Galatians Study
Christ Has Set Us Free
Description of Group
This is a six-week Bible study through the Letter to the Galatians in the New Testament.
Through studying Galatians together we will get clear answers to questions like:
- “What is the gospel?”
- “How should I read the Old Testament?”
- “What does it mean to live according to the gospel?”
- “What is the relationship between faith, works, and salvation?”
Participation in this group will require focused Bible study in your personal time.
Homework between each session will supplement the vibrant group discussion.
Teaching Leader
Ethan Greer is the Advancement Director for Berean Holiness. He holds a BA in Christian Ministry from Ozark Christian College (2013). For over ten years, he was involved in church planting in urban Japan. Ethan wants to see people behold the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
“God was this being that was always ready to cut me off as soon as I slipped up. Everything I did/didn’t do was out of fear, guilt and shame. I personally didn’t like the rules, but I HAD to follow them if I didn’t want to go to hell. Since leaving hyper fundamentalism I have had to get to know a completely different God. The real God. The One I can actually trust in…
Living in Fear
“I lived in fear. Fear of wrath from God. Fear of God leaving me if I sinned because ‘He wouldn’t dwell in an unclean temple.’ Fear of being ‘sat down’ or ‘removed from the stage’ if I did something someone didn’t agree with. I only lived to please the pastor and fellow members and was consumed with pride in being ‘holiness.’ I judged others for the smallest things that were against ‘holiness standards.’ I believed all other ‘Christians’ from any other denomination were all deceived and going to Hell. If a sinner came to church and got ‘saved,’ they were expected to ‘line up’ fairly quickly or they didn’t really ‘pray through.’ It was all based on outward appearance.”
– Brittany
“I was in constant fear that I would lose my salvation. Probably displayed some religious ocd by praying the sinner’s prayer multiple times a day in case one of my thoughts that I may not have remembered was sinful. Also, was constantly worried that family members who didn’t live up to the holiness standards were sinners and backsliders going to hell. Basically, I was constantly paranoid and afraid that God was going to come back and send me and those I loved to hell.”
– Rachel
“While in Holiness, I felt like if I made one mistake and the Lord would come back at that moment I would be left behind. Mostly because this is what was implied! Something my pastor’s wife said one time during a testimony was that she had gotten angry at her supervisor at work one day, and she said she knew if the Lord would come back right then that she would’ve been left. Same church; a lady testifying said she always listened to hear children playing outside of a morning, and if she heard some, she knew the Lord hadn’t come back and left her. So much fear! I actually didn’t attend a Holiness [church] for a long time, but it certainly affected me for a long time after. Even now when I see a clip of a Holiness preacher preaching I start to feel fear and doubt creep in—which is wrong! Jesus did not die on the cross for us to live in bondage. I know that God loves me and isn’t sitting there waiting to punish me if I make a little mistake. I do believe we are called to live like Jesus, and that does not include legalistic do’s and don’ts that are not actually written in the Bible.”
– Anonymous
“Well into my 30s I felt eternally insecure. I viewed God as angry and salvation as a fragile thing that required perfection and easily constantly slipped away. Fear was a constant companion at times paralyzing fear and compulsive rule following with so much pride in righteousness of following and going above and beyond those rules.”
– Hannah
“It left me feeling very caged, like I was always wearing a mask because I couldn’t afford to share my real self. I didn’t have close friends beyond a surface level, I couldn’t let them see the real me. Now I feel much more confident, no anxiety, it’s just me and God and I know despite my personal questions that without a doubt I can trust Him and don’t have to worry, come what may.”
– Anonymous
“I believe it [hyper fundamentalism] made me afraid. Afraid that one mistake or one wrong move, it was over and I was going straight to Hell. It made me afraid to do anything to make the Pastor upset or angry because you would be called out and made a spectacle of. I think in this religion, you put more focus on the Pastor and what he says rather than what the Word says.”
– Dana Hand
“I have been trying to save myself my entire life. I lived in fear and anxiety of being ‘left behind.’ I am still working out my salvation but I love the book of Ephesians to point me toward the cross and what Jesus did for me.”
– Ashley
“We were taught ‘saved by grace’ but outward appearances was paramount for proof of being a Christian. Also fear of God was imbedded very early as a child. Doing any type of wrong whether conscious or sub conscious could mean God was displeased with us and we wouldn’t be ready for heaven. Another big fear that was perpetrated was that God may never speak to us again. We walked on eggshells with God. I developed immense anxiety in my teens due to those fear factors and had panic attacks for years. It was not until I started disentangling myself from the Holiness movement that the trauma I developed through 30 years of living under a religious microscope did my anxiety/panic attacks cease. I wouldn’t wish what I went through on anyone. Living in that movement felt like a type of hell on earth.”
