2 John 9-11 roundup

1.  James White’s excellent exegesis of 2 John 9-11

http://www.aomin.org/aoblog/2017/06/30/2-john-9-11-examined/

2.  Answering Sam Shamoun’s questions on 2 John 9-11

3.  My own initial exegesis of 2 John 9-11 in light of the current controversy.

4.  Recent Dividing line program from minute 56 until the end.  Dr. White shows that all the accusations of these Brannon Howse type – End Times Millennial Madness types (Jimmy DeYoung) –  patriotic/political Christians are totally wrong in the way they are using 2 John 9-11.

They accused Dr. White of relegating 2 John 9-11 as not even applicable at all to today. (Shahram Hadian said that).  (I am very disappointed in him, as he is Iranian, and I have learned his language and culture and I would have hoped for a more reasonable response from him.)  That is just not true.  (that Dr. White made 2 John 9-11 not even applicable at all for today)  Of course Islamic theology is an anti-Christ theology, etc. ( 2 John 7, 1 John 2:18-27; 4:1-6), and see my two articles above), but the point is this:  they (Muslims in general, Dr. Qadhi, and other Muslims who came to the 2 events of the Dialogue) are unreached unbelievers, and also are in communities that are typically separated from us and they usually don’t know much about true Christianity and have not met a true Christian; they are not former Christians or apostates who have left the church or false teachers who have infiltrated the church and are trying to deceive the believers in the church.  Again, the context of “going too far”  (2 John 9) and “not abiding in the doctrine of Christ” (2 John 9) along with “they went out from among us, because they were not really of us; in order that it might be shown that they were not really of us” (1 John 2:19) proves that this is about former church members and those that claimed to be Christians, apostates who claimed to be Christians and now have left the church, and there is plenty of application directly to false teachers today, liberal theologians and pastors and other heretics, like those who claim to be “Evangelical” and say that homosexuality is not a sin and that homosexuals can be married.

These verses cannot mean “don’t ever do hospitality outreach and invite unbelievers into your home” – that contradicts so many other passages on evangelism and mission – having people into our home and visiting them in their homes over a meal and talking to them about Jesus and the truths of Scripture is one of the MAIN ways to reach Muslims – a proper application of 1 Corinthians 9:19-23; the principle of ethne (nation, culture, ethnicity) – “all the nations” (Matthew 28:19; Revelation 5:9), the passages in the gospels that speak about Jesus eating with sinners and tax-collectors (Matthew 9, Luke 5), the way Jesus interacted with the Samaritan woman in John 4; and the passages in Acts where Paul engaged people with dialogue, reasoning, back and forth, listening to the other side so as to accurately understand what you are going to refute (Greek: διαλεγομαι) – Acts 17:2-4; Acts 17:11; Acts 17:17; Acts 18:4, 18:19; 19:8.

If a Christian wants to invite a Jehovah’s Witness or Mormon or homosexual in for a meal, to talk with them, I have no problem with that; that is a needed thing; but they should be equipped to deal with their arguments.  The same goes for out reach to Roman Catholics – the former Evangelical Roman Catholics usually have a lot of arguments from church history and historical theology and philosophy, and certain texts that most Evangelicals have not thought about before, so they should be equipped in those areas of apologetics before undertaking a heavy theological discussion with those type folks.  But the verses in 2 John 9-11 simply do not rule out all hospitality to unbelievers or cults.    If someone was a false teacher and left your local church or was disciplined, of course, they should apply the principles of Matthew 18:15-20.  This should be obvious.

Also,  verse 11 cannot mean “don’t give unbelievers like Muslims, don’t even give them a greeting” – that would contradict Matthew 5:46-47:

 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? ⁴⁷ If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?

If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?  Matthew 5:47

Listen to the Dividing Line show from minute 55 or 56 until the end for application to 2 John 9-11 and the controversy around Dr. White/Brannon Howse/ Dr. Qadhi, etc.  The first part is excellent also, as Dr. White analyzes comments by William Lane Craig and apologetic methodology, etc.