecture entitled “Independent Mindset”, which explains some reasons why UBF kept separated from mainline churches (and apparently will continue to do so). That lecture also documents the creation of a “culture of mature actions”, which includes actions such as “marriage by faith”. The “mature actions” are not defined, just documented partially.

Back to my original reason for today’s post: more quotes from the concluding lecture of this book. As I read this lecture several times, I just could not believe what I was reading. I had heard the criticisms against UBF for many years. But I always dismissed one of the biggest criticisms: replacing grace with works in regard to salvation. I thought, even up to yesterday, that this criticism had no basis. Well, we can now judge for ourselves whether this criticism has any merit.

“From the 1990s, we made every effort to find better ways and alternatives to serve this generation.”

Every effort? I was there. I saw no effort, other than a few appeasing actions, such as allowing some modern songs instead of demanding only hymn songs at Sunday worship service.

“However, we have not found alternatives better than one-to-one Bible study, Daily Bread, testimony writing, a life giving spirit with five loaves and two fish, a pioneering spirit, a community spirit, and a self-supporting spirit that we have had from the beginning of UBF history. Nobody can deny that those works are the best ways to raise disciples and missionaries who can preach the gospel.”

Nobody can deny this? So the mass exodus in various major chapters around the world this year is because these “best ways” worked so well? Oh wait, they are the people mentioned in part 1 of this lecture: “Co-workers who were once great in their faith fall into the temptations of sin. Some became tempters to knock down the faith of others.”

The lecture goes on to bind the works of UBF to God’s work. Then, after tying these “best ways” to “the eternal truth of God’s words”, we have this rather amazing statement:

“When we continue to stand firm on the truth of the Bible without being swayed in this changing generation, what great hope and blessing will be given to us through the Bible? First, the holy Scriptures are able to make you wise for salvation. Look at verse 15 “…and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.” Wisdom for salvation!”

Do you see the binding going on? Surely, the Scriptures do make us wise for salvation. But how does UBF say we should find such wisdom? It is through the “best ways” described above. According to UBF, we are to be bound to their “best ways” because the “best ways” are bound to the Holy Scriptures. And in fact, there is no alternative since UBF leaders have not found anything better. Well, in one Bible study at my new church, I found something better: the grace of God.

To make this plain and simple, and to remove all the Christianized wordings: UBF teaches salvation by works. The blue book is proof.

And in case you missed it, all the attendants in Korea at the celebration took a vow to commit themselves to this work.

So now we have an official, codified blue book of the UBF belief system. It describes things like creating a UBF University, empowering Korean children and how wonderful and necessary it is to do various UBF activities. The concluding message from the Korean director made me extremely troubled and inspires me to pray all the more for anyone propagating the UBF machine.

The passage of this final message is 2 Timothy 3:1-17 and titled “Terrible times and the Bible”. Part one is entitled “Have nothing to do with them” (1-9). Part two is entitled “Continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of” (10-17).

So what is so troubling about this message? The message begins by paraphrasing these verses:

“1 But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God– 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.”

Here are some quotes based on these verses:

“This is the picture of the crisis that our church community confronts today.”

“Many are losing their identity as a royal priesthood and a holy nation.”

Then the message continues by emphasizing verse 14:

“14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, 15 and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.”

A few more quotes:

“However, the spirit that worked in the UBF ministry for the past 50 years didn’t come from the ideas of Dr. Samuel Lee or Mother Barry. It was not a typical UBF spirit, but the eternal truth of God’s words.”

“Therefore, we should continue in the truth that we learned and stand firmly on it. Those who do not continue in the truth will lose the power of godliness and will join in the sinful trend of the world.”

News flash to the world: If you are not doing UBF activities (i.e. the life-giving spirit, a humble mind, one-to-one Bible study, writing testimonies and sending out lay missionaries, otherwise known as the “eternal truth of God’s words”), then you do not have the power of godliness and you are a sinner following the ways of the world.

The message goes on with several more pages of examples from UBF history of those who kept the “eternal truth of God’s words”.

