the Spirit Watch

The "Do Scriptures" Twisted By Gwen Shamblin : An 8 Part Bible Study

 1 Kings 11:38 Rightly Divided

By Rev. Rafael D Martinez, Spiritwatch Ministries 

Lord God, through the name of your precious Son and our Lord Jesus, we come before you once more asking that you send the bright light of your Lordship by your Spirit. Open our eyes, our hearts, our minds and our wills to your Word. Let your Word be our guide into the truth You desire that we know of You and Your ways, the Gospel of your Son. We love you Lord. We seek to know you as you are, to walk in your ways, to seek you with our whole hearts. Show us the difference between the truth and the errors that have plagued and confused and warped so many. Let thy Word have free course within us, in Jesus' Name .. amen!  

***************************

We are now embarking on the final study of Gwen Shamblin’s “Do Scriptures” which we started out so long ago. I am sorry that we haven’t finished these as we should have by now, and I apologize for the delay. As I said, a lot of things have come up between now and then. At any rate, let’s take a look at this final verse in her list which she compels all WDA and RF members to endlessly review to ensure they are aware of what “God’s Word says” about “doing the will of God.”

In each of her teachings on these verses, the one thing we’ve seen Gwen Shamblin consistently do is to wresting Scripture out of its’ original context to find justification for her false doctrine. She continually fails to approach the text of the Bible with any sound Biblical interpretative principles at all, instead citing her self-anointed prophetic teaching authority that sidesteps any real accountability to anyone. With such an intentional disregard for this, her teachings’ integrity to Biblical doctrine is almost non-existent. Like most cult leaders, she picks and chooses Bible verses here and there to string them together into her novel theology. Her method is no different here in 1 Kings 11:38a as we shall see.

Even if there is painful agreement with Shamblin’s criticisms of the backslidings of the Christian Church we can share with her, such agreement in no way implies endorsement of her observations. For her, the sins and failings of the Church are proof of the need to embrace her radical doctrine and practice. This is embodied in the alternative she offers, the cultic Remnant Fellowship, which she energizes by her strident hatred of the Church for which Christ died and her idolatrous desire to be the exalted leader of “the true faith”. But since her unbiblical gospel compels one to measure their salvation on the basis of how much self-renunciation and close association with her sect they incur and not faith alone in Christ’s all-sufficient sacrifice on Calvary, we can see that her “Bible teaching” is anything but true.

We see this again in her citation of 1 Kings 11:38a as a proof text for her “doing” gospel that is alien to the Biblical good news. Let’s see how she handles this verse:

1 Kings 11:38a

38        If you do whatever I command you and walk in my ways and do what is right in my eyes by keeping my statutes and commands, as David my servant did, I will be with you.  

WHAT GWEN TEACHES ABOUT 1 KINGS 11:38a

Remember that there is a difference between knowing the path and walking the path. Get your workbook out now, because we are going to look at several Scriptures and as we do, look for the words “do the will of God.” Because it’s only those who do the will of God that will be saved. (reads the “do Scriptures” including 1 Kings 11:38a)  Well, these are just a few of the passages found all over the Bible that have always commanded us to put God’s wishes and commands into practice. Only the mockers of God will turn His gospel into a simple mental acknowledgement of His existence. God’s directives are plain to those who want to do it, but confusing to those who resist it. If you are still binge eating, overeating, anorexic or indulging in sexual sins, you’re submitting to your own wishes and you’re rebelling against the will of God. You’re not doing the will of God.  (WDA Video, week 5)

The teaching is all too familiar. The point is pressed home again by Shamblin. The Christian church's membership is predominantly that of a backslidden, sinful people who can't tolerate such a clearly defined thing as "obedience."  Some of the failings of the church she qualifies as forms of dietary rebellion against God's will include overeating, eating disorders like anorexia and of course, the more familiar sins of the flesh like sexual immorality. This results because, she says, the church has "turn(ed) His gospel into a simple mental acknowledgement of His existence."  The church only believes God exists, and nothing else so with such a woefully deficient faith, things like commitment to obeying God's Word, personal passion for holiness and seeking to "do" what's right are therefore completely absent.

Heading for judgment from "THE GOD" for setting up fleshly idolatry that ignores him, the church is an "Egypt" that Remnant gladly departed from, a "counterfeit church" empty of any truth whatsoever. The church is filled with an ignorance of the righteousness that comes from "doing the will of God" that of course, only Remnant possesses. Remnant's people unhesitatingly "put God's wishes and commands" into practice, which is seen when they so publicly worship, eat, play and work together. In Remnant alone, the truth found in "the Message" can be found.

