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Seventeen Commitments
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| A person who spends the entire day watching television and never accomplishes anything, is never of any service to anyone, and never asks how he can serve the Living God, can complain about his or her "self-esteem." Pop-psychologists blame his inactivity on his "lack of positive self-image." But this couch potato has no "positive self-image" because he is not a positive self; he has an accurate self image because he is a waste of human life. He can say he "made a decision for Christ," and have a sign behind the barn with a date on it. He can even have "assurance of salvation," but as the Westminster Confession notes, it is a false assurance. | All the so-called "successful" people also seem to lack "self-esteem." They diligently work 10 hours a day in a landmine factory, and maybe devote their Saturdays to "community service," but their lives are empty. They go to church on Sunday and are told that if they "believe," they will go to heaven. They say they are "saved," but they lack true assurance. |
James 2:19 You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe; and tremble! {14} What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? {15} If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, {16} and one of you says to them, "Depart in peace, be warmed and filled," but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit?
An invigorating assurance of faith comes with Godly habits of action and obedience. These habits are the result of the commitments below.
2 Peter 1:1-10 {2} Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord,
{3} as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue,
{4} by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
{5} But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge,
{6} to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness,
{7} to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love.
{8} For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
{9} For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins.
{10} Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble;
{11} for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
| Faith | Overcome | Declare Allegiance |
| Virtue | Discern Good and Evil | Separation/Resistance |
| Knowledge | Dedication | Grows out of Character |
| Self-Control | Service | Limiting our Freedom |
| Perseverance | Endurance | Suffering |
| Godliness | Humility | |
| Brotherly Kindness | Insight | Alert to others who hurt |
| Love | Reproduce maturity in others | |
I am committed to pursue diligently these "eight callings." Not only does this diligent pursuit provide assurance of an entrance into the Kingdom, but the by-products of these callings make me truly human.
I have placed the commitments below under the title "Recovery" because of the parallel between the steps recommended by Gothard and the "12 Steps" of the various "Anonymous" groups.
There is a dispute as to whether A.A.'s alcoholism treatment programs are effective. Those who run them claim high rates of remission:
"Rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our path. Those who do not recover are people who cannot or will not completely give themselves to this simple program, usually men and women who are constitutionally incapable of being honest with themselves."
-- The Big Blue Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 58
Can it be proven that the "12 Steps" work? There may be a problem with the question. A.A. may be saying that those who work the steps are healed, while the contrary research shows that people who are merely enrolled in a program -- for example, as a result of a DUI conviction -- but don't necessarily "work the steps" -- do not experience higher rates of remission than those who receive no treatment. And, of course, if they don't "work the steps," they have not received any "treatment." Sitting through an A.A. meeting is not the same thing as pursuing the "12 Steps."
Others say there is no evidence that treatment increases the chances of remission over those who receive no treatment at all. There are many people who are told by family and friends that they should seek help for their drinking or drug problem who reply that they have tried everything and "nothing seems to work."
G.K. Chesterton once said that disbelief in Christianity comes not from the fact that Christianity has been tried and found wanting, but the fact that it has never been tried. It may be more likely that the individual who says "A.A.'s 12 Steps didn't help" never really worked through the steps.
The following questions should be asked in order to more accurately determine whether one has carried out the "12 steps":
1. Did you admit that you are powerless over your sin -- that your life had become unmanageable?
2. Did you come to believe that a Power greater than yourself could restore you to sanity?
3. Did you make a decision to turn your will and your life over to the care of God as you understood Him?
4. Did you make a searching and fearless moral inventory of yourself?
5. Did you admit to God, to yourself, and to another human being the exact nature of your wrongs?
6. Did you become entirely ready to have God remove all your defects of character?
7. Did you humbly ask Him to remove your shortcomings?
8. Did you make a list of all persons you had harmed, and did you become willing to make amends to them all?
9. Did you in fact make direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others?
10. Do you continue to take personal inventory and when you are wrong promptly admit it?
11. Do you seek through prayer and meditation to improve your conscious contact with God as you understand Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for you and the power to carry that out?
12. Have you had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, and are you trying to carry this message to others who need to stop sinning, and to practice these principles in all your affairs?
