Post number 1051??? Get real. No thread goes on that long... does it? Oh. What were we talking about?
I thought the drama of last night and today was actually productive. Made me think about myself and about several things.
Coon's points on bitterness were good and Jekyll's surprising sermon was excellent. However, one thing that's always bothered me about "bitterness" in our fellowship is the way
I see people who do much damage (and Jekyll and Coonskinner DO NOT come to mind here) will often fall back onto a soliloquy on bitterness right after they've run amok over God's people.
I actually had one dear friend fall into spasms after screaming at me for an extended period. What was their complaint? They complained that I was "bitter" about the way they behaved. I wasn't really bitter
yet, at that point I was alarmed and frightened. LOL.
It's just the accusation of "bitterness" was one more weapon in their arsenal that they could hurl against me to disguise their own sinful behavior. When I met up with a family member from across the country shortly after this, the first thing that family member did was to ask why I was so "bitter" about the screaming lunatic. The screamer had been on the phone and in every visit was shoring up their accusations against me.
Now, many years later, people see the sin for what it was. But what if when I did speak up back then, what if people had listened to me? The "screamer" could have been saved a lot of pain. Their church and legacy might even have been saved. By standing up to abusive authority I was actually trying to do them a favor.
I didn't back bite and I didn't go public with my complaints. I didn't try and rally forces to my side. I merely pleaded with my adversaries (brother and sister) to give themselves to Christ and turn their bitterness and anger over to Him.
So, from my experience the whole "don't be bitter" rap was really a tool used by bitter people to hide sin and it resulted in the the destruction of an entire congregation. People were scattered all over the place, many of them were rather bitter about their experiences and the whole wound is still an open sore in the body of Christ in this region to this day. I feel that if I had been more vocal and had not bought into the silence and secrecy code of conduct that I might have spared a lot of people a lot of pain.
Oh, and another technical point...
Romans 13:2 deals with civil authority, not church authority. The "powers that be are ordained of God ... a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil."
NOT my brother.
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