“If the spiritual relationships you have in Jesus’ name don’t give you rest, but rather make you more tired as time goes on, then they aren’t representing Jesus’ purpose accurately. He came to lift from the backs of tired people the burden of trying hard to earn God’s approval.”
― The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse: Recognizing and Escaping Spiritual Manipulation and False Spiritual Authority Within the Church
Thank you for your kind notes regarding the death of my mother. It was a hard eight weeks as she went from being a vibrant and active woman to becoming confused as she was cared for in a hospice-like setting. I was holding her hand as she died, and for that, I am grateful. When I am able, I shall write about my experience in caring for four elderly members of my family who were dying.
Cooking the books by using weight as a measurement of one’s commitment to the Lord
In my discussions with the Hords, I embarrassingly laughed out loud when they told me the threats that were used against members who left the church. Kristy said, “They warn them they will become fat,” along with other threats such as being “cursed by God.” After reflexly laughing and remarking that most SBC pastors would be in peril, I apologized as I became aware that such a warning deeply concerned those invested in this movement.
Folks, think about it. Most people who enter(ed) this church do so through the Weigh Down Workshop and related Bible studies. Weight is their emphasis.
I thank a former pastor, Jim, for expressing the following thoughts in a class I attended. He remarked that many of us choose a sin we have conquered or don’t have problems with. That becomes the most important sin on the books. For example, I have never smoked. Within a church setting, I might declare that smoking is a heinous sin. I could go on and on discussing what a lung looks like when exposed to long-term smoke. I would then claim that smoking is indicative of a person who is “destroying the Temple of the Lord.”
If I ran a church, I could start classes on smoking cessation. I would tie it into the Bible and “prove” that God finds smoking a heinous problem. Of course, we might have some folks who join the church, hoping to kick the nicotine habit. I might smile at those who would fail time after time because, of course, I would never smoke.
On the other hand, I would be sure that no one knows that I have a problem with drinking (This is an example. I do not have such a problem.) I don’t care about my drinking because it is not as bad of a sin as smoking. And so, I have successfully “cooked the books.” Smoking is the worst sin, according to me, being God’s little Prophet and all.
Over time, I would add other sins to my cooked book on the hierarchy of sins in my new church. Interestingly, as a leader, I might claim that gossip about me is almost as bad as smoking. When I talk about a church member, I am doing so because I am in charge of the souls of my members, with an emphasis on MY members.
In the case of The Remnant, I agree with the Hords that weight is a problem in the US. It is my opinion that weight doesn’t come close to harming others like spiritual abuse, sex abuse, domestic violence, etc. My Lutheran church has been instrumental in helping me to see the depths of my sin and my need for confession and forgiveness of that sin, which leads me to the next point.
The Remnant was to be the only “pure” church, and the members would be able to be “perfectly obedient.”
I could write months of posts on this topic alone. Let’s start with the obvious. Everyone in the Remnant knows they are not “perfectly obedient” when honest with themselves. That is why there had to be a “pinnacle sin” to measure oneself against. For example:
Yeah, I may beat my wife but I am thin.
Once again, cooking the books was necessary to live in this system. It appeared that people would need to suspend any rational thinking and wait for the Prophet (which Shamblin was often called) to explain what that looked like to her.
Here is an example. At the end of many church services and festivals, alcohol was offered as part of the celebration. Some suggested they believe they observed that there was drinking to excess on the part of some. Shamblin/Lara must have justified that the people may have been drunk, but they were thin, so all was well.
Is it normal BMI or super thin?
I was feeling pretty good about my weight when talking with the Hords. I had been on a diet for five months and now had a normal BMI. But wait! Normal BMI is not good enough. One needed to be on the low end of BMI or underweight to be the correct weight. So, thinness was a moving target, allowing for Shamblin/Lara to be the authority in charge of the moving target.
All other Christian churches are false.
Under Shamblins’ leadership, the Remnant began to mimic the Mormons in this perspective. Joseph Smith told the Mormons that the Christian church wasn’t truly Christian since it had lots of mistakes. He “found” tablets that proved this concept. And so, the Book of Mormon and a couple of other books were written as a corrective to the mistaken Bible. Shamblin followed this technique by writing books and producing videos with her interpretation of the Bible.
