Wednesday, May 30, 2012

False Teachers Destroy Hope

But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them -- bringing swift destruction to themselves. Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. In their greed these teachers will exploit you with stories they have made up. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping. -- 2 Peter 2:1-3

We would like to believe that someone who serves as a pastor will only teach accurate accounts of the Gospel. We want to have confidence in those who have been to seminary. We want to trust people we believe are chosen to teach and guide us in God’s ways.

But every now and then a pastor will express his/her own views, proclaiming those views to be from God. Such times bring destruction and cause people to turn from God.

A dear friend is distraught. Her son and daughter-in-law have decided to divorce. No one has been unfaithful. They are just so incompatible that it is a marvel they married at all. But they did. And in that short period of time they conceived and gave birth to a premature daughter they both love.

My friend asked them to try again. She bought the movie “Fireproof” for them and urged them in to Christian counseling. Who better than their pastor? As it turns out, few could have been worse.

This man told a woman prone to drama and over exaggeration that her husband was certainly having an affair. Otherwise, the pastor concluded, the young man wouldn’t want a divorce. There is no affair. There is no flirtation. There is nothing except incompatibility and, now, a lie told by a pastor.

The pastor later told the young man that if he went through with the divorce, he would be condemned to hell. For all time. Forever. Because the man decided to divorce his wife. Not surprisingly, this young man has decided he never wants to go back to church.

Oh, and the divorce is more a certainty now than before the “counseling sessions.”

God frowns on divorce. No doubt about it. We see divorce in the Bible but it wasn’t the way that God intended marriage to be. That said, there is NOTHING we can do to make God stop loving us. And there is NOTHING that grace won’t cover.

That doesn’t mean it’s okay to go out and sin just because we live under grace. It does mean that we are all sinners and fall short of the glory of God. This young couple aren’t condemned if they divorce. They are forgiven the minute they ask for forgiveness. Jesus made sure of that.

This pastor spoke his own views and claimed them as God’s. In so doing, he took away the hope we all have in Christ Jesus our Lord. God promises to deal with false teachers and I’m trusting that he will even as I pray that God will lead this couple back into His waiting arms.