Does anyone know what Gather25 is about? Is it similar to IF:Gathering?
This past weekend was IF:Gathering 2024. I shared my article about it on social media and one of my followers asked this question. I’m glad she did so I could give you a heads up and so you can have a whole year to warn your church and your friends away from it.
According to its website, Gather25 is a 25 hour global simulcast of “prayer, worship, repentance, and commissioning” (i.e. sending people out under the auspices of the Great Commission, ostensibly, to share the gospel) which will take place in March 2025.
“Gather25 is being organized and led by an alliance of Christian organizations: IF:Gathering, YouVersion, illumiNations, Right Now Media, and many more international ministries and churches. The original vision for Gather25 was cast by Jennie Allen.”
Jennie Allen is a false teacher and founder of IF:Gathering, an annual conference for evangelical women (and, no doubt, some men) which routinely platforms false teachers, women pastors, and women who preach to men.
YouVersion is hosted by Craig Groeschel’s LifeChurch.TV. He is a false teacher and platforms many other false teachers and women who preach to men.
illumiNations seems to be a Bible translation and distribution organization, which may be just fine, but I’m concerned that all of the evangelical celebrities they currently and proudly list on their home page as supporting their organization (Elevation Worship, Lecrae, Sadie Huff, Passion, IF:Gathering, MVMNT Conference, and Chris Tomlin) are false/woke teachers, or conferences and individuals that platform false/woke teachers.
And these are just the four organizations mentioned by name on the FAQ page. There are many more sponsors, and the ones I’m familiar with are all doctrinally unsound and/or run by false teachers. This thing is absolutely saturated with false teachers.
This event is going to sucker in a lot of undiscerning pastors, because, “What could possibly be wrong with prayer, worship, repentance, and commissioning people to share the gospel? We can just set aside the ‘secondary issue’ differences we have with these people and join them.”. But Scripture forbids us from having anything to do with false teachers. And if your pastor invites these false teachers into your church via simulcast, he is disqualified from the ministry. Titus 1:9 is part of the biblical qualifications for pastors and elders:
He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.
Titus 1:9
Furthermore, what sort of false gospel might these false teachers be “commissioning” people to spread? What sort of unbiblical prayer and worship practices will they lead participants in? What is the definition of “repentance” these false teachers hold to? Will they lead participants to “repent” of things like “whiteness,” refusing to baptize practicing homosexuals, oppressing women by not allowing them to be pastors, and such?
If you think your pastor might be the type to have your church participate in this event, I would recommend you start praying now, start preparing now, and prayerfully consider whether or not you should warn him about Gather25 now so that he has plenty of time to be obedient to the Titus 1:9 mandate the Lord has given him.
If you have a question about: a Bible passage, an aspect of theology, a current issue in Christianity, or how to biblically handle a family, life, or church situation, comment below (I’ll hold all questions in queue {unpublished} for a future edition of The Mailbag) or send me an e-mail or private message. If your question is chosen for publication, your anonymity will be protected.
If you are considering commenting or sending me an e-mail objecting to the fact that I warn against certain teachers, please click here and read this article first. Your objection is most likely answered here. I won’t be publishing comments or answering emails that are answered by this article.
This article is kept continuously updated as needed.
I get lots of questions about particular authors, pastors, and Bible teachers, and whether or not I recommend them. Some of the best known can be found above at my Popular False Teachers tab. The teacher below is someone I’ve been asked about recently, so I’ve done a quick check (this is brief research, not exhaustive) on him.
Generally speaking, in order for me to recommend a teacher, speaker, or author, he or she has to meet three criteria:
a) A female teacher cannot currently and unrepentantly preach to or teach men in violation of 1 Timothy 2:12. A male teacher or pastor cannot allow women to carry out this violation of Scripture in his ministry. The pastor or teacher cannot currently and unrepentantly be living in any other sin (for example, cohabiting with her boyfriend or living as a homosexual).
b) The pastor or teacher cannot currently and unrepentantly be partnering with or frequently appearing with false teachers. This is a violation of Scripture.
c) The pastor or teacher cannot currently and unrepentantly be teaching false doctrine.
