><>...Hal, nice to hear from you, and glad you are still around..><>
Hal you may not understand this but it is quite difficult for a christian to attempt to do battle with those who say they are christians but are not for many reasons, the most obvious being doing open battle with anyone as a christian, serves only to possibly cause others christians and non christians alike to stumble.
As a christian I must allow the word of God to counsel me. Just to give you some insight as to where I am coming from I will show you what that counsel is.
In relation to another Brother;
The first step we as christians are told to take is:
1.To go to him in private.
I did this. Almost one yr. ago, I sent him email and asked him to explain his position on a very controversial issue which he put out in public. He did not respond by email, and instead he came on Ask God, and immediately began to wage war against me.
He began spouting his antisemitic garbage(in Bold Caps.) and immediately others from all around SI began to pounce on him, and he relentednot. Many would have eaten him for dinner if they had the opportunity. In spite of his evil rantings and troublemaking ways I felt compelled to come to his assistance and did,(I felt very sorry for him as he was taking quite a verbal beating) and one who still posts on SI was the recipient of my wrath in defense of this person.
He did in fact thank me and said one or two wonderful things of me,and my spirituality, not long lived though. No surprise to me at all.
He continued in these very UnChristian ways for days, never relenting.
It wasn't long after this first very heated and disturbing episode which he caused, that I realized he intended to cause trouble. Lots of trouble, to pit one against the other and to divide the brethren.
2)Take a another brother as a witness and confront him in his bad behavior.
Did this also. There were a few who also rebuked him and asked him to please stop that kind of antisemitic ranting.....To NO avail.
His railings and rantings soon became a clear warning to me that he is a deeply disturbed individual with some clear cut, deep rooted problems.
I finally after many months of prayer and observation decided to confront him in an attempt to curtail or at least soften his evil message, unfortunately this too was to no avail.
In my attempts to handle this volatile issue in a manner pleasing to God I may have put myself at risk, in that if he were not a brother in the Lord, he would have taken advantage of that confrontation and used it against me, which is exactly what he did, and still continues to do, which is evidence enough that he is not a brother.
I don't regret that I exposed his unchristian behaviors and intent, but I might have gone about it in a different manner, maybe a bit of my flesh got in the way, I don't know for sure,maybe it was the right way to go about it. In any case I am now for sure his #1 enemy, and he does not attempt to hide it at all...Oh sure, he said once that he loves me, but that was just for the benefit of the christians on the thread, he doesn't fool me. As a matter of fact I too was once caught in his snare a while back when I thought that he was just a little misguided as to his beliefs, and tried to warm up to him. But they are deep rooted entangling his very heart.
He is cold and calculating so I have taken the next step .
3)A man that is an heritic after the first and second admonition reject
4)Even in the case of a brother we as christians are told by the word of God to withdraw ourselves from those who walk disorderly and not after the word of God.....and that is in the case of even if the person is a brother in the Lord Jesus.
So this is where I am at now. Another issue working here Hal is that we as christians do not wrestle with flesh and blood but with principalities and powers and rulers of darkness....In short Hal this battle is not with any man/woman it is with the enemy of God my Father.The adversary is not any particular person, the adversary is satan himself using a particular person, and it must be handled in accordance with the word of God, and on that word I stand...
You might not understand this either but the battle is the Lord's....And when God goes to battle He is always the victor.
and to the victor belongs the spoils.
Keep in prayer Hal, if you pray at all.God can do anything, He is a mighty God and He is a just God...Give Him praise and thanks!
Have a Blessed weekend
Shalom...><> |
