Cool Internet Trivia [Archive]

steve (steve)

10-22-2005, 05:50 PM

Another link of interest found in the above search for "Community Chapel and Bible Training Center" was Christian Research Institute's statement about the Chapel found on their Web site, www.equip.org (http://www.equip.org). I had not seen this before, though I've read several other articles by them about the Chapel that contain similar statements. The CRI statement found by the above search is as follows:<blockquote><font color="0000ff"><center>COMMUNITY CHAPEL AND BIBLE TRAINING CENTER</center>
For several years now we have received requests to comment on the teachings and practices of Community Chapel and Bible Training Center in Seattle (hereafter CCBTC), pastored by Donald Lee Barnett. Based on our research, there is more than sufficient evidence to show that CCBTC is, in the theological sense of the term, a cult. That is, it is a religious organization which professes to be Christian but which teaches heretical doctrine on the fundamentals of the Christian faith (see CRI's statement on the meaning of the term "cult" for more details).

Specifically, CCBTC denies the biblical, orthodox doctrine of the Trinity, teaching instead a variation of the doctrine of God known as "Oneness." Barnett's doctrine, though not identical to the usual Oneness view as taught, for example, in the United Pentecostal Church (on which see "Oneness Pentecostalism and the Trinity," available from CRI), is sufficiently similar that it may be broadly classified as Oneness. In any case, Barnett and his church and school explicitly deny the doctrine of the Trinity, claiming along with other antitrinitarian cults that the Trinity was a fourth-century paganization of Christian doctrine. In so teaching, CCBTC has separated itself (compare 1 John 2:19) from the fellowship of Christian churches. The fact that it seeks recognition as an evangelical church and that its members consider themselves to be born again does not make its rejection of the Trinity any less heretical.

Also of concern are the destructive efforts of CCBTC's teaching that Christians can be demonized or demon-possessed (a view which CRI considers erroneous; see our statement on exorcism and deliverance for further details). Though this teaching can be found in many orthodox charismatic and pentecostal churches, the extreme form in which it is found in the CCBTC makes it not merely erroneous, but heretical.

Finally, the teaching and practice of "spiritual connections," which was reported in newspapers nationwide in 1986, and which involves church members developing extremely intimate relationships with the spouses of other church members, is both unbiblical and socially deviant. The destructive effects of this teaching, as well as their teaching on demons, are described in the article attached below.

The foregoing should not be construed to mean that we regard every member of the CCBTC as necessarily lost. Many persons who were Christians before encountering the cult joined it without recognizing it as such, and many such believers have left the cult and joined sound Christian churches. However, the organization and its teaching are definitely heretical, and Christians should not seek to have fellowship with those involved.</font></blockquote>
As a former member of Community Chapel and Bible Training Center who spent ten years there, I agree completely with this statement.