Divorced drinking pastor Perry Noble, who was fired in 2016 for drunkenness and “being derelict” in his duties as a pastor and husband, recently broadcast a photo of his new tattoo on Facebook. Covering his entire upper arm, it proclaims, “Only God Can Judge Me.” In 2008, Noble, then pastor of Newspring Church in Anderson, SC, criticized the Southern Baptist Convention for passing a resolution against “social drinking.” In 2013, he again defended drinking alcohol. In 2015, he said that God gave him a revelation that the Ten Commandments aren’t commandments, but promises! In 2016, he was fired from Newspring, and that is saying something because Newspring is incredibly, insanely worldly. (They performed “Highway to Hell” by the vile rock band AC/DC for Easter service 2009 and occult rocker Ozzy Osbourne’s “Crazy Train” in November 2011.) It wasn’t long before Nobel was back in the “ministry,” this time with a new “church” called Second Chance Church, which quickly exploded in attendance. Obviously Nobel’s apostate “live after your own lusts” philosophy resonates with America today. The motto “Judge Not” is the theme song both of the secular pop culture and the contemporary “evangelical” culture, which is merely a Christianized version of the world and is a dramatic fulfillment of Bible prophecy: “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables” (2 Ti. 4:3-4). While it’s true that only God can judge an individual with ultimate and final judgment, it is also true that God has plainly and forcefully instructed the churches to judge and discipline sin and error. See, for starters, Matthew 7:15-23; Acts 20:28-30; Romans 16:17-18; 1 Corinthians 5; 2 Corinthians 6:14-18; 11:1-4, 12-15; Ephesians 4:11-14; 5:11; 2 Thessalonians 3:6, 14; 1 Timothy 4:1-3; 6:3-5; 2 Timothy 2:16-21; 3:5; 4:10; Titus 1:10-16; 3:10-11; 2 John 1:8-11; Revelation 2:2, 6, 14-16; 20-23.
(Friday Church News Notes, November 5, 2021, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)