– Lori
“I was constantly on edge and anxious about what other people thought of me and my relationship with God. Now I feel secure in my salvation regardless of what other people may think about me. Before disentangling, I would occasionally anctively engage in unhealthy sinful behaviors and feel like it was kind of ok because God didn’t reveal it to ‘my pastor’ or another significant spiritual ‘authority.’ Now I understand that God loves me even when I struggle with sin. This doesn’t mean that he condones or accepts my sin, just that He loves me in spite of that. He also has placed people and processes in my life to help me deal with the root cause of some of my struggles rather than just telling me to ‘pray and read my Bible more’ without providing any practical ways to deal with the hurt/habit/hang up that caused me to continually choose the unhealthy sinful behavior.”
– Brian
“If asked to describe how my upbringing made me feel, the overwhelming response was FEAR. It began as a young child, and, at 60, I still feel the tentacles of it, though I try to find peace with it. As a young child, I recall calling for my mom the moment I got home from school, cause if I couldn’t find her, for sure the Rapture had happened, I was left. I never felt worthy to be included, though I prayed to ‘get saved’ many times, did all I could to conform and live the life required. Fear. Lots of fear.”
– Anonymous
“I am 64 and have suffered with anxiety for most of my life. Never felt good enough. We were not taught the gospel of grace and always felt we had to do the right things. As a women I always wore my hair up and although I’d wear pants in the garden and camping and such, I didn’t (at this point I still have t got up the courage!) wear pants shopping in our smaller home town in case I’m seen by a previous church member. Not knowing the gospel of grace, I never knew the promised joy of salvation.”
– Anonymous
“Hyper fundamentalism caused excessive fear/anxiety, to a point I couldn’t attend church for even 10 minutes without a full panic attack and not being able to breathe. This was while following all rules and surface level believing all that was taught. When I finally realized my triggers were based in bad theology/standards/enforcement, I was too scared to leave. It was all I had known.
An unbeliever coworker who was searching for hope asked me about coming to my church one day. There was no way I was bringing him to my church so we attended a Wednesday night chapel at Liberty University (near where I live) with Ergun Caner speaking. He spoke with such confidence in the sovereignty of God and how God won’t leave us as His kids. It started me exploring what the Bible actually says.
I attended a conservative church for a long time thereafter but finally left all conservative church ideas for at least 5 years. For the last 2+ years, we have been attending a more Bible centered church and Berean has helped with this.”
– Jason
No Assurance of Salvation
“I believe that assurance of Salvation was something I struggled with because I lived with the shadow of accidentally doing something that was against the Bible and missing heaven. I have served God since I was 9, but there was so much talk in the hyper-fundamental groups of things we had to do to please God. When I started to study on my own and read BH posts, I realized my salvation wasn’t based on anything other than salvation by grace through faith.”
– Sherilyn
“There’s so much more to it, but I recently realized that apart from a few days after each time I ‘went to the altar,’ I went to bed each night believing I would go to hell if I died or Christ returned.
35 years of this took a toll. I gave up for many years, unable to live a perfect Christian life, though desperately wanting to. My hyper-conscientiousness, combined with poor theology, left me a mess.
Jesus was faithful. He used Godly people who helped me read and understand the Gospel for what it is. The best Good News imaginable! The peace I now have, in spite of failures in my walk (sin), is indescribable. He truly paid the price and I live my life for him, not out of fear, but out of gratitude.”
– Aaron G.
“Salvation felt unachievable/scary to me. There were so many rules I genuinely felt like those were more important than anything else. To me salvation meant baptism and speaking in tongues, they put no emphasis on how our hearts played a role into knowing God and receiving his spirit. After leaving, it felt like someone took blinders off of me and I could actually breathe and have a relationship with God.”
– Natalie
“It [hyper fundamentalism] made me think that keeping salvation was impossible. My understanding was that every time I sinned, be it a sin listed in the Bible or one they one they made up, I had lost my salvation and had to repent and try to be good enough to keep it. It kept me fearful and uncertain. Now that I understand that salvation is fully in the finished work of Christ alone it has brought me peace, freedom, and joy.”
– Vanessa Powell
“…I felt so unworthy of anything good in life. I was a despicable excuse of a waste of oxygen and creativity on His part because of MY screw ups. I also believed that if I didn’t ‘toe the line,’ I may not even truly be saved. Any time I sinned, I questioned my salvation and was fearful of His wrath being poured out on me. At times, I didn’t even pray and ask His help or protection because I didn’t believe He would answer me anyway. I wasn’t holy enough or righteous enough. I would lay face down on the carpet in my bedroom many nights, sobbing, begging Him to just love and accept me into His family and to help me live pleasingly to Him.
