Another Wolf, Alas
When Jesus warned about the dangers of wolves in sheep’s clothing, he wasn’t kidding around. He was dead serious, and knew full well this would in fact take place – and often. And the early disciples warned about the very same thing. Consider for example what the apostle Paul warned about:
“Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood. I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. So be on your guard!” (Acts 20:28-31).
There are plenty of such warnings found throughout the Bible and especially in the New Testament. False doctrine and false teaching are a big part of this. But so too are deceptive words concerning Christian living. Many of these wolves are pushing moral positions at complete odds with the biblical worldview.
Thus we have so-called Christian leaders who will champion homosexuality, or abortion, or other sinful activities. They will proudly call right what God has clearly called wrong. And they will urge their flocks to follow in such deception, error and immorality.
So not only is false doctrine what we can expect from the wolves intent on ravening the flock, but immorality as well. Both must be resisted, as both can kill a believer and render a church null and void. Thus obviously the enemy is keen to push both: heterodoxy and heteropraxis.
We must therefore be on guard, just as Jesus commanded us. And there are plenty of examples of this happening all around us. Consider this very recent – and quite incredible – case. A news item tells the story as follows:
“Anti-abortion protesters who meet at the Englehardt Street termination clinic each Thursday have been condemned by the most unlikely of sources. Father Peter MacLeod-Miller, head of St Matthews Church, says the pro-life group is ‘off the rails’ and putting forward an ‘unyielding’ and harmful agenda.
“The church leader said his members had helped women access the clinic, protecting attendees from the ‘damaging’ protesters. ‘It is not just Islamic fundamentalism that is damaging to communities but this “mid-western style” of (religion) that claims interest in human life but displays a frightening capacity to control rather than liberate it,’ he said. ‘Reading the plain nasty comments on their site you can see that they are off the rails on the way to (being) off the planet and it’s horrible to see them in charge of children, claiming the streets of Albury.’
“Fr MacLeod-Miller said while the protesters claimed interest in unborn children, they were being hypocritical. ‘They are not protesting about the child abuse endemic in the principal religious institution that they use as a power base,’ he said. They are glad to take on vulnerable women but unwilling to challenge a powerful institution’.”
Wow – did you get that! Not only do we have a so-called Christian leader fully supporting the murder of the unborn, but he actually assists women in doing this. If ever we have a clear example of a wolf in sheep’s clothing, this has got to be it.
And his confused and incoherent rhetoric seems to match his confused and incoherent theology and morality. So those who want to save God’s children from destruction are just like Islamic fundamentalists? Those who want to prevent those being led off to the slaughter are pushing “harmful agendas”?
Puh-leeese, spare me the Orwellian double-talk. Supporting and promoting the killing of unborn babies is the only harmful agenda going on here. It is most certainly harmful to all the dead babies, but it also harms women big time as well.
Indeed, if he thinks he is somehow helping women here he is deceiving himself big time. As Boston College philosopher Peter Kreeft correctly put it, “Abortion is profoundly anti-women. Three quarters of its victims are women: half the babies and all the mothers.”
Yet this apostate thinks women should be encouraged in this genocide. What Bible is he reading from? Or has he long ago stopped reading it? No one honestly reading the Word of God can come up with the sheer madness that he is spouting here.
But true to form, he is perfectly fulfilling the words of Jesus and the early disciples. False shepherds and deceiving wolves will come in and do horrific damage to the flock of God. This guy is a casebook example of this very thing. We of course need to keep people such as this in our prayers.
Pray that such false prophets are quickly silenced, or radically converted as Saul was, whom I just read about again today in Acts 9. Perhaps they can yet be set free from their deadly deception. And pray for all the women who are being encouraged to kill their own babies. Their grief will be long and hard. The damage being done is simply enormous.
“For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths” (Paul, in 2 Timothy 4:3-4).
http://www.awnw.com.au/anglican-leader-slams-protesters/
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Why aren’t I surprised that he is Anglican. The Church of England hasn’t been a Christian church for a while.
