I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them. For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive. -- Romans 16:17-18 (ESV)
Did you get that beloved? Division is caused by those who teach doctrine contrary to what Christ has taught. When you think about the charlatans who occupy the public pulpits today the words "smooth talk and flattery to deceive the hearts of the naà ¯ve" is a perfect summary. Before you start excusing Chan from this realize he is asking his followers to join him for the 2019 "Send" Conference. This wolves den is filled with the likes of Bill Johnson, Lou Engle, Todd White, Mike Bickle, and Heidi Baker. Bickle and Engle are world-renowned false prophets. Todd White is a false healer using psychic tricks and confidence scams. Bill Johnson promotes nearly every heresy known to man and Heidi Baker is demonic. That is not being divisive beloved. It is pointing out who is being divisive and explaining how they are dividing the church. People like Chan keep promoting unity without caring what we are unifying around. Is that biblical? Absolutely not. When Jesus saw the Pharisees were not promoting sound doctrine He called them a brood of vipers. When He saw them robbing people in the temple He overturned their tables and drove them out with a whip. When Elijah was exposing the false prophets of Baal he mocked their false God by saying he must have been in the bathroom instead of answering their cries. The Gospel itself is meant to divide brother against brother. Thankfully, Gordon concludes:
"Perhaps we can start to change our minds and start looking towards others with seeing their good and not bad, speaking blessings over others and not curses. Remember we are fitted together in a temple of God with all saints of all ages. And Francis gives the example of someone taking a sledgehammer to this temple. What a fearful thing to do, of course we would depart from such an individual for fear of what God Himself would do to him. As the Scripture says, "Warn a divisive person once, and then warn them a second time. After that, have nothing to do with them" (Titus 3:10, NIV)." -- Greg Gordon
There is so much Francis Chan simply does not understand or discern. There is nothing good to see in a false teacher. There is nothing redeemable. According to the bible their destruction does not sleep. By speaking the truth about them and freeing their potential victims we are speaking blessings. There is nothing "blessed" about continuing to allow wolves to devour the sheep of the Lord. The next point of confusion is that Chan seems to believe that a church building is the temple of God. It is not. The bride of Christ are the believers across the world. We are fitted with them as one body as the bible teaches. We are not bound by this silo-version of the purpose driven church. The sledgehammer analogy from Chan is asinine. He claims that if you point out that Bill Johnson is a heretic you are taking a sledgehammer to the body of Christ. Bill Johnson promotes the prosperity gospel, false signs and lying wonders, angel feathers, gem stones, gold dust, glory clouds, grave sucking, the dead raising team, the NAR, Todd Bentley, experiential Christianity and operates a school where he pretends to be able to teach you the gifts of the Holy Spirit. That is who Francis Chan thinks the body of Christ should be untied with. I say no. The bible says no.
The key verse is the verse Gordon closes with. Scripture is meant to be taken as a whole beloved. Scripture confirms scripture. When we place the key verse next to the earlier verses from Romans we get a total picture of not just what to do with the divisive person but WHO that divisive person is:
I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them. For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive. -- Romans 16:17-18 (ESV)
As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him, knowing that such a person is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned. -- Titus 3:10-11 (ESV)
Beloved the person who brings in false doctrines to the church is indeed the divisive person. That person needs to be warned one time. Chan was warned in 2014 when he first appeared with Mike Bickle at IHOP. He admitted that many of his friends warned him against going to that conference and he refused to listen to them as he gushed on stage that he loved the Kansas City false prophet. He was warned a year later when he returned to IHOP. Now that little leaven has spread beloved to his own theology which condemns those who stand in the gap and scream wolf! It has spread to the point that he embraces Heidi Baker who rolls around on the ground babbling incoherently and exclaiming "whoa!" The key verse is very clear beloved. We are to simply no longer to have anything to do with him. It gives me no pleasure to say it but he is warped. He is dangerous to the body of Christ for the division he sows through the various false teachings he spews and heretics he unifies with. Mark him beloved and as Charisma News has just taught us inadvertently, have nothing more to do with him.
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