The Blog Lives On!
I am the Dread Pirate Roberts (for you Princess Bride fans!). The healing that this blog is bringing to all of us is too important to stop, so the posts will continue. You will see some posts that are dated a while ago, just so we can make it through the backlog. Keep reading and commenting. The truth is a good thing, and it is setting us free.
Sincerely,
DPR! (aka, your editors)
5 comments:
DPR - i get it. Pretty good.
I recommend the book "Boundaries" by Cloud and Townsend. Has anyone finished it? I'm just starting and it is pretty good. By the way - i've not developed a "recommended" reading list. If i did such a thing you would not get in trouble for reading a book that was not on the list. you can read whatever books you want, besides, they may be on the list next week anyway.
I'm still taken with the notion that we should sell the movie rights. Hollywood could use a fresh plot or two. The movie, if done right, could probably do a lot of good.
I've been looking at the Book of Galatians recently. It is a great study on the attitude we should have toward false teachers (a.k.a. LFF). Paul's recommendation is found in 5:12 - anybody have a sharp knife? Maybe a dull knife would do. Sorry for the sick humor but i found it in the Bible. Yes, God uses some pretty powerful satire to push the point with those who would misrepresent him - and he is no respector of persons (not even Bardens, Vances or Hunters).
George N. Sally
Funny thing is that I remember PK preaching from that passage of Galatians. It is really about the people who insisted that you had to get physically circumcised in order to be saved. So, it might not be 100% appropriate for LFF. They did preach heart circumcision and I still think it is not a bad idea. It is good to make a clean cut with the past and start a brand new life. If we see our sin nature as powerless then it is a lot easier to resist temptation. I think this is a baby not to be thrown out with the bath water.
The LFF concept of heart circumcision was skewed -and true to LFF custom- it was largely a result of an "improved understanding" of the scriptures that was typical of Karl Barden. He always had an understanding of the scriptures that was superior to other believers and mainstream Christianity. (Watch out for teachers that have "unique" and "deeper" understanding of the scriptures!!)
Many LFFers felt a superiority to others because of their "new sinless nature." However this was a hypocritical facade because all struggle with sin -regardless of what kind of baptism you had. Others felt secretly condemned because they weren't living the sinless life that other LFFers supposedly were.
But let's be real for a minute. Think about it. The circumcision analogy is not so much about living a new and completely sinless life as it was about sensitivity to God. When the Israelite men had this portion of flesh cut away they were very, very sensitive!! So also, when we have the flesh cut away in baptism we also are sensitive to our God.
Remember, even Paul bemoaned his struggle with his old nature. He never was compeletely free of it until he died. Was this because he had never heard Karl Barden's teaching on the matter? I think not! Paul is the model of true Christianity and puts phony baloney doctrines to shame!
So true!
Does anyone remember some of the quirky and "special" Bible verse interpretations that Karl Barden came up with? I remember that he had a "no holds barred" approach to the scriptures.(And Sherri did this also so that the scriptures could be made to conform to her own particular ideas.)
Historical interpretation was thrown out the window, grammatical structure was re-arranged to suit, individual word meanings were tweaked at the expense of the plain meaning of scripture, etc, etc.
Their motto should have been:
"No Crowbar Is Too Big"
But I think this goes along with the fact that since Karl was a [self-proclaimed] "apostle" he was entitled to use his "apostolic authority" to interpret scripture in his own very unique fashion in order to serve his own purposes and to impress others with his "deep [non-traditional or even heretical] interpretations."
Through his offbeat and strangely tweaked "perspectives" he slowly and surely built a cult largely based on his quirky interpretations.
In essence Karl Barden created a "large pink elephant" of tainted doctrine that he got memebers to choke down piece by piece until they openly embraced it all -while denying the plain reality that "something isn't quite right here."
ML99
Does anyone know if LFF has ever publicly retracted (or apologized) for any of the false doctrines that have been taught there? (23-1/3% tithing, etc, etc....)
If not I'm sure that it's still "business as usual" there -teaching the same old stuff made to look new and improved.
What the place needs is a planned and concerted effort to systematically address and "unteach" their "Bardenized" doctrines and attitudes so that it can restored to the rest of the Body of Christ while there is still time.
My sincere guess is that this project would take about 5 years but is extremely doable. The process should start with public retractions and apologies and then directly proceed to correcting the errors.
This process is called "repentance." And I find it extremely ironic that the church that contantly preached their version of "repentance" to their members seems to be unable to repent themselves -then or now.
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