A few years ago, I made a list of things I once believed that I now reject. My intention was to write on each of them, explaining my former view and why I am now convinced that I was wrong. Over fifteen months, I wrote three articles on two topics under the heading “Dumb Things I Have Believed.” Nineteen months passed since the last, and I haven’t written any more. It’s not that I’ve forgotten; it’s just that, when I think of those things, I find I’m too embarrassed to admit them publicly. Most of the “Dumb Things I Have Believed” are really dumb.
Today, I’m going to make an excruciatingly painful admission: I was once a moderately enthusiastic follower of Bill Gothard. I am making that confession in connection with a topic that came up in my reading last week of Living in the Gap Between Promise and Reality: The Gospel According to Abraham. This topic is primarily for you male readers: listening to your wives. Among the many odd teachings of Gothardism is the idea that a man should never do anything without the agreement of his wife. This notion is drawn from the experience of Pontius Pilate, whose wife warned him, “Have nothing to do with that righteous Man; for last night I suffered greatly in a dream because of Him” (Matthew 27:19). For Gothard, who sees every biblical text as a Christless* moral lesson even when Christ is at the very center, the message is obvious: Listen to your wife, or you’ll end up doing something horrific, like killing the Messiah!
Iain Duguid, comparing Adam’s taking the fruit from Eve and Abram’s taking Hagar at Sarai’s behest, takes a different view:
Like Adam before him, Abram found temptation approaching in the person of his nearest and dearest. We often forget that temptation can come from any quarter, even from within our own family circle. We expect the devil to assault us like a roaring lion, as ugly and fearsome as can be. We don’t expect him to come to us dressed as an angel of light, speaking in the honey sweet tones of the one we love. Yet the bible warns us that such an approach is easy for him to adopt (2 Cor. 11:14). Thus, Satan didn’t only confront Jesus head-on in the wilderness (Matt. 4:1–11); he also tempted him more subtly through words of one of his closest disciples, Peter (Matt. 16:23).
Like Adam, Abram capitulated readily to a temptation that might not have deceived him had it come from a different source. The parallel between the two experiences is underlined in the original Hebrew by the use of the same idiom: Adam and Abram both “hearkened to the voice of” their wives (Gen. 3:17; 16:2). What is more, in both cases the woman “took” and “gave” to her husband (Gen. 3:6; 16:3). There was an inversion of the proper spiritual leadership structure in the home, and the result in each case was disaster. Of course, listening to your wife is not necessarily wrong! In Genesis 12:12, God specifically commands Abraham to listen to his wife because in this instance she is right. But we need to be aware that the very person intended to be a blessing to us may also be the one through whom we are lead astray. The only protection is for us to be so thoroughly attuned to God’s word that we are able to recognize and resist temptation from whatever source it comes. Obedience must be more precious than even the closest of human relationships (Matt. 10:37).—Iain Duguid, Living in the Gap Between Promise and Reality: The Gospel According to Abraham (P&R, 1999), 63–64.
Like Duguid, I am not denying that a man should listen to his wife, but a view like Gothard’s makes two serious errors. First, it places a human being in a place that can only be occupied by God, and is therefore idolatrous. Second, it fails to recognize human depravity. Even the wisest, most pious and mature believer is a fallible being, and as such can never be trusted unconditionally.
* I challenge you to read Gothard’s personal site and see if you can find, outside of the brief propositions in What I Believe, any Gospel at all. One would surely think that a page entitled A Testimony of God's Grace would be a testimony to the gospel, but no, it’s just another Gothard-formula “four-part testimony”: 1) I had a problem, 2) I tried to fix it my way and failed; 3) then I applied this [command of Christ/biblical principle] 4) and now it’s all hunky-dory. Gothardism is nothing more than Your Best Life Now, but a lot less fun.
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1 Comments:
#1 || 11·04·09··18:45 || Ivory
I've met quite a few Gothardites who literally live by everything the man says. Don't need to spend much time around these folks to realize that legalism, fear and idolatry run rampant.
Sadly, it leaves many shipwrecked in their faith journeys when things don't work out just as Gothard says.
You're so right...much of what is taught by Gothard, and others in the hyper-Patriarch camps wants to displace Christ and the Gospel and it is all so man-centered and man-glorifying that it is anything but Christian.
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