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Why is this such a difficult question?

During August 2008, Annette and I travelled to a number of locations in eastern Indonesia with two Australian couples who were visiting us. One couple from Queensland, another couple we knew from Melbourne. Both couples have been impacted by the type of doctrinal teachings coming out of the BCF/MCF stream. Both have been cut-off from family members. Both have grieved and suffered under the loss of these relationships. Annette and I also have family in MCF and we have not experienced the “cutting-off” from family in the same way that these families experienced, however we have experienced being cut-off.

As far as family members were concerned, the cutting-off for us was that if we were to meet there were topics that could not be discussed. It was a break of fellowship, a break of relationship, even though we were physically in the same room. To have raised the topics would have led to being cut-off. We saw no value in taking an aggressive stand and decided to leave our family members in the hands of the Lord.

On the other hand, we were cut-off from the church at large. Some members were warned that to meet with us was to endanger their salvation. We were banned from attending meetings, weddings and members, my son’s close friends, were banned from attending his 21^st birthday party. Our names were slandered as leaders sat down with members to explain why we were out of the church. At a men’s camp, the microphones were turned off and recordings stopped so that they could explain the sins of the Hammonds. As various members contacted us to question what was being said we were staggered at the level of slander the MCF leadership was prepared to conduct to try and poison any relationships we had with people in the church.

We discussed these matters with two ex-senior leaders of MCF who had left over the moral issues surrounding Ray Jackson Snr. and the leadership style of the church and the new doctrines that were beginning to emerge in the mid-1970’s. One said that we should write to every member of the church and outline what had really happened. The other advised us to just forget them, that they were an irrelevant group and that since we had a different vision we should just move on with what the Lord had given us. We saw merits in both but decided to hold our peace and say nothing in our own defence. It was difficult as our circle of friends for decades were immediately lost. I saw one friend in Elizabeth Street, Melbourne. Our eyes connected and for a moment we both smiled in gleeful recognition. Then it must have hit him. His face changed and he quickly turned and walked away. It was a sad moment.

Travelling in East Indonesia

So, as we travelled with these two couples, firstly to Poso and Tentena in Central Sulawesi. This is where over 10,000 homes had been destroyed by radicals, 3 young schoolgirls were beheaded, two of my staff assassinated, several of my pastoral colleagues shot dead in their pulpits and where many churches we had preached in had been burned to the ground over the last 10 years. Annette with the two ladies preached to the fellowship in Poso with about 80 believers, while I had the two men and we attended a village revival meeting in Tentena with about 300 attending. The next morning we held a pastors and elders seminar with about 70 church leaders attending.

In the evening we went to the village of Sangginora. This was the village featured in a Jana Wendt program in 2002 on the Jihad in Poso. This village, 99% Presbyterian, had been totally destroyed. The pastor had led the community to escape in the jungles where for two weeks they survived on “bush tucker” eating yams, and edible leaves. A baby was born on the river bank in the jungle. Another in the jungle. When I first went there after the attacks, many were still hiding in the jungle and we went and visited them to assure them that they had not been forgotten or abandoned by the Body of Christ. This village has now been fully restored, and now we were attending a harvest thanksgiving service where they brought their first fruits to the Lord. (See the photographs in the Photo Gallery). It was a joy to see them rejoicing before God. Before the attacks only 20% attended church but afterwards, as the Lord poured out His Spirit on this community, now over 90% attend and are committed to Christ. This has been a community transformed by the power of Christ’s love.

After Sangginora we travelled through the mountains to a large prairie land where we met with a group of 15 Pentecostal pastors who had come to the mountains to pray together for the Holy Spirit to be poured out on their land. We joined them for a BBQ lunch before going down the other side of the mountains to Palu, the capital of Central Sulawesi for a special leaders seminar with 30 select leaders from 7 denominations to discuss the church’s understanding of Islam and how to best approach Muslims in our day and age.

The next morning, the 6 of us flew to the city and island of Ternate in North Maluku. The trip took all day and we travelled through 4 airports in 4 provinces to get there. From the airport we went to the refugee camp. Here are 150 Christian families living like cattle in stalls having sufferred for their faith for 9 years (see the Photo Gallery). They and the 6000 other Christians living in similar camps have been forgotten by the church at large as Indonesia has been ravaged by tsunamis, earth quakes, floods and volcanic eruptions that have taken the focus off these long-suffering brothers and sisters in Christ. As we walked through the camp and talked with people, many tears were shed. In the evening we held a service for the refugees to encourage them in their faith in Christ.

The next morning we took a speed boat for 45 minutes across to the island of Halmahera and then a 5 hour car trip to Tobelo in North Halmahera. On the way we stopped at Kusuri and visited our medical clinic headed up by the Scarborough family where many tragically injured people have been assisted including helping some like Yulce have multiple surgeries in the USA and seeing what the miracle of love can achieve. (See the Photo Gallery).

The next morning we drove to Duma, past an exploding volcano. Duma, a 100% Presbyterian village, had 211 Christians slaughtered in the church when they were attacked and lost another 107 badly injured who were being evacuated in the boat, the Cahaya Bahari, that disappeared with 650 Christians on board. We have worked with this village since late 2000. At the time they were refugees in the province of North Sulawesi and they needed love to heal the wounds, the physical, emotional and spiritual. Now back in their village which is now 90% restored it was a joy to participate in the Sunday service. The visiting couples from Australia also shared and they began to see that the troubles they had faced in Australia were very small compared to what these people had gone through.

After spending another night in North Maluku and a small village meeting in the rain, we travelled back by speedboat to Ternate and then flew to North Sulawesi to go to the restoration project for the Lata-lata refugees.

As we have travelled through these areas and met so many Christians physically “cut-off” and having lost their loved ones, their villages, their homes, their churches, their farms and shops because of their faith, because of standing for the truth, the two couples with us saw that there is a price to pay for standing up for the truth. The important thing is what is in our hearts. Are we willing to exercise the power of forgiveness and to allow the love of Christ to overflow us and to flow through us for this is where real healing will come.

Arriving at the Lata-lata project we also had some guests, Christian brothers from Norway who had been burdened by the Lord to assist in this huge project. So far 62 houses have been finished, a small fishing fleet has been established, some market gardens planted and some other small industries are developing. We still need to build 140 homes to accommodate the Lata-lata people. We have 44 hectares of land and are currently negotiating to purchase another 30 hectares of farming and residential land.

Who are the Lata-lata people?

They were an idol-worshipping community until 1952 on a small island in North Maluku. A young lady of 34, Adolfina Delope, brought them the Gospel and they received Christ. In 2000 their island village was attacked. The pastor and 4 elders were beheaded and 70 villages killed as the village of 1600 was brought into submission, force-converted and force-circumcised with all the girls and women suffering genital mutilation including Adolfina Delope who 82 years old! They were held captive for 18 months before we rescued them in a convoy of ships. To stay meant to be Muslims. They chose to forsake all to follow Christ. Our visit for 3 days with the Lata-lata community concluded with a mass-wedding of 13 couples on the date 08/08/08!

