Religious Wolves

I know that I am not alone in having a bad church experience. Unfortunately, mine lasted a long time as I was a child and wasn’t able to decide where we went to church. It was awful, to say the least, and did much to color my poor view of God.

I attended services at that particular assembly for several years, and many of the kids that were there didn’t even know my name. No one had ever taken the time to get to know me, and it didn’t seem that anyone cared to. My family had been severely mistreated by many of the prominent people there. 

To top it off, my siblings and I attended school there, and we all have our individual horror stories of how we were treated by pastors, principals, teachers, and other children. My family had never really done anything wrong. We just didn’t fit in, and now, as an adult, I’m glad.

I remember things going on there that would be labeled as abuse to any rational person. Then, those same individuals would stand before us on Wednesday and tell us about God. Well, to be honest, it was more telling us how bad we were and that we needed to straighten up.

I walked away from that experience afraid that God was just waiting for me to fail so that he could lash out and hurt me. I never felt like I was safe in my salvation. I feared that if I did anything wrong, I was a bad person, and that I could not be saved. God was mean, vindictive, and scary. He was in no way personal, with the exception that he knew all the terrible things you had done.

Now, fast forward twelve years, and God is finally able to get me to see that, despite all the progress that I have made, my view of him is still skewed. He has to tell me constantly that He loves me in order to keep me in a constant state of accepting it. I don’t let it stick because I keep waiting for him to tell me, “No, Bethany, I don’t really care about you. I have too many people to really care about, and well, you haven’t been perfect so, you’re just lucky you’re getting into heaven at all. Good luck with life.”

As I said before, I know that I’m not alone, and believe you me, I haven’t shared half of the horror, but the point that I wanted to make is this. There are those who call themselves followers of Christ, but they do not live the lives of followers of Christ (Matthew 7:15-23). I want to make something very clear. Jesus said, “I have not called the righteous, but sinners.” (Mark 2:17). Those who feel they are able to save themselves, by their doctrine or their prescribed method of reaching God, are not counted among the flock and are, in fact, goats and wolves. They tear and seek to destroy those who honestly seek God through the love of the Son instead of works. These people will constantly be condemning and have no room for those they dub, “sinners”. Even among other believers they will seek to claim who can and cannot enter heaven (Matthew 23:13). THEY ARE NOT OF GOD.

Paul warned that after he left some believers to continue his work, that wolves would come in among the flock to destroy them (Acts20:29). I tell you, they have never left. As the church has grown so have the number of wolves. They are Pharisees in disguise.

God is good (Mark 10:18). He is just (Deuteronomy 32:4). He is loving (1 John 4:8). He perfect (Psalms 18:30). He is kind (Romans 2:4). He is giving (Matthew 7:11). He is a Father (Matthew 5:48). He is a warrior (Exodus 15:3). He is wonderful (Isiah 9:6). He is a savior (Luke 1:47). He is every good thing, and anything that is not good is not of him.

So, I am sorry if, like me, you have been attacked by these wolves, but take comfort in who He is and pursue him