Ever notice something obvious in a Bible passage that you did not notice the 23 previous times you read the passage? Thanks to Denny Burk and Sam Allberry, I had such a moment this week. In discussing Andy Stanley’s Unconditional Conference at his North Point church, Allberry noted and Burk echoed the following:
In his letter to the church in Thyatira, Jesus rebukes not only the person whose teaching leads his people into sexual sin; he rebukes the church that tolerates such teaching. “I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet,” he says. “By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality” (Rev. 2:20).
This means that the problem at the Unconditional Conference is not just that inappropriate speakers were platformed or that Stanley gave (at best) mixed messaging about sexual sin. North Point as a whole is implicated. If the church continues to tolerate such things, it invites the censure of Christ himself.
How did I miss that? I’ve long rooted for Jesus in this passage. “Yeah Jesus! Go after that Jezebel!” But I’ve barely noticed that he holds her false teaching against the entire church of Thyatira that tolerated it. That whole church was under judgement for merely tolerating a false teacher.
This podcast studies and applies Revelation 2:18-29.
Here is the CT article from Sam Allberry.
Here is the tweet from Denny Burk.
This morning’s post from
is very relevant to the current situation in the Roman Catholic Church.And excuse me if I sound somewhat underwater. I’m still working off congestion I had last week.
Photo of Francis by Giulio Napolitano
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