Frequently Asked Questions

Frequent Questions From Our Visitors

On this page we post questions of general interest that have been asked in various forms in the past. These FAQ's are presented here to help you with issues and concerns that are common to many people today in our confusing and crumbling world.

The questions are listed below as links. Click on the little green arrow after the question of interest to locate the answer. Or, simply scroll down the page to review the listed questions and answers. If you can't find the question and answer you are looking for, please send us your question using our Interact page.

Heidi Fapp from Grace Church, San Luis Obispo, CA: "The Creating a Healthy Family workbook helped me to see that I have a new, healthy, functional, godly family. That's Gods Family!" Read the testimony!

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The Questions

1	*Does not the Bible say that we are to fear God, yet your material, Becoming What God Intended, says that everything we do should be out of gratitude?*
2	What, if any, is the relationship between what BWGI Ministries teaches and the 12-step programs offered by AA and other groups? Can they be used together?
3	How practical is this teaching about the Trinity?
4	Why would God need to create the human race?
5	Considering the frequency of miscarriages, why should we be concerned about abortion?
6	Where in the Bible does it say that God is a Trinity?

The Answers

Q:	*Does not the Bible say that we are to fear God, yet your material Becoming What God Intended* says that everything we do should be out of gratitude?**

Most of the modern versions of the Bible translate the word PHOBOS as the word “reverence.” This is because they recognize that two thousand years ago, the word referred to two possible meanings: one referring to the emotion fear, and the other to the attitude of respect. You can see why they often pick the word respect for PHOBOS in different contexts. For example, husbands are told to love their wives (Ephesians 5:28 and 5:33), and the wives are to respect PHOBOS their husbands. It would seem implausible that the husband who is to nurture his wife would want the emotion of fear out of her, especially if he is to love her as his own body. Nobody likes fear so why should a loving husband want that emotion out of his wife?

There is a Greek word DEILIA that means cringing fear, and we can see in the contexts it appears that it refers to the fearful emotion: “For God has not given us a spirit of fear DEILIA, but of power and love and discipline” (2 Tim. 1:7). So if a person has a strong fear of God, that indicates that their destiny may be Hell. For the Apostle John tells us that it is the fearful who end up in the Lake of Fire, “But for the fearful DEILIA and unbelieving . . . will have their part in the Lake of Fire” (Revelation 21:8). We have this advice from Jesus: “Don’t let your heart be troubled or be afraid DEILIA” (John 14:27).

The phrase "the fear of Yahweh" or Jehovah (Proverbs 1:7) in the Old Testament is taken also by modern translators to refer to respect. One way to see this is that the same root from that word is used to describe us in the Book of Psalms as “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14). There it obviously means “worthy of profound respect.”

Therefore, the character that the Spirit of God, the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22), produces is love, joy and peace, and not fear, worthlessness and shame.

Q:	What, if any, is the relationship between what BWGI Ministries teaches and the 12-step programs offered by AA and other groups? Can they be used together?

The twelve-step program of Alcoholics Anonymous is considered to be the most effective recovery program in the world. Extensively used in the United States, it is also found pervasively in alcoholism-riddled countries like the Russia Republic. It has a well-deserved reputation. In fact, AA Recovery has become the model for a huge variety of other programs (recovery from sex to chocolate).

The BWGI approach that emphasizes the Christian Trinity and the Christian’s Identity in Christ is not a substitute for the AA Recovery program. BWGI does have something of great importance for the Christian Recovery movement that can effectively supplement the AA approach.

The Recovery Movement is powerful because it assaults two of the great weapons of addiction: relational isolation (loneliness) and the availability of the great variety of addictions. By placing the addict in a group and supplying a sponsor, the movement assaults the social isolation that addiction creates, and it also does an effective job of restructuring the life so that the opportunities to obtain the addictive material is greatly diminished. Furthermore, it forces the addicted individual to openly and repeatedly confess the addiction, “Hi, I’m Joe; I am an alcoholic.” All of this can be very helpful. The goal of the AA program is the restructuring of the life and of the heart.