Clearly I made the right choice to get my family away from this group. This new blue book from UBF is a perfect example of binding people’s consciences to a set of ideas from the Bible. For 24 years, I always heard how thankful people were to Samuel Lee and Sarah Barry for the spiritual practices they had developed in UBF.

Now, 50 years after Lee and Barry began a good work, we are supposed to believe that those practices are not from Lee and Barry, but from God as his “eternal words of truth”? The blue book is nothing more than a tool to bind UBF activity to the word and work of God. However, the world created by God is not “UBF holy nation people” and “anti-UBF sinners”. The world and the people in it belong to God.

I for one will not submit to UBF authority nor do any UBF activity.

Today I’m publicly repenting of having Bible study with a stuffed animal! This is quite embarrassing, but alas, I did follow this direction in 2004. I actually bought a stuffed bear from the campus shop. I had two Bible studies with it. And I reported these as real Bible studies, as if they were college students.

I used to defend my prior organization by saying that kind of weird stuff happened only in the 1970’s. All the while I was denying the fact that I was propagating the same flawed ideas. But I had to produce numbers somehow, and that was one solution I was given.

I had such a hard time in the past with studying the Holy Spirit because 1) pneumatology was not highly regarded by my church (and even despised) and 2) we always asked the wrong question. We normally asked “What is the Holy Spirit?”. So we didn’t really get the correct answers. We should have been asking “Who is the Holy Spirit?” and “What does the Holy Spirit do?”.

The pre-reading for this lesson was John 14:15-21 and John 16:1-15, as well as chapter 1 of “The Mystery of the Holy Spirit” by R. C. Sproul. The discussions centered around the names for the Holy Spirit, the nature of the Person of the Holy Spirit and the work of the Holy Spirit.

The memory verse for this lesson is John 15:26 “When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me.”

This lesson 4 supplemented my own study of the Holy Spirit, which has been ongoing for several months now. I am convinced that a church body must introduce Jesus to people who don’t know him. And just as important, if not more, a church body must introduce the Holy Spirit to people who know Jesus. Yes, the Spirit is present the moment we believe, “Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit” (Ephesians 1:13-14) Yet it is possible to live many years as a Christian without meeting the Spirit face to face. We can keep the Spirit in the background of our lives, resisting (Acts 7:51), quenching (1 Thessalonians 5:19), grieving (Ephesians 4:30), insulting (Hebrews 10:29) or even blaspheming (Matthew 12:31-32) the Holy Spirit.

Christians can live (but don’t have to) like wounded soldiers, dwelling in the sacrifice and suffering of our Christian life, missing the greater joy, power, peace, purpose and hope our Lord wants us to have. When we hinder the work of the Spirit in our Christian lives, we are like Apollos in Acts 18 who was well-versed in Scripture, but only knew John’s baptism. It is clear to me that Priscilla and Aquila introduced Apollos to the Holy Spirit (or at least he met the Holy Spirit through their help).

Acts 18:24-28 “24 Meanwhile a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was a learned man, with a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures. 25 He had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and he spoke with great fervor and taught about Jesus accurately, though he knew only the baptism of John. 26 He began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they invited him to their home and explained to him the way of God more adequately. 27 When Apollos wanted to go to Achaia, the brothers encouraged him and wrote to the disciples there to welcome him. On arriving, he was a great help to those who by grace had believed. 28 For he vigorously refuted the Jews in public debate, proving from the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ.”

When a Christian realizes the Holy Spirit is present, waiting to do amazing work, he or she is able to go beyond “speaking boldly in the synagogue”. A person who submits to the Holy Spirit is able to powerfully understand the Scriptures and prove that Jesus is the Christ. Such a person becomes a “great help to those who by grace had believed”. In other words, Christians can only be effective evangelists and disciple-makers when they submit to the Holy Spirit.

