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Dissecting Another Anti-Discernment Hit-Piece

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If you understand Matthew 7:1 you would admit that it actually is dealing with hypocrisy, not judgment. The bible says we are to judge our brethren but not the world. It also says we are to test everything. The compassion you seem to mock here is for the sheep being led to slaughter. If people make presumptuous conclusions or use slanted and unverified information I agree that would be bad but c'mon pastor. You know that is not the majority of true discernment. If showing you what you said along with what the bible said is now called smearing then I guess I smear. As for the asking the wolf what he really meant, that is a red herring. Most of the people exposed by discernment ministries would never answer our calls but more importantly, the bible does not say I need to call them. Once again, the responsibility is to the sheep -- not the wolves. Your argument about using fear is also quite silly. No one should ever be beyond correction. You just better come at me with bible verses and solid exegesis.

"3. They are revilers of the brethren. They are skilled at reviling. They do not call people out with the end of lovingly presenting others complete in Christ (Col. 1:28). We might wonder if they humbly and lovingly pray in secret for those they revile. They are not correcting others to help others become sound in the faith. The reviling often comes from undealt-with bitterness. Many of us understand that. Hurt is real. People are really sinned against in bad ways. And yet, the love of Christ and the body of Christ is sufficient to bind up and have victory in such situations. He's that good. But what we must not do is let Satan get the foothold in our lives by becoming bitter. Reviling without humble question-asking is often a symptom of sinful bitterness. Though we experience real hurt and sin, our all-loving, all-sufficient Lord does not permit us to stew internally in bitterness and consequently spew externally with reviling. There is a more excellent way. But the new Pharisees haven't traveled it." -- Pastor Eric Davis

Wow. So now if we disagree we hate the brethren? Seriously? Colossians 1:28 is when we deal with the church, not false teachers. Show me one verse in the bible where I am supposed to lovingly call out wolves. Just one. Your error is in assuming everyone who says Jesus is your brethren. Wolves do not become sound in their faith. The bible says their destruction sleepeth not and their condemnation is from long ago. I agree with you on bitterness and am starting to wonder who hurt you this badly. The more excellent way you reference is love and for those that come out from the darkness of false teaching and cults they would argue against you about what love truly is.

"4. They are experts at setting aside the commandments of God in order to keep their tradition. These new Pharisees are sort of like really bad cable news. They often create boogeyman problems with what they say and post. Crying down often phantom issues with passionate, but baseless zeal, they and their followers rejoice in heroic slaying of mythical dragons. They stir up anger and dissension by taking a myopic view of an issue and exploding them, demanding adherence to man-made standards. Humbly submitting to, and plugging in with, a biblical local church is not adequate for them. God's ways are too oppressive. Forget about the piles of commands for godly operations within the local church that are undergirded with humility (cf. Rom. 12:1-3; 1 Cor. 14:34-35; Phil. 2:3-5; 1 Tim. 2:11-12; Heb. 13:17; 1 Pet. 4:8, 5:5 ). Forget about the fact that God--not a man, not a pastor, not any human--but God gave commands for men and women to have order in Christendom; for the pastor/elder role to be filled by men, and for women to "quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness" (1 Tim. 2:11-12). Nevermind that those verses are actually in the Bible, and the Bible was given by God. We seem to know better than God what God said. And for some, if you dare mention these things, you are prosecuted and sentenced without a trial. Yeah, those verses might be in the Bible, but you are a raging something 'ist if you dare to bring them up. The irony could not be greater. As such, these new Pharisees are experts at setting aside the commandments of God in order to keep their tradition. They have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge. No one knows their law like they do. It's everyone else who is below their bar of adjudication. Everyone else is the sinner unless they join their Bible-forsaking, man-made laws." -- Pastor Eric Davis

Huh? I do not even know what he is rambling about here. The standards used in discernment are biblical. Only the bible matters. That is the measuring rod. I agree that ideally a local church is needed but sometimes finding one that is actually preaching the Gospel can be challenging. We do not affiliate with a local church for the sake of it. I agree with you on all the listed scripture and so would any legitimate discernment minister. So this tirade seems oddly out of place and completely devoid of reality. The very thing you are accusing of here is the polar opposite of what discernment ministries do. We abhor man made laws and insist only on biblical truth. I do not waste my time with strawman arguments.

"5. They are blind and unteachable. They could never imagine themselves as the new Pharisees. Yet, they are more angry about a few cultural sins than they are over their extraordinary lack of biblical humility. When it comes to such sins, it's not them. They, after all, are the guardians and enforcers of law. Therein, they are tragically blind. They nearly break social media with irony when they speak. For every one probably-not-actually-a-sin sin they rage against, they commit ten actual sins. If you question or confront them, they self-righteously accuse you too. You are guilty of an 'ism simply by the fact of questioning them. They refuse to receive correction, notwithstanding some 30 verses in Proverbs commending the practice. They have no time or toleration for pause, reflection, and objectively observing all the facts of a situation. They are too trigger-happy. It's not as fun to wait. They don't have patience for pausing in case they might be answering a matter before they hear (Prov. 18:13). They would read an article like this and could not imagine themselves as pharisaical. It's someone else. It's the other sinners. It's the "crowd which does not know the law [who] is accursed" (John 7:49). They are all law and no grace towards anyone who would ask questions about the validity of their claims." -- Pastor Eric Davis

A few cultural sins? Is that how little you think of the word of God? A true sign of anyone practicing discernment must be a teachable spirit lest we become what we rail against. The problem is that most people come at discernment with empty handed charges such as we have seen so far in this article. Bombastic nonsense without any backup. It is not about "the law." It is about teaching the word of God correctly. You want to ask questions -- go ahead. I just pray you are better prepared than when you wrote this article.

"6. Much of their fruit is anger, condemnation, and unforgiveness. If you do not conform to their man-centered, man-made standards, you will become the recipient of anger and unforgiveness, ironically. If you challenge them, even gently, brace yourself. You will become the object of hate-filled verbal violence. Your name will be drug threw miles of social-media mud. But even worse is if you do sin against them in word. This is the ultimate infraction. Sins against them seem unforgivable. If you say something uncharitable in one of your less noble moments, you will pay dearly. Their Bible does not have verses like:

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Credentialed Minister of the Gospel for the Assemblies of God. Owner and founder of 828 ministries. Vice President for Goodwill Industries. Always remember that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him and are called according to (more...)
 
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