From North Sulawesi we flew to Bali where we had another wedding to attend, and leaving the other couples, we flew to Indonesian Papua to the city of Jayapura, the capital, for a 3 day open-air revival in the city square in the centre of the CBD with some 5000 attending and over 300 giving their lives to Christ with several miracles recorded including one blind woman who was healed and two paralyzed men who were healed.

Returning to Jakarta, one of the couples rejoined us as we went to the national stadium and joined with 25,000 praying for the nation. The same event was conducted in 51 cities across the nation.

Reflections on what to do – to leave or not to leave?

So after all that travelling, some reflections. The friendships we have with the two couples who travelled with us. The friendships and fellowship of the thousands of refugees we work with and the fellowship of the Body of Christ, from all denominations across the nation is a touch of heaven. Who would want to give it up? Were we not created for fellowship? With God? With one another? When, in 1995, we were ordered to stop going to Indonesia and that we had “no fatherhood to Indonesia”, whatever that meant in their thinking processes, we had to count the cost.

Is their life outside of the BCF/MCF stream?

What would be the price for standing up for the truth? I still remember the words as I sat in that eldership meeting with the Melbourne elders plus Vic Hall and they said, “Are you the only one that is right? Are we all wrong?” I responded by saying, “Don’t pull that trick on me. Are you saying you are the only church that is right and all other churches are wrong?”

They had also ordered me to close down the International Student Fellowship which I had begun at their request, but when I asked who would care for the new ones recently saved, they said, “We have no fatherhood to them. Tell them to find somewhere else!” I knew this was the end. This was execution day. This was the day we were cut-off. We would not abandon the little lambs, we would not compromise truth and submit to Vic’s “fathered word”, we decided to submit to God’s Word and to the fellowship of the Body of Christ.

The price has been expensive.

The pain has been great. Was it worth it? You bet! It costs a person everything if that person wants the pearl of great price! (Matthew 13:46). The joy of seeing God at work, restoring lives and seeing transformed communities as they come to know the plan of God and the true going on to perfection in the fellowship of the Body of Christ. These are great pearls indeed! We have never had to compromise truth or throw the truth away, but we have had to allow our perspectives and attitudes to be refined on God’s threshing floor – and you know what? God was then able to add things we never knew before.

You may be faced with difficult decisions yourself and have many questions. Let me assure you there is life outside the BCF/MCF stream. There is the Body of Christ. Is there pain and suffering too? Sure! But Jesus still says, “Come unto Me, all you who labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest!” (Matthew 11:28). The key to a successful transition is an intimate personal relationship with Christ. Put your hurts, grievances, confusion and the injustices you have suffered into His hands and He does all things well. He will be your justifier for He is the Chief Advocate with the Father. The evil-doers will not escape the justice of God, so do not allow any seeds of bitterness to linger but exercise the power of forgiveness and begin to build new relationships in the Body of Christ.

Read also the recent posting below and see the similarities between some teachings and practices of Islam with the BCF/MCF stream.

 jeffhammond@bigpond.com

 

As Annette and I travelled through East Indonesia during the last 3 weeks, I was reading Victor Hall’s publication called, TAKE HEED HOW YOU BUILD from March 2007 in which some remarkable admissions are made and some dangerous explanations offered as to the state of the church and the way ahead. A full discussion of this document will be the subject of a later blog article. However, there were a few points discussed in the book as well as other books Vic has written which raise some frightening similarities between the teachings that the BCF/MCF stream has been promoting and Islam.

I should emphasize that there is much material that this stream teaches that is excellent material and that there is a tendency, when people leave, to throw out the baby with the dirty bathwater. Here is the dilemma. Ratsak is made up of 97% excellent food and 3% poison, but could you trust anyone to clean the poison out of the packet and ask you to eat the rest? Of course not! You must throw it all out and then go back to the Manufacturer of the excellent food and seek the good food. It’s like the parable of the wheat and tares. The wheat is fine, it’s the tares that are the problem and they become manifest at harvest time when the fruit is evident. By their fruit you shall know them. At least with the wheat you can allow the tares to grow together and separate them at harvest time. The same principle with leaven. A little leaven leavens the whole lump. How can you get the leaven out? It must be purged with fire or as Paul said in 1Corinthians 5:7, “Get rid of the old leaven that you may be a new batch without leaven.” There needs to be a renewing, a restocking with the good bread leaving out the poison, the tares, the leaven, so go back to the Manufacturer and build afresh so that you can be built on the true foundation with “the bread of sincerity and truth.”

Having ministered in the largest Islamic country in the world (Indonesia) since 1974 and having lived in the Middle East (The West Bank, Jordan and Yemen) and studied Arabic language, culture and religion over a 4 year period of time the latest booklets from the BCF/MCF stream raise alarm bells over the similarities between them and Islam. Annette and I both speak, read and write Arabic and have studied the Koran and Islam in depth. We have been taught by Christian scholars, western and Arabic and we have been taught by both moderate Islamic clerics and radical sheiks close to Usama bin Laden and we have been involved in many dialogues with Islamic leaders where we have been able to discuss the Scriptures and present the Gospel.

Over the last several years we have read many strong, emotional characterizations of the BCF/MCF stream with many referring to it as a cult or being similar to the Exclusive Brethren, the Melbourne Fellowship (a relatively unknown group, the subject of Morag Zwartz’s book “Fractured Families”) and Queensland Lutheran’s calling the stream the new Catholic Church.

The doctrines and practices of BCF/MCF have indeed created some unflattering comparisons and the comparisons with Islam, as with the above mentioned groups, do not create a flattering image.

Four Points of Comparison

1. The Doctrine of the Messenger

In Islam the message and the messenger are inseparable. If you do not accept the messenger then you have not accepted the message. That is why in the two statements of faith in Islam one must express believe in both Allah and Muhammad. One cannot say I believe in Allah yet not believe the messenger. The two are eternally linked. They are absolutes in Islam. The same message is taught in the BCF/MCF stream. You cannot separate what is being taught from the messenger. If you question what is being taught then you are rejecting the messenger and this places you in a vulnerable and dangerous position of stepping outside the grace of God.

