Author: Jeff Crippen Page 24 of 88

Self, Self, Self…Always in it for Self

On May 3, 2023

2Co 2:15-17 For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, (16) to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? (17) For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God’s word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ.

“For we are not like SO MANY…”. The more we learn about RASN’s (Revilers, Abusers, Sociopaths, Narcissists), the more we understand that they are all in it for the same thing (“it” being existence)…SELF. In its essence that is what the goal of sin is – getting what self wants.

RASN’s are different than your average sinner (as we all were the moment we were born into this world and as a person still is if they are not in Christ). They are different. How? They feed their self by demanding power and control over others. Others exist for them only to feed their perpetual self digesting appetite. Others are nothing to them. They are incapable of even natural human love, empathy, or other such caring emotions.

Now, back to Paul’s words – “For we are not like SO MANY…”. How many narcissists are there in this world, Paul? MANY. SOOOO MANY. And as you increase in your knowledge and awareness of them, the more you realize that Paul was precisely correct. There are SO MANY of them!

Now, where are these to be found? Well, everywhere – but Paul is addressing the Christian church! He says that SO MANY preachers and other “servants” of Christ are fakes because in fact they are – get this – peddlers of God’s Word. They are fakes, self-serving elixir salesmen who blow into town using some “gospel” to line their pockets.

Think of it – what is a “peddler.” Let’s check out the dictionary –

“One who offers merchandise for sale on a street corner or door to door. A hawker. A huckster.”

In other words, Paul says that there are SO MANY hucksters in the churches whose goal is to sell the gospel. And they necessarily must alter the gospel into a non-gospel, or it won’t sell. Why? Because the true gospel is a fragrance to those who believe and the stench of death to those who hate Christ. Something that smells like rotten, putrefying flesh is a hard sell. So it has to be changed.

Religion attracts RASNs, and we really need to wise up to this right now. NO ONE is ever going to get rich preaching the true gospel of Jesus Christ, unaltered. Nope. Not gonna happen. When the money and fame and popularity start sweeping in, you can bet that what you’ve got is a peddler with some syrup just guaranteed to fix what ails you. But it won’t. In the end, all the peddler is peddling is – himself.

If we only related better to the unsaved…??

By Jeff Crippen

On May 1, 2023

In Biblical Teaching, False Teaching

Joh 15:18-20 “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. (19) If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. (20) Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.

When I first became a pastor, one of the things that was emphasized in the churches I had been in, in the seminary I attended, and in the annual denominational conferences (required attendance, always went home feeling like a failure)…one of the main emphases was that in order to “win people for Christ,” we needed to “relate” to them. Be like them as much as you can, engage in the things they were interested in….do this and you will get them to choose Christ.

Now, like all confusing things, there certainly is some truth in this. A pastor and certainly every Christian – must not stand aloof and communicate to the lost that we are superior to them. A pastor who is only wrapped up in his theology study and has little time for people – well, that’s not a pastor. (And the pastor who only hangs with the people and never goes to his study isn’t a pastor either). We need to show an interest in people and in the things that are part of their lives. For example, if I see a fellow in the local community with a new tractor, I’m going to ask him about his tractor. You get the point.

BUT, the fact of the matter is that as a Christian, I am not “in common” with the lost. I might share certain common interests, but the fundamental focus of my life is Christ. My real fellowship is going to be with fellow Christians who are the real deal. And the more the people of this fallen world see Christ in me, the more they are going to hate me – unless the Lord chooses to send His Spirit to them to draw them to Himself. When the devil and his antichrist spirit evidences himself among us, there is going to be a divide. And that divide is increasing very quickly in our day.

Let’s extrapolate this thing into the coming days when, as Scripture tells us, Satan’s man – the Antichrist, accompanied by his False Prophet (see the two beasts in Revelation 13)…when Antichrist establishes his worldwide kingdom – only by the sovereign assent of God of course. What is going to happen? The whole world will go after the Antichrist, receive his mark, and worship his image…or else. Now, are we going to be instructed by the Lord to “relate to these worshippers of the beast, show an interest in the things they are interested in, be relevant to them so that…so that, what? So that they see you are interested in looking at the mark of the beast on their forehead?

When I hear well-known and widely followed preachers or other professing Christian personalities talking to us about how we must relate to worldlings, how we must show them that we “understand their pain,” then here is what my ears are hearing – “a tweaked ‘gospel’ that won’t offend.” Think of it. Did Jesus try to be relevant to the Pharisees, to show them some way in which he was like them so that they would listen to Him? Of course not. Because He was Light and they were darkness. The way He WAS relevant was to point out their sin, show them the reality that they were headed for hell unless they repented by looking to Him alone for salvation. That’s pretty relevant, right. In fact, the gospel is the MOST relevant topic we can ever talk to anyone about.