BWGI Ministries is particularly dedicated to the restructuring or transformation of the heart. Countless numbers of people have happily shared how the material has been profoundly affecting to them. They have experienced transformation in the inner life. The seminars, books, tapes, video material, and counseling all are directed to that aim.

BWGI trains the heart to:

•	To become a liberated observer of compulsions instead of a slave to them
•	Use the imagination the way God intended
•	Live from the new identity in Christ, and not from the addiction identity
•	Relate to God as a Father instead of remaining isolated
•	Manage moods and desires instead of being drowned by them

Addiction and its behaviors create a powerful compulsive mindset within an atmosphere of anticipation, moods, and self-absorption. The BWGI material is designed to attack that compulsivity by helping the person to create a completely different approach to the inner life. The Recovery Movement restructures the life and relationships and several of the steps deal with the inner life, but BWGI Ministries specializes in helping people with the life of the heart so that the dreadful scourge of compulsion can be nullified and replaced by the Fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, and peace.

A person named Janie, who has struggled with alcohol and prescription drug addiction, described the benefits of the recovery group and the BWGI small group, “I was blessed to be in a bible study group of women to whom I could be honest and open and who held me accountable to dealing with my addiction issues. And I joined a Christian recovery group that I still attend. The third thing was that we joined a small group fellowship where we began studying the Becoming What God Intended workbook. After struggling for about a year, I finally was able to see past my problem with substances and get my focus on being loved by God.” Note that her sense of being loved by God came out of the BWGI material.

She went on to answer why the BWGI material was so important in the recovery process. “Because I felt like such a miserable failure in life, I thought for sure God had turned His back on me . . . Once I got my focus off the sin, I was able to work through a relationship with God. I realized that my identity wasn’t as a substance abuser – it was as a child of God. Then freedom just became a normal progression.”

BWGI Counseling and materials can be a powerful supplement to the Recovery experience! As the Recovery Movement works on reconstructing the life, our materials, small groups, and counselors work on reconstructing the heart.

Q:	How practical is this teaching about the Trinity?

The doctrine of the Trinity is the most practical doctrine in the Bible. It is not for the classroom, but for life. Determining our destiny, the doctrine of the Trinity also determines our everyday happiness. In fact, every believer should be a practical Trinitarian using the relationship with the three persons of the Godhead as the basis of moment by moment Christian living.

In a fatherless world, the practical Trinitarian has a Heavenly Dad. A growing sense of being loved is present, along with a sense of personal security. He regularly experiences the comfort of the Father (2 Corinthians 1:3-5). Emotions, thoughts, problems and difficulties are regularly sorted with this Father (Matthew 6:9-14).

In a chaotic world, the practical Trinitarian has a clear and comforting Identity in Christ (Romans 6:5-6). On a planet without heroes, we have a hero in Jesus Christ. We can experience life the way Jesus did (Philippians 3:8-12); we can look at life through the eyes of the Savior, and are sometimes called upon to participate in the sufferings of the Savior for His Church.

In a world drowning in powerful emotions and compulsive appetites, the practical Trinitarian experiences a tranquil, affectionate, and cheerful life (Galatians 5:22). This person's mind is regularly changed by the Holy Spirit, and regularly discovers new areas of life to be influenced by the Spirit of God (Galatians 5:16). When the Holy Spirit drops a hint, the Trinitarian can pick it up and run with it (Romans 8:14-15). Walking by the Spirit, being Spirit led, and Spirit filled are practical realities.

Throughout the day, the practical Trinitarian is aware of each member of the Trinity. Praying to the Father, assuming his Identity in Christ and the benefits of Christ's life, he experiences the ministry of the Spirit of God. Having learned Trinitarianism through a daily relationship with each person, he does not feel like an orphan in an empty world. Nothing is more practical than this!