2. The Message – the descent of revelation

In Vic’s latest book, “The Mystery of the Seven Stars”, with David Falk, Murray Wylie and David Baker assisting, he outlines the pathway of revelations he has received saying, “It has been over thirty years since the Lord Jesus began to address the church in our generation, personally.” (pp.7-8) Vic outlines the doctrines that the Lord revealed to him and how step by step they were to be implemented and administered. I remember well at an Apollo Bay eldership retreat in late February 1995 questioning Vic’s new revelation that the whole of Australia was one region under one eldership and that there were no longer to be local elderships. I remarked that the implications of this teaching were a radical shift from what was currently being taught and that we should search the scriptures to see if these things be so. Ray Jackson Jnr responded by saying, “This is a fathered word and we will submit to it. It is not up for discussion.” I knew that the end had come. This is exactly the same principle that operates in Islam. Vic was receiving the message, the “revelation” and all had to unquestioningly submit to it, obey it and practice it.

The Islamic method of revelation is a message, already pre-recorded by Allah in heaven, comes down from above and whether it makes sense or not, whether it contradicts previous revelations or not, it must be obeyed. Every portion of ‘revelation’ is a complete package which is not up for discussion. It is not to be compared with other portions or ‘revelations’. It is to be accepted and submitted to. It is called the principle of abrogation where the later revelation supercedes the previous revelation as the latest revelation is always superior to the former. In this way all contradictions disappear. The latest revelation must be obeyed.

The biblical method of revelation is quite different. It is a variety of interactive events, history, experience, poetry, song, prophecy, parable, gospel and letters which need to be compared one with another. It is not a pre-recorded message but the heart of God revealing step by step, line upon line, through multiple methods (Hebrews 1:1-2). It is a treasure chest of truth that we can search through, compare and analyze and by studying the revealed Word and with the illumination of the Holy Spirit upon that Word, we can know the plain message that is the heartbeat of God. We do not need extra-biblical revelation. The Bible is complete. It’s message is complete and if we do not understand it then the Lord says, “Come let us reason together”. The Bible is not a series of unrelated decrees but a love story that the Lord invites us to read and to walk with Him in a journey of discovery so that we may know Him, His plans and His great love for us.

Sadly this is not what is being taught in the BCF/MCF stream as the message of the “messenger” is said to have revelation of the same status and authority as the written Word of God. Even if you don’t understand it, you are called to obedience as the accountability of the truth of the message is said to rest with the messenger and not the congregation. The call to accountability by the congregation is the call to accept the messenger and his message. This then denies the whole teaching of the priesthood of all believers, creates a new level of priesthood mediating a new revelation and abrogates the rights of believers to search the scriptures to see if these things are so. This is so similar to Islam and what has happened in sects that have gone to extremes like Jim Jones and David Koresh where the acceptance of the messenger and his message were absolute values upon which their adherents salvation, and ultimately their lives, depended. Wikipedia says that Koresh “worked it so that everyone was forced to rely on him, and him alone. All previous bonds and attachments, family or otherwise, meant nothing. His rationale was if they had no one to depend on, they had to depend on him, and that made them vulnerable.”

3. The Doctrine of Submission and Trust

The key meaning of the word “Islam” is “submission”. The word Muslim likewise has the meaning of one who submits. Submission in Islam is an absolute necessity if one wishes to be saved from the fires of hell. Unquestioning obedience to the revealed word of the messenger is demanded. It is a revealed word and is not up for discussion. When we question contradictions of aspects of the ‘revelation’ and indeed there are many, we are told that it is not up for discussion. In Islam you must have absolute trust in the messenger and total submission to his message. Muslims are not allowed to question any aspect of their faith. To do so is disloyalty, un-Islamic and therefore not to demonstrate trust and submission.

Asking questions is a great biblical value. It is integral in our freedom of faith. The prophets regularly asked questions and even questioned why God was doing something. The psalmist regularly dialogues with God asking questions and gaining answers as in Psalm 2, “Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain?” and the Lord tells him why. Habakkuk cried out, “How long, O Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen?” (Habakkuk 1:2). But the Lord invites us to come to Him, to question Him, to challenge Him. He does not demand blind trust, unquestioning obedience for He desires a reasonable, loving, committed faith response after all the issues have been settled in our hearts. The Lord invites us to challenge Him, to prove Him, to stir Him up, to give Him no rest and to put Him to the test – and He listens! (Isaiah 1:18; 62:6; Malachi 3:10-18).

Abraham was even able to negotiate with God (Genesis18) – this is the sort of God we have. He is relational, loving, caring and yes He warns us, disciplines us and corrects us but our faith and relationship with Him is not based upon a call to submission and unquestioning trust. Our God has earned our trust by His total and absolute commitment to us. He has proved Himself to be inerrant and fully trustworthy, therefore I give myself in loving submission to Him, not because I “have to” but because there is no one better and I love Him. Love is not identical to trust. God loved the whole world, but did He put His trust in us? No way! He knew we were sinners needing salvation and it is such a dangerous thing to put you trust in men who claim spiritual authority over your eternal destiny. I remind you of what I have previously stated, “Be warned! “Do not put your trust in princes, in mortal men, who cannot save,” Psalms 146:3. There is only one who you can trust for the salvation of your soul, and that is Jesus. “Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is kept safe,” Proverbs 29:25. See also Jeremiah 17:5.”

4. The doctrine of “cutting off”

When I heard that this message was taught in MCF and a paper presented and circulated around the year 2000 using the account of Exodus 32:28-29 as the justification of “killing” all relationships that were not in true submission and that a person would be blessed of the Lord if indeed that one acted in this way. In Deuteronomy 13:1-11, if any family member would seduce another to worship false gods, they were to be put to death. This principle was now being applied to anyone in the church who was not in submission to the leadership. They were now being accused of having false gods and seducing to another culture and therefore be put to death. This has become the basis of breaking up marriages, ordering family and friends to “cut-off” relationships with unsubmissive family members. The law which was a cruel master in a period with no grace to expose the sinfulness of man is no principle to be applied to the New Testament church which lives under grace and not law. The law has been fulfilled by Christ on the cross and has been cancelled as useless and unable to bring forgiveness, salvation, mercy or perfection (Hebrews 7:11-25; 10:1-14).

I remember discussing this with Richard Holland, who has recently gone home to be with the Lord, and he said, “So does my brother have to now kill me?” He thought this teaching of applying that specific incident on Mt. Sinai and the Law to the New Testament as a basis of fellowship in church and family to be not only idiotic, but extremely dangerous. This has proved to be the case. Read the testimonies of the numerous victims!

At the only occasion (2007) I have been allowed to attend a meeting (a wedding) at MCF since 1995, one of the elders, approached me and asked me of my thoughts on a number of issues. I challenged him on this doctrine of “cutting-off”. He immediately responded by saying that this was the practice of Jesus who even “cut-off” his own mother because she was not in right relational order. This is a strange interpretation of the event. Jesus emphasized the importance of honouring one’s parents (Matthew 15:4-6; Mark 7:6-16) and Jesus was never disrespectful of His mother. Jesus was not like others, for He was also the only-begotten Son of God, and on a couple of occasions (Luke 2:49; 8:19-21) He emphasized that His number one priority was in obedience to the mission His Father had given to Him and that in His role as the Son of God. This was not cutting His mother off. There is no such suggestion implied by Jesus in His teachings or His actions but He did teach that His number one priority was always to His Father and that all who believe in Him were intimate members of His family. He placed the loving and eternal relationship with God as the greatest binding force there is.