I am not very familiar with most of the teachers I’m asked about (there are so many out there!) and have not had the opportunity to examine their writings or hear them speak, so most of the “quick checking” I do involves items a and b (although in order to partner with false teachers (b) it is reasonable to assume their doctrine is acceptable to the false teacher and that they are not teaching anything that would conflict with the false teacher’s doctrine). Partnering with false teachers and women preaching to men are each sufficient biblical reasons not to follow a pastor, teacher, or author, or use his/her materials.
Just to be clear, “not recommended” is a spectrum. On one end of this spectrum are people like Nancy Leigh DeMoss Wolgemuth and Kay Arthur. These are people I would not label as false teachers because their doctrine is generally sound, but because of some red flags I’m seeing with them, you won’t find me proactively endorsing them or suggesting them as a good resource, either. There are better people you could be listening to. On the other end of the spectrum are people like Joyce Meyer and Rachel Held Evans- complete heretics whose teachings, if believed, might lead you to an eternity in Hell. Most of the teachers I review fall somewhere in the middle of this spectrum (leaning toward the latter).
If you’d like to check out some pastors and teachers I heartily recommend, click the Recommended Bible Teachers tab at the top of this page.
Alistair Begg Not Recommended I do not consider Alistair Begg to be a false teacher at this time.
photo courtesy of Truth For Life on Facebook
“Alistair Begg has been in pastoral ministry since 1975. Following graduation from The London School of Theology, he served eight years in Scotland at both Charlotte Chapel in Edinburgh and Hamilton Baptist Church. In 1983, he became the senior pastor at Parkside Church near Cleveland, Ohio. He has written several books and is heard daily and weekly on the radio program, Truth For Life.”
Alistair Begg has a long and solid history as a doctrinally sound pastor and Bible teacher. Until a few years ago, he was one of the featured teachers at my Recommended Bible Teachers page. I was pleased and happy to recommend him to my followers as a trustworthy teacher of Scripture.
Unfortunately, in mid- to late 2022, one of my followers made me aware of a 2019 sermon Begg had preached in which he endorsed the idea of a woman preaching or teaching the Sunday morning message in church (in other words, preaching/teaching to men) as long as she has been invited and given permission to do so by the pastor and elders. Begg has invited and permitted at least one woman to do this at his own church. This is unbiblical.
It was the second (see below) significant red flag with Begg that I had become aware of, and I was disappointed to have to remove him from my list of recommended teachers. But, having removed other teachers for similar things, I felt that in order to be fair and consistent about who I recommend, it had to be done.
Listen as Begg explains in his own words in this sermon (starting around 30:12) on 1 Timothy 2:9-15b. (I would encourage you to listen to the whole sermon – in which he says many good things – for context.)
Transcript of relevant portion, beginning at 30:50:
“…One of the chestnuts that always comes up says, “Well you did that thing on 1 Timothy 2 and then you had Helen Roseveare here come to the church. Nananananana. And she spoke on a Sunday morning, and she’s not allowed to speak on Sunday mornings because of first Timothy.”
Yes, she’s allowed to speak on Sunday mornings if the elders determined that we’d like her to. She’s not going to speak as the pastor and the teacher. She is not going to speak in a position of rule and authority, but she has something to say and we’d like to hear it.
There are women who have unique abilities in relationship to, for example, dealing with bereavement. And if that woman has something to share with a fellowship in the context of the Lord’s Day worship then she can come and share it providing it does not negate all that we have said.
In other words, loved ones, we can’t take a principle and make a law out of it. And legalists always make laws out of principles.“
Again, this is unbiblical. When God says no – especially in a pastoral epistle like 1 Timothy, instructing pastors about how to run God’s church – no pastor has the right to say yes. Pastors have no right to give anyone permission to sin. Alistair Begg’s personal opinion that a woman who speaks in his church is not speaking “as the pastor and the teacher” or “in a position of rule and authority” is not the deciding factor here. God has commanded pastors that women are not to pastor, preach, teach the Scriptures to men, or exercise authority over men in the gathering of the Body. And when God tells us not to do something and we do it anyway because “we’d like her to” or “we’d like to hear it,” that is sin.
