Gloriavale: A Community Run By Wolves in Sheep's Clothing

 

   "Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves." (Matthew 7:15) 

    The West Coast "Christian" community of Gloriavale (located at Lake Haupiri) gets a LOT of coverage in our media here in New Zealand. There are regular reports both in print and on television about it, usually concentrating on people who have left, but also some that concern allegations of sexual abuse in the community (some of which have led to criminal charges and convictions). 

    There have been fresh developments over the weekend. On Saturday (20 March 2021), a most interesting article about Gloriavale appeared on the Stuff Web site. It was written by Amy Wright, and you can read it here. Somewhat unusually for a mainstream media article, it is reasonably well balanced. The article provides a useful overview of Gloriavale's history and also contains a compelling testimony by former member Virginia Courage. In addition, there are some observations by Peter Lineham, a religion expert at Massey University, and Liz Gregory, who runs the Gloriavale Leavers' Support Trust.

    Then the following day, TVNZ's 1 News at 6pm revealed that an independent inquiry has been launched by two Christchurch-based lawyers over allegations of sexual abuse and other matters at Gloriavale. The inquiry has been requested by the Christian Church Community Trust, which administers the day-to-day running of Gloriavale. The 1 News Web site has a written report and video that you can check out here.

    More developments on Monday (22 March): Newshub revealed that a family left Gloriavale after being branded "troublemakers" for raising concerns about sexual abuse in the community's school. (Read the story and watch the accompanying video here). Meanwhile, 1 News hasn't been resting on their laurels. They have obtained information under New Zealand's Official Information Act revealing that since 1998, there have been 17 complaints of abuse at Gloriavale, some physical and some sexual. The Bible requires two or three witnesses to establish the truth of a matter, and here we have 17 different complaints. Only five of the complaints resulted in charges, but that's still more than two or three. Of the five complaints where charges were laid, three have resulted in convictions and the other two still might. It's beginning to look as if this could really blow up big-time. However, the main point of this post is to examine Gloriavale's history, doctrines and practices a little bit, and determine whether it is a "good tree" or a corrupt one. I think the answer to that is already becoming clear, but all the same, let's check them out a bit further.

     On the face of it, Gloriavale might not seem to have that much in common with Destiny Church, which I have written about previously. (Click on the name to go to my post about them.) However, both of these groups have Pentecostal roots and an authoritarian leadership. According to the Stuff article, Neville Cooper, the Australian-born founder of Gloriavale, "was a travelling evangelist who came to New Zealand in the 1960s as Pentecostalism, or the charismatic ‘New Life’ movement, arrived here from the United States. The new life movement focused on spirit-based experiences, such as divine healing and speaking in tongues". One of the problems with Pentecostalism is that it often gives greater weight to experience than the Bible. Just because you have a supernatural experience that is not obviously demonic, that does not mean it was from God. 2 Corinthians 11:14 warns us that "Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light". Meaning that Satan is able to disguise himself to hide his true nature. 1 John 4:1 adds, "Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world". Pentecostals are besotted with signs and wonders, but Jesus Christ tells us that "A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign" (first part of Matthew 16:4). When the Antichrist eventually appears, one of the key ways he will deceive people is with signs and wonders: "Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders" (2 Thessalonians 2:9) As for speaking in tongues, if you read Acts 2, you will see that the tongues spoken were actual human languages, not the meaningless drivel that modern-day Charismatics talk.

    Gloriavale didn't start out on the West Coast, but rather on the opposite side of the South Island in Canterbury. It began when Neville Cooper got involved in the Christchurch Revival Centre, which happened to be running outreach meetings at nearby Rangiora. "Over time, he took control of the Rangiora meetings, eventually leading a split away to establish his own congregation." (Emphasis mine) Notice that Cooper "took control". He wanted to be the top dog. This is not the kind of attitude a servant of Christ should have. 

    "But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant: Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and give his life a ransom for many." (Matthew 20:25-28) 

    "And there was a strife among them, which of them should be accounted the greatest. And he said unto them, The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors. But ye shall not be so: but he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger; and he that is chief, as he that doth serve. For whether is greater, he that sitteth at meat, or he that serveth? but I am among you as he that serveth." (Luke 22:24-27)

    It is clear from the history of Gloriavale, and the testimonies of numerous people who have left it, that Neville Cooper wasn't interested in serving anyone, but rather exercising lordship over his flock - hence why he was quick to take control as soon as he could.

    Cooper's group was originally called "The Christian Church at Springbank" (and notice that Gloriavale's board of trustees is still referred to as "The Christian Church Community Trust"), but was then renamed "The Springbank Christian Community" after two of Cooper's daughters, who had married into a local family, inherited a farm at Cust. The initial commune was established on this farm. A kind of communist system was created as the people living there distributed wealth and food equally among themselves. It did quite well from a material standpoint. As the Stuff article notes, "A school and church was built on the farm and members became self-sufficient, making their own bread, butter and cheese. Animals and crops were farmed and other businesses staffed by members were successfully established." Nothing wrong with any of that in itself.

    The reason for the move to the Lake Haupiri site was simply to do with numbers. More people were joining and babies aplenty were being born (Cooper opposed birth control of any kind), so the community just outgrew its existing location. It took five years for the entire community to move from Cust to Lake Haupiri. The new name Gloriavale was a tribute to Cooper's first wife, Gloria Cooper, who (the Stuff article says) died in 1990. Interesting that they switched from calling themselves a "Christian Community" to naming themselves after the founder's wife. A sign (if somewhat subtle) that like all cults, Gloriavale is based on following men rather than Christ.

    Gloriavale was just as successful (from a purely material perspective) in its new West Coast base as it had been previously. It established farms and a range of flourishing businesses. Again, that's all fine as far as it goes. Despite all this success however, nobody actually had their own money. (After all, without your own money, it's rather more difficult to leave!) Virginia Courage had quite a happy childhood, appearing to have lots of friends and people who cared for her. "It was amazing. We rode horses, we went swimming in the river, it was this untamed West Coast bush. It was great fun." Sounds like her childhood was happier than mine in some respects! This is also similar to the early experiences of Lilia Tarawa, one of Neville Cooper's own granddaughters, who wrote a book about her experiences called Daughter of Gloriavale, which I own but haven't yet read. However, as she grew up, she started becoming more aware of the darker side of Gloriavale (the same is true for Tarawa). "Despite Gloriavale’s claims that all members are equal, special treatment was given to Cooper’s extended family, who were considered ‘high-status’. Cooper’s family always had the best accommodation and perks, such as dental care." (Emphasis mine)

     So when it came to Neville Cooper and his family, suddenly the sin of respecting persons (showing partiality) was being committed on a constant basis. I'm sure Virginia Courage wasn't the only one to notice this, but probably nobody dared question it. The apostle Paul, by contrast, did not expect any special treatment for either him or Titus when they visited the Corinthian church (see 2 Corinthians 12:12-19). The Lord Jesus Christ, who as King of Kings and Lord of Lords was surely entitled to special treatment, never once demanded it, and in fact He often had nowhere to lay His head at night! (See Matthew 8:20 and Luke 9:58.)

    "Because members were taught that their life on earth is not important, they didn’t feel they could question any unfair treatment, Courage says." Our life on this earth is certainly short, but it is far from unimportant. What we do in this life will have a huge impact on our next life in eternity, and indeed where we will spend it. (While we cannot be saved by our works or keep/lose salvation on the basis of our works, our deeds after we are saved will determine our subsequent rewards in heaven - see 1 Corinthians 3:13-15). And the Bible has a LOT to say about treating others fairly. Luke 10:7 for example says that "the labourer is worthy of his hire", which is especially significant with regard to Gloriavale, because they do not pay their workers. So one reason why the community may be doing so well financially is that they don't pay a fair wage. Virginia Courage says that "the machine just never stops. Never stops. They need you to work." Sounds an awful lot like slave labour to me! It reminds me of what Jesus said about the Pharisees in Matthew 23:4, "For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers." (Of course, if Gloriavale members were paid for all the work they do, it would be a little easier for them to leave ...)

    One of the hallmarks of a cult is that its members are tightly controlled. The Bible tells us that "where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty" (2 Corinthians 3:17). It also says that FALSE "brethren" bring people into bondage: "And that because of false brethren unawares brought in, who came in privily to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage" (Galatians 2:4). Gloriavale is a place of such bondage. But as Virginia Courage testifies, its members don't realise the extent to which they are in bondage because they have never known any other life. Some people there are happy, but as she explains, "their happiness is due to their lack of knowledge and experience. There are people in there that are unhappy in ways they don't even realise because they've never been allowed to express it". (Emphasis mine) Very tellingly, she adds, "They don't know any better. They don’t know that they should be allowed freedom and the right to communicate with whom they want, and the right to go where they want in the world and educate their children where they want".

    Titus 2:5, among other things, says that women should be "keepers at home". Not a popular doctrine in this day and age, but God's ideal is for men to work and be the providers of families, and for women to remain at home and look after any children they may have. (This doesn't mean a woman has to be in her house 24/7 - the virtuous woman of Proverbs 31 goes out to buy food, and also engages in business activities like buying fields and selling clothes.) However, Gloriavale does not allow their women to do this! While the women of Gloriavale are expected to have babies on a regular basis, they are not allowed to stay home to look after them. "After giving birth mothers are given about a week to recover, then they are expected to get back to work. The mother will be given a radio to notify her when to return to the child care centre to breastfeed before returning to her job." (Emphasis mine) While there are many working women in the world outside Gloriavale, I'm pretty sure that when they have maternity leave, it lasts a bit longer than just a week! And remember too that these women in Gloriavale are doing unpaid labour. It really is very oppressive. (The Bible has plenty to say on the subject of oppression, including this: "The LORD executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed" (Psalm 103:6). Meaning that the day will come when God judges the leaders of Gloriavale for their oppression of their members, and especially the women.)

    The Stuff article that forms the basis for much of this post takes a break from Virginia Courage's testimony and brings in Massey University religion expert Peter Lineham (who also popped up in the Newshub story I referenced earlier). He notes that Gloriavale's "ready workforce of unpaid labourers" is its most "abundant resource". However, his most interesting observations are these: "Gloriavale has succeeded because it struck the right balance of enjoyment, loyalty, fear and faith [...] Residents are either making the best of the situation they were born into or, if they are unhappy, they lack the financial means to leave anyway. 'No community can last for this long simply by coercion'." (Emphasis mine)

    The article then goes on to reveal that the number of people leaving Gloriavale began to rise sharply after Neville Cooper, who renamed himself Hopeful Christian, died at the age of 92 in 2018. Since his passing, no one leader has taken his place, but instead the community is run by "a group of elders". Virginia Courage is quoted again with another very interesting observation about Cooper/Christian and the current leadership: "Even though Hopeful Christian did have a lot of strange ideas, he did have a lot of charisma. He had a way of manipulating people to make it feel like it was your choice. The other leaders don’t have that ability". (Emphasis mine)

    Many religious cults tend to be cults of personality - they are based around one particularly charismatic individual. (The most infamous political dictatorships operate in much the same fashion.) In fact, any time that you see someone with a "cult following" like a movie star, rock star or whatever, it is usually because they have a highly charismatic personality. And these people often have a way with words, something the Bible touches on in several places:

    "For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them." (Acts 20:29-30)

    "For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple." (Romans 16:18)

    "Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience." (Ephesians 5:6)

     "And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words." (Colossians 2:4)

    "And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not." (2 Peter 2:3)

    "For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error. While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage." (2 Peter 2:18-19)

    "These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men's persons in admiration because of advantage." (Jude 16)

    Neville Cooper aka Hopeful Christian had a devilish ability to beguile his followers with enticing words. Through his good words and fair speeches, he was able to manipulate people as Virginia Courage described. Notice also that the "grievous wolves" described in Acts 20:29-30 are seeking to "draw away disciples after THEM". This is the way of every single cult (including Roman Catholicism, which draws people to the Pope of Rome rather than the Lord Jesus Christ). They are not desiring to convert souls to Christ. Instead, what they want is for people to convert to THEIR LEADER (who usually claims, like the Pope does, to be God's one true representative on Earth). They are, without exception, MAN-centred. A true Christian church is CHRIST-centred. Gloriavale is no different from any other cult. This community has never been about Christ, however much it may include some Biblical doctrines. From the outset, it was all about Neville Cooper aka Hopeful Christian.

    Now, without their founder and his particular gift of manipulation, many of the people at Gloriavale are starting to understand that they are involved in a "corrupt tree" and thus leaving in growing numbers (although there are still plenty left, I think). According to Liz Gregory, 185 people have left Gloriavale since 2013 (so the exodus started even before Cooper died). As quoted in the Stuff article, she says, "Quite a large number have left for their faith – they weren’t allowed to have freedom of belief, and they disagreed with the leaders’ interpretation of the Bible but weren't allowed to challenge or hold any other opinion. They left so they could pursue their Christian faith with a clean conscience." (Emphasis mine)

    In the past, I have seen testimonies by former Gloriavale members in which it was clear that they still held a Christian faith. Whether they are born again, I don't know, but I really hope they are. Perhaps the Holy Spirit within them convicted them about the false doctrines and practices they were being taught. If anyone in Gloriavale has been born again, it is despite the teachings and practices of Neville Cooper and other elders. I think one thing about Gloriavale is that people would have ready access to Bibles, so maybe they are able to do their own study. Of course, there are also some, including Lilia Tarawa who I mentioned earlier, who reject Christianity outright after leaving. While this is understandable due to the counterfeit form of it they have experienced at Gloriavale, it is also desperately sad, and I pray that Lilia and others like her would come to repentance and salvation, and come to know the true liberty offered by Jesus Christ. "If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." (John 8:36)

    Aside from faith, people have also left because they were kicked out, or because there was abuse of some kind (or other evils) that did not get dealt with. (The Newshub story includes a particularly shocking revelation about the attitude of the Gloriavale leadership to abuse - "no worse than stealing an apple" or something along those lines.) Liz Gregory says that the Gloriavale life of "perfect equality", where everybody looks, dresses and acts the same way, and learns to think the same way, doesn't work. (God never intended for everybody to be absolutely uniform - that's why He gave us different appearances, different tastes, different talents and so on.) She says, "It’s a lie that you can live a life of perfect equality – a socialist life. Show me a country where it works – where people are not abused or exploited." (Emphasis, as usual, mine) I could not agree more! Another thing she notes is how difficult it is to leave Gloriavale, and this is not surprising, because all abusive and controlling people - whether they lead cults or just terrorise their own family - want to keep their victims under their thumb. Consequently, they will tell all sorts of lies and play all kinds of devious games to achieve this end. One of the evil things Gloriavale does is to cut people off after they leave. So if you leave Gloriavale, you are no longer allowed any contact with those who are left. As people in abusive relationships also know, there is a price to pay for freedom. But if you can gain it, it's worth it. Liz Gregory says of those who have made it through the anguish of leaving: "One thing in common is they don’t regret leaving, some families have said their biggest regret is not leaving earlier."

    Virginia Courage is one of the former members who left because of her faith. "They want you to be a person that's just going to obey and trust them so that they can tell you what God wants you to do. When you're in there, you genuinely, full-heartedly believe that if you're not inside Gloriavale, you and your children will go to hell. And that is probably the number one fear that traps people in there." (As always, emphasis mine)

    This is a game that virtually every quasi-Christian cult plays (except perhaps those that focus more on hedonism - there are one or two of those around). The Bible says that people go to Hell if they die in unrepentant sin without Christ. But what cults teach is that you need them to avoid Hell, and if you don't belong to them and do all the works they require of you, and obey the teachings of whatever man or woman founded them, you'll go to Hell. Such teaching is assuredly a lie straight from the pit of Hell. Here's the Biblical truth: salvation is only available through Jesus Christ alone. (Acts 4:12) It is a gift of grace - you cannot earn it through works. (Ephesians 2:8) It cannot be found in any one church or group. Any church, group or organisation that says you cannot be saved unless you join them, or that you will lose your salvation if you leave them, is a Satanic counterfeit. A church that is centred on men rather than Christ alone is one to be avoided at all costs. You won't go to Hell just for leaving it, but you will almost certainly lose your soul if you stay.

