Authority Unlimited

When we preach the message of Jesus, if some reject His message, then they are rejecting Jesus.  We can’t stretch that to mean that if our disciples reject our advice they are rejecting Jesus.

Touch not my anointed and do my prophets no harm!  (Psalms 105:15 KJV)

Some discipleship groups interpret this verse to mean that we shouldn’t question or say anything negative against our leaders.  This interpretation squelches legitimate questions or complaints that might stop errors.

Leaders who adopt this slant on scripture become almost immune from accountability to their people.  This is only one example of the ways in which abusive discipleship groups may use Bible verses.  Passages are often taken out of context and their true meanings distorted; but these groups also correctly interpret many verses.  That is why it is so difficult to see what they are doing.

Gilbert Trusty, a former pastor who used this passage to control his flock now explains...
This particular concept is so twisted, so groundless, that it would be funny if it was not so sad.  In context, in those verses (Psalms 105:9 15) (KJV) God is talking about the patriarchs, about how He protected them, about how He kept Abraham’s life.  The main thing the scripture was dealing with is when Abemelech took Sarah into his harem.  God wanted Abraham to keep his wife.  God was protecting Abraham because from him was going to come a nation and from that nation was going to come the Messiah.

Also John tells us that in the body of Christ we each have the anointing of God (1 John 2:20-27). This anointing does not apply only to the man behind the pulpit; we each have the anointing of God.  The Holy Spirit is available to every one of us.  We can be filled as we open ourselves and yield to God.

It’s not just one man, or some church leaders on earth who God has set apart anointed.
“Touch not my anointed” refers to all of us who are in the body of Christ.

Many times people forget that this scripture could never be used to mean that sheep should not question their leaders.  A good leader should be honored and respected; but we are instructed (1 Thes. 5:21)  to prove all things.  First Tim 3:10 says that deacons must be proved.  According to Revelations 2:2, even those who call themselves apostles should be tried.

Jesus commends them because they tried those who called themselves apostles and found they were false.  In abusive discipleship the mere fact that someone is a leader means that I should never say anything critical about that leader.

What a nice position!  To be a leader when your flock feels that they can’t be critical of you without going against God!  But this is very dangerous for the flock.

The foundation of the discipleship movement is the authority of the discipler.  What distinguishes discipleship relationships from the typical relationship between a pastor and the flock is that the discipler is granted a significantly greater authority to guide the directions and decisions of the disciple.  Could this possibly be Biblical, that a young Christian lay person is granted power to oversee souls?

This heightened authority may be communicated directly to disciples through teaching, combined with an insistence that disciples be submissive, obedient, trusting and broken.  Another way in which the excessive authority is indirectly communicated is by the way in which a leader exercises authority over the disciple.  The church has always held that both the content of a leader’s doctrine and the leader’s behavior are important. (1Tim.  3:1 13; Tit.  1:5 11; 1 Pet.  5:2,3)

IMITATE, TRUST, BE LOYAL AND HAVE FAITH
IN LEADERS ... OR GOD ... OR BOTH?

The more extreme controlling groups will stress one or more of these ideas to gain more control...
?  Not only should you trust God but you need to trust your leaders also!
?  Not only should you be loyal to God but you need to be loyal to your leaders!
?  Not only should you have faith in God but you need to have faith in your leaders!
Not only should you imitate Jesus but you need to imitate your leaders (without also teaching that it is the leaders’ Christian virtues which are worthy of imitation.)

You don’t find these ideas in the Bible, but if a group wants to gain nearly unlimited authority over people it is extremely important for that group to emphasize them.  If your group only uses one of these ideas, it is time to recognize it and analyze how it is misused and what the Bible really teaches about it.  Of course it is not wrong to have some trust, faith, or loyalty in your leadership.  What is wrong is to teach that the Bible says this is expected of us.  If your group labels people as sinners because they don’t trust the leaders, don’t have faith in them, don’t have loyalty to them, or fail to imitate them: this is also contrary to scripture.

Non-controlling churches generally stick more closely to Scripture and only teach trusting in God, having faith in God, having loyalty to God and imitating the life and virtues of Jesus or the virtues of Jesus in men.

Manipulative Groups Might...

• overstep the boundaries of Scripture when it comes to limiting leaders’ guidance capacity
• twist verses like “Touch not my anointed” implying that we can’t be critical of leaders without being critical of God
• stress trusting leaders, having faith in leaders, imitating leaders and being loyal to them
• grant disciplers (lay people) significantly greater authority to guide than Biblical standards permit ?  at times claim that refusal to obey leaders’ opinions in personal matters is sin
• allow leaders to exercise authority like high officials instead of being a servant to the their flock
• stress that leaders are servants but in practice allow leaders to force their opinions on members by threatening or actually carrying out public or private rebuke for differences of opinion
• not call attention to Scriptures saying that people were not always expected to obey their leaders
• imply, or even teach, that we should look on our discipler as the Apostles looked on Jesus
• classify almost all criticism of leaders as slanderous or malicious
• selectively focus on the idea that Jesus endured under abusive authority by being crucified; implying that we should obey even bad advice from leaders as that would prove our brokenness
• selectively focus on words or phrases and change their meanings; especially the words: obey, submit, dying to self, thus making it appear that a complete compliance to group leaders is what the Bible teaches
• denigrate any career other than full-time service to the church as serving God less than full-time ministry
• not teach that there is a distinction between back-biting, and legitimately criticizing leadership’s actions
• not teach that the authority is in the message and not the messenger
• permit novices to oversee souls or promote novices to positions of leadership
• teach that Jesus poured himself into only 12 people
• not teach that there is a distinction between a leader’s opinion or advice, and the Lord’s Biblical commands
• not stress “Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind” (Romans 14:5)
• not stress Scriptures which describe how Jesus refused to obey authority
• not explain that the Greek word exousia was never used in reference to church leaders, except the Apostles
• not explain that only reasonable commands of leaders must be obeyed and that these must stay within scriptural boundaries
• impress that we need to be accountable to a discipler in every area of our life and not just in the area of Scripture
• claim that if advice from leaders doesn’t contradict

