LFF Doctrine and My Struggles with Assurance
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I was depressed after leaving LFF but didn’t know what was going on inside. I spent nearly 8 years of anxious ridden activity there, trying my best to be an obedient follower of Christ under the “covering” of my HCG/CC/Pastoral leaders. After I left it took me years of intense study to undo the skewed teachings and LFF mindsets – though I’m sure some linger. Teachings I knew and believed like the back of my hand as a Member, GG guide, Cat counselor, MTC grad, JCD, Bible study leader and so on. What was the outcome - I discovered the truth of Christ and his work on the Cross as captured by the 5 Solas of the Reformation: salvation by Grace alone, through Christ's work alone, by Faith alone, for God's glory alone as taught by Scripture alone. Yes, I found the Cross.
I could view my years at LFF as wasted and be bitter and such, but I don’t really. I still have fond recollections of people, friends and yes even leadership in most cases – at least as people. I do believe there was a genuineness of faith behind what was done, just a wrong faith that led to wrong actions in a lot of ways. Overall it was not a pleasant time but I had nothing to compare it to, so I thought this is what Christianity was all about. I did suffer a deep seated torment inside most of those years but I chalked most of that up to my sin or lack of faith and pushed through it – thinking things would get better somehow if I only obeyed more, confessed more, prayed more, served more, studied more, was more O.H. & T., etc. Little did I know that torment was mostly based on the logical consequence of believing it was something I did that kept me from being spewed out of Jesus’ mouth and going to hell!
In hindsight I liken those years to the Old Testament Mosaic period when Israel was under the Law. The Law served to demonstrate the exacting requirements of God, unattainable by human effort, and to reveal sin as sin. It was a schoolmaster pointing to the real solution – Christ and His atoning work – the final sacrifice. Similarly LFF’s de facto works righteousness and its effects only made the sweetness of the Gospel message that much more sweeter upon discovery, and therefore I believe in God’s sovereignty He allowed me those 8+ years as a precursor to understanding the truth of salvation by grace alone in a very deep way.
As Paul taught, the Law and its systems were never designed to save, but point to Christ. Woe to those who think they can self-attain righteousness (or some spiritual status) that pleases God and merits his hand of fellowship. It not only is impossible, it displeases God because is totally misses His plan.
Jesus reserved His harshest words for the Pharisees and Paul cursed the Judaizers who taught the Galatians to add the works of the Law in with the Gospel
Similarly we at LFF followed laws, though they were “spiritual” and pietistic in nature – yet laws the same. We paid lip service to God’s grace, but displaced it with spiritual good works. The Cross was a starting point only, not a continuing reality. It was demoted for the higher “truths” and real “maturity”. In fact grace was seen as something that was extended on rare cases, an exception, not the rule. I believe the lion’s share of the pressures and “wrongness” at LFF were tied to this fundamental error, though there were others causes too, divulged elsewhere in this blog.
In my opinion LFF’s perfectionist teachings and practices were a de facto works righteousness and ironically were more akin to Roman Catholic doctrine. During the Reformation even Rome believed in initial Grace for salvation, but taught (and still holds) that upon receipt that grace empowers the believer to do good works, which in turn are meritorious towards salvation. They believe one is saved by works, but not Christ’s alone, you add your own to His. LFF taught you secure your own salvation by being relationally close to Christ, serving him via the Body, and other efforts of heart, mind and body. Which in essence means salvation is not by Christ alone, but something we add to the equation to make it effectual. Therefore both Catholic and LFF doctrines (at least when I was there) are sadly similar in how they intermingle Salvation and Sanctification.
In truth Salvation is a one time, immediate event, that is eternal in its effectiveness and was applied on the condition of faith alone, which itself was a gift of God. It is based on a historical and objective work of God through Christ. His perfect life earned for me a real righteousness I could never earn and his death atoned for my moral debt. He took all my sin and replaced it with His righteousness. That is why the reformers called it an alien or foreign righteousness. I am saved by good works – Christ’s - and those works are no legal fiction. He earned them while on Earth as the sinless man, perfectly obeying the Father, all on my behalf. And the Father accepted them as such – works done by Christ, but accounted to me. This is why Jesus was baptized (amongst other things) – to fulfill all righteousness for His elect.
