My recent visit to the IHOP conference in KC
Date: September 13, 2006 02:26AM
"Please don't go sewing seeds of rebellion and distorting the words of people's teachings to justify that rebellion. It would be better to have a millstone hung around your neck and be cast into the sea, quite frankly..."
There you go trying to use scare tactice in an effort to get me to see things your way. Typical. Yes, if I see something funky going on in a church, it is mandated to me in that same bBile we both love to stand up and say something, boldly, but in love. Bother Josho, I recieve with gladness your exhortation and thank God for it. I have been meditating and praying on this and it occured to me: first off , OK, I'm not Jesus, I'm not John the Baptist, nor am I Paul or some prophet. I am Jesus' disciple, as are you. Jesus is our example in matters of faith, dependance on God, as well as in the area of behavior and conduct (1 Peter 2:21). Now, all of the above, Jesus, John the Baptist, Paul, the Prophets, all at some point or another looked around at what was going on and got pretty irate and started engaging in name-calling! John the Baptist called the Pharisees a "brood of vipers". (Mat. 3:7, Luke 3:7) as did Jesus Himself (Mt 12:34, Mt. 23:33). Jesus saw what was going on in theTemple and started shasing people around with a whip (John 2:15). And let's not forget he "woe unto you" passages in Mt. 23. Paul wasn't afraid to call a false teacher a false teacher, nor a false prophet a false prophet, either. (2 Peter 2:1-3). Not to mention some of the OT Prophet's tirades warning Isreal. And these are just examples I remember just off the top of my head. Paul constantly exhorted the churches to study things out and to speak the truth boldly, but in love (2 Timothy 2:15). So what is wrong with my calling a spade a spade, or a false teacher a false teacher, or an abusive church a synagogue of Satan, or a cult leader a sick, narcissistic snake? I speak the truth boldly, yes, and if I cross the boundary out of speaking it in love, then I repent of that (1 John 4:20). It seems like we both have some baggage we're both carrying around here. Let's reason from the Scriptures together and learn somthing here. We are not enemies. Let's be friends, brothers, and learn and grow together. Please, don't write me off. I refuse to bury my head in the sand and repeat over and over, "Judge not!" In that same Chapter (Matthew 7) Jesus strongly warns us to be on gaurd against falsehood. That's how all these creeps in the Church get away with what they do. It's because bold Christians don't speak up and call it what it is. I speak in love brother. If I step away from the mercy seat and get carried away by my flesh, then of this I repent.
Also, here are some good examples of Paul getting righteously angry, even engaging in making sarcastic remarks, and even calling false teachers out BY NAME in an effort to warn the churches about the snakes in their midst. And that was almost 2000 years ago! How much worse it is now.
1 Cor 4:6-13; 2 Timothy 2:15-18; 1 Timothy 1 18-20
Pretty pointed remarks, huh? More than a bit sarcastic, wouldn't you say? Paul's letters are replete with that pointed sarcasm.