Pastor, author will rally to call for Long’s resignation
- 10/19/10
- Categorized in: DeKalb News
A Dallas radio personality is joining with a South Carolina minister at a rally Oct. 31 at the State Capitol to demand the resignation of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church Bishop Eddie Long.
The rally was organized by Bishop Prophet H. Walker, pastor of True Light Pentecostal Church in Spartanburg, S.C.
“I am standing up for what is right,” said Ruben Armstrong, who has had a radio show in Dallas for 10 years. “Bishop Long has teamed up with the devil and he needs to resign. He is using the word of God to allegedly manipulate young men of his church for his own homosexual use.”
Armstrong said he expects a large turnout at the rally and that he has had calls from people around the country who told him they plan to attend.
Four lawsuits that claim sexual coercion have been filed against Long by former New Birth congregants. The lawsuits claim the sexual activity happened when the men were 17 years old, which is the age of legal consent in Georgia.
Four men—Anthony Flagg, 20, of Lithonia; Maurice Robinson, 21; Jamal Parris, 23, of Colorado Springs, Colo.; and Spencer LeGrande, 22, of Charlotte, N.C.—have filed lawsuits against Long and the church. The suits claim that Long lured the men into sexual relationships with money, employment, gifts and lavish trips to locales including New York, Las Vegas and Africa, among others.
Each plaintiff is represented by Atlanta attorney B.J. Bernstein and they are seeking unspecified monetary damages.
The allegations of sexual coercion made against Long are similar to allegations made in Armstrong’s book “Snakes in the Pulpit” published in 2007. The book mentions allegations made against Long by two different men—both former youth pastors at New Birth.
Armstrong claims that two youth pastors from New Birth (who are not the same as any of the four plaintiffs in the current suits) “reached out” to him in 2006 with allegations against Long.
“They told me that Eddie Long was having sex with young men,” Armstrong said. “They said that it had been going on a long time.”
Armstrong said he flew to Atlanta to meet with the two young men, but the meeting never happened.
“The boys got scared because they thought they would be retaliated against,” Armstrong said. “They were afraid for their lives. I was not surprised at any of the [recent] allegations because they all sounded so familiar with what that group told me in 2006.”
“We are not responding to those inflammatory comments,” New Birth public relations director Art Franklin wrote in an e-mail response to The Champion regarding the rally and Armstrong’s allegations.
Long’s attorney, Curt Gillen, did not return a phone call by press deadline.
Armstrong called the allegations against Long “an abomination” and said it is his duty to attend the rally to demand Long’s resignation.
SELF
The H is HIM (God, Jesus)
So in other words SELF without Him
Basic and TRUE. The word of God states that in the last days men will be lovers of them SELF… which is SELF WITHOUT Him; without God, Christ.
In my heart and spirit, I have my own opinion of what the truth of this matter is. But does my opinion matter? No. BUT sin is SIN. Whether it is “strange flesh” (Jude 1:7), PRIDE that goes before destruction (Proverbs 16:18), GREED, preaching and teaching doctrines of devils… God judges sin the same and it all leads to failure and irreversible destruction if there is no Godly sorrow that leads to repentance.
You can cover your eyes, ears, and mouth but that is not what God has commissioned us to do. Are you honoring and following God (Jesus) or man (FLESH)? No matter what, God’s truth shall prevail so that those that will love and accept Jesus and HIS truths will be made free and saved. The truth is SIN is in the midst of this situation. You can title or label the sin but SIN is obviously present and evident. So whether it is the love of strange flesh, greed, pride, lust, lying, and doctrines of devils… sin leads to destruction and failure. That is not my word that is God’s word.
But that is another problem; people do not know the word for themselves. That knowing goes far beyond reading or quoting scriptures. That is that intimate relationship between you and God, the hiding of the word in one’s heart. When you place the word in your heart realm, that is the MIND, WILL, and EMOTIONS. The mind becomes transformed and you think like the mind of Christ, the will is the will of whatever the Father Jehovah and His Son commands and desires from and of you, and your emotions are not moved and steered by the flesh or this world but by the heavenly things which is the Kingdom of God.
Please let us ALL follow Christ and be guided and submissive to the Holy Spirit in these last hours of this world coming to an end to the reality of the Eternal life for those whose names are written in the book of life.