     The Stuff article wraps up with an overview of Gloriavale's history of sexual abuse (this was published before the latest revelations by 1 News and Newshub). Which brings me to the Scripture at the top at this post. The one that refers to false prophets who appear to be "sheep" (i.e. Christians), but are actually "ravening wolves" (in other words, they have never been saved and they are still doing the lusts of their father the Devil - cf. John 8:44). What is a key characteristic of wolves? THEY ARE PREDATORS! And this predatory behaviour is evident in nearly every wolf in sheep's clothing. Ways in which such wolves prey on people include fleecing them of money (making merchandise of believers through covetousness, such as with "prosperity preaching"), adultery (how many stories have there been of televangelists having affairs?) and worst of all, abuse of children (hello, Roman Catholic Church - but it is frankly rampant in every false church and religion). Well does Peter describe such people: "Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls: an heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children" (2 Peter 2:14) In the eighth verse of his single-chapter book, Jude additionally refers to such wolves as "filthy dreamers" (before they commit their vile acts, they fantasise about them).

     This, then, is why there is so much sexual abuse at Gloriavale. Neville Cooper aka Hopeful Christian was himself convicted of sexually abusing children (specifically, sexual assault), yet was somehow able to continue in his leadership role after he got out of jail. He did those things because he was a wolf - a predator. And Gloriavale is full of similar predatory wolves doing unspeakable things to children. The complaints we know of may turn out to be the tip of the iceberg, but we shall see.

    The Lord Jesus Christ has given us some useful guidelines for spotting the most well-disguised wolf in sheep's clothing: "Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them." (Matthew 7:15-20) 

    You see, no matter how good someone's "sheep" disguise is, if they're a wolf underneath, their fruit will eventually give them away. At this point, it is worth looking at a passage that contrasts the works of the flesh with the fruit of the Holy Spirit:

    "Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law." (Galatians 5:19-23)

    Someone who is a wolf will manifest some or all of the works of the flesh in abundance, with sexual sins very frequently to the fore. A true "sheep" (born-again believer) on the other hand will manifest the fruit of the Spirit. (A wolf might be able to fake a few of the fruits of the Spirit for a while, but even then, those with discernment will be able to see through them, and sooner or later, their true corruption will come out.)

     Of course, another characteristic of false brethren is pride (this is probably the sin that besets mankind more than any other, and is often at the root of many other sins). Those who are born again and have the Holy Spirit learn to be meek like Christ (Matthew 11:29). But those who are lost, and those who just faking it, remain proud in their hearts. Such was Neville Cooper/Hopeful Christian, and this is also how the current leaders of Gloriavale are too. As Virginia Courage rightly observes at the end of the Stuff article, "Pride will be their downfall". Indeed. "Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall." (Proverbs 16:18)

    To conclude, then: Gloriavale is a community that may have some good points (but then most false religions and cults do), but which is ultimately being run by wolves in sheep's clothing. It was founded by such a disguised wolf, and he showed what he really was in the way he controlled his members from very early on and also in how he sexually abused children. The elders running the community now are wolves too, but their "sheep" disguise is not as good as Cooper's, and more and more people in there are waking up, praise God! Needless to say, it is a place to steer well clear of. No Christian should go anywhere near it. If you have managed to escape it, I rejoice for you. I hope that in spite of all the evil you were exposed to in that place that you managed to find Christ and be truly born again, and that He led you out. (Christ is in the business of setting captives free.) If you have rejected Christ because of the horrors and hypocrisy you experienced in Gloriavale, my prayer for you, as someone who knows something of what it's like to be hurt by false Christians, is that you will come to know Jesus Christ as He really is, rather than the false "Christ" that you were taught in Gloriavale. You may be assured that He will judge Neville Cooper and the other leaders of Gloriavale for their wickedness, but you will also face His judgement someday if you do not repent of your own sins. I assure you that to be born again is to know true liberty - liberty from sin (not that we don't have temptations in the flesh still, but there is no longer an enslavement to old lusts), liberty from false doctrines and liberty from false teachers whose end game is to bring people into spiritual bondage - just as they have done at Gloriavale.

 

UPDATE (25/3/21): After a couple of quiet days, there was a new report about Gloriavale in tonight's 1 News at 6pm bulletin. To read a summary of the report and watch the full video item, click here.  A particularly interesting revelation in the TV report (not repeated in the written article) is that 24 people have left Gloriavale in the last two weeks. There are about 600 people at Gloriavale altogether, so that is quite a large chunk to be leaving at once. The main point of the 1 News item though is that the Gloriavale elders are promising "full cooperation" with the NZ Police and Oranga Tamariki (Children and Young Person's Service). Former members however say that they are just saying words people want to hear to try and wriggle out of trouble.

    I have also begun reading Daughter of Gloriavale by Lilia Tarawa. I've only got through the Introduction and first chapter, and already some of the things said by Virginia Courage in the Stuff article are being corroborated, like the way people are manipulated to stay inside Gloriavale because they'll "go to Hell" if they leave.

    Incidentally, one of Gloriavale's errors, an error repeated by a number of cults like the Exclusive Brethren, Branch Davidians and the like, is the belief that separation from the world means getting out of the world altogether to live in a special cloistered community. (You also see this with the Roman Catholic Church, but not all its members, just the monks and nuns.) Paul addressed this error when he wrote to the Corinthian church:

    "I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators: Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then ye must needs go out of the world. But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat." (1 Corinthians 5:9-11)

     So what Paul is saying is that we can't avoid some interaction with the lost. (Indeed, how could we preach the Gospel if we spent all our time cloistered away?) Yet cults like Gloriavale and the Exclusive Brethren pretty well do go out of the world, in a manner of speaking. However, Paul also says that if someone calls himself a Christian, but is indulging in sin like a lost person, then other Christians shouldn't have fellowship with him. This is not the same as "excommunication", though. The Bible makes provision for restoring those who repent of their wicked ways, whereas excommunication or "disfellowshipping" (as the Jehovah's Witnesses like to call it) tends to be a permanent thing with no way back. According to what Paul is saying, the people of Gloriavale should have stopped associating with Neville Cooper since he was a proven fornicator (with children and all!). He was also a railer and extortioner (by the way he verbally abused people and manipulated them into staying under his control).

     Aside from being Biblically wrong, another big problem with cloistered communities is that the people who live in them are much easier to control (because they're only exposed to the narrative of the people running the communities) and such an environment is also ripe for sexual abuse (because there is nobody to complain to except the community elders, who are probably the abusers to begin with).

UPDATE 2 (29/3/21): I have now read two more chapters in Daughter of Gloriavale, which look at Neville Cooper's early life in Australia, how he came to New Zealand and how Gloriavale got started. Again, there is much in these chapters to support what the Stuff article says. It is also manifestly clear just how controlling Cooper was from the time he started out as a travelling evangelist. According to Lilia Tarawa, when in Australia he would try to establish himself in different churches and then move on when it became clear that the congregation and/or pastor of the church was resisting too much. He was also very controlling towards his wife Gloria, who was only sixteen when he married her (I'm not sure how old Cooper was at the time). Lilia Tarawa speaks very highly of Gloria Cooper, saying that she was a very sweet and kind lady, and the model of a meek and submissive wife. That's very commendable, but the Bible never gives husbands permission to take advantage of their wives or act like petty tyrants towards them. Neville Cooper did though. For example, he would be away from Gloria for weeks at a time when he went on evangelising missions. Finding new churches to control was more important to him than spending quality time with his wife and children. He also expected his wife to obey him without question. (While a Christian wife should not seek to dominate her husband or rebel against his authority as head of the home, she has every right to express concerns about something, and if those concerns involve some sin on the husband's part, he needs to repent of that sin in a hurry.) He was not a Godly, humble leader of his home, but an arrogant dictator, and this is what he became at Gloriavale too.

    One very interesting point brought out by Ms Tarawa is that Gloriavale was actually run along very similar lines to the numerous hippie communes that sprang up during the 1960s and 1970s, except for purporting to be Christian rather than anti-establishment or about "free love". And I think the reason is was so like those hippie communes is that it sprang from the same corrupt spiritual root as them. It was just a different branch of the same tree.

    The Bible instructs us, "Learn not the way of the heathen" (Jeremiah 10:2). Before the Israelites entered the Promised Land, they were given this instruction: "When thou art come into the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations". (Deuteronomy 18:9) In other words, the people of God are not meant to copy the ways of the world. For example, we should worship God the way He wants us to, not copy the methods pagans use to worship their gods (Deuteronomy 12 also addresses this). 1 Corinthians 10:21 states plainly, "Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's table, and of the table of devils." But Neville Cooper decided to copy some of the ways of the godless hippie communes when he introduced more open attitudes and practices around sex. He went from excessive prudishness to inappropriate openness. Ms Tarawa reveals some extremely disturbing details about how this all played out. While there was no "free love" at Gloriavale the way there was in the secular hippie communes (in that only married couples were allowed to have sex with each other), there was suddenly a lot of exhibitionism, particularly in front of children (encouraged by Cooper, who reasoned that this would "teach" them). After Gloria Cooper died, Nevill married someone his own age, but when she died, he then married a 17-year-old. However, Gloriavale eventually modified its practices and allowed married couples more privacy after Cooper went to jail for sexually assaulting children aged between 12 and 19. This is how it is in every cult though. Sooner or later, somewhere along the line, sexual perversion starts occurring. And as often as not, it is the children who suffer when it does.

UPDATE 3 (30/3/21): I've read another couple of chapters in Daughter of Gloriavale (so I have now got through five altogether). It continues to be a compelling read. One thing that is clear enough is that Lilia Tarawa had a largely happy childhood (also true of Virginia Courage). The Gloriavale culture is not all bad. That doesn't mean it's a spiritually healthy place (because it's not), just that they're not all living in abject misery. Leaving the leadership (called "Shepherds and Servants", according to this book) aside, most people at Gloriavale seem to get on very well together. Or at least, that has certainly been the case in the past. However, as Virginia Courage has said, some of that happiness is due to a lack of knowledge and experience, and there is unhappiness lurking not far beneath the surface.

    By far the most interesting information to emerge from the fourth and fifth chapters was how the practice of adopting new names came into being. Ms Tarawa reveals that Neville Cooper used to have (or rather, claimed to have) special revelations from God. Now that is a big cult red flag right there. Many cult leaders will claim to have received "revelations from God" that are "new information" which He supposedly wants to give to us. Mormon founder Joseph Smith did this for instance. The reason Mormons call themselves "Latter-Day Saints" is because the information Smith supposedly received from the "angel Moroni" for The Book of Mormon was a "new revelation" for the "latter days". A lot of Pentecostal churches are filled with people who reckon God is telling them all sorts of new things (and remember, Cooper's roots were in Pentecostalism). Sometimes, the "new revelation" might be a "new understanding" of a particular verse or passage. However, the Bible tells us that "no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation" (2 Peter 1:20). It also warns us against adding to Scripture or taking away from it (see Revelation 22:18 and also the very next verse). God is not going to give people revelations that add to Scripture or in any way go against it. Therefore, anybody who claims to have revelation from God that adds to what is already contained in the Bible is a LIAR who has spoken presumptuously: "When a prophet speaketh in the name of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him." (Deuteronomy 18:22) See also Jeremiah 29:8-9. Doubtless some sort of spirit has communicated with these people, but it is NOT God (because again, He would not violate His own laws). And that means God has NOT sent them and they are NOT His "special representatives".

    Anyway, the "new revelation" that Neville Cooper had was that some people in the Bible changed their names (like Abram becoming Abraham in the Old Testament, or Saul becoming Paul in the New Testament), therefore it was "God's will" that the members of Gloriavale should change their names from their "worldly" given names to new "Christian" names that represented their new life in the community. 

    While it is true that some people in the Bible changed their names, there were many others who did not. For example, Moses and David never changed their names. Samson was never called anything other than Samson. Most of Christ's disciples kept their original names. So it would be just as possible to argue the other way that people should keep their names. Most crucially of all though, there is no commandment anywhere in the Scriptures that requires a new believer in Christ to take a new name. So what Neville Cooper did was to go BEYOND the Bible and create a new and completely man-made rule. And like his other man-made rules, the goal was control of his members. By the time you can persuade someone to change their name, which is quite central to their identity, you've really got a lot of sway over them. But Lilia's own parents resisted for a while. Cooper accused them of "the sin of pride", which is hilarious given how full of pride he was! Moreover, this accusation was really code for "Stop resisting my control and fall into line like everyone else!". The real issue in this instance was not their pride, but their audacious refusal to submit to Cooper's ungodly control. In the end, they complied, although they carefully chose names that were not too unusual.

    One last observation I'd like to make on these chapters is that Ms Tarawa says her parents took a "common sense" approach to Bible interpretation, which was to interpret it figuratively rather than literally. It is important to bear in mind that Lilia Tarawa is not a born-again Christian, so her theology is naturally going to be faulty, and this is one example of that. Neville Cooper actually DID NOT take the Bible literally when he imposed his rule about adopting new names. He noticed that some people in the Bible changed their names, and ASSUMED that God would be pleased with this. But he completely ignored the fact that numerous other people in the Bible never changed their names at all! And as I said above, he made a rule that is simply not in the Bible. Therefore, he went outside the bounds of Scripture. Moreover, he used very poor logic, which went something like this: "Some of God's people in the Bible changed their names, therefore all Christians (as defined by Cooper) should change their names". If you want to use that type of logic to make up new rules, you could create all kinds of daft commandments. For instance, "Some of God's people in the Bible were polygamists, therefore all Christians should practise polygamy" (I think Joseph Smith was a believer in that particular fallacy). Not everything done by Godly men and women in the Bible is meant to be copied by believers today. There are many lessons to be learned from their words and actions, but some of those lessons are negative as well as positive. And sometimes a command that God gave to someone was just meant for that person. For example, when He commanded Abram to leave his country and most of his family in Genesis 12:1, that obviously doesn't mean that all Christians should pack up and move somewhere else. Likewise, when God gave someone a new name (like renaming Abram to Abraham), it was just for that person and not something to be copied by all Christians today.

    Getting back to literal vs. figurative interpretation, the Bible SHOULD actually be interpreted literally where a literal meaning is clearly intended. However, where the language being used is OBVIOUSLY figurative, then a figurative interpretation of that specific Scripture is fine. In addition to that though, we should not take verses in isolation. There are many individual Scriptures that could have all sorts of strange meanings if read in isolation (in other words, if "private interpretation" is applied to them), but there are always other Scriptures that will cancel out the wrong interpretation. Paul declared, "For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God." (Acts 20:27) We need to pay heed to the ENTIRE Bible and use it when interpreting specific Scriptures. I might add that some false teachers like to claim "figurative" meanings of verses whose literal meaning they don't like. So always interpreting the Bible figuratively is not "common sense" at all. It is rather a very dangerous road to deception. In fact, a simple understanding of the quite literal fact that not everyone in the Bible changed their names, and moreover that the Bible never commands believers to change their names today, would have shot down Neville Cooper's "revelation" in a flaming heap and the people of Gloriavale might still have their birth names.

UPDATE 4 (30/3/21): I've just read the sixth chapter in Daughter of Gloriavale. The main focus of this chapter is an account of how Neville Cooper publicly humiliated Lilia Tarawa over her first school report at the community dinner. The issue was not her grades, which were excellent. Nor was the problem her general character, which was also praised quite highly. Instead, Cooper took umbrage at the fact Lilia's teacher had written that she showed good leadership qualities. He proceeded to make some quite extraordinary leaps of logic as he accused Lilia (who was about seven at the time I think) of being a budding Women's Libber who desired to be like a man and control men when she grew up. Lilia and her parents were quite understandably shocked and upset at this tirade.

