Since our readership has rapidly expanded over the past few years, and especially during the past few months, we want to take some time this summer to draw attention to earlier articles for those who may have missed them. Today's article was among those from our first few months and was published on Recovering Grace in August of 2011.
Merriam-Webster’s dictionary states karma as: The force generated by a person’s actions held in Hinduism and Buddhism to perpetuate transmigration and in its ethical consequences to determine the nature of the person’s next existence.
Eastern religions teach that once we die, we re-enter the cycle of life in a different form. If someone performs good deeds on earth (or good karma), then they will be reincarnated as something better in the afterlife. If someone does bad deeds on earth (or bad karma), then they will be reincarnated as a lower-level life form (animal, tree, etc).
In America, it is popular to leave out the afterlife and focus on the present life. The idea, “Do good things and good things will happen,” has become a philosophy deeply penetrating our society. If the face of tragedy, you will often hear something like this, “It’s such a shame. They were such good people,” or “He had it coming.” Americans believe in karma more than they know.
This comes into play for Christians when we replace “karma” with “God.” We begin to think, “Do good things and God will do good things for you.” God becomes this genie who stands ready to grant health, wealth, and prosperity for those who rub the lamp the right way. For some it may be “visualizing your dream,” or “believe and receive,” or “planting the seed of faith.” These popular preachers teach bad things happen because you are sinning somehow.
What does this have to do with Bill Gothard? On the first night of the Basic Seminar, Bill makes a series of statements: “Life is hooked up in a very delicate cause and effect sequence”…“Wisdom is tracing problems to violations of God’s principles”…“You’re having a problem here, because you’re violating a principle here.” Gothard then gives a testimony of how one man’s business troubles were the consequences of his immoral lifestyle. (He didn’t prove one caused the other, he just implied.) Bill then gave another illustration of a man who was having problems with his children because he had disrespected his own parents. Once again the message rings: Bad things are happening because you must have sinned.
At the same time, Gothard presents seven basic principles which he claims come from God’s word (In fact, he actually equates them with God’s law itself). The bottom line is simple: Follow these basic principles and your problems (conflicts) will go away.He even goes so far to claim that if you follow his principles, you will never have to borrow money. He also laid claim that mental illness could be cured by following his principle of Responsibility.
The last of the seven basic principles is Success. In the Basic Seminar Textbook (p. 135), Bill promises this if you follow his plan of scripture meditation, “You will have good success…Whatever you do will prosper…You will excel in wisdom and understanding…You will have new power over sin…You will discover how to live…Your success will be obvious to all.”
Due to these examples, Bill’s theology is based upon karma (an eastern religion) instead of the Bible. Allow me to give you three arguments from scripture which rebut Gothard’s teachings.
1. Limitations of the Old Testament Covenant
During the first night of the Basic Seminar, Gothard states twice that his cause-and-effect beliefs come from Deuteronomy 27 and 28. In this passage, God is reaffirming His covenant with the Children of Israel. Yes, God does promise to bless them if they obey Him and curse them if they don’t. However, three things need to be kept in mind here.
First, God made this covenant with the ethnic Jews, not Christians today. We are under the new covenant inaugurated in the death of Jesus Christ. Second, this covenant was not individual, but national. Notice in the book of Judges that when God’s people (as a whole) returned to Him, God blessed their land. It goes too far to say that God intends to individually bless good guys, while at the same time, cursing the bad guys. Thirdly, the blessings and curses were directly tied to the physical land of Canaan. So if you don’t live there, it doesn’t apply to you!
2. Good Things Happen to Bad People
Physical blessings are NEVER a good way to determine God’s favor. There are a lot of Americans out there who probably feel that God’s been good to them. And while all good DOES come from the hand of God, it doesn’t indicate that you are in a right relationship with God. Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, “He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” (Matt. 5:45) Experiencing God’s goodness reveals more about God than about you. God is still good, whether you are righteous or unrighteous.