Sanctification on the other hand is the lifelong process of growing in Christ likeness. It is empowered by God’s grace through the Spirit, and though I do make effort it rests solely on God’s past salvific work and no way contributes to it. God is also behind my sanctification, bringing about his ends in my life by his sovereign hand and does not intend for me to reach perfection in this life in order to make it to heaven – that is already covered by Christ. This does not mean I have a blank check to sin – that is not in keeping with those who are truly saved – we are new creatures who’s lives point in a new direction, though we struggle with indwelling sin daily.
Again, my salvation was by faith alone, but that faith was not alone in that it does bring about good works in keeping with my new creation. However every good work I do merits me nothing in the eyes of God. My works are to be grace motivated, un-coerced, free of manipulation, and yes in need of stimulation by God’s Word – thus the need for preaching - but never something I do to earn/keep my salvation or God’s acceptance.
The message of the Cross is the power and motivator for sanctification and the fruit of the Spirit. Remove it from the very center of Christianity and you drift to something other than Christianity – whether it is moralistic fundamentalism, subjective mysticism or empty liberal theology. The Gospel is for Christians just as much as it is for the lost. It reminds us we are complete sinners saved by grace and our post-conversion life is lived by that same grace in Christ – we have no boasting in ourselves.
I still remember P. Sherri pointing to the Robe of Righteousness worship banner and how the robe was put on the Christian. She took special note to show there were no hands other than Jesus’ doing the placing. She got that right; sadly so many of the other teachings, systems and the everyday practices of LFF militated directly against that Gospel truth. What the right hand gave, the left hand took away.
Though I’ve heard of big changes in LFF since I’ve left (7 years ago) I don’t think they get at the root problems (from what I know). The church needs a reformation. It needs to get back to the Faith once handed down to the saints.
P.S: I wholeheartedly agreed with LFF’s Arminian worldview while there. I imagine they are still against Calvinism (Augustinianism) today. As one who now holds to many tenets of reformation theology and absolutely rejects Arminianism as false I do want to make clear that the LFF characterization of the doctrine of salvation by grace alone was a straw man. What was taught about Calvinism were common misrepresentations that framed this doctrine in such a manor to make it seem obviously wrong. In the end LFF did not reject Calvinism, but a corrupted version of it – I can vouch for that.
Before you handily dismiss what I’ve said I implore you to clearly understand the doctrine and the rebuttals to these common complaints.
Sites I recommend for more info: http://www.solagratia.org/ and http://www.ligonier.org/
I am fully convinced upon careful study in the light of scripture you will see that the message taught by Calvin and Luther (and a host of others) was nothing more than a recapturing of the message of Paul and thus Christ our Lord and Savior. And that message shows the amazing grace of a holy, just and sovereign God who dearly loves his children, chosen in Christ from the beginning of time and secures for them a complete salvation from the wrath to come, all for His glory. It is amazing grace after all and is truly good news – worthy of sharing.
I was depressed after leaving LFF but didn’t know what was going on inside. I spent nearly 8 years of anxious ridden activity there, trying my best to be an obedient follower of Christ under the “covering” of my HCG/CC/Pastoral leaders. After I left it took me years of intense study to undo the skewed teachings and LFF mindsets – though I’m sure some linger. Teachings I knew and believed like the back of my hand as a Member, GG guide, Cat counselor, MTC grad, JCD, Bible study leader and so on. What was the outcome - I discovered the truth of Christ and his work on the Cross as captured by the 5 Solas of the Reformation: salvation by Grace alone, through Christ's work alone, by Faith alone, for God's glory alone as taught by Scripture alone. Yes, I found the Cross.