I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet.
1 Timothy 2:12
Furthermore, it is not “legalistic” (as Begg unbiblically judged those who apparently took him to task at the time) to boldly declare that Christians must obey any rightly handled, in context command of Scripture. Begg can call 1 Timothy 2:12 a law, a principle, or whatever he wants, it doesn’t change the fact that God said, “Don’t do it,” and Begg said, “I want to, so I’m going to.”.
Several questions have arisen about Helen Roseveare: whether or not she was a missionary, the content of what she said at Begg’s church, and the possibility that she may have been giving a personal testimony.
None of that matters as it pertains to the issue at hand. The red flag is what Beggsaid about it in his sermon, which I’ve just addressed.
Prior to my follower making me aware of the incident above, the first red flagI was (already) aware of also happened in 2019, just a couple of months after the incident above. Alistair Begg announced that he would be speaking at Baylor University’s National Preaching Conference, sharing the stage with Beth Moore (also Tony Evans and others), much to the chagrin of and numerous protests from his followers. In response to a follower who expressed concern, a statement1 from Begg’s ministry indicated that he accepted the invitation to speak without knowing who any of the other speakers were. Rather than going to the organizers and explaining that he could not share the stage with:
false teachers (Tony Evans and Beth Moore),
a woman who preaches to men (Beth Moore),
a woman “pastor” (Mary Hulst),
and that he could not speak at a conference at which pastors and future pastors -men- were being instructed in pastoring by two women – sanctioned by the seminary and voluntarily attended by these men – Begg kept the speaking engagement.
I did not remove Begg from my recommends at the time of the Baylor incident because I was hoping it was a one time goof that would teach him to use greater wisdom and discernment in the future. We all do dumb things from time to time, and well known pastors are no exception.
The Baylor incident following so quickly on the heels of the “women preaching incident” (above), was troublesome. And Begg’s statements in the women preaching incident are not a one time lapse in judgment. They are the well thought out, planned, and implemented policy of the church he pastors.
Once might be an “oopsie”. Twice was the beginning of a pattern of Begg doing or saying unbiblical things and then either doubling down, or lashing out, or both at those who tried to biblically correct him.
In this September 2023 episode of Truth for Life entitled The Christian Manifesto (an interview with Begg about his recently released book by the same title), he explains how a grandmother wrote to him asking for counsel about whether or not to attend her grandson’s “wedding” to a trans-gender person. With seemingly no qualms whatsoever, he advised her that, as long as her grandson knew she didn’t approve, she should not only attend the wedding but take a gift as well. In Begg’s reasoning, refusing to attend the “wedding” would just reinforce the grandson’s opinion that Christians are mean, unloving, etc. Ironically, he then immediately quoted James 3:1.
Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.
Transcript of relevant portion, beginning at 28:45:
“…we field questions all the time that go along the lines of my grandson is about to be married to a transgender person and I don’t know what to do about this, and I’m calling to ask you to tell me what to do. Which is a huge responsibility.
And in a conversation like that just a few days ago – and people may not like this answer – but I asked I asked the grandmother, “Does your grandson understand your belief in Jesus?”
“Yes.”
“Does your grandson understand that your belief in Jesus makes it such that you can’t countenance in any affirming way the choices that he has made in life?”
“Yes.”
I said, “Well then, okay, as long as he knows that then I suggest that you do go to the ceremony, and I suggest that you buy them a gift.”
“Oh!” she said. She was caught off guard. I said, “Well here’s the thing, your love for them may catch them off guard. But your absence will simply reinforce the fact that they said these people are what I always thought: judgmental, critical, unprepared to countenance anything.”
And it is a fine line isn’t it? It really is, and people need to work out their own salvation with fear and trembling. But I think we’re going to take that risk, we’re going to have to take that risk a lot more if we want to build bridges into the hearts and lives of those who don’t understand Jesus and and don’t understand that he is a king.