You might be thinking, “That’s confusing!” You’re not the only one who has thought that. Psalm 73 introduces us to a guy named Asaph. Let’s read some of his thoughts, “For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. They have no struggles; their bodies are healthy and strong. They are free from common human burdens; they are not plagued by human ills.” (Ps. 73:3-5) Asaph was so confused when he saw bad people go through life without problems–especially when he, the good guy, had lots of them. “Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure and have washed my hands in innocence. All day long I have been afflicted, and every morning brings new punishments.” (Ps. 73:13-14)
However, this is nothing new. The book of Ecclesiastes paints a rather grim picture of life–that it’s full of pain and sorrow. The book of Job tells the story of a godly man who experienced more sorrow than any other story I’ve ever heard–it contains over 35 chapters of asking, “God, why?” In the book of Hebrews, the writer tells of all the heroes and heroines of Old Testament. They did all kinds of cool stuff and God blessed them in all kinds of ways. But halfway through the passage, the theme changes. “There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection. Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were put to death by stoning; they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated—the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground.” (Heb. 11:35-38)
3. Our Hope is in Heaven
You might be thinking, if God is good to the righteous and unrighteous, how is that just? Does it make ANY difference whether or not I obey God? To that I reply, “Not a lot here, but it makes ALL the difference in the next life.” Asaph reached that same conclusion. “…I entered the sanctuary of God; then I understood their final destiny. Surely you place them on slippery ground; you cast them down to ruin.” (Ps. 73:17-18) The writer of Ecclesiastes also had the same thought, “Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.” (Eccles. 12:13-14) Job was eventually blessed more than before. The writer of Hebrews also stated that those who did not receive the promise were to gain a better resurrection.
God DOES reward good and punish evil, but that doesn’t always happen now; most happens later. That’s why when Peter was writing to Christians experiencing tremendous conflict, he didn’t say, “Guys, you must have violated a principle somewhere.” Instead, he said, “Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.” (1 Pet. 4:12-13) Don’t miss that last part. One day we will be OVERJOYED. When? Not now, but when Christ is REVEALED in glory.
Don’t believe the lies of “Christian karma.” Instead, follow Jesus. And remember that following Jesus will not fix all your problems–some of them are just going to stick around until we reach heaven.
It will be worth it all when we see Jesus,
Life’s trials will seem so small when we see Christ,
One glimpse of His dear face, all sorrows will erase,
So bravely run the race ‘till we see Christ.
Bruce has spent several years in Christian ministry as a senior pastor, worship pastor, & youth pastor. He is working on a Masters in Divinity from one of the countries largest seminaries. He is happily married and has three children.
July 31, 2024
"Bill’s theology is based upon karma (an eastern religion) instead of the Bible."
According to his website, a testimony "shares with others how we have experienced the power of God in our lives through obedience to Christ’s commands." Nothing about sin. Nothing about the cross ... what a waste of a perfect, sinless life laid down for me, paying a price I could never pay. Nothing about love, redemption, mercy, grace, or compassion.
Too bad he doesn't even recognize what sets Christianity apart from every other religion. "Obedience" equals salvation. How sad. How blind. And how wrong.
And for the reasons stated in your comment, I have a hard time believing this poor man even knows Christ. He knows principles. He cherry picks scriptures. He misses the grace that has saved us through faith and that not of ourselves but it is a gift from God. Gift. That is what Bill Gothard misses. Gift. Obedience and works are what he knows. Sounds like the Catholic church I came out of. Poor guy.
Christian Karma is the theology of Job's friends with whom God was angry because they spoke wrongly about Him. The book of Job is what decimated the false theology of IBLP for me.
Samuel, I was also convicted of this when reading straight through Job early this summer. The unwise friends speak exactly like most of us. Job's only error was despair. The others were preaching quid pro quo: God is mechanistic.
Job's increasing revelation was of mediation, redemption, and justification while his friends only continued in their insistence of, "You get what you earned."
