“Be ye angry and sin not…”  (Ephesians 4:26a.)

 

Not long ago I received a visit from (2) two men. These men were representatives from a church. (1) one of the men was a pleasure to talk with and I liked him very much. We found a lot in comman and respected each others differing views. The other man was very direct and as a I have dwelt upon our meeting, he was very rude.

At first it didn’t bother me as I am familiar with this man’s type of thinking. The first man and I found that we had a shared admiration for Sherlock Holmes, critical and clear thinking as well as the art and science of logic. He is an admitted arminian whereas I am an admitted (5) five point calvinist. This man, we’ll call him Jacob, brought up 1 John2:2 as a defense for Arminianism. We, with the truth of Holy Writ, explained his misunderstanding of that passage. That passage states, that Christ is “the propititaion for our sins , and not for our sins only, but also for the sins of the whole world.”

Jacob saw this passage as meaning that Christ died for Christians and propitiated for Christians but not only for Christians but for the sins of each person in the world. I explained to Jacob that his understanding is common but inaccurate. I shared with him a passage from Galatians that stated that Peter, James, and John were to be apostles of the Jews and Paul to the gentiles. Therefore if you understand that you will understand 1 John 2:2 this way, “And [H]e is the propitiation for our [jewish] sins: and not for our [Jewish] sins only, but for the sins of the whole [gentile] world. We shared with Jacob that Revelation 5:9 defines, “world” as “every kindred, and tongue, and people (not person), and nation..” Jacob took what I had said and put it away for further thought later.

The other man, we’ll call him Diotrephies from 3 John, was very much to the point. He was very skeptical of me. Allow me to tell you why. Our ministry is a bit different from other, “more acceptable” ministries. We teach and have taught the Scriptures from our home on Sundays at 11:00AM (DV). We attend Wednesday services at Lighthouse Church in Romeoville at Rasmussen College at 6PM. We also spend time with the pastor of Bible Baptist Church in Romeoville. Our children attend the private Christ-ian School, ROmeoville Christ-ian Academy, which is a ministry of Bible Baptist. We also spend much of our time writing for this website that is read by a number of persons.

Diotrphies was not appreciative of our ministry. He charges me with “forsaking the assembling of ourselves together.” His understanding of that passage was incorrect as well as Jacobs. The proper understanding of this verse is the Hebrew believers should not forsake the fellowship over jewish persecution. In one way we should be slow in blaming Jacob and Diotrephes for their misunderstanding as this is what they have been told to believe. However, in another way, we can as each man is responsible to study Scripture for themselves and to seek the Spirit’s guidance.

Diotrephes went on to charge me with ordaining myself because the Ordaining Church was Trinity Bible Fellowship and that is the name of our ministry. I laughed at him and explained how ordination works and pointed out to him the (4) four names on the left side of ordination license. I pointed out further that the name at the top was a man that had been associated with a man and a church that Diotrophes, himself, worships.

To sum up what Diotrephes thought of me goes like this, I’m a calvinist, that cares not for souls, I ordained myself, and ontop of all of that, he told me that I should bring my small ministry to his church where they can receive proper teaching. I was I-I this close to asking him to bring all of his people to my home instead as I am equal to his pastor. I charged him, instaed, with not understanding God’s call upon a man to serve Him in a Ministry chosen by God.

I did not back away from speaking very direct to this man but I did so with respect as Paul directs me to. I hold no grudge against Diotrephes but I do know that he is very skeptical of me. In future run ins with himI shared with him my appreciation and enjoyment regarding our Saturday afternoon meeting. He responsed likewise but got away from me as fast as possible.

A word about the church itself and it’s pastor. I find the church to be kind and firendly. More importantly that that however I have found the pastor to be sound in the cardinal doctrines of Scripture. His preaching is with passion adn he loves the flock. The pastor, himself rather fasinates me and I look forward to getting to know him more. I do sense he is a bit skeptical of me as well as Diotrephes but i suppose I can understand that.

In todays violent environment all Christ-ians should be a bit skeptical of new persons as the Christ-ian and the Christ-ian church is a target of hatred, prejudice, and terrorism. That being said, we need to be slow to be prejudice concerning Christ-ians with varying beliefs, lest these pose a threat of usurping authority. This usurping is not a thing that seldom occurs but is always happening somewhere in the church collective.

I hold nothing against either of these men. In the long ago past, my wife accused me of being an angry Christ-ian. I suppose she was right. These days, on the other hand, it takes a great deal to anger me and for this I am most thankful to God. “The joy of the LORD is my Strenght”…   and not my anger as the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.

To summarize, reader, Let us be very careful in prejudging or juding other ministries according to their size or their understanding of secondary issues. For the person in this ministry belongs to God, too.