HOW IT FURTHER GOES WRONG
The "counsellor" has a naive new Believer "share" past sinfulness and even innermost secrets to them, then even to their group. The new initiate is caused to get used to this type of "sharing". Sometimes the group also encourages this. This is sometimes called "Transparency". In radical cases, the "counsellor", "prophet" or "spiritual authority/advisor" can become some sort of "thought police" for new Believers and may later, by threats and bullying, attempt to establish total control over their lives based on what the person has revealed.
The young Believer therefore can think it routine to confess all of their past offenses openly to others as being "Christian", even when they go to a new Church, or join a new group.
They bring up all sorts of transgressions, even ones that may be particularly offensive or repugnant to others in the new group. They were taught this was the proper thing to do. By this they can stigmatize themselves unintentionally.
THE MISUNDERSTANDING-GOSSIP CYCLE
If they do become stigmatized, at some point, someone may misunderstand what the person confessing all these things said or meant. Some of their "openness" could be so outrageous a new audience might think the person to be capable of anything! Further, since the person has openly admitted all their transgressions, some members of the group might think these confessions are a matter of public knowledge and so feel free to discuss them with everyone else. This may have not been (and many times isn't) what the confesser wanted at all. The confesser might have wanted a few things kept private. They can become very bitter at this point.
Because the confesser has so openly revealed a bunch of past sins so readily, people may think they have also revealed everything else as well to others, and the person doesn't mind being discussed by others. The one who has "aired their dirty linen in public" then may take extreme offense that someone misunderstood what they said, or what they meant, and can become outraged and turn against the group, while the group has been led to believe that the person wanted "no secrets" about their life.
What they believed would make them "righteous and accepted" (they were assured it would) backfires against everyone because of misunderstanding. Suddenly, people begin talking and look upon the confesser with askance. This is not what they had intended. Their reputation has been marred and they are hurt. Then they blame the group.
The offended confesser does not realize that they (because they have followed false teaching) are the ones that began all the stir, or that what they did to begin with was wrong, for after all, they were taught it was right to be "very open" and "Transparent".
Confessers who further pursue this activity tend to gravitate toward groups that more freely accept their confessions in their area of sin. Alcoholics Anonymous and other "Anonymous" groups are examples. As outrageous as it appears, there is even an "Adulterers Anonymous" somewhere. Persons who have similar sin patterns and weaknesses that they all can relate to, find quasi-agreement. This type environment can also attract what is known as the "compulsive confesser".
The gravitating toward a particular weakness of the old sin nature cannot rightly be called "christian fellowship" as it automatically excludes the rest of the Church.
IF THESE "SHEPHERDING-DISCIPLESHIP" ELEMENTS WERE REMOVED, THESE GROUPS COULD NOT EXIST!
They could not exist because they are so Doctrinally weak it would become immediately apparent if all these "Shepherding-Discipleship" elements were removed. They place their strongest emphasis on "Inner Healing" and "emotional issues" instead of True Doctrine, Church History and His One Church. Various "denominations", "christian organizations" and even (so-called) "christian" internet chat rooms would disappear overnight!
Here is more on the "Shepherding-Discipleship Movement". What are its roots, where has it surfaced and who teaches and practices it today as "true Christianity"?
The Roots of this Movement can be first found within the Assemblies in the late 5th and into 7th Century A.D. This became efficiently organized under Gregory I (the great; b, approximately 540 d. 614.) when monks in the Roman Catholic monasteries were subjugated into submission. All innermost thoughts had to be divulged to monks in higher authority. Think of this the next time you hear those "beautiful and spiritual Gregorian Chants" sung by monks with their Consciences in bondage! "Shepherding-Discipleship" immediately places a "spiritual authority" with false teaching between Christ and the Believer, not as a True Pastor, but one that can have total control over peoples' thoughts and lives. Thus the beginnings of a practice as "Christian" but long-associated with paganistic practices. They used these very same techniques to control their pagan societies in the ancient world!
The Shepherding-Discipleship Movement is not what Christianity is all about.
MORE FOLLOWING SOON!
PEOPLE OF G-D MINISTRIES
� Copyright 2001-2004 People of G-d Ministries, Inc. No reproduction or redistribution without Prior Written Consent and Approval of People of G-d.
FOOTNOTES
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They may use manipulative and mind-control techniques along with fear to frighten baby Believers into thinking these "annointed ones" possess "spiritual power" over them. These "prophets" are also no strangers to spewing forth death threats against persons who fail to obey their will.
