A Clear ubf Teaching: more work=more blessing

This ubf teaching is “based on the Bible”. Matthew 25:21 says, “His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord”. The ubf chapter director taught us many times that:

“The kingdom of God is not communist, it is capitalist. It is a kingdom of justice. So the more you work the more you have. The more you do to feed sheep the much reward you will receive from God in heaven. There is no equality in the kingdom of God. The more one served on the earth the more he will have in heaven. The more you serve on the earth the higher you’ll have the position in the kingdom of God. And who serve God more than ubf missionaries? Nobody! Many have become even enemies of the cross. But ubf missionaries sacrificially serve God’s world mission. They will have the highest reward in the kingdom of God and will be the rulers over many”.

I want to provide some practical application of this ubf teaching which the director also gave us. Once I fished a new sheep. And the director told me “to give the sheep to the missionary because he will serve the sheep better than you”. I asked a simple question, “Why?”. So there was a special meeting in the chapter to help this proud shepherd. Four Korean missionaries and one proud Russian shepherd participated. The director asked the shepherd, “What do you think who is higher and better before God: a missionary or a native shepherd?” The shepherd answered, “I believe that a man can become a shepherd or a missionary only by God’s grace and in this grace missionaries and shepherds are equal”. The director said (or rather yelled)…

“What?! How could you even think this way?! You are proud like Satan! A shepherd can never become equal to a missionary, never! Every missionary sacrificed his homeland, left his country and went to another country as a missionary. This alone makes every missionary much higher than any shepherd before God. And what, do you think that a shepherd can become equal with a missionary in the kingdom of God?! Never! Missionaries sacrificed more and that’s why before God whatever you do you will always be lower than missionaries! You are just a shepherd, a low soldier, and missionaries are like generals”.

Then the director explained to me that because I cannot become equal to a missionary then it doesn’t matter if I give my sheep to the missionary. I should devote myself to more fishing (anyway my heavenly reward will be low no matter what I do).

Another missionary told me that if I give a sheep to the director then God will give me two other sheep instead. This missionary had already given his two sheep (who were shepherds at the time) to the director and was never able to fish a new sheep since that. The director never had a sheep whom he fished himself. He simply took all the sheep in the chapter to himself. And he said very often that he raised many disciples in Russia, “not like you, lazy shepherds who are busy with I don’t know what! You are cursed because you are not fulfilling your mission and are more busy with your jobs!”.

A servant among you?

Another basis for the teaching is John 13. Jesus washed the disciples’ feet. Then He said, “Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another’s feet”. And “Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him”.

The director taught us in this way:

“Look, I serve the whole chapter with the word of God and deliver the messages every Sunday. So I am like a servant among you. You are like masters. But who is higher before God: you or me? Of course it is me because I serve you”. Then, “Look, the servant is not greater than his lord. It is the same as in a family. Father brings his son up. He wants his son to grow up well. But whatever the son does he will be always the son. He will never become equal to his father. He will never become greater than his father. I see that you can become a great servant of God but for me you will always be like a son and I will always be like a father for you. I can have peace and not be afraid of your spiritual growth because you can never overgrow me. And you can grow only when I grow and train you well. So if you grow that means that I grow even more and train you well”.

The kingdom of unity and equality and love

Last week we had a group Bible study about the kingdom of heaven. And we talked about the beauty and attractiveness of God’s kingdom. We thought about the unity and equality and love in the Trinity of God. The kingdom of unity and equality and love is very attractive. Everyone would want to live in such a kingdom. It is the true paradise. And if a church is at least like a shadow of this kingdom of God then many people would want to be part of the church, part of the brotherhood of love. But I said, “You know, Korean missionaries believe that there must be hierarchy in the church and there will be hierarchy in the kingdom of heaven. They believe that they will have very high positions in heaven and will rule over many simple people like we are. So if that be true would you like to enter such kingdom of heaven and live there forever?”.

Guess what the reaction was… Everyone agreed that such a kingdom with Korean rulers would be very unattractive. And everyone agreed that this hierarchy and lording over and pride of Korean directors led the native people out of the ubf chapter. (btw if you make a google search for Presbyterian churches in Moscow you will find about 60 of them and absolutely all of them have Korean pastors/directors and mostly each of them consists of only the Korean pastor’s family. These churches with Korean pastors don’t attract anyone in Moscow and it is not difficult to guess why).