The doctrine of “cutting-off” is a very Islamic teaching. Those who do not submit must be killed. Muhammad taught, “If a man changes his religion (from Islam), kill him.” Under Sharia Law, it is the death penalty for conversion away from Islam, and the Koran teaches that no Muslim is to have Christians or Jews as friends.

Sadly, in each of the areas discussed above, it is clear that Satan’s modus operandi has never changed. Satan is still a thief and a murderer as Jesus said in John 10:10, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy,” but thankfully Jesus continued and said, “I have come that they may have life, and that they might have it abundantly.” There is life, there is joy, there is hope, but sadly that is not to be found in the BCF/MCF stream where a blinding bondage captivates many as the “angel of light” imparts his revelations, (2Corinthians 11:13-15).

As one studies the revelation of the Gospel throughout the history of the Bible, it is a remarkable and richly prophetic journey. It takes us from the Garden of Eden to the New Jerusalem. It takes us through the plan of creation, the fall, the prophesied redemption, the miracle of the incarnation and the cross through to the Second Coming of Christ. It takes us through the tragedy of missed opportunities, rebellion, Law, an impotent priesthood and failure through to a new beginning, a new birth, a new priesthood, a new transforming power, a new and living way and ultimately to be where He makes all things new. It takes us from the oppression of sin and Satan to the liberty of transforming grace through faith where we have joy unspeakable and full of glory. It takes us from dead works to faith. It takes us from oppression to freedom and the glorious liberty of the sons of God. It takes us out of darkness and into light. Living for Jesus really is the best life of all.

One of the tragedies of the BCF/MCF saga is that so many have been denied the basic freedom Christ purchased for us at Calvary and so many have been trapped by the fear that their sins will not be forgiven and that if they do not submit to the ‘administration of the messenger’ and ‘the orders of the throne’ and ‘The Gospel of You’ or ‘The Gospel of Fatherhood’ or ‘The Mirror of the Corporate’ etc., they will be cut off from grace and the ‘Body’, having no access to forgiveness and salvation. What oppression! But let’s come back to the amazing message of the Bible. His story is the greatest story ever told.

The Creation of Man

The story begins in the very creation of man. What an amazing event was the creation of mankind! It revealed God’s desire for the full expression of Himself in relationship, fellowship and family. And He chose to do that through the creation of man.

Genesis 1:26, “God said, Let us make man in our image, in our likeness.”

What an awesome plan! God wanted a creation, humanity, with whom He could share everything.

The Fall

Seeing God’s plan for man, Satan in his jealousy rose up in rebellion (Isaiah 14:12-17; Jeremiah 4:23-27; Ezekiel 28:11-19) seeking to usurp what God had planned for man. From the beginning he has been a liar and a murderer and he is anti-God and anti-man. That’s why he came into the Garden of Eden planning his coup d’etat. He wanted to destroy God’s plan and he probably thought he had succeeded when Adam and Eve also fell into sin.

Amazing Grace

Adam and Eve were supposed to die the day that they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:16-17) but God in His amazing grace intervened with an animal sacrifice, probably a lamb (Genesis 3:21) and covered their nakedness with the blood stained skins. This was the beginning of the prophetic biblical story of redemption, of unworthy, sinful man being redeemed by the blood of the Lamb that was fulfilled by Christ on Calvary.

Genesis 4 – Abel by faith offered the lamb – a lamb for God (Hebrews 11:4)

Genesis 22 – Abraham offered a lamb in exchange for Isaac – a lamb for one person

Exodus 12 – Israel’s first Passover and deliverance from Egypt – a lamb for a family

Isaiah 53 – The lamb is a person redeeming the elect – a lamb for a nation

John 1:29 – John the Baptist declares “Behold the Lamb!” – a lamb for the world

1Peter 1:18-20 – The lamb from the foundation of the world – one lamb for all history

Revelation 5 – The lamb in the throne of heaven and earth – one lamb for the universe

Revelation 21-22 – 7 times the Lamb in the New Jerusalem – one lamb for all eternity

This is amazing grace. This is God’s wonderful plan of redemption. Christ, the Lamb of God, has paid the price, suffered the judgement, redeemed us from death and hell and now to all who will believe in Him and follow Him there is everlasting life. It is simple. It is not complicated. It is free. It is His great love to whoever will believe. It is not by works but by faith (Ephesians 2:4-9). It is not ‘orders of the throne’, ‘gospel of headship’, ‘mirror of the corporate’, ‘the mystery of the 7 stars’, the ‘messenger’, but it is grace, grace, grace!

The Priesthood and the Everlasting Covenant

When God came to Abraham and called him on a journey of faith (Genesis 12) it was so that in him and his seed, Christ and the Church (Galatians 3:6-14; 3:26-29), all the nations of the earth might be blessed. The priest who ministered to Abraham was Melchizedek, the prophetic image of Christ the Great High Priest (Genesis 14:17-20; Psalm 110; Hebrews 5-10). This priesthood is everlasting. It is the priesthood of the eternal covenant. It is the priesthood of faith where every believer in Christ has free, open and direct personal access into the presence of God, by a new and living way (Hebrews 10:19-25). All believers, male and female, young and old, have all become kings and priests unto God (1Peter 2:9-10; Revelation 1:4-6; 5:6-10; 20:6).

Sadly, in the New Testament Church, in Galatia, there was a tendency to return to Law and the Aaronic style of restricted priesthood where salvation was through the administration of the priests, but Paul said to them, “You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. I would like to learn this one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort? Have you suffered so much for nothing – if it really was for nothing? Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you believe what you heard?” Galatians 3:1-5. Paul rebuked the Galatians for returning to the ministry style or culture of the Law. Tragically that is what has happened in the BCF/MCF stream. Grace has gone. Law has been imposed with all its harshness hence breeding frustration, cutting off and so much pain, leaving a trail of wounded sheep, broken hearted believers, divided families and no grace and no forgiveness.

