“Make No Mistake.
Men In The Ministry Do Not Fall!”
It was the consensus among Gospel ministers for 1800 years that if caught committing sexual sin, while there might be repentance and reconciliation, there was to be no restoration to a position of spiritual leadership. C. H. Spurgeon agreed with everyone leading up to his time and including his era in insisting that one who had demonstrated he could not be trusted with a position of spiritual leadership should never be allowed such a position in the future.
Now that we have once more been troubled with the exposure of a spiritual leader in our ranks, we must firm up our convictions about certain things and refuse to underestimate the real harm that has been done to people, to congregations, and to the Cause. It will be quite beyond the capacity of those directly affected to ever again trust a Gospel minister. So sad.
First, let us be very clear about this matter of falling. There is no such thing as falling! King David did not fall into sin. He chose to be where he should not have been, when he should not have been there. He chose to fix his gaze on someone he ought to have looked away from. He chose to ask her identity (it was none of his business). He chose to fetch her. He chose to commit adultery. He then chose to conspire and arrange her faithful husband’s murder. I mention David as the prime example in God’s Word that there is no such thing as falling!
Second, let us be very clear about this issue of conscience. A seared conscience is required for a professing Christian to sin but not repent with heartfelt sorrow. If sorrow is displayed only following the discovery of sin, it is likely the sorrow of the world, feeling bad because of exposure and consequences rather than genuine repentance not to be repented of.
That suggests that when a Gospel minister’s infidelity is discovered by another as opposed to being confessed by the one who is repenting prior to being discovered, you might very well be dealing with a manipulative and hardened wolf in sheep’s clothing who has shown his disregard for the flock. Such a man should never again be allowed to serve as a spiritual leader.
If you have been a believer in Christ for as long as I have, you likely own a virtual Rolodex of prominent men who have not just fallen (because one does not fall; he chooses to step off the narrow path), but have utterly destroyed whatever credibility they once enjoyed. From Maine to San Jose, from Jacksonville to Hammond, from Kansas City to Long Beach. And don’t forget Lynchburg and Springfield!
If you imagined you had seen and heard it all, here is the topper. There are those who have such a perverse grasp of Scripture, such a distorted view of grace, with so profound a myopia about sin and forgiveness and sanctification that they actively seek the return to pastoral ministry of men who have been arrested for homosexual prostitution, who have been convicted of multiple statutory rapes, or who have demonstrated the kind of sociopathy as to fornicate and adulterate in every place of ministry they have been, both in the USA and on the mission field.
1Pe 4:17 “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?” Should we not step up and speak out about the corruption of our calling? Should we not take the opportunity (or make opportunities) to not only disabuse those who betray their calling of ever having any hope of serving in a pastoral capacity again, but speak against those who foolishly, corruptly, and irresponsibly restore those men to pastoral office? How do they justify such efforts? Do they have unresolved Daddy issues? Are they oblivious to the holiness of God? The congregation is the temple of God! I am seriously perplexed about their motives.
I am now in my 76th year, recently retired from almost a half century of pastoral ministry in the United States, and sick to death of men so dominated by sentimentality that they behave as though the Gospel ministry is theirs, not God’s to control. Pastors who morally fail are not examples or illustrations of those who have fallen. Rather, they have chosen, through a discreet series of decisions, life choices, and steps, to end up where they landed. And they did what they did with utter disregard for the damage done to the ministry, their congregation, their spouse, their children, and who knows who else?
Please do not imagine I am a hardhearted Pharisee. I am without conscious ambition. My only concern at this point in my life is to finish well, and to help others in what little way I can to also finish well. I am convinced that we should be forgiving, that we should be reconciling, but that we should never, ever stand silently by while someone who in time past proved himself to be untrustworthy is again considered for pastoral ministry. Better to end a friendship than to say nothing when such a man should be stopped.