As I thought about this ubf teaching, I began to understand why ubf directors act the way they act. They will never wish to “let the natives lead” and will never wish to let the Holy Spirit lead and will never wish to let Jesus be the King and the Lord in the life of believers because if they let they will lose their reward in heaven. If they lose their high directors’ positions on earth then they believe they will lose their high positions in heaven. If they lose their authority on earth then they will be simply losers, in this life and even in the life everlasting. I understand why ubf directors like being in photos so much (in the special places of honor and leadership), why they like reports so much. I understand why there is such a competitive atmosphere in ubf. I understand why ubf like to pray about numbers.

Do you share the Korean missionaries’ beliefs about the kingdom of God? Do you think these beliefs are based on the Bible? Would you like to participate in the competitive and number seeking labour and other ubf activities? Is the kingdom of God more like capitalist or communist?  Is the kingdom of God more like the Trinity or like an eternal hierarchy? Is the kingdom of God more like Christian or Confucian? Would you like to join or stay in such a Korean church with such a teaching and beliefs?

John says that the scribes were the most religious people in Israel. Maybe they were good humanly. They were moral people. They had good intentions. But Jesus didn’t have a conversation with them. Instead, Jesus pronounced condemnation. And there are many places in Scripture where Jesus pronounces condemnation upon the most religious Jews. He even calls them “sons of hell”. He says, “Woe to you!”

Jesus warns the disciples and people to “beware of the scribes”. Why? Because they are in an error and yet claim to be the source of truth and light. They are harming other people. They oppose Jesus and his gospel. John MacArthur said that a Christian should not confront error with conversation but with condemnation. Some people say that Christians should learn some good and deep things from the spirituality of Muslims and Buddhists and Jews (and of course Confucius). But shouldn’t Christians act like Jesus?! And Jesus gives us an example how to confront errors even of the most close to Christianity religious leaders (the Jews) – and that is with condemnation. How should and must we confront those whose errors are as far from Christianity as Confucius is?

Jesus describes the Jewish scribes and their errors.

1. They desire to walk in long robes, and love greetings in the markets, and the highest seats in the synagogues, and the chief rooms at feasts. They are very careful about their status in the church and in the society. John MacArthur says that in our days they would desire people call them “Dr.”. What is more they would love when people call them “father”. They love to show themselves holy and special and high before people. This goes against Jesus’ clear teaching, “But all their works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments, And love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues, And greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi. But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren. And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven. Neither be ye called masters: for one is your Master, even Christ” (Mt.23:5-10).

I suppose that every member of ubf can give a number of stories when he/she heard how ubf leaders love and demand that they were called “Dr.”/ “msn.”/ “shepherd”/ and even “father/mother”. Jesus says many times “Woe!” to such people. It is condemnation and a curse from the Lord.

2. The scribes “devour widows’ houses…” The scribes were the lawyers of the time. They used their position to cheat widows. In that time, widows were “the most indefensible people” in the society. Who are the most indefensible people in the society in our time? Aren’t the most indefensible people today our college students? Who are the people whom you could manipulate the easiest? Students are very young and often naiive about life. They have “left their father and mother” in order to study at a university. So it is rather difficult even for parents to influence their college-age children. What is more, if a college student enters a closed system (such as in ubf) they become most vulnerable. Look for an example here http://exubf.blogspot.ru/2007/07/donna.html.

John MacArthur gives an example in his lecture of “devouring widows” in our time. Some “preachers” go to the poorest nations in Africa and promise people that they will be blessed by God if they bring their money to the “church”. They even demand that these poor people bring their monthly payment and give it to the “preachers”. Hopefully students are richer than people in Africa. And after graduation the students can hopefully have good jobs and give nice tithes.

In the UBF context, I know for sure that to give the tithes is an “absolute” command. Also (at least in our chapter) when you have a job you must give your full first monthly payment to the UBF treasury as “your first fruit to the Lord”. Whether you are poor or not doesn’t matter. What is more it is very very difficult and unrealistic to find a person in ubf who would know how and who uses all the tithes of UBF people. You may know that people give their money to UBF, a lot of money, but that’s all you can know about the money after offering it. Isn’t this an example of “devouring widows”?