Jeanette Victoria
Thanks Jeanette
Fortunately not all Anglicans are like him. In Australia for example the Sydney Anglicans are pretty strong, holding to orthodox teachings, as well as remaining firm on things like abortion and homosexuality.
Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch
Again thank you and again I must ask for your internet bank details as you labour for the truth.
Ilona Sturla
I wish I could say that his sentiments are limited to liberal Anglicanism, but alas no. Clerics of all denominations, Catholicism included, have sided with the side of death. It just goes to show that the devil will “strike the shepherd” to scatter the sheep.
John Forster
Don’t forget to pray folks for Archbishop Peter Jensen as he appears on Q and A tonight. He will be among his enemies, and I hope quite a few friends in the audience.
David Morrison
Hello Bill, We shouldn’t be surprised we are living in “these times”
Its a pity that he hasn’t heard the “confession” of a deeply wounded woman who has regretted her decision and the grief she lives with. And further more its a pity he allows himself to be influenced by his female employees. He betrays his call to the Priesthood of Jesus Christ.
Keep well,
Anne Lastman
I think you’re both wanting to have your cake here and eat it at the same time.
Surely the important thing is who walks with Christ and who doesn’t walk with Christ
If I am Christian by prayer (thought, action etc) I can reveal God’s truth in all walks of life. To say that there must be universal orthodoxy is to deny human nature.
There are those (not me – would you say wolves?) who say that evolution is true and compatible with faith – the last Roman Catholic Pope, the UK’s Archbishop of Canterbury to name but two – do we say they are wolves or respectfully disagree and hope to change their view through reason. i.e. how can a human eye appear out of nothing by random chance?
Likewise for abortion. Let us persuade them and not through saying so-and-so a person is a wolf.
There are much we will all disagree on, but that’s OK so long as we hold to common purpose.
Alan Rowe
Thanks Alan
Sorry, but I am so not with you on this. What in the world does evolution have to do with anything here? We are talking about one thing only in this post: the destruction of 100,000 unborn babies a year in Australia, and some 50 million a year worldwide, and false shepherds who urge this on. If you think all this is just peachy keen, then your “faith” has absolutely nothing to do with mine or with biblical Christianity. Indeed, you are then simply another wolf spreading the rot all around the place.
By your twisted thinking, we should all proudly stand shoulder to shoulder with “Christians” who stood by and cheered the Nazis as they exterminated millions of Jews. “Hey, let’s concentrate on what unites us, inside of mere trivial non-essentials like the Holocaust.” That is not the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ, but the doctrine of demons.
Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch
Sorry Alan Rowe but I misunderstand what you’re saying…
Jesus would have said to this deceiver “Woe to you, [anglican priest], hypocrite! For you are like [a] whitewashed tomb, which outwardly appears beautiful, but within [is] full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness.” Matthew 23:27.
The genocide must stop… It’s time to rock the boat!!!
Joel van der Horst
Those who walk with Christ live by His teachings and support others in doing so. They do not encourage and enable another person to do an evil thing, especially when that person is distressed and confused. Someone who walks with Christ will help that person to carry the cross and find alternatives that do not harm another.
More than 3/4 of the victims of abortion are women – all the mothers and more than 1/2 of the babies (because of the large number of unborn females throughout the world killed because they are female).
Genevieve Swan
Anyone who claims to be Christian and promotes, condones or assists with abortion is a liar. Time for a serious conversion here, methinks.
Good job Bill. Love your work.
Rose Klein
Respectfully I don’t think that is what Father MacLeod is saying here at all. He is saying that he is all for protecting women who are terrified by the protestors to access the building. He isn’t telling them to have abortions, nor is he condoning them, nor is he performing them himself.
He is simply accusing the protestors of protesting about women having abortions but not protesting about the Catholic Church’s shameful history of child abuse and its cover up. He is saying that both issues should weigh heavily with them, not just one. Just because children have been born doesn’t mean they suffer less at the hands of wayward priests and those in the church who protect them.
