How Unbelieving “Non-Judging” False Christians Enable Evil and Oppress Victims

January 4, 2019January 3, 2019 ~ Jeff Crippen

Gal 1:8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.

Rom 6:1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?

Recently I watched a movie that looked like it would be good, but before long it was apparent that it was propaganda for “tolerance” of well, just about anything. Three young high school girls ended up going to a bar (one was a professing Christian) where they encountered a bevy of “drag queens” who befriended them and schooled them in “wisdom.”

I finished watching the movie so I could post a critique of it and expose its obvious agenda for promoting wickedness in a deceitful manner.

Well, sure enough there were a few and one in particular who were all sorts of angry with me for daring to say that this movie was evil. This gal professes to be a Christian, and I want to show you how “Christians” like her actually energize abusers and other wicked people hiding in our churches and oppress the targets of these servants of the devil. For all her “pious” sounding talk, a little serious thinking will help us realize that this is no friend, and no Christian.

Here are two paragraphs she wrote:

Jesus had no judgement of anyone, so why to you profess this movie to be evil? I beg to disagree with you wholeheartedly. He taught us to be accepting toward and loving of all, no matter what and if you cannot embrace that then I fully believe you have been lead astray. The Bible can be interpreted in a million ways by millions of different people. There are those among us who still take it literally, so literally they fail to see the message…His commandment to love one another.

We are ALL sinners Jeff. even you. Don’t ever say that a church is a false church if it accepts sin and those who sin. If that is what you believe then your church is also false because there are sinners in your congregation. Our salvation is based on the fact that Christ died for us and our sins, no matter what we have done or who we are. Aren’t you preaching THAT good news instead of berating those who come to have their sins washed away? Sorry, but I don’t think Jesus would be so judgmental.

Now, I hardly need to comment on these ridiculous statements. But I will because like this false Christian, people don’t think anymore. They gobble up this nonsense and end up believing the lies.

Let me just paraphrase what she is saying:

Christ paid for our sins but He doesn’t change us. We remain sinners and we keep on practicing sin, but no matter….
Jesus does not pass judgment on anyone and He forbids us to do so. In fact, we are not to call anything evil.
We are to accept and love everyone and anyone “no matter what” they are or do
The Bible is meaningless because everyone can interpret it however they want. The only WRONG way to interpret it is literally.

I could cite so many Scriptures that so obviously expose these things as lies. The little book of 1 John for instance. What does this woman think that John meant when he said, for instance:

1Jn 2:3-4 And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. (4) Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him,

1Jn 2:29 If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.

And what of this? Jesus didn’t judge anyone? Well-

Joh 2:14-16 In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there. (15) And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. (16) And he told those who sold the pigeons, “Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.”

Or what of this –

1Co 5:1-2 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father’s wife. (2) And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you.

I have a theory about these kinds of so-called “Christians.” They say they believe the Bible, but when they throw in the “everyone can interpret it differently” line, they are demonstrating that not only do they not believe God’s Word, they don’t even read it. They have certain catch phrases that they blather about over and over, but they dismiss the entirety of Scripture and they are willfully ignorant of it. They actually despise Christ and trample His blood underfoot –

Heb 10:26-29 For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, (27) but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. (28) Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. (29) How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace?

I told this woman that she is not a Christian if she believes what she is saying. And I told her that her church is a false, counterfeit church and her gospel is a false gospel. And I told her that unless she repents, then on the Day when Christ comes to judge the world in righteousness, she is going to find out that He never knew her.

Do not be duped by the “love and mercy” sounding words of these kinds of people. They will receive everyone who says they are a Christian and really even everyone who doesn’t even make such a claim. Anything goes. Including your abuser’s evil against you. And you? Well, these broad-minded folks will condemn you because you hunger and thirst for justice, and in their theological paradigm, that is the chief sin of all.

Abusive Women in the Church

December 28, 2018December 25, 2018 ~ 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.

Continue reading “Abusive Women in the Church” →

This Should be Happening if a Local Church is a True Church

December 21, 2018December 6, 2018 ~ Jeff Crippen

1John 2:19-21 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us. (20) But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge. (21) I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth.

Church growth. What is it? Well, “church” growth necessarily requires a “church.” A real church. Otherwise any increase might be “growth,” but it won’t be “church growth.” Still with me?

A real church is a local group of people who truly and genuinely know the Lord Jesus Christ, gathered together to serve and worship Him. A body, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, growing together into the image of Christ. John is addressing just such a church here in his First Epistle. He tells the believers there that they are anointed and taught by the Holy One. They know and believe the truth of Christ.

But there had been some other kind of people present there as well. They were people who were not, as John puts it, “of us.” They claimed to be Christians, but when faced with the truth of Christ, they rejected it and left. They were false sheep whom Christ did not know.

John presents this in terms that are meant to encourage the real Christians in that church. It is always a bit disheartening when a group of people who claimed to be your brethren in Christ, say “adios.” More often it isn’t “adios” (which means “God bless”) but something more akin to a curse! I have seen such people literally take their shoes off as they went out the church door and shake the “dust” out of them so as to say, “you are filthy and I don’t want even the smallest dust particle of you clinging to me.” Oh yeah. That’s a lot of fun.

But John tells them not to be discouraged. In fact, he explains the thing as something that needed to happen and therefore is actually encouraging. It is a sign that the church is real. That Christ really does dwell there. That is the reason these counterfeits left, you see. They don’t want to be in the presence of Christ.

Now, think this through. This means that we must not think of “church growth” as something that always results in bigger numbers. Just as a healthy human body is healed when an infection leaves, so it is in the church. Christ and anti-christ are incompatible. And therefore, if such a departure, a going of separate ways, never occurs in a local church, we must ask some hard questions. Why is it that the church down the road is just growing and growing and growing? How is it that the building program can’t even keep pace with the numbers? Why does “everyone” seem to be so happy and content there?

One final application. I deal in my ministry with Christians who have been or are victims of domestic abusers who most often pose as fine “Christians” in the local church. Let me ask an obvious question. How is it that such an abuser can continue in “fellowship” in a local church and be quite comfortable – even enabled and comforted? He is clearly of the spirit of anti-christ, so why doesn’t the true church dynamic John writes about (they went out from us but were not of us) kick in when it comes to this abuser? Why is darkness comfortable among people who claim to be “sons of light”?

I think the answers to these questions are rather obvious.