Many of you have been told that if you would just try to relate better to the RASN in your life who is oppressing you, ultimately they would decide to repent and follow Christ. That is bogus and unbiblical. The truth is that most of humanity is going to end in hell and it is only because of God’s grace and mercy in electing His remnant in eternity past that any of us are saved. Being “relevant” sounds just way too much like “become like them.”

Traditional Christianity, Isn’t

By Jeff Crippen

On April 26, 2023

In Biblical Teaching, Churches/Church Response, False Teaching

Mar 7:3-5 (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly, holding to the tradition of the elders, (4) and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches.) (5) And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?”

Traditions. There is nothing bad about that word in itself. I hope that you enjoy various traditions – perhaps some in connection with the holidays, decorating your Christmas tree, baking Christmas cookies with your children, and so on. These are good things and they create lasting and pleasant memories.

But tradition in the religious realm can easily go askew and even become dangerous. How? When traditions replace God’s Word and are disguised as God’s Word, then you have a false gospel which can only damn people. And that is what had happened with the Jewish Pharisees. You see it here once more:

Mar 7:13 thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.”

These kind of traditions make void the Word of God. They replace the Word of God and claim to be the Word of God…but they aren’t. They are a creation of sinful man designed to circumvent the true gospel of Jesus Christ and permit sinners to boast about their “good works.”

Now, just as these tradition practitioners accused Jesus, so it is today very often in the visible church. Traditions are created by man, put off onto the people as God’s Word, and enforced by fear of punishment. That is what happened to so many of you when some fellow Christian/Pharisee, or pastor, or church board laid tradition on you and claimed that it was God’s law which must be obeyed.

Now, I do not want to promote lawlessness here. I just read an article that said a poll of employers revealed that Gen Z employees are the most difficult to manage. They frequently challenge the employer, they are undisciplined (ie, lazy), they do not have a good work ethic, and they often really don’t have good job skills or knowledge to do their job (though they put themselves off as some divinely sent job candidate on their resume). We see this same thing in the true church. This horrid attitude of entitlement, non-accountability, ignorance of God’s Word, a “free agent” attitude toward commitment to the body of Christ, and so on. This is repugnant to the Lord and it is just plain sin. It is a refusal to love God and to love one another.

[NOTE: Those of you who cannot find a healthy, genuine church or who, in some cases, have been so wrongly treated that going into a church building is just not feasible right now, have found our online outreach to be a very good and safe way to still connect with the body of Christ. You are a great encouragement to us and I know that this “Gen Z” attitude I am writing about here is not the reason you are not in a physical, local brick and mortar church building. I may not have stated this very well, but I just wanted to be sure you know how much we appreciate you].

But back to this matter of tradition masquerading as God’s Word.

Traditions in a local church are not all wrong. Even the particular order of service on Sunday morning is a kind of tradition. I mean, just think of the chaos that would result if everything were different every single Sunday! (Aren’t some churches like that?) Some churches include in their service a passing of the offering plate, while others simply have a box for offerings at the back of the sanctuary. We have a Christmas Eve evening service and a Good Friday service. Those are traditions. And they are good things.

But as soon as any tradition is elevated to the commandment of God, you enter into the world of the Pharisee. Then these traditions actually replace God’s Word. This very same thing can happen if God’s commandments are wrongly taught and applied. The Lord commanded the Israelites to offer certain sacrifices. It was God’s own Word. BUT:

Isa 1:11 “What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the LORD; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats.

What had happened? The things commanded by the Lord were made into the end itself. Their real meaning and the true heart-attitude of the worshippers were set aside. They became rote and divorced from what they were truly designed to be.

Traditional Christianity, isn’t. It isn’t the gospel. It isn’t God’s Word. Why? Because the traditions replace God’s Word. And whenever this happens, people are not set free from sin by the gospel, they are placed into bondage and slavery where condemnation reigns.

Mat 12:7 And if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless.

Job’s Friends – Help You Don’t Need

By Jeff Crippen

On April 24, 2023

In Churches/Church Response, Counseling

Job 1:1 There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil.
Job 1:22 In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.
Job 2:11-13 Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this evil that had come upon him, they came each from his own place, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. They made an appointment together to come to show him sympathy and comfort him. (12) And when they saw him from a distance, they did not recognize him. And they raised their voices and wept, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads toward heaven. (13) And they sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his suffering was very great.

Job’s friends seem to have gotten off to a good start. They had concern about him and came to him. They kept their mouths shut for a week and it appears that they had genuine compassion for him.

But then they spoke….

