The Religious Shyster

Pastor Bordow posted another brilliant comment on GB that really nails it. Each paragraph broaches points that deserve entire posts. Please stop for a moment to contemplate these words:

That is why no matter how many churches DW splits, how many disciplined and defrocked pastors he unleashes on people, no matter how many individuals and families formally under his ministry cry out of the pain he causes. . .

Here is a man with a well-known and well-documented record of splitting churches, reinstating defrocked & disciplined pastors, providing cover for pastors fleeing discipline, and abusing sheep so much and with such skill that he wrote a “how to” manual on the subject, which he named after the blade of a knife — A Serrated Edge. And in a sick irony, he predicated his thesis for the book on a tortured interpretation of Galatians 5:12, the very epistle written to warn the Church against the Judaizers. I called it ironic because he is the Judaizer troubling the Church and by his sick standard he is the one who deserves to have his giblets sliced off. Despite these facts — and they are facts — the vast majority of the Christian church treats him as a brother in the faith. Frankly, I don’t know what more he could do to demonstrate any more clearly his utter contempt for the Christian church as an institution and for Christians in general as the people of God than what he has already done.

Here is Pastor Bordow’s comment in entirety:

Lane,

Sorry for the delay. I’m not sure if you are referring to me as a “wacko” — never been called that before! Look, the point is that we in the Reformed community are not immune to our superstitions, just like the Pentecostal or larger evangelical world, and that is what the attraction to DW, Jordan, Sproul Jr., etc., exposes.

Provide an alternative to the often poor education offered in the public schools — wonderful. But scare me into pulling my kids out of the public schools or receive God’s curses, and follow DW’s way of education and receive God’s blessings, that is simply peddling the Word of God for personal gain — no different than what we see Rod Parsley do on television every day (give to the kingdom out of love for Christ — wonderful; give to his station to receive God’s blessings — peddling the Word of God).

DW is all about finding ways to work to secure God’s blessings. How to secure faithful children through “covenantal” nurture, how to secure more of God’s grace by weekly communion and liturgical reform, how to secure God’s blessings on America if the Church only does A, B, and C, etc. . . .

We are not taken in by the Hinns, Olsteens, etc., and we are proud of it. But the prominence of DW types in the Reformed community reveals a similar lack of assurance in the gospel that we find in the broader evangelical community. That is why no matter how many churches DW splits, how many disciplined and defrocked pastors he unleashes on people, no matter how many individuals and families formally under his ministry cry out of the pain he causes, much of the Reformed world continues to treat him as a respected Reformed minister — why? — we are desperate for God’s blessings, weak in the all-sufficiency of the gospel to merit all of God’s blessings, and enticed by a system of blessings and curses based upon our own works.

DW is an old-fashioned religious shyster laughing all the way to the bank as we take him seriously, as we buy his books, etc. If you ever wonder how educated people could sit and listen to these televangelists and their incredible claims of how to secure God’s blessings on your finances, marriage, children, etc., go no further than looking in our own back yard. We are no better; we are no less tempted.

Happy Easter to all! — may you preach the all-sufficiency of Christ crucified and risen to merit all God’s eternal blessings (Eph. 1:3).

Todd Bordow

Thank you.