the Spirit Watch

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

Mark 3:33-35 Rightly Divided

By Rev. Rafael D Martinez, Spiritwatch Ministries

Father in heaven, in the wonderful name of your Son, our Lord Jesus, we come before you. We come to break the bread of life, the meat of Your Word together, to hear your Word and to come to a deeper and richer walk with You in your truth and love. By the power of your Holy Spirit tonight, the Comforter and Teacher you’ve sent to dwell within us, let us hear what it is you would say to us, that we might not only learn to hear your Shepherd’s voice calling to us, that we may no longer heed the lies of the hirelings who twist what You’ve already told us and commanded us to remember. To Your Glory and praise we offer this, in Jesus Name, amen.

We continue our study of Gwen Shamblin’s “Do” scriptures and will stop to now consider what is surely one of her most potent and compelling misinterpretations of God’s Word that has done more to enslave so many under her yoke of Remnant tradition. This will be Jesus’ words found in Mark 3:33-35 which she cites continually throughout her teaching and in her interactions with Remnant members.

Mark 3:33-35

33        "Who are my mother and my brothers?" he asked.

34      Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, "Here are my mother and my brothers!

35        Whoever does God's will is my brother and sister and mother."

Where Shamblin’s teaching on this passage proceeds is profoundly disturbing. Read these teachings carefully and prayerfully as they are by far some of the darkest and most warped thoughts of Shamblin I’ve ever read that we will quote here. Her ferocity is simply amazing here as she pursues her avowed mission to convince Remnant missions that their own family relationships are idolatrous strongholds if they don’t completely reflect her Remnant philosophy and ideals. This is not surprising of course, since all cults damn as Satanic and sinful any non-conformity to their worldview, but Gwen’s rhetoric here is perhaps among some of the most extreme expressions I’ve ever heard voiced by a true cult leader.

Some of this may be too extreme for some of you. Be advised. But this darkness has to be directly addressed.

WHAT GWEN TEACHES ABOUT MARK 3:33-35

Repent and choose THE GOD and only Him and so join this city of survivors that have provided a city for God to rule. Jesus taught that neither friends nor family come before Him. Your family, Jesus said, are those who DO the will of the Father - not preach it, underline it, memorize it, study, or sing it. It is only he who does it that will be saved (Matthew 7:21; Mark 3:31) (Remnant Resource, p. 6)

We must read more of what Shamblin teaches on the quality of these relationships to fully understand what she means when she speaks of Jesus teaching that “neither friends nor family come before Him,” and that “your family .. are those who DO the will of the Father.” We cannot fully grasp just what she is truly implying in these phrases without studying what she says about family relationships in other sources of her thoughts on them.

There is a family of believers out there who God is pulling back together and when they finally meet each other, they feel like they have come home to family - long-lost family. They all know each other because they have all been raised by the same Father, so they all are kind and humble, and above all, they put the Father and His Son?s wishes above their own wants. They wouldn?t dare embarrass their Father who raised them by disobeying Him. They are people who all instinctively know what they have learned from their brother and their Lord, Jesus Christ?`Not my will, but Thine be done.?” (RF website)

We are to expect opposition and persecution from the world. .. When you get even close to coming to the true body of believers who have only one passion and love and when you get close to understanding that your food is to do the will of THE FATHER, then you will start to experience the persecution that is recorded in the book of Acts. .. be afraid only to be out of the will of the living God. Are you afraid? .. Today, thank the Lord that your children and their children will be very prepared for this prophesied lifestyle we totally overlooked while in the Great Prostitute.” (Remnant Resource, p. 9)

