The point is, Samuel Lee himself lived from offering money. He also used offering money to make loyal followers. This was already mentioned in the 1976 letter. Lee himself considered that money as if it was his own money, and made other people people believe it was his own money. In reality, if anybody was not “stingy” then the ordinary, low level UBF people like many of us who are writing here. After the death of Samuel Lee, Sarah Barry wrote that she was consternated about the amount of money found on UBF bank accounts. If Lee really had not been stingy, no money should have been found. But there are still millions left. Then he was credited for inviting guests. But who paid the food and the house Samuel Lee was living in? It was all UBF money. Who cooked the meal and washed the dishes? It would have impressed me a bit more when he was the one who regularly did all of this, but I’m pretty sure he never made his hands wet or dirty after he became “general director”. What annoys me in these testimonies is how one man Samuel Lee is praised to the heavens, as if he personally suffered and sacrificed so much, while the work of all the low level UBFers is totally ignored, who really did all the work and paid for everything, trusting this person who betrayed them by not being accountable. Many of these have been expelled during the various reform movements when they started to point out grievances. They never got any penny as compensation for all their hard work. Pensions only get the “silver missionaries” in good standing who stay on the party line and never speak up. Thinking about this whole system and the adoration and defense of Samuel Lee makes me sick.

Doesn’t Paul actually oppose the instructor (“discipler”, “shepherd”, “trainer”) to the “father” (the “genitor”) in this very verse instead of equating them? Only one chapter before this, Paul had already equated the “father” to “the one who plants” and the instructor to “the one who waters”, but he explicitly wrote: “Neither of them is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.” In a similar vain, he wrote in the first chapter that he was happy that he did not baptize the church members so that they would not feel as if they belonged to him. He also explicitly did not want people to say “I follow Paul”. The mindset and practice of the Apostle Paul was very, very different from that of the self-declared shepherds and disciplers in groups like ICC and UBF. Please also read the article Spiritual Fathers to understand this error. How can anybody invalidate the words of Jesus in Mt 23 by referring to 1 Cor 4?

UBF leaders really want to be considered all in one: shepherds, disciplers, trainers and fathers of their “sheep”. They want their sheep to follow them and to follow the tradition and ideology of UBF. In UBF testimonies like this one you can find how Samuel Lee operated, how carefully he crafted the image of himself in the minds of his followers, and image of being the only one who really knows the Bible, the one who should be obeyed and imitated in everything. Quote from the that testimony: “Someone said, ‘His message is like the essence of the whole Bible.’ Once he [Lee] gave me his Bible and told me to buy the exact same Bible and underline the Bible exactly the same way he had done using the same color of pen in 4 days.” How silly is this? And at the same time how presumptuous! Don’t you see how different the mindset of Apostle Paul was?

“Also, the verse was used as a reason why a member must never leave because the director is the father in the Lord and you owe everything to him like a son.” – See more at: http://www.ubfriends.org/2013/10/13/more-work-equals-more-blessing/#comment-11383

If anyone tries to play that card, you can respond: The Bible teaches that a man is supposed to leave his father and mother (Gen 2:24).

Also, the verse was used as a reason why a member must never leave because the director is the father in the Lord and you owe everything to him like a son. Even your human parents are merely instructors but he is a spiritual father who supersedes all other relationships.

Jesus’ teaching makes it clear that we are only to call God the Father our father. Only God should have that authority and control in our lives. Giving that kind of control to others is not healthy for either party.

You are welcome to comment here, but please explain yourself a bit more. Why do you say Jesus condemns ubf members’ behavior? And are you saying it is ok or not ok to call people “father”?

For example, one of our church members (who was in USA for about a year) made such a mistake based on cultural thinking and NOT the gospel. I will tell about it as it was while we studied a passage that dealt with lust in addition to a few other topics. He actually said to me, “You don’t suffer from lust because Korean women are not beautiful and attractive for you.”

Sorry admin, but wt*! I am married to a Korean and have spent almost all of my married life in Korea so far. For more than a decade I have had varying degrees of relationships with Korean people including my social life and employment back in Canada. There are more ridiculous comments addressed to me by that couple, but that one is about the best. I will cherish it for a long time because it reminds me of how parochial some missionaries are. For a missionary candidate to boldly dismiss my possibility for lust is quite flattering really since in UBF if they could castrate a man they would. I am sorry to say that I am like any other who is vulnerable, but true enough lust has not been my weak point. My temper however that is…

Anyhow, I reassure you all that I am confident with many Koreans to become missionaries but my caveat still stands. In terms of Vitaly’s main focus though I digress. We have indeed discussed works many times, but here we can focus the discussion to the spiritual measurement according to obedience to the 12 point heritage.

