What To Make Of Hohn Cho Versus Grace Community Church?

[Alfred Persson]

Ultimately Hohn Cho has charged GCC to “do justice” with Eileen Gray who was excommunicated using Matthew 18 on the basis of unsubstantiated refusal to reconcile her marriage. If Eileen Gray never confided anything that David Gray would eventually be charged with and refused to cooperate with the church, what exactly is the path to reconciliation? She still bares the responsibility of her sin, and it was her sin that she was excommunicated.

Ultimately it is naïve to think that this issue is not a proxy for a larger attack on biblical counseling and church discipline in general. We would be wise to avoid these conclusions regardless of what transpires with GCC.

The whole situation has a lot of smoke and little fire to be found. Maybe its there, but for now, we must continue to reserve judgement.

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What To Make Of Hohn Cho Versus Grace Community Church?

Saturday, Evangelical Dark Web reported on the accusations of Hohn Cho against John MacArthur’s Grace Community Church. The Christianity Today article added nothing new to the story that was …

evangelicaldarkweb.org

 

[Alfred Persson]

The speaker at Evangelical Dark Web questions the GCC's decision to purge all of Hohn Cho's sermons on their site, hinting there may be nefarious reasons.

However, if a speaker is no longer associated with the Church, there may be legal reasons to stop using his material. To not purge his sermons, is to give public impression Cho is approved, when he is on his own and not under church authority. I think it wise they purged his material, so nothing is misrepresented.

 

[tdidymas]

The speaker at Evangelical Dark Web questions the GCC's decision to purge all of Hohn Cho's sermons on their site, hinting there may be nefarious reasons.

However, if a speaker is no longer associated with the Church, there may be legal reasons to stop using his material. To not purge his sermons, is to give public impression Cho is approved, when he is on his own and not under church authority. I think it wise they purged his material, so nothing is misrepresented.

The pastor of my church was "called on the carpet" for chronic indulgence in alcohol and a minor indiscretion which came to light, in which he was asked to resign, which he did. It doesn't mean that all the Biblical sermons he gave should be purged from the church's website. It's the Biblical information and inspirational messages that should be kept on record for the benefit of the public.

The author's argument that "it looks bad" (like a cover-up) is not the best argument for GCC keeping Cho's info. I think GCC should have kept Cho's info for the sake of edifying the part of the church that followed his teaching. Except that it may have required many hours of analyzing his teachings, sort of like all of a DA's cases have to be evaluated if that DA was fired for an ethical reason. And who wants to do that? Yet, it's not about Cho being unethical, so if they accepted his teaching to post it on the web, then they should continue to own it. His resignation wasn't about that.

 

[Alfred Persson]

The pastor of my church was "called on the carpet" for chronic indulgence in alcohol and a minor indiscretion which came to light, in which he was asked to resign, which he did. It doesn't mean that all the Biblical sermons he gave should be purged from the church's website. It's the Biblical information and inspirational messages that should be kept on record for the benefit of the public.

The author's argument that "it looks bad" (like a cover-up) is not the best argument for GCC keeping Cho's info. I think GCC should have kept Cho's info for the sake of edifying the part of the church that followed his teaching. Except that it may have required many hours of analyzing his teachings, sort of like all of a DA's cases have to be evaluated if that DA was fired for an ethical reason. And who wants to do that? Yet, it's not about Cho being unethical, so if they accepted his teaching to post it on the web, then they should continue to own it. His resignation wasn't about that.

Your DA analogy, the extra work would have caused me to delete them. But Cho may begin saying things that Grace disapproves, and to continue to display his material would associate the church with him. So I think it wise they deleted it.

When someone quits their job, they empty his office and take his name plate down.

Whatever Cho said that is profitable for believers, could be replaced by a minister still with Grace.

 

[tdidymas]

Your DA analogy, the extra work would have caused me to delete them. But Cho may begin saying things that Grace disapproves, and to continue to display his material would associate the church with him. So I think it wise they deleted it.

When someone quits their job, they empty his office and take his name plate down.

Whatever Cho said that is profitable for believers, could be replaced by a minister still with Grace.

Yes, there are 2 sides to every argument. But I seriously doubt that the elders of my church are going to delete my former pastor's sermons out of fear that he might say something wrong later. Everyone has an opinion.

 

[Alfred Persson]

Yes, there are 2 sides to every argument. But I seriously doubt that the elders of my church are going to delete my former pastor's sermons out of fear that he might say something wrong later. Everyone has an opinion.

That would depend on what he begins saying. No predicting today how fallen someone might get.

Consider the tactics haters use today. Suppose they leave it up, and he become infamous. If you remove his material then, they will still accuse and smear the church...perhaps even alleging it agrees but only took the posts down because of the publicity.

Or accuse them for not doing it beforehand.

 

[tdidymas]

That would depend on what he begins saying. No predicting today how fallen someone might get.

Consider the tactics haters use today. Suppose they leave it up, and he become infamous. If you remove his material then, they will still accuse and smear the church...perhaps even alleging it agrees but only took the posts down because of the publicity.

Or accuse them for not doing it beforehand.

If someone disassociates with me, I don't discount what they said previously. If my former pastor goes off the deep end and starts teaching doctrines of demons, I don't discount his ministry to the church prior to that. Solomon went off the deep end and worshipped idols at the end of his life. Should we then discount his previous ministry? No Christian or Jew ever did that. Haters always persecute the righteous, but fear of persecution or slander should not be a motivator for deleting Biblical teaching, IMO.

 

[Alfred Persson]

If someone disassociates with me, I don't discount what they said previously. If my former pastor goes off the deep end and starts teaching doctrines of demons, I don't discount his ministry to the church prior to that. Solomon went off the deep end and worshipped idols at the end of his life. Should we then discount his previous ministry? No Christian or Jew ever did that. Haters always persecute the righteous, but fear of persecution or slander should not be a motivator for deleting Biblical teaching, IMO.

Solomon was a great counter against my argument. But we have no way of knowing what would have happened if his sin with foreign wives got much worse.

If I was advising the church, I'd cleanse his name from anything public. You would not. You made good points, but I'd side with caution.

I wonder if Cho himself asked it all be removed. He might not want to be associated with Grace any longer.