I was introduced in the early 80s to Bill Gothard’s stuff. I saw firsthand the damage done by this insidious cult leader. He is every bit as dangerous as Jim Jones, just with a larger following – but that is another issue.
I did not watch Shiny Happy People yet. I intend to. But this really doesn’t have anything to do with that.
But I was thinking about Gothard, Wilson, Piper, McArthur, etc, etc, and the gospel.
In way of reminder, here is what the Good News is:
God’s love for you is so infinite and unfathomable that the Second Person of the Trinity took on himself the flesh of a man, became obedient to the Father, even to the point of a shameful, hideous death. He did this so that I might know that he will stop at nothing to bring us back to his presence and reconcile the world to himself. He conquered sin and death and bondage to Satan, and is now pouring out His Spirit on all flesh, reconciling the world to himself through faith.
This was foretold by the Prophet Jeremiah:
33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 34 No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.” Jer. 31:33–34.
Let those words sink down into your soul. Because of God’s love for you, because of the death and resurrection of our head, Jesus Christ, because of the Holy Spirit which he sends to us, we have NO NEED of endless control freaks telling us how to live, act, love, dress, recreate, or raise our kids.
We don’t need anyone to tell us how to be married, how to raise kids, how to behave at work, how to love our neighbor, how to earn God’s blessing…
We don’t need anyone to tell us what toys to buy, where to shop, what companies to boycott, what movies to watch, what music to listen to…
WHY? Because Christ has come to set us free and to teach us all we need to know by his word and spirit.
The Holy Spirit teaches us how to love, and when we know how to love, we have everything we need.
That is the gospel. But there are many, many people who have a material interest in keeping you from the love of Christ.
Gothard, Duggar, Wilson, and – you name it, it goes on and on – all make fortunes from telling everyone how to do everything. They leave you broken, fearful, restless – and then you buy more and more and more, hoping that this time you might do enough to be loved by God.
They work through your parents, because after all, you learn love from your parents. And so often the message that parents give is that you don’t do enough to earn their love, so work harder. Purity culture taught that kids must be ever vigilant, ever watchful, ever strong – because if they mess up, even a little, they are spoiled forever and no one will love them.
And then the kids grow up and apply this lesson that they learned to God. I need to do more. Maybe this guy can show me how to quiet my uneasy heart.
But hear me please.
Jesus paid it all. All to him I owe.
It is already all done. God cannot love you any more than he loves you now. Theology 101 teaches what we call the “simplicity” of God. God’s love is not in bits and pieces, to come and go based upon the performance of mankind. But his love is from himself, infinite in scope and active at all times, even when we cannot fathom it.
And THIS is the Spirit that he has poured out upon his people. We learn to love as he loves, not to earn his love, for that cannot be. But because he already loves us.
We love, because he first loved us.
And when we love, we buy teletubbys, and cabbage patch dolls and smurfs and even go to Disneyland if we want to. And if we don’t, we stay home and watch silly TV shows with our kids. And when we don’t want to watch something because it makes us restless or makes us feel dirty, we just turn it off – without EVER consulting an expert on what we should buy or what we should watch or where we should go.
Because the love of God is sufficient.
And because of the love of God, we are taught by God.
9 But concerning brotherly love you have no need that I should write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another; 10 and indeed you do so toward all the brethren who are in all Macedonia. But we urge you, brethren, that you increase more and more; 11 that you also aspire to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you, 12 that you may walk properly toward those who are outside, and that you may lack nothing. (1 Th 4:9–12.)
So find someone that tells you about Jesus. The wicked, abusive person wants nothing to do with the gospel, because if the gospel is true, the abusive control freak loses power over you. So find a church that talks about Jesus and about how Jesus loves sinners and calls them to himself.
It will be small, because those who like to exert power run away when they find that they don’t have power over people.
But those who are there will be learning how to love, because that is what God does. He teaches us to love one another.
And that is so much more important than purity balls and houses free from teletubbies, don’t you think?
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My Only Comfort 
love everything you wrote. in fact all those things is what a native american woman told me about God and having that personal relationship with Jesus—-….then after getting married and moving to Ark, the pastor told me i was to wear dresses at all times and get rid of my cats….husband was not onboard with this but he was the minister of music.
but God does not make cookie cutter chrsitans….he gave me 15 cats instead of 15 kids and art talent and horses and so many other blessing.
