Month: May 2017 | Page 3 | Spiritual Abuse Blogs

Where Are The Biblical Scholars In the UPCI?

While I was a licensed minister in the United Pentecostal Church, I passionately pursued obtaining a proper, fully-accredited Bible degree. In no way do I want to sound like I was tooting my own horn, but I wanted to be a legitimate scholar who knew, understood, and was able to defend the faith on a proper level.

While chasing this this dream, I received a lot of opposition from people who I thought were on the same “team.” There were some apostolic ministers, a vocal bunch, who criticized me for choosing this path. To sum up the basic argument, in their minds, education was the enemy of faith.

In no way is this true!

The Biblical education I received (through different denominations) helped my faith grow immensely! In fact, it opened my eyes to the real reason why certain folks were against me and my path. It was not because education is a true enemy of faith – that is so wrong and warped – but because education showed me the errors of the doctrine I followed. It also revealed the fact that there were those who refused to open their eyes to be honest about the fallacies of the doctrine.

Some, for differing reasons, cannot (or will not) accept the truth when it is right in front of them. There is a reason why there are so few (if any) real scholars in the Apostolic movement. Truth and lies cannot co-exist in the heart of a Christian. There comes a point when one has to choose his or her path… Is it really built upon truth? Or, is it one that has embraced lies?

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Titus 2: 3-5

In some Christian circles around the blogosphere there is this idea of ‘Biblical Womanhood,’ which comes across as a sort of Titus 2 and Proverbs 31 theology for Christian women, whereby women seek to encourage and influence other women to believe and practice that their only sphere for true godly living is in the home.

But let’s examine the main passage they use to restrict women to be a homemaker only.

“…teach the older women to live in a way that honors God. They must not slander others or be heavy drinkers. Instead, they should teach others what is good. These older women must train the younger women to love their husbands and their children, to live wisely and be pure, to work in their homes, to do good, and to be submissive to their husbands. Then they will not bring shame on the word of God.” –Titus 2:3‭-‬5

First of all, I want to say that some of these women influencers tend to ‘slander’ other women as disobedient to Christ or not loving God enough to obey Him.

Second, they teach as though women are only called to teach younger women to be busy at home, and to love their husbands and children. But that alone is not what the passage says. It says to teach “…What is Good…” They tend to fail in recognizing that everything in the Bible is Good.

So women can teach the whole council of God!

Thirdly, I want to point out that they train the younger women *who are married*… to love their husbands and children. This does not mean also cause the unmarried women to feel ashamed, or to tell them to wait for God to bring them a husband, and that they should only aspire to be a homemaker!

Single women can stay single and embrace it and serve the Lord wherever they wish.

Fourth, to live wisely and be pure. Wisdom requires experience in living genuinely devoted to God and His truth; not just to His people-helpers! Also, bible study coupled with prayer and probably other books to help grow the noggin, in my opinion. Purity of both body and mind comes from renewing the mind with God’s Word.

Fifth. To work in their homes doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t get a job outside the home. By all means get one if you want/need one! It only means when you are home try to keep it tidy whether you train your kids to help you or not. That’s what I think. And there’s nothing wrong asking hubby to help. Also be teaching your kids about God somehow.

Five. To do good. Well, the Bible teaches us what is good. Plus, I think we know innately what is good. Well, at least you probably know what is bad… So, we can do the opposite!

Six. Be submissive to their husbands. Then they will not bring shame on the word of God. I read how in Greco-Roman culture it was a patriarchal society and they would use the Aristotelian household codes. So if you are a Christian woman you are told to submit to your husband so that the outsiders wouldn’t speak against the Christians or their Message. So that was the purpose of telling women to submit to their husbands; to show proper etiquette for that culture, so they wouldn’t offend people that would otherwise consider Christian women heathens for not appearing submissive to their husbands.

We still submit because it is good to do so in ways that honor God. But husbands equally submit to wives. But that’s for another post!

Anyway, that’s my take on Titus 2. That’s the way I choose to interpret it because that’s the way it makes more sense with all of scripture, in my experience, and with the help of bible scholars and some history.

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Dear pastor: wolves in shepherds’ clothing

Ah, yes, Jesus warned about wolves in sheeps’ clothing. Wolves seem to have evolved since the Bible. Many have stopped masquerading as sheep. They instead call themselves shepherds, leading people back to their lairs.

John 10:

14“I am the good shepherd; I know my own sheep, and they know me, 15just as my Father knows me and I know the Father. So I sacrifice my life for the sheep. 16I have other sheep, too, that are not in this sheepfold. I must bring them also. They will listen to my voice, and there will be one flock with one shepherd.

I’m thankful I have a Shepherd, a great shepherd who has already given everything for me.

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Forgiveness and boundaries revisited

A visitor to my blog once asked if forgiving someone for an offense means you must act as though it never happened, especially when the issue in question involves physical or emotional abuse. My answer to this was no, and here’s why.

‎I don’t believe that ‎Matthew 6:14-15 means one essentially has to roll over, play dead and let the offender have their way with them. However, it can hinder our personal walk with God and essentially result in the other person’s abuse or nastiness controlling your life.

In the comment regarding a post I’d made about forgiveness (scroll down to RandomlyLostandFound‘s comment to see the dialogue), I offered the following advice: “I had to finally reach a place where I bore no ill will towards the person in question, and actively prayed for God to restore whatever was broken in their life that was behind the behavior.”

I’m still finding this advice relevant, regardless of who the persistent offenders are. I can decide to no longer bear ill will towards them, and therefore make sure they have no ability to infringe on my personal happiness.

There are times when you may decide that certain people, for the sake of your physical, emotional or spiritual health simply cannot have a place in your life anymore. Yes, that is okay – by walking separate paths from each other, you are making the choice to live your life in a way that keeps their “drama” from impacting you.

I feel that we must still acknowledge the existence of people that do hurtful things and pray for their release from their the harm they cause. However, we must still look to what is ahead of us – anything less diminishes the abundant life Jesus promised.

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Dear Pastor: If you were a shepherd…

Dear pastor: You call yourself a shepherd. I wonder…

I love cats. I’ve cared for well over 50 at various times. They aren’t all mine; if I see a cat that is hurt or hungry, I take care of it. That’s who I am. Would you do the same for people who attend other churches or don’t attend at all, unless you thought you’d convince them to come to your church? I can’t imagine a real shepherd seeing a lamb caught somewhere and not taking it with him back to the fold, looking for its shepherd and returning it to its flock. But many pastors won’t do that. Those that do… I also can’t imagine a shepherd realizing that lamb had been abused and sending it back to an abusive shepherd. There are pastors who would.

I love cats. But the neighbor has a dog. The dog loves to chase the cats, but I don’t hate the dog. He’s doing what comes naturally to him, and though I’ll try to deter him from the cats, I wouldn’t hurt him. Most pastors I’ve known quickly label people “goats” and push them away, even deliberately hurt them, saying it’s “for the safety of the flock.” Goats have their benefits, though, and tend to get along fairly well with sheep from what I’ve seen. So many pastors who call themselves “shepherds” unfortunately don’t know sheep from goats, and kick the ones they label goats away. I’ve never known someone who cares for animals to only care for one type of animal and be mean to other kinds. How can a pastor do that to people?

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