Unholy Charade - Jeff Crippen

Unmasking the Domestic Abuser in the Church

Author: Jeff Crippen Page 61 of 88

New Short Book Published – Who is a Christian? (Jeff Crippen)

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On March 26, 2020

In Biblical Teaching


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.

**Another Look at the Abuser as Reviler

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On March 23, 2020

In Abusers

How long, O God, is the foe to scoff? Is the enemy to revile your name forever (Psalms 74:10)
“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. (Matthew 5:11)
But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one. (1 Corinthians 5:11)
Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. (1 Corinthians 6:9-10)

I want us to think some more about this word “revile” and the person who is called a “reviler” in Scripture. Every abuser is a reviler. As you can see from just these verses, a reviler is not a Christian. Revilers will not inherit the kingdom of God. That is about as plain a way of stating it as you could want.

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Shamelessly Plugging "In My Father's House"

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On March 19, 2020

In Blog News


Most of you know already that we published this small book recently. It is available on Amazon,  just go there and search under my name or the book’s title. (and here is a link for your convenience*)  I am posting this reminder because I really believe this is an extremely helpful and important tool for all of you and for people you know.  Why? Because it enables people to get a clear handle on the big, big, main theme of the Bible. It clears away the fog and turns on the lights of understanding about just what God is doing for us in Christ. And it does so in very few pages.
This blog is the primary arena for getting the word out about the book, so I would very much appreciate it if you all could help spread the word.
And by the way, a second short book of similar format, illustrated, is going to be published soon called, Who is a Christian? You all know how important that subject is for a day in which there is no clear answer to that question, but there are many false answers to it. Most all of us have been recipients of abuse as a result.  So keep an eye out for it. And…we are still moving closer to publishing a 330 page book called Wise as Serpents: Growing Wise to the Evil Among Us.
 

*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.

**A Surprising Ally of the Abuser

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On March 18, 2020

In Abusers

Acts 5:1-2  But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property,  (2)  and with his wife’s knowledge he kept back for himself some of the proceeds and brought only a part of it and laid it at the apostles’ feet.

We don’t know much about Ananias. Certainly we cannot say if he was a sociopath or the typical kind of abuser that we deal with. We do know that his sin was great and that he was a liar and hypocrite. But what I want us to consider here is his wife, Sapphira. “with his wife’s knowledge….”. 

Acts 5:8-9  And Peter said to her, “Tell me whether you sold the land for so much.” And she said, “Yes, for so much.”  (9)  But Peter said to her, “How is it that you have agreed together to test the Spirit of the Lord? Behold, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out.”

Over the years on numerous occassions, I have had to deal with wives who chose to take part in their husband’s evil. I think that in some of those cases the husband was an abuser, but in all of these situations I am thinking of, the wife chose to join with her wicked husband in his sin. 

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**A Sure Sign of a Bully or Abuser: the Gnashing of Teeth

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On March 16, 2020

In Abusers

Now when they heard these things they were enraged,
and they ground their teeth at him. (Acts 7:54)

Recently I was reminded still once more of how the wicked react when their evil is exposed and they are called to account. The fangs come out. The bullying begins. They are like vicious, wild animals snapping at their prey. In this account here in Acts 7, Stephen has just confronted the Jews with their sins:

You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered. (Acts 7:51-52)

It sets them off like a pack of wolves and of course as we know, they murdered Stephen right there.
My recent experience with this sort was in regard to pastors who were rightly confronted with wickedness and spiritual abuse. They added to the oppression of victims and now it has come out. The response? Fangs. Gnashing of teeth. Direct assault against those exposing them. Vilification and reviling, demeaning and accusing. Of course they do all this in the name of “righteousness,” but they are anything but righteous. “Who are YOU to tell ME?” “How DARE you speak to me this way.” “You don’t know anything and I do.” “YOU are the guilty one here for slandering and gossiping.” See it? Fangs. Gnashing. It is characteristic of the wicked who are enraged when they are exposed. No hint of anything resembling repentance.

