Author: Joe
Subject: Re: Jesus not so important in UBF
In reply to: former 's message, "Jesus Not Important in Toledo UBF" on 07:10:34 06/28/04 Mon
>The Toledo director does it again! Another Jesusless
>message!
>
>http://www.kille.org/ubf/message.htm
The Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, Moonies, even Muslims, mention Jesus in their sermons. UBF defense and "UBF critics exposed!" web sites have phrases like "May Jesus be gloried" or "May all glory go to Jesus". Jesus is on everybody's lips.
What matters is how UBF understands Jesus, represents Jesus and interprets and carries out his commands, and on those counts UBF is incomplete or unbalanced at best, cultic and dangerous at worst. From claiming that Jesus "didn't mind violating the Samaritan woman's rights" to the emphasis on works over grace for salvation, UBF gets Jesus and his gospel all wrong, IMHO.
And it's clear from all of our UBF experiences that Jesus and his gospel are not the true pillars of UBF. Nor are the written statement of Christian faith (hastily copied from others) or bylaws the true pillars of UBF. The true pillars of UBF are "spiritual order", obedience to human leaders, tithing to the "Central," etc.
Author: Joe
Subject: Re: Jesus Not Important in Toledo UBF
In reply to: former 's message, "Jesus Not Important in Toledo UBF" on 07:10:34 06/28/04 Mon
>The Toledo director does it again! Another Jesusless
>message!
>
>http://www.kille.org/ubf/message.htm
It is strange to walk into a nominally Christian church on Sunday and not hear the name of Jesus mentioned or even alluded to in a sermon. But then the UBF statement of purpose goes something like this:
The University Bible Fellowship is an international evangelical student organization with emphasis on world mission ... to teach students the Bible and to help them live according to its teachings.
No mention of Jesus there.
Then you go to a site like the University of Chicago "Bible Club" homepage which just recently added a UBF affiliation statement after a few years without one, and instead of even a passing mention of Jesus, you get something like, "Because you can only gain from knowing more about the Bible."
You get the impression that UBF doesn't know what kind of church or organization it wants to be. Instead of taking the name of Jesus with them wherever they go, they take the name of UBF, and their "world mission" seems to be about self-propagation, rather than propagating Jesus' name.
Author: Joe
Subject: Re: Jesus Not Important in Toledo UBF
In reply to: Joe 's message, "Re: Jesus Not Important in Toledo UBF" on 12:03:21 07/08/04 Thu
>You get the impression that UBF doesn't know what kind
>of church or organization it wants to be. Instead of
>taking the name of Jesus with them wherever they go,
>they take the name of UBF, and their "world mission"
>seems to be about self-propagation, rather than
>propogating Jesus' name.
In fact, UBF has always wanted to be "more than christianity", "better than christianity", "beyond christianity", "super christianity", a "christian minority (*)", a "remnant". They have always derided "old Christians."
Sam Lee clearly expressed UBF's vision of "super-christianity" this way, "Believing in Jesus is not enough. Believing in Jesus is not enough. you must have a vision for yourself and your nation." Genesis 12:2 (yourself as blessing) is studied first and emphasized much more than John 3:16 (Christ as blessing).
(*) There is irony in the fact that UBF members want to be considered "fellow christians" but consider themselves to be a "minority" in Christianity.