God’s Amazing Ultimate Plan

Just as God created us in His image and likeness, so the plan of redemption is that every believer should be changed into the image of Christ, for He is the express image of God (Hebrews 1:3) and we are being changed and transformed into His image, “from glory to glory,” (2Corinthians 3:18). And when He appears we shall be like Him for we shall see Him as He is (1John 3:1-2). Indeed, this mortal shall put on immortality and this corruptible shall put in incorruptibility, and “as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven,” (1Corinthians 15:45-57). Christ in us the hope of glory (Colossians 1:27), by faith, by grace and by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Satan wants to cut us off

From the beginning Satan tried to stop this glorious plan that God has for us. Do not let Satan rob you of your inheritance, for now you are a co-heir with Christ, you are sons and daughters of God. You have no reason to fear, for God is a loving Father. He does not cut us off nor disown us if we fall into disobedience, but He disciplines us and calls us back to Himself. He forgives us freely and accepts us. He does not cut us off as the love of the Father is to gather us to Himself. He does not send us away, but calls us back (Hebrews 12:2-15). His loving arms are outstretched to all and He says, “Come unto Me, all you who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest,” (Matthew 11:28).

Jesus calls us back, BCF/MCF sent us away. Jesus forgives, BCF/MCF cut us off and said we were outside of the grace of God. I’m so thankful that His grace is not administered by mortal man, but it is the free gift of God.

Testimony from Indonesia

Here in Indonesia we are seeing His grace. In our church alone in Jakarta we are having over 300 saved and baptized every month. Two other churches in Jakarta are growing even faster. This year we have seen two people raised from the dead and many others miraculously healed. We are having stadiums of prayer with up to 80,000 attending from all denominations, coming together as one Body of Christ, just in Jakarta, with other gatherings in over 30 cities across the nation. The youth are vibrant with faith and love and experiencing the power of God. They desire to be changed into the image of Christ and they desire to win the lost and fulfill the Great Commission. They gather in prayer and worship and study God’s Word and share Christ with their friends. These are wonderful days to be in the Body of Christ. Exciting things are happening where believers gather together in unity for it is there that God commands His blessing (Psalm 133), but when people choose to live in isolation, hide behind a persecution complex and refuse to be accountable or in relationship with the Body of Christ then the validity of their system must be questioned and their fruit thoroughly examined. Where does the BCF/MCF stream stand in all of this? Jesus said, “By their fruits you shall know them,” (Matthew 7:15-20).

The next Blog article will be on the question, “To leave or not to leave, why is this such a difficult question?” This next article may take a week before appearing as we will be travelling through Central Sulawesi (Poso and Tentena) then to Ternate, Tobelo and Duma in North Maluku, before returning to Manado in North Sulawesi where we will have internet access again for a few days. Then we go to Bali and Jayapura, the capital of Papua in the Indonesian part of New Guinea to speak at a seminar and revival meetings at which some 30,000 people are expected to attend. Annette and I would appreciate your prayer support as we go.

Be blessed in Christ!

Jeff Hammond

jeffhammond@bigpond.com

annettehammond@bigpond.com

Over the last week I have had difficulties with my computer and so have had to wait until today to put on a new posting. Next Monday, we go into the interior of Central Sulawesi where we have no computer access. However, I hope to have my next posting, "Melchizedek and the Power of Forgiveness" up for you before leaving. If there are any specific doctrinal points (or other matters) that you would like discussed please email me on:

jeffhammond@bigpond.com

 

The Messenger

The teaching by the BCF/MCF stream, spearheaded by Vic Hall, has some major, fundamental and deceptive flaws that need to be recognized. They claim a position of leadership authority to administer, i.e. control the flow of revelation and its practical outworking in the life of believers. Ultimately this doctrine gives a massive controlling power to the leadership which makes it then a fearful thing to disagree or not to submit to what the leadership is declaring. This leads to serious abuse and the multitude of witnesses from the various forums on the ABC’s Four Corners, Channel 9’s A Current Affair, Channel 10 etc prove that there are hundreds of hurting, wounded sheep

However, the teachings on the messenger are a controlling mechanism that keeps the faithful obedient and dependent upon the revelations of the leadership, squashes any meaningful discussion and makes it extremely difficult for a person to biblically evaluate what is being taught. This denies the basic priesthood function of the believer in his or her personal and direct relationship with Christ, the Great High Priest.

What makes it all the more fearful is that if someone does begin to exercise their priesthood, and to search the scriptures like the Berean Christians, Acts 17:10-12, then the person will be disciplined and if that one does not totally resubmit then that one will be cut-off. That means cut-off from God, the Body, family and friends. For this reason many are fearful of speaking out, asking questions, or of making a decision to escape the spiders web. In fact the spiders web has many layers that keep the person stuck in the web.

The Spider’s Web

The spider’s web has many layers in which to entrap its victims and over several decades these layers have been carefully laid.

The web of “trust”

An early layer of the web was the teaching of trust – “If you love, you will trust.” The spider’s web of control was being spun and they began playing with the emotions of people. To question was failure to trust, and failure to trust meant that you did not love, and if you did not love then you had a character flaw and this was then stated as the reason why that one was so unrelational. People want to love and be loved. Relationship is a basic need of everyone, so by threatening relationship, whether it be your relationship with God, your relationship with your family or your relationship with all your friends, this threat, perceived or real, is a deadly venom creating a paralysis within the victim to act.

Indeed as Bildad said to Job, that those who forget God’s ways, “what he trusts in is fragile, what he relies on is a spider’s web. He leans on his web, but it gives way; he clings to it, but it does not hold,” Job 8:13-15.

Look what happens to the person who is caught in Satan’s web of deception, Isaiah 59:2-8. Sin separates from God, and when leaders, even quoting from God’s own Word (Genesis 3) set the trap, “They rely on empty arguments and speak lies; they conceive trouble and give birth to evil. They hatch the eggs of vipers and spin a spider’s web. Whosever eats their eggs will die, and when one is broken, an adder is hatched. Their cobwebs are useless for clothing; they cannot cover themselves with what they make. Their deeds are evil deeds, the acts of violence are in their hands. Their feet rush into sin; they are swift to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are evil thoughts; ruin and destruction mark their ways. The way of peace they do not know; there is no justice in their paths. They have turned them into crooked roads; no one who walks them will know peace.” These sentiments echo the testimonies of the many victims of this doctrine of trust.

Be warned! “Do not put your trust in princes, in mortal men, who cannot save,” Psalms 146:3. There is only one who you can trust for the salvation of your soul, and that is Jesus. “Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is kept safe,” Proverbs 29:25. See also Jeremiah 17:5.

Should leadership be trustworthy? Of course they should. But true shepherds lay down their lives for the sheep, search for the hurting, the sick, the traumatized and the attacked. The true shepherd will give everything to find and restore what has been lost. They do not cut them off and say there is no fatherhood to the disobedient. The father of the prodigal son, never sent his son away, and the father stood by the door watching and longing for his son’s return (Luke 15). This is the heart of a shepherd. Sadly, “If a ruler listens to lies, all his officials become wicked,” Proverbs 29:12. The leaven will permeate through.

If the ruler is being driven by meetings with “angels of light” and listening to and following them, then as Paul said “in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron,” 1Timothy 4:1-2.

