Posted on 06/05/2019 11:27:40 AM PDT by Gamecock
Dave Gass, a former pastor who most recently led Grace Family Fellowship in Pleasant Hill, Missouri, has renounced his Christian faith as a system rife with abuse that caused him “mental and emotional breaks.”
A representative from his former church, however, has accused him of being an unrepentant adulterer.
Gass reportedly first made his announcement in a series of now protected tweets but not before they were copied and shared across multiple social media platforms.
“After 40 years of being a devout follower, 20 of those being an evangelical pastor, I am walking away from faith. Even though this has been a massive bomb drop in my life, it has been decades in the making,” he began in the thread before moving on to compare Scripture to Greek mythology.
“When I was in 8th grade and I was reading Greek mythology, it dawned on me how much of the supernatural interactions between the deity of the bible and mankind sounded like ancient mythology. That seed of doubt never went away,” he said.
He explained how he was raised in a “hyper-fundamentalist” Christian home where Christianity “didn’t work. The promises were empty. The answers were lies.”
Even so, he grew up to be a devout Christian who rarely missed church or failed to study Scripture.
“I was fully devoted to studying the scriptures. I think I missed maybe 12 Sundays in 40 years. I had completely memorized 18 books of the bible and was reading through the bible for the 24th time when I walked away,” he wrote.
None of it, however, helped his marriage.
“As an adult my marriage was a sham and a constant source of pain for me. I did everything I was supposed to - marriage workshops, counseling, bible reading together, date nights every week, marriage books - but my marriage never became what I was promised it would be,” he said.
He went on to discuss how miserable his life eventually became as his expectations, including experiencing the supernatural failed to match up with the reality he was experiencing.
“An inescapable reality that I came to was that the people who benefited the most from organized religion were the fringe attenders who didn’t take it too seriously. The people who were devout were the most miserable, but just kept trying harder,” he said.
“… The entire system is rife with abuse. And not just from the top down, sure there are abusive church leaders, but church leaders are abused by their congregants as well. Church people are just sh*tty to each other,” he continued. “I spent my entire life serving, loving, and trying to help people in my congregations. And the lies, betrayal, and slander I have received at the hands of church people left wounds that may never heal.”
He said he struggled so much with his church experience it began to affect his mental and ultimately physical health.
“This massive cognitive dissonance - my beliefs not matching with reality - created a separation between my head and my heart. I was gas lighting myself to stay in the faith. Eventually I could not maintain the facade anymore, I started to have mental and emotional breaks. My internal stress started to show in physical symptoms. Being a pastor - a professional Christian - was killing me,” Gass revealed.
To save himself, he said, he chose to walk away from the church.
“Eventually I pulled the lever and dropped the bomb. Career, marriage, family, social standing, network, reputation, all gone in an instant. And honestly I didn’t intend to fully walk away, but the way the church turned on me forced me to leave permanently,” he said.
He apologized to his former followers and said he still loves those who choose to dismiss him as an “apostate.”
“For those of you who want to yell at me, that’s fine. I know that many will call me an apostate, say I was never really saved, that I was a wolf in sheep’s clothing, and that a hotter hell awaits me. And to you I say I love you. My heart is tender toward you,” he said.
“To those who have been in my congregations or under my teaching/preaching I sincerely apologize. I thought I was right. I thought I was doing the right thing. I thought I could fake it until I made it. I was wrong. I’m sorry. I love you,” he added.
Justin Thuttle, a deacon at Grace Family Fellowship Church, claimed on Twitter that Gass was not entirely forthcoming about his faith journey and branded him an unrepentant sinner.
“Yes, he was my pastor when he ‘walked away’. He actually just slept with a married women (sic) in the church and got caught. He never repented and they still live together,” he wrote in a tweet last Thursday.
“Last year all the information came to light. The affair happened for almost a year before it was uncovered. So the whole, ‘I did everything right in my marriage’ part was kinda funny until I saw how many people liked his story,” he said.
The Christian Post reached out to the church for further comment Tuesday and a representative who asked to speak anonymously said Thuttle's response is accurate.