Amen.
(""This "man of God" drives a $150,000 Bentley."")
.
That's really what this outrage is mainly about, a Black guy driving a Bentley -- Otherwise, what does the POPE drive? How much is the Pope-Mobile worth?
You people are Pathetic and you couldn't care less about those young boys, or, you'd be somewhere RALLYING against the Catholic Church!!
Diplomatic immunity is a form of LEGAL immunity given to entities the ENSURES and GIVES safe passage and are not susceptible to lawsuit or prosecution under the host country’s laws. You can force them to leave (expel) but that’s it. But guess what… they can came back because Jesus told us to CAST the enemy (spirit not flesh; humans) out. When you CAST something out… it will not be able or desire to return!
Satan wants to take as many people (souls) with him to hell and with the diplomatic immunity he is GIVEN, the people of God are making His job not really a job; he does it with great ease and with little effort. What an unwarranted victory for him if he could take the so called faithful with him! Who he and his demons will torture the WORST in Hell because they KNEW better, had knowledge of the word of God, had encounters with the Father Jehovah and His son Jesus BUT yet STILL chose not to RESIST the DEVIL and FLEE from him, his lies, temptation and sin itself. I will leave you with the word of God:
Hebrews 10:26-31
For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, (27) but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries. (28) Anyone who has rejected Moses' law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. (29) Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace? (30) For we know Him who said, "Vengeance is Mine, I will repay," says the Lord. And again, "The LORD will judge His people." (31) It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
Amen.
So we are to pray, intercede and FIGHT (spiritually) for our brother and desire earnestly for him to repent and be restored to the faith and the truth of the Holy Spirit. Sin is evident to various degrees in this situation. But this is all a strategy of the enemy to put offense in the hearts (mind, will, and soul) of God's people. This includes those that have not YET come to the truth of salvation and love of the Father greatly demonstrated thru His son Jesus.
We should cover each other but that is not acheived by covering up sin in our lives. That exposure is the LIGHT that destroys the darkness of sin. We are not to judge the person but the word of God tells us to examine, expose, and judge sin! When we do that, the enemy has no where to hide and can not have any effect on our lives and relationship with God. When Satan has been exposed, he can't use things condemnation, guilt, self hatred, denial, pride, and lies to keep us bond in our sins. Because once we repent and the Father forgives us, he remembers our sins NO MORE.
Paul put a man out of the church for a sin that he committed that was hindering the other believers and promoting the disease of sin. BUT when the man REPENTED to God for what he had done, Paul instructed the people of the church to RESTORE him FULLY! That is the word of God... that is how he loves.
Amen
mind you, what i have noticed among us "christians" is that we are very afraid to declare when a thing is wrong; and we are afraid to declare malpractices because, i guess, we are not "the light of the world". light is never hid under bushel. we too must be careful not to join in the fun of evil actions
All the glory and ALL the honor belongs to Him! We are nothing but filthy rags BUT only by the GRACE and LOVING MERCY of God thru His Son Jesus are we redeemed and saved!! Yes, love covers a multitude of sin BUT it does not COVER UP! Why are so many covering up sin! Why would we not want to expose the enemy, his strategies, and devices in order that we and others shall be saved? That is called being an accomplice who is “a person who knowingly helps another in a crime or wrongdoing, often as a subordinate”. So basically, when we cover up sin in our own lives and/or within the Church (the body of Christ) we are co-contributors (accomplices) with the Devil (Satan). We are supposed to be in the Lord’s army! When sin is in us or our brothers/sisters, we are to continuously LOVE the person and EXPOSE the sin in order that repentance comes which God rewards with His Forgiveness through His love, mercy, and grace. I’ll leave you with the Word of God:
When someone is sick (spiritually or physically) & when we commit sins:
James 5:14-16
Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.
When we wander from the truth:
James 5:19-20
Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.
Why should we not cover sin (no matter who it is):
Matthew 10:26, 28
"Therefore do not fear them. For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known. (28) "And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
What are God’s requirements for a Bishop (Leader of God’s People):
I Timothy 3:1-7
This is a faithful saying: If a man desires the position of a bishop, he desires a good work. A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, of good behavior, hospitable, able to teach; not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous; one who rules his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence (for if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church of God?); not a novice, lest being puffed up with pride he fall into the same condemnation as the devil. Moreover he must have a good testimony among those who are outside, lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.