The web of the corporate mirror and the custodians of the mind of Christ

In 1Corinthians 13:12, 2Corinthians 3:18 and James 1:23 it is abundantly clear that the mirror is God’s Word. Each person is to look into the mirror and see Christ and how we fall short of His image. We are then to repent and to change our ways in a pathway of change that will transform us into the image of Christ.

Tragically, this truth has been robbed from those in the BCF/MCF stream. The leadership, the elders, now become that mirror. They are the ones who claim to have the right to reflect back to people what God says, where people’s flaws are, who they are allowed to relate to and upon what basis they may relate. This is a serious perversion of the clear statements of God’s Word.

The web of the stars and the messenger

Vic has claimed that he and the elders are the custodians of the mind of Christ, quoting from 1Corinthians 2:16, “we have the mind of Christ,” and applying this to “the messenger” and the “seven in the hand of five.” This is a very dangerous spinning of the web of deception. To claim such a power, in the way it is being taught is to claim the power to speak ‘ex cathedro’ and in fact I have heard Vic speak on the subject of the ongoing revelation of the Word, that the words of revelation coming forth today have equal authority with the Scriptures. This was at the Summer Bible School in January, 1995, where we had 140 from Indonesia. This claim created quite a stir! Two months later Annette and I were gone.

They apply this custodianship or ‘administration’ of the mind of Christ to their discussion on the “stars” in their book “The Mystery of the Seven Stars and the Seven Golden Lampstands” (Victor Hall, David Falk, Murray Wylie with David Baker) on page 104 stating, “ ‘Insight’ into the mystery of Christ is the province of stars.” The warning is then given that the falling stars will be impossible to be restored! What a threat! What intimidation! What deception to cast fear on the people to try and keep them “in order”! To claim custodianship of the mind of Christ is a total misapplication of the text.

Starfish not spiders!

In Ephesians 3 Paul testifies of how the revelation of Christ came to him and his responsibility to steward, to administer, to impart and to share the mystery of God’s grace to the gentiles. This did not, and still does not, mean that Paul had the custodianship, power, authority or control over the mind of Christ. What he had received he was to minister to others so that they too would possess the glory of the mystery of Christ within. Why? So that “through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms,” Ephesians 3:10. The “stars” are not the controllers and possessors of the mind of Christ, they should be equippers, ministers, imparters etc so that the mind of Christ is in every believer. This is what makes the church so dynamic and like a starfish rather than a spider.

The starfish has no central brain. Its brain is in every cell of the body. Cut a starfish in half and it will become two starfish. Cut it into quarters, it will become four starfish. Try that with a spider! A spider has a central brain that controls everything else. The mystery of Christ within us is that now every believer in Christ is a king and a priest and has direct access to Christ, and even in the face of persecution, we grow and multiply. Cut the spider in half and he dies.

The same word “we” (hemeis) in 1Corinthians 2:16, “we have the mind of Christ”, is the same word for “we” (hemeis) in 1Corinthians 12:13, “We were all baptized by one Spirit into one body.” So the apostolic ministry is to equip the body so that the whole body can function in unity and relationship in the love of Christ, and not to segregate and to isolate from the body, nor to cut-off any who question or disagree. The mind of Christ is given to the whole of the body of Christ, not just a few people and the revelation of the fullness of Christ can only be attained if we are walking in right relationship with Christ and His body.

That’s why in Revelation 2-3, the seven churches, each only having a portion of the revelation of Christ, had to hear what was being said to everyone of the seven churches. That’s how the body of Christ functions.

When one group cuts itself off from the rest of the body, it sadly has a dangerously limited focus that can easily lead to gross misinterpretation and justification of their doctrine and isolation. It then ceases to bear fruit, withers and dies. One must stay in the vine if one wants to bear fruit (John 15). And an egg must stay in the nest together with the others if it wants to hatch!

By Annette Hammond

Let me share a little with you about the doctrines of BCF/MCF from my perspective.

The origins of this group began over 50 years ago among a group of people who were seeking God and who loved God’s word. My parents were part of that group and I was there as a young girl from the beginning. The message preached was that each person needed a personal relationship with God. The pastor would say, ‘Do not believe what I say, but go check it out in the Scriptures for yourself.’ The meetings were supposed to be led by the Spirit.

As a child and a teenager, I loved going to church because I never knew what would happen next…little liturgy…unscheduled speakers, dependent on who had a ‘word from the Lord’…deep and meaningful worship that was not planned or orchestrated…every member free to function.

The vision shared with us was not of a denomination but of one body of Christ, consisting of people all over the earth, of every tribe, language and nation demonstrating the love, the power, the holiness and the life of Jesus in their homes and streets and cities and nations…linked together by love. It was a message of holiness through the grace of God and the freedom of each individual to know Jesus for themselves.

What changed?

Gradually, precept upon precept, line upon line, here a little, there a little, [Isaiah 28:13] new doctrines were brought in. After the amalgamation of Wavell Heights Presbyterian with BCF, Vic Hall began to teach that:

• You must put unconditional, unreserved trust in the appointed leaders.
• If ‘you don’t trust them, you don’t love them’.
• Only the elders ‘have the mind of Christ’.
• The elders are the ‘mirror of the corporate’ who reflect back to you who you are, what  are your faults, your inadequacies, your weaknesses, your wrong tendencies, your sins.
• The elders are the fathers who must be consulted before any decisions are taken.
• The headship order of God over Christ over man over woman is the arena of grace.
• ‘Grace flows through order.’
• Step outside of this order of authority and there is no grace.
• ‘There is no fatherhood to the disobedient.’
• Rebellious or questioning members must be ‘sent away’.
• You cannot question or even discuss ‘a fathered word’, i.e., a word from the senior leader of the group.

And so it went on.

After rejecting these new doctrines we were eventually put out for not accepting these doctrines. Since then things seem to have got worse. New ‘revelations’ continued. However the new doctrines are not easily accessible as one needs a password to access their website and books can only be brought through their bookstore. Among later developments that I have gathered:

• The gospel can only be received through relationship to a ‘messenger.’
• If you do not accept and submit to the messenger you cannot receive the message.
• The gospel is ‘the Gospel of headship’.
• Families must get rid of their old ‘culture.’
• They must get rid of relationships from the past.
• They must cut off /put to death old family relationships just as the Levites put to death the idolaters in the rest of the tribes.
• Salvation and perfection are only attainable through a process of submission to the eldership [they may not have said that as clearly as that, but that was clearly the meaning].

We left 13 years ago and have got on with our lives. We have constant and deep relationships with people from many denominations and many nations and recognize the Body of Christ has a variety of views and expressions. We haven’t spoken out publicly before this, but now we feel it is time as many people are looking for explanations and answers. We want to add our voice in support of theirs.

