Gothardism: A Pox On Our House

Introduction and Background

I first must make apology to those of you who have expressed interest in my article on Gothardism. I had hoped to have completed it by now but the holidays have messed up my writing schedule quite a bit. I have just not had the motivation to write much during this season.

But now that the holidays are history, I will turn my attention to some of these things that I have wanted to address for some time. I will take Gothardism first.

A few words of background may help the readers understand my own perspective. As for myself, I somehow, by God’s providence, missed out on the whole Gothardism phenomenon. For whatever reason, I knew little or nothing about Gothard and his impact on the evangelical community throughout the 1970 and even until the present time. As I have told my friends, I had heard the name but I had always thought that they were somehow talking about the Gaithers of Gospel singing fame! Duh.

When I began my pastorate here in Holland, Michigan, two new families joined us a few months after we had commenced our ministry here. Those two families have become pillars in our Calvinistic Baptist church, but at the time were leaving a fundamental Baptist church where Gothardism had become entrenched. Somehow these two families had escaped the poisonous effects of this strange “evangelical” cult, though even today they will admit to some remaining corruption of that virus that remains in their heads. But thank God they have been delivered from that awful system and are now strong testimony to the gracious effects of sound Biblical doctrine, and especially the doctrines of God’s grace.

From these families I have learned much about Gothardism, for Gothardism remains a wretched infestation in their extended families. Indeed, the issues around Gothardism have served to separate the families somewhat, a reality that I think is quite Biblical, as in the teaching of Matthew 10:34ff: “Think not that I am come to send peace on earth; I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.” I am glad that God led them to leave such a system of anti-theology. Gothardism is a poisonous pox on our house, as I expressed in the title of this article. We must excise this disease that has infected many lives much like the sting of a poisonous viper, which was and is driven by ignorance and rebellion against God as Romans chapter one describes. I believe that Gothardism is nothing less than a cult, even if it has the surface appearance of evangelical orthodoxy. Indeed, one of its most dangerous characteristic is its sheep’s clothing. We will examine this charge in a series of articles here.

My primary interest up front is the theological characteristics of Gothardism. I will skip over some very real and major issues such as the totally unbiblical nature of Gothard’s “ministry,” his unethical [immoral?] behavior regarding his dealings with organizational members, his cult-like claims to “rhema” revelations from God, his organization's admitted and now public sexual proclivities, his ungodly attitudes towards civil laws and his unethical and immoral practice of pseudo-medicine. All of these things are frankly driven by what he believes, that is, by his theology - or more exactly, his lack thereof. If we are to discern the character of false teachers, the first and primary source of data is their treatment of the Holy Scriptures and their basic understanding of God [theology]. To set the stage for my remarks, I can say that I believe that even a cursory examination of the theology of Gothardism reveals an unholy and ungodly system of influence upon millions of professors of Christ that should be rejected out of hand by any knowledgeable believer.

You will notice that I have used the phrase “professors of Christ” and not “believers.” I do so without apology. As a Baptist pastor with decades of ministerial and pastor experience, I have come to accept the reality in the modern Baptist church that a goodly portion of those who are sitting in the pews of our Baptist churches are not in fact regenerated [born again] believers. They have been convinced by the rotten stain of decisionism made popular by Charles Finney and popularized in our own time by evangelists like Billy Graham, et al. Long story short, a sort of Sandelmanianism, Pelagian-semi Pelagian synergism has had a destructive effect on Baptist ranks, resulting in even Baptist churches full of worldly professors and very few true believers. This has created a carefully cultivated seed-plot ready for the planting of false seed. This to me is the best explanation of the apparent success of Gothardism. Those who do not have the Spirit of God are unable to distinguish the difference between Gothardism and true Christianity, so such people are susceptible to “murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men’s persons in admiration because of advantage… These be they that separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit.”

It is apparent that Gothardism has been successful, if numbers are of any import [and what fundamental Baptist would not believe that numbers are of primary importance, eh?]. Apparently, during the 1970 and 80s, Bill Gothard took a portion of evangelicalism by storm, though not entirely, as my own testimony above shows. The “movement” claims to have as many as 2.5 million “alumni.” That is an astounding figure, making it one of the most pervasive influences on modern evangelicalism, rivaling the influence of the “Purpose Driven Church” infection that is still extant in evangelicalism to this very day [but quickly dying in effect, even if the book sales are not].

Fortunately, Gothardism has come upon hard times, and not a moment too soon. Like a poisonous snake bite, it takes a few minutes for the venom to spread through the blood stream. But now the destructive character of Gothard’s system is making itself obvious through broken families, broken and destroyed churches, ruined marriages and, if a friend of mine is right, even to the suicide of some who were corrupted by Gothardism in the home. How is it that so many good Christians could be duped into following such a destructive system? Where is the “mind of Christ” that the believer has (1 Cor. 2:16) by which to discern spiritual truth? Where is spiritual discernment?

Sadly, I think that one answer to this question is the sad state to which the church has sunken in our day. No longer is there a Berean mind that has a healthy Biblical skepticism like the people of Berea in the Apostle Paul’s day. They put even that great Apostle to the test of the Word of God, to see if these things be so. That ought to be the starting point of all Christian life, that is, a healthy Biblical skepticism which measures all things by the infallible measure of Holy Writ. But alas, such is a distant memory, I am afraid. Today’s professor is all too easily led by hype and marketing ploys, the result of their being “conformed to this world.” There is little interest in questioning the validity of anyone, especially if he has sold some books on Amazon.com! The undiscerning modern mind seems not to be interested in whether a thing is true or not as long as it is widely popular. The world seems to be instantly “carried about with divers and strange doctrines,” “blown about by every wind of doctrine.”

So, with that introduction, I will begin the series of articles with a look at the theological characteristics of Gothardism. My sources of information are both direct, including families and friends that have been directly involved with Gothardism, Gothard’s official web site, Internet sources of people who have been involved with Gothard as well as indirect sources, such as the Midwest Christian Outreach, Inc., based in Lombard, Illinois, just a sort distance down the road from Gothard’s headquarters in Oak Brook, Illinois. Of particular note is the fairly recent book (2003) by Don and Joy Veinot from the Midwest Christian Outreach, Inc., entitled A Matter of Basic Principles. Additionally, there are literally thousands of people out on the Internet ready to share their experiences with Gothardism first hand. Given this wealth of information, it is simply stunning to me that anyone in their right mind would actually choose to follow this system at all.

Next article: Exegesis, or simply peddling the Gospel for a profit?