J
u d g e N o t ?
BY
JACOB PRASCH
DO NOT
SPEAK AGAINST ONE ANOTHER, brethren. He who speaks against a brother,
or judges his brother, speaks against the law, and judges the law;
but if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law, but a judge
of it (James 4:11).
Do
not speak against one another. Do not speak against your brethren. Do
not judge your brother. Is that what it says? Look at verse 4 of the
same chapter.
You
adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is
hostility to-ward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the
world makes himself an enemy of God (James 4:4).
You
adulteresses!
Do
not judge your brother!
From
the pen of the same apostle, in the distance of a few paragraphs, in
almost the same breath that he is saying "do not judge,"
James calls worldly churches "adulteresses."
SPIRITUAL ADULTERY
James is probably the oldest book of the
New Testament. We know from its Hebraic background, from the way it
draws on synagogue leadership structure and the Scriptures, that it
was obviously written to Jewish Christians.
James is using the Hebrew concept of
whoredom or harlotry. Whenever Israel went into idolatry, God calls
it "adultery." Idolatry equals spiritual adultery.
Israel was
to be God's woman, in much the same way as the church is the bride of
Christ [It's a shame the author didn't interpret the subject of
the “bride of Christ” in the same manner as he did the
subject of judgement - DCI]. The church
being unfaithful is like Israel being unfaithful. That idolatry is
called "adultery." It is a very strong term in Hebrew, a
very strong concept in the Jewish mind.
BY THEIR FRUIT…
Every
good tree bears good fruit; but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good
tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit.
Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into
the fire. So then, you will know them by their fruits (Matthew
7:17-20).
Jesus
said that you can judge someone by their fruit. In the same chapter,
He says, Do not judge lest you be judged (Matthew 7:1).
First it
is, "Judge not lest you be judged," yet He goes on to say,
"You will know them by their fruits." People involved
with Toronto and Pensacola say, "You know Toronto/ Pensacola by
its fruit and there is good fruit from it."
Jesus never said that you would know a
phenomena by its fruit. He said that you would know a person
by their fruit.
More
than that, even judging a phenomenon by its fruit, you can see that
it is not the fruit of the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit is
self-control, not drunkenness and lunacy.
CONTRADICTIONS?
Do not judge according to appearance,
but judge with righteous judgement (John 7:24).
First Jesus
says, "Judge not lest you be judged," but then He says,
"Judge with right judgement."
James appeared to contradict himself.
Now Jesus seems to contradict himself. Jesus said, "Don't do
it," then He tells you how to do it. James said, "Don't do
it," straight after he did it.
Therefore you are without excuse,
every one of you who passes judgement, for in that you would judge
another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same
things (Romans 2:1).
Therefore do not go on passing
judgement before the time, but wait until the Lord comes who will
both bring to light the things that are hidden in darkness and
disclose the motives of men's hearts; and then each man's praise will
come to him from God (1 Corinthians 4:5).
But you, why do you judge your
brother? Or you again, why do you regard your brother with contempt?
For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of God (Ro-mans
14:10).
For
I, on my part, though absent in body but present in spirit, have
already judged him who has so committed this [the guy in question
here was involved in an incestu-ous relationship with his father's
wife ], as though I were present (1 Corinthians 5:3).
Over and
over, Paul says, "Don't judge." But then he passes
judgment.
Jesus
says, "Don't judge," but then he says to do it and shows
you how.
James
says, "Don't judge," but then he does it.
Why the
contradictions?
GOD IS THE JUDGE
If God says in the Bible that something
is wrong, and we see someone or some church do that thing, we are not
judging them, it is the Word of God that judges.
The Hebrew name, "Jehoshaphat"
means Jehovah has judged. That is not me or you judging. We
are simply acknowledging, "This is what God says."
James was
not calling worldly churches "adulteresses." The Word of
God says that, if we are attached to this world, we are an adulteress
church.
Paul
was not saying that the man involved with his step-mother was
immoral. Paul was saying that the Word of God says that person was
immoral.
If
God says that something is plainly wrong, that is not you or me
judging, that is God judging.
That is what it means when it says,
"Judge with right judgement." Judging with right judgement
means judging with God's judgement, not with our own.
There is a
big problem here -- there are things that I would not do, but which
are not necessarily wrong for someone else.
PEOPLE'S OPINIONS
I know of a case where some believers,
after their wedding, went to a discotheque. (I would not go to a
discotheque unless it was to give out tracts.) I did not feel a peace
about going, but I am not going to make a big deal out of it, no
matter what my own misgivings or feelings.