All of us have needed to evaluate our personal relationship with Jesus, our understanding of the Bible, our relationships with other people…so that we truly hear from the Holy Spirit, understand what He is saying to the Church, loving and serving one another in the Body of Christ and if God permits, go on unto perfection as it says in Hebrews 6:1-3.

How many groups down through the history of the church have begun in the Spirit and ended up in the flesh! Too many!

I think that is why we need one another…followers of Jesus from every walk of life, denominational background, race, nation…to share with one another, to advise one another, to rebuke one another if necessary…that together we might fulfill His purpose in the earth.

Although our main goal is the fulfillment of the Great Commission we must also take heed of what John said, that we cannot say we love God if will not also love our brothers and sisters in Christ (1John 4:20).

Having received a number of emails from members of the BCF/MCF Stream and responded to them, I have now had their further request to put my emails to them on the Blog. I have agreed to do so while hiding the identities of those making these requests. It seems that there is a high level of concern from some within the movement and they strongly desire that others have the opportunity to access the same information.

Dear brothers & sisters,

Greetings in Christ.

Thank you for writing and sharing your thoughts.

My family's roots in the fellowship go back to 1952, although I joined the church (MCF) in 1968. The incredible vision of the church based on a very strong biblical foundation, accompanied by exciting and vibrant worship and a passion for the lost and for relationship in a restored Body of Christ going on to perfection captivated me. I loved the clarity of the revelation on multiple elders in a united Body of Christ gathered around the centrality of Christ (Rev.4-5) bringing in the multitudes from every tribe, kindred, nation and tongue, becoming a Melchizedek priesthood (kings and priests unto God), singing a new song and going on to perfection. Wow! What a vision?

I believe that this is a real biblical vision and that it is the target of Satanic attack for Satan fears the fulfillment of this vision more than anyone. BCF was birthed in this vision. But Satan is uncouth, hates God, His Word and His people and as Jesus said, Satan is a thief, a robber and a murderer (Jn.10:10). He will attack in any way he can. I believe that Ray Jackson Snr. was a victim of such attack. I also believe that Vic Hall is also a victim, but in a different way.

I do not accept as others claim that Vic is deliberately controlling or changing doctrines for his own sake. I believe he sincerely believes what he is preaching and practicing. I do not think he is a hypocrite, but I think that he has been nudged into a false direction. The vision of the church today is different. The gospel preached is different. It is no longer grace, but a form of law based on strict obedience and submission. It actually denies the whole principle of the order of Melchizedek where we become kings and priests unto God, as now there is a chain of grace and we must be in the due order. Sadly I believe that the controlling mechanisms have denied the church of its potential to be a prophetic voice to the Body of Christ, to the nation and indeed the nations.

I have wept to see "Bris-speak" be so used to twist the meaning of scripture and many very sincere people have heard but not understood but submitted anyway because they love the church and its rich fellowship.

Jesus said that by their fruits you shall know them. What are the fruits today of BCF?

1. There is a trail of wounded victims so long that it caught the attention of 4 Corners, A Current Affair and many newspapers around Australia. It is not only in Brisbane, it is Australia-wide. The same fruit is everywhere. It is not normal to see such a trail of damage. Not even the Exclusive Brethren have such a long trail of damage. Many churches have problems and splits and disaffected people but nothing in the history of Australia compares with what has happened in the BCF/MCF stream. The fruit is like a flashing red light saying, "Danger! Danger! Danger!" or as the robot in "Lost in Space" would say, "Warning! Warning! Warning!" I think you should consider carefully the fruit.

2. Another fruit is damaged consciences. Many of those who left had troubled consciences for many years but could not get up the courage to leave. Why? To leave meant to be cut off. Again this is not normal. Many people change churches without getting cut off and having their families split etc. You yourself admit "questioning the control" but fear losing "good relationships". What does this really tell you about the controlling mechanisms? If one does not respond to "conscience", i.e. the warning bells of the Spirit of God pricking our spirit, our mind and emotions, then eventually a person will just give in and become totally submissive. It is this process that led to the sort of events with Jim Jones and David Koresh. They saw themselves as under attack and eventually resorted to extreme measures. We have already seen some evidence of this in the BCF/MCF stream. For example the Helen Pomery case. Graham was encouraged to divorce Helen (totally unscriptural – Malachi 2:16) and later encouraged to marry again (totally unscriptural – Matthew 5:31-32). This is not an isolated case. A damaged conscience leads to a slippery pathway of deception where people depart from the Word of God. I believe that BCF is on that slippery path.

3. You mention that "No church will be perfect in these areas anyway." Don't use this is a way of justifying staying. Look at the fruit. Other churches, even though they are not perfect, do not have the emotional chaos that's coming out of BCF/MCF etc. I acknowledge that there is a rich fellowship and warmth in relationship among the committed and submitted. I have positively testified of this in my own eldership here in Jakarta. We preach and practice the original vision with the addition of a strong emphasis of living in the character of Christ and in intimate fellowship with Him in our daily lives and we are passionate about winning the lost. This was missing in the teaching throughout the movement until we left in 1995. Although we have 25,000+ in our fellowship, hold to the same glorious vision of going on to perfection etc and do so in an open relationship with the whole of the Body of Christ in this nation and although we have a close network with 2000+ churches and an extended network of 45,000+ churches across Indonesia, we are by no means perfect nor do we have all the answers, but we keep looking to Him, the Lamb in the midst of the Throne!

4. We are told to not bring an accusation against an elder except in the mouth of two or three witnesses. Just on the ABC Four Corners Website there are over 100 testimonies recorded of "witnesses" to the tragedy of BCF. We must ask, to whom are BCF accountable? The list of witnesses is huge. 100 on the ABC website probably indicates that there are as many as 1000 such cases, just in Qld. I too have received many other letters and communications from victims in Qld and other parts of Australia who are not on the ABC website. Their stories are tragic and painful and I pray that you will not one day have to go through that.

5. One further element is the exclusivity. Are BCF/MCF the only ones who are correct? The only ones truly in the Body? Why will no other church touch them? In Melbourne when Richard Holland and Kevin Conner left and established Waverly Christian Fellowship, they had the same original vision. They are now the largest church in Melbourne and second largest congregation of any church in Australia. Why were they accepted? Openness in love and fellowship and integrity in finances and relationship! BCF/MCF have cut themselves off from everywhere. Their small groups in Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia are exactly the same. In Australia I was asked to teach on the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ and Water Baptism and to teach on the End-Times and Going on to Perfection in an AOG Bible School. Exclusivity is a danger sign. If we have the truth, bring it to the Body of Christ. The problem is the Body of Christ are seeing the fruit of the BCF/MCF teachings. They are the ones who have to pick up the mess and try and help bring restoration into broken lives and families.

