Tag: Evil

Southern Baptist Leaders are Merely Slapping More Whitewash on the Tomb – Don’t be Duped

~ Jeff Crippen ~ 2 Comments

Mat 23:27-28 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. (28) So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

Act 19:13-16 Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists undertook to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims.” (14) Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this. (15) But the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?” (16) And the man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them, mastered all of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.

I just read SBC President JD Greear’s notes for a presentation to all the SBC pastors and seminaries and the whole big crowd. At the end, he spoke about the very recent expose of widespread sexual abuse and predation that has been going on in SBC churches for decades. Decades! After reading his notes I was struck with the fact that his presentation was just like some CEO giving a pep talk to his executives. It was devoid of the Spirit of Christ.

I want to warn everyone not to be duped by all the talk we are going to be hearing from people like Greear who try to con us into believing that real change, genuine change and repentance are happening. I see no signs of it. Why am I so negative? Because the remedies they are proposing and which they are trying to sell to us as real change are absolutely devoid of the Spirit of Christ. They are the inventions and devices of man. Let me explain.

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How Local Churches Become Enslaved to Evil (Part 2) – Leaving Our First Love

~ Jeff Crippen

Rev 2:4 But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.

This is the second installment in the series of posts I want to share with you about how local churches become enslaved to evil, even to the point of no longer being true churches at all. I am going to draw from Scripture and, for illustration, my personal experience in Christ Reformation Church as it existed over 25 years ago when I first came here as pastor.

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Abusive Women in the Church

~ Jeff Crippen

Rev 2:20 But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols.

In our ministry to victims of abuse – specifically victims of domestic abusers who parade as “Christians,” we normally find ourselves speaking of the abuser as a man. And most often he is. Fundamentally, domestic abuse is the sin of wicked men, though we have dealt with some women who are domestic abusers as well.

However, this morning I want to write about a particular kind of woman who I have met far, far too often in my pastoral ministry. It has happened with remarkable frequency. In fact, this kind has shown up in every single church I have pastored. The abusive woman. And if we are going to be wise as serpents about evil, we need to acknowledge the existence of such women hiding in the pews. Of course we know that there are wicked men in churches as well who also seek power and control over the flock. But as I said, today I want to talk to you about women who abuse all the while parading as “daughters of righteousness.”

Let me tell you some stories. The names have been changed to protect the guilty…ha!  I don’t know why they deserve any protection, but I will at least expose their deeds.

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