The Sin Of Community Chapel & Bible Training Center
Dear Connections,
I have heard many people talk about the “sin” of Community Chapel & Bible Training Center. I believe, almost exclusively, those who do are referring to physical intimacy and divorce. Though, from unspecified rumors, some excesses did occur, I have no personal experience in this regards. However, for fairness sake, let us just agree that some did not handle Divine Love properly.
Be that as it may, I view the sin of Community Chapel & Bible Training Center quite differently than most. In my considered opinion the sin Don Barnett committed was this:
“Community Chapel & Bible Training Center made marriage an idol before God”
In other words, though God was obviously breaking up earthy marriages He didn’t author, it was Pastor Barnett’s stand that divorce could not, in most cases, be allowed. In fact, the whole “counseling center” was built upon the notion that marriages were sacred and must be preserved at all costs – even at the cost of those who comprised them.
Even when I spoke to former members of the Church of Agape, they perpetuated this notion that divorce was unacceptable and a misuse of Agape Love. Don Barnett, according to reports, never accepted that Barbara Barnett divorced him and still considers her his wife until the day he passed over.
Be careful what you ask for
The leadership and congregation of Community Chapel & Bible Training Center earnestly asked for God to come to them. I remember mass prayer services where people beseeched the Holy Spirit to bless them. However, when God did show up, first in demonic deliverance, then in spiritual connections, many did not like it. What offended most is when marriages started disintegrating and mass divorce began to take place.
To me, standing against the dissolution of earthly marriages, rather than aiding people with their transition from man made contracts into Divine Unions, is the cardinal sin of CC&BTC. Persecuting those God led out of unholy matrimony is what destroyed Community Chapel. When God came to His own, His own received Him not. The “counselors” (which in reality were merely “doctrine enforcers”), opposed God’s will in breaking up earthly marriages He did not ordain.
Even the remnant ultimately failed
Ultimately, according to reports, even the Church of Agape broke up and left the doctrine of connections. I believe this is because they never truly embraced what God was doing in the first place. Even those who stood firm on connections, denied the consequences of Divine Love, which is often Divine Divorce. The fallacy of assuming holy matrimony in every case where a legal marriage existed is what ultimately led to CC&BTC’s destruction. Thus, in the end, when people didn’t allow God to have His way, the Holy Spirit departed.
As usual, the truth in God is quite the opposite of what natural minded people believe. The sin of Community Chapel & Bible Training Center was not its acceptance of spiritual connections, but it’s refusal to accept Divine Divorce. At least, if people had gone the distance with God there would be a remnant left instead of total loss.
God’s Spirit is more important than Bible training
In truth, I don’t know if any others fully embraced the move of the Holy Spirit. I hope there are some who survived the wreckage and journeyed on in Divine Love. If you did, I would like the hear from you. I realize, nowadays, that if we request the presence of God, we must accept however He comes. Basically, CC&BTC was prideful of their revelation, therefore they mistakenly assumed a natural ability to handle anything God did. However, when YHWH came, they were not the chosen, but only poor, blind, and naked – pretty much like all of us.
Sincerely,
Michael
Dear Connections,
I believe that what happened at CC&BTC is a sneak preview of how Christians will persecute the Bride of Christ. The leadership of Community Chapel, due to their staunch belief in the false doctrine of marriage, tried to control spiritual connections to preserve earthly wedding vows. In trying to keep people from following God’s Spirit, those who thought themselves spiritual and enlightened, found themselves in direct opposition the YHWH. In this way, they are no different than the Chief Priest and other religious leaders which advocated for Christ’s crucifixion. God came to them in the form of spiritual connections, and they knew Him not.
Before connections, before people started experiencing Divine Love, those who led Community Chapel & Bible Training Center, believed themselves to be the chosen of God. Don Barnet even fancied our church one of the “wheels within a wheel” from the book of Ezekiel. Though a pastor, he kept sharing visions of himself being of the rank of apostle and prophet. We were more “balanced” in our Bible viewpoints, essentially better than other believers we compared themselves too. Don Barnett was going to correct the excesses of the Latter Rain movement during the coming move of the Spirit.