Job's increasing realization was of God's goodness, mercy, grace, and prophecy of His provision for sinful man. Job hinged his entire trust and life on the goodness and grace of God while his friends continued to sideline God as an immaterial force with great power who doled out consequences of karma and having little to no concern or care for sinful man needing redemption. They provided no message of salvation of grace through faith. Grace being the unearned, unmerited, undeserved gift from God of His working in the heart and faith being the answer from the heart of belief in God's goodness and trust in Him. All they provided was the answer of, "You get what you deserve."
That is not the plan of God--the plan of redemption--the plan of the Lamb, slain from the foundation of the world. That is not the plan of God redeeming man back to Himself.
In other words, they totally misrepresented God's character and God's plan to save undeserving sinners.
Yes...Yes...Yes!!!
I was always puzzled when I heard Christians bashing Karma. It seemed to go along with everything else that I was taught.
Growing up in conservative, fundamentalist and physically abusive home, I thought that I must have done something to deserve it. I was taught that you do certain things to get certain things.
Good things come to good people, and bad things come to bad people. Right???
Mr G taught "seed money": Where you give a certain amount of money to God, and He gives you back more until you don't even know what to do with all the money.
He taught that just as in physical kingdoms where you always bring a gift when you go into the presence of a king, when you come before God with a request, you do as well.
He taught that you give God your youth as single service, and He makes you happily married later on.
He taught that if a girl gives her heart to her father, then it won't get broken.
He taught that if you stay under your "God-given umbrella of protection", then things will go perfect for you.
It has only been this past month that I have been starting to realize that I was just an innocent child being treated wrongly. It is easy to write those words, but it is so much harder to believe them.
It still seems like I must have somehow been out from under the umbrella of protection and giving ground to Satan when I was mistreated as a four year old.
There was a song that we learned in Childrens Institute that had the line,
"You reap what you sow. You get what you grow..."
That really stuck in my mind as a little girl. I don't know the rest of the song. All I know is that those words still repeat on loop in my mind just as clear as they did as a child.
Job was not taught in the "Basic Principles".
Is not his story one of the MOST basic principles in the Bible? ...That this world is just messed up, period. Not why, or how, or what did you do to deserve this (That is what Jobs friends said who ended up getting scolded by God over it).
You do not always reap what you sow, NOR do you always get what you grow. Somehow I think that that is the whole reason for the Bible. Isn't that what Jesus was all about?
"He who knew no sin was made sin for us..."
Was Jesus out from under HIS umbrella?
Bruce, Thank you for not just writing an article that points out errors, but for telling the truth about God's love and GRACE in the midst of all these warped teachings.
ps. "It will be Worth it All" just ruined the entire piece :P
I don't think that the cause and effect that Bill Gothard teaches can really be traced to eastern religions and call it "karma". Now what BG does teach is very similar to WoF teaching which is equally as deadly to one's faith. The deadliness of this cause and effect is that one starts to view others in a judgmental way. When others around us have problems, we end up judging them like Job's friends did to him. Bad things do happen to good people and good things do happen to bad people. WoF people teach that God has all these goodies for you and if you don't have them (usually healing) then one had a negative confession or gave into the devil. The other problem with all of this is that when one does experience problems either you begin to blame yourself or you begin to get angry with God because He didn't perform the way you thought He should. This has roots in Christian Science. I think if your author is going to make references to eastern religions which I think was Buddhism here, it would be more credible to actually state what that faith may really teach than to boil it down to simple generalizations and platitudes. That then gives credibility to the point that BG's teaching is not historical Christian teaching in Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant theology. BG's teaching may actually have more similarities to Islam than Buddhism with a heavy emphasis on submission, cause and effect and second place status of women. God is portrayed in Islam as more of a master than a loving father which demands unquestioning submission to the will or else he will get you.
I am given to suspect, without engaging in serious research, that Islam is the perfect religion designed by man: There is a God and I am not him. There is justice and I should fear it. Submission to authority is devoted faithfulness. Faith without works is nonsensical. The weaker vessel can be dominated. God wants me to have all the sex I want, within the form of a marriage bond, no self-sacrifice required. God is alone and doesn't need relationship and I am made in His Image: relationally alone.