The sacrifice and scrutiny of a true believer and especially leaders:
Luke 12:48
"But he who did not know, yet committed things deserving of stripes, shall be beaten with few. For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more.
Let’s examine ourselves and LIVE the word of God! It is the ONLY TRUTH THAT WILL STAND in this temporary life and the one to come either in Heaven or in Hell. Choose today who you will serve.
Amen…
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Judge Not Lest Ye Be Judged!
and
Let He Who is Without Sin Cast the First Stone
Matt. 7:1 "Do not judge, or you too will be judged."
This is the verse so many use to try to shame Christians for discerning poor behavior, ethics, morals, and values: the "judge not lest ye be judged" verse. So many times people, mostly teens have emailed us saying "judge not lest you be judged" regarding our analysis reports which reveal to their parents the content of movies. Using only Matt 7:1 is entirely incomplete. This verse is not speaking to not judging at all -- it is speaking to not judging unfairly or any other cheap and selfish way. Read the rest of the story ...
Matt 7:2-5 "For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged [if we judge with an evil heart or dark intent, His judgment of us will reflect it; if we judge nobly with honesty and justice, His judgment of us will reflect that, too], and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you [if we use extremes or exaggerations or other ignoble means, our judgment will reflect it and judging with fairness and compassion will garner likewise in His judgment of us]. Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye [point out his sins, "minor" in Jesus' example here] and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye [our own sins, even and especially those we will not admit, magnified by our selective blindness]? How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' [tell him of his "minor" sins] when all the time there is a plank in your own eye [that there are greater or the same sins in our own lives which we do nothing about or think we are above]? You hypocrite* [pointing out the sins of others while by pretense thinking of ourselves as above sin], first take the plank out of your own eye [sincerely ask the Lord for forgiveness and learn and live the Truth and Light by His Word], and then you will see clearly [be in a righteous position] to remove the speck from your brother's eye [to judge and to help him out of his bondage to sin]." At Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan, Jesus was talking to the multitudes gathered there after hearing of His message and of His healings to beseech them to not become like the pharisees and hypocrites who think they are above sin.
* Jesus' use of "hypocrite" in this verse is "hupokrites" {hoop-ok-ree-tace'} meaning an actor, stage player, a dissembler, pretender.
And, as a FEW examples of His desire for us to judge,
1Cor. 6:2-3 Do you not know that the saints [the saved; Christians] will judge the world? And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases? Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life!
Prov. 3:21 My son, preserve sound judgment and discernment, do not let them out of your sight;
John 7:24 Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.
Jer. 22:3 Thus saith the LORD; Execute ye judgment and righteousness...
Phil. 1:10 so that you may be able to discern [judge] what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ...
Phil. 1:7 It is right for me to feel this way about all of you [judge you]...
Matt 7:1 seems to support the allusion that we are not to judge at all if we use small-vision tactics by focusing on only that small piece of the total of what Jesus was saying.
Look at John 7:24. There, Jesus tells us to judge, but to do so righteously. Righteously means to use the Truth of the Word to discern sins and not by appearances only. In 1Cor. 6:2-3 Jesus authorizes us to judge. Judge we must else we could not discern good from bad, proper from improper, righteousness from evil. But judge behavior, not the individual; the deed not the doer; the choice not the chooser. The individual/doer/chooser is accountable for his/her deed/choice, but judge the deed/choice in your judgment. Jesus could see a king in a shepherd boy. And an Apostle in a murderer. So while we must judge one's behavior we must we try to nurture the goodness in an individual: to separate the deed from the doer.
And to continue, Matt 7:6 says. "Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs (the KJV says "swine"). If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces." How are we going to know as undesirable the behaviors of "dogs" and "swine" if we do not judge?
Yes, we do have the right and the authority to judge the behavior of others as long as we honor and obey His Word in doing so. That Jesus is the only one who can judge is speaking to judging whether someone is or is not saved. Neither you nor I nor anyone else who ever draws a breath (except Jesus) has the authority to say whether another has or has not been saved. Only Jesus can make that judgment since only He can give Salvation. Nor may we who discern poor behavior based on His Word think of ourselves as "better than" the one whose behavior we judge as poor.