This is pastoral malpractice, and is the very reason God included James 3:1 in His Word. Our personal opinions about someone’s anticipated reaction is not what governs our actions as Christians – Scripture does. We are to obey Scripture regardless of what we think the outcome will be. And in this case Scripture tells us:
Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous. Hebrews 13:4
We’re not to be ashamed of the gospel – a major component of which is “the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men” (Romans 1:16-18) – rather, we’re to be willing to shed our own blood for obedience to Scripture (Hebrews 12:4). Compromising with sin is one form of being ashamed of the gospel.
Jesus did not come to bring peace between pagans and Christians, but a sword, and anyone who puts loyalty to family ahead of loyalty to Jesus and His Word is not worthy of Him: I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matthew 10:34-39
If even pagans aren’t to give approval to sin, how much less are Christians to give approval to sin? Romans 1:32
are not those who eat the sacrifices participants in the altar?… I do not want you to be participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. 1 Corinthians 10:18-21
Do not…take part in the sins of others; 1 Timothy 5:22
He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous are both alike an abomination to the Lord. Proverbs 17:15
Anyone, pagan or Christian, who knows anything about weddings (and Begg, a pastor who performs them, certainly should) can tell you that by being a non-objecting witness at a wedding, you are making the statement that you support and approve of the union. Why would any pastor suborn the sin of hypocrisy by encouraging a Christian to express disapproval of the union and then turn right around and demonstrate support for the union by joyfully attending the “wedding” with a gift? And, in the future, how is the grandmother, when sharing the gospel with her grandson, to call her grandson to repent of his sin when she has already approved of its codification by attending his “wedding”? More hypocrisy!
Furthermore, though the grandson may know of the grandmother’s biblical disapproval, does his “intended” know? Does the rest of the wedding party, the officiant, and all of the other guests know? Do all of her friends who know she’s attending the wedding know? To all of them, many of whom will know she’s a professing Christian, her attendance means she approves of the “marriage”. (All of these are also reasons Christians don’t attend homosexual “weddings”.)
Shortly after the video above went viral in late January 2024, American Family Radio, which carries Begg’s Truth for Life program on 1800 radio stations, contacted TFL leadership to plead with Begg to repent. He doubled down on his position, and AFR made the decision to stop carrying TFL.
A few days later, in his sermon at church, Begg addressed the backlash and calls to repentance he had received by saying he had no intention of repenting and had nothing to repent of. He then proceeded to cast those who decried his unbiblical advice to the grandmother as “Pharisees” and the older brother in Luke’s account of the prodigal son.
Begg was subsequently disinvited from speaking at the 2024 Shepherds Conference, and TFL was dropped from (Ligonier’s) RefNet’s lineup.
For more details and links regarding this incident, please listen to Talk Back: Alistair Begg at A Word Fitly Spoken, and check the show notes for more links.
Alistair Begg is not a new Christian or a young pastor who made a rookie mistake. This question should be a no-brainer for any Christian, let alone a seasoned pastor with many decades of experience and a world-wide public ministry. Counseling a sheep to base her behavior on a sinner’s opinions and feelings rather than to submit to and obey God’s clear Word, refusal to repent when corrected, and mishandling God’s Word belies a foundational problem with his theology as do his aforementioned errors. And because of that, I believe we will continue to see Begg make these kinds of blatant errors in the future.
In September of 2024, about nine months after the scandal broke regarding his advice to the grandmother, Alistair Begg announced that he would be retiring as pastor of Parkside Church. June 8, 2025 was his last day as pastor, but he remains active at Truth for Life and continues to speak at various venues.
I’m not saying Begg is a heretic on par with Benny Hinn or Kenneth Copeland. Far from it. I don’t even consider him to be a false teacher at this time. I just no longer feel comfortable saying, “Hey, this is a great teacher. I recommend that you follow him,” (i.e. putting him on my list of recommended teachers) when there are others I decline to recommend who also unrepentantly hold the same or similar erroneous positions.
