When wisdom enters your heart, and knowledge is pleasant to your soul, discretion will preserve you; understanding will keep you, to deliver you from the way of the evil man, from the man who speaks perverse things, from those who leave the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness; who rejoice to do evil, and delight in the perversity of the wicked; whose ways are crooked, and who are devious in their paths (Prov. 2:10-15)
His corrupt and evil deeds are well known by this point. Mark Driscoll is a known entity. His abuse of the sheep entrusted to him at Mars Hill Church is nearly legendary it its cruelty. Since leaving, Mark has started a new church in Arizona and occasionally pops up on Charisma News as he seeks to weasel his way back into the good graces of the apostate church. Above is a short article found on Charisma today, which appears to be a reprint from a blog post Driscoll had in 2020. The gist of it is to teach us that the evil man in unreachable. Who better to teach us about evil men than an evil man, I guess? The key verses today are what Driscoll starts his article with and perfectly summarize his ministry efforts. The evil man speaks perverse things? Mark Driscoll entered the national dialogue with seemingly inappropriate sermons on sexual matters. Walking in the ways of darkness? Yep that box is checked too as Driscoll would bully anyone who threatened his vision and leadership bragging once about how many dead bodies were under the Mars Hill bus he was driving. In order to find his way back to the cash cow of the false church, he had to bow the knee to Brian Houston, Joel Osteen and Robert Morris, so delight in the wicked who's ways are crooked? You betchya. After stealing money from his sheep to cheat a national enterprise such as the NY Times, it is quite apparent that he embarked on very devious paths. Let us reason once more through this article linked above as Mark Driscoll will attempt to teach us about evil men, such as himself.
"Some people have a hard time thinking a professing Christian can be evil, but the Bible is painfully pointed. For example, in Acts 5:3b, Peter says of one church member, "Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to deceive the Holy Spirit?" Evil people do not cause harm unintentionally as fools do. Instead, evil people intentionally plot harm, scheme to bring pain and destruction and feel vindicated in doing so because of their hurt, self-righteousness or corrupt nature." - Mark Driscoll
The story of Ananias and Sapphira remains a great source for debate regarding their salvation and the state of believers. While some prefer to assume they were unsaved, others believe this shows the very real-world possibility of sin within the life of a believer. Egregious sin. Disqualifying sin, which leads back to the favorite point of contention, once saved always saved. These are matters for another day and another devotional however as today we are reviewing this short article from Mark Driscoll to further reinforce his status not only as a disgraced and disqualified pastor but indeed as his continuation in the evil he perpetrated within the church. I know nothing of his work in Arizona, his current church business. I do not need to because I know upon which he built this current work. I know of the pile of dead bodies he left behind in Seattle. I know because he bragged about it. He boasted about it. He preached about how he was driving the Mars Hill Church bus and running over any and all who dared to disagree with his leadership. I know because I still speak with his victims and know of others who have never returned to the organized church because of the hurt they suffered under Mark Driscoll.
What continues to amaze me is how false teachers so often teach about matters that are direct examples of their own sin. This is what I refer to as spiritual projection. I once saw a local pastor berate the flock that they should leave his church of they disagree and then he preached on the 99 and 1, for example. In Driscoll's example let us look at one of the more serious issues from his ministry at Mars Hill in conjunction with his own definition here of evil people. Mark says that evil people intentionally plot harm and scheme to bring pain and destruction. While pastor at Mars Hill, Driscoll was becoming and international superstar within the purpose driven industrial complex. He wrote a book with his wife about marriage and he wanted it to become a NY Times best seller. Who wouldn't? It is very prestigious to forever refer to yourself as a "NY Time Best-Selling Author!' That is very lucrative for future books and speaking engagements. Instead of relying upon his writing ability and I don't know - faith, Driscoll plotted to game the system to ensure his desired outcome. He hired a public relations firm the specialized in this sort of scheme, which included buying in bulk from Mars Hill Church, for future resale. The cost of this elaborate scheme was 250,000 dollars, which Driscoll stole from the tithe monies his church had donated. Did this plot cause great pain and destruction? Of course. First to the person who should have placed on the top ten list legitimately that Driscoll now cheated out of that achievement. Then it hurt the sheep who had given their hard-earned money for the cause of the Gospel, not the cause of Mark Driscoll. They of course plotted and schemed in the dark, much like Ananias and Sapphira until they got caught. Even after they were busted however Mark Driscoll never admitted to any wrongdoing. To this day he does not. He feels vindicated in this matter because he got permission for the theft from his board of elders, which he hand-picked several years earlier after the previous board wanted him to be more accountable. Driscoll played the hurt victim for being asked about stealing the tithes and was self-righteous about the entire matter, thus displaying his corrupt nature for all to see. I am reminded of the verse from Jesus when He teaches that if we have convinced ourselves that our darkness is light, how deep is that darkness.
"The way to respond to an evil person is with nothing--the exact opposite of our response to a wise person. Draw near to a wise person and run from an evil person. Give more information to a wise person, and no information to an evil person. Deal directly with a wise person, and let the cops and lawyers deal with the evil person. A wise person can be influenced toward godliness, and a fool can perhaps be brought toward wisdom after they have sat in their mess for a while. But the evil person has to be considered hopeless apart from a dramatic intervention from God--one that does not involve you, because there is little to nothing you can do. An evil person might not be beyond God's ability to help, but they are probably beyond your ability." - Mark Driscoll
