authority | Recovering Grace

Personal testimonies of finding true freedom through God's matchless grace.

Articles about how Bill Gothard mishandles the Bible to support his legalistic viewpoint.

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An ATI Education, Final Chapter: Guilty Silence

4 January 2016, 14:55

Sara Jones

141

Was a woman raped? Don’t jump to her defense—God might hold her just as guilty as her attacker. In Wisdom Booklet 36, Gothard discusses the legal penalties for kidnapping, assault, battery, and rape. He writes: “God has established some very strict guidelines of responsibility for a woman who is attacked. She is to cry out for […]

An ATI Education, Chapter 5: We the People Under Authority

23 December 2015, 06:00

Sara Jones

Rejecting your God-given authority doesn’t just affect your personal life. It can destroy a whole nation. I mean, just look at the French Revolution! In Wisdom Booklet 18, Gothard spends several pages discussing the the 18th century French Revolution. He chose as his “chief cause” the fact that many intellectuals of the day had rejected […]

An ATI Education, Chapter 4: The Law of Grace

17 December 2015, 14:18

Sara Jones

“If a woman doesn’t cry out when she’s raped, God holds her equally guilty with her attacker.” Bill Gothard states this outright in Wisdom Booklet 36; hundreds of people, most of them well-meaning Christians, read and accepted it. I was one of them. I wrote this series for Recovering Grace to give a glimpse into the long, […]

An ATI Education, Chapter 2: Is It Just Me?

19 October 2015, 06:00

Sara Jones

102

“ATI is not user-friendly.” That was the opinion of one former Advanced Training Institute (ATI) student, now an adult, who skimmed over the materials that our parents had to work with. He was right. The Wisdom Booklets are the foundation of Gothard’s homeschool curriculum. There are 54 of them, and at a glance, they’re pretty impressive. […]

An ATI Education, Chapter 1: Under the Umbrella

15 October 2015, 06:00

Sara Jones

How do we grow in wisdom and character? How are we protected from temptation? How does God give us direction for our lives? Say it with me, ye thousands of Gothard’s alumni: “By staying under authority.” Authority is the foundational principle of Gothard’s worldview. “Our faith multiplies as we see how God speaks to us […]

Church Celebrities Who are Above Criticism: Bill Gothard

1 July 2015, 06:00

Moderator

144

“He deprives the trusted ones of speech And takes away the discernment of the elders.” (Job 12:20) In a post put up a couple weeks ago, I recounted how, in the late sixties, my dad, Joe Bayly publicly criticized Bob Jones University. He did so in his monthly column in ETERNITY Magazine. It was also […]

The Shame of Beauty

16 April 2015, 06:00

Moderator

141

Before I was born my parents started following the teaching of Bill Gothard and IBLP, and when I was 5, they joined ATI (Advanced Training Institute), the homeschool program that Gothard developed for the families of his Basic and Advanced Seminars. Gothard emphasized “principles” which simply meant there were many different rules that dictated specific activities in my […]

Sorry, Mom and Dad. We DO Have Regrets

22 January 2015, 06:00

Moderator

235

Growing up in ATI, our parents often told us, “Because of the way we’re raising you, you won’t have any regrets.” Their regrets included broken relationships, sexual sins, temptations, “wasted” years and the like. All of which we would to avoid because of our sheltered, carefully controlled upbringing. We don’t know if our parents honestly […]

An Open Letter to ATI Parents

12 January 2015, 16:58

Moderator

You wanted us to grow up strong and mature and capable and effective Christians, above all else. Thank you. You wanted us to love Jesus more than the world, you wanted to protect us from the failures your experienced at our age. Thank you. You wanted the absolute best for us and were willing to […]

IBYC Scandal in the News — 1980-1982

10 December 2014, 08:00

Moderator

1. Brief news clip in Eternity regarding IBYC resignations (July-August 1980) 2. The Bill Gothard Tragedy (Plains Baptist Challenger, August 1980) 3. ‘Sexual misconduct’ rocks Chicago-based ministry (The Dallas Morning News, 8/2/80) 4. Bill Gothard Steps Down During Institute Shakeup (Christianity Today, 8/8/80) 5. Evangelicals Feel Strain as Churches Adjust to Marriage Failures (Los […]