1 KINGS 11:38a RIGHTFULLY DIVIDED

In this verse God Himself is speaking through the prophet Ahijah to make a divine promise to Jeroboam, the imperial contractor who oversaw the household labor of Solomon. His presence would go with Jeroboam as he was given the rule of the Kingdom of Israel - on the condition that Jeroboam’s obedience to his commands was scrupulously followed. His intentional and zealous obedience to the Law would ensure that God would oversee and prospering everything he did. The “commands and statutes” were to be followed in total faith and in return, Yahweh would walk with Jeroboam to bless and prosper both he and his rulership. This is the gist of the verse.

Taking 1 Kings 11:38 in its Biblical context requires that we carefully read and study the verses before and after it to see what it is referring to. Verses 27-37 give us important background information that, as usual, Shamblin completely overlooks:

1 King 11:27-43

27        Here is the account of how he rebelled against the king: Solomon had built the supporting terraces and had filled in the gap in the wall of the city of David his father.

28        Now Jeroboam was a man of standing, and when Solomon saw how well the young man did his work, he put him in charge of the whole labor force of the house of Joseph.

29        About that time Jeroboam was going out of Jerusalem, and Ahijah the prophet of Shiloh met him on the way, wearing a new cloak. The two of them were alone out in the country,

30        and Ahijah took hold of the new cloak he was wearing and tore it into twelve pieces.

31        Then he said to Jeroboam, "Take ten pieces for yourself, for this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'See, I am going to tear the kingdom out of Solomon's hand and give you ten tribes.

32 But for the sake of my servant David and the city of Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, he will have one tribe.

Ancient Israel, under the rule of David, had become one of the mightiest kingdoms on the earth for its time. No country could topple it by force of arms and no enemy could defeat it. The nation was united under the governance of the twelve great tribes through the leadership of the house of Judah, whom David and his son Solomon came from. And yet, tragically, it would be through the oracle of the prophet Ahijah that divine judgment was about to sweep over the Kingdom in the uniquely symbolic way those Bible prophets foretold it.

The prophet rends his cloak into twelve pieces and assigns to his dramatic act a divine interpretation to Jeroboam: “you will rule over 10 tribes which I shall forcibly snatch from the hand of the house of David.” Why, we might ask, was this done at the height of the geopolitical glory of Israel? Yahweh explains why through the words of the prophet’s dire prophecy:

33        I will do this because they have forsaken me and worshiped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god of the Moabites, and Molech the god of the Ammonites, and have not walked in my ways, nor done what is right in my eyes, nor kept my statutes and laws as David, Solomon's father, did.

34        " 'But I will not take the whole kingdom out of Solomon's hand; I have made him ruler all the days of his life for the sake of David my servant, whom I chose and who observed my commands and statutes.

35        I will take the kingdom from his son's hands and give you ten tribes.

36        I will give one tribe to his son so that David my servant may always have a lamp before me in Jerusalem, the city where I chose to put my Name.

37        However, as for you, I will take you, and you will rule over all that your heart desires; you will be king over Israel.

Israel’s backsliding into idolatrous worship was encouraged by the pagan wives of Solomon from outside the fold of Israel who introduced their pagan forms of worship to the nation. And it was to be tolerated no longer by God: to demonstrate His Lordship once again over His rebellious people, He would now take the rule of Israel from Solomon and give it to another. Ever mindful of His gracious mercy, He remembers his promise with David that his descendants would yet have his special blessing and makes provision for them. And then He gives His conditional promise to bless Jeroboam with a kingdom that would be as great than David’s - as long as He obeyed and kept the Law of Moses that David did.

38        If you do whatever I command you and walk in my ways and do what is right in my eyes by keeping my statutes and commands, as David my servant did, I will be with you. I will build you a dynasty as enduring as the one I built for David and will give Israel to you.

We see the reason why God chose to do this, and what the end result was: the tragic depravity of Solomon that became as murderous as that of the wickedness of King Saul. How sad to see Solomon fall so far into the same kind of murderous jealousy that his own father suffered!

  39        I will humble David's descendants because of this, but not forever.'"

40        Solomon tried to kill Jeroboam, but Jeroboam fled to Egypt, to Shishak the king, and stayed there until Solomon's death.

41        As for the other events of Solomon's reign-- all he did and the wisdom he displayed-- are they not written in the book of the annals of Solomon?

42        Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel forty years.

43        Then he rested with his fathers and was buried in the city of David his father. And Rehoboam his son succeeded him as king.

This entire context shows us just how we are to understand the obedience God commanded of Jeroboam in verse 38: God promised him an enduring kingdom that would be as great as David’s IF he obeyed the commands and statutes of the Law of Moses that David zealously pursued in his day. Solomon had forsaken this and fallen into deep, idolatrous sin as a result. The fulfillment of the promise God made to Jeroboam depended entirely upon his wholehearted embracing of His Law.

