While the staff is used by a shepherd to direct the sheep the rod is used to fend off wolves. If someone gets too close to someone we love and means to do them harm we would have no problem with this imagery being real. Taking a rod to the wolf until he gets the message that we will not allow him to victimize our loved ones. Yet for some reason, when we deal with the spiritual realm, we defend the wolf and seemingly do not care about the sheep he is slaughtering. In many cases this is simply because we have been taught so poorly ourselves. The purpose driven, seeker-friendly claptrap that pretends to be theology today encourages pastor worship instead of Berean practices. Biblical illiteracy is widespread along with a spiritual apathy that ensures that people will continue to perish for a lack of knowledge. To the uninformed, praying for wolves makes sense because they do not know what the Bible actually says. Christianity has become sound bite driven, with verses routinely ripped out of context to suit the needs of the liars in the pulpits. Someone actually said to me today that the Bible says we are all brothers and sisters in Christ. Problem? The Bible says no such thing and the key verses again is Jesus showing us exactly who are and who are not. But this person was sincere. This is what they were led to believe. It was what they were taught. Yet it is completely wrong. Do not tell me that sitting under false teaching does not have an effect. It most certainly does. The most egregious effect is that the majority of these churches encourage a false conversion. No sincere discussion of sin and repentance and yet after saying the nine magic words from the Purpose Driven Life, voila! You are assured of heaven by a man who has now made you twice the son of hell that he is. But he is such a good speaker! Who cares if what he is saying is poison? But he cares so much for the community! Who cares if he does some temporal good at the eternal expense of your soul! But look at all of his success, God must be blessing him! No, no, no. The Bible says that broad is the path that leads to destruction and narrow is the gate that leads to eternal life and few find it. Few! The reason why they can pack thousands into a stadium each week is not because God approves but because the world approves! The true Gospel is a sword! It divides! It makes enemies. It is not friendly with the world at all! The bottom line is if you feel led to pray for a wolf, I would not say there is anything wrong with it because prayer is always a good thing. But to offer that as a reason to not expose false teachers and take the rod to the neck of wolves slaughtering God's sheep is not biblically supported.
The third common error made is that people who expose false teaching should focus instead on "spreading the Gospel" or the rationale of "what are you doing to build the kingdom" strawman argument. Again, these arguments are offered as a means to stop exposing the false teachers and thus they hold no merit on that basis alone but let us reason on these points as well. I cannot possibly expose what is false without offering what is true. In this one devotional alone there have been nearly ten Scriptures provided which correct what is false with the truth. That does not even take into account all of the references to biblical truth that are mentioned without being cited word for word. I have never seen anyone in discernment ministries offer that someone was wrong without offering why. In order to do that we must go to Scripture and thus the truth is proclaimed. When I say that the nine words Rick Warren offers for salvation cheapen the cross and result in false conversion I then explain the verses about picking up our own cross. The verses about dying to self. The parable about counting the cost. I think the problem is that most people do not see the truth on a regular basis so they do not recognize it when they do see it. The mega-church mentality teaches them that 50 people responding to their pre-fabricated, emotionally manipulated altar calls is "building the kingdom." It is not. It is building their church. That is what the purpose driven heresy has wrought. The utter confusion of building individual monuments to man as opposed to expanding the kingdom of God.
So it is true that a discernment ministry will not have fancy altar calls with swaths of people repeating prayers that have no power to actually save them. But when you proclaim the true Gospel of Jesus Christ to overpower what is being falsely taught, His Word does not return void. There are people who come out from among them. People who see the light of the glorious Gospel and are set free from the bondage of false teaching. I have had such people reach out to me and express gratitude for hearing the truth finally. Are there 50 at a time? No, but the Bible teaches us that all of heaven rejoices when one sinner repents. Just one. That is how precious it is. May we never cheapen it as we see today. This mass production of salvation. Assembly line salvations. May we never.
Acts 20 warns us that fierce wolves will arise from within the church system and seek to devour the sheep. They are here beloved. They carry the lifeless bodies of bloodied sheep in their jaws every single day. Preaching nonsense that has no chance to save anyone. Seven steps to a better you instead of seeking forgiveness because there is no version of you that is better without Christ. Destined to reign instead of introducing you to the King of Kings. Making the Bible to be about you when it is really all about Him. Focusing us on this temporal life where everything rusts and ignoring the life that is to come. Sorry beloved but these people are not my brothers. I have no biblical instruction to pray for them at all. My job is to warn the sheep that they are under attack and have some realize it before it is too late. My job is to direct with the staff in one hand and club the wolves with the rod that is in my other hand. That is how you build the kingdom. One person at a time. Because they are all precious to God. As brothers and sisters, Jesus explains they are our first priority. Not the wolves that are slaughtering them.
