NIC VOICE - Dealing With Wolves

t behooves us as Bible believing Christians to consider all of Scripture carefully when it comes to dealing with those in United Methodist leadership who have betrayed the faith. These claim to be Christian but act, speak and write like pagans. What is God’s word to us concerning them? We have been dealing with them as though they were fellow believers.

But what if many of our church leaders are wolves in sheep’s clothing? Scripture warns us about wolves. In Ezekiel 22:26-27, the Lord says of Jerusalem,

“26 Her priests have violated my law, and have profaned mine holy things: they have put no difference between the holy and profane, … and … I am profaned among them. 27 Her princes in the midst thereof are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, and to destroy souls, to get dishonest gain.”

We have bishops and high-ranking leaders in church agencies who have violated the faith in our name, profaning that which is holy, and who have behaved like wolves, rending and tearing the body of the church. They have pushed the homosexual agenda, pushed reference to God as female, bled us of what could have been local ministry money, denied fundamental doctrines, and in general treated the Bible as though it were merely a book of myths or metaphors to be twisted to their will.

“15 Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. 16 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? 17…every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.”

These leaders, those who would follow and promote men like Joseph Sprague, have produced evil fruit. They come in sheep’s clothing, pretending to be one of us, but inwardly they are not of Jesus’s flock. They have proven this by word and deed. They are not sheep of Christ at all, but are ravening wolves. I looked up the meaning of ravening. It means to tear and rend flesh. That is what these leaders have been doing to the body of Christ, the church. So how do we deal with them? What would Jesus have us do?

On the one hand, as a church we are not to tolerate them. Jesus said, in Revelation 2:20, “I hold this against you, that you tolerate Jezebel.” Yet Jesus also speaks to us concerning His methodology in confrontation. In Matthew 10:16-20 He says,

“16 Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. …18 And ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles. 19 But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak. 20 For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you.”

Jesus expects us to speak and testify against mighty and powerful leaders for His sake. He promises to guide us in what we say through the Holy Spirit. In the verses following, He further warns that we will be hated for His sake. Yet we are to remain harmless as doves, though with the wisdom of serpents.

Doves, unlike mockingbirds, do not contend. As for serpents, they also are good at avoiding confrontation. Doves and snakes, however, will strike as a last resort to save their own lives. It is for the Holy Spirit to tell us when it is time to start striking, which may mean behaving politically. When the Holy Spirit leads, I believe the entire body of believing Christians within Methodism will know it. Then we may see many churches putting their apportionment money in escrow until we get truly godly leadership. That is happening across Methodism. We may even see a split. The Holy Spirit must be our guide in such matters. It must be each local church’s decision.

DEALING WITH WOLVES

Part II

here in the New Testament do we find conflicts such as exist today in the United Methodist Church? We would be looking for situations in which wolves threatened the flock of God; in which the church hierarchy in power was debating how to apply the commandments of God, and in which many in the top church leadership dealing were denying the faith by propagating false doctrine or approving sinful behavior. On first thought we might come up with Paul’s meeting with the Jerusalem Council over the question of circumcision of Gentile believers. We will look at that situation. Then we might also recall that some other situations in New Testament times did not have a neat, clean meeting resulting in a perfect compromise. For example, there is Jesus’s double trial and execution by the Pharisees and Romans working together – where the wolves surrounded a victim. In addition there may be other cases to consider, such as the confrontation of Paul with Peter. Let us get our imaginations going, then, by considering just these three scenarios.

The first scenario involves a general conference. The place is Jerusalem. (See Acts 15.) Church leaders and representatives meet to decide a crucial point of doctrine – what do we require of new Christians? Previously, in Acts 11, we saw how closely Peter was questioned about the baptizing of the Gentile centurion, Cornelius. Now, however, Paul has confronted Peter to his face as described in Galatians, for being a hypocrite for withdrawing from uncircumcised Gentile believers. And groups of nonchristian Jews and Jewish Christians have been harassing Paul about not circumcising new believers in Christ. The immediate theological issue is: do you have to be circumcised as a Jew first before you can become a Christian? The deeper question is: what, exactly, is the process whereby one becomes a Christian, and what behavior is expected of one?

