How His Teachings Will Put You Into The Bondage Of Legalism: Bill Gothard

by Ron Hensen

updated 12/10/97

Mr. Gothard teaches a definition of the Grace of God that is in complete opposition to what is taught in scripture. His definition of grace is "An active force within us giving us the desire and the power to do things God's way."1 This definition has nothing to do with the complete and unmerited favor of God that I've come to know and understand. Consider the following two verses:

“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.”

-- Ephesians 2:8

You can't read those verses and come away believing anything like what Gothard teaches as a definition of Grace. And if there is a heresy at the cornerstone of his belief system, how can you accept anything Mr. Gothard teaches?

Now that I've gotten your attention, I want to assure you that this essay is not meant to be a personal attack on Bill Gothard or his followers. From all appearances, he is a man who truly desires to do God's will. I will not slander him because he is a person that has been created in the image of God, but he was also created (as was I) with the ability to make mistakes. I do however, disagree with his teachings and find them very dangerous and contrary to scripture. Criticizing someone's teachings and philosophies is not the same as criticizing them and if someone takes it that way, then I am sorry.

Nor am I going to attempt an item by item repudiation of Bill Gothard's teachings. That is beyond the scope of my abilities as I do not have access to all of his Institute's material. My goal is to use my personal experience to bring his teachings into question.

Let me tell you a little about myself so you can understand where I'm coming from. I grew up attending a small, conservative church which was part of America's largest Protestant denomination. We were taught about what rotten stinking sinners we were and the requirements for a good member of this denomination - no drinking, no dancing, no chewing, no long hair or beards for men, and no rock music.

I accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior when I was six years old and found myself struggling for many years with my sinful state. I always wanted more from my relationship with God, but I never knew how to get it because I felt so unworthy of anything from God.

When I started junior high in 1974, I joined the school band and learned to play drums and percussion. In the mid seventies, there was really no such thing as contemporary Christian music, so I listened to the great rock drummers of the time - John Bonham, Carl Palmer, Ginger Baker and later guys like Neal Peart, and Tommy Aldridge. I listened to them because there was no Christian alternative and their respective bands were the best musicians rock music had to offer. I also listened to jazz, classical and big band music in order to increase my musical vocabulary. Just as one would study the great authors of American, English and world literature to study the craft of writing, so it is with learning to be a good drummer.

I had only been playing a couple of years when I felt the desire to add some meaning to what I was doing. I started asking God to give me some way to use the meager talent I had to serve and worship Him. I really felt I would have to leave South Louisiana in order to find an outlet for my desire, but God provided a way through my church's new choir director, Brian Thomas. Brian was a very talented young man who loved the Lord, loved kids and loved music. He formed a Christian jazz band and invited all the kids in our high school band to come on Sunday afternoons and practice big band jazz arrangements of old hymns. We practiced for about three months and had our first public performance on a Sunday evening. The church was packed and though we had a few people leave because the felt the music was inappropriate, most of those in attendance loved it. We played a few more times that year, but the group was disbanded when Brian left the ministry for personal reasons.

All through the rest of high school and college, I continued to pray that God would provide me an outlet to use my talent in service to Him. I also grew very disillusioned with the emptiness, mediocrity and legalism I saw in traditional, denominational religion. I knew that Jesus had not come to earth, died and rose again merely to replace the Mosaic law with another legal system, but that's all I could find people teaching.

Eventually, I found opportunity to play with various gospel groups, but it never felt right. The groups were always oriented to performance and the churches we were affiliated with really didn't approve of us doing the style of music (contemporary country gospel) we were doing. I continued to seek God and what He ultimately would want me to do.

I have never been what most people would call a good Christian or even a successful person. I've had my share of personal and professional failures and have always switched between blaming myself, those around me or God for my misfortunes. I now know that things just sometimes happen and God is still in control, but in 1991 I wasn't even close to that point. I went to Bill Gothard's Seminar for Basic Youth Conflicts and I absolutely loved it. I couldn't get enough of what Mr. Gothard was teaching.

