Understand bigbear’s book, see his perspective, and you’ll understand the 4 reform movements and see the reality of ubf’s 50 years much more clearly.

bigbear’s perspective does not invalidate anyone’s perspective. But if we don’t stop to listen to his perspective, and the perspective of his former wife/family and current wife/family, we miss much.

Michael martin
412 Lehmer st
Covington ky 41011

Thanks for all your prayers..local tv stations and radio and newspaper imterviews will follow…
God is love

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1. UBF’s authoritarian leadership

2. UBF’s incorrect interpretation of Scripture

3. UBF’s incorrect view of worship through music

4. UBF’s incorrect view of relationship/marriage

5. UBF’s incorrect view of ex-members

6. UBF’s incorrect view of Bible study/ meeting/ conference

7. UBF’s incorrect view of discipleship

8. UBF’s incorrect view of family

9. UBF’s incorrect view of message/ messenger

10. UBF’s incorrect view of almost everything

Do people ever wonder why ‘sheep’ don’t stay in UBF? Think about why I left based on what I just shared. All these issues I will address in the first article I’m working on…

The article concludes with one of the best lines I have ever heard. Some demonstrators are at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. They want global economic leaders to get serious about abusive government practices in the Ukraine. They are carrying signs that say:

Thank you for your deep concern; now do something.

This loading of words is very problematic. Everybody wants to “have faith”, right? So a “marriage by faith” looks like the best way of marriage. Using such words also means that if you don’t want to marry when and whom your leader dictates, then you have no faith.

The “UBF system” has many elements that all work together to make it so manipulative and dangerous. One of them is loaded language. So one of the things a reformed/redeemed UBF must do first is not only dissolve the shepherd/sheep bounds, but also “sanitize” the language. Many Biblical words such as “shepherd”, “faith”, “calling”, “fruit”, “self denial” have a twisted meaning in UBF that serves to manipulate people and causes them to reinforce UBF mindset when reading the Bible, instead of understanding the real meaning of the Bible.

So your “spiritual project” looks like a good idea. Maybe you intuitively wanted to clear these things up and understand what these terms really mean in the Bible. But UBF leaders don’t want you to have a clear understanding and do research on your own. They want you to associate the terms in the Bible with the UBF interpretation only.

“…how about love…”

Great question! When I was in UBF I was told that my shepherd loves me. The pastor himself told me that he loved me. IF I was loved, then how come every time I came out of the pastor’s office, I felt humiliated, ashamed, fearful, disappointed, lost, angry, …???? I am working on an article to be published here on UBFriends! What kind of love is this? Is mistreating someone loving them? Is “silent training” loving? Is humiliating someone, loving? UBF does not want to associate with other churches. My pastor told me the reason why I’m lost and confused is because I didn’t listen to him and listened to other pastors. I came into his office excited about a “spiritual project” I took on. I was going to research about all sorts of biblical topics, e.g. heaven, hell, Jesus, God, Holy Spirit, relationships, marriage, etc…, and this is what he said, “You keep reading those, that’s why you are confused! Just have faith!” LOL The answer to all my questions and concerns were, “Have Faith”, “Deny Yourself”, “Just obey”,…Since I’ve been out of UBF, I have experienced God’s grace and mercy more and more. I don’t even know how I stayed in such a ministry for over a decade. When I spoke to a counselor at Grace Community, LOL, he was shocked and speechless as I shared my experience. UBF’s answer to the concerns raised on this site is to password protect their “Ministry Resources”! HUH? “SORRY YOU CANNOT KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT US!” We are just way too cool!

If you want a book, please send your 20 for one or 30 for two now this covers shipping fee…those who send money will get a copy of the first batch of books right off the printer…if you wait to long you will have to wait for next batch printed…again send check, money order, or cash to:

Michael Martin
412 Lehmer street
covington, KY 41011

again thanks…

Michael Martin
412 Lehmer st
Covington, KY 41011

This will cover shipping…those who all ready sent money you will get book soon…

Funny how my “God” always agrees with me :/

So this demonstrates as always for the past 50 years, UBF is living in the “1960 war-torn Korea” and “out to defeat the world”.

Yes, Joe, the militant language and imagery of the Bible surely has a place in the lives of Christians, especially in overcoming the deceptive and deceitful schemes of the evil one, such as in Eph 6:10-17.

