In the last couple of weeks I have received some comments from a few friends who all have survived wicked abuse. I decided what they said is too valuable to keep to myself, so here they are for all of you. They don’t address one specific tactic or subject, but here they are all in one place:
Author: Jeff Crippen
I am the pastor of Christ Reformation Church in Tillamook, Oregon, arriving here in 1993. I have been a pastor since 1983 and was a police officer for 12 years before that. My wife and I have been married since 1971. Verla is a medical assistant at a local clinic and in our spare time we like to hunt, fish, and ride our motorcycle.
Sometimes it is the Christian’s Duty to Flee From Danger
Matthew 24:16-18 then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. (17) Let the one who is on the housetop not go down to take what is in his house, (18) and let the one who is in the field not turn back to take his cloak.
These verses are of course from the Lord’s words to His disciples which we call the Olivet Discourse (Matthew 24-25). Jesus is speaking to them here about the coming destruction of Jerusalem, but we can correctly apply what He says to our own daily lives now as well:
We see that flight from danger may sometimes be the positive duty of a Christian. The servant of Christ undoubtedly is not to be a coward. He is to confess his master before men. He is to be willing to die, if needful, for the truth. But the servant of Christ is not required to run into danger, unless it comes in the line of duty. He is not to be ashamed to use reasonable means to provide for his personal safety when no good is to be done by dying at his post. There is deep wisdom in this lesson. The true martyrs are not always those who court death, and are in a hurry to be beheaded or burned. [J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels, p. 318-19]
One of the most deceitful and wicked wolves hiding in sheep’s clothing that I have ever known used to love to push this business upon people. “Oh but just think of your reward in heaven if you willingly undergo this suffering,” he loved to say to people who were being reviled and maligned by some other wolf among the flock. Of course if anyone were to malign HIM, he would blow up in anger and not stand for it for a second. Abusers have double standards you know. Always double standards.
Continue reading “Sometimes it is the Christian’s Duty to Flee From Danger”
New Short Book Published – Who is a Christian? (Jeff Crippen)
This 28 page booklet, which is based on my sermon by the same title, is now available on Amazon both in print and kindle formats*. I hope it will be a valuable tool for evangelism, but also to present to someone who thinks they know Christ but…perhaps do not. As most of our readers know, one of the chief reasons domestic abusers are able to hide in churches and win pastors and members as their allies against the victim is because so many “Christians” are not really born again.
This is the description that appears on Amazon:
Most people who profess to be Christians think that they know the answer to the question that is the subject of this book: Who is a Christian? It is my opinion however that they do not. The majority think, for example, that a Christian is someone who: has prayed to receive Jesus, has been baptized, walked down a church aisle at an “altar call”, and whom God has forgiven of their sins, and continues to forgive them no matter how they live. And yet, Jesus distilled it all down to the essentials when He told Nicodemus, you must be born again. Myriads of “Christians” are not. They are the same people they always were. They do not know Christ, and He does not know them. It is my hope that this small booklet will cause the real Christian to further appreciate what Christ has done for and in them, and that it will shock the “almost Christian” into a realization of their desperate need to be born again.
Also, the audio and PDF of the sermon, Who is a Christian?, can be found at sermonaudio.com/crc
*Unholy Charade is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for website owners to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. See additional information here.