To Shamblin, obviously, there is only one true church, one true fellowship made up of warm, loving people who pour themselves into one another and who recognize one another instinctually. Naturally, this is the Remnant Fellowship fold who are a “city of survivors” building the New Jerusalem on earth. Shamblin then draws a parallel to Biblical precedent by warning that all who embrace her interpretation of “the will of God” will suffer seasons of persecution as they take a stand for God by becoming more socially situated in Remnant just like the early church suffered in the book of Acts. Remnant Fellowship is the only “true body of believers” to be regarded as family and the mandate therefore is to become more distanced (and even cut off) from non-RF family who don?t follow the “prophesied lifestyle”. Fear of displeasing God by drawing back from Remnant relationships should be foremost in mind. She goes on to explain why this division of families is necessary, emphasizing how this is to be expected and even welcomed by new Remnant members as part of true spiritual growth:

Why does God allow this continual attack at the beginning of your decision to make Him Lord of every area of your life? It is simply to test your heart for more idols. Your heart is being examined to see if you love your spouse more than your Creator, your children more than your Creator, or your friends more than your Creator.  (Remnant Resource, p. 9-10)

Remnant’s true believers must not only expect but embrace this tension as a normative part of Christian life. It is God’s ordained time of testing to see how true the Remnant member is to the “Remnant Nation”, to “Jerusalem” by dissolving social ties from non-RF family so as to be shown truly righteous. The natural bonds of marital, parental and familial love and intimacy are idolatries that are a direct affront to the “truth” of the Remnant message of “total obedience” (that is, complete comformity to Remnant lifestyles and rejection of those who don’t abide by them).

Finally, listen to Gwen’s direction to keep them at arms length or even to break them fully for the sake of the “true body.” There is absolutely no mistaking Shamblin’s view of human relationships within and without Remnant in these following words:

Jesus told those who wanted to follow Him on the path of showing full devotion to the Father to not even go back and bury their dead (Luke 9:60). He said that the dead will bury the dead .. and they are truly dead. The only alive people are those who are totally focused on and connected to the Father. .. Satan and his detractors are everywhere and can act through any human being. .. Those who have poured over the words and directives of the Master, Jesus Christ, are highly aware of the fact that opposition can arise within your own household and there may be an absence of peace. No peace with people who support multiple gods .. did any spiritual leader get you ready for this?? (Remnant Resource, p. 10)

Now, we are commanded to honor our father and our mother. What does it mean to “honor” a parent? Many believe it would be to keep peace by worshipping the god of their choice. If your mother loves food, it will keep peace if you love that food right alongside her, but Jesus did not come for you to have that kind of peace. He came to take off that heavy yoke and give you lighter burden of doing only what the true God wants you to do everyday - blocking all other voices. He came to separate you off to the New Jerusalem, a place where you only worship THE God and prove that to yourself by your actions. (Remnant Resource, p. 11).

No one has loved you more than us - the Remnant of Believers who will actually quote the Bible instead of twisting it. Jesus said you must “do” the will of the Father to enter the kingdom. (Remnant Resource p. 7)

God is bringing all of His children back home - a place where they know they are home because they are back under His authority and His authority and leadership alone. The heritage of all true Christians is that they separate when they know something is being taught that is against the Bible. .. When He says to do something - such as, “be holy and be separate” - we do it. Not because we are proud or aloof -but because we love the Father and do exactly what He commands (John 14:31). We do not think that we are smarter than Him and we prove that by our humble response to His Word. You are at a valley of decision. Life is short. Do what is right.  (RF website)

To Gwen Shamblin, the will of God is whatever she interprets it to be. Any deviation from her own narrow interpretation of it that contradicts the dictates of the hierarchical “authority line” she sets forth as the only standard for Christian leadership is to therefore be out of the will of God. This is at the heart of what Shamblin says that Jesus means by doing the will of the Father in Mark 3:33-35. By keeping all of what she says the “family” actually is in mind, we now see Mark 3:33-35 as being a cautionary admonition of Jesus to us. The only people who are truly His family are those who who do the Will of the Father, which is whatever Gwen and her Remnant cadre define it to be.