This just goes to show that it is pretty difficult not to think you are something special when you believe you know more than others. Bible knowledge, especially gained through the natural mind, can make you prideful if you are not very careful. At Chapel we knew enough to act humble, but what we said and how we did things, demonstrated to others that we were pretty full of ourselves.
(Pride is a real danger we must guard against in the Tabernacle movement. As we become one with God there is a lot of profound revelations and experiences we will all have. However, we are not better than others, just blessed. Always remember, compared to what the Rhema truly is, we know practically nothing.)
Most everyone at Chapel accepted the clergy’s viewpoint about being special too. If you didn’t, if you questioned what they were doing or saying too stridently, they threated to disfellowship you. To be sure, sometimes this practice was probably used for good effect, as with a certain ministers son who was seducing his way through the Bible College girls. However, under the stress of spiritual connections it degenerated into a bludgeon used to squash any descent within the church ranks.
Paul said,
“…vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind.”
Colossians 2:18
Essentially, natural minded people, convinced themselves they were very, very spiritual. However, when it came right down to it, not many were. Most chose doctrine over Spirit and paid a very heavy price.
Those who were compromisers then, seem to be compromisers still. Those who were angry and vindictive then, seem to be that way to this day. Those who were puffed up in pride and full of themselves, haven’t changed one iota. Those who walked in integrity then, seem to have kept to that high standard even now. In fact, every time I meet a former Chapelite, they seem to be frozen in time exactly where they left off in that move of the Spirit.
That to me is the real shame of what happened Community Chapel & Bible Training Center. Even if things fell apart, even if there were difficulties in people’s lives, I have not seen many progress further in the Spirit. For me, I did not stay in the place I was when I attended. Eventually, through the grace of God, I got up, forgave myself and others, and journied on with my Father. Though not everything that happen at Chapel was profitable, I learned a lot even from the bad things.
Certain teachers like Russel Mackenzie still have a profound influence on my studies. Lanny Peterson still seems to have a measure of integrity and I respect him. Most students I knew, unfortunately, simply went back to whatever they were doing before they came to chapel. If that was drugs they became addicted again, if they were students, the went a finished their degree and, oddly enough, began to believe in evolution. For myself, instead of school, God told me to work. I did so for the next 10 years until God called me into the apostolic ministry. Now days, I write the Tabernacle Vision which helps put what happened to me and others at Chapel in a more revelatory context.
In the end all the things we did to submit to an unreasonable leadership meant exactly nothing. At the time, when I told them no, they believed I was standing against God. However, that still small voice in me told me He was my defense. Thus, those who claimed to speak for God did not, and I simply did not listen to them. They lost everything, yet, God lead me (and hopefully others) onward to the completion of what our Father began at Chapel. The only difference between them and I, is that I decided to listen to God’s still small voice, even when it diametrically opposed what they wanted. At the time it felt scary to do so, but I am eternally grateful that My Father helped me to stand strong. Without God’s leading and guidance, I don’t think I would have ever gotten clear of the wreckage of Community Chapel & Bible Training Center.
In the end, those we looked up to as holy men and women of God, fought like cats and dogs over the scraps of the churches assets. Frankly, I lost my respect for most of them. At any rate, they don’t matter nowadays and finally the truth of Spiritual Connections is emerging. In the end, nothing they did prevented God’s truth about Divine Love from being realized and that, my friends, gives me a great deal of hope.
God bless,
Michael
Do you believe in polygamy??
Dear Willy,
No, not really. I believe that polygamy is just a bigger, badder form of monogamy. What I do believe in is Divine Mates. A Divine Mate example would be Sarah and Abraham. Having said that, let me say that the number of Divine Mates a man might have, biblically, can vary according the culture and history. Abraham had more than one wife, while Issac had only one, yet his son, Jacob, had four. Yet, all three are currently in heaven with our Lord and thus accepted by Him. So, from that example of scripture, historically it is not the number of wives you have, what matters is if you are with those of God’s choice.
