This is some of the most infuriating bible teaching I’ve seen yet.
Why in the world would you study 1 John 1 and SKIP the best parts? Why would you skip verses 5, 6 and 10!?!
1 John 1 1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched–this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. 2 The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. 3 We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4 We write this to make our joy complete. 5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. 8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.
That is what the upcoming ubf staff conference will be doing.
My Version of the Program
Here is what I hear from the staff conference program:
- Since the beginning of time our UBF fellowship, which we have seen and heard with our own eyes and ears, has been God’s witness of the work of God. We want everyone to have fellowship with us and participate in God’s best ways for eternal life, which are UBF ways. Oh and by the way, notice how the Holy Spirit is not mentioned in 1 John 1:3, so see, it is proper to have a gnostic/binary view of God. Our fellowship in UBF is only with the Father and the Son. You don’t need to listen to the Holy Spirit. We are the directors of your life.
- By doing UBF work, you will be filled with the fullness of God.
- Even though we ignore the suffering and questions of sheep, former members and anyone who is critical of us, God will still forgive us.
- None of that matters though. Just keep decreeing, obeying and teaching the bible as God’s marine soldiers like Ezra did.
Good observation. Verses 5-10 almost sound like they have been written for UBF! Who has ears to hear will hear, but who does not want to hear conveniently skips the passage.
Indeed. The fear of a ubf director/member is to walk into the light of truth. They fear the light of free thinking, which is one reason why they avoid the internet and email at all costs, especially websites of former members.
Verse 10 was skipped and says: “If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.”
Ironically, a ubf director/member fears that if they admit they have sinned, they will dishonor God and bible study will have no place in their lives. But this is opposite of the reality. Admitting they’ve sinned is exactly what they must do. And by doing so the bible would not become irrelevant, but more relevant to their lives.
But it would also mean letting go of their ubf worldview (KOPHN), so they are afraid of doing it. I’ve seen this many times before actually. Verses that would be most helpful are skipped because they would be most painful to preach on.
So in the ubf mindset, the warning in verse 8 is ok to share: “If we claim to be without sin…” ubf does not claim to be without sin, so this is ok to them.
But the warning in verse 10 is not ok to the ubf mind: “If we claim we have not sinned…” ubf does claim they have not sinned because past abuses were just serving God by God’s anointed. So it is difficult to preach on this verse in a ubf setting.
I used to play this game, of course :) I would say “ubf is not without sin, all churches have problems.” At the same time I would also say “ubf has not sinned in the past, all victim stories have another side to the story”.
I didn’t realize the contradiction in those two lines of thought while I was praising God in ubf. The ubf mind is full of such contradictions but they can rarely see it. The further away from ubf I get, the more clearly I see these contradictions and false bible teaching.