But gothard teachings put guilt on me for being different. so glad the truth has come out. it is sad and even tragic that many are still under his false teachings.
I love your words: “he gave me 15 cats instead of 15 kids and art talent and horses and so many other blessing.”
So precious and powerful. And true!
I loved these lines:
“we have NO NEED of endless control freaks telling us how to live, act, love, dress, recreate, or raise our kids.”
‘The Holy Spirit teaches us how to love, and when we know how to love, we have everything we need.”
“But there are many, many people who have a material interest in keeping you from the love of Christ.”
“The wicked, abusive person wants nothing to do with the gospel, because if the gospel is true, the abusive control freak loses power over you.”
“God cannot love you any more than he loves you now.”
Even though all of those lines struck a chord in me, it’s that LAST one that struck me in a particular way. At first, I wasn’t sure why. As insightful as it was, it was already familiar to me.
I think it “tied” the whole post together with a nice bow, however: Even if He wanted to, even if YOU wanted Him to, He will not find you to be more OR less lovable, based on your level of, amount of, consistency of—rule keeping.
Maybe you think you deserve that extra dose or at least recognition of some kind: like a promotion. I should be allowed to graduate to a higher level, a bigger position, a larger piece of the pie–because I actually worked for it. It was earned; it is NOT pride or even self-righteousness. It is just fact.
Why should that “slacker,” who sits back and just expects to be treated a certain way, be allowed to (so to speak) be given a key to the executive washroom? Didn’t do a thing, yet they get everything! Meanwhile, the rest of us “go getters” are told to “go away” and “get out of the way!”
So what was all that excessive, exhausting rule keeping for, if it did not add anything to my “resume?”
What do you mean: I’m ALREADY loved as much He ever can, ever will, no matter what?
Here’s the rub: Those that trust in, peddle and profit by legalism don’t WANT to be loved by Him. They only want to be in love with themselves. The “higher power” they speak of is really about being more and more “high” on power themselves!
But for those of us who are tired of beating our head against the wall, being told that His love for us cannot move or budge, increase or decrease–suddenly that wall of stone becomes a Rock of stability. It is not our blood we are shedding as we bang our heads, it is His blood He already shed that we bask in.
When the “abusive control freak loses power over you,” you gain a power you don’t have to work for: the power of being loved by the Most High, who cannot love you more than He does, because He already loves you at the highest level imaginable.
Dear Pastor Crippen,
Please do not post this, it’s only for you but I don’t know how else to contact you. I tried to donate but my credit card was not accepted, and WordPress claimed that something was wrong – it was not so I did it again, twice – same response. Would you please consider accepting paypal as a payment method? For over 10 years now I have had no trouble with paypal at all. I don’t know the future, but so far paypal works very well for me.
If not, where may I send you a check? You have my email because I cannot post this without giving it, so please let me know if a check would be okay.
Thank you for all that you have done and continue to do. There was a time not long ago when you and a handful of others helped save my life, and though none of you know it – now you do. I understand trauma from a personal viewpoint, having been raised by a narcissist father who scapegoated me all my life, and a clueless mother who, although she was a genuine Christian, didn’t see the evil that she had married. She, along with the entire church and neighborhood, just thought him “very odd”. I guess that word, “odd” is modern Christianity’s term for wicked. I’m not entirely sure God would agree…
You are correct, people do not recognize evil even though it is clearly spoken about and spoken against in both testaments. Therefore, no church I have ever attended has ever taught about this important topic unless it was as a one sentence aside, or a very shallow Sunday school lesson teaching that evil is always “out there” somewhere.
I am so sorry for what you are experiencing and have experienced. I keep thinking about Alexander the Coppersmith that Paul mentioned in 2 Timothy 4:14-15. Alexander had no clue Who he was really up against, though he may well have known who he was following. I feel it is the same with these modern Alexanders, Bill Gotherd and John McArthur, who work against Scripture, opposing the message of truth and causing great harm. These sorts do not take God seriously, they do not know Him at all. Because we have a just God, I believe that “the Lord will repay him according to his deeds.”
Please tell me where I may send a check or if I may use Paypal.
May God Bless you and strengthen you and your family.
In Him,
Em
Thank you for your kind words. I’m Sam Powell, though.
If you meant me, I have a PayPal link on my site at sampowellministries.com
Sam Powell