A Story from Another Survivor

I am copying this story from the following blog to exemplify a PATTERN of behavior.

Here is the blog address: everynationexposed.blogspot.com (Bold emphases mine.)
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One fellow that I really grew to like and admire is a brother I’ll call Peter.

Peter was probably about 27, but he seemed ancient to me at my then 19 years of age. He was a very successful real estate agent in Auburn and a “real catch” for the ministry. His best friend “Sam”, whose father owned a men’s clothing store chain with locations throughout the southeast had introduced him to Maranatha. Sam was also “well off” by Ministry standards of the day. Together Sam and Peter were the dynamic duo- and brought a lot of vitality and maturity to the group of single brothers.

Peter had been a Christian for a while- and I think he liked our (the younger single brothers) enthusiasm and probably our naiveté about the whole Christian experience. He was very encouraging to me- and told me that the witness I was being in my frat was a wonderful opportunity to serve the Lord where sinners lived.

He had been a member of the XXX frat (the same one that Blake from an earlier part had been from) and he could relate to my experience. His advice was to stay in the frat. And to be the “salt’ there- or in his words ‘plough the field that God has put you in.” I really liked him- and found his counsel to be wise and gentle. He was the only one who did not seemed “thrilled” about me leaving the frat when it was announced in November of the last year.

I later learned that Peter had refused to be re-baptized or admit that he had "not been a Christian" previously. MY guess is that this was let slide because of the sizable checks he was probably dropping in the offering plate.

Before long I found myself gravitating to Peter with questions I had and wishing “secretly” that he was my shepherd. He was never dogmatic and encouraged me to seek God or pray about issues. Rather than spouting off "answers" more than likely my requests for guidance were met with "What do you think God is telling you?" or "What do you think the Bible says?"

Of course this could not happen at the present time because he had not “proven” himself to the local leadership over time.

From a MCM perspective this “prove yourself first was a wise policy in Peter’s case.

Peter had a beautiful town house within walking distance of the campus- and he invited us to come over to his home to use his well equipped home gym whenever we wanted to. He also opened his home to us on Sunday afternoons and he would feed us for free and we would talk about the things of Christ and Jesus and his thoughts on the Christian walk.

I am not sure that the leadership of Auburn knew about these impromptu sessions. At least not at first.

Peter would freely admit at these sessions or in our talks that on some things that MCM taught there were no right answers- and when pressed, by me about some of the strange doctrines (Water Baptism for cutting away the old man) he would shrug his shoulders and tell me that I should test these in prayer.

Another example of doctrines that he was not dogmatic on were the MCM prophetic utterances- he told us one afternoon that we should test any prophetic utterance against what the Word of God said and against our conscience- and if any “word” from a “prophet” was contrary to either of these things we should ignore them.

After the incident with Joe Smith prophesying about Daniel being reconciled with his dead father I asked Peter about it and how Joe, the anointed prophet could have gotten it so wrong.

Peter sat there for a minute and said “Well Tik Paul says we prophesy in part…and Joe is just human. I would suggest that you test all prophecy against the conscience God has given you and against the Word. If your conscience tells you no, or if prophecy is contrary to the Word I would ignore any prophecy no matter what the source.”

He also warned me and a couple of other brothers about being overly dependent on advice from elders or anyone else- that we should seek multiple counsels. He was especially concerned about me withdrawing from the frat.

Well, you can imagine that this guy rapidly became our hero (that is the four or five single brothers he befriended). He was extremely athletic, welcoming, humble, successful and very knowledgeable about scripture.

It was in March of 1979- about six months after I had joined MCM that I bumped into Peter on the steps of the Maranatha House on a Sunday afternoon.

“Hey bro!” I said.

I loved seeing Peter; he always had something positive to say- always a word of encouragement. He was the Christian I wanted to be someday.

He stopped, and for once there was no smile on his face.

“Hey Tikie, I am in a bit of a hurry, but can you call me tonight? I want to talk to you about something important.”

“Sure “I said, and seeing the expression on his face I continued, “Is there anything wrong Peter, anything I can do to help?”

Just as I was saying this the front door opened and Mike G stepped out onto the columned porch.

Peter looked at Mike quizzically and then patted me on the shoulder, “See you around Tikie”. Then he walked up the street.

I looked from him to Mike and then back again to the figure of Peter retreating up the street.

“Anything wrong with Peter?” I asked Mike.

“Tik, he said, “we need to talk.”

We went into the administration office and Mike shut the door.

“Tik, I have something I need to tell you, something of a very serious nature.”

My first thoughts were “Have I done something, or failed to do something?”

Mike continued “You need to know that Peter has been asked to leave the congregation, he is in sin.”

I was stunned, my stomach did a flip. Peter was almost a hero to me. I really looked up to him as an “older brother in the faith.”

“But how, why?” I stammered.

Mike scratched his head and looked over my head into the air- a detached look.

“You see Tik, God has called the Body [he meant the MCM Auburn Ministry] to have one mind to display the unity of spirit. In Ephesians, in fact, Paul tells us to endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bonds of peace. Without unity and without peace we will become just like the world- with arguments and factions and infighting- without any real direction or purpose.”

Well, one of the reasons I had been dissatisfied with the BSU and First Baptist was a clear sense of direction and purpose- but I was unsure of how this tied to Peter- Peter of all people leaving God’s chosen group.

My chest tightened.

“But I don’t understand Mike- Peter loved what we were doing-nobody is more on fire for Jesus than Peter- and he was a real encouragement to all- remember Joe Smith’s prophecy over Peter- that he would be a “rock” like his name sake?”

