Dining with Wolves

What I like so much about this internet age is that you can, among all the junk – still get good teaching for your edification anytime, anywhere. Not only that, but I have also discovered sound Bible men on these platforms, who are faithfully teaching truth. But, it has also happened many times that I have found a certain good minister, get edified by his doctrine and for a while get attached to his ministry, until one day I see him somewhere, associating and having ministry partnership with a wellknown false prophet. 

This disease is also prevalent in our local parishes as well. How many times have you seen a guest minister get invited to your assembly on a conference or something like that, he comes and starts teaching straight heresies to your eyes; something foreign to your ears – all in the presence of your shepherd’s ears!? To say that this is concerning is an understatement, I am not going to lie. I have tried to reason myself out of this, I mean, why would any good pastor associate himself with an obvious deceiver, considering the damage and the confusion? 

The only answers I could come up with is that... 

Discernment is not taken seriously - The ability to know the difference between truth and error is what we can call "discernment". Believe it or not, the Gift of discernment is listed among the gifts of the Spirit in Paul's letter to the Corinthians (1 Cor 12:1-11). Yet is it not amazing that it's still the scarcest virtue even among the best of God's sheep? It seems as if everyone has a free pass to say anything in the name of the Bible, no matter how heretical and we must all clap hands and say our amens. This plague, I have observed, streams from our underestimation of the damage that false teaching can do to a believing soul. As a matter of fact, Paul warns that to teach something false is the same as bewitching someone. I can't think of any other serious danger than that. Because of this, even good ministers are not concerned, as certainly not bothered when they attach themselves to men of questionable standards. Not only that, it also shows that truth itself is not something that is taken seriously among us. In fact, according to some Christians, there is really not much of a difference between truth and half-truth, as long as you carry a Bible and pronounce yourself a servant of God, you can pass. That is not good. 

Relevance by association - It is the reality of this Land (a sad one) that false prophets are the ones with a massive support, fat bank accounts, bodyguards and a good connection with the political elites of this world. That "celebrity status" is the centre of their ministries. I have to admit, that kind of lifestyle is appealing to us all. Because from the world's point of view, that is what it means to be "blessed". For this reason, many of our good ministers fall into this trap of wanting relevance – and the only way you can do that is to associate with hirelings. It is to get speaking invites; travelling across the country to minister in the crusades of those so-called great men of God. Their hope is to reach a wider audience; to grow their ministries by dining with wolves! The sad part though, is that nothing is free. Something has to be sacrificed and that something is – you guessed it – truth! It requires one to tone their own stance on truth, to cool down on anything controversial and doctrine-like, while being loud on unity. Here is me borrowing the words of the great bishop J. C Ryle, "Unity without the Gospel is a worthless unity, it is the very unity of hell." Secondly, I think you must be very worried when the one who watches over your soul cares about being famous and relevant to this generation. Such an attitude betrays that there is more worldliness in his heart than there is godliness. On the other hand, false prophets themselves love to rub shoulders with sound Gospel characters because it gives them the credibility that they do not possess on their own. That is, when believers see an obvious deceiver being endorsed by a man they trust, they also begin to regard that dubious character as a true man of God. Do you see the danger?

No proper background check - The final reason I think our noble ministers find themselves rubbing shoulders with men of questionable standing is that no proper investigation is ever done on these ministers before they are invited to speak. I am grateful for technology because nowadays, virtually everyone has left a media blueprint somewhere for anyone to know who they are, why and when. Yet despite all of this, bad characters are still invited to teach godly saints, can you imagine? People who have long proven, by their Facebook sermons, that Gospel truth and their hearts are as far from each other as Jerusalem is from Jericho. Here is my noble advice: check everyone before you ever associate with them. Find him on social media, scroll back through the things he has been posting. Get to know his doctrinal stance. His wife, too.

Here is the main take: You see comrades, it's not my intention to diminish the importance of Christian unity. In fact, I am all for it. We need each other's gifts in this great harvest of heaven. Yet there is something equally important: who you partner with. We have a responsibility, not only to feed the sheep of Christ, but also to protect them. We cannot afford to regard everyone as a servant of God just because they claim to be. Let people that are proven in sound character and teaching be the ones that get invited to our churches. I close with the words of Justin Peters, "What makes it hard for us to call out false prophets is the good guys that endorse them." 

If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into your house nor greet him; for he who greets him shares in his evil deeds. 2 John 1:10-11 

Sinothi Ncube

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