"Justin’s input is accurate. I would only add that, to our knowledge, none of the churches where Gass was on staff were megachurches. And after he resigned, he cut off all communications with anyone from Grace Family Fellowship," the representative said.
We can sling verses all day long. Here you go. It is a GIFT.
For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
All you have to do is believe:
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
It is not revoked:
My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.
And you cannot earn it or keep it by works:
Not of works, lest any man should boast.
It brings peace:
Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ
It is human folly to think they can “earn” or “keep” salvation. If you have accepted the Gift of Christ’s sacrifice for your sins, it is written.
You can certainly lose your faith, but that will only impact the maturity you will experience in this earthly walk. You will miss out on the peace and grace that God bestows. But it will not result in your losing your salvation. You will just remain a stunted child in that salvation. If you read the Old Testament, it is a blueprint for salvation. God may have chastised the Hebrews when they turned their backs on Him; but they remained His chosen people.
I don’t believe he accepted Christ as his Savior to begin with. He was an empty suit christian; in it for the “benefits.” Probably part of the name it claim it crowd that was so popular in the early 2000s.
He as much as admits it when he says things about his marriage is not what is “promised.” Or that he was already doubting the Bible when he learned about Greek mythology in high school.
There are a lot of well meaning people out there masquerading as Christians. But they do not deserve the association as they have not accepted Christ.
Sorry, we are not promised anything except for salvation, and that salvation is granted when we accept Christ as our Savior.
He referred to 'the promises' a couple of times. As Paul and Peter and most of the other apostles were being led away to be executed, I can't imagine them complaining - "Hey wait a minute! This is not what I was promised! I didn't sign up for this!"
It sounds as if he was living a life waiting for some kind of temporal blessing filled life (I want my best life now!) kind of idea instead of having his eyes fixed on eternity.
"Okay, I've memorized a bunch of scripture - where's all the pretty girls and stuff?"
Salvation is a gift, and there is nothing we, as sinners, can do to earn it except to acknowledge this fact and accept Christ, and His sacrifice.
There is nothing we can do to retain it. The idea that we have to retain a gift through our behavior, a gift that we couldn’t earn to begin with, leads to unsaved “Christians.” They are doing all of the right things on Sunday, but there is nothing there.
And regarding youth not following in the faith of their parents, have you read the Old Testament?
I never found more hypocrisy than in Catholics in NM. going to mass on Saturday for confession, then going out to the bars afterwards. Men beating on their wives. Rampant condoned sex among unmarried youth, barely teenage girls having children, and overt support of abortions. Sure, they adhere to their generational religion, but they do not change their lives. And I guarantee you they all believe they are going to heaven because they followed the rules.
I have a catholic church just a few blocks from my house. Attendees speed through my neighborhood (a sin) and run the stop sign (a sin) to get there on Saturday evening for confession. I highly doubt they confessed those sins.
There is the reality about keeping your salvation under the guise of I followed the rules. I worked for this, I prayed a million times a week, I asked for forgiveness of my sins. There is always one more sin you cannot ask for forgiveness for before you die.
What’s wrong with Boggle? That was a fun game.
“The idea that we have to retain a gift through our behavior, a gift that we couldn’t earn to begin with, leads to unsaved “Christians.”
No it doesn’t. Unsaved Christians are those who have not truly repented and accepted the salvation God has offered. There are also those who, according to Jesus:
“Other seed fell on rocky ground where it didn’t have much soil, and it grew up quickly since the soil wasn’t deep. 6 But when the sun came up, it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away....And the one sown on rocky ground—this is one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy. 21 But he has no root and is short-lived. When distress or persecution comes because of the word, immediately he falls away.” Matt 13
Hebrews 6 also says:
“For it is impossible to renew to repentance those who were once enlightened,
who tasted the heavenly gift,
who shared in the Holy Spirit,
who tasted God’s good word and the powers of the coming age,
and who have fallen away.”
That explicitly covers people who became Christians and then chose to reject Christ later.
If someone gives you a gift of money, you can keep it. You can invest and grow it. Or you can squander it. If you squander it, you may not only lose it, but be worse off than you were before.