“Yes” Mike said, “But you see the Devil is seeking to devour and destroy those that he can. And the easiest way to do this is to plant seeds of bitterness and divisiveness in the body. And Peter started listening to Satan- and he was gossiping and speaking against the leadership.”

I just sat there- I could not believe what I was hearing. Peter in league with Satan?

“You see if we have a disagreement with the leadership we should approach them in love and discuss the disagreement- but ultimately we should submit to each other- just like Jesus submitted to the Father. The Church must submit to Jesus and the sheep must submit to the shepherd. But Peter could not or would not submit his life to being discipled by the elders. He was too proud to admit his own sin.”

Mike’s voice became quiet “We went to Peter three times to correct him. Paul tells us to be prepared in season and out of season, to correct and rebuke and encourage with great patience and instruction. But Peter was determined to continue in his rebellion. He was sinning against the church and against the brothers when he did this.”

Mike opened his Bible and read “When you sin against your brothers in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death”

“Allowing Peter to continue in rebellion would have given birth to sin and then to death. The Bible says that we are to allow no one to miss the grace of God and to not allow the root of bitterness to cause trouble and infect the entire congregation.”

I interrupted Mike “But what was Peter objecting to?- he never showed any sign of sin to me- and certainly not bitterness- he is one of the most kind and gentle men I have ever known."

It was true- he had a real solid quietness about him, when I think even today of Peter I think of the old Spiritual “Like a tree planted by the water I will not be moved.”

“Tik, I am not going to go into SPECIFIC sins”, he strung out the word specific softly and slowly, “but the sin was real and could affect the ministry and the spiritual growth of others.”

He leaned forward and took my arm.

“In fact Mike [Caulk] and I were especially worried about new brothers like you- because we knew that Peter had been cultivating friendships with the younger single brothers. I understand he was counseling some of you to ignore the advice and guidance of the shepherds that you have been entrusted with.

I paused and thought about it. Well, it was true that Peter had told us to judge all things, prophecies and teachings by the Word and our conscience alone- but that is was I was already doing, wasn’t I?

“But Mike, I never heard Peter say anything about not listening to the leadership.”

“Maybe”, he said, “but he had a spirit of rebellion in him and the Bible says that a spirit of rebellion is akin to witchcraft. He is against the work we are doing and so we shall give him over to Satan to be sifted.”

“So what does that mean?” I asked.

”It means what Paul says in Corinthians” and Mike flipped his Bible open and started reading a passage from Corinthians, I followed along with him.

"But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat. What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside?"

“Are you saying that Peter has been involved in immorality?” I was incredulous; I knew this could not be true.

“I am not going to go into detail about ALL of his sins- but feel compelled to tell you that among other sins he has been slanderous of the leadership. And this clearly tells us that we are not even to associate with him.”

I must have had an expression of horror on my face- because this is what I was feeling.

“Now Tik”, he said softly and with compassion, “this is for Peter’s own good. Here is what Paul says about situations like this- and he pointed to a scripture in Corinthians: “hand this man over to Satan, so that the sinful nature may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord.”
“Unless we give him over to Satan his mortal soul may be in danger.”

I made no response- What was I supposed to say? Now I was staring off into space.

He put his face into my line of sight.

“Tik, I know this must be a real blow to you, believe me I felt the same way when I first found out.”

“Yeah Mike, I just don’t get it.”

“God will make it clear to you Tik. Lets pray now.”

And Mike launched into a sincere prayer for Peter’s soul and a heartfelt plea for Peter’s repentance and he thanked God for my example and my walk.

As I left his office he took my shoulder and looked me in the eye, “Now remember, no contact with Peter, he is deceived by Satan and has a spirit of witchcraft and rebellion. You are vulnerable to this since you are a new Christian and because of your friendship with Peter. You must be careful that you do not shipwreck your faith.”

I nodded yes and trudged up the stairs.

Peter had asked me to call him tonight.

But now I had heard he was in deception, that he had a spirit of witchcraft. If I called him I might not only put my salvation in question, but I would be violating what the Bible said about “handing him over to Satan” to save his mortal soul.

And to protect mine.

I shivered.

If I called Peter I could be putting both his and my salvation at risk.

Our mortal souls, perhaps.


And that was simply a chance I could not and would not take.

For Peter was of Satan and we brothers would now avoid him at all cost.

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In case you're wondering, this is not a healthy paradigm. Everyone should be open to questioning and every topic available for questioning as well. Nor should you have to be in full agreement on every little topic to live in community. In healthy systems, disagreement (and even dissension) is allowed. It can be dealt with openly and honestly.

Indeed, I have often heard (even at Milestone), "In the essentials, unity. In the non-essentials, liberty." The only thing that should really classify as "essentials" is the Trinity, virgin birth, etc. Marriage roles should NOT be made a marker for unity. Believing in mutual submission should not be cause to kick someone out of fellowship.

And the attitude that you must "trust/agree with your leaders completely" is, well, asinine. Why? Because who is good but God? No one is completely trustworthy! Because we're all humans! None of us is a little demi-god, incapable of error.

I often heard at Milestone: "If you can't trust your leaders, you shouldn't be walking with them!" What? I don't even really know you. I've not spent enough time with you to really trust you. Yet if I show wisdom in this area and withhold some trust, I can just hit the road. God will provide someone else to take your place!

I hope the spiritual DNA from EN/Maranatha is becoming more clear!