|
To By Neal Horsley On occasion a Christian is commanded by God to take a message to the Church. This is such an occasion. The specific commandment I am attempting to obey is this one: Jesus Christ said, Matthew
18: 15 Moreover
if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between
thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother.16 But
if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the
mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.17 And
if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect
to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican.
In July, 2002, Kansas Baptist Church of Carroll County Georgia, the congregation where I am a member, in their solemn monthly Church assembly, unanimously voted to withdraw Fellowship from me--to put me out of the church. No one from Kansas Baptist Church contacted me prior to putting me out of the church. In fact, no one even told me they were thinking about putting me out of the church. That congregation couldn’t have obeyed Matthew 18 because to this day no one has informed me of a trespass I committed that caused me to be removed from fellowship by that church. Unless I want to ignore Scripture myself, I now have no alternative but to respond in obedience to Matthew 18 since what happened to me was as offensive as anything ever done to me by people claiming to be followers of the Lord Jesus Christ.
KANSAS BAPTIST CHURCH PILED ON AFTER PLANNED PARENTHOOD GOT ME FIRED The action taken by Kansas Baptist Church was worse that any slap in the face because it culminated three devastating events that hit me hard in July, 2002: 1. In the immediate aftermath of a front page Wall Street Journal article portraying me as an assassin of young women by falsely accusing me of using my Internet Web site to draw “bullseyes on their backs”, I was fired from the job I had held for years because my employer was threatened by representatives of Planned Parenthood, etc. with the loss of millions of dollars of business unless they terminated my employment; 2. I received a personal letter from J. Leighton Alston, the CEO of West Georgia National Bank, telling me that my business accounts with that bank were being terminated (when I enquired why, neither J. Leighton Alston nor his attorneys would answer); 3. Kansas Baptist Church put me out of the church (Public records indicate that West Georgia National Bank holds the mortgage on Kansas Baptist Church property, but no evidence has yet been found proving the bank influenced Kansas Baptist Church to remove me from fellowship).
FULFILLING A CALLING FROM GOD I could easily handle the first two, but what Kansas Baptist Church had no grounds
for their action against me. I could
do nothing about being fired from my job, or about the banker, J. Leighton
Alston, slamming the door of his bank in my face; but I was commanded in
Matthew 18 by the Lord Jesus Christ to respond to Christians who offended
me. Because Kansas Baptist trespassed
against me, I had to respond in obedience to Matthew 18 or I would have
myself failed, like
NOTHING WORSE FOR TEACHER OF GOD’S WORD THAN BEING SHUNNED BY THE CHURCH For a person like me who is called to be a teacher of God’s word, to be treated by the Christians in your local Church as if you are a rebellious sinner can be the death knell for such a call from God. To stand by and accept such unscriptural and malicious treatment could destroy my ability to fulfill my calling from God. Kansas Baptist Church corporately lied about me when they did things to me that made me look like an unrepentant sinner. At the time Kansas put me away, I had no knowledge of unconfessed sin in my life; nor do I today. When I sin, I do my best to show my love for the Lord Jesus Christ by confessing my sin. To do anything that gives people the impression I am out of fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ is to compound the lie against me by lying about the relationship the Lord Jesus Christ has with me.
OFFENSE AGAINST THE LORD JESUS To be treated by Kansas as an unrepentant sinner was offensive--especially when no one had even taken the time to confront me with any allegations of sin--but most offensive was what Kansas Baptist Church was doing to my Lord Jesus Christ. By totally ignoring Matthew 18, the very people who were supposed to be examples of Christians who obey the Holy Scripture were acting as if they had no commitment to obey the commandments of God at all.
I OBEYED THE SCRIPTURE The Lord’s instructions in Matthew 18 were
clear to me (“…go and tell him
his fault between thee and him alone…”) So I
wrote the Kansas Pastor, Mark Curlee, asking him to explain to me why I was
removed from fellowship by Kansas Baptist Church in violation of the
Scripture and without a chance to defend myself. I waited six weeks. When no response was forthcoming, the first week in October I called Pastor Curlee to schedule the Step Two meeting commanded in Matthew 18:16 (…But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more…”). He took my call. I told Pastor Curlee that I wanted to meet with him in the
presence of witnesses so that I could persuade him to correct Kansas Baptist
Church’s trespass against me.