So I don’t think Father MacLeod is as bad as you are paiting him. He’s not pro-abortion, he’s pro-protection of people who haven’t been aborted.
Alan Rowe
Thanks Alan
Sorry, but I am still not buying it. Anyone who leads women into abortion mills is an accessory to murder, end of story. And anyone who seeks to defend and justify such evil has blood on their hands as well.
Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch
Using the sex abuse in the Catholic Church is just a smoke screen. He is defending himself so he doesn’t seem so bad, for helping these women to procure their abortions.
Rose Klein
Alan,
I can assure you that all members of the Catholic Church want the issue of abuse by clergy to be resolved properly and through the proper channels. Just because you don’t see Catholics picketing their own churches doesn’t mean they don’t care about what has happened. So please don’t go assuming such.
John Forster
Alan, if paedophilia were made legal, I would most certainly be protesting against paedophilia. But it is illegal and if you have a problem with it you can report it to the police and they will deal with it. Abortion is the legal killing of innocent unborn children. I am protesting against the legal killing of children. The minister is pro abortion. He claims his people are actively helping women to procure abortions. Do not presume to know what the people praying in front of the clinic believe about every single issue other than the issue they are protesting. But you can be sure of one thing, they are doing something to offer women help who are about to abort their baby.
Anna von Marburg
Once again Alan Rowe, I still don’t understand what you’re saying… Who is Father Macleod (and I use the title “Father” very loosely) to accuse any pro-life person of being pro-pedophile priests?? Why the irrational, and nonsensical dichotomy?? If someone hates child sexual abuse (which the magesterium of the Catholic church does, just to be clear), they should hate increasingly more the senseless, state-sponsored murder of innocent children!!!
How is this for a real dichotomy… Why does Father Mcleod support murdering children, and hurting women, but is opposed to child sexual abuse?? And what exactly, pray tell, is this repulsive wolf doing to prevent child sexual abuse that is being perpetrated by less than 1% of the Roman Catholic clergy worldwide, which all Roman Catholics in this country rightly abhor??
Also, how on earth is someone who helps women feel comfortable in murdering their children not pro-abortion?? This an entirely irrational claim.
Joel van der Horst
Fortunately, not all Anglicans are like him.
Notwithstanding the ongoing crisis within the Anglican Communion, please pray for Evangelicals within the Church of England, that we will continue to stand firm and square in the defence of the Gospel, and remain fully committed to the extension of Christ’s Kingdom on earth.
David Haslam
…seriously Alan? You are defending him escorting women into an abortion house to kill their babies?
Across the other side of the street are the most compassionate and courageous Albury residents, offering a helping hand to women in crisis.
Your loyalty is misplaced.
If you are attempting to argue from a Christian point of view, you might wish to read Psalm 139 or the story where Jesus said “Let the children come unto me” – (not into the abortionists waste bin!!)
You are correct Anne Lastman – this “minister” needs to spend some time with post abortive women who suffer at the hands of abortionists – I am happy to introduce him to a few. My guess is that he would not be interested!
A wolf? Indeed!!
Sonja Couroupis
Also Alan Rowe, I almost forgot to answer a question in your first post… A hearty YES, Rowan Williams the Archbishop of Canterbury is without any doubt a wolf in sheeps clothing… He could at least pretend to believe the vows he took when he was ordained a priest to believe and uphold the Apostles, Nicene, and Athanasian Creeds and the 39 articles of the Church of England that he supposedly heads up. But I guess he’d lose his place in the house of Lords and his huge pay packet if he were to do this… you know… profits before prophets…
Joel van der Horst
And Alan, please, “terrified by the protestors.” Wow, not even the minister used those words. Those are your words. The police have filmed the protestors, watched the protestors, and have NEVER made a single attempt to move them on. Their behaviour has been exemplary, especially considering the abuse they endure by the pro-abortionists when offering women help.
Anna von Marburg
Dear Bill.