Job 4:3-8 Behold, you have instructed many, and you have strengthened the weak hands. (4) Your words have upheld him who was stumbling, and you have made firm the feeble knees. (5) But now it has come to you, and you are impatient; it touches you, and you are dismayed. (6) Is not your fear of God your confidence, and the integrity of your ways your hope? (7) “Remember: who that was innocent ever perished? Or where were the upright cut off? (8) As I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same.

Essentially their philosophy was much like the current day nouthetic counselors – “Job, it all comes back to your own sin.” They also threw in a large portion of health, wealth, and prosperity theology. You do good and God blesses you. You sin, and God punishes you. Simple as that.

John Calvin in his sermons on Job cuts these “friends” no slack. He says that the devil starts it all and then sends his emissaries to continue the attacks. Accusing, blaming, shaming, all with false doctrine which is disguised as “thus saith the Lord.”

People really need to keep their mouths closed much more than they do. In arrogance, they insist that they know it all – even though they have no idea what a RASN has put the victim through. Their ignorance and ill-treatment of the victim is detestable to the Lord. And more, it is sin against God Himself because they are falsely representing Him.

Beware, then, of people who come to you and have an answer to just about anything. They come claiming they care, they understand…but inevitably the “advice phase” begins. Counsel given out of arrogant ignorance is just plain dangerous and damaging. The church today is plagued with legions of these kind – “The Church of Job’s Friends.”

Don’t go there.

Here are Links to this past week’s sermon, Sunday class, and mid-week Bible studies

By Jeff Crippen

On April 21, 2023

In Blog News

Pilgrim’s Progress Part 2 (Christiana) – https://youtu.be/2UurbTxuW5o

Sunday Sermon – No Time for the Lord, https://youtu.be/MS1T04-yrxE

Ephesians Study – https://youtu.be/6FVWr2rrcgo

Revelation Study – https://youtu.be/4oyTz9fE-cw

NOTE: All of these links are to youtube, but these are also all on sermonaudio.com/crc if you prefer

RASN’s and Contempt

By Jeff Crippen

On April 21, 2023

In Abusers

Here is a link to a new post over at my other blog, Light for Dark Times. It discusses how RASN’s regard their targets with contempt and derision.

More Thoughts on Exposure of the Wicked

By Jeff Crippen

On April 19, 2023

In Abusers, Churches/Church Response, Evil

Mat 10:26-27 “So have no fear of them, for nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. (27) What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.
Rev 20:12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done.
Joh 3:19-20 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. (20) For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.

The Lord is light. He is truth. When Christ came into this world, He came as Light to expose what was hidden in the darkness of sin in this fallen place. He came to expose evil, and evildoers hated Him for it.

As we have discussed this matter of RASN’s* we have often dealt with the subject of the disguise they wear. We talk about covert narcissists, for example. Covered. Wearing a mask. As Paul put it in his letter to the Corinthians, the servants of the devil often appear among us as “sons of righteousness.”

Now, all of this mask-wearing business is an example of what the Bible calls, darkness. Satan’s kingdom is the kingdom of darkness. He is the prince of darkness. His servants dwell in darkness – in a realm where truth cannot be seen. It is a region of lies and deception. And that is the realm in which RASNs live and operate.

What, then, is the reaction of this evil realm to light? John tells us – men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. Evil thrives on darkness and is, then, like the vampire. You’ve seen the vampire movies, like Bram Stoker’s Dracula? What happens when light strikes the vampire? The creature vaporizes. Vampires hate the light. I don’t know if Stoker was building on any knowledge of biblical truth here, but he did come up with a perfect illustration of how evil regards the light. It hates it. When John says that men loved darkness rather than light, he is necessarily also saying, men hated the light. They hated Christ because the Light of the world shone upon and exposed who and what they really were.

And so it is today. Evil people hate the light. They hate the truth. They hate exposure and therefore they hate anyone who exposes them for what they are.

One of the unwritten rules RASNs have with their victims is, you will never talk to anyone about me. You will always speak well of me. What goes on in this house is never to be spoken of outside these walls. If you ever talk to anyone about me I will make you pay. RASNs hate the light. It exposes them. In fact, then, such evil people who wear a “christian” disguise actually hate Christ. It is inevitable. For all of their religious talk, they hate Christ. They hate His Word. They hate people who truly belong to Him. Because it is light. It is truth. It exposes.

Joh 8:12 Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

Very often victims of the wicked are guilted into remaining silent. A wife is told, for example, to never, ever speak anything critical of her husband. They are ordered to “think the best.” They are accused of slander or gossip. But speaking the truth is not slander or gossip. Slander, in fact, is something the children of darkness do. Slander is speaking lies. Light is truth.