I could view my years at LFF as wasted and be bitter and such, but I don’t really. I still have fond recollections of people, friends and yes even leadership in most cases – at least as people. I do believe there was a genuineness of faith behind what was done, just a wrong faith that led to wrong actions in a lot of ways. Overall it was not a pleasant time but I had nothing to compare it to, so I thought this is what Christianity was all about. I did suffer a deep seated torment inside most of those years but I chalked most of that up to my sin or lack of faith and pushed through it – thinking things would get better somehow if I only obeyed more, confessed more, prayed more, served more, studied more, was more O.H. & T., etc. Little did I know that torment was mostly based on the logical consequence of believing it was something I did that kept me from being spewed out of Jesus’ mouth and going to hell!
In hindsight I liken those years to the Old Testament Mosaic period when Israel was under the Law. The Law served to demonstrate the exacting requirements of God, unattainable by human effort, and to reveal sin as sin. It was a schoolmaster pointing to the real solution – Christ and His atoning work – the final sacrifice. Similarly LFF’s de facto works righteousness and its effects only made the sweetness of the Gospel message that much more sweeter upon discovery, and therefore I believe in God’s sovereignty He allowed me those 8+ years as a precursor to understanding the truth of salvation by grace alone in a very deep way.
As Paul taught, the Law and its systems were never designed to save, but point to Christ. Woe to those who think they can self-attain righteousness (or some spiritual status) that pleases God and merits his hand of fellowship. It not only is impossible, it displeases God because is totally misses His plan.
Jesus reserved His harshest words for the Pharisees and Paul cursed the Judaizers who taught the Galatians to add the works of the Law in with the Gospel
Similarly we at LFF followed laws, though they were “spiritual” and pietistic in nature – yet laws the same. We paid lip service to God’s grace, but displaced it with spiritual good works. The Cross was a starting point only, not a continuing reality. It was demoted for the higher “truths” and real “maturity”. In fact grace was seen as something that was extended on rare cases, an exception, not the rule. I believe the lion’s share of the pressures and “wrongness” at LFF were tied to this fundamental error, though there were others causes too, divulged elsewhere in this blog.
In my opinion LFF’s perfectionist teachings and practices were a de facto works righteousness and ironically were more akin to Roman Catholic doctrine. During the Reformation even Rome believed in initial Grace for salvation, but taught (and still holds) that upon receipt that grace empowers the believer to do good works, which in turn are meritorious towards salvation. They believe one is saved by works, but not Christ’s alone, you add your own to His. LFF taught you secure your own salvation by being relationally close to Christ, serving him via the Body, and other efforts of heart, mind and body. Which in essence means salvation is not by Christ alone, but something we add to the equation to make it effectual. Therefore both Catholic and LFF doctrines (at least when I was there) are sadly similar in how they intermingle Salvation and Sanctification.
In truth Salvation is a one time, immediate event, that is eternal in its effectiveness and was applied on the condition of faith alone, which itself was a gift of God. It is based on a historical and objective work of God through Christ. His perfect life earned for me a real righteousness I could never earn and his death atoned for my moral debt. He took all my sin and replaced it with His righteousness. That is why the reformers called it an alien or foreign righteousness. I am saved by good works – Christ’s - and those works are no legal fiction. He earned them while on Earth as the sinless man, perfectly obeying the Father, all on my behalf. And the Father accepted them as such – works done by Christ, but accounted to me. This is why Jesus was baptized (amongst other things) – to fulfill all righteousness for His elect.
Sanctification on the other hand is the lifelong process of growing in Christ likeness. It is empowered by God’s grace through the Spirit, and though I do make effort it rests solely on God’s past salvific work and no way contributes to it. God is also behind my sanctification, bringing about his ends in my life by his sovereign hand and does not intend for me to reach perfection in this life in order to make it to heaven – that is already covered by Christ. This does not mean I have a blank check to sin – that is not in keeping with those who are truly saved – we are new creatures who’s lives point in a new direction, though we struggle with indwelling sin daily.
