I’m loath to write anything more on this matter (all I’ve written on it is on my facebook page and won’t be put up here unless asked) as its all to easy to keep flogging a dead horse, and at the same time all too easy to become a heresy hunter, which I really don’t want to be, but something I read today in my RSS feed really struck me and I felt it important to share, so here goes:
Ever since the truth about events at Lakeland came out, theres been a lot of noisy made about it, and a lot of excuses coming from those who endorsed the whole thing. Its ranged from outright lying (one ministry leader claimed all who disagreed with Lakeland were wrong, then when all this stuff came out, fired those members of her staff who went to Lakeland and told everyone God had warned her about it), through changing sides, or throwing TB to the dogs, to blaming it on everything but them, but the one thing that has been consistent in all these comments from God TV, NAR, the Elijah list, and others has been the distinct lack of an apology (please note, Dutch Sheets has kind of apologised, but it doesn’t appear that he has actually done anything about it).
Why is it so hard for these people to apologise? After all they made a mistake (or quite a number of them), they placed someone on stage who wasn’t suitable for that position, they disobeyed the Bible’s guidelines on who should be a Christian leader, they presumed to speak for God when they clearly were not. Surely that should merit an apology? Surely a public confession of repentance and Godly sorrow would be the right response to this?
Well today I read a really short post from Alan Hirst, which answered the question, heres the post:
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“False prophets are not godless. [Rather] They adore the god ‘success’. They themselves are in constant need of success and achieve it by promising it to the people. But they do honestly want success for the people. The craving for success governs their hearts and determines what rises from them. That is what Jeremiah called the ‘deceit of their own hearts’. They do not deceive; they are deceived, and can breathe only in the air of deceit” – Martin Buber
The meaning of false prophecy lies in the umbrella of deceit that includes both the teller and the told. Both false prophet and audience believe the lie they patently want to believe in…and they are both given over to it. They are in M.Scott Peck’s phrase ‘people of the lie’.
Think about prosperity doctrine, theological liberalism, or fundamentalism, cultism, etc. with this in mind.”
That kinda makes me feel sorry for them, they really are blind guides. I just pray that God would open their eyes and bring them to repentance, before its too late for them and the many ‘little ones’ they are leading astray…
Thoughts?
Nick's ramblings 