R.C. Sproul’s description of his intense prayer and vow to God to win his unbelieving fiancé to Christ is a similar story. R.C. tried so hard to introduce Christ to his unbelieving girlfriend. He wrote: “I locked myself in my room and entered into a vigil of intercessory prayer. I made the pleas of the importunate widow in Jesus’ parable seem mild by comparison.” He loved this woman so much! He had already proposed to her and she was now his fiancé. He desperately tried everything he could to make her believe before they were married so that they would not be “unequally yoked”. In fact he envisioned that he would write her name in the Book of Life himself! He reminded himself of Matthew 11:12 “From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it.” Yet she did not believe. Only when this woman went to a prayer meeting and met God herself did she believe. At that prayer meeting she said, “Now I know who the Holy Spirit is.” R.C. noted that these were not the words of a trained theologian, but the observation of a fresh convert to the Christian faith.

In looking back on this event, R.C. Sproul expounded on the Holy Spirit’s person and work in light of 1 Corinthians 2:9-14:

“9 However, as it is written: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him”– 10 but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 11 For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. 13 This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. 14 The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15 The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man’s judgment: 16 “For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.”

Names

The names of the Holy Spirit are fascinating. Just as Jesus has many names, so does the Holy Spirit: Names of the Holy Spirit

Person

The Holy Spirit is a person, the third Person of the Trinity (Genesis 1:2; Isaiah 9:6; Acts 5:3-4). The Spirit is not a “force” nor an “energy” (though power does come from the Spirit). In the Scripture, the Spirit is not referred to as an “it” or inanimate object, but as a person. We can lie to the Spirit (Acts 5:3) and we can grieve the Spirit by our actions (Ephesians 4:30).

The Holy Spirit indwells those who have trusted in Christ for their salvation (1 Corinthians 6:19). When people believe in Christ as Lord and Savior, they receive God’s Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38), with whom they are sealed. This is a guarantee of the hope of eternal life (Ephesians 1:13-14). Jesus taught his followers that the Holy Spirit would be in them (John 14:17).

Works

Here is a summary of the work of the Holy Spirit (this is not intended to be a complete or comprehensive list):

1. To empower: The Spirit gives life, giving and sustainging human and animal life (Psalm 104:30), new life in regeneration for those who are saved (John 3:6-7), empowerment for service (Deuteronomy 34:9), power to witness (Acts 1:8) and grace distributed in gifts (1 Corinthians 12; Ephesians 4).

2. To purify: The Spirit purifies through convicting (John 16:8-11), sanctification (1 Corinthians 6:11) and bearing fruit (Galatians 5:22-26).

3. To reveal: In the Old Testament, the prophets were carried along by the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:21). The New Testament apostles were guided into all truth by the Holy Spirit (John 16:13). The Spirit reveals and glorifies Jesus (John 16:14) and bears witness to Jesus (1 John 4:2). The Spirit guides (Galatians 5:16-26), manifests (Romans 5:5; Romans 14:17) and teaches (John 14:26; 1 Corinthians 2:12).

4. To unify: The Spirit does not bring about uniformity but unity in the Lord (Acts 2:44-47; Philippians 2:1-2). When we put the Spirit’s gifts into our Lord’s service, we allow this unifying work to happen (1 Corinthians 12:7) in answer to Jesus’ high priestly prayer (John 17:1-26).

5. To testify: The Holy Spirit gives stronger or weaker evidence of the presence and blessing of God, according to our response to Him. The Spirit can be grieved. We are to set our minds on the things of the Spirit (Romans 8:4-6) and walk according to His guidance (Romans 8:12-16).

Romans 8:12-17 is a fitting conclusion. Our obligation as Christians is to live according to the Holy Spirit (the wonderful guarantee and deposit and gift God has given!). This obligation is not just to overcome impure sins, but it is also to overcome religious sins. Why do we think we need to let the Spirit purify us, but don’t need to let the Spirit do ministry work? Why do we demand so much control over religious piety, insisting on knowing exactly what will happen through our programs?