Again, my salvation was by faith alone, but that faith was not alone in that it does bring about good works in keeping with my new creation. However every good work I do merits me nothing in the eyes of God. My works are to be grace motivated, un-coerced, free of manipulation, and yes in need of stimulation by God’s Word – thus the need for preaching - but never something I do to earn/keep my salvation or God’s acceptance.
The message of the Cross is the power and motivator for sanctification and the fruit of the Spirit. Remove it from the very center of Christianity and you drift to something other than Christianity – whether it is moralistic fundamentalism, subjective mysticism or empty liberal theology. The Gospel is for Christians just as much as it is for the lost. It reminds us we are complete sinners saved by grace and our post-conversion life is lived by that same grace in Christ – we have no boasting in ourselves.
I still remember P. Sherri pointing to the Robe of Righteousness worship banner and how the robe was put on the Christian. She took special note to show there were no hands other than Jesus’ doing the placing. She got that right; sadly so many of the other teachings, systems and the everyday practices of LFF militated directly against that Gospel truth. What the right hand gave, the left hand took away.
Though I’ve heard of big changes in LFF since I’ve left (7 years ago) I don’t think they get at the root problems (from what I know). The church needs a reformation. It needs to get back to the Faith once handed down to the saints.
P.S: I wholeheartedly agreed with LFF’s Arminian worldview while there. I imagine they are still against Calvinism (Augustinianism) today. As one who now holds to many tenets of reformation theology and absolutely rejects Arminianism as false I do want to make clear that the LFF characterization of the doctrine of salvation by grace alone was a straw man. What was taught about Calvinism were common misrepresentations that framed this doctrine in such a manor to make it seem obviously wrong. In the end LFF did not reject Calvinism, but a corrupted version of it – I can vouch for that.
Before you handily dismiss what I’ve said I implore you to clearly understand the doctrine and the rebuttals to these common complaints.
Sites I recommend for more info: http://www.solagratia.org/ and http://www.ligonier.org/
I am fully convinced upon careful study in the light of scripture you will see that the message taught by Calvin and Luther (and a host of others) was nothing more than a recapturing of the message of Paul and thus Christ our Lord and Savior. And that message shows the amazing grace of a holy, just and sovereign God who dearly loves his children, chosen in Christ from the beginning of time and secures for them a complete salvation from the wrath to come, all for His glory. It is amazing grace after all and is truly good news – worthy of sharing.
12 comments:
Beautiful. I have often thought the banner with the robe of righteousness. It was made that way deliberately, by Kings' homegroup, to show that it was not our works that made a contribution.
Charismatic to Calvinist, you must have found that to be a strange journey. ;)
As I read your excellent expression and exposition of the Christian faith, and the centrality in all of history of Christ's sacrifice for us, I was reminded of an old hymn now experiencing a resurgent popularity with a contemporary tune.
Before the throne of God above
I have a strong and perfect plea.
A great high Priest whose Name is Love
Who ever lives and pleads for me.
My name is graven on His hands,
My name is written on His heart.
I know that while in Heaven He stands
No tongue can bid me thence depart.
When Satan tempts me to despair
And tells me of the guilt within,
Upward I look and see Him there
Who made an end of all my sin.
Because the sinless Savior died
My sinful soul is counted free.
For God the just is satisfied
To look on Him and pardon me.
Behold Him there the risen Lamb,
My perfect spotless righteousness,
The great unchangeable I AM,
King of glory and of grace,
One in Himself I cannot die.
My soul is purchased by His blood,
My life is hid with Christ on high,
With Christ my Savior and my God!
Karl Barden used to say the you never know whether God might draw the line (to get into heaven) just above you. I lived under the fear inspired by that lie for many years. I knew that I could never give, serve, or sacrifice enough to be among those that could be assured of salvation. I too have made the journey from Charismatic to Calvinist - and it's been an awesome journey, although very confusing at times. When I finally heard and understood the truth of God's grace and forgiveness, I was amazed. A result of receiving God's grace was that I was truly free to confess my deepest sins because I knew that there was a solution for them.
I agree. I, too have moved from Charismatic to Calvinist.