I’m a baptist. I see no sign baptists “lose” more of our kids than do any other denomination. You cannot repent for your child. You cannot believe for your child. You cannot live for your child. They get to make choices and they don’t have to be ones you approve of. That is reality. Neither Calvinism nor Catholicism will stop that.
And all denominations suffer from non-believers living counterfeit lives. “Once saved, always saved” encourages it, but all have the problem.
This pastor seems to have believed he had a business relation with God: I do this, then God pays me for it. That is utterly wrong. He worshiped God the Genie, not God the Father. He was an employee, not a son. When he felt his wages were adequate compensation for his work, he quit.
My comment was to emphasize that there are “Christians” who have never accepted Christ as their savior; therefore “unsaved christians.” They never were saved to begin with.
Certainly once saved, always saved, can contribute in people who think they are saved and continue to live a life of sin. No different than a catholic attending every mass, every confession, saying every rosary. You must accept the gift given. All of the rest of it is our growth in Christianity, the pursuit to become more Christ-like.
And there are none more spiritually persecuted than those that accept the gift and are filled with the holy spirit. Spiritual warfare is deadly. But if the Christian is not persecuted by the Holy Spirit for sinful behavior, then you need to seriously question whether you have truly bended knee and accepted the gift.
But Christ states that you cannot be taken away from the Hand of God. It is a one way street.
Your growth (walk, works) after salvation helps you face adversity and withstand the temptations that will be lobbed toward you. And our reward will be in heaven, not here.
“But Christ states that you cannot be taken away from the Hand of God. It is a one way street.”
You cannot be taken away, but you can choose to jump out. I see no other explanation for the very explicit description in Hebrews 6:
“For it is impossible to renew to repentance those who were once enlightened,
who tasted the heavenly gift,
who shared in the Holy Spirit,
who tasted God’s good word and the powers of the coming age,
and who have fallen away.”
If it is impossible to fall away, then the parable of the soils is unintelligible.
IF you believe you, as a “hu”man, can jump out, you are denying scripture. Jesus said: no MAN can take them from my Father’s hand.
“IF you believe you, as a “hu”man, can jump out, you are denying scripture.”
No, I am accepting what Jesus said in the Parable of the Soils and what Hebrews very clearly says.
And what Jesus said was “”My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.”
“No one” is obviously not “them”, but someone OTHER THAN them! And what I’m pointing out is not that ANYONE can “snatch” them, but they can CHOOSE to leave. Hebrews 6 makes it very clear someone CAN be enlightened, shared in the Holy Spirit, and LEAVE. “Snatch” means “to take something or someone away by force”.
Please put down your Calvin Goggles and read what it says.
Jesus does not say “saved.” He references enlightened. They are not the same word or concept.
When you are saved, you are born again. You cannot be unborn.
Falling away results in loss of growth and eternal gifts.
Believing is not the same as accepting. Receiving the gospel is not the same as accepting.
You receiving the gospel, you must accept the gift. Without acceptance, you are not born again.
With acceptance, you are born again.
You cannot be unborn. Being born again puts you into the Hand of God, and no man, can you take you out.
“Jesus does not say “saved.” He references enlightened.”
I assume you are now referencing this passage in Hebrews:
““For it is impossible to renew to repentance those who were once enlightened,
who tasted the heavenly gift,
who shared in the Holy Spirit,
who tasted God’s good word and the powers of the coming age,
and who have fallen away.”
He does NOT just use the word “enlightened. They have “tasted the heavenly gift” - which most likely refers to the gift of salvation (see Ephesians 2). They have “shared in the Holy Spirit” - and we are one based on the One Spirit, who seals us in Christ:
“And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit...” - Ephesians 1:13
They have “tasted God’s good word and the powers of the coming age”. And after all this, they have fallen away.
I don’t know how the writer of Hebrews could have been any clearer. It is almost as if he was divinely inspired to describe someone who had genuinely converted and believed, fully!
One can certainly “be unborn”. It is called “dying”.
Calvin was a lawyer in his 20s when he dared to write a book on theology, influenced by Augustine. He should have spent more time reading and studying and praying rather than trying to summarize God. His failure to understand what “election” means drove him to emphasize a couple dozen verse about it over and above many hundreds of verses about faith - and about continuing on in faith!
