BISHOPS IN METHODISM

 

The conquering of the city of Troy with a wooden horse is an ancient story that speaks volumes to the Church today. The Greek soldiers fought for ten years but could not capture the city of Troy. Ulysses, a brilliant strategist, decided to have a large wooden horse built and

left it outside the city walls as a supposed gift to the unconquerable Trojans. The Greeks pretended to be sailing away having accepted defeat. The proud Trojans brought the wooden horse inside the city walls. The same night Greek soldiers who were hiding inside the wooden horse sneaked out and opened the city gates to let their fellow soldiers enter the city. They massacred the residents, looted the city, and then burned it to the ground. Ever since the Trojan horse has become a symbol of deception and infiltration. The same seems to be happening to the Christian Church in Sri Lanka. The Church has been tricked and infiltrated by several trojan horses which the Church had not perceived. The worst is the church has embraced such Trojan horses leaving room for Satan to do the damage from within. While the Church had been very cautious about the persecution from the enemy outside, Satan has effectively used enemies “disguised as gifts to lure people away from the truth of God into destructive error”. The preaching of the prosperity gospel has become the Trojan horse of our times and the Church in Sri Lanka is taking a severe beating by the same.

St. Peter has written the following which describes precisely what is happening today - "There will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned; and in their greed, they will exploit you with false words" (2 Peter 2: 1-3). We have to take serious note of the following words -“among you”, “secretly introduce destructive heresies”, “the truth will be maligned”. Many in the church are uninterested in separating divine truth from the perversion of truth because they lack spiritual discernment. In my opinion, the Church has been teaching and overemphasizing certain gifts of the spirit such as speaking in tounges, prophesying, miracle-working and healing etc. leaving aside the gift of discernment. This has led us to what we face today as a Church, especially in Sri Lanka.

What is discernment?

The secular meaning of discernment highlights the ability to obtain sharp perceptions and judge well. It’s a skill required for comprehending what is obscure.

In the Biblical and Christian understanding, discernment is a gift that comes from the Holy Spirit, and is “a way of having insight in determining the true nature of a situation, person, or thing.”. It enables us to recognize whether or not something is truly from God or not. The

purpose of the gifts from the Spirit including the gift of discernment is for the common benefit of God’s people, the church. The New Testament teaching on discernment can be described as the ability to distinguish between spirits in (1 Corinthians 12:10) and to discern good and evil in (Hebrews 5:14)

The need of the Church in Sri Lanka

The Christian Church in Sri Lanka has had the privilege and freedom of preaching the good news of Jesus in all parts of the Island until recent times. During the last 25 years or so opposition and persecution have been gathering momentum which has curtailed the freedom we enjoyed. While we understand that such opposition is to be expected when we get closer to our Lord’s return, there is another dimension that we need to keep a check on. Is the Church keeping a watchful eye over those who preach and teach and the doctrine they uphold? Has not the Church allowed preachers both from overseas and local to create confusion among the people of our land through their teachings and miracle-working? Some of them have even had invisible state patronage to teach false doctrines because they prayed and blessed the rulers of our land. Looks like the Trojan Horse has been brought right into the Church!

The hour is now for the Church to exercise the gift of discernment for the common good. The Holy Spirit has equipped the Church with the gift of discernment to enable Christians to recognize and distinguish between the influence of God, Satan, the world and the flesh in a given situation. Just because miracles and wonders have been performed, and prophecies are pronounced the Church cannot accept all of them to be from God. The Church has the

responsibility to guard the flock from wolves in sheep’s clothing. This cannot be done until the Church adheres to the following exercise of discernment - Beloved, do not believe every spirit but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world (1 John 4:1, ESV) The Church is good at excommunicating, striking off names from Church registers of those who have gone after false prophets. This sad exercise could be avoided if only the Church seeks to the equipping of saints with the gift of discernment so that they learn to test the spirits. The Church in Sri Lanka urgently needs those with the gift of discernment to warn believers in this time of danger and keep them from being led astray by false teaching.

Rev. Asiri P. Perera

October 11th 2022