When we preach the message of Jesus, if some
reject His message, then they are rejecting Jesus. We can’t stretch
that to mean that if our disciples reject our advice they are rejecting
Jesus.
Touch not my anointed and do my prophets no harm!
(Psalms 105:15 KJV)
Some discipleship groups interpret this verse
to mean that we shouldn’t question or say anything negative against our
leaders. This interpretation squelches legitimate questions or complaints
that might stop errors.
Leaders who adopt this slant on scripture become
almost immune from accountability to their people. This is only one
example of the ways in which abusive discipleship groups may use Bible
verses. Passages are often taken out of context and their true meanings
distorted; but these groups also correctly interpret many verses.
That is why it is so difficult to see what they are doing.
Gilbert Trusty, a former pastor who used this
passage to control his flock now explains...
This particular concept is so twisted, so groundless,
that it would be funny if it was not so sad. In context, in those
verses (Psalms 105:9 15) (KJV) God is talking about the patriarchs, about how
He protected them, about how He kept Abraham’s life. The main thing
the scripture was dealing with is when Abemelech took Sarah into his harem.
God wanted Abraham to keep his wife. God was protecting Abraham because
from him was going to come a nation and from that nation was going to come
the Messiah.
Also John tells us that in the body of Christ
we each have the anointing of God (1 John 2:20-27). This anointing
does not apply only to the man behind the pulpit; we each have the anointing
of God. The Holy Spirit is available to every one of us. We
can be filled as we open ourselves and yield to God.
It’s not just one man, or some church leaders
on earth who God has set apart anointed.
“Touch not my anointed” refers to all of us who
are in the body of Christ.
Many times people forget that this scripture could
never be used to mean that sheep should not question their leaders.
A good leader should be honored and respected; but we are instructed (1
Thes. 5:21) to prove all things. First Tim 3:10 says
that deacons must be proved. According to Revelations 2:2, even those
who call themselves apostles should be tried.
Jesus commends them because they tried those who
called themselves apostles and found they were false. In abusive
discipleship the mere fact that someone is a leader means that I should
never say anything critical about that leader.
What a nice position! To be a leader when
your flock feels that they can’t be critical of you without going against
God! But this is very dangerous for the flock.
The foundation of the discipleship movement is
the authority of the discipler. What distinguishes discipleship relationships
from the typical relationship between a pastor and the flock is that the
discipler is granted a significantly greater authority to guide the directions
and decisions of the disciple. Could this possibly be Biblical, that
a young Christian lay person is granted power to oversee souls?
This heightened authority may be communicated
directly to disciples through teaching, combined with an insistence that
disciples be submissive, obedient, trusting and broken. Another way
in which the excessive authority is indirectly communicated is by the way
in which a leader exercises authority over the disciple. The church
has always held that both the content of a leader’s doctrine and the leader’s
behavior are important. (1Tim. 3:1 13; Tit. 1:5 11; 1 Pet.
5:2,3)
IMITATE, TRUST, BE LOYAL AND HAVE FAITH
IN LEADERS
... OR GOD ... OR BOTH?
What does the Bible say?The more extreme controlling groups will stress one
or more of these ideas to gain more control...
? Not only should you trust God but you
need to trust your leaders also!
? Not only should you be loyal to God but
you need to be loyal to your leaders!
? Not only should you have faith in God
but you need to have faith in your leaders!
Not only should you imitate Jesus but you need
to imitate your leaders (without also teaching that it is the leaders’
Christian virtues which are worthy of imitation.)
You don’t find these ideas in the Bible, but if
a group wants to gain nearly unlimited authority over people it is extremely
important for that group to emphasize them. If your group only uses
one of these ideas, it is time to recognize it and analyze how it is misused
and what the Bible really teaches about it. Of course it is not wrong
to have some trust, faith, or loyalty in your leadership. What is
wrong is to teach that the Bible says this is expected of us. If
your group labels people as sinners because they don’t trust the leaders,
don’t have faith in them, don’t have loyalty to them, or fail to imitate
them: this is also contrary to scripture.
Non-controlling churches generally stick more
closely to Scripture and only teach trusting in God, having faith in God,
having loyalty to God and imitating the life and virtues of Jesus or the
virtues of Jesus in men.
