Last Sunday, Christians remembered and celebrated the resurrection of Jesus Christ who was sacrificed as the Passover Lamb. When God first instituted this feast in Exodus chapter 12, He gave strict instructions that the roasted Passover Lamb was to be eaten with unleavened bread. Anyone who violated this commandment was to be cut off from Israel.
Fast-forward to the New Testament, we learn that leaven is symbolic of sin which we must get rid of: “. . . indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth” (1 Corinthians 5:7-8).
When we read the entire chapter of 1 Corinthians 5, we learn that the actual leaven of sin that Paul was referring to was Christians who were unremorsefully sexually immoral, covetous, idolatrous, revilers, drunkards and extortioners. Such Christians were, and are supposed to be, excommunicated from our fellowships because “a little leaven leavens the whole lump” (1 Corinthians 5:6) – they will corrupt the other Christians.
Also, when the ‘leavened Christians’ are thrown out from the protective covering of the church and handed to Satan, Satan’s harassment of them will result in their repentance. If they are not excommunicated, they will not repent and they will end up in hell because “no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience” (Ephesians 5:5-6).
So, excommunicating Christians who PRACTICE sin is beneficial both to the culprits and to the other bambi ‘nice’ believers. The excommunicated ones will suffer the wrath of Satan causing them to repent and survive the eternal wrath of God in hell while the ‘nice’ believers will be protected from the infectious nature of sin.
Now, I do not think I will throw out anyone from LAT tomorrow. Why? Firstly, because in many ways I could top the list of those deserving excommunication. Secondly, although all of us in LAT sin just like all Christians all over the world, God has not revealed to me anyone who is PRACTICING sin – indulging in it without remorse. If God shows me a leavened Christian in LAT, I might need to fast for 40 days to get the boldness to formally excommunicate the person if all restoration efforts fail. In the early days of LAT, I missed the opportunity to properly excommunicate a believer who had become a spreading cancer like Hymenaeus and Philetus (2 Timothy 2:17). I simply lacked boldness. However, I used indirect means and achieved the desired end. Years ago, when I was an assistant and best friends with Elvis Mbonye, before he went into the demonic occult, we informally excommunicated someone because we lacked the boldness to call the person and chase them out of the fellowship bulungi.
By the way, all the idolatry, heresy and shame that will never stop emanating from Elvis Mbonye’s fellowship is because Elvis became irredeemably leavened. Since then, the irredeemable leavened bread that Elvis is now is successfully albeit unfortunately leavening his followers. Unless they repent, walk away from Mbonye and turn back to the Lord, they are all sadly destined for hell because idolaters will not inherit the kingdom of God. The tree went terribly evil – it is impossible to renew it again unto repentance – hence the fruit of controversies and all manner of evil that will never stop among him and his followers until God Himself cuts down the tree; and this will happen soon just as God has revealed it to some of His prophets. How soon God’s soon is for this matter, I do not know.
Now, Paul was not unloving to support the excommunication of leavened Christians. He was simply agreeing with the all-loving God who instituted the practice at the first Passover ceremony when He told Moses that any Israelites caught with leaven during that feast were supposed to be cut off from Israel (Exodus 12).
If pastors like me were concerned about the eternal destiny of our people, we would do more of the excommunication thing. However, many of us are more concerned with the sizes of our congregations and the money the sheep bring, and have bought into the demonic hyper-grace doctrine; instead of leading the sheep to heaven, such pastors are taking them to hell. This must change. We must love the leavened Christians God’s way – by excommunicating them.
Please do not chase anyone away from the church without first trying to restore him or her in a spirit of gentleness (Galatians 6:1). It is only when this fails that you should “deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus” (1 Corinthians 5:5). This is called true love.
God bless you.