If we are not diligent and careful, darkness will sweep over our churches. How? Children of darkness will creep in and oppose the light of God’s Word. False laws will be created – claiming to have their origins in Scripture – laws that are lies. And those lies are always designed to cover up, to maintain the mask, to permit evil to remain in darkness, to punish anyone walking in the light.

It is not a sin to expose evil. It is not a sin to speak the truth. If evildoers do not want to have their evil exposed, then they need to repent of that evil and cease from sinning. But, of course, that is hardly ever the response to the light that we see. Like vampires, the fangs come out against anyone who would dare stand with the true Christ, who is the Light of the World.

*Revilers, Abusers, Sociopaths, Narcissists

Don’t Get Drawn into the Fantasy World of the Wicked

By Jeff Crippen

On April 17, 2023

In Abusers, Evil, Getting Free

1Jn 1:6 If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.

RASN’s (you are probably getting this acronym by now, Reviler, Abuser, Sociopaths, Narcissists) live in a fantasy world of their own creation. In their kingdom, they are king (or queen). All revolves around them. Other people exist only to be their supply/reservoir feeding their ego with praise and adulation. Apart from this function, which they demand of us, we have no value at all.

RASN’s are entitled. They are superior. They deserve. Every problem they face – at work, at home, in the church – is fundamentally a failure of others to acknowledge their superiority and given them the adoration to which they are entitled.

This, of course, is a world of fantasy. A fictional land created by a wicked soul.

Now, here is the point I want to make – if we are not wise to all of this, if we are blind to what we are facing, or if we choose some benefit that the wicked offer us, then WE are going to be drawn into that land of lies. We will become an ally of evil.

To some degree we have all done this. RASN’s are very deceptive and most people are not wise to their game. So they draw us in. We defend them. We cover for them. We believe them. We think that they aren’t appreciated at work as they deserve. We think that they are misunderstood. Until….

Until the lights go on and we see who they really are. And here is a critical point of decision – will we continue to participate in their land of fantasy for the benefits we might get from doing so, or will we depart from this darkness and come out into the Light of the Lord’s truth?

Sadly, I have seen numbers of cases in which the RASN’s target has made the wrong choice here. In order to keep the financial benefits, to maintain the image, to avoid the cost of standing for righteousness, they chose to continue play-acting with the wicked. They chose the world rather than Christ and in doing so became the ally of the wicked one. They chose to live a lie.

This is what the targets of RASN’s* so often endure in their churches

By Jeff Crippen

On April 17, 2023

In Churches/Church Response, Counseling

The following is an excerpt from a letter I received some years ago from a lady who was married to an abuser and who went to her pastor and his wife about the matter. Ultimately after it all played out, she was ex-communicated formally from her church for refusing to remain married to the wicked man. And then some years after that, the pastor was expelled from his denomination. A few people from the church apologized to this lady, saying that their leadership had lied to them. But no mention was made of their church’s failure to discipline her abuser, even though he was also a member of the church.

My Pastor and his wife asked to meet with me this past Sunday. I always feel a dread to these meetings, because I walk away feeling so hopeless after I have spoken with them. I am usually a real mess for a couple of days and just pray and ask God to show me if I am being rebellious in anyway.
These are some of the things that they have said to me, and I am wondering what you think of them:
1. They tell me that I need to make it easy for my husband not to sin. I am not certain how to do that. I have never said anything to my husband, that I know of, to cause these outbursts of wrath from him, but I think they think I must have done something. I do not argue with him or talk down to him. I do not respond to him, except with fearful silence, when he is behaving this way. My Pastor and his wife are very into nouthetic counseling and I do not know that much about it.
2. They tell me that I am not to assume anything, based on his past behavior or otherwise. They say that he said he loves me and they believe him. They say he said he was sorry, and that I need to wipe the slate clean and encourage him, instead of being angry and distant. I cry a lot over this, first of all, because he has repented so many times in the past, and it has always been false repentance. I also cry because I do not know how to make myself feel close to him anymore. I do not want to be intimate with a man who talked about me sexually, in the ways that he did. I am not certain I can heal enough from this, to trust him again or be intimate with him again. They think I should not think about the notes, but I can’t help but remember all the hate.

And the abusive controlling demands from the pastor continued –

“They say that they want me to send any emails I write to my husband, to them first, so they can make sure that they are encouraging to him. “
They say that I can never know that and it isn’t for me to judge him.

And the result of all of this “pastoral counseling”? –

These are the things that upset me so much that I just cry and cry. I feel so weak and defenseless after talking to them. Do you think that is rebellion on my part? Do you think that I am just resisting submitting to my husband?

These things are not uncommon. You can see how such “counseling” could even lead to suicide. It is absolutely spiritual malpractice but, unlike the secular counseling world, churches most often have no accountability.

*RASN = Revilers, Abusers, Sociopaths, Narcissists