I (Don) was interviewed last week by Daniel Silliman, senior reporter for the Roy’s Report. The title of the interview is, “Bill Gothard’s legacy: How his errant teaching enabled abuse.” Silliman had just finished reading the updated version of our book on Bill Gothard, A Matter of Basic Principles: Bill Gothard and His Cultish Teachings. Early on in the interview, the question of whether or not Bill Gothard is a Christian came up. I pointed out that we don’t know. He may be – we don’t feel we can judge that. Some will scratch their heads on this one. There is a fairly common idea that Christians are completely identifiable by their works or behaviors, and if someone sins or behaves in ways that seem to be in conflict with the traits and characteristics the Scriptures describe, we often assume they are not believers. We may easily turn to the role “fruit inspectors” if, for example, someone does not demonstrate fully the fruit of the Spirit, which the Apostle Paul recites in Galatians 5:22-23:

…the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control”

Certainly, this is descriptive of how Christians ought to behave, but are these meant to be definitive markers that identify Christians from non-Christians? If so, what do we do with those in cults and non-Christian religions like Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Buddhists, etc., who often seem to display what is widely seen as quite these same godly characteristics in their behavior? What is missing in this discussion? We would suggest that we are missing context.

The letter to the Galatians was written by the apostle Paul to the believers in Galatia around 49 A.D. Prior to this missive, the issue of whether or not gentile believers must be circumcised and keep other Jewish practices was in dispute, so a council had been convened in Jerusalem to address this issue. This is recorded in Acts 15. When Paul penned his letter to the Galatians, there were Jewish followers of the Messiah, apparently in the “party of the circumcision,” who had arrived and turned the gentile believers away from their clear understanding of grace and had embraced the idea of works-based sanctification. The unwitting believers there fell under the spell of legalism. The Apostle Paul asks a rhetorical question which demonstrates that he was writing to believers who had become believers solely by faith, but who had been “bewitched” into thinking they would be sanctified by legalistic living, and not grace alone.

O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith?  Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? (Galatians 3:1-3)

An important question – for that day and ours. After demonstrating the difference between grace and works, Paul turns to the issue of how we as Christians ought to behave, which should not be used as indisputable external evidence of whether someone is a Christian or not. God has certain knowledge of the state of another person’s heart, but we do not. In Galatians 5, Paul contrasts believers who walk in the Spirit with believers who walk in the flesh. If we as Christians “walk in the Spirit,” we will not gratify the desires of the flesh. If, however, one walks in the flesh, we very well may do just that…(Galatians 5:16-18). In Galatians 5:19-21, Paul lays out the works of the flesh and contrasts that with walking in the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23.

To make sure the Galatians understood the point he was making, he contrasts the desires of the flesh in 5:19-21 with the fruits of the Spirit in 5:22-24. Believers who fall or are led into legalism are perhaps even more likely to give in to the desires of the flesh. Their focus is on themselves, and they believe they can live holy lives by strictly adhering to the standards of the legalism they live under. But it doesn’t work. And can lead to a life of judging others by what our physical eyes only think we see clearly. The Galatians were believers who were too often living wretched lives. (Galatians 5:15) But according to Paul, we are to crucify “the flesh with its passions and desires,” and he follows up with:

If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. (Galatians 5:25)

Christians may succumb to living in the flesh, but we should choose to live by the Spirit and kick our blind holiness pride right out the door:

Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another. (Galatians 5:26)

About 8 years after Paul wrote to the Galatians, he visited this battle in Romans 7:14-25, which he himself struggled with.

Is Bill Gothard a believer who, like the Judaizers, did not walk in the Spirit but instead walked in the flesh, seeking to be perfected by the flesh and leading others to do the same? We have to admit that it is a possibility, and it is more probable than many Christians would care to admit.  We have examples in Scripture of people who lived desperately sinful, unrepentant lives, as in 1 Corinthians 5, where the Apostle Paul calls the church to take action on the believer who was living abominably and engaged in sin that Paul points out, not even the pagans would tolerate (1 Corinthians 5:1):

When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord (1 Corinthians 5:4-5)

“Destruction of the flesh…” for what purpose? Paul’s reasoning is interesting and illustrative: “that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.” And again, if we look back two chapters to 1 Corinthians 3, Paul talks about the testing for rewards, and states that those whose works are burned up may, in the end, have nothing but their salvation. We address this in our article, “Bad Heir Day.”

We know that the God Who provides salvation to those who call on His Name also brings about sanctification. We will be made holy, but it may not come as quickly as we would like:

And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. (Philippians 1:6)

Honestly, that can only be very good news for all of us!  We don’t seek to downplay sinful and evil behavior that Bill Gothard or anyone else may perpetrate. Bill Gothard and others who are unaccountable leaders, and perhaps especially celebrity Christian leaders, have wrought a tremendous amount of spiritual, emotional, and in some cases physical abuse on many and should be held to account.  As a mission, our task was and continues to be to alert and attempt to help guard the flock from those who arise from within and cause damage to others:

from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them. (Acts 20:30)

And, it should be the task of the church at large, and every one of us, to bind up the wounded sheep, care, comfort, and pray for them, and to help them focus on the One who gave them eternal life and take their main focus off the one that wreaked so much damage to their lives. As for those who have hurt others in this way, it’s not too late for them to take another look at themselves as well – and shine God’s light on their thinking. All of us are works in progress as long as we live. Let us all walk in the spirit and thus deny the works of the flesh.Ω

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