    The first observation I want to make here is that one thing I have learned about abusers over the years is that they frequently find fault over the most absurd things. Their aim in doing this is to keep you on the defensive and under their control. Neville Cooper was a controlling and abusive man, and his appalling verbal assault on Lilia, as described in this chapter, is an example of unreasonable fault-finding. Instead of praising her for her good grades and good behaviour, he found one thing that he didn't like and attacked her over that. And his basis for the attack, like many of his so-called "revelations", was extremely bad logic. A little girl who happens to show good leadership qualities is not a budding feminist or Women's Libber. At that age, she wouldn't even know what those things are! It did not seem to occur to Cooper that perhaps Lilia's teacher was thinking she might be a good leader among the WOMEN of Gloriavale. Indeed, at the end of the chapter, one of Lilia's favourite aunts told her she would make a great team leader some day (Gloriavale members are divided up into "teams" who take care of specific tasks - there are "teams" of men and other "teams" of women).

    A second observation is that Cooper again went beyond what the Bible teaches. One of the core tenets of Gloriavale (something it has in common with a number of cults and false religions) is that women should be subject to men. The Bible does NOT teach this. It DOES teach that wives should submit to their husbands and that women should not hold positions of authority in churches. (You never see female preachers or elders in New Testament churches.) However, this is not the same as women submitting to men generally. A married Christian woman may be commanded to submit to her husband, but she is NOT required by Scripture to submit to other men! Moreover, submission is something that should be WILLING. It should NEVER be coerced. (I might add that the Bible has plenty to say to men on how they should treat their wives - Neville Cooper seemed to ignore most of that.) Just as our submission to God should be willing and not done as a result of any force. But Neville Cooper forced the women of Gloriavale to submit to men by constraint. That is wicked and ungodly (two words Cooper himself was fond of using).

    Finally, some of the things Cooper said about the Women's Liberation movement had some validity. There is much that is evil about Women's Liberation and feminism generally. Many women involved in these movements clearly want to control and dominate men. They want to go far beyond mere "equality". They hate the authority of God, and the authority He has given to men in certain areas, and rebel against it. A woman who wants to have power over men for the purposes of domination and control is every bit as wicked in the eyes of God as a man who wants to control and dominate women. However, Cooper's rants against Women's Lib had an ulterior motive - they were all part of his own game of maintaining control over the Gloriavale community, and especially power over women. And as I said above, to accuse Lilia Tarawa of being a "wannabe Women's Libber" because her teacher praised her leadership abilities was just absurd, and moreover utterly unjust.

 

UPDATE 5 (1/4/21): The seventh chapter in Daughter of Gloriavale wasn't quite as interesting (for me personally), mainly describing day-to-day life, especially for the women. One thing I noted is that the women all tend to bond and get on very well together, and while that is a good thing in many respects, any woman who wants to leave Gloriavale would have to sacrifice those close friendships. (No doubt the men also form friendships, and they too would face that same loss.) That is one of the factors that keeps any "doubters" in there.

    However, the most significant detail in this chapter is that marriages in Gloriavale are arranged (I think this is common knowledge in any case). Now, arranged marriages are not necessarily a bad thing in themselves. Many have ended up being quite happy. Others have not. But the same is true for marriages based solely on emotional attachment. Some marriages in the Bible were arranged, although others were not. There is a popular TV show called Married at First Sight (the Australian version is currently screening here - I don't watch it, but my dad does and often talks to me about it, and I have followed one or two past series) which is based on the arranged marriage concept (the "marriages" on the show are not legal, but they are still arranged by the show's "experts" as a sort of social experiment). However, Neville Cooper had one or two novel ideas on this subject. For example, he believed girls were ready to marry as soon as they had their first period (meaning, disturbingly, that he was quite happy for girls to be married at age 12 or 13, or perhaps even younger). But he begrudgingly complied with New Zealand law in this area, so Gloriavale girls couldn't marry until they were 16 (the same age, incidentally, that Cooper's first wife Gloria was when he married her). Also, it seems that the Gloriavale leadership, and not the parents of a prospective couple, and certainly not the bride-to-be, had the final say in who married whom. Lilia Tarawa reports on one arranged marriage that involved a cousin of hers. When it was announced, she couldn't understand how a sweet girl like her cousin could have been paired with a rough and awkward boy like the husband who had been chosen for her. I suspect the Gloriavale leadership saw that boy as someone who would keep his wife in line (as per Cooper's beliefs), and that may have been the primary criterion when the elders made their match. Having said that, they probably couldn't do too much worse a job of matchmaking than the so-called "experts" on Married at First Sight! (Perhaps they should consider a Gloriavale edition?)

UPDATE 6 (2/4/21): I did quite well and managed to read three chapters in Daughter of Gloriavale in one sitting! (I only have so much time in a day for leisurely reading; I could quite happily spend several hours at once on this book.) The first of these (and the eighth overall) gave a fascinating account of the wedding between Lilia's cousin (called Joanna) and the man picked out for her (whose name was Loyal - I wonder if his parents had ever heard a certain Dave Dobbyn song?). I'm just going to highlight a couple of things. Firstly, as I suspected, it was indeed the Gloriavale leadership who decided on this match. Within that community, the will of the leadership is put on a par with the will of God. Because the leadership represents "God's will", disobeying them means disobeying God (a classic tactic used by numerous cults). The other thing that stood out is that after they were pronounced husband and wife, the new couple had what amounted to a rather intense make-out session. So rather than just a quick kiss as might normally occur at a wedding, they had a full-on pash, as our friends across the Tasman might say. Ms Tarawa mentions one or two details, but I'll spare you those. Suffice it to say, this was (and probably still is) fully encouraged at Gloriavale weddings. This is frankly contrary to the Scripture that says, "Let all things be done decently and in order". (1 Corinthians 14:40) Also, the couple was required to consummate their marriage between the ceremony and the reception (there are documentaries about Gloriavale that also confirm this practice). They at least had privacy for that.

    The ninth chapter contains more details about how the women at Gloriavale live, and the way they are organised into different teams. A key point in this chapter (which was also touched on in the previous one) is that according to Gloriavale belief, women are made to serve men. A revealing anecdote illustrating this is that Neville Cooper got angry when he saw men reheating their meals in microwaves if they had returned home late from work (thereby missing the evening meal). He insisted that this should always be the women's job, and too bad if they had other things to do by then like settling their children down for the night.

    Now I think I have already made this point, but I want to particularly stress it here: the Bible does NOT say that women are made to serve men! God has not created women to be slaves to men (for once, I am in agreement with the feminists - at least, on this one point). In actual fact, what God wants for those of us who are born-again believers is to serve each other. "For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another." (Galatians 5:13) ALL of us, men and women alike, are to have a servant mindset. Whether we are in powerful positions of authority or have a more lowly station in life, we should endeavour to serve each other in whatever way we reasonably can. The Lord Jesus Christ Himself behaved as a servant while on the earth. He even washed his disciples' feet once, which was about the grubbiest job someone could do in those days! And He never treated women as beneath Him. Some women served Him when He visited them, but that was normal hospitality and He never demanded it and certainly never treated them as inferiors. What is more, the first person to see Jesus after His resurrection was a woman - Mary Magdalene! (Read about it in John 20.)

    Let's read a few more Scriptures about how Christians of BOTH genders ought to serve each other, then I'll wrap up this update with a little look at the tenth chapter.

   
    "But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant: Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and give his life a ransom for many." (Matthew 20:25-28) 

    "And there was a strife among them, which of them should be accounted the greatest. And he said unto them, The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors. But ye shall not be so: but he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger; and he that is chief, as he that doth serve. For whether is greater, he that sitteth at meat, or he that serveth? but I am among you as he that serveth." (Luke 22:24-27) 

    "If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet." (John 13:14)

    "For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake." (2 Corinthians 4:5)

     "Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves." (Philippians 2:3)

    If we esteem others better than ourselves, we will serve them in Christian love rather than demand service from them. Incidentally, the word "Gentiles" is often used to mean unbelievers, and that is the case in those first two quotes. So exercising dominion or lordship over others (e.g. men expecting women to serve them) is a behaviour of the unsaved. If our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, is willing to perform the meanest tasks in the service of others, then no Christian, whether male or female, should consider themselves above such things.

    Anyway, the tenth chapter mainly covers a period when a Hutterite family spent some time at Gloriavale. The Hutterites are very similar to the Amish and Mennonites in that they like to live simply and wear odd clothes. However, despite copying Gloriavale's uniform from the Hutterites, Neville Cooper railed against them because they believed a little differently to him. Lilia Tarawa notes that unless a church or community believed EXACTLY as Cooper did, it was not of God in his eyes. This is again typical of cults. The Word of God matters to them far less than their rules.

    While women at Gloriavale are subject to all sorts of oppressive rules and restrictions, the men have a few strange rules of their own to endure, one of which is a prohibition on growing beards! Apparently, Cooper regarded beards as scruffy and thereby "worldly". But the Lord Jesus Christ had a beard (Isaiah 50:6). King David, Ezra and Ezekiel were three other men in the Bible with beards, and from other references in the Word of God to beards, they were a pretty normal thing for men to have. There is no commandment in Scripture forbidding men to grow beards. (Nor is there one that says you have to grow one - this is a matter of personal liberty.) So as he did on numerous other occasions, Neville Cooper went outside the bounds of Scripture to make up a rule that was completely unreasonable and unnecessary.

    However, one thing Cooper (sort of) had right was an insistence on using the King James Bible. He understood the problems with modern translations omitting and changing verses, and observed quite correctly that some people like to change the Word of God to suit themselves rather than changing themselves to suit the Word of God. However, in saying that, he was really judging himself, because that's exactly what he did when he made up most of his rules! He changed (by twisting Scriptures), or completely ignored, the Word of God. I would also like to say at this juncture that while you are better off using the KJV than a modern translation, what ultimately matters is not what Bible version you use (although that is quite important), but whether you are born again in Christ. A person who has been born again but happens to use, say, a New International Version is in a far better state than a lost person who uses the King James Version. Sadly, Neville Cooper was lost and so his preference for the KJV, while commendable, was ultimately in vain. But perhaps some individual members at Gloriavale have been able to study it for themselves and maybe even been born again as a result of God granting them proper understanding of their lost condition and repentance. I really do hope so.

    Anyway, this Hutterite family actually joined Gloriavale for a while, but then left because they found it too oppressive. Of course, the Gloriavale leadership tried to pressure them into staying, but eventually caved when the father of the family threatened to call the police. Cults don't like to make it easy for people to leave. However, when people abandoned Jesus, He let them go:

    "From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him. Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away?" (John 6:66-67)

    So not only does Jesus let the disciples who want to leave Him simply go, He even turns to His twelve main disciples and asks them if they would like to leave as well! In this moment, the Lord is making it clear to His disciples that they are not under any sort of constraint to stay with Him. However, they do choose to remain. But they are with Jesus because they want to be, not because they're forced to be. And the others who did not want to walk with Jesus anymore were free to go. Cults however will always try to coerce or manipulate you into staying with them. When they're trying to lure you in, they generally show their nice side. But try to leave, and you'll see them in their true devilish colours.

    One last thing is that Gloriavale's definition of repentance is not the Bible's. In the Bible, repentance means to be grieved in your heart and have godly sorrow towards God for the sins you have committed against Him. But in Gloriavale, repentance means seeing the supposed error of your ways and returning to submit yourself to their leaders once again. Biblical repentance leads to Jesus Christ saving your soul when you believe on Him. A cult's repentance means going back under the yoke of bondage you had managed to escape. If the Lord Jesus Christ has set you free, you don't need to go anywhere near that wicked place again: "Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage." (Galatians 5:1)

UPDATE 7 (3/4/21): I've read two more chapters in Daughter of Gloriavale. The eleventh one concentrates on Lilia Tarawa's baptism, and one thing becomes crystal clear: Gloriavale believes in baptismal regeneration. Let me speak very plainly here: baptismal regeneration is DAMNABLE HERESY! Many cults teach this heresy, including the Roman Catholic Church, Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Church of Christ and so on. It is damnable because baptism does not save anybody. It is rather a symbol of the new birth and new life in Christ. Another reason it is damnable is because if you could be saved by baptism, that would mean you could be saved by works. Baptism is clearly a work. Now, after a person is saved, their good works (including being baptised) become evidence of their salvation. But when you are still lost, no amount of works can get you saved. Only a repentant heart, belief on the Lord Jesus Christ and God's wonderful grace are your hope. "Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus" (Romans 3:24) "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast." (Ephesians 2:8-9) Notice that if any works could save us, we could brag about it, and indeed Lilia reports feeling very proud after she had been baptised (because she believed she now had a free ticket to Heaven). But God absolutely hates pride: "But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble." (James 4:6)

    Gloriavale's leadership falsely claims that the water of baptism washes away a person's sins (again, they have this in common with others who teach this gross heresy). However, the Bible makes it clear that it is the blood of Christ, which He shed on the cross, that washes away our sins: "Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him." (Romans 5:9) "In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace" (Ephesians 1:7) "In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins" (Colossians 1:14) "Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us." (Hebrews 9:12) "And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission." (Hebrews 9:22) "But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin." (1 John 1:7) "And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood." (Revelation 1:5)

    Some modern Bible versions replace or omit the word "blood" in some verses (Colossians 1:14 in particular). However, the Gloriavale leadership reject modern versions and use the King James Bible, so they are well and truly without excuse. Incidentally, Jesus Christ was without sin, so if baptism could save, why did He undergo it? The fact that the Lord Himself was baptised shows the utter absurdity of baptismal regeneration.

    Lilia Tarawa also records that she had to have numerous meetings with the leaders before she could be baptised. This too is completely un-Biblical. Where the Bible records baptism, it usually happened very soon after a person had been saved (or there was clear evidence they were saved). She only mentions her first meeting, but recollects one of the elders who assessed her speaking in tongues. He spoke in the nonsensical gibberish that permeates Pentecostal and Charismatic churches everywhere, and Lilia was understandably nonplussed. (This again points to Neville Cooper's Pentecostal roots.)

    The next chapter is quite a sad one, as it records Lilia's older sister Sara rebelling and eventually running away in secret one night. The reason was that Sara could not stand all the ridiculous rules that were imposed on her with increasing severity. For example, wearing sunglasses was frowned upon. Another "sin" was not tucking your hat in at the correct angle, or rolling up sleeves on a hot day. It reminds me of the Pharisees whom Jesus rebuked for similar behaviours: "For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers." (Matthew 23:4) "Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel." (Matthew 23:24) "He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, this people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do. And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition." (Mark 7:6-9)

    Gloriavale's petty rules are heavy burdens and grievous to be borne. They constitute so much straining at gnats. Moreover, they are against the commandments of God, and are rather traditions of men. Over and over again, Gloriavale keep establishing their own MAN-MADE traditions and rules. Do they really think God is going to be angry with people for wanting to protect their eyes from the sunlight by wearing sunglasses? Do they truly believe that God cares more about silly rules than treating people decently? Read Luke 6:1-11 to see how Jesus responded to people who put rules over real human needs. He would strongly rebuke the Gloriavale leaders for their foolish man-made traditions and rules. He would also reprove them for the lack of compassion a number of them showed to Lilia's parents (and Lilia herself) when they mourned the loss of Sara, supposing her to be lost for all eternity because she had left "the one true church" (it's amazing the prideful attitude of these cults that fondly imagine themselves to be the "only true church", from the Roman Catholic Church on down). These people (the leaders, and many of those in the community with leadership ambitions) are wholly devoid of Christian charity, which makes them about as much use as a tinkling cymbal (see 1 Corinthians 13:1, and the next few verses are well worth reading too).

UPDATE 8 (5/4/21): After taking a break for a day, I have read another three chapters in Daughter of Gloriavale today. Two of these chapters contain interesting stories related to Lilia stealing things (funny how her baptism didn't seem to change her heart!), while the other had a couple of horrendous accounts of physical abuse (which Lilia witnessed - she did not experience it herself).

