D
Dave L
Guest
Once, while young in the faith, I fell into what would become one of the deadliest Word of Faith cults in North America, the Glory Barn Faith Assembly of northern Indiana. God providentially delivered me by what most would call a twist of fate.
I ran into this group through another Pentecostal group. Later, after a job transfer into their region, I began fellowship with them. Nothing stood out as unusual. They had the typical adrenalin driven praise and worship most Pentecostal churches have. But I left the region after a year when my job ended. After a couple of years my wife and I returned to the region and they had grown from around 100 to perhaps a 1000.
During this time, we heard about a few people dying of treatable reasons. But they blamed this on lack of faith. Or their faith must not have been genuine. But it wasn’t too long before God led us out in a most unusual way.
One night they presented the Limited Atonement doctrine so they could teach against it. This was the first I ever heard of Limited Atonement. But the doctrine, even though presented in the most disagreeable way, spoke to me. And after hearing the universal atonement doctrine in contrast, it dawned on me that we had come to an impasse.
I needed to make a choice. If Limited Atonement is true, then faith and healing didn’t work the way they said it did. And it would explain why some died from commonly treatable ailments. After a group discussion on the way home, it was our last involvement with them.
Maybe a year passed when we began hearing about their unusually high infant mortality rates. And others dying from easily treated illnesses. Over one hundred preventable deaths happened over a ten year period reaching into the late eighties, the main teacher being one of them.
When a person believes in universal atonement, the belief that Christ died for every person, they also must believe his death did not save anyone, since most perish. To explain this, they turn the gospel into law. And then offer salvation only to those who choose to meet the conditions. When the gospel instead only announces whosoever believes has eternal life. But with the legalistic gospel, the conditions range from partaking of Sacraments to deciding for Christ. In this case the condition was faith.
The Glory Barn people also believed the same conditions you met for salvation, would also merit healing. But what led them to their deaths was thinking God does not use doctors since it’s not in the bible. And the teaching that whatever is not of faith is sin (Romans 14:23). So as soon as they claimed healing and set their minds to believe, it bound their consciences. And it would be sinning to alter course and go to a doctor.
But this was not biblical faith. It was concentrating on an ideal. Mental Focus they mislabeled faith. A mental fixation they believed God would honor any time they found “biblical support” and conjured it up. But biblical faith is a fruit of the Holy Spirit. It is something God gives to us, telling us he saved us or healed us. And when not present, it means God is not moving us in that direction. When present, we can know it is the direction God is moving us in. It's all about the witness of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. We pray and the Holy Spirit aligns us through faith with the time and place and means of God’s provision.
I ran into this group through another Pentecostal group. Later, after a job transfer into their region, I began fellowship with them. Nothing stood out as unusual. They had the typical adrenalin driven praise and worship most Pentecostal churches have. But I left the region after a year when my job ended. After a couple of years my wife and I returned to the region and they had grown from around 100 to perhaps a 1000.
During this time, we heard about a few people dying of treatable reasons. But they blamed this on lack of faith. Or their faith must not have been genuine. But it wasn’t too long before God led us out in a most unusual way.
One night they presented the Limited Atonement doctrine so they could teach against it. This was the first I ever heard of Limited Atonement. But the doctrine, even though presented in the most disagreeable way, spoke to me. And after hearing the universal atonement doctrine in contrast, it dawned on me that we had come to an impasse.
I needed to make a choice. If Limited Atonement is true, then faith and healing didn’t work the way they said it did. And it would explain why some died from commonly treatable ailments. After a group discussion on the way home, it was our last involvement with them.
Maybe a year passed when we began hearing about their unusually high infant mortality rates. And others dying from easily treated illnesses. Over one hundred preventable deaths happened over a ten year period reaching into the late eighties, the main teacher being one of them.
When a person believes in universal atonement, the belief that Christ died for every person, they also must believe his death did not save anyone, since most perish. To explain this, they turn the gospel into law. And then offer salvation only to those who choose to meet the conditions. When the gospel instead only announces whosoever believes has eternal life. But with the legalistic gospel, the conditions range from partaking of Sacraments to deciding for Christ. In this case the condition was faith.
The Glory Barn people also believed the same conditions you met for salvation, would also merit healing. But what led them to their deaths was thinking God does not use doctors since it’s not in the bible. And the teaching that whatever is not of faith is sin (Romans 14:23). So as soon as they claimed healing and set their minds to believe, it bound their consciences. And it would be sinning to alter course and go to a doctor.
But this was not biblical faith. It was concentrating on an ideal. Mental Focus they mislabeled faith. A mental fixation they believed God would honor any time they found “biblical support” and conjured it up. But biblical faith is a fruit of the Holy Spirit. It is something God gives to us, telling us he saved us or healed us. And when not present, it means God is not moving us in that direction. When present, we can know it is the direction God is moving us in. It's all about the witness of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. We pray and the Holy Spirit aligns us through faith with the time and place and means of God’s provision.