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Reminder: You can be part of Christ Reformation Church online

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On March 13, 2020

In Blog News

Amid all the buzz about the corona virus, school closures, limits on the size of public gatherings, quarantines, etc., I wanted to remind you all that every Sunday we stream and post the Sunday School Class and the Worship Service of Christ Reformation Church here in Tillamook. No need to close down! Guaranteed virus free!
We livestream on Facebook at the Christ Reformation Church fb page, beginning about 9:30AM.  The worship service livestreams, starting about 10:55AM (“about,” – hey, we are informal here). The entire service is streamed. Sometimes glitches occur if the wifi is tempermental but as soon as we see any break we restart it. Facebook saves the broadcast too and it can be viewed later at any time.
Also, you can go to the Light for Dark Times blog (lightfordarktimes.com) and every Sunday morning the order of service for the worship service is posted there as a blog post. Links to hymns are included. Numbers of people utilize this and CRC has become their church.
We put the video of the sermon on sermonaudio.com and on our Unholy Charade youtube channel. Those sites are posted generally by Sunday evening though on occasion upload speeds are slow and the post isn’t available until Monday morning.
We are very pleased that we can provide these broadcasts and along with the Unholy Charade blog where you can comment, ask questions, and generally interact with other believers, most all of whom have been through the very same experiences of domestic and spiritual abuse.
Someone asked me once if this format is not in fact “forsaking the assembling of the saints” (see Hebrews 10). My response is, you don’t have to be physically together in order to gather together in this day and age of the web. Furthermore, the fact is that going to a local church on the street corner does not mean that you are gathering together with the saints necessarily.  To gather together with the saints requires that there be real believers there!
All of this is by way of reminder. Many blessings to you all in Christ,
Jeff

**Most of You Have Seen Letters Like this

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On March 11, 2020

In Churches/Church Response

The following is a transcription of a hand-written letter received by one of our blog followers, an abuse survivor. Abused by her abuser and, so typical, by her church as well. The letter was anonymous except of course to claim it is from a fellow Christian “who loves” the victim and her family, including her abuser. I will refer to the letter-writer as “her” because the writing looks to be by a female hand. Here you go. Note it is addressed to the victim AND the abuser. After all, you know, marriage “troubles” are ALWAYS 50-50 shared blame. (I have bold-faced terms in the letter which the writer underlined) –

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The Wicked Recruit False Witnesses Against the Righteous

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On March 9, 2020

In Abusers

Matthew 26:59-61  Now the chief priests and the whole council were seeking false testimony against Jesus that they might put him to death,  (60)  but they found none, though many false witnesses came forward. At last two came forward  (61)  and said, “This man said, ‘I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to rebuild it in three days.’”

As we continue to grow wiser and wiser regarding the motives and tactics of evil, we become better able to spot Scriptures which reveal these things to us. Here is still another such passage. Wicked people, and that includes domestic abusers and others who crave power and control, frequently use this weapon of false witnesses.
Here we have the Jewish leaders who hated Jesus with a murderous hatred, craving to find some reason to kill him. They were having a hard time doing so and therefore they chose to invent charges by looking for people who were willing to falsely accuse Jesus. What motivated false witnesses? Probably bribes. More Judas money. Many people stepped up for the cash, but their accusations didn’t hold up. How many times have we seen these very same scenes in our own day!

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**My experience with abuser-enabling misogyny in the church

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On March 4, 2020

In Churches/Church Response

To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.” (Genesis 3:16)
So you will be delivered from the forbidden woman, from the adulteress with her smooth words, (Proverbs 2:16)
And as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, he took for his wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and went and served Baal and worshiped him. (1Kings 16:31)

God’s Word in Holy Scripture is pure, right, life-giving, and true. Whenever and wherever scripture is cited to support evil, we can be sure that its real teaching has been distorted. Verses such as the ones quoted above have been very frequently twisted to misrepresent the fundamental nature of women and I want to tell you how I (and most all of you) have personally seen these distortions played out among Christians.

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Coming to Grips with Lying

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On March 2, 2020

In Abusers

You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. (John 8:44)

This is a central verse in helping us understand the mentality and tactics of evil. It can be a hard truth to get hold of even if we know it in our brain factually, the thing just seems so foreign to us. Evil people lie. And they can lie with a face on that looks like someone who is telling the truth. Evil people in other words, wear a truth mask.

“But I’m sure he is telling the truth. He seems so sincere.”

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