Earlier in the “women preaching” sermon Begg humbly admits (as should every good pastor) that he and his church don’t claim to have everything right, but that they will continue to grow in Christ and make corrections. If and when he corrects his errors (and any others that might come to light), and publicly repents, I’ll be delighted to reconsider him for inclusion on my Recommended Teachers list. Until that time, however, I cannot recommend that you follow him.
1This is not a website I endorse. It is linked only as evidence of the statements in this paragraph.
Or maybe I answered your question already? Check out my article The Mailbag: Top 10 FAQs to see if your question has been answered and to get some helpful resources.
I occasionally help launch books by Christian authors. I recently signed on to promote a Christian historical fiction book, and I’m supposed to write an Amazon review about it. But I am in a dilemma. At the end of the book, one of the characters is miraculously healed from a gunshot wound and claims he heard god tell him that he [“god”] did it for the main character, who doesn’t believe in god. (Notice I’m not capitalizing “god” because I don’t believe God speaks to us audibly or in dreams.)
When I agreed to promote this book I had no idea this would be in it. Now I am feeling really conflicted. I can’t in good conscience recommend this book but I don’t want to write a negative review on Amazon. Thoughts?
(For readers who may not understand this sister’s dilemma, she is referring to the unbiblical idea of extra-biblical revelation.)
This is a great question, and it’s really awesome that you’re trying to think this through biblically.
What jumps out at me from your comment is that this is bothering your conscience to the point that: a) you’ve used the phrase, “I can’t, in good conscience…” and b) you purposefully didn’t capitalize “God”*. If you think this book is promoting a false god, it’s no wonder it’s bothering your conscience.
* The word “god,” uncapitalized, means “false god” or “idol”.
Romans 14:22b-23 says: Blessed is the one who has no reason to pass judgment on himself for what he approves. But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.
and James 4:17 says: So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.
You should not sin against your conscience by reviewing and promoting this book as though there’s nothing wrong with it, and I think you would agree that option is off the table.
So what are your other options? I’m not sure exactly how this works, so I’m just throwing out a couple of ideas here:
Write an honest review praising the good parts of the book but explaining the biblical problems with the scene you mentioned, and agree to promote the book with that caveat included.
Write the aforementioned honest review but don’t promote the book at all.
Explain the problems with the scene to the author, tell her you’re willing (if you are) to do either of the above, and let her decide what she wants you to do.
Explain the problems to the author and tell her you can’t write a review or promote the book.
Personally, I think one of the first two options would make a greater impact for biblical truth on a larger number of people if you feel you can do it without sinning against your conscience. But you have to decide what’s right for your own walk with the Lord first.
I understand your concern about wanting to keep your word when you agreed to do something, but you have to keep in mind that – whether she realizes it or not – this was an unfair agreement on the author’s part. It’s like buying a car. She sold you a car giving you the impression it worked right and when you got it home you discovered it didn’t have a carburetor or whatever (I don’t know – I’m not good with car stuff). That nullifies your end of the agreement to buy the car.
Use biblical wisdom, pray about it, and don’t sin against your conscience.
I have a statue of Joseph and Mary holding baby Jesus. It’s in a corner year round in my living room. As a former Catholic, I’m questioning myself if I should even have it at all??
As with the reader above, I think the fact that you’re starting to question this is an indication that it’s bothering your conscience. I would point you to the same Scriptures and counsel you not to sin against your conscience as I counseled the reader in the question above.
Some Christians consider any material representation of Christ to be a violation of the second Commandment. Personally, I don’t believe the context or cross-references of the second Commandment support this view. I’ve explained why, here. However, this is an issue you’ll want to study for yourself and be convinced of, one way or the other, by rightly handled, in context Scripture.
But, assuming there’s no second Commandment issue for you, and you’re not worshiping, venerating, or praying to the statue, or using it as some sort of “aid” to help you worship God – all of which all Christians would agree violate the first two Commandments against idolatry – and it’s just sitting there gathering dust in the corner like an umbrella stand or a fern, this is an issue of conscience.