I do not believe that Vic is "creating these doctrines of headship as a means of keeping everything under their control". I believe he is sincere, but sincerely wrong. I love Vic and all those guys and it pains me that they are not being used to build up the Body of Christ. I would so much love to see them obey Rev. 2:4-5 before it is too late.

I pray that as you consider these things you will spend time in prayer, ask the Lord and allow Him to speak to you from His Word. If you wish to contact me and discuss with me further I am available.

If in any way, my involvement in the leadership in the past, has caused grief or offense, and added to your pain, I ask for your forgiveness.

With deepest love in Christ,
Jeff Hammond

One of the key doctrines taught in the BCF/MCF stream is called the doctrine of “The Gospel of Headship”. This is a very deceptive and dangerous doctrine which lies at the heart of the tyrannical style of leadership displayed throughout the movement which has led to many of the destructive practices that have cut people off, divided families, created emotional havoc and in fact cause not a small number of people to totally abandon their faith.

This doctrine is based on very poor theology and is manipulated to control peoples lives and can effect the normal decision making processes that people make so that eventually every decision must come under the headship authority of the elders. To make decisions outside of that framework is to put oneself outside the flow of grace and to make salvation impossible.

Vic Hall declared that the elders were “the custodians of the mind of Christ” and therefore failure to trust and submit to the elders meant failure to trust and submit to Christ making salvation impossible.

This erroneous teaching created a fear in many people and made it extremely difficult to leave. Leaving meant being cut off from family and friends, and ultimately being cut off from the grace of God. What a devastating teaching! “By their fruits you shall know them”, Jesus said (Matthew 7:17-20).

Vic Hall and Murray Wylie’s teaching on the Gospel of Headship

Vic and Murray published a book on “The Coming of the Gospel of Headship” or “Lift up your Heads” in 1998 and published by Vision One in Samford, Qld. They state that “when we receive the gospel, we come under headship,” (p.1). What do they mean by the statement “receive the gospel” and “headship”? The definitions they apply to these terms become critical in understanding what they actually believe.

The book defines receiving the gospel, not simply as receiving Christ as one’s Lord and Saviour, but of accepting the order of leadership through which salvation can be received. As they say on p.19, “Expressing it plainly, we may be born again but still be damned to hell.” Furthermore they explain, “The gospel doesn’t light up until every man, woman and child, regardless of station or nation, turns to the reality of the face of headship,” (p.19) or “The gospel without headship is meaningless,” (p.2).

So, “receiving the gospel” is linked to this order of “headship” or as will be seen later, total submission to the eldership. Salvation is only obtainable by submission in this order, as they say: “salvation is entirely tied up with making right responses to the order of headship ... Salvation for men is entirely related to standing up in headship. Salvation for women is entirely related to respecting headship in order to fulfill the call and glory of womanhood. For children and young people, salvation is entirely related to learning obedience.”

In other words, salvation is based upon a system of obedience to the law of headship. They state that “the headship model must completely supercede and replace the Catholic, evangelical and prophetic models of the past,” (p.52).

This new gospel that they proclaim is clearly another and perverted gospel as stated by the Apostle Paul in Galations 1:6-8, “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel – which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!”

To make the perversion of the gospel more complete, they then link the receiving of salvation to one’s submission to the messenger. If one does not submit to the messenger, then that one has not received the gospel and therefore cannot be saved. As they explain on p.54, “Receiving the messenger is essential to the receiving of the gospel.” Strangely they then quote John 1:12 which relates to receiving Christ and they apply it to themselves. By so doing they make themselves equal to Christ. To receive the BCF/MCF elders and their headship is equal to receiving Christ. To reject their headship is therefore to reject Christ. So they say, “Not only must we must [sic] receive Christ as a messenger, but also those who preach the gospel.”

The Danger of Congregational Pressure

At a BCF Leadership Training Convention that I attended in Brisbane in June 1990, it was presented in papers called “Pastoral Care” and “The Cross and Fatherhood”, that leaders should deal decisively with people who questioned doctrines, decisions and practices within the church. We were warned: “Do not under-estimate the destructive power of congregational pressure. Affected people will resist and defy God’s will and way.” This was contrasted with the member who is submissive and obedient even though they may be having difficulties accepting what is being said because “they do know where the true authority resides,” i.e. in the elders.

Those who were questioning and not living in submission had to be confronted as “the true activity of fatherhood is to lay the wood on the back of the disciple,” and that discipline must be applied “to provoke a crisis of repentance and correction” which of course would then be expected to lead to total, unquestioning submission. Furthermore, if these harsh measures are deemed by some to be too strong or legalistic towards the rebellious and immature they “must not be perceived as legalism; nor must the leaders ever bow to such an accusation.”

Death is the result of legalistic intimidation

That conference in Brisbane acknowledged that there is a risk in imposing such disciplines: “there is always the question and risk as to whether death or life will be produced – depending on whether faith is operative or not,” and that where faith and love are not present “it provides no means of attaining and thus condemns to failure and death.”

Sadly this has been the fruit of the BCF/MCF ministry style, doctrine and practice. They have left a trail of pain, destruction, terror, trauma, division, chaos and death.

So the “Gospel of Headship” as they call it is the new gospel of obedience and submission to leadership so that God’s grace can flow to you. Break the chain of submission and you lose salvation.

Headship resides in the Eldership and supercedes that of a husband or a father

As has been evident in many of the testimonies that I have received, the authority of the leaders is paramount. Elders have come to family homes and escorted teenage youths out of the home as their parents were considered to have forfeited “fatherhood” or “headship” and this was now being taken over by the elders. Husbands and wives have been encouraged to divorce their spouse as their spouse was deemed to be “out of order” or outside the grace of God.

Some husbands have found that their wives, though being taught that they were the “head” of the woman, soon found out that when they decided to leave the church that their wives would choose to submit to the “headship” of the elders and reject their husbands. How much pain has been caused. How many families have been broken? How many children have had to suffer? So much pain. So much suffering and the elders of the BCF/MCF stream do not feel accountable. They cast all the blame on the victims and call them “novices”, “immature”, “rebellious” and “wicked”. Surely the time has come to call these men to be accountable for their actions.

More will be written over the next few days on this subject to explain this doctrine of headship and how it perverts clear biblical teaching.

The following is the letter my wife has sent to Vic Hall. Annette’s letter is her reflection of the current exposures on the ABC Four Corners program, “The God of broken Hearts” and Vic Hall’s self-justification called, “Greater Treasure” published on the BCF website where he equates his word as the Word of Christ and any criticism of him as being equal to the reproach of Christ. It seems that Vic has written this mainly for access to the faithful around Australia so as to hold them in firmly by creating a persecution complex. It is a sad document and at a later date we will discuss that document and the issues contained in it. Jeff