Q:	Why would God need to create the human race?

This is a very important question. It is a question that is always addressed in what theologians call “Theology Proper.” Theology proper deals with the nature of God. The issue the theologians discuss is whether God was under a divine necessity to create, or did He have a need to create. Among Christian theologians who respect the Bible, the answer is uniformly, no.

The Bible always presents God creating and acting out of His own desires; no force above Him is coercing Him to act. Revelation 4:11 says, “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to take the glory and honor and power, because you yourself created everything, and they are and were created through your settled desire.” He has done everything through His own desires.

The real question is why did God create humanity? A deeper question is why did God create persons, not just human, but spirit beings, or what we call angels. For all of life the answer is that God has made all for His pleasure, or the joy of creation and fellowship.

But the creation of humanity plays a deep and wondrous place in the work of God’s creation of all intelligent life. Initially, at the creation of Adam and Eve, a reason is given, and it is quite clear in Hebrew, that God said, “Let us make humanity in our image and likeness, in order that they can rule . . . . (Genesis 1:26).” The first expressed purpose was that God wanted the earth to be governed, and he needed a great governor, so He used Himself and the other members of the Trinity as His model.

As we go further into time and into Scripture a deeper reason develops. It shows itself in the book of Job, where Job is used as an illustration to Satan of someone refusing to disavow God in the midst of confusion and pain (Job 2:1-6). The motif of humanity as an object lesson is introduced, and then it is deeply underscored in the Book of Ephesians, where Paul wrote that he was an apostle who was to make known “ . . . the dispensation of the Mystery which had been hidden from the ages by God . . . in order that it should be made known now to the ruling spirits and authorities through the church, the multi-faceted wisdom of God, according to the purpose of the ages which He had made in Christ Jesus our Lord (Ephesians 3:10-11).” A major purpose of humanity is to be used as an object lesson for spirit beings concerning the character and grace of God.

You see, in Scripture there is no salvation or grace for angels; it is only humanity that God has chosen to take hold of and bring out of its sin, only humanity and not spirits... “It is obvious that God does not help angels, but He helps the children of Abraham (Hebrews 2:16).” So it is only the earth and humanity that has experienced grace, and it is only humanity that has been made as physical representations of the divine. That is why Peter says angels are stooping down and looking upon what God is doing on this earth (1 Peter 1:12).

So humanity is a reflection of the divine and an illustration of God’s character and grace. Does that means that we are like the rabbit pulled out of a hat by a magician to impress the crowd? That might be true except for one thing: Christmas and the reality that God has become human so that He might identify with us, suffer with us, and die in our stead. With that all of this ceases to be theatrics and object lessons because God has now entered into suffering and death through Christ. We cannot question the motives of God because it was God who did the sufferings on the Cross. Whenever we get suspicious of God, we need to look at the Cross.

So the answer to the question of why did God need to create humanity is that He did not need to but He wanted to. Out of that desire He used humanity as an illustration to angels and an expression of the most profound kind of love. “For God demonstrated His love (agape: His passionate delight) for us, in that while we were continually sinning Christ died for us (Romans 5:8).” But this was than more than just the work of creative genius; this was His choosing to participate in the suffering of humanity, and initiating the rescue of humanity. God gave His human life for that which He had made. God became flesh and dwelt among us to become one of us and rescue us!

Q:	Considering the frequency of miscarriages, why should we be concerned about abortion?

The first thing to differentiate is that miscarriages and abortions are two different things. An abortion is a human act with the intent to destroy. A miscarriage is a physiological event overseen by a great and loving God. You can see that there’s a twofold difference: first, who it is that’s in charge and second, what their motive is in relating to the individual.