Manipulative Groups Might...
- overstep the boundaries of Scripture when
it comes to limiting leaders’ guidance capacity
- twist verses like “Touch not my anointed”
implying that we can’t be critical of leaders without being critical of God
- stress trusting leaders, having faith
in leaders, imitating leaders and being loyal to them
- grant disciplers (lay people) significantly
greater authority to guide than Biblical standards permit ? at times
claim that refusal to obey leaders’ opinions in personal matters is sin
- allow leaders to exercise authority like
high officials instead of being a servant to the their flock
- stress that leaders are servants but
in practice allow leaders to force their opinions on members by threatening
or actually carrying out public or private rebuke for differences of opinion
- not call attention to Scriptures saying
that people were not always expected to obey their leaders
- imply, or even teach, that we should
look on our discipler as the Apostles looked on Jesus
- classify almost all criticism of leaders
as slanderous or malicious
- selectively focus on the idea that Jesus
endured under abusive authority by being crucified; implying that we should
obey even bad advice from leaders as that would prove our brokenness
- selectively focus on words or phrases
and change their meanings; especially the words: obey, submit, dying to
self, thus making it appear that a complete compliance to group leaders
is what the Bible teaches
- denigrate any career other than full-time
service to the church as serving God less than full-time ministry
- not teach that there is a distinction
between back-biting, and legitimately criticizing leadership’s actions
- not teach that the authority is in the
message and not the messenger
- permit novices to oversee souls or promote
novices to positions of leadership
- teach that Jesus poured himself into
only 12 people
- not teach that there is a distinction
between a leader’s opinion or advice, and the Lord’s Biblical commands
- not stress “Each one should be fully
convinced in his own mind” (Romans 14:5)
- not stress Scriptures which describe
how Jesus refused to obey authority
- not explain that the Greek word exousia
was never used in reference to church leaders, except the Apostles
- not explain that only reasonable commands
of leaders must be obeyed and that these must stay within scriptural boundaries
- impress that we need to be accountable
to a discipler in every area of our life and not just in the area of Scripture
- claim that if advice from leaders doesn’t
contradict
TRUST IS EXPLOITED
Trust is an important word for believers. Our
Christian life is built on trust. The Christian fellowship is a community
of those who trust God. We should trust one another, especially our
leaders. A lot is made of trust of the leadership in some discipleships
and most controlling groups. Some programs indicate that if we are
not totally trusting in our discipler we are hard hearted and rebellious;
that we are in sin.
Beyond Accountability MANIPULATIVE GROUPS MIGHT ...
- control negative feedback of leaders
- squelch legitimate criticism of leadership
- teach people to obey even when they don’t feel right about it
(thus encouraging people to die to their sense of right and wrong)
- teach that doubts and criticism of leadership equals sin
- teach that all criticism of leadership is probably slanderous, divisive or factious
- cause members to loose jobs, promotions or deter them from school or other goals or family activities
- emphasize Biblical ideas like dying to self in a non-scriptural way
- subtly redefine the meanings of words
- hound on these certain Biblical words almost to the exclusion of other sound Biblical principles
- induce guilt in members so they confess being sorry for not trusting their discipler more
- not tell you that in the Bible trust or loyalty is never used in reference to church leaders
- teach you that unity means that you need to change your opinions to match the groups’ instead of constancy of purpose
- teach you that you must only go to leaders in private when you are pointing out error
- encourage the combination of trusting leaders and not criticizing
“Independent” is redefined to imply selfishness or sinfulness in some way.
Some words that describe the emotions that former
disciples felt when they heard “independent” are: dirty.. contaminated..
defiled.
Interestingly enough, independence is neither
sinful nor virtuous in the Biblical context. Paul, for example, was
very independent but also completely dependent on God. Another person
may be independent but not keeping God’s commandments. The “sin”
and the “independence” are not necessarily related.
“Obey” and “Submit” are two words that are
especially twisted by abusive discipleships. It appears that in abusive
discipleships, the chief virtue is not love, but obedience. Obedience
in abusive discipleships can be honored even when a leader gives wrong
advice! One of the many Bible. ...
This excerpt is from a book called Twisted Scriptures. It perhaps notes extreme cases,
but a lot of them are found in controlling churches and leadership.