What about the Sheep?

As an informed, Bible-believing member of a local Methodist Church, I am dismayed at the recent tendency of the Methodist hierarchy to disregard clear Biblical teaching, as well as clear Discipline instructions,in order to allow wolves to infiltrate and attempt to destroy the Sheepfold of Christ.

It was bad enough – years ago – to be told by the local bishop of the Baltimore-Washington conference that my personal protests against a lesbian pastor were “uncharitable” and that I needed to “pray for myself” (whatever that meant). That was back when Allen & I were members of a Methodist congregation on the outskirts of Baltimore. The bishop did not mention Jesus Christ, the Gospel, or the welfare of the many souls that were to be affected by this outrage. It was exactly like releasing a wolf into a sheepfold, and instructing the sheep to be “charitable” to their mortal enemy.

At that time, I prayed for the misguided bishop and his strange mindset. In the end, things did not work out exactly as the bishop and the lesbian minister planned; she did not move to the Baltimore – Washington Conference. Years passed, and Allen and I moved to Tennessee and – for a time – enjoyed the fellowship and teaching of a local Baptist church. When the leaders in that congregation working to exclude us from participating in the life of the church (you will have to read a former blog “When Your Pastor Divorces His Congregation” – November 18, 2015 – to learn more details), we eventually moved our membership to a local Methodist congregation, who welcomed us with more love than we ever imagined possible. In addition, we knew that that congregation was led by an excellent preacher, who paid no attention to the latest PC initiatives from the hierarchy.

But the assault on the Sheep of Christ’s fold continues. The latest atrocity is the female so-called “bishop” who openly teaches that Christ’s humanity led Him to “change his mind” regarding certain issues, and therefore was not a perfect human being Who was capable of being our sacrificial substitute to a wrathful God. Karen Oliveto claims that she “learned” she was gay in seminary, but openly confessed to this sin only after she was ordained. She “married” a female later, and then presented herself as a candidate for the bishopric. Not content to add sin to sin, she decided to attack the very Savior she says she serves (and receives a salary for serving!). A more egregious example of hypocrisy is hard to find.

What can Bible-believing Methodists do about this and other examples of open hostility to Christ’s Sheep? Here are several suggestions:

1   1.   Stay centered in the Word. These attacks on Jesus Christ and His Church will be coming fast and furious as the days of His coming approach.

      2.     School yourself in the approval of God. What pleases Him? What meets with His disapproval? Those are the only things that matter. Other people’s approval can vanish on the wind; only the approval of a holy and righteous God endures into eternity.

3. Pray for the conversion of these wolves. Paul the Apostle was once a wolf, but later he testified that, “As it is written: ‘For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered’” (Romans 8:36)

p    4.   Speak out. Even if your words are met with hostility and derision, trust that the Holy Spirit of God can and will use them to perform miracles for God’s glory.

“And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be” (Rev. 22:12). What a glorious thought – that we common Sheep will be rewarded for our faithfulness by the Good Shepherd Himself!