    The first chapter (13th overall) touched on the subject of fasting. One of the ways in which Gloriavale oppresses its members is by forcing them to fast for lengthy periods of time. During these fasts, they tend to be restricted to just eating rice. (At least, that was the case when Lilia was there; I don't know whether that's their current practice.) Now, fasting has a place in the Christian life. In fact, it is a form of spiritual warfare (see Matthew 17:21 and Mark 9:29). However, the Bible gives no commandments on how often Christians should fast, or how long they should fast for. These things are a matter of personal liberty. Someone might decide to fast for three days. Someone else might decide to fast for a week. Another person might fast for a whole month. However long a person decides to fast, that is between them and God. But no one should ever be constrained to fast. (This is one reason why Lent is wrong - it constrains you to fast, although most people just give up something minor, so it's a meaningless exercise anyway.) Gloriavale is absolutely wrong to force fasting on its members. Moreover, the motives for the fasting were often self-centred. For instance, Neville Cooper often introduced a fasting period so that a particular Gloriavale business might make more money. He would take the money that might normally be spent on food for the community and transfer it to a business that needed it. In other words, as often as not, the fasting that Gloriavale members did was forced on them because of Neville Cooper's lust for more money. "For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows." (1 Timothy 6:10)

    In desperation to get a bit of extra sustenance during fasting periods, some people in Gloriavale, particularly younger members more inclined to rebellion, would purloin a bit of extra food. Eventually, Neville Cooper would get wind of this and hold "revivals" at which the "sinners" would have to confess in front of everybody. Lilia reveals that she confessed out of fear of losing her salvation. So not only does Gloriavale teach works salvation, it also teaches you have to do more works to stay saved - another doctrine of devils and damnable heresy of theirs. Confessing sins to other people to be cleansed, instead of confessing them directly to God, is yet more heresy on Gloriavale's part.

    In the next chapter, Lilia recounts a visit to Greymouth for a dental checkup. Afterwards, she visited the Grey District Library, where she discovered the forbidden pleasure of romance novels. She found a novel that particularly appealed to her and spent most of her time in the library reading it. But eventually, it was time for her to leave. So enthralling did she find the novel though that she wanted to keep reading. But she had no option but to leave with the others. So she decided to steal the book. (Now, Gloriavale's many daft rules notwithstanding, she transgressed God's law here by directly violating the commandment against stealing, and the Bible defines sin as the transgression of the law - see 1 John 3:4.) She succeeded in smuggling the book into Gloriavale and reading more of it, but was eventually discovered by her older brother Sam. He proceeded to pass hypocritical judgment on Lilia (because he himself broke a lot of rules) and reported her to their mother. Lilia's mother scolded her and confiscated the book (so Lilia never got to finish it), but did not report her to the elders (which the rules said she should do). So Lilia was spared far worse punishment, but I think her mother did the right thing. It's not like she let Lilia off scot-free, because she gave her a scolding and took the stolen item off her. So some justice was done. But she did protect her daughter from the over-the-top punishments that Neville Cooper and the Gloriavale leadership liked to dish out, supposedly to "cleanse" people, but in reality just to exercise ungodly lordship over them.

    Finally, in the 15th chapter, two quite horrific incidents of physical abuse are recorded. Gloriavale encouraged parents to severely beat their children and actually castigated parents (like Lilia's) who went easier on wayward children. There are several passages in the Bible (all found in the book of Proverbs) about the physical discipline of children. Here they are:

    "He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes." (Proverbs 13:24)

     "Chasten thy son while there is hope, and let not thy soul spare for his crying." (Proverbs 19:18)

    "Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him." (Proverbs 22:15)

    "Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die. Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell." (Proverbs 23:13-14)

     "The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame." (Proverbs 29:15)

    Now a parent's chastisement of a child is intended to be a reflection of God's own chastening of His children:

    "Thou shalt also consider in thine heart, that, as a man chasteneth his son, so the LORD thy God chasteneth thee." (Deuteronomy 8:5)

    "Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty" (Job 5:17)

    "Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O LORD, and teachest him out of thy law" (Psalm 94:12)

    "My son, despise not the chastening of the LORD; neither be weary of his correction: For whom the LORD loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth." (Proverbs 3:11-12)

    "Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby." (Hebrews 12:11)

    The word "betimes" means quickly or soon. So if a child misbehaves, correction needs to swiftly follow. A child who is not disciplined at all will grow up into a spoiled, entitled adult. Some people misunderstand "let not thy soul spare for his crying" to mean that a child should be hit mercilessly, but having grown up in a time when spanking was still socially acceptable, I can tell you that sometimes crying can start before the first smack has even been given! Like many adults, children often know how to turn on tears for emotional manipulation. In other words, they try to guilt-trip their parents into letting them off. (However, I think most parents can tell when a child is genuinely distressed and when they're just putting it on.) So I believe that is what is really being addressed here. (I'm open to correction on that though.) Notice that foolishness is bound up in a child's heart (I certainly had a lot of foolishness in my heart as a child!). One of the purposes of discipline is to correct that foolishness. Proper discipline, when done the way God intends, should make a child wise. An undisciplined child will remain in a foolish state and bring his mother to shame (often in adulthood). And like God's own discipline, it should yield the peaceable fruit of righteousness, even though it may seem grievous in the moment.

     In today's modern society, the word "beat" has taken on unfortunate connotations of excessive violence towards children. When you think of a "beaten" child today, you probably picture a child covered in bruises all over (and that is certainly not godly discipline in any way!). However, in the days when the King James Bible was translated, the word "beat" was somewhat closer in meaning to our modern word "spank". Here is the definition from the 1828 Webster's Dictionary (which is a good resource for KJV words):

    "To strike repeatedly; to lay on repeated blows, with a stick, with the hand or fist, or with any instrument, and for any cause, just or unjust, or for punishment." 

    That is actually quite broad, but the Bible says to use a rod (a modern "rod" could be a wooden spoon, ruler or paddle), which would rule out use of a hand, and certainly of a fist. (Striking a child with a fist is obviously NEVER, EVER OK!) And of course, there should be a just cause for such a punishment. Incidentally, this is how the Webster's Dictionary defines "spank":

     "To strike with the open hand; to slap"

    Most modern dictionaries also define spanking as striking with the open palm, either once or several times for the purpose of a punishment. The Bible clearly favours use of a rod over the open hand, but that aside, God most definitely does NOT want parents beating their children black and blue! That is not going to produce wisdom or righteousness in anybody. But as Lilia Tarawa shows, what happens at Gloriavale goes far beyond what God intends.

    In the first case of abuse she reports, a teacher assaults a student with punches and kicks. Now notwithstanding that the student was being quite defiant and disobedient (thereby meriting some sort of discipline), this was a completely unacceptable response on the teacher's part. It was not Biblical discipline. It was not any kind of legitimate correction. What that teacher did, plain and simple, was commit a criminal assault. But the Gloriavale leaders did not punish him in the slightest for his actions. "How long will ye judge unjustly, and accept the persons of the wicked? Selah." (Psalm 82:2) "He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination to the LORD." (Proverbs 17:15) By not taking any action against that vicious teacher, the Gloriavale leaders judged unjustly and justified a wicked person, and God finds that abominable.

     In the other case, a father dragged his son into a schoolroom and proceeded to give him a severe strapping in front of the entire class. That was not quite the worst of it though. He also took his son's pants down to expose his buttocks! (Lilia, to her credit, refused to look out of respect for the poor boy.) Once again, this was totally out of order. Aside from it being grossly excessive, the Bible does not command discipline to be carried out in front of others. It should be a private matter between parent and child. And I want to you take note of something else too: NOWHERE does the Word of God say that a child's pants should be taken down when they need chastising! Think about it: why would God, who desires for people to be modest in their dress, want a child to be disciplined half-naked? I'm sorry to be blunt (and perhaps a little explicit) here, but that is not only needlessly humiliating, but adds a sexual component to the whole thing. (I speak from very personal experience when I say that if a child is spanked on the bare, it may result in a sexual fetish developing, and may also give the parent some sort of perverted pleasure, so between that and the obvious immodesty, I am convinced that spanking a child bare-bottomed is ungodly and wicked - a Biblical spanking is one that should always be done over clothes.)

    I shall conclude this update with one last Scripture (well actually two): 

    "And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." (Ephesians 6:4)

    "Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged." (Colossians 3:21)

    If a child is spanked justly and moderately (say, 3-6 whacks, maybe 10 at an absolute maximum, on their clothed bottom with a wooden spoon or paddle) to correct wrong behaviour, this will bear good fruit in the long run. (I would just like to say from personal experience that if I was spanked, or even given a single smack, justly, I had no problem with it, even at the time. Yes, it might have hurt, and yes, I cried, but I understood the lesson being taught and did learn from it. But when I was spanked unjustly, which happened rather too often, it made me bitter - in other words, provoked me to wrath and did not produce good fruit the way justified spankings did.) But if a child is beaten for purposes of domination rather than discipline, and if this is moreover unjust and excessive, then it will provoke children to anger, and rightly so. (Depending on how severe it is, long-term trauma is also possible.) Violating a child's modesty will also provoke them to anger and I believe that is never acceptable in God's sight (obviously, when they're babies and toddlers, you have to bathe them since they can't yet bathe themselves, but that's a different thing altogether). So Gloriavale's idea of child discipline is, beyond any shadow of a doubt, child abuse that violates both the laws of New Zealand (even before spanking was outlawed here) and more importantly, the laws of God.

UPDATE 9 (7/4/21): Following another break, I have now read three further chapters (16-18) in Daughter of Gloriavale. The 16th and 17th chapters are both quite short. The 16th one goes over Gloriavale's beliefs on childbearing. They are adamantly opposed to abortion, and that is a good thing. Indeed, it is one of the few things that I will heartily commend them for. Unfortunately, they also had a self-righteous pride in their pro-life position that was very much like the attitude the Pharisee had towards the publican in Luke 18:11-12. That pride was not good. (Just because your position is morally right, it does not justify pride and looking down on others. I might add that the "pro-choice", i.e. pro-unborn baby murder movement is permeated with an enormous amount of self-righteous pride as well, which is as much an abomination to God as their hands that shed innocent blood.) The large size of Gloriavale's families was a source of Pharisaical pride too, especially for Neville Cooper, who regularly bragged about it. One other point of note in this chapter is that Gloriavale believes in home births, and children participate in these from age ten up (to train them for their own future parenthood). However, sometimes complications arise and a trip to Greymouth Hospital is necessary. There is nothing wrong with home birth in itself, and many non-Christian parents choose this. But they do get to CHOOSE, whereas Gloriavale's expectant mothers are forced to have a home birth whether they want it or not. One last thing: the Stuff article said that new mothers at Gloriavale only get about two weeks off before being put back to work again, and Lilia Tarawa says the same in this chapter.

    The next chapter concentrates on Lilia's older brother Sam, whose rebellion gets worse and who eventually follows Sara Tarawa in running away from Gloriavale. Like Sara, he was no longer able to cope with all the crazy rules that were imposed. Once again, Gloriavale's leaders show themselves to be much like the Pharisees of Christ's day, who were rebuked by Him for getting uptight over minor points of Old Testament Law while neglecting the things that mattered most to God:

     "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone." (Matthew 23:23) 

     The Gloriavale leaders would also do well to listen to the prophet Micah:

    "He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?" (Micah 6:8)

     What we see in Gloriavale however, especially among the leaders, are people who behave unjustly, show no mercy and are full of pride. That undoubtedly continues to this day. They think they're such great and holy men of God, when in reality, they are in grave danger of joining Neville Cooper and the unrepentant Pharisees of long ago in hellfire. Would that they would repent of their wickedness before it is too late!

    The 18th chapter is quite a long one and focusses mainly on Lilia's friendship with her American chum Grace, who had returned to Gloriavale a few chapters earlier after being kicked out of her equally harsh Hutterite cult in Minnesota. Together they find a variety of ways to rebel against all the strict rules, including listening to cassettes (remember those?) by people like CCM artist Steven Curtis Chapman and secular singer Shania Twain. Lilia found this music to be beautiful and reasoned that it couldn't be wrong because of that. (There are actually plenty of good reasons why Christians should have nothing to do with rock music, including Christian Contemporary Music, and just because music sounds good and enticing doesn't mean it is spiritually healthy - although I'm certainly not saying music should sound bad! There is a difference however between judging music carnally - basing your view of it on how it makes you feel - and judging it spiritually - looking at its doctrine, style and the kind of fruit it produces etc.) Eventually though, they get caught and harshly rebuked for their worldly behaviour.

    Now, the music they were listening to was worldly, frankly. However, one of the errors Gloriavale makes is that it forces people to live "holy" lives (as the Gloriavale leaders define holy) regardless of whether they are born again or unregenerate. I would posit that most people at Gloriavale are lost. In other words, they have never been born again and thus have no desire to live for God. (There is a world of difference between living for God and living for an oppressive church.) Remember, the baptism they give at Gloriavale is supposed to save, but in reality it does not. It is a work, and works can never save anyone. When people are lost, they only want to live for themselves and their fleshly lusts. Consequently, it is no marvel that even in an insanely restrictive environment like Gloriavale, they find ways to do things that are genuinely sinful. (By this I do NOT mean things that violate the church rules like wearing sunglasses, but rather things that violate God's Law - for instance lying and stealing.) Now if a person is born again and their soul is converted, they will now want to live for God and not walk according to their old evil lusts any longer. They will not need any force or coercion, but will naturally want to live righteously (as defined by the Bible, not a bunch of silly man-made rules). But no one has ever been converted to Christ by being forced to live a certain way. And those who are Christ's should be allowed to live freely and follow the Word of God as they see fit, not be forcibly subjected to oppressive man-made rules and traditions. The Pharisees were big on man-made rules and traditions too, and it didn't do them or their followers any good. Anyway, that's about all the commentary I have on these chapters.

UPDATE 10 (9/4/21): Yesterday I read two more chapters in Daughter of Gloriavale. I have now read 20 chapters in total, and am still very much engrossed in Lilia Tarawa's account of her life in this cult. Anyway, the 19th chapter concentrates on a gathering of the young people in which they light a big bonfire and eventually burn some of their "worldly" things after a couple of the young men exhorted them to do so. I say "worldly" in quotes because while some of the things burned could be defined as worldly by Biblical standards, others were perfectly innocuous things like a T-shirt with the word "Australia" or a pocket knife. (The owner of the pocket knife ended up rescuing it.) This exercise had nothing to do with submitting to God, and everything to do with submitting to the church. Gloriavale's works salvation came to the fore again as well, because people were told in no uncertain terms that their sins would be "washed away" if they purged out their worldly things. Lilia herself ended up destroying her Shania Twain tape and some CDs because she was afraid she would go to Hell if she didn't. (However, she didn't burn them in front of others). See how the fear of losing salvation enslaves people! This is why all cults, false churches and false religions preach it and usually associate loss of salvation with disobedience to the cult's rules, or with leaving the cult. Genuine salvation can never be lost. When you are truly saved and not worried about your eternal future anymore, you can live for God out of pure love for Him. (That doesn't mean you can sin with impunity though, because God does chastise His own (see Hebrews 12:6 and several subsequent verses.) And when you love God, you may very well purge some wicked things from your life or give up certain things. I have done this myself (although there are wicked things I still need to get rid of). In fact, I've even destroyed CDs (by the likes of AC/DC and Madonna, no less) like Lilia did. But the difference is, I CHOSE to do it. Nobody constrained me to. That is real Christian liberty - obeying God because you WANT to, not obeying a church's man-made rules and traditions because you HAVE to.

    Doubtless what the Gloriavale young people did in this chapter was inspired by this incident in Acts: "And many that believed came, and confessed, and shewed their deeds. Many of them also which used curious arts brought their books together, and burned them before all men: and they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver." (Acts 19:18-19) Now, there are three things in this short passage that I'd like to draw your attention to. Firstly, these people were saved, and as such, they were under conviction about their old sins. Secondly, they came OF THEIR OWN FREE WILL. Nobody forced them to confess their deeds. Neither did anybody force them to burn anything. They made that decision for themselves without anybody coercing them into it. Thirdly, take note of what they were actually burning: books of "curious arts", in other words, witchcraft. They didn't burn things that they considered to be just "too worldly". (Although if a Christian wants to do such things because they feel a conviction over it, I see no problem with it.) Rather they burned books that dealt in particularly evil things. They burned them because of the repentance they had in their hearts about them. And again, they were not in any way pressured to do this. Nor were they worried about their salvation, because they were already saved.