I know of another case in Ireland where,
at a Christian wedding, people danced. Other people became indignant
and began yelling, "You're backsliders," and stormed out of
the wedding, creating a big scene. It split a church. That is people
judging.
The
word "Laodicea" has to do in the Greek with "people's
opinions, people's judgements." We have no right to make a
judgement of another person, but once God says something is right or
wrong, that is not us judging.
ANAKRINO -- TO DISCERN
The Greek
word for "judge" is krino.
If you put the prefix "ana" in
front of the word "krino," you get a variation on the idea
of judging, which is "to discern."
But he who is spiritual judges
[anakrino] all things, yet he himself is judged [anakrino] by no man
(1 Corinthians 2:15).
God, in His Word, commands us to
anakrino. It is not a right; it is not a privilege; it is not
something that is advisable. We are commanded to do it. And if
you do not discern, you lack wisdom.
There is a reason why false teachers
will not stand up publicly and debate someone like Hank Hangraaff or
Dave Hunt.
People
who will stand up and say, "That is not Scriptural." "That
is not right." "I discern that this is not of God,"
are practicing wisdom.
The
reason why Michael Brown backed out of his debate with me over
Pensacola, and why Jim McConnell backed out of his debate with me
over British Israelism is that they lack wisdom.
Those who practice wisdom, cannot
themselves be judged by anyone. Because they anakrino, they
cannot be
anakrino-ed.
That is why those others are afraid of them.
DIAKRINO -- TO DECIDE
I say
this to your shame. Is it so, that there is not among you one wise
man who will be able to decide [diakrino] between his brethren? (1
Corinthians 6:5).
Another
prefix which changes the meaning of krino is "dia."
Diakrino means to "render a decision."
Is
something right or wrong? Is someone's behavior right or wrong
morally? Is it Scriptural or unscriptural? Is it of God, or is it of
the flesh, or of the devil?
The Holy Spirit speaking through Paul
commands that we are to diakrino.
We are not permitted to diakrino.
We are not advised to diakrino. We are not privileged to
diakrino. We are commanded to diakrino. It is not that
judging is acceptable. Rather, to fail to judge is unacceptable.
NOT ALLOWED TO GO TO THE SECULAR
AUTHORITIES?
About
two months ago a woman and her husband contacted us, very distressed.
They had a four year old girl who was the victim of semi-penetrated
sex in a church. She was molested by a fourteen year old boy, who was
supposedly a Christian and whose parents had been going to that same
church for years.
This
little girl was devastated. She drew me a picture, and as soon as I
saw the picture, I knew what it was.
Now, I do not have much time for secular
psychology. I believe in Biblical psychology, but I do believe in
psychology. Biblical psychology is based in the book of Proverbs.
If you want
to know why human beings behave and act the way they do, and think
the way they do, read Proverbs. That is the best book of sociology
and psychology there is.
I
can agree with human psychology to the degree that it is based on
Biblical psychology. Secular psychology is godless, and sees man as a
two dimensional being. It concerns me that so many evangelicals have
gotten into secular psychology and pop psychology.
The little girl drew a picture of a
house. Inside the house there were four windows and a door. Each face
inside the house was female, there were no male faces.
And she
drew a picture of herself, outside. There was no pelvis. There was no
pubic area.
That,
according to pediatric psychiatrists, is a very frequent
characteristic of drawings by children who have been sexually
abused.
Children
of that age will say things with pictures and drawings that they
cannot express verbally. No men and she herself had no mid-section.
Her parents
told me, "We don't know what to do. We go to a Baptist church
and the pastor can't advise us because this four-teen year old boy is
a Christian, and, based on 1 Corinthians, we are not allowed to go to
the secular authorities about another believer.
So, according to his parents, we can't
tell the police or the court what has happened. We are at our wit's
end; we don't know what to do. Our daughter is traumatized."
CIVIL LAW / CRIMINAL LAW
1
Corinthians 6 refers to Roman law. (The systems of jurisprudence in
Britain, Australia and America are based on the original model in
Rome.) 1 Corinthians 6 is talking about civil law, not criminal law;
it is talking about suing someone under civil law, about litigation,
it is not talking about criminal law.
It is 1 Corinthians 5 that talks about
an immoral person.
I
wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother [any
so-called Christian] if he should be an immoral person, or
covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler
-- not even to eat with such a one.
