march 20, 2004

authority unlimited
the basis of abusive control

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

Many abusive fellowships 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 105:915 -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 fellowships 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.

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. | 1 Tim. 3:1-13; Tit. 1:5-11; 1 Pet. 5:2,3 |

whose will is it?
disciplers who lead you to believe their desires are God's Will

Recently I heard a head discipler remark that we didn't really have a choice of whether to eat pancakes or waffles for breakfast. If we are listening to God, he argued, He will tell us every move to make. This statement reflects a general belief in some destructive groups that God will tell you what to do in every area of your life if you are listening. Such an idea would seem to arise from the honest desire that one should do God's will and not one's own. But this statement was more extreme than any I had heard before. It is the kind of dangerous "black & white" thinking that is found in some discipleships. This kind of thinking may sometimes be based upon the false assumption that your desire and God's will are always opposed -- and that therefore if you desire a certain thing, it is certainly contrary to God's Will. ...

A former discipler, whom I'll call "Doug", explains how hard it was for him to navigate the waters of "hearing the voice of the Lord" ...

I had to distinguish which voice was of the Lord and which was my mind's or the devil's. Now that I learned in this new Christianity that God would always tell me what to do, I certainly was listening to all my thoughts. I'd hear, "Go to Pittsburgh" and I would think "That's crazy. I'm in school down here in Tennessee. Maybe it is God because I don't want to do it..."

I felt forced into using the language of the others. Sarah (another member) would say that "The Lord had me visit John today or the Lord showed me this...". I used to say, "I am going to see Sarah." Now I always said that "The Lord had me visit Sarah today."

I also felt uncomfortable that everyone was saying what the Lord showed them. I couldn't be sure what the Lord showed me, and what was my own inclinations, so I felt it was best not to put everything on the Lord. After a while, I felt terrific pressure to think of something that the Lord was showing me. It may not have been the Lord but I felt so much pressure to find something that the Lord showed me that I did find something. Now I realize that in regular English language before this group, I would have said, "This is what I learned today." Now I always said, "The Lord showed me this or taught me that." Maybe it was the Lord or maybe it wasn't. Being away from it all now, I feel free and I'm not being pressured into figuring it all out.

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