MARK 3:33-35 RIGHTLY DIVIDED

What does Jesus mean in this verse? Does He actually command division between family members as Shamblin teaches? Let’s review again the words of Jesus Himself as recorded in Mark 3:33-35. Verses 31-32 provide further context to what prompted Jesus to make the declaration He did:

  31   Then his brothers and his mother came, and standing outside they sent to him, calling him.

32  And a multitude was sitting around him; and they said to him, “Look, your mother and your brothers are outside seeking you.” (NKJV)

Mark 3:33-35

33        "Who are my mother and my brothers?" he asked.

34        Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, "Here are my mother and my brothers!

35        Whoever does God's will is my brother and sister and mother."  

In these five verses, we are given a glimpse into what life was like as Jesus our Lord taught and ministered. He was evidently still at the private home mentioned in 3:19 along with the Twelve disciples who were accompanying him across Israel in his ministry. He had just finished confronting those who attributed His glorious ministry of demonic deliverance as from the devil, occasioning his solemn warning against blasphemy of the Holy Spirit at pain of eternal damnation. This is a significant point that we must bear in mind here which we will discuss shortly.

He was then approached by the members of his human family, namely the sons of Mary and Joseph who were by birth his blood brothers and Mary his mother. They approached him, seeking an audience, and he was told this by some members of the crowds who were following him as He was finishing his teaching of the Twelve. It isn’t known who told him, but Jesus addressed their request in a singularly memorable manner. Told that his family was seeking Him, Jesus answered with a pointed question: “Who are my mother and brothers?” Gazing around the disciples who were gathered there with him, He went on to declare that they were his mother and brothers and that whosoever was doing the will of God also was a member of this circle of people who He characterized as his very family.

Why did Jesus make such a distinction? The answer is twofold. First of all, He did so to emphasize how a commitment to doing God’s will first and foremost in their lives brings those so committed into a vastly deeper personal connection with Him that was even more intimate than the relationships between natural family members. He wanted the crowd, his family and the disciples to understand this fundamental truth. Those who actively pursue and fulfill the will of God in their lives are bound together as spiritual family with an infinitely higher bonding than any purely natural kinship.

And secondly, while Christ contrasted the quality of both natural and spiritual relationships for the sake of understanding the necessity of doing God’s will first in our lives, He also wanted us to realize that whoever and wherever this contrasting of relationships might be seen they would fully enjoy the privilege of being numbered among His great family. This is no doubt a foreshadowing of the revelation of the Body of Christ over which Jesus Himself is the Head and we the members of that same great Body (1 Cor. 12:12-14, Ephesians 5:23 - note the intimacy of this unity as likened unto marital bonds). Such a glorious reality is the birthright of all true believers in Christ who have embraced him as Lord and Savior and have been made new creations in Him (Romans 7:12-17 explains this with some of the most beautiful promises of God to those who have been transformed by His Spirit through faith in His promises).

Some Bible scholars suggest that what occasioned Jesus to say what He said was His recognition that His family, perhaps fearful of the dangerous enemies He was rebuking earlier in the chapter, were concerned enough to want to call him aside to express their feelings. Perhaps they didn’t yet fully understand His entire mission. It is quite likely that with the tension of the moment at hand and considering that Jesus had just faced down the hostile scribes who were members of the most influential leaders of Jewish society that His own family felt they needed to try and caution him through a direct appeal. Remember that at one point just before Jesus’ encounter with the scribes, His own friends had actively sought him out to cease His ministry to Israel (3:21) thinking he was unbalanced. The actions of both His friends and family strongly suggest that they were anxious and even feared for His life, seeking to persuade Him to leave off the direction he was taking.