    One other noteworthy point made in this chapter is that some young men liked to put on a righteous act in order to be granted more privileges and get promoted to more senior positions of leadership. The scribes and Pharisees of Christ's day were like this too, and this is what He had to say about them:

    "But all their works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments, And love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues, And greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi. But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren." (Matthew 23:5-8)

    "And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God." (Luke 16:15)

    "For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God." (John 12:43)

    These young men cared nothing for God. They acted virtuous purely "to be seen of men" - i.e. the Gloriavale leaders. They wanted to be praised by those leaders, and coveted the "chief seats" around the leadership table. But God saw through them and continues to see through them. (Although Lilia saw through them too, and sometimes it's obvious to anyone with eyes to see when someone is putting on an act.) People tend to be seduced by appearances, but God sees straight into the heart: "But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart." (1 Samuel 16:7)

    Now to the next chapter, which describes a rather remarkable event called a "Special Tea", which was a huge party thrown for the "Young Persons" by the "Married Persons". The latter really pulled out all the stops for this party, which had a special theme and also featured exceptionally good food (especially by Gloriavale standards). Although such parties only happened once every two years or so, it is funny in a way that they had them at all, given what the Bible says about "revellings" (see Galatians 5:21 and 1 Peter 4:3). Near the end of the party, the young people had to listen to a speech by Neville Cooper (who reminded them to be grateful for it) and were also given gifts. Letters from assorted "Married Persons" saying a whole lot of nice things were included with the gifts. In many ways, the party resembled a Christmas celebration (another irony, since I think Gloriavale banned Christmas due to the pagan origins of most Christmas traditions - and they did likewise with Easter).

    The word that kept springing to my mind as I read this chapter was "love bombing". Abusers use love bombing (lots of flattery, praise, gifts and the like) to lure their victims in (essentially, it's grooming), and sometimes use it in the middle of an abusive relationship to give the victim the same sort of emotional high they had during the courtship phase so that they will remain "in love" with their abuser. Likewise, cults also use "love bombing" for much the same reasons. People who first join cults can often be "love bombed" to make them feel really good about joining, and sometimes they can be "love bombed" sporadically to give them a nice emotional high when they are growing weary of the cult's oppression. So I think this "Special Tea" was really a type of love bombing. The intention was to give the young people a huge emotional high that would make them feel good about their life in Gloriavale, even if it might have been a dreary grind for much of the rest of the time. It was just another manipulative tool that Neville Cooper used to control his followers.

UPDATE 11 (10/4/21): Today I read another three chapters in Daughter of Gloriavale. In the first of these (the 21st overall), Lilia describes an incident where she talked to her sister Sara on the phone. (Although Gloriavale prohibits its members from associating with those who leave, some limited phone contact is allowed, especially when the leavers are still minors and need some legally required parental permissions). With preaching from her grandfather about "sharing the Gospel" still fresh in her mind, Lilia warned Sara that she was on her way to Hell. However, that was all she said. There was nothing about the Law and how we've all broken it and thus sinned, nothing about the need for repentance (feeling grief and sorrow over one's sins against God) and nothing about what Jesus Christ did to pay for our sins. Without those things, any warning about Hell isn't going to make much sense. In Gloriavale's cultic mindset however, if you're not submitted to them, you're on your way to Hell. The gospel according to Gloriavale is that to get eternal life, you must submit to their man-made rules and traditions, doing the works they require of you to earn your salvation (which you are ever in danger of losing, especially if you leave). In reality, salvation cannot be earned, but is a gift of God's grace. This is something that every cult and every false religion in the world is blind to.

    After blurting out this warning, Lilia then dropped the phone and ran off. A little while later, she experienced a conversation inside her mind between two "voices". It is unclear whether these "voices" were audible, but they seemed to speak quite distinctly, engaging in a sort of "good cop/bad cop" dynamic. And Lilia actually blocked her ears and begged them to stop, which makes me think that they actually were audible. But even if they were just vivid thoughts in her mind, I think it is possible that both "voices" might have been devils (fallen angels who assist Satan in deceiving people and other evil activities). One was assuring her that she had done the right thing, and talking in a stern and authoritarian manner very similar to Neville Cooper, while the other was more of a "seducing spirit" (see 1 Timothy 4:1) since it said things that sounded very nice, but bore a resemblance to New Age ideas. For instance, it talked about forgetting about fire and brimstone and focussing on "human connections", and also quoted "Love one another" without specifying any context or meaning. So although these devils (if that was what they were) "argued" with each other, they were both saying things that would lead to error - either preaching the harsh false gospel of Neville Cooper, or rejecting Gloriavale's Pharisaical beliefs and embracing New Age thinking that might feel a lot more soothing, but is ultimately just as false and damnable as Gloriavale's doctrines. The powers of darkness are perfectly happy for people to be involved in a religious cult like Gloriavale or to live as they please in the outside world, just as long as they don't accept the true Gospel and thereby be set free from Satan's captivity (see 2 Timothy 2:26).

    In the next chapter, Lilia talks about how her younger brother Victor (who seemed to only be about a year younger than her) became more rebellious against Gloriavale's rules as he reached his mid-teens. In this respect, he followed very closely in the footsteps of Sara and Sam Tarawa. Lilia was worried he would run away the way they did, but he didn't (at least, not in this chapter). She sympathises with his hatred of Gloriavale's rules and the oppressive behaviour of the leaders in enforcing them. I have already given my views of Gloriavale's rules and the leaders' behaviour, so I won't rehash those here. I'll just say that some of their rules were good (e.g. don't listen to worldly music), but made for the wrong reasons (it was about forcing people to do things their way, not exhorting them to real righteousness or holiness).

    Also in this chapter, Lilia touches on her father's overseas trips (he seemed to go on a LOT of those, and they were often long ones too). In her father's absence, other men of the community would sometimes try to take his place of authority (much to Lilia's anger, and rightly so - they needed to focus on their own households and mind their business). She also mentions that on one of her father's particularly long trips, her mother joined him for a while. This left Lilia, as the oldest remaining sibling, to look after her younger siblings (there were four others in addition to Victor). She had noted in an earlier chapter that she learned good life skills from about the age of ten. From what I can gather, these skills stood her in good stead at this time. (There are a few upsides to life in Gloriavale, and learning important life skills is one such good point about their lifestyle.)

    The next chapter is about Lilia deciding to take the Commitment Oath to become a full member of Gloriavale. This is a "coming-of-age" ritual that usually occurs when someone turns 16, but may also be gone through by someone joining the community. Of course, Lilia couldn't just say she wanted to recite the Oath and then go ahead with it. Firstly she faced a grilling from Neville Cooper, her grandfather. Then she had to go through a prolonged interrogation by a group of some 15 "Shepherds and Servants" (senior leaders at Gloriavale). Moreover, she had to read What We Believe, a very long document about Gloriavale's doctrines that are kind of their own special "scriptures".

    TVNZ, our state broadcaster, has a current affairs programme called Sunday (which shockingly airs on Sunday nights), and in this chapter, Lilia mentions that a crew from Sunday came to film a piece about Gloriavale. She describes an encounter with a "Janet" (this was Janet McIntyre). It was noteworthy that Neville Cooper/Hopeful Christian ordered his followers to be on their best behaviour. When Lilia and a couple of other women were interviewed, they were told what to say (although they knew their "script" from years of indoctrination anyway). The chapter finished with Lilia's Commitment Oath, which she not only read in front of the Gloriavale community, but the Sunday TV cameras! She quotes a fair amount of this oath, but the doctrines revealed are ones I have already gone over and commented on in previous updates. Of course, the whole point of this oath is to fully submit to the Gloriavale leadership and place oneself completely under their ungodly yoke. 

   
Incidentally, I have found the Sunday item Lilia referred to - you can watch it here. (It may not work if you're outside New Zealand.) 

 

UPDATE 12 (13/4/21): For once, this is not a continuation of my running commentary on Daughter of Gloriavale (though I should return to that with the next update). Instead, I thought I would share this news item in the New Zealand Herald (it has also appeared in other NZ publications). One of Gloriavale's businesses has lost its contract to make Moo Chews, which are flavoured "milk bites". The people in charge of Moo Chews are now looking for another company to make the product. They reportedly said on their Facebook page (quoted in the Herald article): "We do not condone forced labour or exploitation of people, and we do not support any supplier that condones these practices." The writer of the article, Devon Bolger, adds, "WorkSafe visited the site late last year following reports of 23-hour work shifts for members, and threats by church leaders". (My emphasis). This article on the Stuff Web site (by Amanda Cropp) names the Gloriavale company that has been making Moo Chews as Alpine Health Manufacturing. If the reports about 23-hour work shifts are true, that is outright slave labour. "Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth." (James 5:4) "And this also is a sore evil, that in all points as he came, so shall he go: and what profit hath he that hath laboured for the wind?" (Ecclesiastes 5:16) "Thou shalt not oppress an hired servant that is poor and needy, whether he be of thy brethren, or of thy strangers that are in thy land within thy gates: At his day thou shalt give him his hire, neither shall the sun go down upon it; for he is poor, and setteth his heart upon it: lest he cry against thee unto the LORD, and it be sin unto thee." (Deuteronomy 24:14-15)

UPDATE 13 (14/4/21): I managed to read another two chapters in Daughter of Gloriavale yesterday. Chapter 24 opens with Victor Tarawa running away from Gloriavale just as Sara and Sam had done. However, this time Lilia's parents did something radical: they decided to move to a house in the township of Moana, on the northern shore of Lake Brunner and about half an hour's drive from Lake Haupiri. This enabled them to look after Victor, who had gone to stay with his grandmother in Wellington. (Lilia also met the grandmother on a special trip to Greymouth, and got to drink tea for the first time! Like the Mormons, Gloriavale prohibits the consumption of tea and coffee due to their caffeine.) Moving to Moana was not a split with Gloriavale, however. Lilia and her younger siblings continued to attend school there. Nevertheless, it was very different from what Lilia had previously known. Gloriavale was her comfort zone (my words, not Lilia's). It was where all her friends and family were. Living in the Moana house meant being with her family, but it also meant being away from everyone else she knew. And for Lilia, this was quite unsettling. Freedom, and even semi-freedom, has its price. Some people are not willing to pay that price, which is why they may continue in cults, abusive relationships and so on even if they are no longer deceived about their situation. However, Lilia was still deeply conditioned at this time, and decided that if her parents wanted to leave Gloriavale altogether, she would stay.

    It goes without saying that many people in Gloriavale were none too pleased with the Tarawa family's move to Moana. The senior "Shepherds" had given their blessing (the close familial ties to Neville Cooper undoubtedly helped), but there were numerous rumblings of discontent. A particular bone of contention was that the family was associating with a "sinner" (Victor) who had left Gloriavale. Just like the Pharisees, some of the Gloriavale people cared more about rules than mercy.

    A passage of Scripture that Gloriavale regularly likes to abuse to justify its demand for people to shun their family members who leave the cult is this one: "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man's foes shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it." (Matthew 10:34-39)

    Now, when a person is born again, they often face hostility from their unsaved family members, especially when they try to witness to those family members. This will result in division as the lost family members persecute the saved one. Indeed, if the new Christian has been raised in a Muslim household, they may even be in danger of death! (The Qur'an teaches that anyone who converts away from Islam should be killed.) And this is what Jesus is talking about here. He is not talking about forcing family members to shun other family members who have decided to leave a "church". Rather, He is describing the reality of what happens when some people in a family are saved and others are not.

    But Christians in hostile family situations face a difficult choice. They can stand firm on their new beliefs and risk persecution (perhaps even to the point of being kicked out or threatened with death), or they can take the easy way out and compromise (perhaps to the point of denying Christ outright) to keep the peace. Jesus is saying that if you compromise your beliefs to appease your family, rather than standing firm for Him no matter what the cost, you are not worthy of Him. In other words, you're probably not even born again. However, this does NOT mean you should shun your family! Far from it. "If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men." (Romans 12:18) This includes your family. However, it may be that they reject and shun YOU because of your faith in Christ. "Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake." (Luke 6:22) You see, it is the unsaved who kick out the saved and reject them rather than the other way around. And that is a price which, if you are truly Christ's, you may have to pay. But however your family may treat you, you should still treat them well insofar as they let you.

    The part about taking up one's cross is twisted by Gloriavale to mean submitting to their stringent rules. All this actually means is that following Christ does involve sacrifice in this life. There is self-denial, constant warring against fleshly lusts, regular persecution (even if it's just mockery) and so on. The Christian life is not an easy one sometimes, but that does not mean it needs to be made any harder by obeying a bunch of unnecessary man-made rules and traditions.

    In the 25th chapter, a racist element in Gloriavale is exposed. Lilia Tarawa is part-Maori (and indeed the grandmother she met is Maori). There were also (in her time) two or three other Maori or part-Maori families living at Gloriavale. They were treated differently to the remaining Pakeha (white) members. Essentially, they were punished more harshly for rule violations than the non-Maori members. This is the sin of respecting persons, and was also clearly racist. Moreover, in this chapter, Lilia had to listen to a "sermon" (more of a rant) by a Gloriavale man who had originally come from the American South. This man said that Maori members shouldn't get special treatment because Gloriavale ostensibly believes in absolute equality and that people give up their old identities when they become part of the Gloriavale community. He quoted Galatians 3:28 to back up his view. Lilia correctly observed (though not out loud at the time) that men and women (mentioned in that Galatians verse) are not equal at Gloriavale, which teaches that women were made to serve men (I have already explained in another update why that is a totally false doctrine). This is indeed an example of how cults use Scripture selectively when it suits them. Such double standards and double talk are very common in false churches and religions. 

    This blatant racial discrimination made Lilia begin to be seriously disillusioned with the Gloriavale leadership. She observes that the reason why they make people abandon their old identities is so they can create a "blank slate" to mould in their own image. I agree. It makes the Gloriavale members easier to control. On that subject, at the end of the chapter Lilia's parents were ordered to move to a house on the Gloriavale property so that the family could be more easily controlled (not that the leaders said those words, but Lilia realised that was their motivation).

    Finally, this chapter (or it might have been the previous one - I can't quite recall now) includes an account of a meeting in which, in true Pentecostal/Charismatic fashion, Neville Cooper laid hands on people so that they would receive the Holy Spirit and start speaking in tongues, prophesying or suchlike. But when he laid hands on Lilia, nothing happened. The way Pentecostals "summon" the Holy Spirit is a grievous error. The Holy Spirit does not come and go when you are a Christian. If you are born again, He dwells in you all the time. And He does not have to be summoned, either. Here are some important truths from the Bible about the Holy Spirit:

    "And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you." (John 14:16-17)

    "But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me" (John 15:26)

    "Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come." (John 16:13)

    "While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word." (Acts 10:44)

    "But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." (Romans 8:9)

    "The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God" (Romans 8:16)

    "Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts." (2 Corinthians 1:22)

    "Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." (2 Corinthians 3:17)

    "Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit." (2 Corinthians 5:5)

    "This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?" (Galatians 3:2)

    "And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father." (Galatians 4:6)

    "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law." (Galatians 5:22-23)

    "In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory." (Ephesians 1:13-14)

    "And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption." (Ephesians 4:30)

    "And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us." (1 John 3:24)

    "Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit." (1 John 4:13)

    So the evidence from Scripture is abundantly clear. When you repent of your sins (feel grief and sorrow towards God for your transgressions of His Law) and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation, God gives you His Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit remains in you as a seal of your salvation, and guides you into all truth. And even during the days of Acts, the Holy Spirit fell on people when God chose to send Him, and was never summoned. A couple of times, people did receive the Holy Spirit after hands had been laid on them, but this only happened a couple of times and it was apostles who did the laying on of hands. Even then, it is still made clear that He is a gift from God for the saved. Peter rebukes Simon the sorcerer in Acts 8:20 for wanting the purchase the gift of God with money.

