Judge Not...Wonky Theology?

There are a lot of bad pastors and priests who are teaching unBiblical theology these days.  But for the real church to stand up and judge any of them?  Forget it.  In our PC society, culture does not give us a pass to judge anybody—especially not to judge someone who calls themselves “Christian.”  But the fact is, our society is going down the wrong road.  And they say, when the “fruit” is bad, we need to look at the “root”—and in America, the root is the real Christian church, in a muzzled condition these days.  Christians who really know Scripture need to speak up.  

Yet there is a frank lack of courage for mature Christians to judge wonky “Christians.”  Our Bible has some crucial things to say about that.  Why crucial?  Because bad pastors lead people to hell.  Would we not yell “fire,” even if we were the only one who knew there definitely was a fire; or would we be reluctant because we might offend or inconvenience somebody? Even though the world believes that the worst thing we could do would be to say, “you’re wrong”—because they believe that everyone “has their own truth.”  Has this post-modernism culture bled that much into the orthodox church to make us so timid?  Are we that fearful to express The Truth as we know is contained in Scripture? 

Todd Friel, speaker and writer for NRB TV’s “Wretched” program, cites an interesting case of a German pastor by the name of Latzel who was not afraid to speak The Truth boldly and without compromise.  His standing on the Bible did not come without cost—as you’ll see, the German culture (as ours) believes that much of that Truth is bigoted, hateful, and, ironically, “un-Christian.”  A side note:  I wonder how far we are from the Bible verse where Jesus says in John 16:2:

They will put you out of the synagogues; yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service.

Pastor Latzel has been attacked in the media, investigated by the local government, even condemned by fellow pastors.  Seventy of them, behind a banner calling for “diversity,” denounced him.  The public prosecutor investigated him for hate speech.  The city of Bremen parliament has condemned him.  His crime in all of this?  He quotes the Bible, showing the Scriptural error of other religions, and attacks the spirit of compromise that he sees infecting society.  The latest controversy that he faces today is, “do Christians and Muslims worship the same God?”  Our German pastor, Latzel, says that Allah, as portrayed in the Qur’an, and our Christian God, are not the same.  The biggest difference, only one among many, is our God had a Son—Jesus Christ.  They assert that that is an infidel’s statement:  Allah-god did not have a son.  They’re not the same God just because of that.  So in Germany, as here, society calls itself “Christian,” but won’t stand up against the cultural winds.  No spine.

This kind of clash has been going around a long time.  Check out the words of Charles Spurgeon, great gospel preacher of the 1800s, who would be a Latzel fan today for sure:

“It makes me indignant when I hear another gospel put before the people with enticing words, by men who would gladly make merchandise of souls; and I marvel at those who would have soft words for such deceivers.  I would to God we had all more of such decision, for the lack of it is delivering our religious life of its backbone and substituting for honest manliness a mass of the tremulous jelly of mutual flattery.”

The irony here is that German pastors are judging Latzel for his crime of judging others.  (Did you read that twice?  It has the taint of hypocrisy, does it not?).  It seems that you can’t call people in Scriptural error, but it’s a “free for all” to judge the Christian—telling him he’s in error.  He has estimated that over 80% of pastors in the national German state church are not born again (whoops, used another hateful phrase).  They make their own doctrine—ignoring the Bible when they feel like it doesn’t say what they want. 

The Bible has many sections that make modern society uncomfortable.  American pastors know how to handle “uncomfortable” sections of the Bible—they just won’t preach on them.  They play word games in TV interviews,too.  They play God, ignoring "embarrassing" Scripture in their sermons.  I hardly ever run into a pastor whose sermon delivery consists of going through a book, chapter by chapter.  Most deliver sermons by topic.  It’s too bad, because going “by the book” means the pastor will have to cover certain controversial passages.  (Such as what Paul has to say about women’ roles.  I have a blog on that, by the way).

Now, there are some knowledgeable folk out there who are saying  ”Wait a minute, didn’t Jesus say “Judge not?”  My answer is, True, but let’s look at the context of His Words.  Let’s give the whole phrase, not just the first two words.  From Matthew 7:1-5:

“Judge not, that you be not judged. ² For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. ³ And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? ⁴ Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye? ⁵ Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye

As you can see, Jesus is indicating poor motives for much judging.  But He does not rule out all judging:  I’ve got five reasons for stating that:

1.        1.  In the same passage, Jesus judges some people to be “dogs” and “swine.”  You say, “What?  Where?”  Oh, yeah, I forgot to give you verse 6 of Matthew 7.  Here it is:

⁶ “Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces.

