Institute in Basic Life Principles/ Bill Gothard

Statement of Faith [ Back to top ]

IBLP uses the following to express its statement of faith:

We believe in the one true God, existing in three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. These three are coeternal and coequal from all eternity, each with distinct personalities but of one essence.

We believe that the Bible is the verbally inspired Word of God and is the sole, infallible rule of faith and practice. We believe that Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God, that He entered into the world through the virgin birth, and lived among us without sin as perfect Man and perfect God.

We believe Adam was directly created in innocence and in the image of God and was not evolved from preexisting forms of life. By voluntary transgression, he fell; and thus the whole race is now sinful by nature and practice and, therefore, under just condemnation to eternal separation from God.

We believe Jesus Christ shed His blood on Calvary as a vicarious substitute for all sinners, was buried and rose again bodily, and ascended to the right hand of the Father, from whence He will personally return.

We believe all people are justified by grace through faith in the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ without any mixture of works.

We believe the Holy Spirit convicts the sinner; regenerates, sanctifies, and indwells the believer; and fills the believer for effective service.

We believe in the priesthood of the believer and that God has made provision for each believer to be victorious by being led of the Spirit and not walking after the flesh.

We believe in the resurrection of both the saved and the lost—the just unto the resurrection of life eternal, and the lost unto the resurrection of eternal damnation.

We believe Satan is a person and that hell is a place of eternal conscious punishment for him, his hosts and all unbelievers.

We believe Christians are commanded by Scripture to abstain from all forms of compromise with unbelief.

We believe the Bible sets forth principles for Godly living and that if one learns and follows these principles, one will be able to avoid and refute false teachings and false concepts.

History [ Back to top ]

At the age of fifteen, Bill Gothard saw some of his high school classmates making unwise decisions. He realized that they would have to live with the consequences and dedicated his life to helping young people make wise choices.

Shortly after this, an older friend challenged Bill to begin memorizing large sections of Scripture. Up until his high school years, he was a very poor student. He actually flunked first grade and passed the next eight grades on probation. As he memorized and meditated on Scripture, his grades significantly improved, so much so that he graduated from high school a member of the National Honor Society. This direct correlation between his grades and his consistency in memorization and meditation on Scripture continued through college and graduate school.

Greater achievement in school was only one of many benefits that Bill experienced as a result of applying Scripture. In his further work with young people, he explained these benefits and urged them to adopt the same personal disciplines.

In 1964, Wheaton College, the school from which Bill graduated, invited him to design and teach a course based on his youth work. They named it Basic Youth Conflicts and gave two hours of upper-division under-graduate and graduate credit for the course. Forty-six students, youth pastors, and teachers registered for that first class. The next year there were 120 students.

In the following years, the course was offered in several new locations. Alumni were informed of the dates and told their friends about it. Soon seminars averaged between 10,000 and 20,000 youth and adults. Today hundreds of smaller Seminars are being conducted in cities throughout the United States and in other nations.

Ministry Needs [ Back to top ]

IBLP uses the following guidelines:

- Trusting God to provide operating funds rather than asking people for money.
- No borrowing of money or starting projects before the money is in hand.
- No receiving of gifts that are designated as tithe money. These are returned and the senders are encouraged to give them to their local church.

Funds are received from Seminar fees, publications sales, and unsolicited gifts. They are used to support a staff of over 1,000 paid and volunteer workers who serve in forty-seven divisions of the Institute's ministry.

Research Analysis

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