Thank you for bringing this up. The situation with abortion in Australia is truly horrendous, and for this so called minister to be clearly supporting abortion on demand is just about as bad as it gets.
I don’t know if this quote is from the same person, but I assume it is
Rev Peter Macleod-Miller
Barrow, Suffolk
“SIR – As a part of my Catholic upbringing I was required to believe that there were “four sins crying to heaven for vengeance: wilful murder, the sin of Sodom, oppression of the poor and defrauding labourers of their wages”.
Homosexual practices stand out among these four sins as loving and friendly. I cannot really see them as being any more sinful than heterosexual extramarital intercourse.”
The quote is from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/letters/5803808/Personal-phobias-cloud-the-churchs-view-of-homosexuality.html
The man is clearly a loony with a collar on back to front. Obviously we should pray for him and perhaps more obviously the Anglican church synod or someone from high up in the Anglican church should have him removed as a priest immediately before more woman get the support from him in aborting their precious children created in God’s image.
God bless you Bill in the wonderful work you are doing for Christ.
Paul Copeland
Anna, the article says “protecting attendees from the ‘damaging’ protesters”. The article (whether it’s entirely right or entirely wrong or somewhere in between I don’t know) has Father MacLeod protecting these women from the protestors. It doesn’t say, and neither does he suggest (from the quotes given) that he endorses abortion, and nor do I.
You are all wanting to make a witch hunt where there is none. What should Father MacLeod do?
Joel, you are making a very silly argument. Father MacLeod isn’t saying the anti-abortionists are pro-child sex abuse. He is saying that he finds it odd they don’t vocalise their protest about that *at the same time as* protesting abortion. Please don’t twist the words of the article and my words out of all proportion.
If this man was standing in his pulpit urging abortions all round, I would join your horror and condemnation. He is doing nothing of the sort.
This is an emotive issue, but it demands perspective. What’s the use of calling a man of the cloth a wolf and making a scapegoat of him because he’s willing to protect women whilst not approving of their actions?
I think of Christ and the prostitutes.
Alan Rowe
Thanks Alan
Sorry, but spare us the ‘Christ and the prostitutes’ line, as if that somehow is going to justify both you and MacLeod. You clearly know as little about the Bible as this Anglican minister does. Jesus told the women caught in adultery to “go and sin no more” and anyone who was accepted by Christ – be they prostitutes or whoever – entered the kingdom just like anyone else: by repentance and turning from their sin. Jesus urges people to flee from their sin and receive salvation. You two are urging people into sin, and unto damnation, and seeking lousy justification for it. The two could not be further apart. Sorry, still not buying it, and we still have two wolves here.
Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch
For anyone to support the legal killing of the unborn is sad. sad that the gift of life is deemed as trivial as to be desired when it is convenient and to be thrown away when inconvenient.
it is even worse when a leader of the church is not only supporting the “choice” of abortion, but also openly disapproving of those who are fighting for the welfare of the many women, children and yes even men who are affected on a daily and ongoing basis due to the effects of abortion.
Jesus said “let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these” Matthew 19:14.
Jesus held these children in such a high position! who are we to decide they are not deserving of the very thing Christ died for us?
Alan, if you read the various articles this minister has written and the responses he has made to comments, you may find that he is not “pro-choice” but he is “pro-abortion” in his support for the “choice” and the outwardly public actions he has undertaken to prevent those supporting the very life he is supposed to be teaching.
Jess Mannion
Perhaps Alan is unaware that the not very reverend MacLeod-Miller has been conducting a personal crusade against this Albury pro-life group for some considerable time now of which this current news item is just his latest effort.
Ewan McDonald, Victoria.
Bill, where does it say in the article, or where has Father MacLeod said that he endorses and approves of abortion?
You are mixing apples and pears here. He’s protecting women from the protestors. From this you (I would say possibly mistakenly) read that he’s gleefully helping them get aborted. You’re making an unjustifiable leap.
Maybe I’m just not as quick as you to condemn people out of hand. After all, Father MacLeod isn’t here to give his exact position, which isn’t entirely clear from the article.