I hope that answers your question.
Big hugs and lots of love,
Michael
I grow up in that church an will know more than anybody on the face of this earth
Hi Richard,
Could you explain a bit more please?
Big hugs and lots of love,
Michael
Very sad. The Seattle times was so full of jealousy and hate that a number of people jumped on the ‘crucify him’ band wagon and the devil and ‘the law’ destroyed a fine church. One of the last if not the last of the true believers place of worship. Sad that one of Americas most cherished constitional freedoms, freedom of speach, should be used to destroy another one, freedom of belief and religion. Shame, shame shame.
Dear Anon,
Thank you for your comment. There were some things about the move of the Spirit at Community Chapel & Bible Training center that were not good. However, overall, it was a true move of God’s Spirit and much more significant than many people realize.
God bless,
Michael
Anonymous,
Sorry my friend – that is just so much hooey (I am being generous as possible). Don and the CCBTC elders were a messed up, deceived lot filled with their egos and pomposity.
And my name is Greg Logan – not going to hide behind anything – the call of God in Christ is far greater than that.
Dear Greg,
I think it good to express our perspectives and opinions on what went on at Chapel with the benefit of hindsight. While there was a lot of ego, especially in the latter part of the break up, I personally believe that what was going on in the bigger picture was a lot more complex and nuanced than that. In my opinion, what took place at Community Chapel and Bible Training Center was no less significant than Azuza Street or the Latter Rain Revival. In fact, it was a continuation of those great moves of the Holy Spirit. Recently, the Toronto Blessing continued the trend towards the perfection of the church in the church age.
Mankind has fallen very far and in order to set things right, we must come out of a lot of darkness. This is not a clean or painless process and requires a great deal of reorientation of our perspectives. It is easy to be dismissive of things when we have suffered personally, but at least for me, I see what took place at CC&BTC as a foretaste of things to come and a warning to the church at large of the cost of resisting God’s will.
Blessings,
Michael
Dear Connections,
I have been thinking about the significance of what took place at Community Chapel & Bible Training Center. In my historical study of connections moves, which have been few in the annals of literature, I believe that this is one of the most significant occurrences in the last few centuries.
The reason I believe this, is that what happened at Chapel is a sneak preview of things to come. To some, this may cause alarm, but to those who have ears to hear and eyes to see, this is good thing indeed.
As far as I can tell, every time that there is a similar move, societal norms break down. Churches crumble, the social order dissolves, and something quite different than what normative people call church emerges. To be sure, some of the outcomes of previous moves like this were disastrous. However, in all of them, we see the beginnings of a restored order being born, something that is closer to what God originally desired from the Garden of Eden.
Essentially, in God’s economy, the real one, not the made up, homogenized, systematize, collated, and categorized one man has made, the church as we know it does not exist. In fact, the religious system is often what the Devil uses to hamper what our Lord really wants to do. Thus, like Chapel, when Jesus comes to his temple, things change and change radically.
What is monumental (in my estimation) about the move of Tabernacles at CC&BTC, is that it was not able to be squashed as so many other such movements were in times past. People, though they have tried their best to muzzle us, utterly failed. Today, this message is going out everywhere, and no one can stop it.
To all those of the counseling center, who tried to stymie the move of His Spirit – you failed. To those who tried to malign what God was doing, you have failed miserably. To the rabid former Chapelites who gnash with their teeth towards those saints that still believe, you have all failed and God has shown the world who you truly are.
For my part, I hold with God and thank Him for what He did at Chapel and I am honored to have been a part of it. No, I do not hold with those who did evil, nor with those who treated their brothers and sister despitefully. However, each of us will give an answer for our actions at the Great White Throne Judgment and not anyone else.
It is coming around again, I see signs of it everywhere. I only hope and pray that when people are confronted with a real YHWH, not just the idol of their imaginations, they will have more humility and less arrogance. Amen.
Michael King