Breaking Free: Rescuing Families from the Clutches of Legalism

This book was very helpful to me after coming out of a very legalistic church. I was amazed that the conclusions I had drawn after six years in my former church were voiced by others that had come out of of similar ministries. I thought I was all alone, but Miller's book helped me to understand that the Holy Spirit has been leading people out of this religion for a long, long time before I came on the scene. I highly recommend this book to anyone caught in or trying to break free from hard-core ultra-judgmentalist-fundamentalism.

Dr. Miller has obviously dealt with legalism for a long time. The fact that he stayed within the denomination in an attempt to change it speaks of his care and concern for those believers engulfed by it. He pinpoints many of it's faults, like the abuse of elder "authority", it's isolationistic tendency, the "security" legalism provides, and it's emphasis on comformity of the "in-group". Having seen these characteristics first-hand, I found Miller's book to be confirmation of many of my own thoughts in regards to legalism. My only complaint is that he could have used more Scriptural evidence, but nevertheless, it is a much needed work for the church. It truly is harder to trust the grace of God rather than our own works. The grace of God is outside of our control. I've heard many legalists give lip service to trusting God while their actions showed that they themselves trusted Him little, if at all. We can control & conform our every behavior, the behaviour of our children & wives, and the behavior of our congregations, can't we? And as long as everything LOOKS like it's in order, that's what's important, isn't it? The problem is that you can control outward behavior and never change the heart. "They honor me with their lips but their heart is far from me." "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. Legalism is cold and dead; it smothers love. Paul wrote to BELIEVERS "Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?" Gal 3:3. Along the line of the law/Grace issue, I would also recommend Chuck Swindoll's "The Grace Awakening", John Reisinger's book "When Should A Christian Leave a Church", Cecil Hook's "Free in Christ", and William Huntington's "Rule and Riddle". This issue crosses ALL denominational lines. "Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage." Galations 5:1