Now.. now!! Now I feel His love all the time! I have seen Him answer my prayers for things I never thought possible. I am finally coming to comprehend grace. I didn’t understand it before. And it’s OVERWHELMING to me. I still feel unworthy, but more in a humble and still loved way, not in the way that I am gross and God is absolutely repulsed by me. Now I feel His grace and mercy as a result of His LOVE, not His pity. I no longer feel like I am a disgusting thing to Him, but something, SOMEONE, He longs to be close to and fellowship with. ME?! ME! God loves ME, no matter what! Now I desire to serve and please Him not because I’m terrified of Him utterly destroying me, but because I am so thankful for His love and grace and mercy and His UNBELIEVABLE sacrifice. I still, unfortunately, struggle with assurance of salvation at times. I guess that’s the one thing left from the hyper-fundy life that I’m struggling to have peace and release from. Pray for me to have that peace that lasts, and that Satan no longer is able to torment me with.”
– Kayla
“The church I grew up in made me feel so in bandage and negative about who I was and that God saw me as a bad person because I could never measure up. I kept failing when I should have been perfect. I wanted to make it to heaven but always felt like I wasn’t perfect enough and questioned as to whether I would make it. When I left that church, gradually I started seeing things in a different light. My eyes were opened to Bible truth. I continue to grow by the grace of God.”
– Marcy Sulzberger
“I grew up viewing God as more of a stern disciplinarian who would be very displeased with me if I didn’t line up to everything the church taught. I believed that if I took any mis-step, I would need to seek forgiveness immediately or face going to hell if I were to die in the meantime. I believed that many of the outward extra-biblical standards were THE way to spot a christian, and automatically assumed that if someone dressed holiness, they were definitely a Christian. I never did understand what true sanctification meant. The more I sought answers that made sense, the less sense it made. I had a pretty good grasp on what was required for salvation, but it was always something we ‘had to be sure’ about. There was never any security in what God did for me on the cross. I longed for true discipleship and was frustrated with lengthy sermons on that were preached in a fevered pitch and went nowhere.”
– Anonymous
“I was taught that we are saved by grace alone but the only way of keeping that salvation was by following the rules and standards of the church and you could only really have assurance of salvation after you died.”
– Darren B.
“I used to believe that I had to be perfect to go to heaven because that is how I was taught. I’m thankful that I now know that Jesus already lived that perfect life!”
– Ethan
“I saw my salvation as something fragile. I spent my life with virtually no assurance. I think the only time I felt assured was in the middle of an ecstatic altar service, and the evening following. The next morning-forget it. I had probably not prayed enough that morning. I probably had some hidden sin deep down-and obviously I couldn’t pin point that because why would God show it to me?
When presented with the gospel-by my husband who was also disentangling at the time-I wept. I couldn’t accept it at first. But when it hit my heart, I rested. For the FIRST. TIME. EVER.
I miss the people. I miss the relationship with my family. But I wouldn’t take it back because even without those things, I’m resting in the gospel.”
– Andrea M.
“I was raised to be fearful of backsliding, as if God was just waiting for me to mess up. I also had a confused understanding of Holiness. I am still learning what holiness is, but am so much closer to truth! Still working on the God really loves me part, that’s hard and complicated due to other issues not related to the church. We’ve been doing a study in Galatians at church, and it has been extremely helpful to me, especially chapter 5. All about how salvation is faith, not works, both getting saved and after. Walking in the Spirit is so connected to loving one another (a rather foreign concept as I’ve seen how the rule keeping leads to judgmentalism, pecking one another, cast system -elites vs nobodies, etc). It’s been very enlightening to me.”
– Anonymous
“In the movement you constantly wondered if you were doing enough to be saved. God seemed to be waiting to strike you down and take your salvation anytime you breathed wrong. They would never admit this but it’s true. I was never a ‘member’ but grew up around the group.
I came to see the grace of God from start to finish in Scripture. It is a beautiful doctrine.”
– Anonymous
“I felt like I could easily lose God’s favor and that salvation was something to be earned. The judgment day was something I had to personally prepare for and I just just crossed my fingers and hoped I would make it.
Now, I see love to think about the character of God. How God described himself to Moses in Exodus. I also love that salvation is something that I can enjoy today. That the end of my life is something to look forward to because of the blood of Jesus. ❤️”
– Jennifer W.