    God is not at our beck and call. We cannot summon His Spirit on a whim, and it is ridiculous to do so anyway since He already dwells in believers! However, evil spirits can be summoned, and when you look at the fruit of the Spirit and then see what kind of fruit the "spirit" of Charismatic services produces, it is pretty clear that a spirit causing people to laugh uncontrollably, act like animals and speak gibberish etc., and which moreover has to be summoned with some sort of ritual, is not the Spirit of God. And do you see any of the fruit of the Spirit at Gloriavale?

UPDATE 14 (16/4/21): Yesterday I read two more chapters in Daughter of Gloriavale. Getting close to three-quarters of the way through it now. In these chapters, we see Lilia increasingly start to embrace new freedoms and rebel against the strictures of Gloriavale, although she does struggle with the thought of leaving people she genuinely loves and cares about. The family's move to Glenhopeful House closer to Gloriavale makes Lilia happy for a while, especially as she gets her own room for the very first time! But then they move back to Moana, but for an exciting reason: a reunion with Lilia's older siblings Sara and Sam! Her Maori paternal grandmother also comes to live with them. Lilia also spends time with cousins who have never been part of Gloriavale.

    Interestingly, the leaders approved of this association with "sinners" who are meant to be shunned. They did so because they were hoping that Sara and Sam could be lured back into Gloriavale. So they were prepared to compromise their strict standards if it meant that two "strays" could be brought back "into the fold" and thereby under their control once again! However, it is quite plain to Lilia that neither of them have any interest in returning to Gloriavale. She spends some very pleasant family time with them though and realises that she may soon be forced to choose between her family and Gloriavale.

    One thing that struck me reading these two chapters is how much emphasis Gloriavale puts on outward appearance. Lilia notes that one of her female cousins had a pretty and kind face and didn't look like the ugly, hard-faced women Gloriavale constantly claimed existed in the outside world. They associate their way of life, including how they dress, with holiness, not appearing to realise that God is concerned first and foremost with our hearts. It does however typify their Pharisaical spirit. Because if there was one thing the Pharisees set great store by, it was outward appearance. "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess." (Matthew 23:25) "And the Lord said unto him, Now do ye Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and the platter; but your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness." (Luke 11:39) "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness." (Matthew 23:27) As these verses show (and check out more relevant Scriptures on this theme in Update 10), you can appear very righteous and holy on the outside, and yet be utterly wicked on the inside. You can fool other people, but you can never fool God, who can see right inside your heart. So Gloriavale's emphasis on outward appearance is foolish. Well, sometimes a person's outward appearance may reflect the state of their heart, but there are plenty of other cases in which it doesn't. For example, one murderer may be covered in tattoos and piercings, and it's pretty obvious from their appearance and manner that they are evil, but another may be well-groomed and dress in business suits. The second hypothetical murderer is just as evil as the first, maybe even more so, but hides it better. Similarly, a person who lives "righteously" at Gloriavale, but has a wicked heart, is no more righteous in God's sight than somebody who indulges to the fullest in worldly pleasures outside Gloriavale.

UPDATE 15 (17/4/21): Between yesterday and today, I have now read another three chapters in Daughter of Gloriavale. The 28th chapter is quite a pivotal one as Lilia finally understands how much Gloriavale's leaders have deceived her. She gets a point that I have emphasised several times throughout this running commentary, which is that Gloriavale's rules and traditions (or laws and traditions, to use her expression) are man-made. She understands that it is not necessary to live according to Gloriavale's way of doing things. Unfortunately, as she wakes up to one deception, she promptly falls for another. "That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive" (Ephesians 4:14) There are many kinds of lies out there. Many types of false doctrines. Some, like Gloriavale's, are harsh and repressive with an emphasis entirely on judgment and punishment of sin and next to none on God's mercy. Others, like New Evangelicalism, embrace "feel-good" Christianity that accentuates the positive and preaches a tolerant "Jesus" who loves a good party and never rebukes sin or calls people to repentance. Both varieties of deception will lead you to Hell, but the second one is a much more enjoyable route to take. The Devil doesn't mind if you figure out one of his deceptions as long as you quickly embrace another. Sadly, that is what Lilia Tarawa did. She was tossed from the harsh and unforgiving "Christianity" of Gloriavale to a warm and positive "Christianity" practised by her paternal grandmother, who had come to live with the rest of her family at Moana. She also read the words "God is love" in the Bible and realised that Gloriavale emphasised obedience over love. Now obedience to God actually is love: "If ye love me, keep my commandments." (John 14:15) "For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous." (1 John 5:3) However, what Gloriavale demands is not obedience to God, but obedience to its leaders. Like all cults, it demands obedience to MEN, not God (although, just like the Roman Catholic Church, which incidentally Gloriavale strongly and rightly criticises, it claims these men are God's representatives and equates obeying them to obeying God). However, the "God" Lilia's grandmother believes in is all-loving and all-forgiving, and doesn't require any obedience or repentance from sin at all. This "God" is every bit as dangerous to your soul as the cruel and merciless "God" of Gloriavale. But when you have grown up with the latter as Lilia did, it is easy to see how seductive the "gentler and kinder God" would be.

    The next two chapters see Lilia still at Gloriavale, but spending an increasing amount of time with her family at Moana, and in particular the "worldly" ones who were not members of Gloriavale. She discovers new forbidden pleasures, including the music of Beyoncé, and also has some interesting discussions with her father, who repeats an error about the Bible being figurative. In fact, he calls it "a bunch of stories", which is not true - the Bible is real history (except for the events in Daniel and Revelation that haven't happened yet), and much of it is meant to be taken literally. Gloriavale's problem is not so much in what they take literally, but how they often go far beyond what the Bible actually teaches, and also how they fail to rightly divide the Scriptures. For more about literal vs. figurative interpretation of the Bible, please see Update 3.

    Two subjects that Lilia discusses with her father (and one of her best friends at Gloriavale) are hair length and clothing - in particular, Deuteronomy 22:5, "The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the LORD thy God." Lilia's father argued that this no longer mattered since it is in the Old Testament, but actually, many things in the Old Testament are repeated in the New. This specific commandment is not, but nor is there any verse either in the Old or New Testaments that expressly overrules it or cancels any part of it out. God does not change: what He considered an abomination in Old Testament times, He still considers an abomination today. The constant rejection of this commandment by people in the 21st Century (and earlier) has now culminated in the insane "woke culture" of our day, in which using normal masculine and feminine pronouns is becoming "offensive", and in which men who dress and act like women are hailed as "heroic" and "brave" while men who actually dress, look and act like men are branded as "toxic males" who are Unfit for Polite Society. It is a culture described well by the prophet Isaiah: "Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!" (Isaiah 5:20) Women should wear feminine clothing (and men masculine clothing). But where Gloriavale goes wrong (as they do so often) is in constraining women to dress a certain way.

    One point on which I would agree with Lilia's father is that a woman's long hair is a sufficient head covering for her, and there is no need to wear an additional covering like a head scarf. Indeed, whenever you see a religious woman wearing a head covering, she is almost certainly involved in a false church or religion that oppresses women (and it's not just "Christian" cults - the Muslim hijab is also a symbol of female submission). Indeed, to Gloriavale's leaders, the head scarf reflects women's submission to men (as Gloriavale demands).

    A couple of new Gloriavale customs are revealed. One is that women are not allowed to cut their hair. Now while it is pleasing in God's sight for a woman to have long hair, that does NOT mean she can never cut it! Another custom involves washing the feet (as Christ did to His disciples to show the importance of Christians serving one another in love). However, as usual Gloriavale goes beyond what the Bible teaches. For example, people at Gloriavale wash the feet of those they have wronged, which is never commanded in the Bible. Yet another in a long list of Gloriavale's man-made traditions.

UPDATE 16 (18/4/21): I'm closing in on the end of Daughter of Gloriavale (and hence this running commentary), having read the 31st chapter today. In this chapter, Lilia and her parents finally make the decision to leave Gloriavale. Before that however, a little bit is said about Gloriavale's other community in Tamil Nadu, India. A number of young men from that community came to Gloriavale, which turned out to be rather useful since it increased the pool of single young men (Lilia noted that young men who ran away from Gloriavale outnumbered young women who did so, which resulted in a shortage of eligible young men and a headache for the leaders when it came to matchmaking.) Marriages duly began to be arranged between these young Indian men and the local Gloriavale girls. (Arranged marriage is quite common in Indian culture, so it probably wouldn't have seemed too strange to those young fellows.) One of Lilia's cousins got a match that she was very happy with. However, Lilia's best friend in the community was matched with someone completely wrong for her. Her chosen fiancé was equally unhappy. The friend decided to run away, although not before she was summoned to a "Leaders' Meeting" and forced to state that she believed Gloriavale was the true church of God. She told them that she no longer believed it and therefore to say so would be committing the sin of lying. Incredibly, one of the leaders then told Lilia's friend that it was OK to lie if you were doing it for the church! A lot of cults and false religions believe similarly. However, the Bible condemns lying, full stop. It is not OK in God's sight to lie, even in a "good cause".

    Eventually, Lilia's friend did succeed in escaping Gloriavale and ended up in Australia, where she joined another "Christian" community (although that one was supposedly less strict). Meanwhile, the dreadful marriage match made by Gloriavale's leaders helped to open Lilia's eyes further to their deception. She realised that they were not being guided by God at all, because God would certainly not want people to marry who were so ill-suited. She also figured that they were most likely being guided by their own ideas. I think that is probably right, although it is also possible that demonic spirits posing as God could be guiding them. Lilia talks quite a lot in this chapter about following your heart (she advises her friend to do that), but fails to grasp that if Gloriavale's leaders are basing their decisions on their own thoughts, then they are following their hearts too. The Bible is clear that following your heart is a path to destruction. Any time that God's people fell into sin, it's because they were following their hearts. However, when people are not born again and lack the Holy Spirit to give them understanding, following their heart is what they are naturally going to do. And those who ARE born again can still make the error of following their heart sometimes. The opposite of following your heart is obeying the Word of God. However, this obedience must be willing, not coerced, and the Word must be rightly divided to avoid foolish interpretations of specific verses in isolation.

    Speaking of the Word, Lilia studied the Bible to help her understand more about where Gloriavale's leaders were going wrong. But she opted for a New International Version that she found in her parents' home. She expresses appreciation for the NIV's more modern English. Now, there is obviously nothing wrong with using modern language in itself. After all, I'm using modern English to write this blog! It that were the only difference between the King James Version and modern translations, it would be rather silly to take issue with the latter. But as I said in Update 6, modern versions omit a number of verses (or relegate them to footnotes). They also make changes that don't merely "update" language, but alter meaning and thereby affect doctrine (for instance, the Good News Bible, which was the Bible of my childhood and adolescence, changes "blood" to "death" in a number of verses). The multitude of different versions creates confusion, and God is not the author of confusion (1 Corinthians 14:33). There are a host of other things wrong with them too, which I don't have time to go into. (One day I hope to though.) But anyway, Lilia's study of the NIV led her to have a conversation with her mother in which she declared that God doesn't care if you wear the wrong-coloured underpants, nor does He say everybody has to dress the same or live in a community together. (She is absolutely right on all three of these points, but could have gleaned that from the KJV too.) Her mother now realises that she and her husband can leave Gloriavale without having to worry about losing Lilia.

    The chapter ends with Lilia having her first proper Christmas celebration. She is encouraged to do so by her runaway siblings, Sara, Sam and Victor. The latter observes that the Gloriavale "Young People's Tea" is much the same as Christmas. Indeed, I made this same observation in Update 10! And really, the fact that Gloriavale has these "Special Teas" or "Young People's Teas" shows their hypocrisy. They condemn Christmas for its pagan origins (this is one area where they are basically correct), but then hold a celebration that effectively copies Christmas! They also say it's wrong for parents to lie to their children about Santa Claus (and again, they are Biblically correct on this point) but then have no compunction about lying when it suits their church's purpose! So even when Gloriavale's leaders are right about something, they are so full of double standards that even their correct preaching ends up being spiritually useless. Lilia mentions that one of the presents she got was a book about two women in a lesbian relationship! She does not say who gave her that book, but I suspect it was Sara, since in previous chapters Lilia has mentioned that Sara has short hair, wears masculine clothing and likes to do men's work. So my speculation is that Sara gave Lilia this book to "soften her up" and make her more likely to be accepting of a subsequent "coming out". Speaking of "coming out", I see the next chapter will cover Lilia and her parents leaving Gloriavale, so stay tuned for another update soon.

UPDATE 17 (20/4/21): I've read another two chapters in Daughter of Gloriavale. The 32nd chapter (the one about Lilia's final departure from Gloriavale) was surprisingly short. Lilia's father took an interesting approach, in that he tried to seek the leaders' blessing for the family's departure! A sort of "amicable divorce". However, he evidently had a gut feeling that he would be unsuccessful, because he positioned the family van in a spot where it would be easy to make a quick getaway. His instincts proved justified, because the leaders flew into a rage at the prospect of losing their control over Lilia's family and thundered out curses at him (including a "Mark of the Beast" curse, whatever that is). And so Lilia, her parents and her four younger siblings end up driving away from Gloriavale for the very last time (although not before Lilia managed a quick farewell to her cousins). Understandably, this is a very emotional moment for Lilia (and doubtless her parents). After all, until this point in her life, Gloriavale was all she had ever known, apart from the stint in Moana and occasional visits to Greymouth. However messed up your world is, when it's all you know, it can be a hard thing to leave it and step out into the great unknown. Even more so when the world you're leaving behind contains many people you love and care about. Moreover, Gloriavale's teachings still had a fair hold on the family. For instance, when the van broke down, Lilia's mother was convinced that this was because God had cursed them for leaving Gloriavale. However, it seems they managed to get the van fixed and continued on their journey to Christchurch, which was to be their new home.

    The 33rd chapter is a long one, so I won't go over it in minute detail, but focus on a few specific points. (I might add at this stage that while my running commentary of this book contains a good number of spoilers, there are observations and incidents that I have not commented on - sometimes because they went over old territory, or because I couldn't really think of anything much to say, or even because I didn't find them especially interesting. For instance, since Lilia is a woman, she goes into a few things that are quite female-specific, such as details about make-up. Which is absolutely fair enough and I have no issue with it in the least. But being a man, I didn't get much out of those bits. Just as a female reader would yawn if I were to talk about beard grooming or something. Whereas Lilia's female readers would enjoy them a lot more. Anyway, notwithstanding the extensive comments I have made on Daughter of Gloriavale, I have left out enough to not spoil the entire book, and I do recommend it as a good illustration of how cults work.)

    The chapter covers Lilia's new life in Christchurch, and in particular all the new things she has to learn since there are many things Gloriavale keeps its members ignorant about. For instance, she reveals that they don't talk much about politics. She did not even know that New Zealand had had two female Prime Ministers! (Of course, we now have a third one.) While Gloriavale members are allowed to vote, they can only vote in accordance with the leaders' instructions. Another thing she reveals is that Gloriavale prohibits its members from watching any television, and they only see news the leaders want them to see. (So everything gets filtered through a specific lens - not all that dissimilar to the mainstream media, come to think of it!) Now, there is a difference between giving up certain TV programmes (or even giving up TV altogether) willingly, and being forcibly prevented from watching TV. It's all about free will vs. constraint yet again. Some of Gloriavale's rules (like the one against men growing beards or against anyone wearing sunglasses) really are bizarre. The weirder rules make no sense at all. Yet another strange one revealed in this chapter is a prohibition against middle names. (Most people in the Bible tend to have one name, but there is no Scripture forbidding middle names, and there's nothing pagan about a middle name either, so no issue on that front.) Lilia thus chose a beautiful Maori name as her new middle name and got her birth certificate changed. Fair enough too.

