Sheep may safely graze (7): when there is no danger

(Seventh in a series.)

Part of the safety of the sheep and their pasturing, their feeding and watering, lies with how deeply their shepherd feels his responsibility for them. Sadly, few seminaries teach their students the weight of responsibility they will have for their rams, ewes, and lambs. And about seminary profs possessing the terminal degree, almost none of them teach their MDiv students what Jesus says concerning how to identify the hireling—that when the wolf attacks, he shows his true colors by fleeing.

I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.

He who is a hired hand, and not a shepherd, who is not the owner of the sheep, sees the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and is not concerned about the sheep. (John 10:11-13)

Over the past couple of years, I’ve spent hundreds of hours researching the websites and social media pages of the hirelings who signed the protest against Pastor Steven Warhurst during the 47th (2019) General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America. Recognizing how necessary it is that search committees and elders choosing their next pastor (or deciding to retain their present one) understand that these men are false shepherds, a number of us have been researching and documenting the lives, alma maters, sponsoring churches, fellow elders, and organizational associations of these pastors who condemned Pastor Warhurst’s gracious Biblical witness against sodomy. Read the tragic story here.

The page documenting these hirelings now has 36,400 views, and the views climb at an average of thirty per day here two and a quarter years after it was originally posted back on December 23, 2020. At last count, the PCA only has 378,000 members, so the total views of this page are equal in number to about ten percent of the PCA’s members. (Yes, I know some have viewed this page multiple times.)

Why bring this up?

Because having done years of this research, what’s clear is that Reformed University Fellowship and Kellerite/Redeemer church planters funded by Mission to North America—as well as the Covenant Theological Seminary profs and trustees who have trained them—believes there aren’t any thieves and robbers, let alone wolves, seeking to devour those precious souls purchased by our Savior’s Own blood whom they have been ordained to feed and protect.

These guys are smug. Confident. Cocky. They don’t lay awake at night doubting themselves. They don’t lose time grieving over and repenting for their sins. Every one of them is confident Jesus is mostly gentle and lowly. They love Dane Ortlund, as well as Don Carson and all the usual suspects who provided Dane his stellar blurbs.

Does a single one of them fear God? Go ahead and read the bios we have provided. Follow the links and ask yourself if these are the men you want your teenage daughter to be shepherded by when she goes off to college?

Honestly, the dividing line piercing the Christian church today separates those who still have some small and slight residual fear of God and those who have none.

The dividing line flows between those who feel the weight of defending their sheep from thieves and wolves, and those who laugh at such histrionics. And trust me: those who signed the protest against Pastor Steven Warhurst are ground zero of those who laugh at such histrionics.

Is there any danger in the Church of Jesus Christ today? Any true danger?

Tim Keller and his acolytes say yes, claiming the real danger is our “elder brothers,” our “tribalists,” and all those insecure ruling and teaching elders of the PCA who don’t recognize the superiority of Redeemerites’ cultural contextualization.

Nah. Listen to the warning given by our Lord’s beloved disciple, the Apostle John, two thousand years ago:

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. (1John 4:1)

Until you, dear brother, make yourself stink, publicly, by warning your sheep away from guys like Keller and sidekicks like Sauls, Collins, Duncan (yup), and Chapell, you will remain a hireling. At the cost of your sheep, you have saved yourself. Your career. Your profession.

But why not simply repent? Why not humble ourselves and claim our Heavenly Father’s promise:

I will feed them in a good pasture, and their grazing ground will be on the mountain heights of Israel. There they will lie down on good grazing ground and feed in fat pasture on the mountains of Israel. -Ezekiel 34:14

(Seventh in a series.)

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Here’s more information about New Geneva Academy’s pastoral training curriculum and the men now in ministry who have been trained by New Geneva.

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Image is “Jailoo” by CharlesFred, licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

Tags: Good shepherd, Gospel Coalition, Hirelings, Lig Duncan, Ligonier, New Geneva Academy, Pastoral care, Seminary, Sheep may safely graze, Tim Keller