“For years I believed I had to ‘perform’ for God. That I needed others to constantly approve of me so that I could be reassured that I was saved. That I had no understanding to read and interpret the Bible on my own… Now today I am loved by God. His redemption is a free gift! I walk personally with my Lord. I read His word and learn so much about Him, myself and life! The Holy Spirit has become real to me on a personal level! Praise God! (Thank you for all the times when your IG posts made me realize that I CAN disentangle from these false doctrines I was raised under. God bless you!)”
– Rebecca
Challenges of Leaving
“I’m in the middle of it right now. It is literally the most difficult thing. I started seeing a therapist. I don’t have much of a support system outside of the movement…I don’t even know how to have the conversation with my mom, which is what I’m worried about the most. Knowing she and everyone else I’m friends with will see me differently. As a: backslider, deceived, reprobate, bitter, never loved the truth, as my old pastor would say when a person left ‘God will mess up your marbles.’
I have heard it from others and it is the truest thing. It is easier to stay than to leave. As much as I disagree with holiness standards and doctrines…leaving means losing pretty much everything and starting over. It’s almost like a house fire (not to be disrespectful to those who have experienced that). Those in it burn the bridge and you’re left in the smoke to fumble around and salvage whatever is left.”
– Anonymous
“I thought there was something wrong with me, that I was just rebellious and had no hope because I questioned standards as long as I can remember… the first memory being in 3rd grade. I was labeled by our movement before I was even old enough to understand anything, so I was always an outcast and treated badly. I was engaged to someone in the movement and there were multiple people that told his family I was ‘bad news’ even though I was trying at the time to be ‘holiness.’ Luckily, praise God, that relationship ended abruptly 4 months before our wedding. I left the Holiness movement as soon as I moved out of my parents’ home a few months later. I wanted nothing to do with God or church. I was treated so badly my whole life by people who claimed to be ‘God’s people’ and I truly wanted nothing. I was so completely lost. I fell into new age/witchcraft later and convinced myself that the Bible was just written by men who wanted to control women. After having children of my own I went on a desperate search as a last ditch effort to find God and He revealed his true nature to us and I could finally read the Bible with new eyes. I believe He allowed me to find him without the baggage I was raised with so that I could have a true understanding of the Scripture without the tainted glasses of brainwashing. My husband (not raised in hyper fundamentalism) and I got baptized in August of 2023… 12 years after my leaving the holiness movement for good.”
– Anonymous
“The way I understood how it was all taught to me growing up made me feel like salvation was too hard for me. Like a test I absolutely could not pass. It made Christ feel so foreign and far away from where I was. I’m currently still untangling from things. It’s been a very slow and scary process because I’ve lived in this very specific way of life for my entire life. It isn’t just a religion. As a female it’s almost a culture and identity all rolled into one which makes it hard to untangle and sort through. Now I can see and understand that Gods grace and mercy is easy and He is a loving God. He isn’t up there in heaven expecting me to fail.”
– Terry
“Being part of a hyper fundamentalist group meant that we were never to question authority and any swaying from their messages would result in going to hell. I did not understand grace or mercy. When I moved away from home at 18, I knew there were some beliefs I didn’t agree with. During college I began attending a non-denominational church that helped me untangle my faith and have a better understanding of Scripture. However, I grappled with their interpretation of Scripture for 20 years before I finally figured out for myself what I believed. It was a long, rocky road.”
– RaChelle
“I experienced a fear of what people in my local assembly thought of us… We lost friends. People who we thought were close friends completely quit talking to us. Seeing people from that church out in public has also been difficult because when you try to say hello, they’ve turned the other way.
It can also be difficult to disentangle from what you’ve been told to believe. The scripture to study to show yourself approved unto God, was often preached, but once you started studying for yourself and have questions, you’re belittled and told you should know better. So instead of feeling like the Bible is living word, you feel like you’re ashamed you’re not interpreting it correctly. This can be discouraging, but I encourage you to keep digging and studying!”
– Jennifer A.
“The church we attended was driven with ‘break through’ services. Apparel, authoritative leadership, don’t question leadership, church attendance was of great importance, tongues and interpretation services was the norm. When we left ‘the church’ the pastor told me that my wife was the only one redeemable and me and the two children (ages 7-11) at that time would die lost. Various church members reiterated the message by the pastor when coming into contact with me. We received voicemails with the same rhetoric and when we attended a new church, the pastor called that leader and told him we were a ‘cancer’ and not to accept us. This all happened in 2006. Now, 18 years, the wounds have healed but the scars remain.”