For what have I to do with judging
[krino] outsiders? Do you not judge [krino] those who
are within the church? (1 Cor-inthians 5:11-12)
We judge
those who are within the church, who are guilty of immorality. Do not
even associate with the person. Chapter 6 is not talking about
criminal law. It is talking about civil law.
That fourteen-year-old should have been
dealt with under the criminal law. His identity would have been
protected by
the court because of his age.
If something was not done for that kid
at the age of fourteen, by the age of eighteen his life would have
been destroyed. He would have been in an institution for pedophiles.
But
this fourteen-year-old had a chance. He should have been brought
before the authorities for his own good, and also so that the little
girl could have seen justice being done.
If this kind of stuff is not dealt with
by the church immediately, what is going to happen when these people
get older?
The victims are traumatized for their
whole lives. It affects their sexuality when they grow up. And that
church could not even give a Biblical answer!
(It
was probably a good thing it was a Baptist minister. He could not
give a biblical answer, but if it had been a Pentecostal minister, he
probably would have tried to cast demons out of the little girl!)
I
talked to my friend's wife, who is a Christian pediatric
psychiatrist, and I showed the pictures to a Christian pediatric
psychologist. They both agreed with the advice I gave the parents.
And the parents referred the matter to the criminal authorities.
But
what were these other ones saying? "Do not judge." "You
cannot go to the authorities about another Christian and you cannot
judge another Christian."
What were they doing? Giving people a
license to sexually abuse little kids?
This is what happens when the church
goes away from God's Word.
We are not allowed to diakrino,
we are commanded to diakrino; but it has to do with
more than just people.
JUDGING PROPHECY
And let two or three prophets speak,
and let the others [diakrino] pass judgement (1
Corinthians 14:29). We are commanded to judge prophecy.
But the
prophet who shall speak a word presumptuously in My name which I have
not commanded him to speak, or which he shall speak in the name of
other gods, that prophet shall die.
And you may say in your heart, "How
shall we know the word which the Lord has not spoken?"
When a
prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not come
about or come true, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken.
The
prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him
(Deuteronomy 18:20-22).
Jeremiah 14 and Jeremiah 28 says the
same thing. Jesus warned that there would be many false prophets in
the last days.
We
do not stone them to death any more, but the sin is no less serious.
They shall die if they do not repent.
We are not under the law, but under
grace; but their "ministries" should be stoned. 1
Corinthians 14:29 does not say that we are entitled to diakrino
prophets or prophecies, rather we are commanded to judge prophets and
prophecies.
On
this basis, Rodney Howard Browne is a false prophet. On this basis,
John Wimber was a false prophet. On this basis, Rick Joyner is a
false prophet. And on this basis, Paul Cain is a false prophet.
Now, that
is not my judgement. I cannot krino anybody. The things that
God has said will krino. I have to anakrino. I have to
discern. Is this of God or is this of man?
No, it is not for me to judge. I have to
diakrino, render a decision on whether it is morally right or
wrong, by biblical standards.
The
founders of the Mormon cult and the Jehovah Witnesses were false
prophets; they predicted things that failed to happen. The Roman
Catholic nun, Lucia, from Fatima, in Portugal, is a false prophet;
she predicted things that failed to happen. John Wimber and Paul Cain
and Rick Joyner (as well as John Kilpatrick, Michael Brown and
Gerald Coates) are false prophets; they predicted things that
failed to happen.
Do
I have the right to say that? No, not the right, but the
responsibility to say it, the command from my God in heaven to
say it. That is not my judgment; it is what God says
about these people.
Jesus
said, "If you love me, keep my commandments." If you fail
to diakrino, you are failing to keep His commandments. If you
fail to diakrino, you will let these same people go on giving
people "words" from their own flesh or from Satan. People
like that should be brought to account.
JUDGE
RIGHTEOUSLY
Then
I charged your judges at that time, saying, "Hear the cases
between your fellow countrymen, and judge righteously between a man
and his fellow countrymen, or the alien who is with him"
(Deuteronomy 1:16).
That was not advice; that was a command.
Just look
at what has happened to our secular society. Everybody is a
"victim."
It
does not matter that he got blind drunk and he was driving at 90
miles an hour through a village and killed a little kid on a bicycle.
He came from a broken home: he is a "victim." It does not
matter.
I
tried to talk to a prostitute the other day. "I do this because
my father hung himself." That was her argument. "I came
from a bad situation." I said, "You just told me that your
sister goes to university and she came from the same background, and
she thinks that what you are doing is terrible. Isn't she a victim,
too?" Nobody is responsible for their own actions any more
in society. But how can we expect society to live up to God's
standards, when the church will not live up to God's standards.
