#tjd ask

You’re my first ask message! Very cool!

I get what you’re saying, but IBLP is incredibly toxic and the Duggars and Bates are masters at making their lives seem perfect

In the case of IBLP, however, some of the tenets seem downright bizarre: Cabbage Patch Kids are idolatrous, syncopated music is “the antithesis of what God desires in the life of a Christian,” blue jeans are ungodly, circumcised men are morally purer than uncircumcised men. One IBLP article suggests that failing to “render to the Lord” can lead to miscarriage.

From https://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/July-2016/Institute-in-Basic-Life-Principles-Hinsdale/

And this comes straight from the IBLP website:

How does this truth relate to the suffering we experience? Does it mean we are to be thankful when a young mother dies of cancer? Does it mean you should give thanks when you lose your job? Does it mean we should rejoice when a couple suffers the anguish of multiple miscarriages?

Is answered with the following (I quoted some parts):

Thanking God in all things does not mean that we thank God for evil. Rather, we are to thank God in the midst of all things. With their decision to sin, Adam and Eve rejected God’s plan for a life without pain and sorrow, and the curse they received fell on all who have been born since then.

Therefore, as an act of redemption, God is able to take any circumstance that Satan or others intended for evil and redeem it for God’s glory and our good.

God gave Satan permission to afflict Job—within certain limits. In a single day, Job lost 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, and 500 donkeys. On the same day, Job’s seven sons and three daughters were killed when the house in which they were gathered collapsed. When Job was informed of these tragedies, he could have said, “The Lord gave, and Satan has taken away!” Instead, Job declared, “The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21). [...] Job realized that God was sovereign—in control of all things at all times. He knew that God could have prevented this suffering, and Job chose to trust God in the face of this unprecedented onslaught at the hand of Satan.

When Satan tormented the Apostle Paul with a physical infirmity, Paul petitioned God three times, asking God to deliver him from it. However, God chose not to remove Paul’s infirmity, [...] In God’s eyes, the benefits of Paul’s suffering outweighed the cost of it.

As we yield—by faith—to God’s goal of conforming us to the image and the character of His Son Jesus, each circumstance in a believer’s life functions as a tool that can shape him or her into the “exact likeness” of Christ. Even Jesus learned obedience as He yielded to His Father’s will, through suffering: “Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered” (Hebrews 5:8).

From https://iblp.org/questions/can-we-thank-god-all-things

I mean, I get what you’re saying. I really do. But even IBLP’s website likes it to sinners, God giving permission to Satan because the person is not ‘christ-like’ enough. You’re not obedient enough, thus I make you suffer so that you will be. The bible can teach a lot about love and forgiveness, but IBLP has chosen to read it in a context that they see fit and allows them to train obedient children. Many years ago, Michelle lost a child she was carrying and she was treated as a ‘sinner’ for using birth control. It went nearly exactly as IBLP describes it, she was “punished” by God for using birth control, something that should be in the hands of God. She lost her child to get her to be obedient to His word.