It made so much sense at the time. He had an answer to everything. I was having problems at work and Mr. Gothard pointed out that I had failed to submit to the authority of my boss and work the eighty hours a week he demanded. For an electrical engineer, I wasn't making quite as much money as I thought I should and Mr. Gothard attributed it all to a loan that I had taken out and I was receiving God's chastening for violating His principles. In college, I had trouble in some of the more esoteric mathematical and electrical engineering classes, gee, it was because I had gone to public school and state college and listened to rock music while doing so and God just couldn't help me because of that sin. Marital problems, chalk that up to rebellious music, television and failing to follow God's plan of courtship instead of dating.

Mr. Gothard presented a world in which God had established principles to govern reality. These principles were such a strong influence in this world that Gothard teaches that we can come to know God by knowing His principles. His Institute also teaches that if we honor these principles, God is required to honor us.

This stuff made perfect sense the first time I heard it. All of my problems could be attributed to my unwitting failure to honor these principles. If I had just gotten the formula right, God would have had to make me a success.

After the seminar, I continued to seek God and He started to show me things in His Word that seemed diametrically opposed to Mr. Gothard's teachings. The first thing is the difference between God's definition of Grace and Mr. Gothard's definition of grace as noted at the top of this page.

Second, I think Mr. Gothard's teaching's ignore the truths of scripture in regards to a Christian's relation to the Law. For instance, he encourages everyone who attends one of his conferences to memorize Romans Chapters Six and Eight. Why not Chapter Seven? To my layman's mind, Chapter Seven has two major themes: First, the Law is holy and created by God and we should obey the Law. But the second theme would give anyone trying to keep the Law a problem - Paul says it just can't be done, at least not in our flesh. I believe that Mr. Gothard's principles are a law (lowercase letter 'l') unto themselves, one that God has not placed upon us. In Chapter Seven and elsewhere in the New Testament, it is shown that we are unable to keep that Law and that one of the purposes of the Law was to show us our need for a Savior. Given that, if we can not keep the Law of God, then why should we expect to keep the principles of Mr. Gothard? I believe that an understanding Romans Chapter Seven would cause one to see his/her inability to keep any code of conduct, and drive them right into the waiting arms of their Savior and thus would negate everything one had heard at an Institute seminar.

The third thing involves Mr. Gothard's position on divorce. Jesus taught that divorce was given because the hearts of people are hard, but the only legitimate reason for divorce is adultery (Matthew 5:32). Jesus was very clear on this and I believe that when Jesus is clear on something, it is wise to not go looking beyond scripture for some deep truth. That was what got the Gnostics in trouble. (click on the link for more info on the Gnostics)

Gothard on the other hand, teaches that Jesus didn't actually mean what it says in scripture. By citing some rather obscure Greek definitions2 and using rabbinical traditions to justify his position, Gothard claims that what Jesus actually taught was that divorce is only acceptable during the engagement period. I know several people who have had spouses become involved in adulterous relationships and because of Mr. Gothard's teachings, some have 'waited' several years for their spouses to reconcile because they felt that to remarry would have been a sin. I have seen them lonely, depressed and vulnerable and yes, I have gotten angry at Bill Gothard for putting them in a non scriptural bondage.

My wife and I have two very dear friends in Baton Rouge, Jake and Rhonda. Both had become Christians early in life, but it wasn't until they had both moved to Baton Rouge that they decided to quite pretending and start living for Jesus. They met while Rhonda was in college and Jake had just been discharged from the Air Force. They started dating and their love for each other grew as their relationship with Christ grew. They both went to the Gothard seminar for the first time when I went in 1991. Jake was planning on asking Rhonda to marry him when, but that all changed during the seminar.

Jake purchased one of Mr. Gothard's books on divorce and remarriage. Jake had been married during his time in the military. After a wild party, Jake awoke from a drunken stupor to find his wife making love to another man on the floor of the room he had been asleep in. He had suspected her infidelity for months, but refused to believe it. There were attempts to reconcile and yet she remained promiscuous taking other lovers before Jake finally filed for divorce.

After reading Gothard's book, Jake struggled with whether he had the right to remarry and whether God could bless his marriage to Rhonda. Even to an outsider, it was obvious that Jake's first marriage was full of problems resulting from a carnal lifestyle by both parties, but I told Jake that as soon as he asked forgiveness, that whole thing was in the past and that God was able to create good from the bad of the Jake's past. Jake struggled with this for a long time and they postponed their marriage and eventually broke up. They both could not escape that God was calling them back together. Yet every time they would start dating again, some well meaning person would point them right back to Mr. Gothard's book.

