To understand Church Abuse, one can read the Scriptures. The topic is there, in many places throughout the Bible. However, there are far too many of these specific Scriptures to mention them all in this post. Amongst these, there are even some that would be more to the point than others as teaching Scriptures on Church Abuse. Most especially Galatians 2:4 And that because of false brethren unawares brought in, who came in privily to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage… This very Scripture, Gal 2:4 brings very deep spiritual significance regarding Spiritual Abuse.
Its meaning is very deep because, in Paul’s letters to the churches of the Galatians, Paul is in fact writing to them – so to heal them of spiritual Abuse. It is to be noted here, that Paul is not reproaching the victims; but rather is clarifying maters for them. How he does this, is in such a way as to write it in his own handwriting; so to clearly state that the ones to be reproached are “the false brethren”.
Paul is very clear on the matter. That the victims are blameless, because they were “unaware that false brethren had been brought in”. It is not good to scatter the discussion on Church Abuse, here and there and everywhere. It would only serve to divert away from the fact that what the victims experienced, was abuse. The abuse they experienced, was ‘spiritual confusion’. They had been confused by false teachers, false doctors, false brethren in leadership positions over them. They, the victims, were ‘sheep’ led astray; so to be removed from God.
Victims of Church abuse, from the onset, are people whose intent is to be made right before God; and to then remain thus forever! The intent of the Galatians was also to be made right before God, and to stay like that forever!. While Paul was there, in Galatia, many listened to what he had to say, and many became Christians after hearing Paul preach the Gospel to them. They were new babies in Christ. As time passed, many Christian churches had been established there. And there even came a time when Paul left them; leaving behind him, with them – brethren to administer and to lead their churches.
Today’s churches are no different. No different than the churches of the Galatians back then when Paul still walked the earth. Today, as it was back then, there are “brethren unawares brought in”. Brethren unawares brought in, who teach a different Gospel than that taught by Jesus and his Apostles.
Back in the day’s of the Biblical Galatia churches, after Paul had left there, some suspicious sounding people in position of leadership mislead many of the Galatian Christians into thinking differently than how Paul had taught them. These types of individuals, in position of church leadership, became of concern to some. So much so, that some wrote letters to Paul about them; letting him know what was going on, and asking him to come back to Galatia so to help them set the record straight. Which is what lead Paul to write letters to the Churches there, and to actually return to them.
Paul wrote letters to the Galatian Churches, and he even returned there himself. Paul told the churches there: “that some had been brought into bondage by the false brethren”. In other words, some had lost their liberty in Christ; had been removed from God…
It does not take a major leap in thought, to imagine what Church Abuse (or spiritual Abuse) must have felt like by those Galatians back then. It must have felt like “total confusion” to them. Trying to make sense of the confusion, leads to spiritual discouragement. And spiritual discouragement is what leads the Saved to stand among the Lost and the Scornful.
Galatians who lived through those confusing times, would have heard different voices saying: “Follow me. No, follow me! believe and do what I tell you! No! believe and do what I tell you!”… While those very voices would have been those of this church leader over here, and of that other church leader over there. Or of this teacher over here, or of that teacher over there. And that is why Paul was asked to intervene by writing and then by going back to the Churches in Galatia.
Those church leaders, and those teachers who planted ‘confusion’ in the mind of the sheep, also handed out punishments to them. Spiritual punishments they had no spiritual authority in Christ to hand out. Such false church leaders and such false teachers were making a mockery of the ways of the Lord; as they were removing the liberty in Christ. They were the scornful as mentioned in Psalms 1:1 Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
As it was back in the days of the Biblical Galatians, it is today. Not every spiritually abused Christian who is a victim of Church Abuse, gets removed from God, though many do. Removed or not from God, the mind becomes traumatized. At one point, the spiritual confusion becomes too much for any individual; what with the familial, physical, and social humiliations they were made to suffer.
It is not the purpose of this blog to preach, nor to accuse victims of any blame. To do so, would be counterproductive. But rather, it is the purpose of this blog to ‘simply understand’ their humiliation and suffering. And their pain… To accompany them in the understanding of what was actually done to them. To have the words to express it all with…
Spiritual Abuse 