In the end Jesus will only concern about our love or conscience for him.

Here are my thoughts on your questions:

How should we see each other?
> I believe we should see each other as fellow human beings who need love.

Is it right to always view someone as they once were?
> I believe it is good to recall past history, but only to a point. A person’s past affects their present. But it is certainly unfair to treat someone based on who they were in the past. This goes both ways in the ubf context. Some have told me it is unfair to judge ubf based on 1976, and I agree partially. And that is one reason I judge ubf based on the present, on the past 3 years precisely.

Is it more Christian to see them with new eyes?
> To a point maybe. But not so much “new eyes” that we go to the other extreme and treat people based on our fantasy idea of who we think they should become. That is the other fraud in ubf. I was sometimes treated as if I was still a naive 18 year old. Other times I was expected to be a perfect KOPHN shepherd. Never was I treated as who I am. ubf even mistook my Christian identity, telling me the lie that I was not a Christian before ubf. But I was. I am now unraveling my false self-narrative ubf dictated to me. All of my messages and major testimonies had significant personal application that was DICTATED to me. My job was to accept the narrative given to me.

Why then should we be judged by man? After all, Jesus is our source and answer – before him alone we shall stand naked to bear all of our deeds.
> True. Final judgment belongs to Jesus. We will all, 100% of us, stand before Jesus with flawed doctrine. Jesus WILL NOT ask us about how many sheep we fed, or about our performance or how well we preserved some heritage or understood some doctrine……. Jesus will ask “Did you love me? Did you visit me? Did you listen to me?” The final questions will have far more to do with love, grace and justice than with obedience, loyalty and purity.

Yes big bear, I feel the same way. If someone would have told me that my one hour per week bible study equated to MbF and submitting to ubf missionaries my whole life, I would have kept saying no and ran for the hills!

But that is exactly the control in ubf. In order to make KOPHN products (as their teaching slides say), they need to keep their agenda hidden. That is why I say ask for the blue book!!. Every new bible student should either be given that book, or that book should be burned and rejected.

Thankfully there is no more hiding! There was no internet or email back in our day, big bear. But thank God for social media now!

A young student may say something when they first approach testimony writing or even life testimony writing. However, after some time of maturing in God’s word and time to reflect with insight upon their lives they can also contradict and declare their incorrect understanding of the passage or even their life history. But many senior leaders often return to the initial declaration without considering that maybe maturity in Bible study has offered the person a new understanding of themselves before God.

One unfortunate concern that may cause us to return to the same sins and the same people is to be sure that they are not too casual or complacent in their life of faith. BUT this is for God alone to judge. In ministry we have all experienced humiliation because our seniors have at one time or another understood us to be working less then everyone else. So, a little prodding is done to convict us and remind us of our roles. But, here we get into the system…

I understand this pain, big bear. Yes, after the ISBC comes PCD (post conference depression) as you already pointed out. And then come PCG (post conference guilt).

Becuase of the specific manner of the way the ISBC lectures and programs are setup, your mind naturally feels guilty after the conference for doing anything not related to ubf. And because ubf was bound to God and the gospel by the lectures. you feel driven to “make a KOPHN”.

So the natural result is that you start to blame your “wordly” family and friends for hindering you from being a KOPHN. This is how ubf directors get away with saying “We never told anyone to leave their family or friends. We don’t do that.” During the ISBC you are indoctrinated with ubf ideology steeped in Confucianism so that after the ISBC you are motivated to preserve the ubf heritage, even if it costs you your job, your family or your friends.

My question for anyone going to the ISBC: Will this ISBC be any different? The program is setup just like every conference in ubf I attended for 24 years. I’m sure you can testify that the format is the same as what you saw for 29 years, big bear!

One this is different: this blog exists and will continue to exist, Lord willing. As we keep sharing here, more and more voices of concern will be raised.

So I say, let’s let the students decide. Let them observe for themselves and go to the ISBC with open eyes and ears, listening for Confucius where Jesus should have been, watching for the extreme control and staying awake and alert.

gc, reading your article I remembered my feeling not just about my sogams judged by others, but also about others'(who have families) sogams judged. In 2008 I participated in the ISBC, and HR delivered a message with a “life testimony”. She is a wife and a mother. Is it comfortable for her family to have her sharing her “sinful past”?

There is something very ugly about “sharing life testimonies” by family members in front of crowds of people and the family. I felt uncomfortable, surely my wife felt uncomfortable, I saw that all felt uncomfortable at such moments at ISBCs. Why is there such a practice in ubf? And even children are demanded to listen to such testimonies with all those “past sins” they have never heard of (yet).

I agree that Jesus has washed and has forgiven. He promised to forget our sins and to throw them away into the deep. Why does ubf try to get the sins back and shared publicly on a regular basis? Have you heard of such things in a Christian church?

And yes, the “past sins” become an identity for ubf people in ubf. And as the directors never share their testimonies they never participate in this strange practice and in the shame and guilt. The ubf directors are never examples for the flock. So don’t do anything your ubf director doesn’t do, wait for an example. (Better read the Bible and never do such things which are inherent to cults)

That clearly explains the problem of the ubf system. The Spirit works to lead students to the forgiveness of Christ, and then ubf shepherds are there to take the credit, ensure conformance to the ubf heritage and then demand life-long gratitude (with hopes of sheep bowing down to them in heaven, in some cases).

And yes, the one of the primary means of doing this is to remind sheep of who they were. [Of course, no one can even know who the chapter director was, nor can anyone remind the director of who he was.] So after discovering the foundational grace at the cross of Jesus, bible students in ubf are robbed of the ever-present, sanctifying present grace.

So I believe there is a case of mistaken identity in regard to Jesus as well. ubf people mis-identify Jesus as merely the one who died for sins on the cross. Jesus’ real identity is the living Lord, who is alive right now as the One to whom all glory and authority belong now.