Ephesians 5:11. Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather, expose them.
Today : The words of our Scripture for today may sound a little harsh in regards to the subject of this report; you will have to be the judge when we are finished with this report in a few days. I personally have made no judgment on the man I will bring before us. I simply have read his book, and have many questions and comments about it. I want to share my findings with you, the church. For the above words were written to the church. We are the ones to decide with whom we will fellowship, and whom we will expose. As a longtime member of the church, and one of her appointed ministers, I offer some serious questions about the book , The Dancing Hand of God, by Dr. James Maloney. I stand ready for your correction, and his. I have contacted the ministry and was informed that this 2008 book, even though so lacking in documentation, is a true account of supernatural events in the author's life and the lives of people to whom he ministered. I was told that, indeed, thousands more have seen miracles at his hands. Dr. Maloney is still ministering publicly and I attended one of his meetings recently. Flags went up, yet I see how well he is received by the church, and I am saddened by what I see. Let me walk you through the book.
The parable of the tares
I'm sure you've all read it. I'm sure you have heard it explained. Jesus explained it Himself. The question I would put to you today is, Can the parable of the tares be used to keep the church from exposing false teachers or leaders? Let's examine it. Matthew 13:24-30, with Jesus' interpretation of it in the same chapter, verses 36-43.
A farmer sows some good seed in his field, but when it begins to grow he notices that someone has sowed some bad seed. He concludes it is an enemy. When he is asked if he should uproot the young plants, the bad ones,he says that that would be dangerous, because the good plants would be uprooted too. His advice is to let everything grow until harvest time, when the products of those seeds are obvious and easy to distinguish from one another. The bad plants will be burned, the good gathered into the barn.
The disciples didn't understand. Most disciples today would not have either. Jesus, knowing this, had it recorded for all time what He meant to say:
Jesus is the farmer.
The field is the world . Not the church. Very important detail.
In this parable, seeds equal people. Good people. Bad people.
That other "farmer" is the Devil.
Harvest is the end of this age. Reapers are angels.
The outcome is then obvious. Angels will remove bad people to their eternal judgment or blessedness.
So what is the message? There are evil men in the world planted next to godly men. The Devil has his plants everywhere, sent to deceive, to discourage, to block, to hurt, the children of God. That should be very plain.
The uncertainty comes via the question of the "servants" in the parable, who, by the way, are not identified by Jesus. Their role is simply to bring up that question, and let us know Jesus' answer to it for our own time. The question: what should our response be to evil men, even evil men right next to us in the church? Should we send them to their judgment, that is, kill them?
This was the response of the Roman "Church" of the Dark times. They felt it was their personal responsibility to do away with all evil men. Kill them. Burn their bodies. Take their property. Send them to God, as it were.
But if we understand Jesus properly, His own response is depicted in His explanation. No. Wait. By sending them to death, you could offend those who still live. My angels will take care of judgment later. Vengeance after all belongs to the Lord. He will repay, in His time.
We have to ask, how many souls were turned away from the Lord by Rome's actions during those awful years of the Inquisition and Imperial conquests of nations? How many came to understand that Christianity is a brutal religion that conquers in the flesh and treats lightly the promises of the Spirit, and the true power of God, the Gospel of Jesus? How many still despise Christianity in our own day because of their mental association of Christianity with Catholicism, Crusades, Inquisition, as though they were one? Does not Islam and the world media consider Rome and the Vatican as the very heart of Christian practice?
Heads up to Rome and all other vengeance-now believers: We don't kill in the Christian Church. We simply do not.
That is not to say that God Himself has not judged people "before the time". Consider Ananias and Sapphira, upstanding church members, carried away by greed and deception, then carried out the back door of the church, dead. But that is God's business, not ours. Peter, who was there, was only the messenger on that fateful day. I repeat, we do not kill. That is what the parable of the tares teaches us.
It does not tell us to keep our mouths quiet when apostasy is in the church. It does not tell us to withhold the names and teachings of offending brothers from a flock that will be devoured if silence becomes the new golden rule. Silence in this case is not golden, but yellow. Evil teachers and practitioners must be exposed and excommunicated. But again, God takes it from there, not us.
Jesus exposed Judas. And the Pharisees. And the Saducees. And the lawyers. The High Priest. These were the false people of His day. He did not attempt to kill them, only to expose them. He is our model.
Peter exposed Simon, the sorcerer who tried to join the church. Didn't cut his head off. Just rebuked him in the presence of other believers.
Paul exposed Demas as a deserter, who loved the world more than Jesus. And Alexander, a coppersmith who tried to harm Paul.
John exposed Diotrephes, a self-styled guardian of the church, lifted up with pride.
Paul gave instructions to the younger Timothy to be careful about his handling of older men. They were not to be rebuked. But if 2 or 3 people accused them, Timothy would have to respond. Not by blood, but by discernment and if necessary, cutting them off from fellowship.
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