Battered Sheep

[Boidae21]

The worst-suffering posters on Battered Sheep were the ones who wanted to leave, but they feared Divine wrath if they did.

One poor fellow was a member of a small church with a woman pastor who would frequently berate him and others from the pulpit, while preaching that they would go to Hell if they left her small group.

I realize that we're not teaching on eternal security on this thread, but the Bible tell us that there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. You're not going to lose your salvation because you left some power-nut pastor behind. Abusive leaders often quoted "They went out from us, but they were never really of us," without explaining that the verse refers to Christianity, not a denomination or congregation.

I had something similar happen where I was threatened by the Pastor that divine wrath would follow me taking my wife out of this pastor's church.

I never really liked the church my wife was attending and the longer that I attended I seen the pastor for the power hungry and controlling person that he is. He threatened that my wife wouldn't be the woman that I fell in love with and that God would take her from me if I took her from his church. I couldn't go to the elders as the elders were his family and he could do no wrong in their eyes. The congregation all believed every word that came out of his mouth and there was a sermon at one point by another pastor saying that we're not to question our pastor ever.

I have slowly broken the hold that this church had on my wife. It was as she was addicted to it. I have shown her in the Bible where what this pastor was saying wasn't Biblical and he would take scripture way out of context.

edit: This pastor also tried to keep us in his church by prophesying that we'll be having two children in two years time knowing that we wanted to start a family. It's several months shy of 2 years and still no pregnancy. He knew that my wife could very well be sterile from being on chemo drug called novantrone and that a side effect is sterility.

 

[Vince]

Good to hear from you, Boidae, and I hope that everything works out for you.

 

[Christ_empowered]

That's terrible. Are certain congregations more prone to this sort of thing than others? I mean, is it more likely for a Pentecostal church than a Baptist or Presbyterian Church?