The NXR Podcast - July 28, 2022


QUESTIONS - Are There Sins That Indefinitely Disqualify From Eldership？


Episode Stats


Length

8 minutes

Words per minute

182.90202

Word count

1,529

Sentence count

93

Harmful content

Toxicity

9

sentences flagged

Hate speech

18

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

In this episode, we discuss the hierarchy of sin and how it relates to the hierarchy in heaven and hell. We also discuss the difference between sin at the level of the heart and sin in the realm of the mind.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 Hey guys, real quick, before we get started, I have a small request.
00:00:03.360 If you've been blessed by our content and you like this show,
00:00:06.420 would you take just a brief moment and leave us a five-star review?
00:00:09.740 This is quite possibly the most effective thing that you can do
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00:00:21.240 If a Christian man commits a sin in the past that would disqualify him from eldership, 0.78
00:00:27.140 example being looking at porn, but he has since repented. Is he forever disqualified? More 0.54
00:00:33.520 generally in the past, they did not meet the qualifications, but now they do. Are they forever
00:00:38.560 disqualified? That's a good question, Nate. No, I don't think that you're forever disqualified.
00:00:44.000 I think there are some things that can happen that, yeah, where a guy should never serve as
00:00:50.720 an elder. I really do think that there are some things like that. I don't think that pornography
00:00:54.560 is one of them. Not all sin is equal. I think part of that question comes from, and you may
00:01:02.980 not mean it like that, but a lot of people, so maybe not you, Nate, but a lot of people think
00:01:07.640 in terms of all sin is equal. It's not. There's a hierarchy in heaven, right? There are 24 elders
00:01:15.420 on 24 thrones. There are angels and there are chief angels, archangels. There are cherubim and
00:01:21.420 seraphim and the four living creatures covered with eyes with six wings that surround the throne.
00:01:24.920 There's a hierarchy. It's not egalitarianism. There's a hierarchy in heaven. There's a hierarchy
00:01:29.700 in hell. Jesus says this to one will be given a light beating, but to another will be given a
00:01:35.300 severe beating. Talking about hell. He says, woe to you, these, these Israelite cities for if the
00:01:40.300 miracles that I performed in you have been performed in places like Sodom, then they would
00:01:45.300 have repented. And then he says specifically, it will be more bearable for Sodom in judgment
00:01:50.740 on the day of judgment than for you.
00:01:53.240 So there's a hierarchy in hell,
00:01:55.220 and there's a hierarchy in heaven,
00:01:56.360 and there's certainly a hierarchy here on earth,
00:01:58.400 and there is a hierarchy of sin, harmardiology.
00:02:02.220 There is a hierarchical harmardiology
00:02:05.000 that not all sin is equal.
00:02:07.300 All sin is equal.
00:02:08.480 There's a truth, a truth,
00:02:09.980 a sense of truth in that statement.
00:02:11.540 All sin is equal in the sense that all sin,
00:02:13.720 apart from the saving grace that is found
00:02:15.780 through faith in Jesus Christ alone,
00:02:18.120 all sin is equal in its ability to send you to eternal hell.
00:02:24.180 Apart from that, though, not all sin is equal.
00:02:26.180 And we know not all sin is equal because God gives us a list of commands, multiple commands,
00:02:30.920 but God also gives us penalties for breaking those commands, and not all the penalties
00:02:35.900 are equal.
00:02:37.700 That right there proves the point that in the sight of God, not just the sight of Joel
00:02:43.180 weapon. Who cares about that? But the sight of God, not all sin is equally immoral. If it were,
00:02:49.780 then all sin would receive an equal penalty. Now, okay, take that and, you know, the counter is
00:02:54.520 going to be, well, what about the Sermon on the Mount? Matthew chapter five, six and seven, you
00:02:57.660 know, Jesus, but I tell you, right? You have heard it is said, but I tell you, if you look at a woman 1.00
00:03:01.300 with lust in your heart, you've already committed adultery. Yeah. And in the realm of the sin at the
00:03:06.800 level of the heart that, yeah, that is a serious sin. Jesus also says in terms of speech, right?
00:03:11.380 You have heard it said that if you say raka, you are in danger of being kicked out of the 0.56
00:03:15.820 Sanhedrin. 0.99
00:03:16.400 But I tell you, if you say you fool in your heart, you say you fool to your brother, then 1.00
00:03:21.360 you are in danger of hell's fire. 0.99
00:03:24.140 That's at the level of sin with our speech.
00:03:26.880 And Jesus is raising the bar.
00:03:30.120 But listen, Jesus is not instituting egalitarianism in the realm of sin.
00:03:35.760 All he's doing is he's just raising the bar. 0.97
00:03:38.240 So he's not saying that you fool is equal to raka. 0.98
00:03:43.400 And he's not saying that lust in the heart is equal to adultery in action. 0.99
00:03:49.680 He's saying that you've committed adultery in your heart and it's bad.