“12 Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation–but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. 13 For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, 14 because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” 16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. 17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs–heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

Christian Doctrine Series:
Lesson 1: Scripture – Be Armed! Lesson #1
Lesson 2: God – Be Armed! Lesson #2
Lesson 3: Jesus – Be Armed! Lesson #3

One of the quotes on John Michael Talbot‘s Facebook page recently was this:

Luke 11:42-46 “Often we are like the lawyers who say when Jesus attacks the Pharisees, “Surely you do not mean us too?” He then turns on them to list their sins as religious leaders. The Pharisees wanted to look religious and get respect for their religion without understanding the spiritual heart of religion. Similarly, the Lawyers placed unnecessary religious ritual burdens on people they did not seek to relieve in favor of real spirituality. Sometimes we do the same in the Church. Do we sometimes say to Jesus, “Surely you do not mean us too?” Sorry, but sometimes He does!”

These thoughts express the reasons I began repenting a lot this year. This year, I realized I had become one of the dreaded Pharisees I had criticized in Bible studies for two decades. I had come to find comfort in the fact that I was not as bad as the Pharisees. I cherished the comfort I found in my own piety. I justified my thinking, my actions and my beliefs. I became so proud of the organization I belonged to, only to turn around and see Jesus looking at me and speaking the words of Luke 11:42-46.

42 “Woe to you Pharisees, because you give God a tenth of your mint, rue and all other kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God. You should have practiced the latter without leaving the former undone.

43 “Woe to you Pharisees, because you love the most important seats in the synagogues and respectful greetings in the marketplaces.

44 “Woe to you, because you are like unmarked graves, which people walk over without knowing it.”

45 One of the experts in the law answered him, “Teacher, when you say these things, you insult us also.”

46 Jesus replied, “And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them.

First, a small book published in 1991 called “Churches That Abuse” by Dr. Ronald Enroth features UBF as a case study in chapter 5.

Public link:
Churches That Abuse (PDF)

Local link:
Churches_that_Abuse

Second, a presentation prepared in 2008 by Professor Scott Moreau (of Wheaton College) entitled “A Personal Case Study in Partnership: My relationship with University Bible Fellowship”.

Public link:
Partnership Case Study about UBF

Local link:
Partnership_Case_Study-Moreau_&_UBF

Professor Moreau’s final slide is very appropriate to my situation. As of 2011, I can safely say that UBF still need’s major work on these areas mentioned by Professor Moreau:

1. UBF has to develop a concrete ecclesiology.

2. UBF Christians should make it a rule constantly to examine themselves and publicly discuss their administrative problems.

3. It is imperative that UBF respect each person’s individuality and conscience and help them develop true freedom in Christ.

As I already shared, I learned today about what kinds of questions we should be asking during Bible study discussions. We should be asking discovery and learning-type questions which allow someone to find the truth about Jesus. In contrast, my approach to Bible study for as long as I can remember, was to dictate truth about Jesus. This kind of approach might help me, but is quite ineffective for leading others to a correct understanding of God’s messages.

The pre-reading for today’s lesson is: Colossians 1:15-23, Hebrews 9:11-28, Isaiah 52:13-53:12 and John 15:1-17, as well as chapters 8, 9 and 10of the book “In Christ Alone” by Sinclair B. Ferguson.

The Biblical identity of Jesus is that he is the Son of God. Hundreds of years before Jesus was born, prophets like Isaiah foretold Jesus’ identity, purpose and work. Jesus was fully God and fully human. His incarnation was not the beginning of his life. Jesus exists in all eternity and by Him all things were created. Jesus came to be the Messiah, to do the work of saving sinners. Jesus paid the price for sin required due to the Fall of man.

Genesis 15 was shared by Pastor Wayne before the table discussions. This intrigued me greatly, and revealed a wonderful truth about Jesus from Abraham’s covenant with God:

1 After this, the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.” 2 But Abram said, “O Sovereign LORD, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 And Abram said, “You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir.” 4 Then the word of the LORD came to him: “This man will not be your heir, but a son coming from your own body will be your heir.” 5 He took him outside and said, “Look up at the heavens and count the stars–if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” 6 Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness. 7 He also said to him, “I am the LORD, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take possession of it.” 8 But Abram said, “O Sovereign LORD, how can I know that I will gain possession of it?” 9 So the LORD said to him, “Bring me a heifer, a goat and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon.” 10 Abram brought all these to him, cut them in two and arranged the halves opposite each other; the birds, however, he did not cut in half. 11 Then birds of prey came down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away. 12 As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him. 13 Then the LORD said to him, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. 14 But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. 15 You, however, will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a good old age. 16 In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.” 17 When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces. 18 On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram and said, “To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates– 19 the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, 20 Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, 21 Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites.” Genesis 15:1-21

The covenant in this passage is similar to when a strong nation makes a covenant with a weaker nation. In ancient times, they would seal a covenant with the arrangement of animals cut in two pieces, and a trough of blood down the middle. The two parties would walk through the blood as a sign that “May I become like these animals if I break this covenant.”

The key point about Abraham’s covenant with God is that Abraham did not walk through the trough of blood. Only God went through (shown by the smoking firepot with a blazing torch). Abraham had fallen into a deep sleep! God was the one who went through the trough of blood, demonstrating the taking on the role of both parties. So if the covenant would be broken, God would pay the price. The covenant with Abraham’s descendants was, of course, broken by Abraham and his descendants. Mankind’s sin broke the covenant. And God paid the price as he promised, through Jesus Christ’s atoning sacrifice once and for all on the cross. Jesus is God who became broken to pay the price for our transgressions and to heal our wounds.

Christian Doctrine Series:
Lesson 1: Scripture – Be Armed! Lesson #1
Lesson 2: God – Be Armed! Lesson #2

The pre-reading for this lesson is Genesis 1, Isaiah 6, Acts 17:24-25 and Chapter 9 of “Systematic Theology” by Wayne Grudem (“The Existence of God: How do we know that God exists?” This study presents God as the compassionate, gracious, forgiving, loving, sovereign, powerful, righteous, holy and only God. The nature and attributes of God are discussed in terms of non-communicable (attributes that cannot be given to mankind) and communicable (attributes that God does share with His followers through the Holy Spirit).

Some non-communicable attributes of God, who created the heavens and the earth, are:

1. Independence/self-existence (aseity) – Acts 17:24-25 ” 24 “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else.”

2. Unchangeableness/immutability – James 1:17 “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”

3. Eternity – Psalm 90:2 “Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.”

4. Omnipresence – Deuteronomy 10:14 “To the LORD your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, the earth and everything in it.”

Some communicable attributes of God are:

1. Goodness – Psalm 34:8 “Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.”

2. Love – 1 John 4:8 “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”

3. Mercy – Exodus 34:6 “And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness,”

4. Holiness – Leviticus 19:2 “Speak to the entire assembly of Israel and say to them: ‘Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy.”

5. Peace – 1 Corinthians 14:33 “For God is not a God of disorder but of peace. As in all the congregations of the saints,”

6. Justice – Deuteronomy 32:4 “He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he.”

The memory verse for this week is Isaiah 55:8-9 “8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. 9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

This week’s challenge questions are: What areas of your life will you let God be Lord of? How will you express His rule in your life?

Christian Doctrine Series:
Lesson 1: Scripture – Be Armed! Lesson #1

The primary reason (in my opinion) for controversial and often bi-polar opinions about UBF is the undocumented UBF belief system. The public statement of faith for UBF is in line with Christianity. There is much organized effort to promote UBF as a Christian church. Yet, actions speak volumes about what UBF leaders really believe.

Today I am posting a list of undocumented doctrines UBF teaches by the actions of its leaders. If one was to read through the hundreds of UBF messages posted publicly, you might be able to discern these teachings. Having lived and breathed UBF for 24 years, I will save you the trouble. It is extremely rare to find any of these documented. Raising questions about these teachings is very problematic for a UBF member. Or, God forbid, if someone suggests a different way to go about putting these teachings into practice, it is tantamount to “spiritual suicide”, if you are a member of UBF. Fortunately, I no longer carry that burden.

Here is my list so that I don’t forget. I am also posting this list as a personal act of repentance. I not only believed these teachings, I promoted them absolutely for many years as a leader in UBF.