What about those darned fast trackers? My…the usual timely approach to growing must burden those who want recognition or marriage? But, in my experience from my home chapter, even stamping out the heritage in committed daily life was not enough to be sure of a seat and place to be a member of the club. I love how the absense of a couple people ruined it for the lot in my experience…..tears…..there was no shepherds ceremony that night. So, we are indeed still spiritually immature because we are being judged by the works of others.

When you obey the heritage what blessing do you get? What do you find when you unwrap your present? Most likely you find a false hope in a title accompanied by a list of more to do’s. You also find a millstone that can be tied around your neck, because if you fail to achieve your goal you will be shamed publicly among the silence from those you believed to be friends.

Obedience to Heritage=Better Than Your Neighbours.
Obedience=Greatness and Righteousness.
Obedience=Supreme Biblical Understanding.

We have said again and again that making changes in your life and applying Biblical or Christian values is not at all a bad thing. It is commendable. But, we are saved by GRACE – and that can be found in Jesus alone, otherwise by the Holy Spirit. We should not impose an organizational system of ‘obedience=blessing.’ I said once before that any blessing OUTSIDE of UBF is examined closely first and afterwards declared either from God or from Satan. But blessings in UBF are always from God – No really, they are!

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2013/october/south-koreas-travel-bans-lessing-in-disguise-for-missions.html

I am a person who generally likes to get more for less. That’s why I love grace; I love to receive what I do not ever deserve!

Thus, after Lk 15:11-32, my favorite parable is Mt 20:1-16, because I am without a doubt the person who worked the least–just 1 hour (Mt 20:9), but yet I received the same tremendous blessing as the person who worked the most and sweated all day!

I guess missionaries (Korean) are the ones to be ranked – right? Sometimes I really smell that old inferiority complex brewing somewhere. What happens when you are in between two expanding imperialistic countries (China and Japan)? You use your inferiority complex as an excuse for just about anything. I suppose that anyone from any other country is far better off and richer than people in Asia and especially Korea. (hmm…except for those brown people) Sorry, not personally making any comment here but definately making observations.

From over here there is definately jealousy (some say envy) from North Americans or any Europeans, who just happen to be today’s influence in the global world. There is also a superiority to those from third world countries. (I just love how my black co-worker from Chicago was told to go back to Africa. No, not ubf.)

Not all missionaries are that offensive, but sometimes I really do wonder about the common men and women. If they would be usual and faceless unknowns in the general daily grind. There is no such thing as altruism when you have missionaries who do not go out to share the gospel, but to rather instruct others this way or that. Sure, at first it looks like the gospel, but go deeper and unreasonable demands are made upon everyone. You know it is funny when people share stories about their pets – I am reminded of hamsters. Why? Because if you are not careful a mother will eat her own young. In fact two of the same age may do so also.

Anyways, we have listed the various works many times. But the certainty that you have illustrated here is very similar to most chapters at least somewhere in time. Oh yes, the biggest joke I can remember was the typical story of a chapter director. Most often the wife did the fishing, but her husband didn’t. Vitaly, in your accounts the general shepherds and immature missionaries are first robbed of their sheep and then raped as they are chastised so. (Yes, the wording is a little strong here – it is done so purposely.)

Your article points out two things for me:

1) We can clearly see the non-Christian nature of the ubf belief system.

We are not talking about one or two missinoaries in Yekaterinburg. We can see such teaching in the fiber of the ubf heritage system. Are there Christians in ubf? Yes. We know that, especially by Terry’s comments here. Can someone join ubf and become a Christian? Yes, that has happened numerous times. But why did people become believers after going to ubf? It is only because the Holy Scriptures are used by the Holy Spirit. This is testified to in many verses- all the ubf “work” to make disciples never made one disciple. This is true of all churches- such work is the work of God alone. Christ alone is our Head! All Christians everywhere say Amen! (that means you too Mark :) Christians disagree on so many things, but no Christian believes their group is the “head”. All Christians testify that Jesus is King of kings and Lord of lords! Hallelujah.

2) We can clearly see that ubf is a bible study NRM/cult group.

If ubf was a business network to make money, they would have done an intensive study right away on Yekaterinburg ubf. A whole chapter leaving at once? That would mean a loss of revenue if ubf was a business. Yes ubf does try to create businesses and some have succeeded in making their own self-supporting ventures. But clearly ubf is not primarily a business.