I was told that Shamblin did not trust any seminary graduate unless they renounced their teachings or the 2,000 years of church history and councils. She did not want people with seminary training in the church unless. they renounced their teachings of “false grace.” She was the “prophet,” and only she could correct the multiple errors in the Scriptures.
For example, she produced ‘evidence’ that there is no such thing as the Trinity. Her reasoning was sadly simplistic. She said the word not being found in the Bible. Her reasoning was so weak that I know a group of 6th-grade Lutheran kids who could argue against her supposed ‘discovery.’
She appeared to be narcissistic in her approach to Scripture.
Think about it. Only she could interpret the Bible. Only she discovered errors and corrected them. Only she imposed mandates on the members based on her almost childlike approach to the Scriptures. She would not hear any suggestion or proof that she was mistaken and inaccurate. There were 2,000 years of theology and careful study, which she outright rejected in favor of an easily discreditable view of the Christian faith.
Shamblin didn’t debate. She was right, and those around her had to agree and obey her. She was in the center, and her world revolved around her.)
Grace is a dirty word in Remnant circles.
Shamblin was clear on this point. If grace is needed, then perfect obedience is impossible. Grace was sidelined. She correctly identified that grace had become a cheap word in Christian circles. She missed the big picture. If grace is meaningless, why did Jesus have to die on the Cross? The Hords intimated that Jesus and the Cross were deemphasized.
I need to look at another aspect of Remnant in the future. They had festivals during the year. Some of them were based on the Old Testament celebrations. I am guessing here, but the Law took precedence over the Cross and Resurrection. The Law is a set of rules men and women must follow to be right with God. The Pharisees wrote books on the subject of obedience. But… even they could not perfectly follow those laws. Hence, grace, in the form of Jesus on the Cross (and resurrected), was the solution to imperfect obedience.
Today, the Law exists to inform us of proper behavior. Grace exists to forgive us when we don’t (and no one does) perfectly obey the Law. It breaks my heart to think of a group of people who try to resurrect the Law as a means to salvation.
Any deviance from “perfect obedience” would lead to punishment from God.
When something terrible happened, family units were quizzed to see who “caused” the travesty to occur. The first example was Shaamblin’s daughter, Elizabeth, who had a child die of SIDS. Of course, this is a sad event. The CDC reports:
Each year, there are about 3,400 sudden unexpected infant deaths (SUID) in the United States. These deaths occur among infants less than 1 year old and have no immediately obvious cause.
But Shamblin, in what appears to be a narcissistic moment, declares that someone did not “perfectly obey,” and this caused her grandson to die of SIDS. Shablin’s uneducated and abusive theology blames some poor soul in the church. One can be pretty sure the blame never fell on Shamblin or her daughter.
What about the plane crash that killed Shamblin/Lara, her husband, Elizabeth’s husband, and other leaders?
If God punishes people when they are not “perfectly obedient,” what does this say about Shamblin/Lara? Is God sending a signal that Shamblin/Lara was to blame? Uh oh! Do they quickly decide that some guy named Fred gained 10 pounds?
Now we get to the moment, “What about the hair?”
It is somewhat painful to watch Shamblin/Lara evolve from a thin, good-looking woman with a decent hairstyle to her final ‘style.” (I watched the documentary. Her clothing style changed from conservative to what one person described as a bit ‘skanky.’ I thought about saying, “Well, bless her heart. Let’s move along.” Except, I decided it meant something more in the overall picture. The Hords had some insight. Shamblin/Lara used this as a way to control the flock. God used it as a sieve to filter out people who were unwilling to hear the truth. It was a subtle form of peer pressure. Apparently, “reporting gossip to Gwen” was a big deal amongst some of the faithful. The leaders were reportedly told to listen for criticism of her style and hair from the membership. Those people were to be reported to Gwen as disloyal or suspicious.
At the end of her life, Gwen looked like an old lady trying to look young and sophisticated in her dress, hair, and makeup. She didn’t. I would venture to guess that she might have drunk at the well of Botox as well. It would seem to me that Gwen lost sight of who she was. She started well. A friend of mine lost 100 pounds in her early workshops at a church. Sadly, this focus on her hair seemed to cause a distraction from power, control, silencing, manipulation, bullying, and abuse.
Shamblin/Lara’s life changed after those early days of helping folks lose weight. She appeared to turn into an odd-looking woman( in my opinion) who deviated from the historic, orthodox faith and built herself a modest-sized church, which seems to be a facility dedicated to worshiping something way different than the church of Jesus.