Are the protestors being aggressive? Again, impossible to say from the article.
We should assess the evidence with cool heads, not jump to rash conclusions.
Maybe you’re right about Father MacLeod: but if you are it’s because you’ve *guessed* right.
Alan Rowe
Sorry Alan but four strikes and you are out – well and truly. You might as well tell me that a minister (wolf in sheep’s clothing) who escorts Nazis to their killing chambers against protesting crowds is not pro-Nazi. Sorry, you are one wolf who is not coming back here again.
Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch
What was the nature of my argument that was silly? At no point has Mr. Macleod suggested that he asked the anti-murder protestors if they had protested pedophile priests?? How on earth could you protest against an organisation that is doing its best with the help of the police to have pedophile priests brought to justice?? The question needs to be asked why Father Macleod isn’t outside his local state school protesting the fact the hundreds of children are sexually abused by state school teachers? This is a furphy!! Why do you justify his false dichotomy… If he’s incensed about pedophilia he MUST be just as incensed, if not more so, by paedo-homicide!!!
If someone cares about children they must be consistent, or else they are hypocrites. Would you defend Mr McLeod if he helped escort a mother with a two year old daughter next to her through a line of anti-murder activists to a lethal injection room so she could kill her daughter at taxpayer expense because she found her two year old an inconvenience??
Would you say this a Jesus and the prostitute occasion??
Joel van der Horst
Alan Rowe,
As someone who attended the so-called “Community Conversation” that Fr Macleod-Miller organised, and who has read his various posts on the Abortion Hurst Albury site, and who has read various articles in numerous local papers, I have to say I have NEVER heard him say anything against abortion. I will be happy to be corrected on that!
He has spoken out in favour of being tolerant of everyone, except the pro-life community here in Albury, and anyone else who disagrees with him. He has been divisive, deceptive, and totally intolerant! He also seems reluctant to speak directly to the people he disagrees with, instead uses the public media to spread his agenda. In doing so, he is in direct contradiction to the Scriptures he claims to believe in.
Do you actually know Fr Macleod-Miller? If so, please “lay all your cards on the table”! If you do not know him, I do not understand how you can defend his actions.
Kate Cann
Alan
The fact that McLeod condemns those defending life is sufficient evidence that he is pro abortion. If it was a death camp where they killed born people, MacLeod would be demonstrating against it and trying to stop people going inside to kill others. So unless Macleod thinks unborn babies have no rights, why does he claim they deserve a lesser standard of protection? Don’t find yourself defending abortion with sophistry Alan, you will reap the same reward as the abortionists.
Steve Gethin
Alan, I like the way you rationalise and are not quick to judge per se. I don’t agree with your last line that if Bill (including those who agree with him), that Bill is only right because he has guessed right? There have been many publications as to this person. I have also heard first hand from those who are “protesting”. A bit of info from what I know is that those “protestors” sit and pray ACROSS from the clinic and only make contact with people when they are approached, my understanding is they don’t approach those using the services. From all that, it should be clear that those using the clinic do not require protection. And I can provide more information on this.
Jess Mannion
Furthermore, Mr McLeod (and the article) are repeating the pro-murder crowds (and their useful idiots in the MSM) garbage about anti-murder activists being threatening, throwing pipe bombs and that kind of nonsense… Puh-leeezee… Has anyone ever met or seen pro-life activists, they are the most decent, kind, loving people you’ll meet (although the late former atheist Chris Hitchens seems to think Mother Theresa was evil.. Though I never saw him helping the untouchables in Calcutta)… So give me a break… If women don’t feeling uncomfortable about murdering their children they have no consciences… But then neither do wolves who wear a backward collar…
Joel van der Horst
It takes courage to stand strong for the most innocent, helpless little people, The Unborn.
The way of the world tries to deny humanity to the most helpless, defenceless little people, who are the most deserving of protection.
No one can half heartedly defend the unborn, then sell them out in order to suit the moment or the way of the world, or glory from people.