– John
“When you realize that many of your tightly-held beliefs are incorrect, it makes you start to question everything. I became overwhelmed thinking about all the theological things that I needed to study out for myself. It can also be easy to become jaded and very suspicious of all spiritual leaders, wondering who you can trust.”
– Hannah
“Losing all connections; gossip; public ridicule; family separation, etc. You’re going through the most trying time of your life and have no one to go to; no comfort to rest in.”
– Anonymous
“Feeling lonely and judged by those who still attend there. I feel a sense of rejection and sometimes if I get in my head I feel like they might be right that I am sinning by attending a church with drums, or other things that I know is not sin. There is a lot of confusion around freedoms in Christ for me, and I was so used to someone telling me what I can and can’t do that its hard for me to follow what I know is true.”
– Trisha
“-Accepting that everything you were taught- your foundation is wrong.
-Fear of judgement from your church “family”.
-Isolation
-The unknown- where do I go from here?
People in my group believed that leaving the church means leaving God. It didn’t matter if you left and attended another church, you still are backslidden. I was a part of my group since the age of 2. I began transitioning out at around 22, fully leaving at 23. It felt like a mind-game. I couldn’t go cold turkey because it would raise alarm bells. I had to slowly stop attending. It wasn’t until my husband and I begged them to not surround me in a prayer circle that I realized I had to cut them off completely. As they all tried to lay hands on me I had a panic attack and ran out of the building, they chased me and I tore my Achilles tendon resulting in 2 surgeries, a wound vac, and many months of PT. I believe if it never happened, I would’ve went back because of fear of isolation, judgement, and the unknown.”
– Joanna
“I was raised and am fourth generation of a prominent Pentecostal Holiness family (campmeeting preachers). So I was raised steeped in these beliefs and conditioned from birth to believe that holiness meant adhering to the dress code and entertainment standards. When you combine the entrenched belief with the fact that you will lose your entire community, it’s a challenge that can only be overcome by the grace of God and the light of his word.”
– Anonymous
“My biggest struggle was thinking if I leave this church, I’m condemning myself to hell. I truly was in so much pain and suffering so much in trying to uphold these man made rules that I was on the brink of suicide. And that day I left the church. I could not live another day under the pressure of the rules and would really have rather gone to hell than continue to live that way.”
– Autumn H.
“You are told ALL other churches are wrong and you feel like you have nowhere to go when leaving. It’s lonely. It took a lot of brave Sunday’s walking into a new churches, and years of sitting under different teaching and searching scriptures myself to rebuild my faith.”
– Anonymous
“Unfortunately, you will lose friends that you’ve had in the movement just by leaving. We’ve had family members treat us completely different and unfortunately lie about us. We’ve received multiple messages and calls from others in the movement trying to persuade us to come back. It’s hard sometimes, but in the end I just pray that the true gospel is revealed to them just as it was to us.”
– Anonymous
“Once you leave, you’re either shunned or shamed by people you once trusted wholeheartedly, and loved like family.
You end up losing so much, and only after much pain and heartache do you realize what you’ve gained, which is a better understanding of the Gospel, a deeper love for the Lord, and a genuine relationship with Him that’s not based on fear.”
– Sarah M.
“Personally, I felt like the foundation I had built my life upon started crumbling. I worked through the stages of grief and at one point thought about walking away because it felt too daunting to start disentangle all the untruths. Thankfully, I didn’t!
I had to replace freedom in Christ with all the fear.”
– Anonymous
“The feeling that no one understands you. This has been my hardest challenge. I have cried many tears because those who have not been in it cannot understand. And before Berean Holiness it was difficult to find those who had left before and after you. Now we all gravitate together under Berean Holiness because we are seen, heard, and understood!”
– Melody
“Berean Holiness helped me see that some of the standards I had followed all my life weren’t actually biblical. For over four years, I’ve been trying to distance myself from the doctrines and standards I grew up with, but moving on is so tied up in fear that I struggle to make any real changes. Although I can say that I know certain standards and teachings aren’t biblically sound, I still can’t seem to change my actions to reflect that understanding—if that makes sense. I hadn’t realized how deeply ‘religion’ had instilled fear in me, and breaking free from it feels impossible at times.
Sometimes, I think I’m making progress, but my thought process is so skewed that I’m never entirely sure. When I talk to Christians who weren’t raised in the UPC, it’s striking to see how different their relationship with God is compared to mine. They seem to have so much more grace and a lot less judgment than I’ve ever seen displayed. I know that if I were to cut my hair or wear makeup, I’d face significant backlash and even ostracism—this fear still has a grip on my life. So, even though I don’t believe in these standards anymore, I feel trapped and unable to change.”
– Anonymous
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