When Christian Husbands Should Ask the Divorce Question
The Protestant church is returning to its medieval orthodoxy. This transition is very subtle but causing controversy and conflict. The transition is extraordinarily efficient because Protestantism is already primed for it. A misguided (from a true Protestant perspective) historical-grammatical interpretation of the Bible created a Protestant hybrid for about 200 years, but the rediscovered true Protestant gospel has returned.
And that means Protestant pastors claim all authority on earth over salvation and people’s lives. That’s just plain black and white Protestant orthodoxy. Before Protestants became confused between 1776 and 1970, they were just another warring faction among all the other church-states and pagan-states that ruled the world. Part of the confusion was integrating Americanism with Protestantism, but in reality, the two are mutually exclusive.
So, this is what our ministry deals with; contentious Protestant marriages over the authority issue. One spouse subscribes to pastoral authority while the other doesn’t. This post primarily focuses on husbands—probably because three out of the four situations we are presently dealing with involve husbands that are seeking counsel.
In these situations, the wife has a problem with the husband because he “doesn’t respect the elders” or “refuses to submit to the elders.” If a husband is guilty of this grave sin, he has lost all credibility as a husband and the right to be one…while in most cases he is yet paying the bills.
Even though the wife has completely stripped the husband’s status as leader of the home and given it to the elders of the church, we hesitate to counsel any husband to file for divorce, but we do think that it is time for the “divorce conversation.”
Due to the fact that the wife has ignored the clear teachings of Ephesians 5:22-33 and 1Corinthians 11:3, and has chosen to listen to mere men instead, she may be treated as if she is an unbeliever. Her authority is men, not Christ. This is when the husband needs to have the “divorce conversation” to ascertain whether or not the wife is pleased to remain married to said husband. The conversation could go something like this:
Husband: Do you want a divorce?
Wife: No, why would I want a divorce?
Husband: Because you have taken away my role as a husband and given it to the elders of the church, that is, except for paying all of the bills. This is an unacceptable existence.
Wife: But you should be willing to submit to the authority of godly men.
Husband: No, I will submit to Christ and no other, so what do you want to do?
Based on the outcome of this conversation, the husband may encourage the wife to put feet on her beliefs and file for divorce (1Corintians 7:15). This is because she will never respect her husband as a husband until he obeys men rather than God. That’s a huge problem, and frankly, not reconcilable.
This puts the wife in a position where she has to verbalize a position instead of having it both ways. “yes, I totally disrespect you because you will not obey the elders, but I still want the financial security that you supply and occasional sex.” If she will not admit it, verbalize it for her and let her present a case of denial. But at any rate, it can be pointed out that the elders get to be the boss while not putting their money where their mouth is. They and the wife are picking and choosing what role the husband is allowed to execute. It’s an absurd state of affairs.
As a ministry, we are treading new territory in regard to utterly rejecting the authority of Protestant orthodoxy. Christ’s assembly is a body that operates via organized gifts, not via the glory of arrogant men. There is ONE head of the body…period. Perhaps this “divorce question” conversation is a sound beginning to needed solutions.
paul
John MacArthur’s Protestant False Gospel Made Easy: Christians Are Unholy
In an article titled, “Whatever Happened to the fear of the Lord?” (http://www.gty.org/Blog/B160810 August 10, 2016), Pastor John MacArthur, without question the most notable evangelical of our day, states that “Christians” are unholy. Of course, the difficulty is in the utter simplicity of the issue.
Protestants believe that conversion is only a declaration by God as opposed to a holy state of being. Their definition of the new birth follows: one is gifted with the ability to see our sinfulness as set against God’s holiness. In contrast, the Bible emphasizes an effort to be more like God because we are also holy. True Christians sin because they are weak, not because they are still unholy and only changed positionally. Salvation is a state of being, not a mere legal declaration.