    Apart from learning and doing many new things for the first time, the chapter also covers Lilia seriously questioning her Christian beliefs, which is entirely understandable given all the heresy she had drummed into her at Gloriavale. Before I talk about that though, I'd like to devote a paragraph to Lilia's experiences with a church in Christchurch called the Grace Vineyard Church. This is part of the wider Vineyard movement, and is steeped in all sorts of Pentecostal/Charismatic error. (A good overview of Vineyard founder John Wimber's errors is this article on the Way of Life Literature site.) So it actually stems from the same corrupt root that Gloriavale does, but its evil fruits are somewhat different since there is a lot more open worldliness, whereas Gloriavale tries to shun the world. (Both Vineyard and Gloriavale share some Pentecostal errors in common though, most notably false "gifts of the Spirit" like talking in gibberish.) Lilia joined a youth group and while she made some firm friends, she was shocked by the worldly behaviour and activities they engaged in. For example, they would listen to rap music with filthy curse words and wear next to nothing at the beach. Lilia found it difficult to distinguish between the people in her youth group and open unbelievers. (Funnily enough, I once went to a Salvation Army church more than 25 years ago and was part of a youth group that was also very worldly. Their preferred station was ZM [called ZMFM back then I think] and I remember watching The Addams Family Movie at a youth group house gathering one night.)

    If professing Christians cannot be distinguished from the world, that is probably because they are not born again and therefore have no desire to live any differently. If you are born again, God will change you: "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." (2 Corinthians 5:17) Becoming a new creature in Christ involves a profound spiritual change. This change is something God works in you. And as that change happens, you should begin to live quite differently to before. Peter describes it well: "Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin; That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God. For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries: Wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you: Who shall give account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead." (1 Peter 4:1-5) Notice the contrast he makes between the old unsaved life and the new life in Christ. The old life is about indulging the lusts of the flesh to the max. It's all about living to please your flesh. And that is clearly what those Vineyard youths were doing. The new life on the other hand should be about denying those lusts and living in accordance with God's will as revealed in His Word. As Paul says, "For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world". (Titus 2:11-12) However, you can only deny ungodliness and worldly lusts if you have been born again, because otherwise you will have no power over your fleshly lusts, even if you manage to suppress them for a period of time. Sooner or later, they'll get the better of you. But when you are saved, you actually WANT to deny those lusts, because you recognise how destructive they are. Nobody has to force you to deny them with a bunch of ridiculous and burdensome rules. And being subject to such a regime is no way to live, whether you are saved or not (if you're saved, you should see how wrong it is anyway). So to be a Christian means living a far different life to before, but it certainly does not mean living the way Gloriavale says you should. On the other hand, if you profess Christ and continue to live exactly like a lost person and have no conviction about that, you should examine yourself to see if you are really in the faith (see 2 Corinthians 13:5).

    Eventually, Lilia begins to not only question Gloriavale's teachings, but Christianity in general. She studies the tenets of other religions (interestingly, she calls atheism a religion, and in reality, it is). Tellingly, she says that she wants to follow her heart (this is an oft-repeated theme of the book). The Bible says that trusting in your heart is in fact a very dangerous and indeed foolish thing to do:

    "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" (Jeremiah 17:9)

    Notice that the heart is, first and foremost, DECEITFUL. So when you follow your heart, you lay yourself open to all manner of DECEPTION.

    "He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool: but whoso walketh wisely, he shall be delivered." (Proverbs 28:26)

    "How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies? yea, they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart" (Jeremiah 23:26)

    "For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple." (Romans 16:18)

    "If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain." (James 1:26)

    So the human heart is very easily deceived. It cannot be trusted. Only God can be trusted:

    "Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths." (Proverbs 3:5-6)

    My own life's experiences have taught me that the Word of God is right about this. Whenever I follow my heart, I end up in all kinds of disasters, all of which could have been avoided if only I had heeded God's Word instead. And there are numerous examples of people in the Bible who followed their heart instead of God's commands and ended up committing all sorts of sins and suffering all kinds of terrible consequences.

    As Lilia follows her heart and leans on her own understanding, she seems to adopt a sort of universalist belief, thinking that all the gods of different religions are basically the same. She remembers her best friend calling a tree an árbol (the Spanish word for tree) and realising that although the friend used a different word, she was talking about the exact same thing. Therefore, Lilia concluded, the gods of different religions are basically the same, just viewed in different ways.

    This is faulty logic, however. To show why, I am going to compare apples and oranges. (Yes, I'm really going there.) An apple is a fruit. An orange is a fruit. They both grow on trees. They both contain good vitamins and other healthy nutrients. If you call an apple a pomme (French) or Apfel (German), it's still an apple. If you call an orange a naranja (Spanish) or apelsin (Dutch and Scandinavian languages), it's still an orange. Nevertheless, they are clearly not the same. They may have some things in common (such as seeds inside them, a skin that can be peeled and the fact that they are edible), but they are still markedly different. Their texture is completely different (an apple is much harder and crunchier than an orange), as is their flavour, and also their skin. An apple's skin is edible, but an orange's skin is not (so peeling an apple to eat it is optional, but to eat an orange, you have to peel it first). There are enough obvious differences between apples and oranges, notwithstanding the things they share in common, to conclude that they are not the same thing. Likewise, when you look at what the Bible says about God, then look at what the books of other religions say about their god or gods, it is clear they are not the same at all. There are many ways in which the gods of other religions differ from the God of the Bible. To cite just one example, Islam's god Allah is a single entity. The God of the Bible comprises three Persons (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) in one Godhead. Islam denies that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. The Bible affirms and declares it. Another difference between the God of the Bible and the gods of other religions is that the latter all want works salvation of one sort or another, whereas the God of the Bible gives salvation by grace. Therefore, other religions are NOT different ways of looking at God, but are instead pushing alternative gods that are as different to Him as an orange or pear or lemon is to an apple. Or as different as darkness is from light (a more Biblically appropriate simile).

    It is not really a marvel though that Lilia rejects the Bible and adopts other philosophies. When you are lost, it just comes naturally: "But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." (1 Corinthians 2:14) The only way to receive the mind of Christ (see two verses later) and thereby gain real spiritual understanding and discernment is to be born again, and the only way to be born again is to repent (which means feeling grief and sorrow towards God for your sins) and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ who died and shed His blood on the cross, was buried and rose again after three days. (1 Corinthians 15:3-4) "Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ." (Acts 20:21) "For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death." (2 Corinthians 7:10)

UPDATE 18 (20/4/21): I have now read two further chapters in Daughter of Gloriavale, and according to the Kindle Paperwhite I'm reading it on, I am 91% of the way through this fascinating book. Both of these chapters were relatively short, so there's not too much to comment on with these. The 34th chapter starts out by describing Lilia's brief stint living and working in Australia (specifically, Coffs Harbour on the New South Wales coast). Returning to New Zealand, she attends a Beyoncé concert and moves into a flat with a couple of Christian girls. (At this stage, she still considered herself a Christian, although by the Bible's definition, she has never been one since she has never been born again.) She meets a man she likes and eventually loses her virginity to him. She says that expressing herself sexually gave her a sense of power that went against Gloriavale's teaching that a woman's body is for a man and she must please her husband no matter how she is feeling. I would just like to say at this point that Gloriavale's teaching is wrong here. God intends for husbands and wives to PLEASE EACH OTHER in the marriage bed: "Let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence: and likewise the wife unto the husband. The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband: and likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body, but the wife." (1 Corinthians 7:3-4) (I've underlined the parts of those verses that Gloriavale deliberately glosses over or attaches some other meaning to.)

    What is interesting about Lilia's first sexual experience is that it gave her the "power" to make a decisive break with not only Gloriavale, but Christanity. There is certainly a lot of spiritual power in sex. Within marriage, it makes a husband and wife as one flesh, the way God intended. But outside of marriage, the illicit pleasures of fornication play a particularly significant role in driving people away from God and towards false idols and false ways of thinking. This is why so many pagan religions have a strong emphasis on sex. Rock music also has sex at its very core (the term "rock and roll" is an old slang term for fornication in the back of a car). It is also why the modern-day rebellion against God has a particular focus on sexuality. Why do you think two of the biggest cultural and spiritual battlegrounds today are homosexuality and transgenderism? In Bible times, one of the things that characterised Israel's periods of rebellion against God was fornication. They are often described as "going a whoring" after other gods, and the use of the word "whoring" is no accident, because many of the pagan rituals they participated in involved perverse sexual acts. So I think it is quite significant that the moment when Lilia knows she is definitely not a Christian is the first time she commits fornication.

    However, she hides her new relationship from her Christian flatmates and for a while, from her mother. Eventually though, she confesses to her mother that she is no longer a Christian. Her mother is devastated and blames herself for leaving Gloriavale. (What her mother doesn't get is that being born again is what makes someone a Christian, not what church or community you belong to. A person can attend a church faithfully and live a very pious life, yet if they're not saved, their heart is just as unclean in God's sight as that of a person living in open sin.) Lilia then makes a little speech to her mother that I find myself fully agreeing with. She says that she is an adult (she was 21 by this time) and has the right to make her own decisions. I could not agree more. She also says that just because your parents believe a certain way doesn't mean you have to believe the same way. Again, absolutely spot-on! It is only natural early in life to copy the beliefs of one's parents, but there comes a time when you have to stop blindly following them and start working things out for yourself. For instance, in my younger years I voted Labour because my parents did, but when I examined the various beliefs of different parties and measured them against the Word of God, not to mention my personal values, I realised that I could no longer support Labour in all good conscience. (That said, I don't think Labour is all bad, and I certainly don't hate Jacinda Ardern, but I cannot vote for a party that stands for a number of things that God expressly condemns.) Finally, she points out that forcing people to believe the same way was Gloriavale's method. I agree that this is wrong. Although it's not just Gloriavale's method. Plenty of false cults and false religions do the same thing. "Believe our way, or else!" So although I am saddened by Lilia's full-scale rejection of Christianity, I applaud her for taking responsibility for her own choices and beliefs and not just believing something because her parents do. Quite simply, it is the adult thing to do.

    The next chapter deals solely with Lilia becoming involved in managing her parents' business. This means exercising leadership, including leadership over men, something that is anathema to Gloriavale. But her father wholeheartedly approves. (Lilia notes that his open-mindedness is one thing that helped him take the family away from Gloriavale.) By her own account, she makes a pretty decent fist of running the company and helps to make it a thriving business. But then, because of her father's advancing age and one or two other factors, the company ends up closing down, much to her disappointment.

    In justifying their treatment of women, Gloriavale makes much of the following passage (which Lilia alludes to in this chapter): "Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression." (1 Timothy 2:11-14) Now this has to do with the role of women in the church, which is also made clear by the following Scripture: "Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law. And if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church." (1 Corinthians 14:34-35)

    There is no command in Scripture for women to stay silent in any other area of life. And even in churches, it has to do with preaching, teaching men and holding positions of high authority. However, there is no reason why a woman can't share a testimony, join in with a prayer or sing a hymn. Now let's look at the word "usurp": The 1828 Webster's Dictionary defines it thus: "To seize and hold in possession by force or without right". So if a woman tries to do specific tasks in a church that God only intends for men, she is usurping authority. Or if she tries to act as the head of the home instead of her husband, she is usurping authority. But Lilia was appointed to her position in a place of business. She did not take it by force. Moreover, it was men who approved her in the role! And among those men was her own father! So she was given authority in that situation, by men moreover, and hence did not usurp it. Likewise, when you consider our two main political parties, both have female leaders, and both were appointed by their caucuses. Those caucuses included both men and women. So they have certainly not usurped any authority either. Moreover, the Bible is largely silent on the role of women outside the church and home, although it is certainly God's preference for women to be keepers at home. However, what you often see with a cult such as Gloriavale is that they go beyond what the Bible actually commands and teaches. They assume commands where the Bible makes none. They attach a whole lot of extra meaning that was never intended. This is one of many ways in which people wrest the Scriptures to their own destruction.

UPDATE 19 (25/4/21): After a little break, I read the 36th chapter yesterday. Not a huge amount to comment on with this one. It starts out with Lilia talking a bit about her expanding collection of clothes and shoes (she may be the Kiwi Imelda Marcos!), discovering her style and so on. As I said above somewhere, I have no problem at all with her talking about that stuff, it's just not of interest to me personally, although one comment stuck out where she said she wanted to blaze a bright trail to Hell if she was going there. After the hell she went through at Gloriavale, I understand how she came to think that way, but it was still sad to read. Because Hell does await unrepentant sinners, but sin is transgressing God's law, not breaking Gloriavale's rules.

    Lilia also describes a relationship with a man who is kind and gentle and treats her with consideration. Whereas at Gloriavale, men are encouraged to treat women as mere servants. She also describes working through an emotional process of undoing years and years of brainwashing. Many beliefs and habits that she had been taught at Gloriavale remained with her, so she needed to unlearn and undo them. But as she did so, Lilia had to deal with a lot of internal pain from all she'd been through. She also missed family members who were still in there, although in this chapter she mentions an entire family of her cousins getting out.

    Finally, Lilia talks quite a lot about learning to love herself. This sounds great, but it's really a kind of New Age thinking. We don't actually need to learn to love ourselves, because we do it naturally! That is why there is so much selfishness in the world, not to mention an epidemic of entitled behaviour among many. What we DO need to learn is to love God and love our fellow-man. Every other commandment in Scripture hinges on those two things. (See Matthew 22:37-40.) The thing about love though is that it must be freely given. If you love by constraint, that is NOT real love! As I have pointed out quite a few times now, this is where Gloriavale (and indeed pretty much every cult) goes so horribly wrong. People don't live the way they do in that place out of love for God, but rather due to fear of man - specifically, fear of the leaders. You can only truly love God if you are born again and also if you have the liberty to love Him. There is a world of difference between say, giving up a particular TV programme because you love God and want to please Him and you have a conviction about evil things in that programme, and giving up a TV show (or TV altogether) because you have no other choice - it's just the rules. So I read this chapter with mixed feelings. On one hand, I was happy for Lilia that she was undoing some of the damage that Gloriavale had done to her, but also sad that she was still mired in deception. A different type of deception to before, and somewhat gentler, but ultimately every bit as spiritually destructive.

UPDATE 20 (26/4/21): Read the 37th chapter in Daughter of Gloriavale yesterday. In this chapter, Lilia moves in with the boyfriend she mentioned in the previous chapter and decides her calling in life is to help people escape situations similar to the one she was once in, although she also gets into alternative medicine. However, the two things in this chapter I'd like to focus on are her observations the mainstream media and thoughts on homosexuality. I'll start with the latter. In this chapter, Lilia reveals that she makes friends with some homosexuals and bisexuals, developing a strong friendship with one homosexual man in particular. This man had a religious family, and when he "came out" to them, it damaged his relationships with many of them. Lilia thought this was sad when all he wanted "was the freedom to be himself". It is evident from this comment that she accepts the popular lie that homosexuals are "born that way". (Sexual behaviour is a choice, not an in-born trait.) But in any case, it is not just homosexuals who have to face family hostility over their choices in life. For example, if a person in a staunchly left-wing household announced that they wanted to vote for a right-wing party, that could well lead to a falling-out with some family members. Someone in a family that was against interracial marriage would probably make many family members unhappy if they announced they wanted to marry someone of a different skin colour (just to be clear, I myself have no issue whatsoever with interracial marriage). And a person raised in a non-Christian household will likely face some stern opposition if they become a born-again Christian. (Some people have actually been killed by their families for that.) Having said that, I think families should respect other people's choices, even if they don't like or approve of them. (Which is not to say that sin is OK, because it never is, but if someone is determined to live a sinful lifestyle, and doesn't want to listen to Biblical rebuke or reason, and they are moreover a legal adult, then let them go do what they want and deal with the consequences.) But in reality, it doesn't often work out like that.

