If I am called "Rabbi"
I am a charlatan.
If I am called "Father"
I am a fraud.
If I will rob you by tithes and offerings
I am a greedy man.
If I tell you you have nothing to fear
I am false.
If I tell you there is not Hell
I shall be thrown there.
If I tell you Christ alone isn't the path to salvation
I am on the broadstreet.
If I tell you I am the only way, and only I can feed you
I will starve you.
If I see you have itching ears, and tell you what you want
Then I am a false teacher.
If I tell you to pay for my prophecies and oracles,
I am a false prophet.
If I shepherd for a wage
I am a false pastor.
If I sell my teachings, and nowhere can you find it freely,
Then I am a greedy man.
If I feed upon you, and don't feed you
I am a wolf.
If I wear silk suits, or two hundred dollar sneakers
Then I have sheared your wool, and worn it as a garment.
If my ministry is to give myself bread, but to not give you bread
Then know I speak of literal mouths, and I am a glutton.
If I kick the homeless off my stoop, or have my spies torment them,
I am a damnable pastor of a damnable church.
If I see the hungry, or the naked, or the prisoner, or the sick,
And do not feed, clothe, and visit them
I am a goat.
If I speak my words with mystic meanings and tell you to only use my words
They are my own words, and I am deluded.
If I tell you to speak a name you have not heard, one with invented tongues
I am a false shepherd.
If I tell you the Bible is false, or that it is corrupted by man
It is only of my own corruption I speak.
If I say, "Catholics are anathema" or "Protestants are anathema"
Then I am anathema.
If I say, "Hindus are saved," "Buddhists are Saved"
"Muslims are saved" "Atheists and Agnostics are saved"
Then I am not saved.
If I speak of Ecumenicalism, but mean all paths are equal
Then I am unequal.
If I speak not of Ecumenicalism, and say only my denomination is true
Then I am untrue.
If I claim to be a prophet, then test me in everything I say...
Did what I speak six years ago manifest?
Did what I warn about come true?
Was my prophecy erring?
Did I have a heart to bring the sinner to repentance?
Or, did I prophesy only to have my belly filled?
Did I tell you what you wanted to hear?
Or, did I obstruct God's clear ordinance?
Did I falsely spy out my brethren, and secretly wish to destroy him?
Did I visit him in prison, and burden him with a yoke of despair?
Did I visit him with daggers?
Did I speak words falsely into his life, in order to cause him doubt?
Did I minister to him unrest?
Did I ask of you for anything in return for my counsel?
Did I speak words over you, to loll you into a false sense of security?
Did I add to your sickness and disease?
Did I shackle you in captive bonds, while you were yet a captive?
Did I plead for you when you were in chains?
Did I tell the truth about you, when everyone else had lied and formed a plot?
Did I strengthen you in honesty, goodness and humility?
Or, did I speak my own words, in order to cause you to fall?
Mark 13:51Jesus saith unto them, Have ye understood all these things? They say unto him, Yea, Lord. 52Then said he unto them, Therefore every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old.
View all posts by B. K. Neifert