Calvinism helped me to understand what the Bible meant by saying, there is now no condemnation.
Even with the fact that I have been declared righteous throught the Blood, I still need to repent. Repentence, now is more freeing. I don't feel condemned and in need of hiding away my sin as I did in Pullman because I know that everyone, even the Elect are sinners.
Strange that there are so many of us that have moved from Charismatic to Calvinism...
...or maybe not so strange?
Did anyone end up at Christ Church in Moscow?
A few perverse gems in the similar vein:
Pastor Karl was not really sure if a Christain had to reach actual perfection or not this side of death in order to make it to heaven. And because of this uncertainty he chose to error on the "safe side" and push his leaders and members toward "perfection" just in case. This of course translated into radical at times nit picky correction, thought and behavour control, social pressures, fear tactics and so on. You were basically scared into obedience and submission one way or another. Whether fear of God dumping us or being grilled over a "sin" out of no where.
Also to feed to the pressure we were taught we had a new sinless nature through baptism that just needed the removal of old sinful thinking, attitudes and behavours in order to walk sin-free in line with that new nature. So perfectionism should be something you go for,it was doable by that logic.
Remember P. Sherri's teaching on staying relationally close to Jesus so he "knew you" personally, mostly through using a spiritual notebook. Sounds fine and good until the major motivation was if Jesus did't "know you" in the end he may close the door on you like the foolish virgins and you were caste into outer darkness (hell). What a nightmare! Beyond the many manifest errors of such a teaching is the torture of soul it bore: how does one know if Jesus really "knows" me? How much and how often to you "talk" with him to be assured he "knew" you and you were ok? What happens if your forget to talk to him for a week and die - did he forget you and then say get a way from me? And what kind of wimp is Jesus anyway - he needs me to tell him about myself to "know" me inside and out? I guess God flunked omniscience and requires me to work at it for him.
I remember a members meeting in which P. Karl was commenting on how the kingdom would be advanced if V.S. and a certain women could get married and bear fruit for ministry, but they couldn't because both had divorced spouses who were still alive. (LFF held the simplistic teaching against any remarraige after divorce with no exception other than death.) His solution - pray those unsaved spouses (both had married again) would DIE and thus "free" these two for marriage. Sadly I remember nodding my head in approval because surely God "needed" such a couple for the greater good, and asking God to take out these people seemed legit. I remember someone coming to the mic and objecting to such thinking, saying it was wrong, but was shot down as not seeing things from God's perspective.
No wonder this church was such a basket case.
LFF's stance on remarriage stemmed NOT from the Bible, but from PK's insecurity about his own marriage. That sinful stance on remarriage doomed many many people to a life of loneliness, missing God's best for them -- a companion who wouls love and cherish them as Christ loved and cherished them. PK is a very selfish man to put his own insecurities before what is best for the sheep. Remarriage is NOT a sin, nor is the person who remarries after a divorce an eternal adulterer or adultress.
What LFF and P.Karl missed was a deep study of scripture. P.K.'s word was final on a topic, no room to counter with another side even if well reasoned. To even question a teaching resulted in brow beating. Questioning was being divisive, unsupporitve, rebellious, and worse intellectual.
The irony was this Church prided itself on all the courses (catechisms) that were to build "solid" Christians on the "Word". Yet so much un-biblical, crazy things were believed and taught alongside. Also there was an undo emphasis placed on experiencing God and the movings of the Spirit that scripture took a back seat in many ways - we were always looking forward to some new truth and experience, rather than looking deeper into the scripture itself.
There seemed to be phases as the church rushed to some new truth or experience - like the teaching we were "gods", prophecing and singing using "I AM" in reference to ourselves. Or the laughing in the spirit, or it was all about "passion" or how God was bringing huge revivals and we were a city on a hill shining forth his Glory attracting the masses. Or some new turn in worship prompted by the spirit through Kari.
It was a free for all in many ways - but the leadership was at the helm. Talk about being tossed around by a wave...no wonder the leadership had such influence - people would believe anything you said as long as it could be backed up by some proof text or re-interpretation.
