For about a month now, my husband and I have been prayerfully researching and praying about Pauline teachings that appears to contradict the other apostles and even Yeshua himself. Since we are the only ones who show up to church for Wednesday night Bible study right now during the con19, we broached this subject with our preacher, because we believed he would take a fair and balanced approach, and hopefully give us Biblical and historical references to support and/or refute this theological question. We hoped he could help us with context, audience, historical issues being addressed in the early church, etc.

Sometimes persecution comes from inside the church, sometimes it comes straight from the pulpit.

Admittedly, this is a very troublesome subject, which is why we took this to him privately and why we waited several months before we did while we “tested the waters” with how he might take the subject. We did not want to chance leading anyone astray by asking in front of the whole congregation which is comprised of some Christians who are not as firmly rooted in their faith as we are. We did not want to place a stumbling block in front of anyone.

On Wednesday, he did give us some historical and Biblical things to consider: some supported the anti-Pauline and some refuted it. Not really helpful as it did not help us to reconcile Paul with the rest of the Bible. I would like to mention that we are STILL studying it.

Imagine our surprise when the next Sunday Morning Service rolled around and we found targets firmly strapped to our chests, and our preacher was shooting arrow after arrow at us, trying to make something stick. It was not that he was “stepping on our toes” because we were sinning, Yahweh had not shown him anything, nor was He using him to lead us “back” to the path. We never deviated from faith or from the path of Yah.

No, the preacher was using something we had brought to him in private and used it as ammunition to verbally stone us in front of the whole congregation, even though most of them, I’m sure, were blissfully unaware of what was going on. There was one couple with whom we had done some minor mutual studying on this subject sharing references back and forth. They probably also were aware that this sermon was targeting us for daring to question dogmatic belief systems that have long been held through the Protestant churches. Truly, it doesn’t really matter who was aware of what the preacher was doing. We knew. He knew. And YAHUAH knew.

I grew up in Pentacostal Holiness, and we were tossed out of some churches before for minor belief differences, and I am talking about MINOR, as in the name “Lord” vs “Lord Jesus”. Granted this is not a minor difference, and we have not been tossed out……….yet. YET! I have also seen preachers in the past, and this preacher also, get up and intentionally verbally stone someone during their sermon for what they believed as straying from their version of the “straight and narrow” or for some sin they believed the person was committing, they saw posted on Facebook or heard someone talking about. I have seen this preacher get up and call people stupid, retarded, crazy, and idiots in the pulpit for something they believe that differed from his beliefs. So, to say that this ripped open some old scars for me would be a major understatement.

I called my Mom this morning and asked her how her and Dad had handled these types of situations. She said they just let it run off their backs, because they weren’t rejecting them, they were rejecting God. She also said that if one door shuts, God will always open another door. She said something very poignant, very astute, and very wise. She told me that we had handed the preacher a piece of meat that was too tough for him to chew, and he choked on it. A very astute metaphor that fit the situation perfectly, I believe.

We had handed the preacher a piece of meat that was too tough for him to chew, and he choked on it.

I believe my Mom is correct in her advice. Sometimes, it seems that even the people who you think are strong in their faith, are not as strong as you think they are. Their beliefs are too fragile to withstand being tested or questioned by other people. Sometimes, as I think was also the case here, sometimes the person is not equipped with the wisdom and knowledge to answer your questions, and instead of swallowing their pride and searching for an answer or being honest with you and saying I don’t know the answer to that, they swell up with pride and lash out at you.

Mom called me back later and told me that God had given her a verse to give us:

Matthew 7:6 Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.

“…trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you (tear you to pieces).” That feels very much like what happened. I have, unfortunately, been the recipient of verbal, mental, sexual, and physical abuse in the past, and this felt like verbal and mental abuse to me. I also view it as abuse of the office and the platform of Yah.

The sermon was composed of the following phrases, direct quotes:

• turning against the Word of Truth
• turning against the Holy Scriptures
• turning against God-glorifying people
• heading to a path of destruction
• following Satan and his angels to hell
• the Word of God is hard to understand
• trying to divide people’s understanding of the Word of God
• destroying trust in the Word
• allowing people to make “merchandise” of us (because we bought a Bible that was not KJV only)
• planting seeds of doubt in someone’s mind or heart
• Then there was the slippery slope fallacy: “This goes back to the false teachers that try to split up people, and divide people’s understanding of the Word of God and destroy their trust in his Word, and they open the door, and once they open that door, then the floodgate just comes on and they just get swamped with all kinds of doubt in the entire Word.” (I transcribe the sermons, so yes, these are word-for-word, direct quotes.)
• the preacher ended his tirade with this phrase in the closing prayer: “that we can bring honor and glory to you, and not cause chaos and destruction and division.”

There were other things, but that was the gist of it.

This is NOT how Yeshua instructed his disciples to handle conflict.

This wasn’t even conflict. It was questioning. It was investigating. It was studying. It was testing. Isn’t that was we are told do in I Thes 5:21….. to prove all things and hold fast to what is good…… in writings that are attributed to Paul, nonetheless? It was praying for God’s guidance and the preacher’s help for something that we couldn’t make fit into our understanding. Nevertheless, IF it had been a conflict or more specifically if we had trespassed or sinned against the preacher, the proper way to handle this is found in Matthew 18:15-17.

15 Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. 16 But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. 17 And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican.

This wasn’t a sin or a trespass against him though, this was questioning and seeking further information into a theological matter. We know that persecution will come. As a follower of Yeshua, we expect to face persecution from strangers, from sinners, from the world. You don’t expect the persecution to come from your brethren, from people of your own church, from your spiritual teacher.

Beyond the fact that this felt abusive, there is a major problem when someone is comfortable using God’s platform, the pulpit, to brow beat people into submission to their way of thinking.