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Been praying for you and your family, Dee, and thanking God for all you do.
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Dee, I am continuing to pray for you and your family. Thank you for all you are, and for all you do.
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The song “The Weight” by The Band (written by the late Robbie Robertson) popped into my head.
“Pulled into Nazareth, was feeling ’bout half past dead; I just need someplace where I can lay my head.”
“Take the load off, Fanny. Take a load for free; take a load off, Fanny. You put the load right on me.”
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IMHO, this post highlights a “fundamental”….principle…. The more a group/person claims they have it all figured out, the faster you should run away…
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“And so, I have successfully ‘cooked the books.’”
This cooked books scenario is telling. Dee writes that a pastor explained this real life (church folk readily recognize it, once explained) scenario in a class she attended.
Wondering how many churches and even seminaries function exactly this way. They have their bent. Theologically, of course, with chapter and verse.
Regarding eating and drinking, Derek Prince observed that Evangelicals love their food while drinking is taboo. He added that Catholics and the Orthodox practice the reverse. Gluttony is taboo, so watch your waistline but drinking is a lifestyle.
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We’ll call it the Chalmers Rule.
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A variant of “The More Pious, the More Perverted.”
Or “The greater the Virtue-Signalling, the greater the Corruption.”
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Notice that The Worst Sin(TM) is always the one YOU don’t do?
Only that Filthy Sinner Over There?
“The Unpardonable Sin — Whatever YOU do that I don’t!”
Coup Counted. Just like the Mean Girls Clique in High School.
And if it were, say, caffeine instead of nicotine?
“THE SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STARBUCKS CANNOT BE INFRINGED IN ANY WAY WHATSOEVER!”
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JUST LIKE THE TALIBAN, THE ONLY “PURE” ISLAM AS IT WAS IN THE DAYS OF THE PROPHET!
(Until Boko Haram and al-Daesh became More Pure and More Islamic than the Taliban…)
JUST LIKE JIM JONES AND MO DAVID!
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Headless Unicorn Guy,
I kind of like “the more pious, the more perverted”…
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One need not reach as far as the Mormons for a comparison. At the Council of Trent, the Roman Catholic Church officially anathematized anyone who believes in faith alone for justification.
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Dale Rudiger,
I still love that song. Rockabilly at its best.
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I was troubled during the worst of covid when a Lutheran pastor I was listening to online on Sundays began answering the question “Pastor how can I know for sure I will go to heaven if this bug gets me” with “Trust your being baptized.” Previously he was pretty strong on trusting in Christ, and clear that a person who rejected Christ could not simply trust in having been baptized as a baby, then living like h e double hockey sticks and not believing in Christ and expecting to go to heaven.
Before the sacraments were a means of grace, were of great benefit to the believer. He switched more to shamanism where if the rite were right you were good to go whatever.
I stopped listening to him at that point.
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The Mormons have a social cohesion and practical ethos not found in evangelical protestantism.
They stockpile food and other human necessities against natural disasters.
It’s a mystery to me why they (Mormons) are so demonized by fundagelicals.
So what is that (faith alone) supposed to mean anyway?
Can I be honest here?
It’s one of the most meaningless buzz-phrases I’ve ever heard, and the Council of Trent was right in calling it out.
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“I am guessing here, but the Law took precedence over the Cross and Resurrection.”
That’s the case with every cult. Jots and tittles of doing church become more important than Jesus. If a cult leader doesn’t have the exact law s/he’s looking for, s/he makes one up and finds a paying audience who will finance the show.
These folks may have fallen for Shamblin’s thin gimmick, but eventually found out that God “sent leanness into their soul” (Psalm 106:15).
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“… members who left the church … “They warn them they will become fat.””
That’s when you wave bye-bye with a cheeseburger and let them see your elbows and hind end strutting out the exit!
Cult leaders control their flock through manipulation, intimidation, and domination. TWW has covered other cults in the past, where discipline, shunning and excommunication are the usual threats held over members … “You will get fat!” is a new one on me!