This same threat was encountered in the 15th Century overcome and defeated by the Protestant Reformation and all the good things that came out of it. At that time, even the secular and non-christian forces joined together with the Protestants on the basic issues of "Freedom of Conscience" and "The Rights of Man" that were being threatened by this teaching. The Roman Catholic Church had entered into the Civil Arm with these teachings and the entire population of Europe had been brought into bondage by similar "mind-control" techniques which attacked and persecuted Freedom of Conscience and The Rights of Man of all under their domain.
So what happened when certain aspects of "Shepherding-Discipleship" false teaching came to full fruition and held sway as "truth", not only over Christians but the whole population? DO NOT CLICK HERE if you may in any way be offended by graphic historical documentation of what eventually transpired!
The Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights of the United States of America support Freedom of Conscience and the Rights of Man. The Federalist Papers also focus on this very thing. The phrase by Thomas Jefferson (who was not personally a Christian), of "Inalienable Rights", drawn from John Locke, testifies to this.
The classic work in 1641 by the Reverend Samuel Rutherford, LEX REX goes into much more detail also on these very same issues.
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The desire to find a "leader" can be one indicator. Yeshua said, "Call no man leader". In young believers this may be expected, and the Pastor is to guide them to the Promises, Bible Doctrine and Prayer. Church history is also needful.
Believers may also be encouraged not to study "all that old stuff", as it is "too intellectual" for them to understand, and their "leaders" may say they didn't, so "just don't waste your time worrying about all that old complicated doctrine stuff", "written by a bunch of old guys, this is a new day with new revelations!", "those old teachings just divide people, we have the answer you are looking for!"
Many times they reject G-ds' Law and tell people they are "under Grace" so "we don't have to follow that any more". Then they go about setting up their own standards to replace it.
They are the ones that say, "Pastor doesn't pay very much attention to us", "this church doesn't care", "you need inner emotional healing and counselling", "this is a cold, dead church", "Pastor won't really listen to people, but just wants to cram Scripture down our throats".
These type people either are not Saved, or remain babies dependent upon others for some "emotional rescue". They simply never grow up, and can only counsel people to be babies on the bottle with them. They form "emotional support groups". They require constant attention at times. If someone doesn't pay them what they think is sufficient attention, or speak to them just right, they can become emotionaly "upset", "throw a temper tantrum", "get their feelings hurt", become alienated and leave.
They live in their Emotions and teach the "Feelings Gospel" which they usually have picked-up somewhere else while "congregation-hopping". In a True Congregation, hopefully they are found out in time.
Whole "denominations" have actually been set-up like this (or by using similar techniques) and are now in operation!
In "churches" or "christian groups" where this teaching is found, there is "emotional uncertainty" of course. This can provide very fertile ground for other false teachings that are based on uncertainty such as the idea that you can "lose your Salvation".
Find a "christian organization" that rejects Eternal Security and you will find "Shepherding-Discipleship" being used on them every single time.
New Believers are never taught to think on their own. After all, their "leader" does all their thinking for them, and they may be afraid to question him, so instead of risking embarrassment they just "give up" and completely submit. They literally stop thinking for themselves.
Their "leader" may be academically or religiously credentialled (or studying to be), have achieved some station in life, a modicum of worldly rank or success, or may merely be a "smooth personality type". To deceive the unwary, they preach "it's all about love" and may deny that they have any doctrines at all (they just believe the Bible)! This they do to avoid focus on studying early Church history and Orthodox Christian Theology such as the Protestant Reformation brought forth.
Their teaching may more closely resemble "Fast-Food Christianity" with their teachings being emphasized as "all that is needed".
In lesser-seen cases, the "kindly leader" may also be substituted for by a more authoritarian "religious leader" who may even go so far as to regularly issue false accusations or cowardly "prophetic death threats" against young Believers whom he/she finds not in "spitritual agreement" with their dictates. These have been observed to attempt to label people "demons" or "heretic hunters" and persons who stand up for True Doctrine as teaching "doctrines of devils".
Using one or both techniques (the "love" or the "fear"), they bring unsuspecting new Believers into submission to them as perhaps "annointed spiritual leaders". New Believers may come into contact with such terms as having a "spiritual covering" by their "leader". This "leader" may try to obtain an intimate personal knowledge of their financial affairs to ensure their followers are "tithing correctly".
This "annointing" can be used to preach things foreign to His One True Church, while insisting they are "orthodox christians" or "true protestants". They use Christian terminology and Scriptural proof texts but derive entirely different doctrines, meanings and interpretations than were handed-down to us by the early Church or the Protestant Reformation.
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The True Pastor is to guide ALL the flock to the green pastures of True Doctrines and:
Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. Philippians 3:13-15.