PART 12 I AM AN OVERCOMER

What steps should we take in order for God to order our lives?

12

Accepting God’s Right to Order Our Lives                                                                         

Have you ever been in a church environment when a teaching from the pulpit set off alarms? This can be an ultimate test of our faith, especially when those in leadership have been in positions of authority for many years. How should we respond?

I was involved in a church where this became a reality. Here’s my story.

In 1979, after serving as an outreach coordinator for a church in my home city, I decided to attend an affiliate Bible College in western Massachusetts. I enrolled in a two-year Christian Leadership program, graduating as valedictorian in 1982. Soon after, I was asked to work in a brand new affiliated Christian high school in a nearby state.

At the close of my first year, the principal decided to leave, and I was asked if I was interested in taking over. To which I said yes. Over the summer months, I attended classes to receive principal certification.

During this time, the Bible College I graduated from faced financial difficulties and doctrinal disagreements. Certain teachings that were being promulgated by many in leadership were being investigated by an outside organization willing to provide feedback and recommendations for change.

One of the doctrines in question was called delegated authority. This doctrine states that when a man of God is preaching or teaching under the anointing (the person of the Holy Spirit), everything they’re saying is from God and, as such, is to be obeyed without question. An analogy of such is of an Old Testament saint, Moses, whose perspective states that he’s a type of the New Testament church leaders (e.g., apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastor-teachers. As he received direct revelation from God, sometimes expressed using the words, Thus saith the Lord, so does the person in the pulpit have the same authority.

Some in leadership extended this view to support the conjecture that if someone in church administration has committed an egregious sin, they’re considered above reproach, meaning they’re only answerable to God.

Psalms 51:4 Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.

An analogy to support this view is found in the Book of Psalms when, after King David committed adultery with a woman named Bathsheba and had her husband Uriah killed on the battlefield, he declared to God that it was only unto Him and Him only that he sinned.

What began to happen in the lives of some in governance was that they became emboldened to have extramarital affairs. Anyone who witnessed such and attempted to address the misjudgment was accused of judging God’s man, and if they didn’t repent and drop the matter, they’d be in danger of receiving divine discipline.

Certain leaders who didn’t agree with these standpoints put together an alternative scriptural-based defense. In reference to the doctrine of delegated authority being supported by the anointing, whereby the words expressed are God’s Word, this was changed to say that the words spoken are merely men’s words, but the Holy Spirit is especially present to help our infirmity in conveying the best sense or meaning. Furthermore, it’s impossible for God to be present in that which is untrue or unbiblically impossible that false and unscriptural teaching be anointed teaching at the same time.⁷⁸

1 Timothy 5:19-20 Against an elder receive not an accusation, but before two or three witnesses. Them that sin rebuke before all, that others also may fear.

Respecting extramarital affairs, there’s no justification for this kind of behavior. If someone in leadership is involved in such, then an accusation should be brought immediately before those in the church who are delegated to handle such matters. At first, it appeared that headway was being made. The doctrinal platform regarding these teachings was changed. It seemed that a new day had dawned.

Unfortunately, those who were entrenched in these unscriptural teachings weren’t willing to relinquish control. In private meetings, when questions were asked about the changes made in church authority, statements were made that those who advocated revisions were challenging those God had placed in leadership. Insinuations followed about submission. Unfortunately, most of those who worked diligently to reconstitute unbiblical theology left the ministry.

If you’ve never been in a situation like this, let me tell you, this is gut-wrenching. You’re in a church where you believe God has called you to. You’re learning about the new person God has made you to be at salvation and how to work out this new spiritual reality. The pure gospel of Christ is being preached. And then, an awareness of untruths comes to the forefront. What should you do?

What was implemented in this instance is the protocol to follow. Search the Scriptures that present an alternate biblical view about certain teachings. Present them with humility. If changes are made outwardly but underhandedly, an adherence to the old ways persists, then there’s no other recourse but to go somewhere else.

When oppressive church authority is allowed to continue, the very values of Christ, of how to treat our fellow Christians, become offensive. Humanistic theology takes over and exploits its members sexually and financially. And who knows what other kinds of teachings will follow.

This begs the question, should we examine the teachings of the church we’re attending? Here’s an article that addresses such.

 

SHOULD CHRISTIANS JUDGE THE TEACHINGS OF THEIR LEADERS?

As Christians, we are commanded against following teachers blindly but are told rather to “test everything; hold on to the good” (1 Thessalonians 5:21). The Apostle Peter warns us in 2 Peter 2:1-3 that there will be false teachers in our day just as there were false teachers in his day. Among their false teachings is a denial of the sufficiency of the sacrifice of Christ on the cross to take away sin, which is a common theme among cultists today.

Another characteristic of false teachers [is greed,] which motivates them in everything they do. Paul offers a similar warning to the Ephesian elders in Acts 20:29-31, calling the false teachers “savage wolves” who mercilessly attempt to destroy the faith of the sheep and draw them away from the Shepherd. Paul warned the church continually, pleading with them night and day to be on their guard against such deceivers.

From these passages, we see clearly that we are to distinguish between true and false teachers. [How, then] are we to do that? First, as Paul instructs the Ephesians, we are to “no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming” (Ephesians 4:14). Rather, we are to “become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ” and we do this by “the knowledge of the Son of God” (v. 13). The knowledge of Christ can only be obtained through the Word of God, and it is by that Word that we distinguish between the true and the false.

In Matthew 7:15-20, Jesus offers some critical advice in discerning who is a false prophet:

“Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruits you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruits you will recognize them.”

Plainly stated, is the teacher’s life marked by a progressive conformity to the likeness of Christ? Is the teacher bearing the fruits of the Spirit? Just as only good trees produce good fruit, so do only true teachers of Christ display the fruit of the Spirit�"love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23), whereas false prophets and teachers display the acts of their sinful natures (Galatians 5:19-21). By these fruits, we recognize true and false teachers.

Second, does the teaching that is being presented conform to the message as proclaimed by the early church and the apostles? As Paul writes to the church in Galatia,

“I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and [is] turning to a different gospel which is really no gospel at all. [Evidently,] some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!”

These are harsh words indeed that Paul has for the false teachers, but eternal condemnation is what they store up for themselves until the day of God’s wrath (Galatians 1:6-9).

The Apostle John tells us in his first epistle (1 John 4:1-6) how we are to discern which spirits are from God.

“Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world. You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood.”

It is of utmost importance that Christians are well grounded in the Scriptures so that they are able to discern which teachers speak from God and which are false in their proclamation. Only then can we reject what is false and “hold on to the good” (1 Thessalonians 5:21).⁷⁹

Below are some verses that will reinforce the mindset that we should test what we hear from the pulpit.

1 Thessalonians 5:21 Prove (exercise judgment, before receiving, what may be brought forward, as undoubted truth⁸⁰) all things; hold fast that which is good (in harmony with what has been given by the Holy Spirit in the Word⁸¹).

Acts 17:10-11 And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea: who coming thither went into the synagogue of the Jews. These were more noble (open minded; of a better disposition) than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word (gospel) with all readiness of mind (without prejudice), and searched (make careful and exact research) the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.

What we’ll discuss next is how we can avoid what has been the downfall of many single men and women in ministry.