I would suggest praying about it and discussing it with your husband (if you’re married) and then your pastor. You may also want to prayerfully consider…
Why do I still have the statue?
How do I feel about getting rid of it, and why?
What is the proactively good, biblical reason to keep this statue? (You might want to think of it like this: Would you recommend to your best friend that she buy and display a statue like yours? Why or why not?)
If it bothers your conscience and you can’t think of any good, biblical reason to keep it, get rid of it.
And get an umbrella stand or a fern.
Is it against 1 Timothy 2 for a woman to speak, not teach, during a Sunday morning worship service? She is not speaking as to teach or preach or pastor, but simply speaking on a topic to a congregation of men and women about her experiences as the head of a pregnancy resource center on Sanctity of Life Sunday. You say that this is unbiblical?
If she’s just giving a brief, personal testimony as a small part of the worship service, and the pastor will go on to preach his full sermon later in the service, that’s probably OK. (I’ve addressed women giving personal testimonies during the worship service here, #14.)
If her “testimony” is taking the place of the sermon, yes, it’s unbiblical, but not in the way you’re thinking. Someone giving a talk on an informational topic or her personal experiences that takes the place of the sermon is not so much a 1 Timothy 2:12, “women preaching/teaching to men” issue as it is a 2 Timothy 4:1-2 “pastors, preach the Word” issue.
Personal testimonies, speeches on non-biblical topics, panel discussions, interviews, etc. (from anyone, male or female), should not take the place of the preaching of the Word in the worship gathering. Additionally, due to the ignorance of the world and the majority of professing Christians who fail to distinguish between personal testimonies, TED talks, and preaching, a woman giving a personal testimony that takes the place of the sermon appears to most people as though she is preaching the sermon. We’re to avoid even the appearance of evil, so that’s another biblical reason not to do it.
May I make a suggestion? If your church is in need of someone to teach about the wickedness of abortion, contact an abolitionist organization such as Abolitionists Rising or Free the States. Because the abolition movement is church-based, they can put you in touch with a biblically qualified, doctrinally sound man (usually a pastor or elder) to come to your church and preach on the biblical reasons we should fight for the total eradication of abortion. We need to be convicted by Scripture on this issue, not swayed by an emotional response to someone’s subjective personal experiences.
If you have a question about: a Bible passage, an aspect of theology, a current issue in Christianity, or how to biblically handle a family, life, or church situation, comment below (I’ll hold all questions in queue {unpublished} for a future edition of The Mailbag) or send me an e-mail or private message. If your question is chosen for publication, your anonymity will be protected.
Good news: book nerd is in. And these days, that doesn’t just mean you have your nose stuck in a book all the time. No, you’ve really got your nerd on – you’ve got a reading goal for the year.
Whether it’s merely a certain number of books you want to read, total, or you’ve got it broken down into goals for various genres of literature, feeding your mind by reading is a worthy pursuit, especially if you’re feeding it good theology. (You might even want to join other Christians in a reading challenge such as this one from G3 or this one from Tim Challies.)
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.
Philippians 4:8
But, as always, you’ve got to be discerning about the books you choose. In years past, I’ve seen some of my friends posting about book reading goals for the new year and asking for suggestions of Christian books. And I’ve seen some of the suggestions that have been made. Yikes. Some of those “Christian” books your friends are suggesting are written by false teachers.
Yikes. Some of those “Christian” books your friends are suggesting for your reading goals are written by false teachers. Here are 5 ways to exercise discernment about the books you choose.
May I offer some help for being discerning about the books you choose?
1.
Stay immersed in your Bible. That way, if you come across false doctrine in a book you’re reading, you’ll know it conflicts with Scripture. Need help? Check out my Bible reading plans and Bible studies.
2.
If you’re not already a faithful member of a doctrinally sound local church, find one, join it, and sit under good preaching and teaching every chance you get. This will also help you detect false doctrine when you’re reading. (Use my Searching for a new church?resource if you need help locating a good church in your area.)
3.