I will add to this as I recall various things. And I will use this to expound on each teaching. By posting this list, I am not implying that these teachings are good or bad (not yet). I am also not explaining how these differ from Scripture’s teachings (not today anyway).

1. Class system: sheep, shepherds, native leaders, Korean leaders

2. Directorship hierarchy: the idea of a tree structure of benevolent dictators.

3. Marriage by faith: Willingness to let a leader choose your future spouse.

4. Pioneering: Sending out one or more families to campuses around the world to setup a chapter of the organization, often without any valid support.

5. Covering: Willingness to cover all sins and not expose things that bother your conscience.

6. Loyalty to leaders: Willingness to obey and follow leaders above all other authority.

7. Separation: Willingness to be separated from friends, family and the world in order to join God’s true children.

8. Appeasement: Letting someone who speaks up have a task to do to keep them busy.

9. Propoganda: Speaking only positive things about leaders and the organization.

10. Duplicity: Willingness to ignore facts and adhere to double-standards, double-meanings and secret language.

11. Vertical communication: the idea that group discussion and communication methods (such as email) are bad.

A quick search finds two more verses in Scripture that mention love covering wrongs and offenses:

Proverbs 10:12 “Hatred stirs up conflict, but love covers over all wrongs.” (NIV)

Proverbs 17:9 “Whoever would foster love covers over an offense, but whoever repeats the matter separates close friends.” (NIV)

Because these verses do warn about bringing up matters of sin and wrongdoings repeatedly, I will not keep discussing specific sins of other people on this blog. However, I have no regret over revealing various wrongdoings the first time. Scripture does implore us to refrain from repeated regurgitations of the same sins. But Scripture does not implore us to “cover up every sin and never talk about past problems”. I see no evidence that Scripture wants us to prevent sins from being exposed. Nor do I see any evidence in Scripture that I am only allowed to speak in positive terms in regard to God’s servants or toward other people.

UBF has a rather dangerous (in my opinion) and undocumented interpretation of the verses above. When you become a leader in UBF or if you express concern over a leader’s sin or if you even question whether a leader did something wrong, you quickly discover this unwritten teaching called “covering over sin”.

This covering principle is very important to UBF leaders (especially the Korean missionaries). The teaching really should be documented as one of UBF’s major doctrines. The UBF teaching goes beyond what Scripture intended, and teaches that we must always present UBF and God’s servants in a positive light, even if the leaders made serious mistakes. The teaching goes even further, teaching that no one should say anything negative about UBF or leaders in UBF, because “love covers over a multitude of sins”. The teaching also includes a clause that allows a leader to say all kinds of negative things about people who left UBF, or about a Bible student who is disobedient.

In order to get the correct teaching and see through the duplicity of the UBF teaching, we need to “go back to the Bible”. Scripture does indeed call for balance when dealing with sins. Leaders who teach the Bible are indeed worthy of “double honor”. We are directed by Scripture to avoid gossip (Proverbs 11:13, Proverbs 16:28, 2 Corinthians 12:20). We need to be cautious about repeatedly raising mistakes leaders in the church have made.

At the same time, leaders who sin are to be reproved before everyone with the testimony of two or three witnesses. “17 The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching. 18 For Scripture says, ‘Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain,’ and ‘The worker deserves his wages.’ 19 Do not entertain an accusation against an elder unless it is brought by two or three witnesses. 20 But those elders who are sinning you are to reprove before everyone, so that the others may take warning. 21 I charge you, in the sight of God and Christ Jesus and the elect angels, to keep these instructions without partiality, and to do nothing out of favoritism.” (1 Timothy 5:17-21 NIV)

Scripture clearly implores us to walk in the light. The verses that warn against stirring up conflict do not negate these verses, for example: “6 If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. 8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” (1 John 1:6-8 NIV)

I am looking to Proverbs and many other passages in Scripture to find the Lord’s wisdom. I pray that this wisdom may guide and correct me as I work with a few friends, seek and follow the Spirit’s promptings, and embark on a massive project to explain, expose and examine the UBF belief system, both the documented and undocumented teachings.

