Shroud of Turin
Is this what Jesus looked like?



We all need hope
    We all need joy
      We all need a song to sing    

When you walk through the storm
Hold your head up high
And don't be afraid of the dark
At the end of the storm
There's a golden sky
And the sweet silver song of the lark

Walk on, through the wind
Walk on, through the rain
Though your dreams be tossed and blown
Walk on, walk on, with hope in your heart
And you'll never walk alone
You'll never walk alone

Walk on, walk on, with hope in your heart
And you'll never walk alone
You'll never walk alone

Bishop Whitlock

Why the controversy

by Bob Shepherd
Cottonwood CA

Brother B. and his Trinity Institute were one of several independent ministries practicing some flavor of what has been called "deliverance pentecostalism." The heart of this approach to old time gospel Christianity was Brother B's stress on "first take the beam out of your own eye." To the degree that he worked healings of mind, body, and soul, the phenomenon of his success can probably be laid at the feet of his having, to a large degree, practiced what he preached.

Few would claim Bishop Whitlock was without flaw or idiosyncrasy. But on the other hand, as one who witnessed first hand his methods, his insights, his reliance on the Holy Ghost, I can say that I for one would be the last to deny the power of God operating through him. His human failings surely were magnified in the course of the "disciplinary" work of intercession. Who among us has not at one time or another chafed under the exposure of this or that none-too-flattering discernment.

On the other hand, the good accomplished is certain to endure, and bear fruit, long after the sting of the "pruner's knife" has healed. It would be wrong to gloss over the "earthen" aspect of the minister's character. In fact, who can say that the very "earthen" or "earthy" side may not have had something to do with the reason God chose to use him.

Yes, countless instruments of God's power may have seemed unlikely choices, disallowed indeed of men, treasures hid in earthen vessels. Bishop Whitlock early on had faced the scorn of men, the judgmentalism of the "respectable," the disdain of the smug, formalistic, "pious" types in their Pharisee churches. We smile when we consider a description of Brother B. as being a teacher whose views were located somewhere between "Jung, Freud, ..... and A. A. Allen."

Indeed, such a description, humorous as it may be, has more than a little truth to it. Brother B. truly was a mix of strands. Like Paul, he was a debtor to Greek and Barbarian, bond and free. But straddling traditions, if that was what he did, somehow earned for him the wrath of those who did not understand, or whose eyes were yet closed to what God was teaching him.

You see, Bishop Whitlock, for all his proverbial antipathy to elitism, to "education" (at least institutionalized erudition), to established privilege -- was truly a scholar of scripture, in his own way. He loved study, valued our ancient biblical heritage, allowed the Holy Ghost to be his Teacher. And thus he in turn had something to teach us. The rejection he suffered may have turned out to be a blessing, for it freed him from false friendship. He somehow made himself willing to be an outcast for God's sake, and in remaining faithful to his calling, took a stand against the prejudice of man. Hebrews 13:13 speaks of our calling to bear the reproach of man, to go to Jesus "without the camp." Does that not include a faithfulness in standing one's ground in the face of prejudice?

Brother B. stood up against the pettiness and prejudice, the lukewarmness and hypocrisy of a "churchianity" that was more social club than instrument for healing and transformation. Perhaps reminiscent of the pre-Christian Essenes, Whitlock "went to Jesus outside the camp," and there he received something real to offer to those who came to him. There is an aphorism that goes, He who would lead men, must first turn his back on them. In a nutshell, I suspect, that principle is the story of Brother Whitlock's power and wisdom.

And so, he taught us: Clean the inside. Most churches tend to focus less on what would really help people, and allow them to coast along, aiming no higher than "to be seen of men." Brother B. focused on rolling up one's sleeves for this world, daring to delve into deep things, those subterranean realms that truly dominate personality.

One young man turned to Brother B. in the late 1960's, burdened with a mountain he felt to be insurmountable. That was the problem of lust. The Bible warns the young man to beware the problem of concupiscence. That pretty woman walkin' down the street may make your heart do flips, but "Lust not after her beauty in thine heart; neither let her take thee with her eyelids." Brother B. did not shun those with tough problems. He did not turn us away just because our affliction was too silly for the good churches, or too 'repugnant' for the hypocrites to handle.

Often times what was needed was less preaching, and more teaching. And Brother B. was, after all, a teacher. I felt that sometimes there were deeper levels of understanding than mere surface meanings. Yet is not the Bible itself a Book with several depths. He who hath ears to hear, let him hear. Literalist dogmatism thus is a slide into error of its own. Rigid and unbending interpretation is bound to fail. Remember Nicodemus. We must be "listeners" in deeper ways than what the churches can allow for. It is the Spirit the quickeneth.

If it is not God's Spirit leading us, we are indeed undone. Karl Jaspers wrote about overcoming the idolatries created by our fettered minds. The problem in philosophy is akin to the difficulty in spirituality. Attempting to shed the particularity of a religiously Christian worldview, Jaspers made an effort to cut through the enigma that philosophy has faced, the challenge of overcoming the illusory identity of subject and object, the mental bondage in which we mistake objects for being itself. Take a look at what Jaspers had to say:
For thousands of years philosophers in China, India, and the West have given utterance to a thought which is everywhere and at all times the same, though diverse in its expression: man can transcend the subject-object dichotomy and achieve a total union of subject and object, in which all objectness vanishes and the I is extinguished. The authentic being opens up to us, leaving behind it as we awaken from our trance a consciousness of profound and inexhaustible meaning. For him who has experienced it, this becoming one is the true awakening, and the awakening to consciousness in the subject-object dichotomy is more in the nature of sleep. Plotinus, the greatest mystical philosopher of the West, writes:

"Often when I awaken to myself from the slumber of the body, I behold a wondrous beauty: I then believe firmly that I belong to a better and higher world, I call forth the most glorious life within me, I have become one with the godhead."

We cannot doubt the existence of mystical experience, nor can we doubt that mystics have always been unable to communicate what is most essential in their experience. The mystic is immersed in the Comprehensive. The communicable partakes of the subject-object dichotomy, and a clear consciousness seeking to penetrate the infinite can never attain the fullness of that source.


Humble thyself in the sight of the Lord
James 4:10

Other resources you may wish to peruse
Some of the Whitlock "scandal" was not really that scandalous
`Tripping` on Jesus: have you tried getting "high" on Him?
Renewal from below: new life for an ailing Christian faith
DARE TO BARE: is your all on the altar of sacrifice laid?
A. A. Allen : a prophetic vision of America's coming judgment
The impact of William Branham : the life & miracles of a prophet of God
Going deeper than surface piety: finding Jesus in the shadows
His chastening rod: none of us is exempt from pain and sorrow
America's love affair with God: discovering the genesis of our faith
Here to help others: overcoming depression with "overcoming faith"

James Baldwin noted:
James Joyce is right about history being a nightmare -
but it may be the nightmare from which no one can awaken.
People are trapped in history and history is trapped in them.

Bob Shepherd in Y2K

 Lord have mercy on a boy
from down in the boondocks

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© 2005 Bob Shepherd
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For more information email :
robtshepherd@hotmail.com



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