Vet the author of every book you read prior to reading it. Here are some quick and easy resources that can help:
Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes. Proverbs 26:5
There’s a lot of foolishness masquerading as Christianity these days. Occasionally, I get e-mails and messages showcasing this type of foolishness. It needs to be biblically corrected so these folks can stop “being wise in their own eyes,” repent, and believe and practice the truth of Scripture. From time to time, I’ll be sharing those e-mails in The Mailbag with a biblical corrective, not only so the e-mail writer can be admonished by Scripture, but to provide you with Scriptures and reasoning you can use if you’re ever confronted with this kind of foolishness.
(This reader’s blog comment {in blue}, responding to this article, is reprinted in full.)
You are a liar and devils tool. There is no role for corporate discernment. God doesn’t need you to defend His flock from false teachers, when did God become powerless or when did His flock become unintelligent or indiscernible? How come it’s OKY you who can discern? And just remember the same standard which you use to judge others, God will use to judge you.
Allllllllllrighty then. Let’s break this down.
You are a liar and devils [sic] tool.
A liar is someone who intentionally deceives other people or says something she knows is not true. I have done neither. If there is something in my article that is incorrect, I assure you it was an innocent and unintentional mistake. If you could kindly specify exactly what you think I have gotten wrong with the evidence or rightly handled Scripture to back up your assertion, I will gladly correct my mistake.
As for being the “devil’s tool,” could you please explain how someone who points out biblical error and points people to the truth of Scripture is being used by the devil? The devil is the one who twists and misuses Scripture in order to lead people into error. Was Jesus the “devil’s tool” when He publicly pointed out and biblically corrected the unscriptural teachings of the scribes and Pharisees? How about Peter, Paul, John, Jude, and others whom God the Holy Spirit inspired to write the Scriptures that rebuke false teachers and false doctrine? Were these men the “devil’s tool” too?
When you accuse the brethren (me) without biblical cause or evidence, and in the face of Scripture that proves your accusations to be unfounded, what you’re doing is called slander and unbiblical judgment, and you are the one who is being used as a tool of the devil.
There is no role for corporate discernment.
I honestly have no idea what this means. “Corporate” means “a large company or group.” In Christian circles, when we use the term “corporate,” we usually mean the gathering of the church body. I’m an individual, not a group, so I really don’t have a clue as to how this statement applies to me.
Furthermore where does the Bible say or teach this? If you’re going to make a biblical assertion, you need to back it up with rightly handled, in context Scripture. There’s tons of New Testament evidence that God does want the church as a body and individual Christians to practice discernment, but I don’t know which verses to provide you with to refute your point, because I don’t know what your point is.
God doesn’t need you to defend His flock from false teachers,
God doesn’t “need” anybody. He doesn’t “need” you to rebuke me either. Did you consider that before you wrote your comment? Why didn’t you just remain silent and trust Him to convict me of whatever sin you think I’ve committed? Or is it that it’s OK for you to call someone on the carpet for what you perceive to be violations of Scripture, but it’s not OK for me to do so? Hypocrisy, much?
As I clearly stated in the very first paragraph of the article (which I’m assuming you read since you commented on it), people have written to me asking whether or not certain teachers are doctrinally sound. The articles I’ve written are answers to these readers’ questions.
Titus 2:3 says:
Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good,
Teaching women the truth of God’s Word about false teachers, discernment, or any other biblical issue is good. Some other passages you might want to consider:
I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them. For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive. Romans 16:17-18
Here’s Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, warning fellow Christians to “watch out for” and “avoid” false teachers. You know what else Paul said? “Imitate me.“
Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ…save others by snatching them out of the fire; Jude 3-4,23a
Jude, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, exhorts the church to fight for the purity of biblical doctrine and to save those who are vulnerable to false doctrine, “snatching them out of the fire.”
“So you, son of man, I have made a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. If I say to the wicked, O wicked one, you shall surely die, and you do not speak to warn the wicked to turn from his way, that wicked person shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. But if you warn the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, that person shall die in his iniquity, but you will have delivered your soul. Ezekiel 33:7-9
God commands Ezekiel to warn people away from their sin and says He will hold Ezekiel responsible if he fails to warn them.
