Salt Cathedral of Zipaquirá Accessed online on 2018 February 15 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:The_Holy_Family-Zipaquira.JPG
Title: The mystery of the beautiful exterior of UBF
The purpose of this article is to show how there are
wonderful things taught and done by the real lay-missionaries in UBF composing
it’s beautiful and wonderful (but less
than perfect) outside.
By the outside I do not mean the pretty walls or statues but
the kindness of lay-people who compose the outside of UBF and do lay-ministry
as opposed to the inner core such as the founders and those appointed by the
founders and so on and so forth but I am ruining the wonder of experiencing a
good surprise if I jump to far ahead with the founder yet none the less he must
be mentioned to understand what I mean in this case by the outside and the
inside. For I mean the outside and
inside of the organization, rather than meaning the heart of man by the inside
as is often meant.
My wonderful initial
experience with UBF
I was invited to Bible study by someone who became a very
good friend with me. I eventually
concluded that even though God allowed problems in my life they were the result
of sin, I changed my idea from a God who hates me by allowing me to cause problems
to a God who wants to improve me and thus fix the problems that I caused. This was wonderful. I wanted to spend more and more time in
prayer and Bible study and eventually started to see real improvement as a
result. Testimony writing was wonderful
I could express my problems and my understanding of scripture for an
opportunity to improve myself and help others by sharing what I learned through
contemplation on the weeks Bible passage.
Bible study was also wonderful I could learn about self-improvement
there to. I had opportunity to write
Sunday worship service messages and if I could become a Bible teacher I could
help others the way I was helped.
My experience with UBF upon coming closer to seeing the true
face of the inner core
My Bible teacher had to leave town and I eventually was
shepherded by someone of higher rank. He
would not teach the Bible correctly, every passage in the Bible meant making
disciples. Testimony writing was
criticized unless poor hermeneutics were used to conclude that every passage in
the Bible no matter what meant make disciples.
When I wanted to have help “repenting” of something he said the reason I
have that problem was I was not spending enough time raising disciples like
King David who was distracted not going to war (to state the obvious killing
people with physical weapons is not the same as teaching Bible study.) But what is the purpose of teaching Bible
study, if the purpose is growing in relationship with God and helping people to
grow in Christ’s character what he said undermined the entire purpose of
discipleship, he is not really raising disciples of Christ if he does not want
to help me to repent of sins but instead wants me to raise recruits who I do
not help repent of sin but instead encourage to raise more recruits. Disagreeing with his interpretations of the
Bible eventually got me essentially kicked out of UBF.
But before I got kicked out I learned enough to understand
looking back how Samuel Lee loyalists within UBF do not do authentic Bible
study, testimony writing, marriage by faith or lay ministry and that UBF is not
authentically non-denominational. I also
learned you can be in UBF without being loyal to Samuel Lee and try to do the
authentic things I previously listed because to some degree or another I tried
to authentically do them until I got kicked out for being too authentic, but
much of what I did was compromised. That
is how UBF can have a wonderful outer shell but a rotten inner core (which is
the mystery I referred to in my title.) There
are many people like me who believed in many of the principles we were
initially taught in UBF and tried to live by them through personal devotion
time with God we were able to love God and love our neighbor better it is God
who helped us to love our neighbor not the organization through the power
invested in Samuel Lee allegedly by God.
Yes we might have been encouraged to grow in personal relationship with
God through means of Bible study, etc.
when either a non-Samuel Lee loyalist invited us to Bible study or a
Samuel Lee loyalist suggested we read the Bible (even though they intended to
fill out numbers on a quota form and get us to copy Samuel Lee’s interpretation
of the Bible or their interpretation instead of studying it but none the less
we were encouraged to open a Bible and read it), but it was our decision to
read the Bible with the intent to grow in love for God that ultimately counted.
It was us cooperating with God’s help
not anything that Samuel Lee or any other of his loyalists should get
vainglorious boasting for. Below is a
graph explaining my point of view if you think that I am oversimplifying things
you are correct but think about my main point.