Of course, so much of Gothard's teaching tracked many of these mindsets because it is natural, in human understanding, to construct these systems of rules and authority. Such systems show up on all kinds of religions. It is one reason that in human logic it is easy to imagine a melding of all religions. Of course, it is all man-centered, with God only serving as a backdrop or motivating fear, like the judge in the courthouse.
Don, I am familiar with Islam and the culture it creates, and your descriptive statements are very accurate, especially that about sex and marriage, one of the reasons for the practice of polygamy (another is that a woman's best chance of paradise is through the prayers of her husband, so all women should be married). It is a very logical, practical religion. It is Christianity which seems fantastic, with one God in Three persons, a saviour who is fully God and fully human, forgiveness for sins freely granted to the offender, and one man and woman in a sacrificial-submissive marriage.
I find these comments to be fairly inappropriate... Recovering Grace is a place for people to come to terms with the false teachings of Bill Gothard, not a place to play "whose religion is better and whose is false and man-made". Islam teaches about a merciful and loving God of goodness, and doesn't, in my experience and knowledge (I live in an area with many Muslim people, some of whom are good friends, most of whom are women), emphasize obedience and submission any more than Christian scripture. Many hadiths and verses in the Kor'an emphasize caring for women and protecting the rights of women -- of course there are people who are fundamentalist and sexist in every religion.
Where is the idea that Islam teaches "as much sex as you want with no sacrifice" coming from? Many Muslims are flawed and confused just as many Christians are. Think of pastors like Mark Driscoll who are constantly preaching that if women don't perform oral sex for their husbands regularly, they're responsible if their husbands cheat. There are non-IBLP churches all over the world that teach women are second-class citizens with an obligation to always perform in the marital bed while their husbands lead them by the nose.
To pretend that Bill Gothard is a uniquely misled Christian, but ALL of Islam makes women second-class citizens, is an ignorant generalization. Just, blegh.
As I said, I am familiar with Islamic culture, i.e. have lived in such a culture outside of the Western world. The conversation was in the context of relating Gothard's legalism to other religions of works, one of which is Islam. Neither Don nor I denigrated Islam, instead agreeing that it was a logical outcome of man's reasoning.
The followers of Islam I knew would not have been offended by the description - indeed, I heard them say similar things. Those who find those things offensive, are judging the religion by standards outside of Islam. I have a high respect for the Islamic people I have been among, but no respect for men like Gothard, who claimed to believe the Bible but did not follow it.
Hi Erica,
Just wondering if you have read the Koran. I first studied it 30 years ago. I have copy in my library, along with a copy of the Bhagvad gita, the Teachings of Buddha, and other volumes. The Koran includes one chapter titled the Book of Women. It describes how woman should be treated. Interestingly, there is a chapter titled the Book of Cattle. It of course, describes how cattle should be treated.
I too have Muslim friends that have adapted to the west, and adopted a very mild form of Islam, however if you read the Koran, you will discover that heaven is only for men. The women there will be in heaven to provide sensual pleasures for men, if they are lucky. If they are not, they will be the human logs burning the fires of hell. Islam is not a religion that is welcoming to women.
There are many Christians who have treated women badly, but that is because of sinfulness, not because God has deemed women to be second class citizens in His Kingdom.
A great book that gives insight into the lives of millions of Muslim women is "In the Land of Blue Burkas" by Kate Mc Cord.
Erica, I accept your critique. Just understand hat my motivation is to make sense of what is false and what is true. Whether Morman (sex and procreative marriage in the spirit world of many gods), Muslim (a non-Trinitarian God) or Gothard (authoritarian spirituality), I seek to understand what is right and where people and religions get the marriage thing wrong.
I agree that many Muslims are commendable in their kindness. My specific motivation is to understand how the Trinity is distinguished from a man-made monotheism, how a communion of persons within the Trinity may be imaged by the Male-Female communion revealed as God-imaging in Genesis 1 and 2, and how the image of a God Who is Alone in His Nature would look vary different from a communion of persons.