The Israelites were the Chosen People of God, not as individuals, but corporately - as a group. Being Chosen in the New Testament is similar. Those who meet the preconditions - birth to Jewish parents in the old, birth in the Spirit in the new - are collectively “chosen”.
“(1) Election is Christocentric, i.e., election of humans occurs only in union with Jesus Christ. “He chose us in him” (Eph. 1:4; see 1:1, note). Jesus himself is first of all the elect of God. Concerning Jesus, God states, “Here is my servant whom I have chosen” (Mt 12:18; cf. Isa 42:1, 6; 1 Pet 2:4). Christ, as the elect, is the foundation of our election. Only in union with Christ do we become members of the elect (Eph 1:4, 6-7, 9-10, 12-13). No one is elect apart from union with Christ through faith.
(2) Election is “in him…through his blood” (Eph 1:7). God purposed before creation (Eph. 1:4) to form a people through Christ’s redemptive death on the cross. Thus election is grounded on Christ’s sacrificial death to save us from our sins (Ac 20:28; Ro 3:24-26).
(3) Election in Christ is primarily corporate, i.e., an election of a people (Eph 1:4-5, 7, 9). The elect are called “the body of Christ” (4:12), “my church” (Mt 16:18), “a people belonging to God” (1 Pe 2:9), and the “bride” of Christ (Rev 19:7). Therefore, election is corporate and embraces individual persons only as they identify and associate themselves with the body of Christ, the true church (Eph 1:22-23; see Robert Shank, Elect in the Son, [Minneapolis: Bethany House Publishers]). This was true already of Israel in the OT (see Dt 29:18-21, note; 2Ki 21:14, note; see article on God’s Covenant with the Israelites, p. 298).
(4) The election to salvation and holiness of the body of Christ is always certain. But the certainty of election for individuals remains conditional on their personal living faith in Jesus Christ and perseverance in union with him....
(b) Fulfillment of this purpose for the corporate church is certain: Christ will “present her to himself as a radiant church…holy and blameless” (Eph 5:27). (c) Fulfillment of this purpose for individuals in the church is conditional. Christ will present us “holy and blameless in his sight” (Eph 1:4) only if we continue in the faith. Paul states this clearly: Christ will “present you holy in his sight without blemish…if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel” (Col 1:22-23)....
...Summary. Concerning election and predestination, we might use the analogy of a great ship on its way to heaven. The ship (the church) is chosen by God to be his very own vessel. Christ is the Captain and Pilot of this ship. All who desire to be a part of this elect ship and its Captain can do so through a living faith in Christ, by which they come on board the ship. As long as they are on the ship, in company with the ship’s Captain, they are among the elect. If they choose to abandon the ship and Captain, they cease to be part of the elect. Election is always only in union with the Captain and his ship. Predestination tells us about the ship’s destination and what God has prepared for those remaining on it. God invites everyone to come aboard the elect ship through faith in Jesus Christ. [Life in the Spirit Study Bible, pp. 1854-1855]
The problem isn’t the scripture, but Calvin’s wrong interpretation of it. Election is a wonderful doctrine, but Calvin’s understanding of it conflicts with most of the New Testament (and Old).
A few chapters later, the writer of Hebrews says:
“In this confidence let us hold on to the hope that we profess without the slightest hesitation—for he is utterly dependable—and let us think of one another and how we can encourage each other to love and do good deeds. And let us not hold aloof from our church meetings, as some do. Let us do all we can to help one another’s faith, and this the more earnestly as we see the final day drawing ever nearer.
26-31 Now if we sin deliberately after we have known and accepted the truth, there can be no further sacrifice for sin for us but only a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fire of God’s indignation, which will one day consume all that sets itself against him. The man who showed contempt for Moses’ Law died without hope of appeal on the evidence of two or three of his fellows. How much more dreadful a punishment will he be thought to deserve who has poured scorn on the Son of God, treated like dirt the blood of the agreement which had once made him holy, and insulted the very Spirit of grace?” - (Chapter 10)
Also see: https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/bnb/hebrews-10.html
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