When these questions are answered in the affirmative, the interviewee may be placed in the category of those who have completed the A.A. program, to be compared with those who have received no treatment.
The qualification in the 3rd and 11th steps ("as you understood Him") is vague. In some cases it is healthy. A person may be told that God is like his abusive father, and may for this reason reject "God." A person may be taught that God approves of hypocritical liturgies and top-down ecclesiocentric bureaucracies, and may for this reason reject "God." Romans 1 teaches that all men know God. They need to act on the promptings of their conscience.
But everyone these days has "my own understanding of God." We need to
listen to God's understanding of Himself, as He has communicated this to us in the
Bible.
The process of admitting our wrongs and righting those wrongs seems to be at the heart of Gothard's Basic Seminar and the "12 Steps" of A.A.
It takes humility to admit our wrongs and to go back to those we have wronged and ask forgiveness. We don't truly worship God unless we worship the predestinating God of the Bible, and we don't worship this God if we engage in liturgical hocus-pocus instead of going to our neighbor and righting our wrongs (Matthew 5:23-24).
Matthew 5:23-24 Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, {24} leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.
Gothard's material provides more practical steps to obeying this command than the
"12 Step" literature.
When we pray "the Lord's Prayer," we ask God to forgive us in the same way "we forgive our debtors." If we do not forgive those who wrong us, we are asking God not to forgive us. There can be no doubt that this interpretation of the Lord's Prayer is correct: Jesus immediately clarifies the matter:
Matthew 6:14-15 For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. {15} But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
I am also committed to forgiving those who wrong my friends. I will not "take up offenses."
I invest in the lives of those who wrong me, to make my forgiveness concrete, for
Matthew 6:21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
At first glance, it would appear that the Vine
& Fig Tree view of the State is the complete antithesis of Gothard's.
Gothard appears to believe that God affirmatively commands human beings to form
political structures. We believe the State is evil,
and that the primary task of Christians in the 21st century is to abolish
the State.
Yet The Bible requires us to be committed to the same "submission" to the State that Gothard counsels. In fact, Gothard seems to condone the American Revolution, whereas I abhor violent revolution, if only because revolution gives birth to militarist socialism (the State).
When some person or circumstance irritates me, I am committed to seizing this
opportunity to correct past offenses and build Christ-like character.
I am committed to Stewardship, not ownership. I do not get angry when my "rights"
are violated.
I am committed to manifesting the following attitudes:
I am committed to Theonomy: to placing every area of life under God's Law and Control
I am committed to Theonomic Obedience: Instant obedience to promptings of Conscience.
I am committed to the concept of Scripture as God's Law-Word: every
Word in Scripture is Law for me.
Gothard claims that pagan art can be used by Satan as a channel of evil. Little Buddha statues must be taken out of the house and burned. I believe Satan has been bound. I don't have any pagan art in my home anyway.
If we are to take seriously the concept of "cleansing our home" of abominable things, we might well start with some things that are prohibited by the U.S. Constitution. Ironically, though the Bible calls these things "abominable" and explicitly commands us not to carry any of them around with us, I have not yet met a single alumni of the Basic Seminar who does not continue to carry around these abominable objects.
I desire to obtain God's Success by saturating my mind with His Word, and hiding it
in my heart, meditating day and night.
I want God's best for courtship, engagement, and marriage.
The father of the girl will decide whom his daughter should date and marry.
I will not discuss marriage until both sets of parents approve.
Marriage is an unbreakable covenant, not a conditional contract.
a. I will date only a (growing) Christian.
b. I will build my courtship around God's purposes for my life
c. I will guard against defrauding in my friendships.
d. My spouse and I must be in harmony with our own families as far as is Scripturally possible
e. I will wait for God's timing for my marriage as indicated by our financial ability, purpose in life, and our parents' whole-hearted consent.
f. I give to God my rights to dating and marriage and will concentrate on single service until He brings the one of His choosing into my life. Every year that I am single, I will thank Him, because I know that I can be more dedicated to my work when single, than I could when married.
I give all my affection to God, dedicate myself as a channel of His love to those He wants to love through me, and purpose to learn how God wants to love others through me.
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Vine & Fig Tree |
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