3. The scribes “…for a show make long prayers”. I personally could not and still cannot understand those UBF-style “3000 prayers” for an ISBC so that more than 3000 people would participate. Is this Christian? Is it healthy to pray for sending 100,000 ubf missionaries worldwide even after God hasn’t answered any ubf “number” prayer, and even after UBF missionaries showed themselves to be spiritually abusive toward many kinds of people? And even after sending ubf missionaries to the most Christian countries in the world? What kind of prayer does UBF promote and teach?

How do we deal with UBF leaders who have refused to repent?

Jesus says, “the same shall receive greater damnation”. They will receive a damnation from God which is greater than “usual damnation” for sinners. There are many Christian opinions about UBF available on the internet. Let me give one which is short and to the point of the article: http://www.apologeticsindex.org/u08.html. Please pay attention to the words “error” and “aberrant” and the way the site confronts UBF errors.

“Theologically, we consider the University Bible Fellowship to be at best an aberrant movement. In Christian theology, aberrant means, “Off-center or in error in some important way, such that the doctrine or practice should be rejected and those who accept it held to be sinning, even though they may very well be Christian.”

This blog, UBFriends, has provided public space and offers the possibility for real conversation with UBFleaders. However, it hasn’t worked over the past three years. The conversation hasn’t even begun yet actually with the UBF leaders who need to join in the discussion. Some UBF leaders have realized the problems in UBF with godly sorrow, and have already “told it to the church”. What do we do now? Do you see any principles for you to follow in Jesus’ confronting error with condemnation?

Instead they are taught that “the disciples of Jesus are not born they are made through training by UBF shepherds” (and they are destined to be UBF shepherds all their lives and be forever thankful to their UBF missionaries even in the life everlasting). The young Christians are not encouraged to learn the will of God and to follow that will, to actually have Jesus as Lord. They are encouraged to obey or even to “just obey” their UBF shepherds “by faith” in hope that this way they will “grow spiritually” and become mature Christians, “good disciples” of Jesus and even the Green Berets of Christianity.

 So while in UBF any member can hear about “Jesus is our Lord” but can he/she experience that and understand what it actually means and live up to it without hindrance? Often the so called “former UBF members” testify that they could hear the voice of the Lord without any hindrance only after they obtained freedom from the many human (authority) voices of UBF missionaries and the very “busy” life in UBF activities. Often it is only then he/she makes the first step to being obedient to the Lord.

They say that an interpreter is good when nobody notice he is there. (The translation comes smoothly and nice). The interpreter is bad when he makes mistakes and/or makes everybody notice him. The Bible teaches us that the same is with God’s servants (pastors/shepherds/angels, etc). True servants of God serve the Lord. They make themselves unnoticeable to people, they never rob the Lord of His lordship and power and glory, they are very meek and humble and fearing the Lord. They just serve the Lord and do their best to bring people to the Lord and they speak the word of God, not their own inventions. They don’t want praise and worship, they want people praise and worship the Lord only. They are like good interpreters. But there are also bad interpreters and bad “servants of God” who actually are the servants of the Devil. The servants of the Devil want praise and worship from people and continually rob the Lord of his lordship and power and glory.

Let’s take some biblical examples. Once Peter the apostle came to a Roman officer Cornelius. “And as Peter was coming in, Cornelius met him, and fell down at his feet, and worshipped him. But Peter took him up, saying, Stand up; I myself also am a man” (Acts 10:25,26). Another similar event is described in Revelation 19:10. “And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy”. On the other side, the Devil said to Jesus, “All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it. If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine” (Lk.4:6,7).

Augustine wrote much on what is the difference between the servants of God and the servants of Devil, between the prophets and the false prophets, between the true angels of God and evil spirits. And he calls this attitude toward praise and worship the main difference by which we are able to know who is before us. So it doesn’t matter how “the servants” call themselves. What matters is how they serve the Lord.

Who is your Lord? Whom are you personally serving? Have you ever been deceived by a false “servant of God” in your life? Have you heard mostly what a servant of God would say or a servant of the Devil? Whom are you thankful for your salvation and the new life?