My offensive claim that Islam favors sex without sacrifice (for males) is based on the many stories of rape victims being punished while the men are excused as well as the stories of the popularity of hymen reconstruction among Muslim brides to be, but I agree that all societies are given to the same misogyny so I apologize for singling out Muslims. Jesus famously confronted the same thing with the woman taken in adultery. Muslims just get all the press these days. I am sorry.
Yes, yes yes but I do think the karma thing is a reach.
But whatever happened to the scripture "whatsoever a man soweth that shall he reap"?
Are there consequences for sin, neglect, etc?
With out Christ we all certainly will be destined for consequences
I think your two last sentences capture the tension well: are there consequences for our actions? Sure. Doing drugs harms your body. Not brushing your teeth creates extra teeth problems, etc. The Old and New Testaments both encourage wise behavior, and mandate right behavior as opposed to sinful behavior.
But do you truly believe your last sentence? Is it without Christ, or is it without our own righteousness that we are "destined for consequences"?
Going back to verses we all know, but do we really know them - from Titus 3
Eph 2
Is there value to wise and right living? Yes, in many ways. Is there value to say, Stephen Covey's 7 habits or other personal management tools? Sure. Are there consequences to foolish and sinful behaviors? Yes, in many ways.
But is it our right living that sets us up for favor with God or puts us in right standing with him or earns us something extra with him? If we think that, then we have "fallen away from grace" as Paul wrote to the Galatians in Gal 5:4. When we are "in Christ Jesus" our "higher standards" and right living is of no value for setting us free from sin or making us right with God. The thing that we do from a place of resting in Christ is we let our faith express itself through love. But that is the outworking of our secure place in Jesus - it is not our ticket into the club.
Just thinking out loud, I think if we feel some amount of tension in between "I will to serve you, God" and "what extra bonus does that earn me in your kingdom?" then perhaps we can identify with where the disciples were at when Jesus told them the parable of the workers in the vineyard.
The verse you cite is Galatians 6:7. Verse 8 says: "8 For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life."
Here Paul says that if you sow apples, you'll get apples. If you sow oranges, you'll get oranges. If you sow to your corrupted adam, you'll get the rottenness that is adam. But if you sow to the Last Adam, the Spirit of Christ, you will reap the everlasting life of our Lord.
But the falsity of "Christian karma" (not that this thinking is rooted in karma, I agree, but that they both have their roots in the same lie) is that the apples and oranges are mixed: "If you are moral and do good things (a reductionist interpretation of sowing oranges, sowing to the Spirit), then you can expect to reap great physical benefits (a misplaced value on--and sense of entitlement to--the figurative apple: what is good for food, pleasant to look at, and desirable to make wise).
All good things come from God, and it is up to Him to decide what to bestow. If we think our deeds control the nature of His gifts, then we have imagined Him an idol of our own making.
What we need is to grow up and appreciate with thankfulness the spiritual blessings He reaps in our lives, rather than expect a gold star sticker of material wealth on our obedience chart.
And anyway, we need to realize that sowing to our self-righteousness is not sowing to the Spirit; it is sowing to our adam, our sin nature. It's not going to turn out the way we may have believed.
I really don't understand your first two paragraphs, but the last three make me focus on His sowing and His harvest, of which I am an undeserving beneficiary because of His limitless generosity. It makes me wonder if in Gal. 6:8 it is Jesus who sows to the Spirit. Otherwise I must think all I have to sow is this dead body, laid in a grave as in Romans 6. Fruit comes from His seed, He is the one who prepares the ground, He is the one who sows and He reaps a harvest. We are His fruit, we are not vinedressers or grain growers ourselves.
It seems related to this insight I've picked up from this community: Does the Sermon on the Mount give me a higher standard to meet? Or does it clarify that I CAN'T be righteous in my own strength, so I must rest in Him and Him alone?
Well put!
Rob / Bonnie,
I don't believe BG's theology is totally akin to karma in every respect either. There's much more in the way of Eastern religious principles tied into it, of course, but it's the specific principle of "do good, and you'll be blessed; do bad, and you'll be cursed" that's being addressed here, with karma being used as a point of reference that most readers would find familiar.
