Food Poisoning, Medical Malpractice, and Local Churches
Calling out other churches?
If you ate at a restaurant several times, and got food poisoning every time, would you never warn anyone about the ongoing poisoning?
Wouldn’t you at least go online and post bad reviews wherever you could, to try and warn people? Wouldn’t you see if there is a way to have their license revoked?
If there was a physician in your community who consistently messed up the people that he treated, and he messed you up, and/or a couple of your friends and family members, wouldn’t you at least leave some negative reviews online?
Wouldn’t you see if there’s anything you can do to have his license revoked? Would you never warn anybody about his ongoing malpractice?
Pastor, when is the last time you went on record, exposing the other churches in your community that need to be exposed?
Christian, when is the last time that you spoke directly to those in your circle of influence, and warned them about the harmful churches in your community? Particularly about the harmful churches that your friends and family and acquaintances attend?
Maybe you think it’s “nice” or “Christian” or “humble” to say nothing?
Consider this from another angle - Christian Nationalism, and our God-hating culture.
In the discussions about Christian nationalism, it has been noted how pervasive nominal Christianity is in our country (albeit on steep decline). And nominal Christianity has been put forth as an argument against Christian nationalism. The unstated implication in the argument is that legislating a biblical Christian morality produces a nominal Christian culture. But nominal Christianity is not a result of legislation in the political realm, it’s a spiritual problem for which individual Christians and churches are responsible.
Many Christians would recognize that much of contemporary society’s ills can be traced back to failure in the churches. It is true that the past couple generations in America have been inundated with easy-believism, and political-pietism. I mean, we literally talk about the south being the “Bible Belt,” and by that we mean a Christian culture that is devoid by and large, of real Christians.
Have you noticed that all the main places of influence in society are almost completely devoid of real Christians? What do you think will be the societal effect?
Where are the Christians in the local school board? Where are the Christians in the universities? Where are the Christians in the political arena?
If you remove the salt from the corpse, it will not be preserved, nor will the decay be slowed.
If the city on a hill ceases to be lit up, and no longer acts like a lighthouse, then shipwreck is an inevitable.
So back to my first sentence… if individual Christians and pastors really do believe that much of our problem comes from the failure of pastors and churches to do their job (and they’re absolutely right), then why do so few Christians and pastors speak out against counterfeit churches, and those that teach unsound, false, and deadly doctrines?
How in the world can anyone expect things to turn around when pastors and Christians simply refuse to expose the error and darkness in their communities that they’re supposed to expose?
It’s one thing to point out the ills of abortion and the various gay agendas. It’s even good to do that. But if your real and primary concern is for the souls of people, and the sanctification of Christians, which results in the exaltation of the name of Christ, then one of your primary concerns should be the exposing of the wolves, and compromisers, and charlatans in your community.
You’d never convince me that you loved your neighbors if you knew a restaurant consistently gave people food poisoning, and yet you never said or did anything, or if you knew a physician consistently messed people up, and again never actually said or did anything about it...
So how should silence about those who consistently poison people spiritually be interpreted?
How should silence about the soul physicians who consistently engage in gross malpractice be interpreted?
This is a difficult issue for sure. Error comes on a spectrum.
There is damning error, ie straight heresy. And then there is the intermural error, such as one camp’s view of another camp’s view on baptism.
Then there are errors of ministry methodology, which sometimes are outright heresy, but others times more subtly distort and mis-represent the gospel, like the seeker sensitive trash.
Churches have rightly spent a lot of time figuring out how to work with other churches who get the Gospel right, but differ in other areas. Thus a triage approach. And there are different “levels“ of “working together.“ And putting this all together is difficult and taxing.
It is likewise difficult to put into black-and-white terms, when, and how other churches and pastors should be publicly marked as, dangerous at best.
I think many are now in agreement that there are churches and ministries that may not fit into the outright “heretical” category, nevertheless, explicitly warning others about them would be the loving thing to do. But getting into the specifics is where the difficulties arise.
Just taking into account the number of churches in one’s area is a factor for consideration. For example, I pastor a Grace Advance church. Generally speaking, a Grace Advance church exists in an area where there is no other healthy alternative. If a healthy alternative existed, then Grace Advance would never have been involved.
So if there are only a handful of churches in a given area, and there is a need for a Grace Advance church in that area, and one exists, then what might be prudent in that circumstance might be different than what is prudent in a major city with hundreds of churches.
Thus it is obviously much easier to diagnose the problem than it is to provide a silver bullet solution. But the first step I think, is coming to a place where there is an acknowledgment that something “ought” to be done.