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linda,
When I have a minute, I would love to speak with you about this. The first time I heard this was from a non-denominational pastor and then from some others—Mosy recently from my Lutheran pastors. There is a reason for saying this, and it is firmly centered on knowing Jesus Christ as one’s Savior. I now remember my baptism, which means much more than getting sprinkled or dunked. Remind me if I forget. Thanksgiving, on top of my mom’s passing, is a bit overwhelming since everyone comes to my house.
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THEOLOGY.
Remember that to Fundagelicals, CULT(TM) is defined entirely Theologically, not repeat not by control-freak abuse towards their people. While the Christianese Cult-Watchers strain Theological gnats under an Electron Microscope, any abusive Fellowship(TM) that’s Theologically Correct (i.e. Fundagelical) sails right through with a Cult-Watcher’s Blessing.
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It’s not shamanism. It’s the ultimate Sola Gratia.
Of course we are expected to live up to our baptism — through HIS Grace and our cooperation (which also comes from His Grace).
But baptism itself is pure Grace. Scripture says: “Baptism…now saves you.”
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Thank you. Nowhere does Scripture say that faith ALONE secures our salvation. Nowhere.
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Just a picky: Shamblin’s daughter is Elizabeth, not Emily; and I think it was a grandson who died, not a granddaughter. (The baby’s name was Henley, which was also Gwen’s maiden name.) I don’t know how long ago it was that the baby died, but Elizabeth lost both her mother and her husband in that plane crash. That is a tremendous amount of loss to go through, and ALL of it was unexpected.
Remnant Fellowship has many parallels with the abusive church I came out of: believing that we alone had the “right” interpretation of the Bible, believing that we had to perform a certain way to be accepted by God, a system where you could get “tattled” on to leadership, being left feeling that nothing you did was good enough.
It seems that abusive churches must pass the playbook along because they have so much in common!
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On point. Yes.
Dr. Ruth Ben-ghiat exposes the playbook of our beloved voter-chosen tyrants with her research in her book: “Strongmen”.
There’s a parallel with controlling husbands, à la DV, the unbearable boundary-less boss, and of course, our Dear Leaders in our churches and parishes.
Submit at your own peril. Early on, there are choices, until the Strongman is firmly positioned in power.
Dateline recently broadcast “65 Seconds”. Dear Christian Evangelical Husband is still around. For his wife, it was 65 seconds, and she’s no longer with us.
Dateline followed the investigation. Lots of evidence. No question about culpability.
Of course, Dear Christian Evangelical husband’s Christian Evangelical Dear friends were interviewed. They stand by their Christian Evangelical friend – no way could he have done this.
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linda,
As much as Jesus instituted baptism, He was very clear about one’s life lived, subsequent to baptism.
Examples:
Jesus’s teaching about the separation of the sheep and the goats in Eternity. Matthew 25.
Jesus’s teaching about the rich man and Lazarus. Luke 16.
The entire book of James in the NT.
Hebrews 11 exposes the evidence of faith in how lives were lived.
Baptism is a portal. A life lived follows that brings each pilgrim to his/her Maker after this life, for Eternity, with accountability.
There were Jews of Jesus’s time who counted on their lineage from Abraham and their lawful religious practices as their ticket to Heaven, God’s Kingdom forever. Not so fast, Jesus made clear. The parable of the Good Samaritan exposed their faulty assurance of following codes and being in the right category. The codes and categories guys walked right on by.
Codes and categories give us social order in the here and now but false assumptions for Eternity.
God created man and woman in His image for fellowship. As friends of God, we live in communion with God. In our relationship with God, like the Good Samaritan, we follow God’s moment by moment leading in our daily lives. Hopefully. Or not. Choices.
Baptism is sacred between the baptized and God. A life lived follows.
Marriage is sacred between a man and woman. Their lives lived follows.
How lives are lived matters.
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And you can substitute “altar call” or “getting saved” for “baptism”.
Too many Christians have this idea that once you “get saved” then ZANG! You’re automatically Perfected and Sinless. A magic “ZAP!”, not a process of growth. This is how you get a guy who walked the aisle last week being made a full pastor of a new church plant. Or going on the Smelling out Witches and Demons trip, prophesying 24/7, etc. And that never ends well. Or diving into something you have no knowledge of or experience in because that’s the Flesh and you’re in The Spirit. That also does not end well.
Christian Monist wrote extensively of how that attitude can mess you up but good.
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Otherwise you could just Get Saved(TM) then sit on your ass for the rest of your life — just you and your Faith Faith Faith.