To begin with, I would assert that the developing baby is in fact an individual and not just a science experiment or tissue available for research. In nursing school, I was amazed when we studied the development of the fertilized egg or ovum which develops into an embryo by the third week, and at 8 weeks becomes a fetus. Every necessary primordial tissue necessary for the development of a human is present in the germ layers of the fertilized ovum. Many women don’t even know they’re pregnant within those first three weeks, yet God has made a way for the process of being knit together to proceed in a precise and detailed manner.

The germ layers can be represented by an inner, middle and outer layer of cells. The endoderm (or inner layer) develops into the lining of the respiratory and digestive tracts, the primary tissue for the liver and pancreas, as well as the urethra, bladder and vagina. The mesoderm (or middle layer) develops into the dermis of the skin, the wall of the digestive tract, the kidneys and ureter, reproductive organs, connective tissue, the skeleton, muscles, cardiovascular system, as well as the lymph, spleen and pleura. The ectoderm (or outer layer) develops into the epidermis, sweat glands, sebaceous glands, nails, hair follicles, lens of the eye, the lining of the sinuses and ear, central and peripheral nervous systems, oral glands, tooth enamel, pituitary glands, and mammary glands. (Maternal-Newborn Nursing, 2nd edition, Olds, London, Ladewig)

By the time the baby is called an embryo at 21 days, its shape has elongated and become pear shape with a broad cephalic (head) end and a narrow caudal (bottom). It also has a heart, which begins to beat by day 28. The baby becomes a fetus at 8 weeks, and even though it’s only 1.2 inches long, it will contain every structure that will be present at full-term, including arms, legs, contracting muscles, lips and major organ structures.

What a miracle to see this tiny creation and to know that God has a special purpose and plan for him or her! On the other hand, what a crime to allow doctors to destroy what is innocent and trusting!

When philosophers bring up the argument that it’s ok since God does it, they put mankind on a false level with God, or in other words, they bring God down to a false level with mankind. Is God in fact the “great abortionist” since there are so many miscarriages? Or is there a difference between what God allows to happen and what man chooses to do? The crucial difference between the two is that God is God and we are not!

God is God because His will and purpose come from a much greater heart than ours. Isaiah 55:8 says:

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways.

This is God’s declaration to the wayward Israelites when He urged them to seek Him and to turn from evil so that they might be forgiven and loved. It’s no wonder that He can say that He’s different from them (us)! How can we forgive like He does? It’s easier to get angry and destroy than to work through the day to day process of nurturing and caring. God gives us the great example of nurturing care in the first part of that same chapter where it says:

Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare. (Isaiah 55:1 & 2, NIV)

This passage is echoed in the words of Jesus, hundreds of years later:

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
(Matthew 11:28-30)

The Bible clearly put mankind in a place above the rest of creation when God offered us the opportunity to be a part of His kingdom, even after we had fallen into sin. Whenever we’re suspicious of God, we only have to remember that He gave His son, Jesus, to die a violent death in order to buy us back into the eternal, family relationship that was meant for us.

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23)

How valuable we must be to Him! Even when we were in our sin, He extended His love to us:

But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)

So, if God’s character is love, why are there miscarriages? Why would God allow His “earthly” creation to be incomplete? I came across an interesting fact in Caring for Women Through the Lifecycle by Elaine Weil. According to Hatcher et al (1994), approximately 50% of embryos do not survive the complex fertilization and implantation process that occurs in the first few weeks of pregnancy. The chances of survival increase dramatically to 85% if the embryo survives those first 2 weeks of pregnancy.

There are times when God doesn’t intervene and allows a baby to die because sin is involved. (An example would be in 2 Samuel 12 when the baby of David and Bathsheba died.) There are other times when there is no connection to sin, but a baby is miscarried. We don’t know why, specifically, but we do know that God’s heart of love is trustworthy. He promises to never leave us in our difficulty. He also assures us that our life on earth is not an end in itself, but a journey that brings us to an eternity with Him, and to a hopeful reunion with our loved ones who have accepted His salvation. As for the babies who are miscarried, they are with God since they haven’t yet reached the age of accountability, a principle from Isaiah 7:16.