“1 Do not boast about tomorrow,
for you do not know what a day may bring.

2 Let someone else praise you, and not your own mouth;
an outsider, and not your own lips.

3 Stone is heavy and sand a burden,
but a fool’s provocation is heavier than both.

4 Anger is cruel and fury overwhelming,
but who can stand before jealousy?

5 Better is open rebuke
than hidden love.

6 Wounds from a friend can be trusted,
but an enemy multiplies kisses.”

Proverbs 27:1-6 (NIV)

Please read all of Proverbs 27. this is one of my favorite Proverbs passages! Especially verse 14: “If anyone loudly blesses their neighbor early in the morning, it will be taken as a curse.”

Lesson 1 is entitled “Bibliology: Regarding the Scripture”. Required pre-reading for the study was Psalm 119:1-176, Isaiah 55:8-11, 2 Timothy 2:15, 2 Timothy 3:14-17 and two short publications: “Survey of Bible Doctrine” by Sid Litke and “Leading Even When You Don’t Feel It” by Perry Noble. Today’s post is a sharing of what I learned.

First of all, I learned some new vocabulary. I am not a fan of big words (just ask my wife!), but I see the importance of knowing and using correct words and meanings. The word “eisegesis” is “the interpretation of a text (as of the Bible) by reading into it one’s own ideas” (what someone says the Bible says). The word “exegesis is an “an explanation or critical interpretation of a text” (what the Bible teaches). For more than 20 years, I have had an eisegesis study of the Bible. As such, my Christian life became filled with contradictions. Yet I could not see those contradictions (though I could always sense a dark cloud of confusion and angst caused by the contradictions). Now, as I step back and start to listen to what the Bible teaches about the Bible (exegesis), I can see those contradictions more and more clearly. And the dark cloud is gone! The angst has turned into peace and confidence in the Lord.

Here are some things I wrote down during the discussions at this first lesson Bible study: The Bible is the truth and the complete and final truth. The Bible is our Christian canon. The Bible is the rule and standard I must measure up my beliefs and actions to. Study the Bible for transformation, not information. Let the Bible teach us. Righteousness is being right with God and right with people. Interpret the Bible with the Bible. Teaching, rebuking, correcting and training are good, but not in and of themselves (What good is a boxer who is well-trained but never enters the ring to fight?).

But among senior staff, the “r” does not mean reform. It means “rebels”. As a staff member, I heard the term “rebel” associated numerous times with people who left the ministry. Those who left are considered to have become rebellious toward God’s servants and toward God. Even those who left with a pact to “agree-to-disagree” are spoken of in terms of being rebellious in some way.

I have exchanged emails with many of the “r-group” people during my defense of UBF ministry. I did not admit it at the time, but I did not find them rebellious at all. Some were bitter and angry, indeed, and for good reason from what I could tell. But when I saw through the emotions, I could see facts.

Here is one of my favorite songs from the late ’80s by the Altar Boys, dedicated to all the “rebels” of the world. Our actions shout louder than any words. Yet sometimes we need the guts to speak.

Rebels, attention, can you hear me?
Man, we’ve got to take this message out in the streets
In this wilderness our voices must be heard
With everything we’ve got to be a light in this world

Rebels, attention, do you hear me?
It’s not easy I know, but you’ve got to stand with me
I’ve seen too many people fallen to the lies
The truth has to come from you and I

Chorus:
We’ve got to shout louder! louder!
Louder than the world!
Shout it straight from your hearts
Give it to them all you’ve got, shout it!

Hey rebels, attention! you can hear me
All the fired out brains and kids without names get to me.
I see them lying there in the city morgue
Mom and Dad’s wondering what went wrong?!

Hey rebels, I’m pleading did you hear me!
The way we live the way we love is everything
So what if I memorized every verse
We shout louder than the world by the way we serve!

Shout it! Make actions scream
Shout it! What this world needs
Shout it! Stick to our guns
Cause from our hearts (then) from our lungs.