Protestants like MacArthur get tripped up on the law. They believe perfect law-keeping brings about eternal life / righteousness / justification / holiness. Supposedly, Jesus came to pay the penalty for our sins, and to live a perfect law-keeping life that can be imputed to us by faith. But the law cannot give life regardless of who keeps it. All sin is imputed to the law so Jesus could end it, and all of the sin imputed to it.
The true Christian is justified by new birth, not the law. Our focus is to fulfill the law by loving God and others with all of our heart, soul, and mind. Our focus is to use our temples to offer holy sacrifices to God through obedience to His word. All of the sin offerings were ended on the cross; our focus is the love offerings. In contrast MacArthur states:
When we see God as holy, our instant and only reaction is to see ourselves as unholy. Between God’s holiness and humanity’s unholiness is a gulf. And until a person understands the holiness of God, that person can never know the depth of his or her own sin. We ought to be shaken to our roots when we see ourselves against the backdrop of God’s holiness. If we are not deeply pained about our sin, we do not understand God’s holiness at all.
Without such a vision of God’s holiness, true worship is not possible. Real worship is not giddy. It does not rush into God’s presence unprepared and insensitive to His majesty. It is not shallow, superficial, or flippant. Worship is life lived in the presence of an infinitely righteous and omnipresent God by one utterly aware of His holiness and consequently overwhelmed with his own unholiness.
Note that MacArthur only sees one distinction between the “born again” and humanity in general: an ability to see the depths of our sin. And, the sole focus of “worship” is also our own sinfulness. This puts MacArthur squarely in the same camp as those who published the “Cross Chart” that illustrates progressive justification.
So-called saints primarily focus on one thing: a deeper and deeper realization of our own sin. Obviously, any notion that we have any goodness at all would diminish the cross by raising the downward trajectory of the bottom line.
The apostle Peter and Jude both wrote that we are holy. Who is John MacArthur? Jude also wrote that the Lord will return to execute judgement on the unholy…those that the Protestants identify with.
It’s not complicated; if you are unholy you are unsaved.
paul
Why Does TANC Confront Churches?
As recovering Protestants it is important to reevaluate what we do and why we do it from time to time. As an alcoholic craves liquor, Protestants crave guilt and condemnation; so, unhealthy introspection will continue to be with us to some degree. Not only that, we struggle with the guilt of doing things for the Lord without elder approval. There seems to be a little voice whispering in our ear, “What if they are the Lord’s anointed?” followed by balmy hands and rapid, shallow breathing. I understand.
So, let’s reevaluate why TANC Ministries confronts abusive evangelical churches publically. Sure, the basic reason is Matthew 18:15-20, but in most cases Protestant elders are going to reject the use of that process from the perspective of an offended congregant. That doesn’t fit their authority motif. Elders don’t answer to the peasantry even though the peasantry pays their way.
Here are some reasons why we do it. The Neo-Calvinist movement is returning the Protestant church back to its medieval traditions. Remember, the founding orthodoxy of Protestantism was structured around the church-states of that time. After the American Revolution the Protestant church no longer had the state at its disposal to enforce orthodoxy, so they improvised with manipulation and mind control. This is the cradle of cultism. This is where the concept of cult was born. Americanism also gave birth to Communism. These two, Cultism and Communism filled the void of America’s eradication of the church-state.
Therefore, what we are seeing in our day is Protestantism as cult. When we publically confront these closed societies, we are educating people at large, and warning others away from the danger of brainwashing. That’s not only a duty before God, it’s a civic duty. Moreover, it’s evangelism: Protestantism has become one of the largest venues for evangelism in our day as its false gospel of progressive justification is the tree that bears its cultish fruit of control-lust.
Why are so many false religions like Protestantism so heck-bent on justification by the law even though in this case Jesus supposedly keeps it for us? This whole idea of “The righteous demands of the law.” The Bible tells us. Sin is fed by the law’s condemnation. When a person is under the condemnation of the law, somehow, sin is able to use that to create sinful desires within the person. The continued obedience to that desire results in enslavement to any given sin otherwise dubbed, “addictions.”