I think Jesus said it best:
Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: "The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. So you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. They tie up heavy loads and put them on men's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.
Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men's faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.
Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are.
Excerpts from Matthew 23:
How did we believe such things? LFF was an echo chamber. It wasn't just because P. Karl or Sherri said it, it was becaue everyone else seemed to believe it too, and therefore gave it legitimacy. That plus the social pressures not to even think of disagreeing. Who dared speak out about something that could in any way be seen as negative against leadership?
Once I was rebuked by Pastor Sherri herself (and her on down) for requesting my HCG leader to stop the rebukes he was giving me for questionable things that he had no way of knowing were sin or not. I was really confused. I got into a lot of hot water for even daring to push back in any way - and I fell in line after that ordeal like a freightened puppy dog I'm sorry to say. It was the intense 6 inches in your face stares (as if they are trying to look into your soul) and the unexpected pull asides to check your "spirit". It was from all levels of leadership telling me I had to change and how evil I was. I wilted and told myself I'll work hard so I'll never get on their bad side again.
The type of people who got caught up into LFF were ignorant of true Christianity, immature and in most cases insecure - like many college students are today. I was in that camp and insecure in my faith and unfortunately my faith didn't really become secure until AFTER I left LFF.
I remember the common defense that LFF brain washed its people was "if your mind is dirty, maybe it needs to be washed."
P.K. was so sure of his teaching he would boast that the hardest people to teach were prior Christians who came to LFF because he had to un-teach them of their wrong notions of Christianity, and re-introduce them to correct teaching and practices as examplified by LFF.
Merging the Creature with the Creator. Skin over God. Little Christs. As if we were co-eternal.
Strangely, marriages were ordained "from the foundation of the earth" but our salvation was not. Go figure.
Jesus needing to be "lifted up" in worship so he could "draw all men unto him." A clear distortion of the scripture regarding his being lifted up on the cross. In fact, the primary purpose of LFF was to worship, but is that really what scripture teaches? When Christ set up his Church, was it primarily to worship?
Only by an allegorical interpretation of his redemptive work on the cross and further distortion of scripture could you arrive at LFF's position. Of course worship is important, but it was error through overemphasis and scriptural ignorance with far reaching effects. The worship department was worshipped, is one.
But wait, there's more!
Funny feelings in your tummy, and anxiety, prejudices turned into "spiritual discernment".
Catching the flow in the Spirit, aka getting the same funny feeling in your tummy at the same time that Kari or Karl did. Where is that in the Scripture?
Little nuggets of proof texts all the time, showing this or that little private interpretation.
The scripture teaches strongly against women in ministry, but we thought we knew better, resulting in dysfunctional families, neglected children, tyranny in the pulpit and much, much behind the scenes manipulation. They liked to keep things stirred up, that is for sure.
In the face of tyrrany, there was no room for dissent, or for conscience. The central fact of it all is, none of that would have happened, 95% of the leadership of LFF would not have left, LFF would have been able to correct many of its errors and internal dysfunction if only people were listened to. Sad.
But they have a better idea. A family business combined with the concept of papal infallibity. Complete with nobility, a court and court politics, and succession to the throne through the female line.
I could go on and on and on. But its not my church anymore. Thanks be to God!
I think Jesus said it best:
Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: "The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. So you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. They tie up heavy loads and put them on men's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.
Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men's faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.
Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are.
Excerpts from Matthew 23:
6:28, although I only was in LFF for one year, I still remember Karl preaching about God "drawing the line just above you" lie. It is an effective tool in keeping his sheeple from straying from the flock. If I just spend another day helping out at the church, God and my leader will pleased. It is never enough. I saw that with friends who had reached the JCD "level" seemingly spending every waking hour which they weren't at school, at LFF. I always suspected pride in Karl, and it wasn't until one of the more super-Christian friends told me about a message where Karl said how it was a challenge for him to sin. He admired Karl for his "holiness." "What a joke," I thought to myself. Yep, full of pride. Glad I left.
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