The leaders and representatives met and debated, probably with some rancor at times but mostly with dignity. They finally accepted the word of their leader, James – Gentiles were only asked to abstain from the gross idolatry and gross immorality – the rituals and behavior – of pagan temples. Pagan temples involved eating meat strangled and sacrificed to idols, and it involved temple prostitutes. Basically, James said, if they cut their ties with pagan temples and the behavior that entails, that will be sufficient. And it was accepted.

Why does this not help us? Because we are dealing with believers settling a quarrel with believers! That is not our current situation. We are dealing with unbelievers at the highest level – wolves among the sheep, as Jesus put it in Matthew 7:15. This first example only gives us false hope. It is not a good paradigm for our current situation. Trying to settle things in a general conference will not help when the foxes have taken over the henhouse.

The second scenario involves taking things first to a religious court and then to a secular court of law. The Pharisees took Jesus to a religious court to play out their false doctrines upon His person, convicting Him falsely of blasphemy and basing all that they did on the Bible (as they knew it). They enlisted and received the aid of both Herod and Pilate, representing Jewish and Roman civil authority. Pilate held a second trial in which Jesus was condemned a second time, this time for sedition against Caesar.

This scenario seems a bit closer to our current situation. Local churches, pastors, and laity have felt the lash of the UM ecclesiastical courts and pseudo-courts, and occasionally, secular courts. A UM church court of a sort has just exonerated Joseph Sprague of heretical teachings. The UM church court system and higher leadership has allowed UM pastors to break the Discipline and marry gays and lesbians in the church. Can we not surmise and feel in our bones that the day may not be far off in which the UM supreme court rules in favor of a completely liberal interpretation of the Bible? Can we not estimate that the day will come when annual conferences will begin to sue conservative, orthodox UM churches for their property, turning the trust clause on its head? We must be wise as serpents and forsee what is possible, no matter how vile, and prepare for it. Jesus died for our sins. God got Him ready in the garden of Gethsemane. Later, there was a resurrection. But first, there was an execution. Maybe we had better plan for execution as a possible outcome; or, less metaphorically, a lot of loss of property through lawsuits.

The third scenario involves a face to face confrontation by one righteous leader with other church leaders who are out of God’s will. You can read all about it in Galatians. Paul is absolutely sure of where he stands with God and man. He writes the first chapter in holy anger. One of the things that he says there is that if anyone is preaching another gospel than the one delivered by the Lord Jesus, let them be accursed. That is not mild inclusive speech. When confronting the Judaizers, Paul says, Galatians 2:5, “5 But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel might remain with you.” That was with non-Christians. But also with momentarily deceived Christians, Paul did not back down either! Paul lit into Peter (Cephas) himself, as he says in Galatians 2:11, “11 But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned.” After a listing of his careful submission to the apostolic authorities, Paul says concerning Christ’s apostles, Galatians 2:6, “But from those who were of high reputation (what they were makes no difference to me; God shows no partiality)-- well, those who were of reputation contributed nothing to me.” Paul is absolutely dead certain that his authority is from God Himself – and without denying that God had used Peter in the past, nevertheless Paul asserts his own authority in the same vein, Galatians 2:8, “for He who effectually worked for Peter in his apostleship to the circumcised effectually worked for me also to the Gentiles.”

The conclusion is plain as day. Davy Crockett was known for his motto, “Be sure you’re right; then go ahead.” And that is exactly what we all should do. When in conference with fellow Christians, we can behave as they did in Jerusalem and solve difficult problems with sweet reason. When facing men who are the enemies of God, we can trust that even if we are put to death, so to speak, God will raise us from the dead as He did the Lord Jesus. And when facing misled brothers, as Paul did Peter, we can defend the faith with intense passion so long as we are absolutely solidly rooted and grounded in the faith as delivered to the saints by our Lord Jesus.