We certainly cannot fail to recognize the principle of obedience to God’s commands as a way to receive His blessing here. No one can deny obedience is of the utmost importance. Jesus Himself said “If you love me, you will obey what I command.”  (John 14:15 NIV). But as we’ve seen, Gwen Shamblin redefines the obedience God commanded of Jeroboam - and that which Jesus commands of Christians - in a way that goes beyond the context of Scripture. As she has with so many other verses of Scripture, she makes much over the most superficial connection she tries to make from a Biblical truth she calls attention to (in this case, obedience) to her own erroneous teaching about the truth. “See, God is telling us that if we will obey Him, He will bless us,” she in effect says, and then goes on to qualify what that “total obedience” actually is and always in the context of her moral teachings that revolve around her Weigh Down Diet!

But the God-commanded obedience of Jeroboam isn’t the same quality of the Gwen-compelled obedience she promotes. Jeroboam is invited to blessedness beyond imagination if he would only obey and love the Lord God of Israel as David did by leading the nation in a wholehearted embracing of His commands in the keeping of the Law. The fact remains is that Jeroboam eventually would lead the ten tribes of Israel into a horrible idolatry based around a feast day he created himself because of his fear of losing power God gave him. Jeroboam's example was not of faith but a rank apostasy that forever changed world history.

The parallel Gwen compels here is unmistakable. Like Jeroboam, Shamblin creates her own rigid standard of legalistic righteousness that imitates Christian morality and conduct as a means of self-justification. Like Jeroboam, she took leadership over people whose disillusionment with their lives made them receptive to her new vision. Like Jeroboam, she created a new religion to bind this new corporate identity together. In like manner, Remnant Fellowship members are expected to harness their personal zeal and piety so as to be found proven and in compliance with the ways of the Remnant Nation. Their lifestyle becomes the vehicle that the “Message” rides upon. This is what the “do” is behind the “doing” that Shamblin insists is what makes one righteous. It is, in effect, a revival of the keeping of religious law that mandates an impossible perfectionism all in “Jerusalem” must keep - and follows Jeroboam's divisive and idolatrous example.

But for all of their fasting, sacrifice and self-denial they pour into their lifestyles, even now Remnant Fellowship still remains undone. There's a constant watching for "idols" among them. Every few weeks, new rounds of spiritual purgings and confessions sweep the RF flock and a new targeting by RF “Shepherds” of their flocks for real or imagined sins comes down on the RF rank and file. And not for one minute would these sadly misguided folk seem to realize that what they’ve submitted themselves to is the same kind of ultimately futile religiosity Paul describes of some among the Colossians:

Colossians 2:20-23

  20        Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules:

21        "Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!"?

22        These are all destined to perish with use, because they are based on human commands and teachings.

23        Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.

The Law of Moses, however, was fulfilled in Christ - but not in Gwen’s sight. To her, the Law is just another way of describing her new religion. And yet hundreds of people in Remnant have made the same tragic mistake of assuming that the righteousness of Christ, which is based on faith in Him alone is the same as “doing” whatever they need to do to show how “pure” they are.

As we’ve seen over and over in these studies, it is in Christ alone by faith alone that anyone is made holy and acceptable in his sight. The same Jesus that calls us to show our love by our obedience is the same Lord who describes what that task would be: “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent” (John 6:28-29 NIV) We are to BELIEVE on Christ for salvation and our obedience must then FOLLOW. Gwen Shamblin has the proverbial cart before the horse, but it is a terrific and horribly skewed mistake she has made, drawn more out of her own personal views of works-based performance spirituality - not the Abundant Life of Jesus Christ.

IMPLICATIONS:

Frankly, for this particular set of studies on Gwen’s “doing” Scriptures, I’m about “implied out.” I’ve tried to be as objective and irenic as I can with trying to find common ground with what Gwen Shamblin teaches about this verse. I cannot find any more ways to restate what I’ve already written about her misuse of it. I find it exceptionally hard to do so at this point. Gwen's "doing" is keeping what she calls "God's laws" as well as abandoning any reliance in faith alone in Christ. Gwen dismisses Jesus completely out of the scene, for all of her lofty speech about Him.

The one great summarization of the “doing” Scriptures that we could observe would be this:

  Gwen is RIGHT when she observes that God commands and deserves our obedience.

Gwen is WRONG though when she implicitly teaches that our obedience to her gospel earns salvation.

In conclusion, we’ve seen that for Gwen Shamblin to make her list of “do” Scriptures teach what she says they say, they must be pulled out of context and cleverly intermingled with her fierce denunciations of the Gospel and the Body of Christ. Nothing could be further than the truth than Gwen Shamblin’s bold twisting of these Scriptures to suit her own religious authoritarianism.

This is not mere Christianity, as she would characterize it, but sadly just more cultism that must be discerned, refuted and striven against by those who truly love the Truth found only in Christ and His Gospel.

Cults, Cultism And Remnant Fellowship    Testimonies Of Former Members Of Remnant Fellowship  

Back To The Spiritwatch Home Page