A CRIMINAL IN THE EYES OF GOD
When Jesus warned his disciples to watch out for wolves disguised as shepherds (pastors), he wasn’t suggesting they were misguided men. On judgment day, Jesus called the ἀνομίαν out for what they were in this life.
Consider how different translations try to convey the word ἀνομίαν (anomian) in the Greek:
‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ (NIV)
‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws.’ (NLT)
‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ (ESV)
‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness.’ (BSB)
‘I never knew you; depart you from Me, those working lawlessness.’ (BLB)
‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’ (NASB)
I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. (KJB
I never knew you! Depart from Me, you lawbreakers!’ (HCSB)
‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you who practice evil!'” (ISV)
Then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you. Go away from me, you lawbreakers!’ (NETB)
Lawbreakers.
Evildoers…
The word “criminal” comes to mind. And it makes sense considering the false teachers in Jesus days illegally usurped the Levitical priesthood, invented their own manmade traditions in the name of YHWH (Mark 7:3) and were a law unto themselves. Jesus continually called out their hypocrisy and crimes in his ministry.
You could say that Jesus Christ preached both the law and the gospel, exposed and persecuted the lawless, tried to convict them of their sins and call them to repent just like he did everyone else.
And now Kong Hee of City Harvest Church, who has been exposed as a wolf in sheep’s clothing because of his blasphemous and heretical teachings, has also been convicted as a criminal. You CANNOT separate the two.
An unrepentant criminal in the pastoral office can only be a false teacher. An unrepentant false teacher in the pastoral office can only be a criminal. Why? Because they are not regenerate or “bearing fruit in keeping with repentance”. Therefore, they are not qualified or trained to rightly handle God’s Law & Gospel correctly and will insist what they are teaching is right, using another standard as their authority to bring everyone in line.
And usually that standard is a lie.
The lie that is still being thrown around by these lawless ministers is that Kong Hee is being persecuted for preaching the gospel. We tackle this deceptive propaganda by Phil Pringle and Kong Hee in this article here:
Is Kong Hee being fairly or unfairly persecuted by the Singapore government?
If God is fighting for the Christian, the one’s against the Christian are the false teachers. And when it has been publicly exposed that Kong Hee and Phil Pringle have been lying to Christians and financially ripping them off to live the high life, God’s actual enemy is Phil Pringle and Kong Hee.
They are the lawless ones – and the courts of Singapore proved this.
And God commands that we “purge the wicked ones from among us.” (1 Cor 5.) So if God is commanding us to stand in love (for true love rejoices in the truth), then the Christian thing to do is to expel these criminals from behind the pulpit in Jesus’ name. Otherwise if we don’t, we are not showing that we love God at all.
“If you love me, keep my commands.” – Jesus, John 14:15
PRINGLE SLANDERS THE APOSTLE PETER
In Phil Pringle’s ‘Persecuted’ article, we would like to alert our readers to his slanderous teaching against the Apostle Peter: “The Apostle Peter says, don’t be surprised when people criticise you for your faith.” Pringle is lying by ommission. Peter did not exactly say that. (We will read what he says in context down lower.)
That’s all you get from Peter the Apostle. However, by using that, Phil Pringle twists the Apostle’s words to teach that “Satan has been attacking God through His people ever since.”
No – Satan only “has been attacking God” through “false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as apostles of Christ.”
That “false apostle” and “deceitful worker” would be you Phil Pringle.
God Himself points His finger at you through the writings of the Apostle Paul and says, “And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve.” (2 Corinthians 11:14-15)
Your false prophecies, sins, cover-ups and refusal to repent are on record and the whole world is watching you use the Word of God to justify your sins and your crimes before God.
Pringle also writes,
“There has always been a dark, sinister, yet invisible and well-camouflaged hater of people connected to Christ.”
They are called false teachers Phil Pringle. What you are writing is proving this case all too well.
“The motivation behind all the persecution is a malignant evil spirit that cannot help itself but seek to destroy anything that has the scent of Christ. It is the spirit of anti-Christ.”
Again Phil, you are the proof. Since starting the C3 Church Watch and CHC Church Watch sites, we’ve only encouraged people to stand on the Word of God. You’ve decided to stand with your best friend Kong Hee. Now you’re asking Christians to stand beside a “thief,” “criminal” and “meddler.”
And you accuse Christians of “persecuting” you?
Since you attacked God and His Apostle Peter, we will let Peter finish off what he was trying to say:
“Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer or thief or any other kind of criminal, or even as a meddler. However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name.” 1 Peter 4:12-16 (Emphasis added)
Phil Pringle writes,
PERSECUTED
In our last week of the series ‘The Beautiful Attitudes’ we look at how we will always come up against criticism and persecution and how we should respond to this through the teachings of Jesus.