Didn’t that Rabbi from Tarsus say “Faith without Works is dead”?
(Which sounds akin to “Put your Money where your Mouth is”.)
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Yes it does, very much so.
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I spent much of my life in churches that mocked Judaism for being a religion of mere laws. Then, some years ago, a Jewish friend said that following Orthodox practice was achievable. He thought that being a Christian would drive him crazy, because the standards are impossible to reach. Truly, I think the man made a good point.
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Catholic Gate-Crasher,
so true:
there is something about having faith ‘without love’ which says what makes sense in the light of Christ’s great compassion for our fallen kind
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Baptism becomes shamanism when the pastor begins teaching the life that follows does not matter, just the rite. Or that no faith is necessary.
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Let me add this: my dad was a complicated man with a complicated faith. Part of that faith came from a small group of Baptists in Appalachia who believed hell happens in this life on this earth. That said, his favorite preacher of all time was a colorful RCC priest televised on Sunday afternoon where we lived. And my dad loved to quote the priest as teaching that if the old cowboy (we were rural west) riding alone on the desert repented of his sins, confessed them to Christ, and sought and received God’s mercy, and then was bucked off his horse and died God would receive him into heaven ahead of both the good Catholic baptized as a baby who sinned right and left, never repented, never believed a bit in Christ, but relied on his baptism, and also the Baptist preacher who preached, prayed, tithed, and sung all about Jesus but never personally trusted in Him. That priest would stress the need for faith in Christ and point out the old cowboy would never have had the chance for baptism but was good to go, but many who received it squandered it.
I’m not against the rite of baptism. I am against relying on the rite rather than on Christ.
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Bottom-line for me on the Shamblin saga is that believers should focus on worshiping Jesus when they go to church … and look elsewhere for weight loss programs, financial management advice, addiction counseling and other such Gospel-distractions that have tripped up so many of God’s children. When the pulpit is built around these things and not the Great Commission, they cease doing Church as God intended.
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Amen Max! One of the reasons we gave up on most evangelical churches, even online, is the constant pyramid scheme emphasis on each of us getting others to join up. Now, evangelism yes. Each of us should be trying to lead others to Jesus. But once they went from believe then belong to belong in hope someday you will believe, it was too much. Just tupperware or amway, etc. Sign them up so pastor has bragging rights and gets a bigger salary.
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Don’t forget you can say the same about the Altar Call/Say The Sinner’s Prayer rite.
Especially when combined with “Once Saved, Always Saved”.
And what’s “Baby Dedication” but paedobaptism without the water?
Done at the same time, fills the same niche of celebrating/publicizing the birth.
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Echoing several Jewish prophets before him, that Rabbi from Nazareth was making a point:
“You’ve gone WAY off-course. Cross every I, dot every T, and still miss the whole point.”
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HUG–if what you encountered of supposedly traditional Baptist teaching about altar calls, sinner’s prayer, and once saved always saved is what you described, you did not encounter the real deal.
With the real deal, an altar call is simply an opportunity for prayer. Nothing more and nothing less either. The sinner’s prayer is only a model prayer teaching a couple of important things: the necessity of repentance (agreeing with God that our sins are sin) and a plea to God for forgiveness based on the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. So yeah, when an altar call is given sometimes a person does come forward (or sit quietly where they are) and pray and receive eternal life. And it is eternal. You cannot lose it.
But also with the real deal were some caveats: if a person professes salvation but has no desire to follow Christ, it is possible they were only emotional, not saved. However they might have been saved but just not be progressing much in sanctification. Yeah, they will go to heaven when they die. BUT they may experience strong punishment here on earth and a major league loss of rewards in heaven. Some even believe in millenial exclusion, although some see that as heresy. Sort of Baptist purgatory if you will.
So as you can see, the real deal was NEVER fire insurance. Unfortunately some shysters did grab hold of that theology and while unsaved profess salvation and teach what you seem to have encountered. Please don’t judge all traditional free grace Baptists for the aberrations of the few.
To understand it better let me recommend to you the Grace Evangelical Society. You may not agree with them but they do explain the position quite well.
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linda,
In my time in the RCC the official propaganda was constant from about 1980 onwards (among other things) we are saved by baptism but in my entire life I have never met any catholic that believed that or said that. They have only said what your dad said.