The second part of the argument is how do we know that mankind should not act as God?

We don’t have to look too far to see our lack of godliness. Every day we witness the inability to forgive, the lack of care some parents show for their children, and the ‘disposable life’ attitude held by many who feel they have the right to take the position of God. This attitude truly shows that we are not capable of acting in the place of God. When mankind can consciously choose wrongdoing, or more specifically, choose to murder the innocent, it shows we have strayed a long way from the heart of God.

It’s sad when people only attribute bad things to God (i.e. miscarriages), instead of remembering that His original intent and ultimate purpose for mankind is to live with Him in a close, intimate relationship.

In Exodus 34:6 &7, God gives a description of Himself to Moses in order to renew him for the task of leading the Israelites, who were very rebellious. Moses saw it from God’s perspective; it wasn’t God’s fault that the Israelites continually chose the wrong way in the face of God’s rescue and care. Moses was so disheartened; he wanted the Israelites to represent God to the other nations, and yet they continuously desired to follow the same course as the Egyptians who rejected God and were separated from His goodness. God encouraged him with these words.

“Then the LORD passed by in front of him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth: who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgressions and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.” (NASB)

This is God’s principle, his lovingkindness overflows to thousands of generations of those who accept His ways and obey Him, whereas his judgment falls on those who reject Him and who teach their children to do the same - but in a much smaller degree, only to the 3rd or 4th generations.

How great our God is; He’s merciful, He gives us so much more than we deserve. What better way for us to honor Him than to trust Him through our difficult moments? When we see that His great intention toward us is love, our thanks and our trust in His judgment are natural responses.

Q:	Where in the Bible does it say that God is a Trinity?

The word "Trinity" does not appear in the Bible. It was derived many centuries ago from the Latin "tri-unos." Let's look at a brief explanation of how the Trinity is derived from the Bible.

First and foremost, the Bible is quite clear that there is only one God. Deuteronomy 6:4 reads, "Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one!" Isaiah 44:6 also reads, "Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel And his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts: 'I am the first and I am the last, And there is no God besides Me.'" Both Christian and Jewish writings in Scripture hold consistent to there only being one God.

With that said, the passage in Genesis 1:26-27 that describes the creation of mankind reveals something interesting about God. The passage reads as follows:

"Then God said, 'Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.'"

Note that the phrase "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness" uses first person plural and the first person plural pronoun. Likewise, God created a pair in his image, male and female. This is an important statement in the Bible which shows that God is not alone. The key aspect of this is that there is a relational element to God, otherwise, he could not have made people who relate to each other.

Moving to the New Testament the Gospel of John is one of many places that links Jesus with the God. The gospel begins as follows:

"In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
He was in the beginning with God.
All things came into being by Him,
and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being."

There are two things note worthy here. First, is that Jesus is the Word (see verse 14), and as such his being is linked to that of God. Secondly, he is also written as the creator of all things. By John's statement it is evident that Jesus was not created. He has also existed forever.

Another passage was written by a man called Paul, who is credited with almost half of the New Testament. He wrote in Colossians 2:6-7, "although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men." Again, Jesus pre-existed his coming as a man.

While there is not as much written about the Holy Spirit, it can still be shown that he is God. First, the Spirit is seen in the initial creation. Genesis 1:2 reads, "And the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters." Before anything else was created the Spirit already existed.

Paul also wrote in Romans 8:26, "the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God." The Spirit is able to communicate to God the Father exactly what is on our heart, even when we have difficulty relating to God.

Lastly, Jesus taught something new with respect to God. He taught about the first person of the trinity being the Father. The Gospel of John makes reference to this over one hundred times. In particular, Jesus referred to the unity of him and the Father in John 10:28-30, "I give eternal life to them, and they shall never perish; and no one shall snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one."