The Apostle Peter says, don’t be surprised when people criticise you for your faith. Persecution is not something that is alien to the Christian life. God declared war on Satan after the Fall of man (Gen 3:15), and Satan has been attacking God through His people ever since. Christians are “strangers and pilgrims” in an alien world where Satan is the god and prince (John 14:30; 2 Cor 4:3-4). Whatever glorifies God will anger the enemy, and he will attack. For believers, persecution is not a strange thing. The absence of satanic opposition would be strange!
If you are without some kind of persecution or opposition it could be an indicator that you are not having much effect against the darkness in our world. Some of you wish you were not having so much effect. One of the signs that you are standing for something worthwhile is that it will be opposed. We are trying to do the right thing in a world hell bent on doing the wrong thing. We are going against the tide of feeling in the world. What we stand for will be mocked, criticized and opposed.
1 John 5:19 We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.
There has always been a dark, sinister, yet invisible and well-camouflaged hater of people connected to Christ. The motivation behind all the persecution is a malignant evil spirit that cannot help itself but seek to destroy anything that has the scent of Christ. It is the spirit of anti-Christ. God’s people have never been immune from opposition, persecution. The very first record in Scripture was Abel, who was killed by his brother Cain, because of his righteousness. His brother was also religious but was wanting to do religion his way, not God’s. This has always been a mystifying fact, that some of the most monstrous enemies of Christians have been religious people, claiming they are doing God’s work.
Persecution takes on many forms, from very public oppositions with dire results all the way through to mere unfounded, unnecessary criticisms at the office. Persecution can be invisible pressure coming upon you for no reason at all, temptations, spiritual oppression warfare in your mind and emotions. Persecution can come through relationships both close and far, family, friends, associates.
But let me say this, when acceptance and respectability come to the church, she will die. This is not said so we seek to irritate the world around us or attack them. But as you simply live out the life of following Christ you will not be able to escape the inevitable evil opposition of the religious people, evil spirited people intent on opposing all you stand for. Yet rejoice said Jesus, because He has overcome the world. We will live in victory in spite of the fact that we are under pressure.
When you step out to obey God, all hell will break loose against you. When you decide to help build the church, to be a connect-group leader, to volunteer, to become a Vision Builder and give above your tithes to the Vision, you will enter into a spiritual warfare that seems completely out of proportion to the level of what you have so far accomplished. The devil is the patron of overkill. But it’s because he recognises the power of one persons influence. To kill every child under two in the nation seems like overkill, but Moses lived and delivered 3 million slaves and destroyed a God hating nation, birthing a God loving nation with laws that the entire civilised world has based their society upon. Moses became the greatest hero of antiquity. We need to recognise this reality so we understand whom our warfare is with. It is not with people, but with spiritual evil (Eph 6:12).
We have named this series ‘The Beautiful Attitudes’ obviously a play on the words ‘The Beatitudes’. Yet the condition for this kind of opposition to happen is because of the Christ centeredness of believers. You are not going to be opposed if Christ is not the center of your life and activity. You will not be opposed if you are merely religious and not empowered by the Holy Spirit. The word Christ means ‘anointed’. The anti Christ spirit doesn’t seem to bother religious people who are not filled with the Holy Spirit, but once the people of God become empowered with the great Holy Spirit of God, the anointing, then that demon reacts.
However, it is not just the fact that we are persecuted that we are blessed but also because of our response to that persecution.
Matt 5:44 But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you
Here is the key of what Jesus was speaking to. He said we are blessed, not cursed when people say all manner of things against us falsely. We inherit the blessing when we respond with the love of God.
1 Peter 3:9 Not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary blessing, knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing.
A little later on in this verse Peter says to not avenge yourself. Leave it to God, because He has said ‘Vengeance is Mine’. I have experienced this first hand many times, when I have been tempted to take matters into my own hands, but then what I have instead, forgiven them, blessed them and left it to the Lord, they certainly have discovered the Lord looks after His own.
Today I want you to let go any desire for revenge you have towards people who have hurt you, opposed you, hated you, said things against you falsely, used you, lied about you and done you wrong.
Forgive them.
Bless them.
Pray for them.
Thanks for following along with our series on the Beatitudes. If you need to catch up on any of my previous messages on this click this link here to check them out. If you’d like to read some of my leadership teaching, be sure to check out my blog posts on LinkedIn.
See you in church!
Source: By Phil Pringle, Persecuted, PhilPringle.com, http://philpringle.com/blog-/persecuted, Persecuted, Published 26/10/2015. (Accessed 25/11/2015.)
NOTE: SCREEN GRAB TAKEN 25/11/2015.
Categories: C3 Church
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