Was Barnabas Right? Part 8

In the 1970's, while Jack Hyles was pastoring the largest church in the world, his son David was running large youth conferences and was a highly sought-after speaker. When I was in college, I worked for David, who had a stupendous personality and was always surrounded by admirers.

Unknown to me, he was having frequent sex with teen-age girls, and his youth department promoted his friends who were involved in David's sins. Dave would demote or fire hard-working, Godly college students who were getting results, and put his ungodly friends in positions of authority where they took the credit for the success of the Godly students.

Years after I graduated, the sex scandals blew up badly enough that Dave couldn't lie his way out of them anymore. Faced with the prospect of having to work at an honest job, Dave "repented," Hyles declared that the Holy Spirit had restored Dave, and once again he became a successful Christian speaker.

When a large church in my city was considering bringing Dave in as a speaker, I stated publicly that his repentance was fake, and that I would tell anyone who would listen to me that Dave was still a sexual predator. A Godly deacon confronted me about how I could KNOW that Dave's repentance was fake, and I explained the Biblical commands to go back to those you have wronged, and how Dave was disobeying all of them.

Months later, when new sex scandals with Dave Hyles broke out, that same deacon was thanking me for having spared his church from public embarrassment.

Was Barnabas Right? Part 7

In 1988, Assemblies of God televangelist Jimmy Swaggart was caught with a prostitute. Unable to lie his way out of it, he finally confessed. When he had been ordained, he had agreed to the AOG regulation that if he were caught in immorality, he could not preach for two years, and then could only return to the ministry if the AOG leadership permitted him to do so. While the Bible does not give such a command, it clearly does command that we are to keep our word.

Claiming that it would hurt his ministry and that the AOG was too harsh and unforgiving, Swaggart broke his word and returned to the ministry. Three years later, he was caught again with a prostitute, and he announced that God had told him to tell his followers that it was none of their business.

If you cut through the hype and read a neutral article on Swaggart at Jimmy Swaggart - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia you'll see that he had lived a life of self-sacrifice for a long time. Was his first repentance real? I don't know, but based on Proverbs 2:19, I had known back then that he could never be trusted again:

" None who go to her return, Nor do they regain the paths of life ---"

Was Brnabas Right? Part 5

I received some interesting input on a Christian forum:

Folks, when someone fails a test they get an F, if someone messes up in Bootcamp they get set back, this is reality for crying out Loud. If we truly repent then God will forgive us for the sin and we are not condemned to hell for it, but to assume that we can go on in the world of humans as if nothing has happened is absurd.
Any christian leader who is found to be in a serious sin should be a leader no longer because those who lead are an example. If the person repents and over a period of time is proven to be faithful and the particular sin a thing of the distant past then leadership could again be considered.
Today we have nutty stuff, leaders caught in serious sin who continue to lead by asserting that God called them and God forgave them so they should be allowed to continue to lead...that is pure nonsense. Question: why would any christian leader who fails as a christian leader believe that God would want them to continue as a leader? The requirement of a leader according to the bible is to be above reproach, if they commit something that is a serious reproach them they no longer qualify. Of course they can be forgiven by God and still serve the Lord...but not as a leader.

Comments?

Was Barnabas Right? Part 4

In 1972, Jack Hyles, pastor of the largest church in the world (at that time) opened a Bible college. One of the first students was a former Baptist pastor who had been fired after being caught in adultery. He had gone to Hyles for advice, and Hyles told him to enroll in the college; if he graduated, they would have to tell what had happened, but Hyles would give him a recommendation.

A few months later, the fellow went to Hyles and confessed that he had been to a prostitute, and Hyles expelled him. Some of the man's friends went to Hyles, asking him to reverse his decision. They pointed out that the man's repentance was genuine.

Hyles told them that he believed that the man's repentance was genuine, but that no one could ever trust him.

Should Hyles have let him continue? Should he even have let him into the college in the first place?

Was Barnabas Right? Part 3

I was saved when I was sixteen, and a few months later was watching Billy Graham having "Youth Night" on TV. Graham Said "If you lie, you can go back and tell the truth. If you steal, you can go back and repay. But if you commit immorality, you can never undo it!" He stated repeatedly that he had talked to many young people who told him that they wished they could undo their immorality but couldn't.

That teaching, that certain sins can never be undone, made a valuable impression on me that never wore off.

Was Barnabas Right? Part 2

One of the ugliest, least popular passages in the Bible talks about the immoral woman. It tells us in Proverbs 2:

18 For her house leads down to death, And her paths to the dead;
19 None who go to her return, Nor do they regain the paths of life ---

A Christian who gets involved in immorality can be forgiven, cleansed, and used by God. But this passage teaches that he will never fully recover. There is nothing in Scripture to suggest that John Mark had been involved in immorality, but there is a principle here: certain sins can leave results that repentance does not remove.

Barnabas was Right--or was he?

Acts 15: 37 Now Barnabas was determined to take with them John called Mark.
38 But Paul insisted that they should not take with them the one who had departed from them in Pamphylia, and had not gone with them to the work.
39 Then the contention became so sharp that they parted from one another. And so Barnabas took Mark and sailed to Cyprus;

Today was the third time I have heard a sermon on "Barnabas was Right."

Acts 14:14 tells us that both Barnabas and Paul were apostles. On a previous journey, John Mark (author of the Gospel of Mark) had deserted them. Now, as they prepare for another journey, Barnabas wants to take Mark with them, and Paul refuses. After all they had been through together, and after all the great works that God had done through them, Paul and Barnabas separate in anger.

The Bible later tells us that Paul and Mark got reconciled, and that Mark also helped the Apostle Peter. Outside the Bible, history tells us that Mark brought Christianity to Alexandria, Egypt. So, is it true that Barnabas was right and Paul was wrong?

We'll be dealing with the painful subject of what to do when a Christian goes into major sin and repents. Forgive him, yes. But can you trust him? Should you trust him?