TRUST IS EXPLOITED

Beyond Accountability MANIPULATIVE GROUPS MIGHT ...

• control negative feedback of leaders
• squelch legitimate criticism of leadership
• teach people to obey even when they don’t feel right about it (thus encouraging people to die to their sense of right and wrong)
• teach that doubts and criticism of leadership equals sin
• teach that all criticism of leadership is probably slanderous, divisive or factious
• cause members to loose jobs, promotions or deter them from school or other goals or family activities
• emphasize Biblical ideas like dying to self in a non-scriptural way
• subtly redefine the meanings of words
• hound on these certain Biblical words almost to the exclusion of other sound Biblical principles
• induce guilt in members so they confess being sorry for not trusting their discipler more
• not tell you that in the Bible trust or loyalty is never used in reference to church leaders
• teach you that unity means that you need to change your opinions to match the groups’ instead of constancy of purpose
• teach you that you must only go to leaders in private when you are pointing out error
• encourage the combination of trusting leaders and not criticizing “Independent” is redefined to imply selfishness or sinfulness in some way.

Some words that describe the emotions that former disciples felt when they heard “independent” are: dirty..  contaminated..  defiled.

Interestingly enough, independence is neither sinful nor virtuous in the Biblical context.  Paul, for example, was very independent but also completely dependent on God.  Another person may be independent but not keeping God’s commandments.  The “sin” and the “independence” are not necessarily related.

Obey and Submit

“Obey” and “Submit” are two words that are especially twisted by abusive discipleships.  It appears that in abusive discipleships, the chief virtue is not love, but obedience.  Obedience in abusive discipleships can be honored even when a leader gives wrong advice!  One of the many Bible.  ...

Manipulative Groups Might...

• extend church authority to every area of your life instead of staying within the boundaries of Biblical morals and values.
• cause you to receive excessive advice in matters not involving faith or morals.
• cause you to struggle trying to accept some of that excessive advice
• cause you to feel guilty when you don’t follow that advice
• subtly pressure you into accepting advice by allowing you to witness those who were rebuked or witness others being called unteachable, prideful, or hard hearted because they went against leader’s advice
• play “God the Father” by setting up rules which appear to make you obey God’s laws
• twist Bible verses to say “Stay away from non-believers who are reprobates.” (According to the disciplers’ narrow definition).
• cause you to reject the sinner along with the sin ?  cause you to feel that you are more accountable because they confront you or judge your motives and actions more often
• cause you to want to confront nearly every sin in others (i.e.; their definition of sin)
• cause you to loose mercy and compassion for others who sin
• never teach that you may overlook weakness in others
• cause you to see new people in discipleship as new converts or babes in Christ regardless of their knowledge or holiness
• cause you to label someone as “having a bad heart” when you really lack knowledge about the person cause you to categorize disciples as having a bad heart when they are only offering healthy criticism that should be accepted by the leaders
• cause you to categorize disciples as sinful if they merely reject advice
• change the meaning of “brokenness” to mean “willingly following advice or direction from leaders”
• limit your choices, while simultaneously making one or two of those choices appear to be God’s will
• cause you to think that real commitment is only possible by having a discipler
• cause you to think that Christ’s teachings aren’t enough; now you need a personal discipler
• cause you to think that nearly all doubt about the group is sinful
• cause you to think, act and choose from a narrower range of options than you normally would have accepted
• restrain your free will by causing you to feel that many things are sinful when they really aren’t
• restrain your whole personality by telling you that you should die to every thought, goal and desire instead of just your sinful desires
• put down your family in subtle ways
• urge you to imitate your leader in every way, instead of only the leader’s virtue in Christ
• put down your former church for reasons which have nothing to do with morality or virtue (having crosses, wearing robes, etc.)
• teach you that being a follower of Christ means putting another man’s wishes above your own
• cause you to turn down job promotions, stay in town, and give up career opportunities because of dependency on your discipler, which is created by the discipleship
• cause you think that you are falling away from God or at least falling down on your commitment to Christ when you want to quit the program
• cause you to see the word “independent” in a negative light when formerly you knew it was positive
• twist the Biblical definitions of obedience and submission
• redefine the word “selfish” to mean “disciples who do not conform to the group’s will”
• cause you to think that you are selfish when you carry out your wishes instead of your discipler’s ?  cause certain “triggering” words to bring forth intense emotions in order to influence your thinking

This excerpt is from a web page http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Delphi/6312/tbook.html  from a book called Twisted Scriptures.  It perhaps notes extreme cases, but a lot of them are found in controlling churches and leadership.