2 Thessalonians 2:1-3 (NASB) 1 Now we request you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, 2 that you not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. 3 Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, …,
According to the Episcopal News Service, the 26th Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church of the United States, Katharine Jefferts Schori, delivered a recent message embracing diversity, in which she claimed that the Apostle Paul was wrong and bigoted for setting a demon-possessed girl free from spiritual bondage. She states, “Paul is annoyed at the slave girl who keeps pursuing him, telling the world that he and his companions are slaves of God. She is quite right.”
In speaking this month at All Saints Church in Curaçao, Venezuela, Bishop Schori interpreted Acts 16 so that the Apostle Paul, due to his annoyance over a demon-possessed girl, wrongly freed her from demon possession. In fact, in not embracing the demon-possessed girl in a true spirit of diversity, the Apostle Paul “deprived her of her gift of spiritual awareness.”
2 Thessalonians 1:3 tells us that the return of Jesus Christ (the day of the Lord) will not occur until the “apostasy” comes first. “Bishop” Schori, the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopalian Church in the United Stands, stands for the conclusion that the apostasy is already upon us.
Jesus come quickly.
Jack Smith
It’s incredible that people who have been given positions of authority in the church can come up with twisted views such as this. The apostacy HAS begun!!!!
In all humility I really must say to anyone who seriously believes that this Bishop is actually a Christian in any respect, I would simply point out that so many of these so-called church officials and leaders do not personally believe there is a God. Not really. for anyone with even the tiniest bit of the fear of God in them would not dare to utter such outright, blatant blasphemy.
Jesus our Lord was of course, so right when He warned us of those many leaders among us who would dress like sheep but inwardly are ravening wolves. I take Him to mean that they would be dressed just like shepherds: fill in the blank of the religious garments of your choice.
I know its so politically incorrect to say this, but let’s face it, most of these religious leaders who go on record to say such things are frauds and they are liars, and they never were Christians to begin with, at least according to Jesus: when speaking of false teachers and leaders, and He said to those who claimed to be His disciples because of their spiritual work such as casting out demons and such: “I never knew you…”
So its not that this Bishop become an apostate, which is sadly terrible enough, but that the Bishop never was a believe to began with….
Lord help us..
Phillip
My first comment wasn’t nearly enough, because this makes me angry, very much so!
Although I know I should be glad because she exemplifies just what our Lord told us would happen shortly before His return: Many false prophets and teachers would arise.
But still, for an supposedly Christian Episcopalian Bishop to chastise the Apostle Paul for not embracing a demon-possessed Girl..isn’t this the most outrageous statement you ever heard? She actually insinuates it was due in no small part, as it was said, that she called them “slaves”, well, that was tantamount to her saying that these “slaves of God” were to be more pitied rather than the young girl who was then a slave to a demon spirit who was an entity of the unseen armies of Satan. Doesn’t this put her in the camp of the Devil himself.
How far will this go before this insidious interfaith brand of humanism which is so obviously animated by a heresy: that human nature is not inherently flawed but essentially good, advances enough where we will no longer believe there is such a thing as evil?
I’m so angry I very nearly spilled some of my coffee on my laptop!!
Phillip
This is a shame that there is so much apostasy in today’s churches. There is nothing in the Bible that says believers should embrace someone who is demon possessed, unless we are going to cast out the demon that is possessing the person.
Thanks for your comments everyone. I wonder what the bishop might say about Jesus casting out the many demons of Legion in Mark 5? And how about the poor pigs that were thrown into the sea? Perhaps she would declare a “save the pigs” day to protest the man’s freedom at the expense of the pigs?
Through an incorrect, private interpretation of Scripture, Schori has disqualified herself as being able to expound on Scripture for the benefit of any Church.
First of all, the literal translation of the slave girl’s cry is “a” way of salvation, not “the” way. See footnote g on 16:17 at http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%2016&version=NASB
Second, Paul was probably annoyed that the girl’s shouting was interfering with his preaching, and rightly so. If you were giving speeches on any subject for several days and someone kept shouting and interfering all the time for any reason, you also would probably want them to be silenced.
3rd, if the girl had not had a demon then she would not have stopped shouting (why is this not obvious?)
4th, the author of the story identified the spirit as one of divination and fortune-telling, noted throughout the Scriptures as verboten for believers to entertain .
5th, Paul’s prior preaching had resulted in Lydia’s conversion to Christ, the first such conversion in Europe. No doubt the devil was mad about this and doubled his efforts to stop Paul and Silas. After Paul cast out the demon in the girl, he and Silas were attacked savagely and thrown into prison. This is what the devil does (steal, kill, destroy)
6th, within 12 hours the Lord miraculously delivered Paul and Silas from the prison, which also resulted in the salvation of the jailer and his household.
Counting Paul’s vision of the Macedonian who had called for help, the exorcism was one of several actions of the Holy Spirit that occurred over a short period of time. Schori has made an incorrect, private interpretation of three verses in the chapter and ignored the circumstances described in the other 37 verses of the chapter which are evidence that Paul was in sync with God and justified in doing what he did.
Kathleen Jefferts Schori has wildly missed the mark. Her teaching on this story contradicts not only a plain reading of the passage, but hundreds (thousands?) of years of orthodox Biblical interpretation , not only in the Episcopal Church USA but in Christian congregations around the world. Anyone who assents to her erroneous interpretation of this story must be in deep trouble.