Tag: evil

New Book by Jeff Crippen is Now Published: Wise as Serpents: Growing Wise to the Evil Among Us

On By Jeff CrippenIn Blog News12 Comments

We have now published my latest book and it is available on Amazon. Here is an Amazon affiliate link* to the paperback version.  It is 351 pages.  A Kindle version* is also available.

Here is the description I put on Amazon:

 

 

A very popular television series from years past announced that it was a program, “about nothing.” That series was a comedy, but this book is not written to make you laugh. It is, however, in a sense “a book about nothing.” Why? Because it’s subject, evil, is a kind of “nothing.” It is defined as a type of parasite. A leech riding upon that which is good and right. The words we use for it show what my meaning is: •Darkness – an absence of light. •Unrighteousness – the lack of that which is right. •Lawlessness – an absence of law. Nevertheless, this thing we call evil is not a nothing. It even has a king, the ruler of this present fallen world, the devil. And while it may be defined as an absence of that which is good, evil is a “nothing” that effects misery, harm, and death. In this book, based upon a series of sermons I preached in 2016 at Christ Reformation Church, I want to show you how this darkness works to disguise itself, creep in among us – especially among us in the Christian church – and work its destruction on the most vulnerable innocents it can find. It is past time for us all to become wise as serpents about evil, while remaining innocent as doves by not being duped into becoming its ally.

Many thanks from me to twbtc and Jessica and Verla for all the work they did to make the book available. And of course to all of you who have helped me become wiser to this evil among us.

So please spread the word to others. The only advertising we do is right here on the blog so you all can consider yourselves Justice Keeper Publishing’s field reps!

Oh, and we are working on publishing another book soon as well. It is going to be called Light for Dark Times and is a compilation of some 300 pages or so of blog posts from Unholy Charade.  I thought it would be good to make posts available in printed book form as well as online.  Thank you all!!

 

 *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 Amazon.com and affiliated sites.  See additional information here.

Ephesians 5:11 and Exposing Evil – A Real Case

On By Jeff CrippenIn Churches/Church Response11 Comments

Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible  (Eph 5:11-13)

Jesus exposed evil. The Light of the World does that. His people are the light of the world and we are to do the same evil-exposing that He did. His Word shows us the pattern:

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. (Matthew 23:25)

Alexander the coppersmith did me great harm; the Lord will repay him according to his deeds. Beware of him yourself, for he strongly opposed our message. (2 Timothy 4:14-15)

I have written something to the church, but Diotrephes, who likes to put himself first, does not acknowledge our authority. So if I come, I will bring up what he is doing, talking wicked nonsense against us. And not content with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers, and also stops those who want to and puts them out of the church. (3 John 1:9-10)

It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father’s wife. And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you. (1 Cor 5:1-2)

Need I go on? This is the pattern of Light exposing evil as God commands. Is it the typical pattern we see in churches now? Hardly.

Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.

Notice very carefully that the failure to expose evil hiding in the church is necessarily then to participate in that evil. When child molesters parading as Christians are tolerated, excused, “forgiven,” “loved,” and thereby not exposed for what they are, the church leaders and members who refuse to obey the Lord are in fact molesting those children themselves because by their disobedience they are participants in these sordid deeds.

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**A Surprising Ally of the Abuser

On By Jeff CrippenIn Abusers11 Comments

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. 

Continue reading “**A Surprising Ally of the Abuser” →