Specifically I wanted them to put in the minutes of their next
congregation meeting that fellowship had been restored to me because there
was no biblical grounds for withdrawing fellowship in the first place. Pastor Curlee said he needed a week to think
about my request. When I called him back the next week, I tape
recorded the conversation as a witness to what he said. Pastor Curlee told me that he intended to do nothing
and that he did not intend to talk to me any more about this matter.Click Here To Hear the Conversation.) In explanation for why Kansas put me away,
he said, “…we just felt like we did what we did to distance ourselves from
whatever it is that is going on between you and people who quote don’t like
Neal Horsley and what he stands for.” And that was it: that was why Kansas Baptist
Church in solemn assembly turned me out of the Church. I have searched the Scriptures. Nowhere does it say Christians should
“distance” themselves from other Christians except when those Christians have
been found guilty of sin and, after confrontation, refused to repent of that
sin. I told Pastor Curlee it was sin to remove me
from fellowship in violation of the requirements of scripture, not to mention
the Constitution and bylaws of Kansas Baptist Church. Furthermore, I told him that his refusal
to meet with me in the presence of witnesses to resolve this matter meant I
had no alternative but to go to the third step commanded by Jesus Christ in
Matt 18:17 and “…tell it unto the church…” He said, “Well, I’m not going to let you
address the Church. Period.” I then told Pastor Curlee that Pastor Curlee then told me, “You’ll just have
to pray and ask the Lord whatever He would have you to do, and whatever He
would have you to do, that’s just what you’ll have to do.” You are reading this now because what Pastor
Mark Curlee said I would have to do was totally false. I did not have to pray to find out what
the Lord Jesus Christ wanted me to do. All I had to do was read Matthew 18
and obey it. WILL
YOU OBEY SCRIPTURE? What about you? Your response is important for many
reasons. Satan and the world is busy
trying to condition Christians so that they are afraid to stand up in public
and speak the truth about God’s word in this generation. Because I am a Christian abortion
abolitionist known to millions of people across the nation, causing me to
lose my job and be thrown out of my local Church has to be an object lesson
for many Christians that might well tempt them to avoid taking a public stand
like I have done out of fear they might lost their job or be shunned by their
local community. Obviously it is more
than a slap in the face to be shunned in this nation: it hits the pocketbook
as well. And that directly impacts
every area of a person’s life, especially ministry opportunities. For instance, I wanted to buy an ad in the
Because you have learned about this event, you
now, like Kansas Baptist Church, have a decision to make. The disobedience to Jesus Christ of Pastor
Mark Curlee--and through him the disobedience of every member of Kansas
Baptist Church who put me away from fellowship in violation of the
commandments of the Lord Jesus Christ--is clearly documented here. If you listen to the tape recording, you
can hear the Pastor acknowledge that I was guilty of no sin, yet turned out
of the Church anyway. If you are a
Christian who is committed to obeying Holy Scripture, you have a duty to
respond to what is happening here.
How you respond will prove--as Kansas Baptist Church is in the process
of doing, and as I am in the process of doing--exactly what kind of Christian
you are. Will you stand by and do
nothing, or will you obey the Scriptures.
If you obey the Scriptures, you have an obligation to help me bring
this congregation into obedience to the Lord Jesus. Finally, the words in Matthew 18 are as solemn
as any words in Holy Scripture. After
those claiming to be “brothers” have demonstrated their refusal to cooperate
with the commandments of God in Holy Scripture we are told to “…let him be unto thee as an heathen man and
a publican.” In the absence of
repentance of sin, the real fellowship, not only with God’s people, but of
the Holy Spirit of God Himself, is vacated and made null and void. Surely no more horrible outcome can be
contemplated by anyone who has ever actually been graced by the knowledge of
the Presence of the Holy Spirit of God. Write or Call: Pastor Mark Curlee Highway 100 Waco, Georgia 30182 770 258 5820 Return to Christian Gallery News
Service
|