In a born again believer sin yet dwells in our mortality, but because Christ ended the law’s condemnation on the cross its ability to enslave us is ended. The Bible explains the results of the new birth: it’s a reversal of freedom and enslavement. Those under the condemnation of the law are free to do good but enslaved to unrighteousness; those who have been born again are free to sin but enslaved to righteousness. In the unbeliever, desires become so intense that they are unable to say “no” to them. But those who are no longer under the condemnation of the law are able to say “no” (Titus 2:12) to sinful desires. Because we are “weak” we will fail at times to say no, but the ability to do so for the right motive is present because of our change of being…not a mere “legal declaration.” Don’t be misled by the piety of some Protestant leaders; a desire to control people is no less a sinful desire than murder.
Remember what Protestants did in the beginning under church-states if you disobeyed them. And take note in regard to how present-day Protestant scholars give John Calvin et al a pass accordingly. They were supposedly, “men of the times.” Right, during the times of church-states. To assume the same wouldn’t happen today without American jurisprudence is egregiously naive.
That’s why we do what we do. It is an opportunity to show people how to be under the law of love as opposed to the law of sin and death.
paul
“No Authority” T-Shirts Now Available
In response to many requests to have one of our memes made into tee shirts:
TANC Statement on Present Issue with Pleasant View Bible Church in Warsaw, Indiana
Paul Dohse on behalf of TANC Ministries:
Per what has become a common service here at TANC Ministries, we have been approached by a fellow Christian for counsel and support regarding the “church discipline” issue.
Our goal is not to fix the one who has come to us for help, but our only question follows: is the church using “church discipline” to persecute a Christian in the name of God and pseudo love bombing? If the answer is “yes,” we are a willing advocate for the persecuted brother or sister.
Using condemnation for any and every fault to cover for some issue that challenges the authority of spiritual despots will not dissuade this ministry from standing with those who are falsely accused in the name of God.
But with me, after witnessing the destruction of many families wrought by the Neo-Calvinist movement and its progressive justification gospel, it’s personal. To a large degree, the Neo-Calvinist movement, which has all but completely taken over mainstream evangelicalism, is driven by YRRs (young, restless, reformed) coming out of schools like Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY. Be sure of this: if not for American jurisprudence there would be a Neo-Calvinist police force making sure everyone is in church on Sunday morning just like the former city that the YRRs lust for in their dreams; John Calvin’s Geneva.
When I contact one of these YRR boy pastors on behalf of someone who has come to us for help, and they treat me like everyone else in their life that fears their authority that is the product of their own visions of grandeur, it becomes personal. Such is the case with “Pastor” Michael Hontz of Pleasant View Bible Church in Warsaw, Indiana.
In our dialogue with people who are members there thus far, one major theme constantly emerges: the authority of the elders and Michael Hontz in particular. This theme is predicated by a fear that rivals anything I have ever seen in churches that are being slowly assimilated into Neo-Calvinism and its false progressive justification gospel.
Let’s be clear: our only authority is Jesus Christ, and He will not share His glory with another and that includes His authority. Christ made it clear that ALL authority in heaven and earth has been given to him, and elders are a gift to the church like all other spiritual gifts, not a lordship by proxy.
YRR spiritual despots have persuaded many that they have been given authority over salvation by Christ, hence the fear we are seeing at PVBC. Of course, Hontz never frames it that way, but like all YRRs he has assimilated the idea into the minds of the congregants through nuance. We have witnessed several statements coming out of PVBC that proffer the idea that the authority of the elders must be obeyed regardless of individual understanding of the Scriptures. Even some of the elders are confused about the full implications of this doctrine as revealed in a long conversation we had with one of the PVBC elders. That conversation is documented and very telling.
While Hontz will continue to feed the Neo-Calvinism elephant to PVBC congregants a bite at a time, we fully intend to pull the whole elephant out in full view of the congregation and any other congregation that might be deceived by him. This we will do by all legal and spiritual means at our disposal.
Paul Dohse
8/15/2016
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