Unmasking the Domestic Abuser in the Church

The Spiritual and Christlike Discipline of Rejecting Wicked People

2 Corinthians 6:15-18  What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.”

Christ rejected evil people and he instructs us to do the same. One of the reasons that the wicked have such a heyday practicing their evil among Christians is that we are not properly instructed in this discipline. Think about it. Your church tells you that Christians are to love all other people. Be kind to everyone. Invite them into your home. We teach our children all of this stuff. We think it is so Christian to stick a sign out on the front lawn of the church that says “Everyone Welcome!”  But when was the last time you were taught the Godly principle of rejecting the wicked? That Christ does not want some people to enter His church.  How often are our children taught these things? …


With some regularity I have had Christian survivors of abuse say in retrospect that their Christian upbringing made them a sitting duck for abusers. What in the world?? Christians should be wiser about evil than anyone else. Like Christ, we should be able to say to some — “Get behind me, Satan.” Paul’s instruction to us here in 2 Cor 6 is anything but unclear. “Go out from their midst.” “Separate from them.” They don’t belong in or among the temple of God. But somehow we think we know better than the Lord. We think that we are more loving than He was. We are foolish, and we make His people targets for the wicked.
The world often does a better job than the church. While we are teaching unbiblical “forgiveness” and “unconditional acceptance” and boasting about it, non-Christian people are wising up to evil and teaching their children how to spot abusers and predators, and how to tell them to get lost.
One of the most refreshing things I have learned in the last few years is that I have a right to tell certain people that I choose not to have any relationship with them. Myself and our church elders and members have a right, and a duty, to instruct unsafe and abusive people that they are not welcome in our midst. YOU have that right too.
And that is indeed what Jesus would do.

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6 Comments

  1. Breathe Again

    Your writing has been used by Jesus to show me that HE indeed wants me free of the abusive marriage I’ve been in for decades. I am thankful for having discovered your website. Your teaching brings me a lot of clarity about my situation.
    The other day I was reading here and found a message that helped me SO much. I have since tried to locate it again but haven’t had success with that. The message was about “they make much of you so that you will make much of them.” Could you tell me the title please so I can read it again and save it on my computer?
    Thanks for any help.

  2. Z

    Oh my goodness! Where were you, Pastor Crippen when I was young and being falsely indoctrinated by people who told me they represented Christ? What agonies I could have avoided knowing what the TRUTH of God’s Word’s is about evil people as you so plainly explain it. How did I miss how wrong they were? How did I ignore all the many red flags about their “rotten fruit” that I saw on a daily basis? And the false “mandate to keep forgiving” my abusers and those who enabled them? Kept me in such damaging bondage that I am paying with my mental and physical health to this day. All I ever dreamed of as an abused child was SEPARATING MYSELF FROM THESE EVIL PEOPLE! A child had more discernment about God’s will than all these wolves- church elder, ministers and pastors, church regulars who played their act well for outsiders. Bible under the arm on Sundays and Wednesday nights off to church. Leaving terrorized, screaming abused children behind.
    Unfortunately, the damage and my focus on SEPARATING MYSELF from these wolves led me to marry another abuser just to get out of that house of horrors. But I did separate myself from that abuser and now have a healthy, happy marriage to a saved godly true Christian man. It took more than half my lifetime to totally separate myself from ALL the abusers and participants in evil by silence, enabling, covering up…complicity. No Contact with pretty much everyone in this cult-like clan-“family, extended family and family/church friends” (they were NONE of these things in reality) hasn’t been an easy road. But definitely worth it. The Lord will stand by me when no one else will and He will give me strength.
    How I wish I’d had a “Pastor Crippen-like” person in my life BEFORE all the damage was done.

  3. no one down here

    This is a hard thing to wrap the mind around. On the one hand, all unsaved people are “wicked,” and as Christians we are to evangelize. This is a thing, and it is right.
    On the other hand, that well-dressed guy who sings in the choir, used to be a deacon, files in every sunday with wife and kids… talks well, acts charitably [in public] who also evidences nearly every single unholy thing described in the Bible as those things that disqualify you from the kingdom of God, are anathema… that man is wicked. That man is the kind of wicked that you cannot have around, unless you want to be corrupted. That man is a son of Belial. That man, you run far away from and never ever come back.
    The Lord has prepared everything for His purpose, even the wicked for the day of disaster. Everyone with a proud heart is detestable to the Lord; be assured, he will not go unpunished.
    Proverbs 16:4–5
    Acquitting the guilty and condemning the just—both are detestable to the LORD
    A hateful person disguises himself with his speech and harbors deceit within. When he speaks graciously, don’t believe him, for there are seven abominations in his heart. Though his hatred is concealed by deception, his evil will be revealed in the assembly. The one who digs a pit will fall into it, and whoever rolls a stone, it will come back on him. A lying tongue hates those it crushes, and a flattering mouth causes ruin.
    Proverbs 26:24—28

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