"When partiality is present, discernment necessarily dies."
When you hitch your wagon to a particular team, you will inevitably end up defending everything they do to your own embarrassment and chastisement. You cannot show partiality or favour to anyone. You cannot use one standard to judge those you have hitched your wagon to, and use another standard to judge everyone else. That is known as hypocrisy. What was it Jesus said again?
"Do not judge so that you will not be judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with what measure you measure, it will be measured to you. And why do you look at the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye, and behold, the log is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye" (Matt. 7:1-5).
All these Christians who fancy themselves to be "Discernment Ministers" are nothing but frauds, lairs, and charlatans. They judge those who are not part of their particular circle according to their deeds, but their personal partners and friends in ministry who commit the same deeds they either ignore or attempt to make excuses for. These Christians are not loyal to Jesus the way the early Christians were. They are loyal to the sales of their products, their material possessions, and their money. Not to mention each other.
In order to serve as an elder in the early Congregation, a man had to be willing to lay down everything--beginning with material possessions--for Christ. Elders did not leave their secular occupations in exchange for a middle-class salary from their congregation. In fact, it was considered heretical for a congregation to pay any salary to its elders. Instead, congregations financially maintained their elders on the same basis as they supported widows, orphans, and the like. This meant that elders had the necessities of life and little else. (see Hermas The Shepherd bk. 2, comm. 11; Clement Miscellanies bk. 1, chap. 1; Apollonius Agaisnt Montanus; Tertullian Heretics, chap. 41.)
Do you think such individuals as John MacArthur, Phil Johnson, Ray Comfort, Kirk Cameron, Todd Friel, Justin Peters, or any of these other guys would ever elect to live according to such conditions? That would be a wager you would lose ten times over. These people commit sacrilege, sin, and error, and do you think any of them calls their friends and ministry partners out on it? Of course not. That would be bad for business. You would not be invited to the next godless conference. Why do I say these "Christian" conferences are godless? Because the early Christians believed it to be heretical to receive money for the gospel or the things of Christ. "Freely you received, freely give" (Matt. 10:8).
You cannot show partiality or favour to your own husband, wife, child(ren), families, friends, etc. You cannot judge them with one standard and everyone else with another standard. This is hypocritical. When family, friends, or colleagues do questionable things, you should be twice as quick to call them out on it and hold them accountable as you would be to a complete stranger. Especially if they profess to be Christians. When you point this egregious oversight out to such individuals, rather than apologize and repent in humility, they lash out at you using the same tactics employed by those who have no argument and cannot address the main point.
Someone obviously needs to explain to such individuals as John MacArthur, Phil Johnson, Ray Comfort, Kirk Cameron, Todd Friel, Justin Peters, Chris Rosebrough, Jordan D. Hall, etc., that it is better to do the right thing and to lose friends, lose gigs, lose money, lose jobs, etc., than to willfully turn a blind eye to the corruption they are engaged in. I could pull up sermon after sermon and podcast after podcast from these people talking about this precise issue, and yet they are completely numb when they are committing it themselves. They profess to have discernment and yet are discernment handicapped. Irony and hypocrisy are lost on these people.
If you are showing partiality and favour to your friends and partners in ministry, then you lack wisdom. According to Scripture, you are a fool. Stop making excuses for those you have hitched your wagon to and start behaving the way Christ compels you to. Jesus was constantly torqued with the Pharisees and Sadducees because of their hypocrisy. How do you think He would feel about your hypocrisy?
Justin Peters calls out David Jeremiah and Beth Moore for collaborating with Matt and Laurie Crouch and fundraising for the godless TBN network, and yet he refuses to open his hypocritical mouth when his close pals Ray Comfort, Kirk Cameron, Ken Ham, etc., do the same thing. In fact, John MacArthur even shows up on TBN now. Mr. Peters fancies himself some kind of "Discernment Minister" and yet has zero discernment when it comes to those he has tossed his hat in with. If he does notice, he certainly does not open his mouth. Why? Because it would be bad for business and Mr. Peters cares more about himself than He does the character and likeness of Christ.