But as sinners, using and emoting such militant language excessively (in contrast to the Bible), would invariably translate to us treating other people in such militant and militaristic ways. We have sadly referred to others as Satan, demon, demon-possessed, demonic, etc, whom we must defeat, shun, subdue, avoid, humiliate, shame, caricature, marginalize, etc.

I think Christians who demean and demonize others do not realize that this is not how God, Jesus or the Spirit is. Jesus’ primary and ultimate attitude toward such “demon-possessed Satans” was to love them and die for them, forgive them and give them hope.

Such “fighting” language continues to be the downfall of UBF, and is a problem in some parts of Christendom as well.

Some of them seem to want to build a “Nimrod ministry”, hunting down “sinners” and “killing” them for “God’s glory”. They forget that the “warrior” or “fighting” verses have nothing to do with actual fighting, but with the “good fight”. Often to fight for Jesus meansto “stand on the promises” and to “surrender to grace” and to “bow at the cross”.

They forget warnings such as Psalm 33:16-17.

Our pastor last Sunday shared some insight into the word “advance”, as in “advance the gospel” as we kicked off a Philippians study series. So in Philippians 1:12-14, the “advance” is indeed a military term. But it has nothing to do with fighting. To advance something in this concept is to “remove the barriers” and “clear the way”. It has much to do with reconciliation and nothing to do with fighting a war.

Brian, you made an interesting point about reconciliation. The gospel is all about reconciliation. The mission of the church should be all about reconciliation. Yet it’s striking how often UBF leaders speak in terms of mastery, fighting and conquest. They seem to live in a perpetual state of war. A few days ago, a mission report on the ubf website began:

“At the 2013 Spring conference which was held in May, we newly accepted God who called us as great warriors of God.”

And then I received an email announcement of a leaders’ retreat that said:

“We pray that we may be spiritual generals who can fight a good fight of faith against the unbelieving and hedonistic trend of our generation.”

This kind of language never used to bother me. I used to think how awesome it was to be a leader in such a a badass ministry, fighting for truth as one of the hypercommitted elites. Now it just makes me sad to see mission work being advanced in ways that resemble Pax Romana instead of Pax Christi.

Surely you are the “bad guy”, and share responsibility for what happened, as you confess in your book. But if there are indeed “two sides of every story”, I hope that UBF will finally see your side.

I am in the UBF conversation until the Lord directs me otherwise. My first book will be a follow up to yours, but focus on the theology and ideology perspectives, giving answers in a philosophical and psychological sense to explain the reasons why you experienced certain things. You are not alone in this, many hundreds have experienced the “ex-ubf” conundrum, and it is high time someone explained it from a Christain viewpoint. Your book is the perfect backdrop to provide real answers withouth falling into the anti-ubf trap.

I intend to remain in the UBF conversation long-term (so get used to me :) I won’t let this go until the Lord lets go of me. I do this because I forgive UBF people. I do this because of the love of God. I do this because the Spirit compels me to. I do this in hopes of sparking an explosion of redemption, reconciliation and renewal.

I’m not sure how widely this is known, but just about every first generation UBF Korean (and maybe second generation too) has the prayer topic for a united Korea. Well if UBF Koreans have any hope of actually participating in a united Korea, they *must* learn how to reconcile the ubf/ex-ubf divide. How can they expect to unite a country of millions when they can’t unite an organization of a few thousand?

The huge danger in Korean-contextualixed Christianity is the horrible acceptance of division as “normal and godly”. This is a phenomena reported in the South Korean churches, and affects UBF thinking also. Partly this is the fault of bad advice, such as an American fundamentalist who referred to the World Council of Churches as “Satan’s organization”. That needs to change if the divisions are to stop and be healed. Some progress is being made however, such as with the Korean Cardinal who was appointed recently by Pope Francis. But UBF is likely to be left out of such good work as long as they cling to their heritage system ideology.

If UBF Koreans cannot reconcile with the likes of me and bigbear, how can they be part of any re-unification effort in the Korean penninsula?

Koreans may be able to live with a divided penninsula that is technically still at war, but the world cannot, and what is more Christendom cannot stand for it. The world says “no, this is not ok to have NK/SK at war with each other”.