Calvary Temple Stoning
Numbers 15:32-36. It was ancient Bible times, and millions of Israelites were making the great trek to the Promised Land. God had laid down some very specific instructions that carried some heavy consequences. For instance, Exodus 31:15:
Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day shall be put to death.
The Israelites weren't living in air conditioned or heated houses with a grocery store down the street. They were working and fighting to survive by whatever means necessary. The desert evenings typically get very cold, and fires were probably crucial for survival. That sets the tone for a very serious scene in Scripture:
While the people of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath day. And those who found him gathering sticks brought him to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation. They put him in custody, because it had not been made clear what should be done to him. And the Lord said to Moses, “The man shall be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp.” And all the congregation brought him outside the camp and stoned him to death with stones, as the Lord commanded Moses.
An extremely harsh situation. This man did not appear to have nefarious intentions (like Achan at another time). Instead he was collecting sticks, most likely to ensure that his family was warm and/or protected from the wild animals that frequented those parts. God's response in the Old Testament? Kill him. Moses and Aaron carried down the sentence as two people who physically heard from God. The entire group picked up stones and killed the man. How grim.
When Jesus came, something changed. Matthew 12: 1-14 describes two separate occasions in which Jesus violated the sabbath in order to carry forward the ministry and care for others:
1 At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them. 2 When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, “Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.”
3 He answered, “Haven’t you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? 4 He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread—which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests. 5 Or haven’t you read in the Law that the priests on Sabbath duty in the temple desecrate the Sabbath and yet are innocent? 6 I tell you that something greater than the temple is here. 7 If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’[a] you would not have condemned the innocent. 8 For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”
9 Going on from that place, he went into their synagogue, 10 and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Looking for a reason to bring charges against Jesus, they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”
11 He said to them, “If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out? 12 How much more valuable is a person than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”
13 Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” So he stretched it out and it was completely restored, just as sound as the other. 14 But the Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus.
The Pharisees immediately wanted to kill Jesus….not simply because he violated the Sabbath, but because he eroded their authority to enforce the "letter of the law" against the people. But as Jesus explained later in Matthew 5:17:
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.
The spirit of Jesus was not to create new laws that could be used to hold more people in bondage, but to change their hearts. As their hearts changed, they would either follow him, or they wouldn't.
John 8: 1-11
1 Jesus went unto the mount of Olives.
2 And early in the morning he came again into the temple, and all the people came unto him; and he sat down, and taught them.
3 And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst,
4 They say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act.
5 Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou?
6 This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not.
7 So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.
8 And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground.
9 And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.
10 When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee?
11 She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.
Compare this with the Scripture in Leviticus 20:10:
“If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.
That woman should have been killed. She should have been stoned to death. Instead, Jesus focused on mercy. He told her, "Go and sin no more." He didn't require her to follow him around. He didn't threaten to report her to the Pharisees again if she went back to the man that she was committing adultery with. He just told to her stop. Hopefully she listened. We don't know, and Jesus never tracked her down again (as much as we know).
As we can see, Jesus was more concerned with the matters of the heart. "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy."
In fact, we never see Jesus deal with any sinner in a negative way. Instead he met their needs, and pointed out the reasons they weren't able to follow him. But then he let them alone.
Star ignores most of the stoning passages, just like Jesus. He doesn't major on the Sabbath, and he doesn't force people to rest. I've never seen him kick a member out and treat them "as dead" because the member air fried some chicken wings while watching the NFL game.
There have been numerous cases of adultery in the church, and most members are still part of the church. They have never been treated as dead.
He does have two stoning passages that he seems to abide by more than others:
“If your brother, the son of your mother, or your son or your daughter or the wife you embrace or your friend who is as your own soul entices you secretly, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods,’ which neither you nor your fathers have known, some of the gods of the peoples who are around you, whether near you or far off from you, from the one end of the earth to the other, you shall not yield to him or listen to him, nor shall your eye pity him, nor shall you spare him, nor shall you conceal him. But you shall kill him. Your hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. You shall stone him to death with stones, because he sought to draw you away from the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
18 “If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and, though they discipline him, will not listen to them, 19 then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gate of the place where he lives, 20 and they shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This our son is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.’ 21 Then all the men of the city shall stone him to death with stones. So you shall purge the evil from your midst, and all Israel shall hear, and fear.
Now both of these scenarios aren't recommended. As a Christian, you should not entice people to serve other gods. Don't do it. Likewise children should not be rebellious. But the ability to stone in these scenarios are no more correct than the ability to stone an adulterer or a breaker of the Sabbath.
Calvary Temple's stoning is not exactly the way you would expect either. Instead of using real live stones, pebbles, or even dirt clumps, Star ex-communicates them. He treats them like the people in Titus & 2 Thess who are disorderly.
Finally, the interpretation he uses is completely off.
The first verse deals with anyone who says to serve other gods. Very few people come back to CT and tell the members to not be Christians. Instead, they might tell the members that they don't have to keep the many traditions that CT has invented. Or they might tell the members that Star Scott was an fornicator, adulterer, and pedophile (making him ineligible for ministry). In those cases, there is no precedent for these people to be treated as dead. In fact, according to the Old Testament, Star should have been stoned.
The second verse deals with an ongoing rebellious child. This has been used to justify cutting off any child who leaves Calvary Temple, and there is no precedent for this in Scripture. Leaving a church and going to another isn't unbiblical (without some stretching), and we can't choose to stone in this situation only. Instead, let's deal with them the same way that Jesus dealt with adultery. "Go and sin no more".
Now Star will try to cover over all of these Scriptures by making some generic statements. My guess would be, "This is the spirit of the anti-christ which exalts man, and makes the laws of God of no effect." But we need to redefine how to deal with sin. Yes, we are to reprove sin, but we are not the ones to bring the consequences towards those who simply leave the church. The leaders of the church don't get to make up laws. They too are beholden to the principles. If they don't hold to the reality of Scripture then THEY are false prophets.
We all are responsible to pursue salvation. Don't turn off your brains. Figure out where you stand. Star is not the pope, and neither are infallible. Focus on truth and stand for it.