God says “Its better to tie rocks around your neck and jump into a river than harm a child”….That’s clear enough for me, and that means not defending them at the same time..
There is no half measure. No Christian can sell out the innocent to suit themselves at the moment. Only repent and turn away from such evil sin..
Loretta Coffey
Also, don’t you just love the crank exegesis of the pro-abortion crowd Bill? “I think of Christ and the prostitute”… Come off it, firstly it was the women caught in adultery, and secondly Jesus encouraged the crowd NOT to stone her to death, whereas Mr McLeod IS encouraging women to kill their babies… It’s like people check their brains at the door when it comes to emotive issues.
Joel van der Horst
Alan Rowe… I’m having trouble seeing how someone applauding members of his congregation actively assisting women to access the abortion centre is not both condoning and facilitating abortion. After all, it’s not as if those holding the prayer vigil are physically attempting to stop people entering the centre, are they? As I understand it, they are just praying…. not something that most non-Christians find particularly intimidating.
Tom Teale-Sinclair
Thanks guys
As I said, Alan is now history here. Anyone who can with a straight face claim that someone who physically escorts women into abortion mills and verbally abuses pro-lifers is somehow pro-life is either living in la la land or is simply a “useful idiot” (to use Lenin’s phrase) of the abortion industry. Or, as I keep suggesting, a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Such folks will certainly not get a free run on my website. They are part of the problem here, not part of the solution.
Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch
Alan Rowe you have it all wrong and are looking for loopholes to get out of it. The “priest” has called for assistance to usher women into the abortion clinic. He knows what is going to happen there. So stop your word games which is what you are doing. Playing games. This “priest” should hang his head in shame and his A/Bishop should haul him over into his office and say some words.
“Father Peter MacLeod-Miller, head of St Matthews Church, says the pro-life group is ‘off the rails’ and putting forward an ‘unyielding’ and harmful agenda. The church leader said his members had helped women access the clinic, protecting attendees from the ‘damaging’ protesters” his members had helped women access the clinic” – this Alan says a lot for his preaching and his members.
You are confused.
Anne Lastman
Oh yes, Common purpose. May I recommend Lt. Commander Brian Gerrish to introduce this innocuous, but deadly, sounding organisation, “Common Purpose.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3DmnovmBIA
As for abortion, let people see the truth behind the notion that abortion is simply removing unwanted tissue or products of pregnancy surplus to requirements, as though one were removing a cancer or appendix. If this were the case why are people so outraged when they see this kind of thing?
http://www.abort67.co.uk/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcUv7vdaxnQ
David Skinner, UK
Alan, Peter McLeod Miller has said he is for abortion, as have two of his Anglican ministers, the first in a public forum, the second in a personal conversation with me. This was after he tried to convince me in a telephone conversation that in fact he was prolife. I tried to contact him several times by phone and email after the Albury forum he organized, and mentioned above to challenge him on his inconsistency, but he has failed to date to return any of my communications.
Debbie Garratt
Has Alan ever spoken to the people who gather to pray across the road from the abortion clinic for the life of the baby and its mother.
What about the abuse inflicted upon the prayers as they pray for a conversion of heart of both the mother and the abortionists and the workers in the clinic!
Alan should come to the Walk for Babies and see how gently and respectful those who take part in the march compared to the aging pro aborts who scream and yell abuse at the marchers which includes young families and children. The 5th Commandments says “Thou shall not kill” – this includes babies in the womb.
Madge Fahy
Archbishop Peter Jensen appeared on Q and A last night and I thought he did rather well, considering the ambush he was under. There was a moment when an out spoken gay man spoke directly to Peter and when peter said to the man, “thank you for the question and by the question you must respect me I gather?” The man’s face contorted, almost demonic.
Daniel Kempton
Yes Blessings on Archbishop Jensen — a man we can all be proud of. He survived the fiery furnace with dignity, grace and wisdom!
Anna Cook
I liked Peter Jensen’s use of the word ‘facile’. Very apt.
Terry Darmody