This has to do with picking the time to give out the gospel of God’s love.  Some people will sneer at God’s love—they are the “dogs,” etc—so for them, you just, for now, give the story of God’s judgment seat, and the reality of sin and hell.  Maybe you can dislodge a little misplaced confidence.  

2.   In John 7:24, Jesus told us to “judge with righteous judgment.”  I hope you believe, as I do, that Jesus, being God, cannot contradict Himself.  In the face of this clear statement permitting judging, we must look again at Matthew 7 to figure out what He is really saying there.

3.   Scripture tells us that, as saints, we will judge the world (I Corinthians 6:2).  There are many verses that instruct us who, what, and how we are to judge.  An example is Romans 16:17:

 Now I urge you, brethren, note those who cause divisions and offenses, contrary to the doctrine which you learned, and avoid them

“Note those” implies judging.  Does God want us to sin?  Did the rules change?  No.

      4.  Jesus was very judgmental when He called some Pharisees “sons of hell,” “blind guides,” “hypocrites,” and “whitewashed tombs” (Matthew 23:15, 16, 27).  If we want to be Christ-like, and if we detect clear error that is affecting people’s eternal lives dangerously, shouldn’t we get fervent as He did about stopping that?  Are we allowed to care, to speak up about it—or should we just lie back and say, “well, evidently this works for them.”  That’s more uncaring than Christian.

5.    Never judging is entirely impractical.  You could not even order food from a menu if all judging is a sin. 

Well, then, what are the rules?  What is Matthew 7 really saying?  First, understand that there are levels of theology.  We have to believe in the Apostle’s Creed, for instance, to have a shot at being a Christian.  Here it is:

“I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary.He suffered under Pontius Pilate,was crucified, died, and was buried; he descended to hell. The third day he rose again from the dead.  He ascended to heaven and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty. From there he will come to judge the living and the dead.  I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic*(i.e.,true universal) church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body,  and the life everlasting. Amen.”

Beyond those major doctrines, there are still many theological differences as there are denominations—the church is really split apart on mostly minor points.  Points of difference that won’t send anybody to hell.  The point I am making is, it’s not a great idea to judge another pastor or priest on a minor point.  But--fire away if they call themselves “Christian” and waffle on any of the major requirements of the Apostles Creed.  Because then they are not really Christian.  They are deceiving people, possibly sending unwitting people to hell.  Consider Matthew 7:15:

“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.   

You have to exercise judgment to obey His commands as to which people to beware of, right?

So, what was Jesus saying in Matthew 7?  Possibly these things:

1.        Don’t nitpick people to death.  Yes, we’re talking again about the minor points.  Look carefully at Jesus’ words in Matthew 7:  “…why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye…”

2.       Only judge others after you have judged yourself using the same standard.  Again from Matthew 7:

First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

3.       Do not judge with a self-righteous attitude.  Jesus called people “hypocrite” in Matthew 7—why?  Because they judged without seeing their own flaws.  There’s a lot of that going around. 

I would urge all of us to mature in the Word, and know when to speak up.  No reason for timidity today, especially since our freedom to proclaim the gospel may be taken away from us. Let us consider right motives for judging.  Here are a few:

1.        We judge because we love God and want to obey His commands.  Consider  His command in Jude 1:3: 

…contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.

 Remember, a crime against God is the greatest crime there is.  Messing with God’s theology, messing with His Book, can win you a spot in hell.  Look at Revelation  22:19, almost the last words in the Bible, so they’re important:

 ^…and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.

2.        We judge because we love the truth.  John Calvin once said that a dog will attack somebody who attacks his master.  Our master is God, who gives us Truth.  Are we as smart as dogs?  Don’t we love Him and His truth as much?  Paul even named names of those who disappointed him.  To quote again Charles Spurgeon:

“He who does not hate the false does not love the true; and he to who it is all the same whether it be God’s Word or man’s, is himself unrenewed at heart. ..I beg the Lord to give back to the churches such a love to His truth that they may discern the spirits, and cast out those which are not of God.”

3.       We judge because we love people.  People who follow false teaching don’t grow spiritually, and may end up in hell.  If we sincerely believe we have the Truth, can we stand by and say nothing?

4.       We judge because we love false teachers.  Even if they’re an enemy of good, Jesus commands us to love them too.  Don’t we love them enough to say, “you’re doing it wrong, you’re sending people astray, and you must give account on your own judgment day.”  Consider Matthew 5:44-45:

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, ⁴⁵ that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. 

I pray we get all this right, and pray and speak boldly for His truth.  Who knows how much time we have left to speak His Word freely?

Acknowledgement:  Todd Friel, writer, speaker, "Wretched" TV.