You might be sure, but the Scripture seems to indicate that your opinion needs a little revision.
Why, using your logic, didn't God whisper a little something in the ears of Ananias and Saphira, instead of having that mean old Apostle broadcast their sin to everybody?
And then there was Elymas the sorcerer:
Using your logic, again, God sure messed up when He didn't just quietly nudge Elymas instead of once again, having another hard nosed Apostolic preacher blurt out his sin before everybody.
And then there was poor Gehazi back in the Old Testament.
I mean, after all, Naaman could well afford that little love offering Gehazi talked him out of, against the advice of Elisha.
But instead of God pulling Gehazi off to one side and having a little chat with him, he spoke through the man of God, and leprousy was the proce he paid.
I realize that unscrupulous men have abused and manipulated people through fear when God wasn't speaking and wasn't in it.
But there are thousands of doctors that get in hot water for all kinds of malpractice, too, but that doesn't mean all doctors are charlatans.
I don't believe the kind of judgment mentioned here is necessarily commonplace, but it is undeniably Scriptural, and it is easy to sit back and judge a man of God when you have NO knowledge of the situation...and when your reasoning process is patently unscriptural and without biblical foundation.
CS, I think your examples above aren't quite the same. Of course, they also might be. There isn't enough info given as to why the preacher said what he did about the woman.
It's one thing to call out someone who is stirring up strife and giving them a word, but it's another to openly humiliate someone based on what might not be accurate.
I'll give you an example of something that happened to me. When I was a teen, I was going through the things that teens tend to go through, but I was in church and even played in the orchestra.
One night, I had a headache and went to get prayed for. The assistant pastor put his hand on my head and loudly prayed for.............my rebellious spirit.
He never asked why I was getting prayed for and said nothing else about healing for my body. Needless to say, I never again got prayed for in that church....one that I had attended since the age of 5.
I can admit that rebellion was in my heart, but I don't think it's any different than many teenagers. I certainly didn't cause trouble or strife, and being a member of the orchestra, I followed the standards of the church.
But if praying for my rebellion was necessary, there was a time and place to do that, and in front of the church during prayer service wasn't the time nor the place.
Again, we don't know under what circumstances the preacher above said what he did, but he could have been wrong as much as he could have been right. Without more info, I don't feel it's accurate to compare it to stories in the Bible.
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I've gone and done it now! I'm on Facebook!!!
Amazingly enough, you folks want to fuss over whether the preacher should have called out this lady and spoke openly of the condition of her heart, yet the results tell all. She went back to the doctor and found the issue GONE!
I am not defending the preacher specifically, just the principle.
I understand, but the principle would apply if the circumstances were the same.
I'm not sure there is a way to know the circumstances without having been there to hear it for myself. Hopefully, the preacher was right in what he did.
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I've gone and done it now! I'm on Facebook!!!
Amazingly enough, you folks want to fuss over whether the preacher should have called out this lady and spoke openly of the condition of her heart, yet the results tell all. She went back to the doctor and found the issue GONE!
No, it wasn't gone, just misdiagnosed.
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I've gone and done it now! I'm on Facebook!!!
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