They both struggled with these issues for the next two years, and eventually the truth of God's Word showed through the heresy and bondage of Mr. Gothard's book and they were married in July of 1993 - over two years after God first prompted them to get married.

God also revealed to me that He did not operate by Mr. Gothard's rules. Those who have been following Gothard for many years would dispute this and point to their prosperity as a measure of God's approval. I would submit that my God is too big to fit in Mr. Gothard's box and that He chooses who to bless and not bless and causes the rain to fall on both the just and the unjust (Exodus 33:19, and Romans 9:15). God is sovereign.

Gothard replaces that sovereignty and a personal relationship with Him with formulas and principles. In turn, his followers who are successful are that way through a perverse religious Darwinism. I have yet to meet a follower of Gothard who wasn't a prosperous businessman, doctor, or lawyer. These folks point to their success as a measure of God's approval of them. Those who do not enjoy that level of success must have failed at one of Gothard's principles and therefore God isn't as pleased with them. It's sort of like Amway - of course the guy who's speaking at the meeting has been highly successful in the business, the failures drop out.

The final concrete thing I have against Gothard's teachings is his position on music. After attending his seminar, I became aware that Mr. Gothard teaches that music in a minor key (or with minor chords) and with a beat on counts two and four (what he refers to as a back beat) is against God's natural order and in turn evil and rebellious. Most modern music (contemporary Christian music, worship music, hard rock, rap, dance music, and country music) uses minor keys and a beat on two and four and in turn is rejected by followers of Mr. Gothard as 'carnal' music - unacceptable to God because it appeals to the flesh and soul (mind and emotions) of men and women. While we're on the subject, be aware that this notion that we must reject totally things that appeal to our flesh is found through out the teachings of both Bill Gothard and the ancient Gnostics. Also keep in mind that the Gnostics' rejection of the flesh extended to a rejection of the bodily resurrection of Christ.

In the spring of 1992, I started attending a non-denominational, Bible church in Baton Rouge. When I started attending, the church had a worship team, but didn't have a drummer. I had just started experimenting with electronic drums, which are wonderful for use in church, since they have a volume control. After several months and playing for some special functions, I was asked to join the worship team as the church drummer. Through this experience, God answered my prayer for a chance to use my gift to worship Him. The next three years were fantastic. I married my beautiful wife Kelli and grew spiritually as I never have before. I came to know God and understand Him as Abba, Father.

Musically, I found myself continually challenged. Our church had many special musical programs and I played drums and percussion with everything from professional orchestras to folk groups. And through it all I was allowed to truly worship Father God for the first time in my life.

About the time I had forgotten my experiences with Mr. Gothard, he and his disciples introduced much heartache into my life. Some very influential and founding members of the church are followers of Bill Gothard. These are some of the finest families I know and I know that they would never do anything to hurt Kelli and myself and I would never intentionally do anything to harm them, but this is what I saw during that time.

After a few months of playing I started to hear complaints about the drums and the church leadership was placed under pressure to reduce the volume of the drums. Keep in mind, our church was conservative in doctrine, but very contemporary in music and worship. Most of the members are younger than forty-five. The pressure continued until the drums were so soft, that the impact of the sticks on the electronic pickup heads was louder than the sounds coming from the speakers. My friends complained that they could not hear me at all. Trying to be obedient to those in leadership, I asked if they really wanted drums because it seemed to that I was wasting the church's time and mine. A compromise would be reached and the conflict would abate for several months, but just as I felt comfortable again, something else would be said.

The issue came to a head one day when someone complained directly to me about the difficulty they were having with the children's choirs because of me. I had no idea what she was talking about, but she eventually explained that the lady who had directed (a follower of Mr. Gothard) the children's choir program had quit the church because of the drums. This very 'diplomatic' individual told me that the trade (drums vs. children's choir director) had not been worth it to her. I thanked her and walked away, my thoughts consumed with what she had said.

The next three days I sought God and composed a letter of resignation. I explained that I had reached the same conclusion - if the choice was between a drummer and a children's choir director, the drums would have to go. My letter sparked quite a bit of discussion among the leaders of the church and a decision was made. The church would try to be sensitive to the needs of those who were not comfortable with the drums, but drums would be a permanent part of the worship at the church.

There were no more complaints, but my spirit was broken. I only wanted to worship God, but Mr. Gothard had taken away the freedom that should have been there. His doctrine had poisoned a church and drove a wedge between members, the leadership and myself.