Did I display this graph to try to destroy the work of God
in UBF ministry? By no means!
I displayed this graph to try to highlight the beauty of the
outer core in UBF those who are not Samuel Lee Loyalists those who are doing
real lay-ministry work represented by the flat-horizontal line it might not
look very beneficial because there is some corruption (I am assuming that most
people are corrupt even those who have not attended UBF) but compared with
those loyal to Samuel Lee on the graph they look wonderful!
Should we abolish UBF just because those who are loyal to
Samuel Lee are corrupt?
By no means, we should instead encourage there to be more
disloyalty to Samuel Lee within UBF and more loyalty to God. I suggest that if the secret teachings of the
inner core are corrupt but some of the initial teachings we were presented were
good we should simply stop following the corrupt secret teachings of Samuel Lee
but keep the good exterior. If a cup is
good on the outside but dirty on the inside clean the inside.
In order to help with some housekeeping I will show how to
improve personal devotional time and Bible study and how to marry by faith in
God’s word instead of faith in Samuel Lee’s leadership. By contrasting how I was suggested to spend
my time and do these activities by Samuel Lee loyalists words and examples with
more authentic methods. Below is my
overall impression of how an ideal UBF Shepherd might spend their time if they
really followed the advice I have been given by Samuel Lee loyalists.
Would following the advice of Samuel Lee loyalists and
raising 12 one to one disciples and doing the other listed activities protect
me from Satan’s voice?
If I do all the activities listed and do not spend too much
time getting empty head knowledge by listening to or reading Christian material
from non-UBF sources I was supposed to be better protected from Satan’s voice. In reality if I followed the advice of Samuel
Lee loyalists I would spend so much time performing rituals with the outward
appearance of Bible study and teaching without actually learning very much new
for the amount of time I spend, this would prevent me from questioning Samuel
Lee’s many incorrect teachings.
Questioning Samuel Lee’s many incorrect teachings is sometimes perceived
as a temptation of Satan according to many Samuel Lee loyalists who discourage
reading articles critical of UBF or reading non-UBF Christian material that is
full of empty head knowledge (in other words another perspective that might be
coincidentally different than Samuel Lee’s in a manner irreconcilable with
Samuel Lee’s perspective.)
Actually they
are fighting against the opportunity to love God more by avoiding Satan’s
temptations of empty head knowledge and slanderous internet articles.
1 They are fighting against God’s conviction by ignoring
reality and authentic repentance of something you really should repent of
rather than only what Samuel Lee said to repent of in this weeks message
2 They are fighting against learning the truth about what
the Bible really teaches by copying Samuel Lee’s interpretation of scripture
instead of thinking about what scripture really means independently such as in
authentic study of scripture. (Yes
Samuel Lee is sometimes correct but he is sometimes wrong, it is not really
studying if you just assume your teacher is always correct and do not think on
your own.)
Now, the ignorant know not that such conviction as
tend to put them in fear, are for their good, and therefore they seek to stifle
them.
Hopeful: How do they seek to
stifle them?
Christian: 1. They think that
those fears are wrought by the devil, (though indeed they are wrought of God,)
and thinking so, they resist them, as things that directly tend to their
overthrow. 2. They also think that these fears tend to the spoiling of their
faith; when, alas for them, poor men that they are, they have none at all; and
therefore they harden their hearts against them. 3. They presume they ought not
to fear, and therefore, in despite of them, wax presumptuously confident. 4.
They see that those fears tend to take away from them their pitiful old
self-holiness, and therefore they resist them with all their might.
Quote from Pilgrims Progress by John Bunyan
End of Article
Prior to 2018
February 15, I last made changes in this article I wrote in 2015 in April 22,
2015. The only changes I made were
adding a single comma. It looks to me
like I never finished this article but I do not remember the ending and I am
posting this as is without adding anything further.
