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Doug
Coe and The Family
At this writing Netflix put on a documentary called "The Family"
referring to Doug Coe's Christian Organization, at outgrowth of
the International Christian Leadership (ICL). Doug Coe is most
known for his starting the National Prayer Breakfast which US
Presidents have attended since the Eisenhower administration and
have start such prayer breakfasts in other countries. In fact as
the Netflix special shows his organization has had a tremendous
influence in world politics over decades, though largely keeping
his organization under the radar.
My only point here is just to comment on a few aspects of his
ministry philosophy. A few times in the documentary he's preaching
at a conference in 1989, and a number of things he said kind of
struck me as the kind of things I've heard from the Navigators.
Turns out the 1989 conference he was preaching was at the
Navigator headquarters in Colorado. I've been there. I myself came
to Christ through the Navigators in 77. And upon further research
I found Doug Coe had worked with the Navigators almost since its
inception in the 50's.
Much as Coe and the Navigators have been involved in developing
tremendous Christian leaders, I was also disturbed by a sense of
elitism in their ministry philosophy. With Navs it was kind of you
have to be worthy of being discipled. And their focus was simply
to create new Navigator leadership. I and a number of people felt
that we were pushed aside, marginalized, by the leadership as not
being worthy. When I first came to Boston in 81 the Navigators
rejected me from being involved with them.
But Doug Coe takes it to a new level, claiming that Jesus'
ministry philosophy was about influencing secular political
leadership. Yet we read something quite different in the Bible.
Not only did Jesus not seek to befriend secular nor religious
leaders, in fact he so criticized them as to lead to his
crucifixion.
Lk 13:31,32 At that time some
Pharisees came to Jesus and said to him, "Leave this place and
go somewhere else. Herod wants to kill you." He
replied, "Go tell that fox, ‘I will drive out demons
and heal people today and tomorrow, and on the third day I
will reach my goal.’
Mt 23:29-33 Woe
to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites!
You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of
the righteous. And you say, ‘If we had lived in the days
of our forefathers, we would not have taken part with them in
shedding the blood of the prophets.’ So you testify against
yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered
the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of the sin of your
forefathers! "You snakes! You brood of vipers! How
will you escape being condemned to hell?
Yet, as the documentary shows, Coe's organization doesn't speak of
or deal with the sinfulness of political leaders they want to win
over.
In fact other than Paul Jesus chooses simply ordinary men as his
apostles. And even in Paul's case, Paul relinquished his former
credentials to serve Christ.
Php 3:4-8 If anyone else
thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have
more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel,
of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to
the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as
for legalistic righteousness, faultless. But whatever was to
my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is
more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing
greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I
have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I
may gain Christ
Nor was it common for secular leadership or even the rich to come
to Christ.
1Cor 1:26-29 Brothers, think of
what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise
by human standards; not many were influential; not many were
of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world
to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to
shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and
the despised things— and the things that are not— to nullify
the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.
Much as Coe tries to keep his name out of it and keep his
organization secretive, it's not due to humility, but rather as he
explains in the documentary its in order to have greater
influence, likening his group to the origins of Naziism and the
small group and secretive techniques they used to gain influence.
This as opposed to Jesus who said, "I
have spoken openly to the world," Jesus replied. "I always
taught in synagogues or at the temple, where all the Jews come
together. I said nothing in secret." John 18:20
Furthermore to keep his theology as vague and non-specific as
possible so as to cater to all denominational viewpoints and
offend no one, he doesn't use the Bible, but rather uses a book he
developed containing only the gospel and the book of Acts. And
while he claims "Jesus and nothing else", in fact as
you can above he doesn't even hold to the things Jesus said.
Furthermore in many places in the documentary people claim that
everyone is a child of God, which is unBiblical. Even in the
gospel it says, "to all who received
him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to
become children of God" John 1:12 and to
unbelievers Jesus said, "If God were
your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and now am
here. I have not come on my own; but he sent me. Why is my
language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what
I say. You belong to your father, the devil" John
8:42-44
In a utube
video of his 1989 speech, Coe discards the writings of
Peter, Paul and John and says he doesn't quote them nor follow
them. He follows Jesus alone. Yet Jesus spoke the scriptures
through Peter, Paul and John. Paul says, "Paul,
an apostle— sent not from men nor by man, but by Jesus Christ
and God the Father, who raised him from the dead"
and "I want you to know, brothers, that
the gospel I preached is not something that man made up. I did
not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I
received it by revelation from Jesus Christ." and
Paul says, "Follow my example, as I
follow the example of Christ.": 1Cor 11:1 John
says, "We are from God, and whoever
knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not
listen to us" 1John
4:6 But apparently Coe doesn't listen to them and even
discards them from the Bible. What does that tell you?
In that same video Coe equates the Catholic's obsession with Mary
to the non-Catholics "obsession" with Paul. Fact is the two are
not the same. Mary was not an apostle and in fact Jesus criticized
her a great deal and even when she came to take him away from
ministry, Jesus dist her saying, "Who
are my mother and my brothers?" he
asked.
Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and
said, "Here
are
my mother and my brothers! Whoever does God’s will is my
brother and
sister
and mother." Mark 3:31-35 But Paul was
chosen as an apostle of Jesus Christ and what he wrote was
scripture, of which apparently Coe encourages people to disregard.
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