00:03:54.260 And what would Jesus say if you committed adultery in your heart and with your body?
00:03:59.640 I think Jesus would say it's worse.
00:04:01.760 And we know that Jesus has that principle of some sins being worse than others, of a
00:04:06.840 hierarchy of sin, because it's Jesus himself who talks about, to one will be given a lighter
00:04:12.840 beating, because his sin was lesser.
00:04:14.960 To another will be given a more severe beating, because his sin was greater.
00:04:18.260 Or this city will receive more judgment.
00:04:20.660 This city will receive less judgment.
00:04:22.540 All these different things.
00:04:23.560 So that concept, that principle comes from Jesus.
00:04:26.700 And so, therefore, I believe that there may be some sins that disqualify a man indefinitely.
00:04:35.860 But I don't believe that looking at pornography is one of those sins, especially if the individual,
00:04:43.120 because I'm assuming that we're talking about, you said Christian.
00:04:45.960 So I'm assuming we're talking about a Christian man who looked at pornography before being 0.55
00:04:51.780 in the position of eldership. 0.64
00:04:53.640 so we're not talking about a pastor who is assuming most pastors are married but a pastor
00:05:00.280 who is married has a wife and for years and years is behind her back and behind the congregation's
00:05:06.340 back is looking at pornography so there's just there's a lot of factors um if a guy commits
00:05:11.760 adultery then he's certainly disqualified and uh and he he may never he may be the kind of guy who
00:05:18.860 just never needs to come back, right? If this is a married man in the pastorate who cheats on his
00:05:25.400 wife, has sex with another woman, and likely, you know, when that happens statistically, it usually 0.99
00:05:32.080 is another woman in the church. And so there's the relational components and all this mistrust, 0.55
00:05:37.160 and rightfully so, a lack of trust, and it's just something he can never get back, right?
00:05:41.400 So love and forgiveness is different than trust and qualifications. A man, if he repents,
00:05:47.980 should be forgiven and he should be loved, but that doesn't mean that he should be trusted. 0.60
00:05:54.340 That doesn't mean that he should be qualified to lead and to shepherd others. So all that being
00:06:00.720 said, no, I don't think that a man is forever disqualified, a Christian man who looks at 0.86
00:06:05.780 pornography forever disqualified. That said, it's hard because there are degrees. There's a spectrum, 0.60
00:06:12.560 right? So was it pornography or did he actually engage with another woman? Also, I would say in
00:06:17.640 terms of not all sin being equal, homosexuality. A man who sleeps with another man, that is worse 1.00
00:06:23.120 than a man who sleeps with another woman who's not his wife. So that should be taken much more 0.90
00:06:28.760 seriously. And then in the realm of pornography, there's a spectrum even with that. Do you look at
00:06:32.660 porn one time, two times, 200 times? And how ongoing was the sin? Also, how long did he remain
00:06:39.220 quiet? How long was the sin hidden? You know, was it like, yeah, for four years, he looked at
00:06:44.960 pornography and didn't tell anybody ever. No confession. Right. Well, that's, that's more
00:06:50.500 severe. So there's all those different things to be. So the best I can do in answering your
00:06:55.080 question is I'll say, yeah, I do think there are instances where a man is disqualified from the
00:07:00.100 ministry and should never come back. But I don't think that that's just a clear, explicit principle
00:07:07.540 in scripture that's universally applied. I think it just takes wisdom case by case. And in terms
00:07:14.260 of, well, is pornography one of those cases? I would say in most cases, no. I don't think
00:07:19.260 pornography indefinitely disqualifies a man. But if a Christian repents of looking at pornography, 0.99
00:07:24.740 a Christian man say, I've been looking at pornography. He repents of that. He shouldn't 0.91
00:07:28.360 be installed as an elder in the next six months. That's for sure. So it should be a while. And
00:07:34.760 again, in the realm of pornography, I think you have to get some details. How long? How many times?
00:07:42.400 Was there any confession?
00:07:44.000 How secret and hidden has this sin been?
00:07:47.740 All those things.
00:07:48.860 And also bringing into that marriage, right?
00:07:51.200 I think there is a difference.
00:07:52.800 Not saying it's not sin.
00:07:53.860 Of course it's sin. 1.00
00:07:54.820 But there is a difference in a single Christian man looking at pornography than a married 0.95
00:07:59.700 Christian man looking at pornography. 0.99
00:08:02.180 It's not the same. 1.00
00:08:03.480 Not all sin is equal.
00:08:04.980 Thanks so much for listening.
00:08:06.040 But real quick, before you go, do us a small favor, take a moment, and leave us a five-star
00:08:11.560 review if you enjoyed the show. This is undoubtedly the best way that you can help us get this
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