    Lilia also recites the Gloriavale teachings on homosexuality. On the surface at least, their teachings on this subject appear to be fairly Biblically correct. But as Lilia observes, their zeal for righteousness results in great arrogance and pride (no surprise as that is evident throughout her book). Incidentally, there are two errors that I see among many Christians when it comes to homosexuality nowadays. The first error is to accept the lie that it is an in-born trait. God would not forbid it and so strongly condemn it in both the Old and New Testaments if it were something you were just naturally born with. A person is no more "born gay" than they're born a fornicator, an adulterer, a paedophile or zoophile etc. However, everyone is born with a sinful nature that we've inherited from Adam, and sooner or later it will manifest itself in a variety of ways, including assorted sexual sins. However, the other error is to adopt an attitude of superiority towards homosexuals, à la the Westboro Baptist Church or Steven Anderson. So-called Christians who do this are exhibiting the exact same spirit as the proud Pharisee in Luke 18 who despised the publican, and are probably just as lost as the homosexuals they despise. Sadly, Gloriavale have this exact spirit, and no doubt it shows in their attitude to homosexuals as much as it does to other people they deem sinners. Christians should guard against both accepting the "born that way" myth and also against any attitude of proud superiority.

    The other point I wanted to touch on concerns some very astute observations Lilia made about manipulation by the mainstream media. She noticed that many people showed the exact same hostility towards Gloriavale that they themselves show to people who leave. But what she also noticed is that much of this hostility was based on what she called "filtered propaganda" by the mainstream media. That is a great expression that perfectly sums up what much of the mainstream media does today. She noticed that mainstream media reports played up the sexual abuse angle and ignored many more positive aspects of Gloriavale life. Another excellent observation she made is that people often just readily believe what the mainstream media tells them without stopping to think about it more deeply and ask themselves whether the reports are telling the whole story. To these observations, I will say a hearty AMEN! The mainstream media distorts a great many things, creating narratives with selective and often one-sided reporting. They do indeed filter things for the purposes of propaganda rather than information. Much discernment is needed when watching the news or other current affairs programmes nowadays.

 

UPDATE 21 (27/4/21): Made it! I HAVE FINALLY FINISHED Daughter of Gloriavale! The 38th chapter, which I read yesterday, turned out to be the last one. Which means that this will be the conclusion of my running commentary. In this final chapter, Lilia Tarawa talks a bit about the process of writing the book, and how she felt it was important to be honest with her family about it. She says that writing the book was part of her healing and that her past has shaped the kind of person she is now.

    One of the most interesting parts of this chapter was that Lilia made a return to Gloriavale one day in January 2017. She was just paying a visit with some other members of her family, and during this visit, she had a reunion with her grandfather (Neville Cooper did not die until 2018). By now, she had done some research about his sexual offending and was shocked to realise how much she had not previously known. She also observed that he twisted the Bible to rationalise his crimes. He certainly wouldn't be the first cult leader to do that, but like the rest of them, the same Word of God that he twisted will be used to judge him on the last day (see John 12:48). Anyway, on the visit to Gloriavale, Lilia badly wanted to confront Cooper, but her other family members had promised that they wanted a peaceful visit, so she held her peace. When they arrived, Cooper took them into a meeting room and indulged in a long session of bragging about various aspects of Gloriavale. Apart from asking Lilia's brother Victor one question about himself, Cooper spent the rest of the time bragging. In that moment, Lilia realised how utterly lacking in empathy he was and how completely focussed he was on himself and the community he had built. What also strikes me, not for the first time, was the inordinate pride Cooper had. All cult leaders have this same kind of pride, and they have now learned, or will learn that God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble (see for instance James 4:6).

    But while Lilia has come to understand the kind of man Neville Cooper really was and how damaging the Gloriavale belief system is, she also expresses gratitude for having been raised there, noting that it taught her how to build deep relationships with people and also taught her a number of life skills that many modern women lack. In fact, Lilia is genuinely surprised by that. So for all the harm it does, Gloriavale does do some good - at least, in some areas - as well. And there is certainly nothing wrong with acknowledging that. While fear assuredly plays a major role in people staying there, those good aspects would doubtless contribute too.

     Throughout this running commentary, I have not actually quoted directly from the book a great deal. However, I am going to quote one of the very last paragraphs, after which I'll provide some final thoughts of my own. Herewith that paragraph:

    "It's empowering to live according to the guiding intuition of my heart, which was always present but for so long was viciously suppressed. I no longer accept absolute truths; instead, I choose to live against the grain, adopt new beliefs and explore diverse philosophies." (Emphasis mine)

    I have already expounded at some length on the dangers of following one's own heart in Update 17. All I will say here is that it has been a common theme throughout the book. Even when she was still inside Gloriavale, there were times when Lilia followed her heart. Unfortunately, her heart will lead her to the same place where her grandfather now resides (hint: he's not in Heaven), because that's how the deceitful and wicked human heart rolls. Having said that however, I do sympathise with her over the vicious suppression that she experienced at Gloriavale. You cannot force people to live righteously, as I think I've pointed out a few times previously. If they have not been born again, it's a futile exercise since they won't get saved that way and it is not a natural existence for the unsaved in any case. I am sincerely happy for Lilia that she has escaped Gloriavale's oppressive yoke, and am also truly thankful that she wrote this book. It has been an absolutely fascinating an instructive insight into one of New Zealand's most infamous religious communities.

    Regarding Lilia's declaration that she no longer accepts absolute truths, I can understand why she feels that way since Gloriavale dogmatically presented its beliefs as absolute truth. The only problem is, their doctrine is false and full of lies! And it is precisely those lies that are the problem. Lies such as baptismal regeneration and conditional security (an accursed false gospel). Although even when they do take a Biblically right position, they are full of pride about it. As I have said a few times previously, it's the exact same pride the Pharisees of old had. But anyway, when you have grown up being fed lies disguised as "absolute truth", some wariness and scepticism about things claimed to be true is to be expected.

    The answer, however, is not to reject absolute truth, because the true God of the Bible is all about truth. The inventor of lies in this world is Satan (John 8:44). In any case, rejecting absolute truth is actually illogical, because a thing is either true or it's not. However, just because somebody says something is true doesn't automatically mean it is true. Which is why you need to test things. In modern parlance, do your fact-checking. The Bible does not encourage blind belief, and here are some verses to prove it:

    "These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so." (Acts 17:11)

    "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." (1 Thessalonians 5:21)

    "Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world." (1 John 4:1)

    The first quoted verse is referring to the people of Berea. They heard the preaching of Paul the apostle, but whereas the people of Thessalonica just took him at face value, those in Berea searched the Scriptures to see if Paul's preaching lined up with them. And for exercising this diligence, the Bible describes them as "more noble" than the Thessalonians. Indeed, with the very things I am teaching on this blog, I would absolutely encourage you, urge you even, to check out the Scriptures for yourselves and not just take what I say at face value. Because while I have absolutely no intention to deceive anyone, I am human and I could still get something wrong. Also note that the Bible does not say "prove SOME things", but "prove ALL things". These are not practices encouraged by Gloriavale. There, you are just supposed to accept whatever the leaders tell you. They actually do exactly what the Roman Catholic Church does in that some men are deemed to have special ability to interpret the Bible for everyone else and the "laity" just have to listen to them, because they are God's representatives on earth (not!). The third verse deals with the discerning of spirits. Sometimes, a person might say a correct thing, but have a wrong spirit (see Acts 16:16-18 for an example of this). All false prophets have evil spirits who deny the true Christ, and Neville Cooper was no exception. The evil spirit within him was evident in, among other things, his pride, false teaching and predatory behaviour.

    Lilia's statement that she likes to adopt new beliefs and explore diverse philosophies reminded me of this verse: "That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive" (Ephesians 4:14) There is nothing wrong with learning about other belief systems in itself, but if you adopt every new thing (or many new things) you come across, you are going to end up tossed to and fro on every wind of doctrine, which is a recipe for great spiritual confusion. Indeed, I have noticed on Lilia's Web site (which I checked out a few days ago) that she is into yoga and meditation nowadays, which will actually expose her to the same kundalini spirit that pervades Charismatic services. This same spirit was very likely present in some Gloriavale gatherings too. One of the descriptions of herself on the site is "ever learning", which brought to mind this Scripture: "Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth." (2 Timothy 3:7)

    It is clear from reading this book that while Lilia Tarawa has rightly identified many of the key things wrong with Gloriavale and left its oppressive ways behind her, she has not come to knowledge of the truth. So while I rejoice for her in many respects, I feel sad for her in that she is not saved (in reality, she never was, so had no salvation to lose) and is moreover being exposed to fresh deceptions. One thing I have learned in my own life is that indulgence in the pleasures of sin can enslave you very bit as much as living in an oppressive cult. That is because sin is addictive, and as you yearn for its delights, you become trapped by it. If the Devil can't take you captive one way, he'll find another way to do it. "And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will." (2 Timothy 2:26) Repentance to the acknowledging of the truth (see the previous verse) is the key. Being sorry to God for your sins against Him, then believing on the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. Then, and only then, is it possible to be truly set free. "If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." (John 8:36) "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." (Romans 8:2) "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." (John 8:32) Lies keep people in bondage. The truth, found in Jesus Christ, is what sets people free. Sadly, the Jesus of Gloriavale is a counterfeit Christ. It is good that Lilia Tarawa got away from that "Jesus". But she remains in spiritual bondage and deception, it's just taken a different form now. She is free in one sense, but not in another. It is my prayer for her that she will one day come to know who God really is and know that while she doesn't have to live under an oppressive church like Gloriavale, nor does she have to be held captive by sin either. If she meets the true Christ of the Bible, then she will know real freedom.

UPDATE 22 (5/5/21): In an exclusive report, Newshub has revealed that a joint operation involving Oranga Tamariki and the NZ Police has started in Gloriavale. (Click the link to read the article and watch a video of the report.) All girls between the ages of five and 16 are being interviewed by the police about allegations of sexual abuse. So that is quite a significant development. It will be interesting to see what, if anything, arises from this operation.

UPDATE 23 (19/5/21): I'm not sure what happened with that police operation I reported on in the previous update, but anyway, a new article on Stuff has appeared describing the experience of a YouTuber called Caleb Jack, who recently visited Gloriavale with his partner, Aurélie Bray. He initially just asked to go to their free public concert, but they instead invited him and his girlfriend to "visit at any time". I'm entering the realm of conjecture here, but I wonder whether they could be losing members, especially with the police having recently visited, and are trying extra hard to boost their population with new recruits? Well anyway, whatever Gloriavale's motivation was, Mr Jack and Ms Bray took up the invitation. He opined that "the members of Gloriavale were decent people but living under indoctrination". That's probably a fair assessment for most of them (I make an exception for the leaders who are doing the indoctrinating). He also observes how there are older people who have chosen to live there, which he has no problem with, but also many who have been brought up in it and don't know anything else. Then he states, "I felt there was a fear of outsiders. We met children who had already decided they didn’t want anything to do with us or even talk to us". This is all very consistent with the story I cited when I first made this post, and also right in line with Lilia Tarawa's book. 

    The article then states, tellingly, "The couple were taken to the lodge on the property for a three-hour induction by some of Gloriavale’s leaders." (Emphasis mine) Again, this gels with what Lilia Tarawa said in her book about long sessions. I personally think it's a way of breaking down people's resistance and making them easier to control. A remark by Ms Bray lines up with what Lilia wrote about many of the men in Gloriavale (including her own father) travelling extensively. To quote Ms Bray (as cited in the article): "[One] talked about how he went to Lithuania to get a packing machine for their farm and in my head I was like, ‘Man, how is it justifiable that you travel the world but you’re telling your kids they’re not allowed to leave this village?’" (Stuff's brackets) A very fair question, that.

    They revert to Caleb Jack who recounts the contemptuous attitude of the leaders for poor people who come to Gloriavale for some free food. These leaders call them "rice-bowl Christians". To quote Mr Jack (as the Stuff writer quotes him): "They have some poor people who come but only for the food, right, and he was kinda criticising that like ‘oh well if they aren’t coming for the ministry then maybe they shouldn’t be there. And it’s just like, ‘Dude, who cares? Just, like, serve them and minister to them and be there for them, that’s all you got to do’." Quite honestly, I think Mr Jack shows a more Christian attitude than the Gloriavale leaders here. And as far as I can tell, he is not saved. While the most important thing we can give anyone is the Gospel, the Bible has plenty to say about showing kindness to the poor and needy. Consider this passage in the Epistle of James, for instance: "If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?" (James 2:15-16) People in genuine need require food and clothing more than "ministry" (especially Gloriavale's brand thereof).

    You may recall in one of my updates commenting on Daughter of Gloriavale, I mentioned how Lilia highlights a racist attitude towards Māori among the Gloriavale leaders. Well, it appears that attitude is still present. The article writer reports, "However, in the principal’s office he saw several copies of a controversial book denouncing Te Ao Māori, despite the schools teaching Te Reo Māori". The schools referred to in that quote are schools in Gloriavale, which are described by Mr Jack as "state-of-the-art". It's good that they are at least teaching Te Reo. Shows a little progress on that front, but underlying attitudes probably haven't changed much.

    Mr Jack refers to being "passionately preached to", but also notes that "the conversations were often clouded with a disconnect from reality, a fear of the world". Certainly sounds like the Gloriavale others have described. And again in accord with what others have said, he talks about how the community members have no money (even though Gloriavale's trust has millions) and how their work for no pay contributes greatly to the growth and wealth of Gloriavale's businesses.

    After Mr Jack and his partner concluded their visit, they were given DVDs about life in Gloriavale. They certainly are keen to get some new recruits, but I'm pretty sure they failed with those two. Anyway, that was an interesting little read and serves as another "witness" to what life in a cult like Gloriavale is really like.

UPDATE 24 (21/5/21): Quite by accident, I have found the YouTube video by Caleb Jack that I mentioned in the last update. Well, it came up in my suggestions of videos to watch. I'm going to try something a little different and embed it. Then I'll make one or two comments.

    So first of all, I hope that actually works! Apologies if not. I usually just link to videos, but thought I'd try something new. If you read my previous update, some of the things Mr Jack said in the video will seem very familiar - the Stuff writer was evidently quoting from it. One rather interesting remark that wasn't included in the Stuff article was that during the three-hour induction, one of the senior people told Mr Jack that some Gloriavale people can start work at 3:00am, but that the Government shouldn't be told about that because they might construe it as slave labour! (They're working for no wages - that is slave labour anyway! And as I explained above, the Bible says that workers should be paid. So the way Gloriavale treats its workers is actually un-Biblical.)

    Secondly, I said last time that as far as I can tell, Caleb Jack is not saved. However, he does profess to be a Christian, as does his girlfriend. That doesn't mean he's born again, though. There are many who profess Christ (including the people in Gloriavale!), and yet are not saved. (See Matthew 7:22-23) There is no Gospel message preached by Mr Jack in this video. He says something like "We could all have been there" (meaning, living like they do at Gloriavale but for having different beliefs). He also claims that "religions don't abuse people, the leaders do". Well, many religions DECEIVE people, and their false doctrines make it easier for the leaders of those religions to abuse people. But those false doctrines, those lies that such religions teach, play a major role in keeping people in spiritual bondage. The truth of Jesus Christ sets people free from all that. Then he states, "Find the faith, but reject the dogma". That is extremely vague. Find what faith, exactly? And what does he mean by dogma? The specific dogmas of Gloriavale, dogma in any religion, something else? Very hard to know. One thing I do know however is that doctrine is very important. There is the Biblical doctrine of Christ, and then there are all other false doctrines (including some that can sound very Christian, yet still fall short of the truth in key ways). So certainly, false doctrines (and dogmas) like Gloriavale's absolutely should be rejected. But so should false faiths (any faith in a false doctrine or false religion is a false faith).

    So based on this video, I don't question Mr Jack's profession of Christianity, but do have grave doubts as to whether he is saved. Being born again is what makes one Biblically a Christian, and it happens when you repent of your sins (grieve and be sorry for your transgressions of God's law) and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. He fulfilled the Law perfectly, because we could not, and also paid the price for our wickedness by shedding His blood on the cross, but then defeating the power of sin and death by rising from the dead three days later. If you are not born again, you can profess Christ all you like, but your profession will be in vain. So I really hope that Mr Jack and his girlfriend will come to know true salvation someday. But that aside, I thank him for that most interesting little video, and hope you find it informative too.