The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church? He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil. - 1 Timothy 3:1-7 (ESV)
The Charisma News Greg Locke image rehabilitation tour rolls on. Even though Locke appears to be primed to enter the next level of the Charismatic grift machine, he remains true to the brand that built his ministry - fake deliverance. We should never lose sight of the fact that Greg Locke is disqualified from pastoral ministry due to his violation of his wedding vows by cheating on his first wife with the church secretary, who he then married. So, remember that even if his schtick was biblically accurate, which it is not, the notion that God is using this adulterer to deliver people from demons is biblically absurd to begin with. Yes, God can use anyone for anything, but this is not a one off. Greg Locke sells himself on a repeated ministry mantra of perpetual "miracles" from God. God, however, would not use such to achieve such because it sends a very conflicted message and contradicts His own word. With that as the backdrop, let us reason once again through his latest Charisma news article, linked above.
"We all need to understand that the Bible is still just as practical and prophetic today as it was when the ink of inspiration flowed out in Revelation 22. We also have to realize that we have no say in which parts of the Bible to obey. We either believe the Bible or we don't, and the only parts of the Bible we truly believe are the parts we truly behave. Jesus is just as powerful and anointed a teacher today as He was when He walked the earth, and He is doing the same things today that He has always done. Jesus was the Word then, and He is still the Word now. If we have a problem applying Jesus and His teachings to our lives today, the problem resides in us and our religion. That's the realization the Holy Spirit used to break me of mine. Having been an evangelist for 10 years and then a pastor for another 15 years, I've often found myself trying to read certain things into the Bible and also out of the Bible because of the way I was taught. I found myself apologizing for the clear teaching of the Bible, but I was never trying to deceive the people or lead them astray. Thank God, He has brought me into a new understanding." - Greg Locke
Like most false teachers, Locke cannot discern when the scriptures he is citing apply to himself. I agree that we cannot pick and choose what parts of the bible to agree with. I agree that we either believe the bible or we do not, it is intriguing that he states the only parts we truly believe are the parts we behave. Considering this, he clearly does not believe the key verses today because he knows he does not behave like he believes them. The qualifications for pastor are quite clear. Does anyone truly believe that Greg Locke behaves in a sober minded way? Not quarrelsome? He built his entire fame on being quarrelsome! He openly called people who disagree with his politics demons, witches and sought to expel them from his church! Then there is the aforementioned problems which leaves him NOT a husband of one wife. Greg Locke is reviled by outsiders beloved. To say he is disqualified is a vast understatement. The ironic thing here is that he fancies himself as having grown out of "reading certain things into and out of the bible"; but he continues this practice today - just on different areas. Some may feel he is willfully deceptive, like me. Others may think he is just genuinely mistaken. It matters not. Our focus must always be on the sheep, not the wolves.
'"And He said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. And these signs shall follow them that believe; in my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover," (Mark 16:15-18). Here in our key passage of this study Jesus is at the end of His ministry, preparing to ascend to the right hand of the Father. No one has a problem with how it starts, but there are certain commands that follow this instruction that most Christians have been ignoring for a very long time because we were told to look past them.' - Greg Locke
This highlights one of the central theological problems with the latest spate of YouTube "deliverance" ministries. They are predicated on this section of scripture but they fail to understand, or seemingly do not care, that this entire section was probably never actually written by Mark. It is generally accepted that the older the manuscript is the more reliable it is because it is closer to the actual events that are recorded. The two oldest manuscripts, the Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Vaticanus, both end Mark at verse eight. The transition between verse eight and nine makes little linguistic sense and verse nine presents Mary Magdalene as a new character when Mark actually discussed her in multiple places within his gospel. The website "Got Questions" also points out the vocabulary is not consistent with the rest of the gospel, including 18 words in the added text that were never used in the actual gospel. It appears quite obvious that scribes for some reason added verses 9-20, which would make them NOT divinely inspired.