The early Christians were truly counter cultural. They were against divorce, abortion, R-rated entertainment, high fashion and low modesty, etc. They possessed character, honour, and integrity, unlike many professing Christians today. They were entirely loyal to Jesus, and their lives demonstrated it. They did not just talk the talk (like most professing Christians today), but they walked the walk (even unto death). They produced genuine fruit. Read the works of the early Christians from A.D. 70 to 300 and compare their words with the teachings of the "good guys," as Justin Peters calls them. Is Justin aware that many of the beliefs of the "good guys" were considered heretical by the early Christians? Yet these "good guys" attempt to label the beliefs of the early Christians, which they had received at the hands of the apostles, as "heretical."
By the way, these ministers are not the only hypocrites engaging in this godless behaviour. Hundreds of laymen engage in the same godless behaviour, attempting to come to the defense of their particular favourite race horse, exposing their own hypocrisy. They have blindly committed themselves and hitched their wagon to these people as well. The only person you should be committed to is Christ Jesus and His Word!
If the words out of your mouth are "John MacArthur this, John MacArthur that," or "Charles Spurgeon this, Charles Spurgeon that," or "John Calvin this, John Calvin that," or insert any other man's name there, you are an idolater. When such men are in error, or are committing error, and you attempt to make excuses for them or come to their defense, you expose yourself as a hypocrite. You are obviously not familiar with what the Bible teaches you, or you simply do not care. In the case of the former, you are ignorant, but in the case of the later, you are a heretic and a fraud.
Do not hitch your wagon to any minister or ministry. This includes me. Doing so will render you unable to exercise biblical discernment and to hold such individuals or ministries to account. You can follow particular men, but do not hitch your wagon to them. This is wisdom. By turning a blind eye or making excuses for them, you become a partaker in their sin. You need to be discerning in every moment. All it takes is one instance where you lack discernment and suddenly you have deviated from the straight and narrow.
Find individuals who are seeking for the truth and conforming themselves to that truth regardless of how they were raised, what they were taught, or what they might presently believe. Watch them grow in their faith as they reform and conform themselves to God's truth. But never blindly hitch yourself to them, because all it takes is that one instance. You should be able to spot their bad footing and catch them, keeping them on the right path. Christianity is not a solitary religion, it is a communal religion. Every member of the body needs every other member of the body. That is how the body functions. I am not perfect, nor will I ever be all by myself. I need others just as much as you do. We are not islands unto ourselves.
The sad state of reality is that the modern congregation, or "church," is extremely lacking in discernment. The so-called "Discernment Ministers" (Bible Thumping Wingnut Network, Conversations That Matter, Fighting For the Faith, Justin Peters Ministries, Polite Leader, Pulpit & Pen, ReformedWiki2.0, Right Response Ministries, Wretched, etc.) expose themselves regularly as not possessing any actual discernment. What they call "discernment" is nothing more than opinion. While some of their theologically dogmatic opinions are right, some of their theologically dogmatic opinions are entirely wrong. If you compared some of that John MacArthur believes and teaches with the the early Christians, do you think he would be humble enough to admit he is wrong and to correct those beliefs, conforming them with the Scriptures and the early Christians? Of course not! Mr. MacArthur thinks way too highly of himself. He may even believe his own press, that he is the Evangelical Pope, as Todd Friel frequently calls him.
All Christians are to exercise discernment. No Christians are to show partiality and favouritism to anybody, blindly hitching their wagon to them. By doing so, you make yourself to be a partaker in their sins. Basically, you are aiding and abetting their crimes, and then either turning a blind eye or attempting to make excuses for them. This is godless behaviour unbecoming of those who profess the name of Christ.
By the way, why is it that men who stand on idolatrous pedestals always tend to have a right-hand henchman to fire shots across the nose of anyone who attempts to call them out and hold them accountable? Tim LaHaye had Thomas Ice, James "Jacob" Prasch has David Lister, and John MacArthur has Phil Johnson. If you have ever listened to or read Mr. Johnson's responses to those who call Mr. MacArthur to task, he is less than charitable with his responses and always resorts to spewing ad hominem. He is incapable of being honest. He behaves exactly like the true heretics of the "church," Augustine, Calvin, and Luther. The early Christians would have labeled these men as heretics and liars, because all three have ignored, denied, and rejected the Words of Jesus, contradicting Him and teaching their own opinions instead.