But I guess God didn’t “need” Paul or Jude or Ezekiel or any of the people in the congregations they were writing or speaking to or, by extension, Christians today, “to defend His flock from false teachers,” right?
So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin. James 4:17
It’s clear from Scripture that warning people away from sin and false doctrine is “the right thing to do.” You’re asking me to stop doing the right thing. It would be a sin for me to stop, and it’s a sin for you to demand that I stop. And now that you know that warning people away from false teachers is the right thing to do, that means if you fail to do so, that’s sin for you.
So the real question here is not, “Why am I warning others about false teachers,” but “Why aren’t you?”.
when did God become powerless or when did His flock become unintelligent or indiscernible?
OK, so following your logic, why does every single book of the New Testament (except Philemon) address the issue of false doctrine or false teachers? Why did God have so many of the Old Testament prophets rebuke the false prophets of their day – false prophets who, much like today’s false teachers, would say “thus saith the Lord” and then tell the people things God had not said, or things that were in direct contradiction to what God had said? Was He so powerless that these New Testament writers had to write books and letters (“blog articles,” if you will) warning against false doctrine and false teachers and these Old Testament prophets had to publicly denounce the false prophets?
When did His flock become unintelligent or undiscerning? Let’s dispense with “unintelligent” because that has nothing to do with being discerning. Some of the most intelligent people in evangelicalism with strings of academic letters behind their names are some of the most undiscerning Christians out there – seminary presidents and professors, denominational heads, CEOs of Christian retail outlets. And there are people who have very little in the way of intelligence or education who are very discerning.
When did God’s people become undiscerning? In Genesis 3, when a serpentine false teacher, “a liar and a tool of the devil,” walked up to Eve, twisted God’s Word and said, “Did God really say…?”. And lack of discernment has been a pervasive problem ever since.
How come it’s OKY [sic] you who can discern? (I think you mean “only”?)
It’s NOT only I who can discern. Praise God, there are lots of Christians out there who are discerning. The people who have written asking me about these false teachers are discerning (because they want help understanding whether or not they’re being taught sound doctrine). There are other writers and teachers doing the good and hard work of teaching discernment. Pastors, elders, deacons, Bible teachers, church members, podcasters, authors, parachurch ministries. They are out there warning fellow Christians against false teachers in their venues just like I am in my venue, and I thank God that they are! I wish every pastor and local church were so diligent about teaching discernment that I wouldn’t have to write discernment articles any more.
But the vast majority of them aren’t. In fact, the vast majority are throwing the doors of the sheep pen wide open to the wolves in sheep’s clothing and welcoming them in. And until that changes, somebody has to warn those vulnerable sheep. Like I said before, why aren’t you helping to warn them?
And just remember the same standard which you use to judge others, God will use to judge you.
The standard I use to biblically judge the observable behavior and teaching of evangelical teachers is Scripture, and that’s the standard God will judge me (and everyone else) by. I am totally OK with that because I am doing my best to be obedient to Scripture, and when I’m disobedient to Scripture I repent.
Can you say the same? What standard do you use for judging me and others? Let’s just put the opening and closing lines of your comment together:
You are a liar and devils tool. And just remember the same standard which you use to judge others, God will use to judge you.
What standard are you using?
I’d like to leave you with a few passages of Scripture to consider:
“I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” Matthew 12:36-37
Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye. Matthew 7:1-5
O Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent? Who shall dwell on your holy hill? He who walks blamelessly and does what is right and speaks truth in his heart; who does not slander with his tongue and does no evil to his neighbor, nor takes up a reproach against his friend; in whose eyes a vile person is despised, but who honors those who fear the Lord; who swears to his own hurt and does not change; who does not put out his money at interest and does not take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things shall never be moved. Psalm 15
If you have a question about: a Bible passage, an aspect of theology, a current issue in Christianity, or how to biblically handle a family, life, or church situation, comment below (I’ll hold all questions in queue {unpublished} for a future edition of The Mailbag) or send me an e-mail or private message. If your question is chosen for publication, your anonymity will be protected.