I came from
a bad situation. My father drank. I was a drug addict by the age of
sixteen, and I have no doubt whatsoever that, if Jesus had not
intervened in my life, I would be dead by now or a destroyed person
of some kind.
It
is only because of Him that I went to university and got married and
did the things I have been privileged to do.
Left to myself, I would not have
amounted to anything. Nonetheless, I am responsible for my own life
and my own choices.
SALT AND LIGHT
If the church will not uphold God's
standards of responsibility, how can we expect our society to be any
different?
If
we are not upholding His standards, how can we be salt and light to a
society that has turned it's back on God?
No wonder there is crime! The main
reason for the moral and social decline of our society is not because
of the unsaved people; it is because of the lukewarm church.
KRISIS -- HEAVEN OR HELL
There is a
kind of judging that we are not called to do. The Greek word is
krisis.
For
not even the father judges anyone, but He has given all judgement
[krisis] to the Son (John 5:22).
The ultimate determination of heaven and
hell belongs to the Lord alone. We never krisis. We are
forbidden to krisis.
KRITES -- THE JUDGE OF ALL
But you
have come… to the general assembly and church of the first
born who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge [ krites ]
of all, and to the spirits of righteous men made perfect (Hebrews
12:23).
God
is the judge of all. Yes, there are people who are called to judge,
but God is the ultimate Judge of us all.
HUPO-KRITES -- PHARISEES
If we are
going to stand up and confront other people in the church about
something being wrong, we had better make sure we are not guilty of
the same thing, because that is another kind of judging we are
forbidden to do.
Here
the prefix hupo is added to krites, giving us the
English word "hypocrites."
This is what Jesus meant when he said,
Do not judge lest you be judged. For in the way you judge, you
will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured
to you.
And
why do you look at the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do
not notice the log that is in your own eye?
Or how can you say to your brother,
"Let me take the speck out of your eye," and behold, the
log is in your own eye?
You hypocrite [hupokrites],
first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see
clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye (Matthew
7:1-5).
We
do not krites and we especially do not hupo-krites.
KRITIKOS -- TO DISCERN
For the
Word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged
sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of
both joints and marrow, and able to judge [kritikos] the
thoughts and intentions of the heart (Hebrews 4:12).
Cells
called erythrocytes are stored in the red marrow of big bones, like
the femur and the tibia. On the outside there is the bone and on the
inside there is the marrow. But in between there is an area where,
even with a microscope, it is very difficult to tell where the bone
ends and where the marrow begins.
The Bible says that the relationship
between soul and spirit is like that. Take prophecy: Was that from
someone's imagination, or was it God's Spirit speaking through their
spirit? It is very difficult to tell the difference.
Man is a
three-dimensional being. You can separate a body from a soul; but you
cannot easily tell where the soul ends and the spirit begins.
When people
say, "The Lord showed me this" and "God told me that,"
it is difficult to know if it is someone's imagination or God's
Spirit speaking to their spirit. The mind is a good servant, but a
dangerous master. Many people are caught up with things not overtly
demonic, but they are prophesying from the futility of their own
mind.
We
are called to kritikos -- to discern between the soulish and
the spiritual. The Word of God enables us to separate the bone from
the marrow, the spiritual from the purely soulish.
SUMMARY
Judge not? What does the Bible say?
1. We never judge from our opinions.
2. We are commanded to anakrino -- we always seek to discern: "Is this of God, or is it of the flesh, or of the devil?"
3. We are commanded to diakrino -- to render a decision as to whether something is morally right or wrong.
4. We do not krisis -- the Lord alone decides who goes to heaven and who goes to hell.
5. We are sometimes appointed to krites -- but we are to remember that the Lord is the Judge of all, and we are to judge righteously.
6. We never, ever, hupo-krites -- before we take a speck out of our brother's eye, we make sure we do not have the same speck in our own eye.
7. We always kritikos -- we
draw on the Word of God to discern between the things of the soul and
the things of the spirit.
MORIEL -- GOD IS MY TEACHER
This paper may be freely copied and
distributed.
This paper was
published by:
Moriel USA P.O.
Box 11536 Pittsburgh PA 15238 United States of America
©
Copyright Jacob Prasch 1998
ISBN
1 876126 33 7
(Names in bold were added by Sandy Simpson.)