Let's consider the implications of my observations. Based upon Mr. Gothard's statements, I see his teachings as a works based religion. I am not saying that he teaches that works save an individual from eternal damnation. What I do believe he teaches, is a system where our actions or inaction and adherence to his principles make God pleased with us. I believe that scripture teaches that God desires us to live lives free of sin, but my position before Him is totally dependent upon the blood of Jesus and the utterly and totally finished work of the cross. Mr. Gothard has created his own Mishna and in the process created a cult of neo-Pharisees.

The image that comes to mind is one of children being handed a free gift by their father and instead of taking and enjoying the gift, they reach up and slap him in the face, telling him that they'll do just fine without his help. We have a free gift in the form of our salvation and in turn our sanctification is from God too (Phillipians 1:6), but Mr. Gothard has turned sanctification into an act of the human will instead of the Holy Spirit.

What we have here is an insult to the grace of God and a knife in the heart of the gospel. Fundamentalists who consider themselves defenders of the faith chide Gothard for the ecumenical nature of his ministry, yet they ignore his perversion of our faith. Like Adam and Eve in the Garden, Gothard has rejected the perfect rest of God and exchanged it for lie of Satan - he seeks to know good and evil beyond what God has already shown us.

I believe that Bill Gothard is a sincere, honest man who loves Jesus Christ. But am I angry with Bill Gothard? The answer, with out a doubt, is yes! I have seen too many people put into his bondage and the number grows everyday. Churches have been destroyed by his poison as his disciples seek to conform the church and other believers to his likeness rather than the likeness of the risen Savior.

Don't get me wrong, these people are good people who have found something that works for them and they want to share that. But before you even allow them start sharing what they believe, consider the words of Paul to the Galatians:

O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? Have ye suffered so many things in vain? if it be yet in vain. He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? -- Galatians 3:1 - 5

Be warned also that Gothard's teachings can split a church, stifle it's growth and put the people in the bondage of legalism. Paul referred to these men as dogs and mutilators of the flesh3 (Phillipians 3:2) when they tried to put new believers back under the Jewish law. Bill Gothard has merely substituted his Institute's principles for the written and oral/rabbinical Jewish law.

Foot notes

2. The debate is over Jesus' use of the word adultery verses fornication and whether or not the Greek word used for fornication referred exclusively to sexual immorality prior to the marriage. I've looked at several lexicons and dictionaries (primarily Strong's and Thayer's) and the either fail to mention Gothard's definition or they refute it.

3. The NIV uses those phrases, but the KJV uses the word concision - Strong's number 2699 which is the Greek word katatome (kat-at-om-ay') meaning to cut; a cutting down (off), i.e. mutilation (ironically): So the gist of all this is that guys who would drag you back to the Mosaic law are the same folks who will try to say you must be circumcised to be a Christian.

There's more. Click here to read some of the responses to this page.

Mr. Gothard is now an Internet Service Provider - check it out!

I don't necessarily agree with the following pages, but if you want more information on Mr. Gothard, you owe it to yourself to check them out:

LEGALISM -- The Original Sin?

Rest Ministries - Bill Gothard and The Institute in Basic Life Principles

Issues of Concern -- Bill Gothard and the Bible

BILL GOTHARD AND "THE FACTS

Bill Gothard's Evangelical Talmud - Part 1

Bill Gothard's Evangelical Talmud - Part 2

A Study in Evolving Fadism:The Cultic Leanings of Bill Gothard's Teachings

An 'Expose' On Bill Gothard

Cultic Characteristics and IBLP

On the music issue - other opinions - pro and con:

Testimonies of Young People and Christian Rock - an anti-Contemporary Christian Music Page

Contemporary Christian Music(CCM) Test

THE BATTLE FOR CHRISTIAN MUSIC

Christian Music Online

Is Contemporary Christian Music Socially Acceptable?

"Christian" Rock Music Christian or Satanic?

"Christian" Rock Is The Devil's Music

Why should the devil have all the good music?

Re-Take the Contemporary Christian Music Test!

Can God Use Rock Music?

Christian Rock Defense Homepage

Contemporary Christian Music: Misunderstood Melodies

Christian Rock Music

Christian Rock Is Very Cool!!!

The Christian Rock Connoisseur