Re: "Sow what you reap," I think it's very easy when reading verses like this to look at actions and consequences that are evident and immediate, even if God may work in ways and in timetables that aren't our own. Let's face it: we love being in control of our lives. We'll try to seek out whatever boxes we need to tick off in order to "get life right" and reap God's blessings. But I also believe that verses like this encompass not only our visible actions, but also our hearts as well. If our hearts are not acting out of love for Christ but out of a desire to obtain Christ's blessings, we're missing the point. Grace levels the playing field by bringing us to our knees at the foot of the cross as equals, and that upsets our results-based systems.
Thanks J.B., If you look at the connection between BG and Watchman Nee who used a lot of Confucianism in a number of the books he wrote like Spiritual Authority which teaches a chain of command that Gothard borrowed from then yes, there is "eastern religion" influence in Gothardism. The article called it Christian Karma, used Webster's definition and used it to make a poor analogy. The Karma the author referred to is the good/bad cause and effect found in reincarnation. BG doesn't teach at all reincarnation and an endless cycle of one's life and death which is influenced by cause and effect. Both OT and NT gives numbers examples and quotes about the fact that people that sin will eventually reap what they sow. Look at what St. Paul said about sexual sin, he wrote to flee it and that sexual sin does have consequences in one's own body. I think there is a fine line here. Action do have consequences yet God does offer grace and freedom from sin. No does God work by this narrow extreme force or law that if you didn't follow some rule of principal according to BG then God is going to get you or as in WoF a negative confession or lack of "faith" resulted in no healing.
"The thing that we do from a place of resting in Christ is we let our faith express itself through love.But that is the outworking of our secure place in Jesus."Thank you.Oh the bait,the subliminal messages,the tormenting voices in the subconscious,exhorting us to become outwardly perfect through human character perfection from a descipline,increasing the anguish because it looked like Bill achieived it.And from this vantage point comes the judging,the exclusivity,the turning away of the helpless and weak,an utter contradiction of the Christian message.Only one Being earned what,thank God may be imparted,by faith to the rest of us so we don't get what we "earned".
"because it looked like Bill achieived it"
Seems to me that is a big cognitive dissonance for his followers. If not even Bill is realizing all the great spiritual results promised, then who is?
Christianity is not a striving and a working to keep ourselves right with God. Rather, it is a rest by faith in the fact that we are already right with God solely on the basis of Jesus Christ. When a person is resting by faith solely in Christ, good works will emerge. But "good works" that try to keep us right with God are actually a product, not of faith, but of unbelief. I bet the Galatians had tons of good works. But Paul said they were under another gospel.
Totally agree, David. This focus on producing good behavior is just killing the church right now. Whenever we demand or focus on results of any kind from God, we doom ourselves to a vicious cycle of results-based living that seeks out whatever seems to give us what we want on terms we can control: security, self-esteem, more control, or even the feeling that we’ve achieved some level of spiritual growth, perhaps even over other people. We think we can tame God, even though He is a wild lion, as C.S. Lewis wrote.
I think what's killing the church right now is bad behavior, false teachers, teaching and greed.
There's plenty in the NT scriptures about what not to pick in teachers. Billy boy is trouble for his kinky ways, false teaching, greed quest for power and putting people under his control not the Lord's
My daughter is saved but I will tell her not to speed lest she get a ticket or killed. We need to have some common scriptural sense in all this
common sense is a rare commodity now a days. Yes, what is killing the Church is false teachers teaching heresy which leads people to believe and do false and even sinful things. Gothardism is rehash of pelagianism and semi-pelagianism from the 5th century. BG is very similar to semi-pelagianism which claims humans can reach out to God under their own power and without grace and one can retain salvation through their own efforts without further grace from God. He reduced God to principals which one needs to follow or else. It had nothing to do with "karma" and reincarnation cycles of Hinduism and Buddhism, the analogy of the article.