But whatever the reason for Jesus’ declaration here, in no place do we see Him hinting at or even suggesting any kind of rejection of the personal family ties He had with His mother or His family ties whatsoever. This is just simply not what Jesus had in mind here. In fact, Jewish social customs held the parental bonds in such high esteem that to speak a rebuke against one’s mother so publicly was considered unthinkable and outrageous, a deplorable violation of social norms cherished throughout all levels of Hebrew life. Hence, His remark on those being His “mother” can not be viewed as any sort of cutting rejection of His own human sonship to Mary. Even if her faith and understanding could be viewed as wavering or in question here, the last thing Jesus could be suggested as intending would be to cut her off from relationship with Him. We see then that Shamblin’s feral teaching that one should indeed separate from friends and family who don’t measure up to her self-imposed interpretation of what “God?s Will” is not only unbiblical but a wicked imposition of her own vindictive and sectarian narrow mindedness.

This was the same Jesus who said that he came to fulfill the Law, which taught as one of the Ten Commandments that a godly man or woman was to honor their father and mother. This is the same Christ who beheld his mother’s agonized form at the foot of his cross even as he hung mutilated and beaten by the nails in his hands and feet and compelled John the disciple to take her into his home to ensure she was cared for (John 19:26-27). This is the same Man from Galilee whose own family possibly shunned him for a time, since they are not mentioned again during his trial and crucifixion (perhaps hiding as the disciples did) but who would still bestow the Spirit upon them when their faith was restored and when they were in the upper room at Pentecost (Acts 1:14). Even though his family didn’t appear to be his greatest supporters and may even have been offended with his ministry, they would eventually come to terms with accepting their own brother as the One True God and their Savior and Messiah.

But through all of this, we don’t see Jesus turning upon and rending his family for not standing by him. While the occasion clearly showed how human the Son of man’s family really was, it only highlighted the privilege one could have by being even closer to Him then His bonds to His own flesh and blood by choosing to do His will. What a blessing! What a Savior!

IMPLICATIONS

I have tried to be objective and to share with you what points of agreement we may have with Gwen Shamblin?s interpretations in all of the studies we’ve done thus far. In this study, in light of the utterly outrageous statements she claims are deliveries of divinely ordained direction, I can’t find any. There are none. Her feigned passion for God’s will is little more than a thinly religious veneer to cover her sociopathic mission to destroy families for the sake of creating a “nation” of people who are more tightly coerced robots than true Christian remnant.

There is no common ground between Gwen Shamblin’s misinterpretation of these Scriptures. I can find no point of agreement with her at all.

Therefore, all of Shamblin’s wicked and intentional disruption of family ties that she advocates as God-ordained should therefore be seen as nothing less than the dictates of a controlling and manipulative spirit. Jesus never commanded shunning of one’s family because of their weaknesses. It is self-evidently evil for her - or any other cult leader - to suggest that the relationships of a group of people, no matter how apparently “one in spirit” they may be, are God-ordained replacements for the place that one’s own family should be. While one’s family may not be perfect and may even be clouded by sin and failure, nowhere in the words of Jesus do we see anything remotely resembling the kind of hard-hearted behavior Shamblin's position advocates.

She obscures any clear discerning of this by her rapid fire delivery of snappy, cutting rhetoric (based on half truths that are painful rehearsals of the failings of the Christian Church) that appears to commend her as a straight-talking Bible teacher with a passion for Christian purity. But while she cites Scriptural mandates for upright living continually in an attempt to sound like an orthodox believer passionate for God’s righteousness, her practical and doctrinal focus is coercive and manipulatively cultic and abusive.

Other cults use this same Scripture in the same way to divide families, but in my 22 years of ministry in this field, I’ve seen few more utterly blatant attempts to seem “Christian” in this regard. Her interpretation brazenly passes off external social pressures by “Remnant saints” as the promptings of the Holy Spirit. And her interpretation of Mark 3:33-35 is the plainest evidence of this. Matthew 7:21 and 10:34-39 is also frequently cited by Shamblin in connection with these first two Scriptures. We will cover these later in a future study.

Join us next week as we proceed through the "do Scripture" list studies with our examination of Gwen's twisting of Luke 6:3-6 next week. May these studies enlighten, untwist and establish you in the true faith of Jesus Christ!

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