"Let he who is without sin cast the first stone."
This is another counterfeiting of the Scriptures many have tried to use to shame us for what we do in his name. "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone" is not speaking to judging. Let me explain.
Using the KJV this time, in John 8:1 - 11 scribes and Pharisees had caught a woman in the act of adultery (the woman commonly referred to as the prostitute) and told Jesus who was teaching in the temple that the Mosaic Law required she be stoned to death. Trying to make an opportunity of this to trick Jesus that they might accuse Him, they, with stones in hand, asked Jesus what He says about the Law. After Jesus tried to ignore their repeated questioning, He told them "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her." One by one each man dropped his stone and walked away.
Jesus was not arguing with the judgment. Nor was Jesus arguing the law nor the woman's guilt. Jesus was arguing with our right to execute the woman. Once all the men had dropped their stones Jesus confronted the woman and asked her if any of the men were still there to condemn her. When she answered "No man, Lord", Jesus told her that neither did He - He forgave her of her sin. He did not excuse the sin of adultery/prostitution, he forgave her of it. All behavior and thought that is sinful before forgiveness is still sinful after forgiveness. Not only was Jesus not afraid to call a sin a sin, He was not afraid to call a sinner a sinner. He even reminded her of the sin of adultery/prostitution by telling her "Go and sin no more."
The point of this as applicable to this article? Jesus did not argue the act of judging the chosen behavior of the adulteress/prostitute.
Some have told us we should be more tolerant. "Tolerance" has become quite probably the most abused and misused word in the English language. We will not situationally redefine or conditionally apply His Word to suit political correctness, cultural tolerances, modern ethics and false religions or even to avoid invading the comfort zone of Christians. Jesus spent three days in Hell so you and I would not have to spend one moment there! For too long, well-meaning clergy have pabulum fed the people with watered down Scriptures to avoid invading the comfort zone. We will not do that. We love you too much to feed you lies or less-than-truths. It is people who do who pull people away from the CHRIST of Christianity. Practicing the Christian faith and what is expected of it is being very intolerant ... of sin ... even our own by His Word, not yours or mine, by embracing the sinner but not embracing the sin; by helping the sinner, even ourselves, out of bondage to the sin by loving him/her enough to tell the Truth. On Judgment Day, Jesus will send the unforgiven sinner into the fiery pits of Hell in a heartbeat. Now that is intolerance. Of sin. And Righteously so. He further will not excuse any single sin. In the example of the adulteress/prostitute, Jesus forgave her sin but did not excuse it. Worth repeating, Jesus did not argue the judgment, the act of judging nor did He argue the law. He argued our right to execute the woman. Adultery/prostitution is just as sinful now, after Jesus forgave the woman of it, as it was before He forgave her. He will forgive us all our sins -- past, present, future -- if we are humble enough to ask believing. But He will not excuse any sin. All behavior that is sinful before forgiveness is still sinful after. More intolerance. And righteously so.
The Bible provides quite enough knowledge and understanding to make each of us a righteous judge of behavior, even and especially our own if we r-e-a-d it and not just look at the words and use the total of what He says, not just the pieces that seem to fit an agenda: that seem to fill our own bellies; that seem to excuse sin in "sinema."
Tom Carder
President
CAP Ministry
We do not know all the facts in this case and we dont know all the indviduals involved. How can we judge properly when only speculation is being used as fact.
Satans job is to be the accuser. I see many accusers and no restorers. When you judge only on accusations, then you model Satan and not Jesus. I think as a "true prophet" of God, that we take this instruction to heart and understand not to play with the Spirit of God.
What does the LOrd mean by: "And if anyone causes one of these litle ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone tied around his neck." Mark 9:42
(When you sin against your brothers in this way, and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ). Is a very sad situation. The church needs discernment and the fear of the Lord. I was very deeply touched as I read this, I have never heard it said this way. Makes you think.
by
John MacArthur
Adapted from The Master’s Plan for the Church, © 1991 by John MacArthur. All rights reserved.