Bonnie,
I agree that those are all problems, but in addressing them, it's critical to strike at the root of the problem. What so many churches today are completely missing is that in an attempt to regain control of the cultural zeitgeist following the countercultural movements of the 60s and such, their focus has shifted to the production and appearance of morality, the effort to raise enough kids to fight the world, and the ignition of another Great Awakening or spiritual revival. These are all good results, of course - there's nothing inherently wrong with them. But they have helped cement the pursuit of respect and comfort as idols of the church.
The sad irony is that by taking the focus off Christ and placing it on moralism, the church has developed an environment where false teaching and especially the immorality you've mentioned have thrived even further. It sounds strange to think that this would even be the case, but it makes perfect sense when Christ and His Gospel are shoved off to the side. Why have so many scandals been uncovered in Christian churches and organizations over the past few decades? It would be easy to simply say, "Because sin has become even more pervasive in the world." And that would be true. But it would be more difficult to admit that the church has not approached sin biblically - with both grace and truth - in its efforts to look clean and sweep the bothersome stuff under the rug.
“You’re having a problem here, because you’re violating a principle here."
So my problems are solved by obeying principles? Sure. This is precisely what Gothard teaches. From the front web page of IBLP: "The Institute in Basic Life Principles is dedicated to giving clear training on how to find success by following God’s principles found in Scripture."
It is amazing that an organization and it's false teacher can post front and center the very definition of what it means to be under the law of, "another gospel," and yet so many professing Christian buy into it without blinking an eye. This is exactly why the church needs those who teach the Truth of grace in Jesus Christ.
In the three years after I came to faith, my parents divorced and I had some serious health problems that still affect my life today. I went to a Gothard conference once during those years, and found his teachings very suspect. If anything, I was seeking God and obeying Him, studying the Word and serving in my church. I thankfully found some people with a saner view of Scripture and life and didn't fall for Bill's "karma" influence. They taught me that some difficulties do come as a direct result of choices, but many things that happen to us in life don't appear to have a reason we can understand right then. They happen, and God will one day explain how it all works out-and maybe not until we see Him face to face.
For the record, movements like "Positive Thinking" and "Word of Faith" and the like (ostensibly within "Christendom") are rooted not in orthodox Christian faith and interpretation of Scripture, but rather in a philosophical movement called "New Thought," which arose quite directly out of Hindu and occult understandings of the nature of the world. Thus any spin on the Bible's teaching about reaping and sowing which is mechanistic and fatalistic as these are, and as Gothard's teaching seems to be, is actually rooted in occult philosophy (akin to Hinduism), not genuinely orthodox and biblical Christian faith.
there is absolutely nothing orthodox about WoF teaching. That stuff stems from Kenneth Hagin who took his ideas from early 20th century pencostal preachers like smith Wigglesworth and mostly Kenyon who borrowed them from Christian Science. There is absolutely no basis in Orthodox Christian teaching from Catholic, Orthodox and historic Protestant Churches. WoF has more of a basis in mind thought and force which has occultic overtones. Gothard was very influenced by Watchman Nee who was a Chinese pastor and borrowed his ideas from Kenwsick theology movement and Confuscianism.
Quite right, Rob. I had friends in high school who went from mainline Protestant or Catholic church backgrounds into the Jesus and charismatic movements and on into the WoF teaching which was where we parted theological ways at the time. Even though I attended an A/G church for several years, I never fully left mainstream Evangelicalism and eventually left the Pentecostal church. Late in life, I have become a member in the Eastern Orthodox Church. I have relatives who have been influenced by Norman Vincent Peale's "positive thinking" and others by Christian Science/Theosophy/New Age, so I understand what you are talking about. This false teaching has a flavor to suite any taste, but it's all the same false occult fatalistic, magical, cause-effect impersonal view of the universe. There are versions who use (abuse/pervert) biblical language and claim "Christian" faith. Unfortunately, they are deceived.
Thank you so much for publishing this article! Although we've been out of ATI for a number of years, there are lingering patterns of wrong thinking, such as the cause and effect approach typical of Gothard's teaching. This article has really helped me to see the fallacy of this way of thinking and how it opposes the gospel.
I haven't commented up to now, but appreciate so much all that has been shared on this site.
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