If ubf was a Christian church, they would have done an intensive study right away on Yekaterinburg ubf. A whole chapter leaving at once? 100% of non-Koreans? Toledo ubf had 50% of leaders leave. Taiwan had many leaders leave. India had many leaders leave. All this happened between 2009 and 2012, around the world. Yet ubf senior leadership does not find out why. They do not care but instead honor those “faithful ubfers” who remained in such places.

There is not one thing anyone anywhere at anytime that could be said to convince me that ubf is not a harmful cult. There are good people still in ubf, like our friend JohnY, but the ubf heritage and the ubf senior leadership and most directors are perpetuating an abusive cult that fosters elitism and sectarianism.

If the people of Christ are a body, then ubf is a cancer sore on that body. Praise God that the Holy Spirit is now removing that cancer.

One thing I found amazing is how outspoken your UBF director was about his conception of church and himself. In that regard, at least he was honest. In my experience, most UBF directors and missionaries carefully hide such teachings in their mind and avoid speaking about them (much less explicitly writing about them in lectures which I assume your director didn’t do either – these things are only taught indirectly between the lines). But after many years, I also started to understand that this misconception was in their minds, consciously or subconsciously, and it’s the best explanation of their behavior that seems to be so irrational and unbiblical to us.

Sometimes I caught a glimpse of their real thoughts. For instance, one missionary told to me that our task was to “rule over the sheep”, but “not as the world does – we rule by serving them”. Even when they serve people (sometimes they really do, sometimes they just call their interference “serving”), they still see it as ruling. For them, the serving is just a “mind trick”. For instance, using the phrase “the servant of God” for the UBF director. When they use this phrase, they indicate that this person is the unquestionable leader and must be obeyed absolutely. For them it fits perfectly that Moses was also called “the servant of God”. UBF directors are like Moses, those who lead the church, who have a direct connection with God and must be obeyed absolutely. They don’t understand that the Christian church is something completely different. “For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”

Another instance that showed me their real thoughts was a UBF newsletter article written by the European national director Abraham Lee. In this article he wrote about the teaching that there are different parts in the body. He wrote “for example, not everybody can be the head”. This showed that he really believed “the head” was one of the body parts that must be implemented by a member of the church (the director). He didn’t understand that Jesus, and only Jesus is the “head” of the church. There should be no other “heads” (see also Mt 23). This observation supports was Vitaly wrote in his last comment.

Btw, Daniel 12:3 seems to be another Bible verse that UBF directors and missionaries have in their mind when thinking about their roles in heaven. They believe they are those “who are wise” (sometimes also translated “who teach”) and “lead many to righteousness” – so they “will shine like the brightness of the heavens”, “like the stars for ever and ever”. This is the expectation they have of themselves. The missionaries are the small stars, the directors are the really bright stars, Samuel Lee is the morning star, and the shepherds and maybe a few non-UBF Christians are decoration like the milky way in the background, only serving to emphasize their glamor. And all the other people will be eternally tormented in hell. I guess they like this picture.

The corollary of “more work = more blessing” is that blessing comes through personal labour, not from God’s unmerited grace. This totally contradicts James 1:17, which says that all good gifts come from God. Moreover, it places people on a scale of righteousness and provides ammunition for boasting (Eph 2:9). Those who believe “more work = more blessing” feel absolutely condemned when they are not blessed or absolutely proud when they are. They former ones work harder and harder until they burn out, never feeling contentment or peace in Christ (that used to be me). The latter ones are self-satisfied, proud, and boastful, advertising their labors and magnifying their sacrifice, dedication, and hard labor (that used to be me too, and still is oftentimes I must admit!).

However, after leaving UBF and studying Scripture, especially Ephesians 2:11-18, I realized that the predominant metaphor of the church in the New Testament is a body. Moreover, the metaphor of the church as a body is a unique identifier of the church; there is no parallel in the Old Testament. The church is sometimes called a bride, but the Jewish nation was also called a bride in the OT. The church is sometimes referred to as a building, or a plant, or a vineyard, but those metaphors were also used of the Jewish nation in the OT. Therefore, the church is something wholly new, something without a parallel in the OT, and something that can really be understood best as a body. The church is not something the OT saints saw coming. They especially didn’t see coming that all believers, Jews and Gentiles alike, would share a common life–Christ–just as all the organs in the body share a common life. But this is the thrust of Ephesians 2 and 3. There are not believers who are greater, just as there are not organs that are greater; the body requires all organs equally, great or small, and even a small problem in one small organ can cause a great sickness to the whole body. This view of the church has given me a totally new attitude of myself, of other believers, and it has revitalized my view of service to God and to others.