It has always saddened me over the years as I’ve watched church leaders bring a reproach on the church of Jesus Christ. What’s shocking to me is how frequently Christian leaders sin grossly, then step back into leadership almost as soon as the publicity dies away.
Some time ago I received a cassette tape that disturbed me greatly. It was a recording of the recommissioning service of a pastor who had made national news by confessing to an adulterous affair. After little more than a year of “counseling and rehabilitation,” this man was returning to public ministry with his church’s blessing.
That is happening everywhere. Restoration teams—equipped with manuals to instruct the church on how to reinstate their fallen pastor—wait like tow-truck drivers on the side of the highway, anticipating the next leadership “accident”. Our church has received inquiries wondering if we have written guidelines or a workbook to help restore fallen pastors to leadership. Many no doubt expect that a church the size of ours would have a systematic rehabilitation program for sinning leaders.
Gross sin among Christian leaders is a signal that something is seriously wrong with the church. But an even greater problem is the lowering of standards to accommodate a leader’s sin. That the church is so eager to bring these men back into leadership is a symptom of rottenness at the core.
Some have claimed that a leader’s failure makes him more effective in shepherding fallen people. That is ludicrous. Should we drag the bottom of sin’s cesspool for the most heinous sinners to lead the church? Are they better able to understand the sinner? Certainly not! Our pattern for ministry is the sinless Son of God. The church is to be like Him and her leaders are to be our models of Christlikeness.
We must recognize that leadership in the church cannot be regarded lightly. The foremost requirement of a church leader is that he be above reproach (1 Timothy 3:2, 10; Titus 1:7). That is a difficult prerequisite, and not everyone can meet it.
There are some sins that irreparably shatter a man’s reputation and disqualify him from a ministry of leadership forever. Even Paul, man of God that he was, said he feared such a possibility. In 1 Corinthians 9:27 he says, “I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.”
When referring to his body, Paul obviously had sexual immorality in view. In 1 Corinthians 6:18 he describes it as a sin against one’s own body—sexual sin is in its own category. Certainly it disqualifies a man from church leadership since he permanently forfeits a blameless reputation as a one-woman man (Proverbs 6:33; 1 Timothy 3:2).
Where did we get the idea that a year’s leave of absence and some counseling can restore integrity to someone who has squandered his reputation and destroyed people’s trust? Certainly not from the Bible. Trust forfeited is not so easily regained. Once purity is sacrificed, the ability to lead by example is lost forever. As my friend Chuck Swindoll once commented when referring to this issue—it takes only one pin to burst a balloon.
What about forgiveness? Shouldn’t we be eager to restore our fallen brethren? To fellowship, yes. But not to leadership. It is not an act of love to return a disqualified man to public ministry; it is an act of disobedience.
By all means we should be forgiving. But we cannot erase the consequences of sin. I am not advocating that we “shoot our wounded.” I’m simply saying that we shouldn’t rush them back to the front lines, and we should not put them in charge of other soldiers. The church should do everything possible to minister to those who have sinned and repented. But that does not include restoring the mantle of leadership to a man who has disqualified himself and forfeited the right to lead. Doing so is unbiblical and lowers the standard God has set.
So why is the contemporary church so eager to be tolerant? I’m certain a major reason is the sin and unbelief that pervade the church. If casual Christians can lower the expectations on their leadership, they will be much more comfortable with their own sin. With lower moral standards, the church becomes more tolerant of sin and less tolerant of holiness. The “sinner-friendly” church is intolerable to God—that is a frightening condition.
Conservative Christians have for most of the previous century focused on the battle for doctrinal purity. And that is good. But we are losing the battle for moral purity. Some of the worst defeats have occurred among our more visible leaders. The church cannot lower the standard to accommodate them. We should hold it higher so we can regain purity. If we lose here, we have utterly failed, no matter how orthodox our confession of faith. We can’t win if we compromise the biblical standard of moral purity.
What should you do in the current crisis? Pray for your church’s leaders. Keep them accountable. Encourage them. Let them know you are following their godly example. Understand that they are not perfect, but continue nonetheless to call them to the highest level of godliness and purity. The church must have leaders who are genuinely above reproach. Anything less is an abomination.