There have been many false and demonic accusations of my wife, myself, and our supporters on the Topix blogs.  The following article may help you put them in perspective. 

A Pastor’s Guide on How to Handle Accusations According to Scripture

PART ONE

"Satan is called “the accuser of our brothers” in Rev. 12:10 because making malicious and slanderous accusations has always been the way that he opposes God and His servants.

1. The Book of Job is the first revelation of God and Satan accused Job of many evil things. Even though three witnesses accused him of evil, yet their testimonies were rejected by God because they did not know what they were talking about. They did not have all the information needed to make such accusations.

2. In Genesis 3, Satan accused God of many evil things and man fell into sin and guilt by believing these accusations against God.

3. Throughout the history of redemption, the devil accused the Patriarchs, prophets, apostles, Jesus, and Paul of many evil and vile things.

a. Sanballat made many accusations of a serious nature against Nehemiah and sent out public letters with these slanders far and wide. He gathered together people who supported his accusations against Nehemiah. Nehemiah refused to answer these accusations and instead kept doing what God called him to do (Neh. 4-6).

b. Moses was accused by Korah and his friends of many evil things. Even though they gathered together and all agreed that Moses was evil, God rejected their testimonies and judged their slander against Moses with death and destruction. (Num. 16)

c. Jesus was accused of being immoral, a drunk, a glutton, blasphemy, demonpossessed, a traitor who sought the violent overthrow of Rome, rejecting Moses, and witnesses were brought forward at his trial who verified that all these accusations were true.

d. The soldiers at the empty tomb gave their witness that the tomb was empty because the disciples came and stole the body of Jesus. But their testimony was rejected as not credible. They had something to gain by giving a false witness. The testimony of five hundred witnesses was accepted as valid.

e. Paul was accused with serious accusations and his enemies even hired a lawyer who brought law suits against him (Acts 24:1-9). He was accused of being a liar, a thief, a fraud, etc. Even though many of his enemies got together and gave united testimonies against his character and motives, he ignored them. People who had been “hurt” by a pastor usually have a vengeful spirit and thus will say or do anything to hurt that pastor or church. Their testimonies are prejudicial and cannot be viewed as objective or neutral.

f. If we went through Heb. 11 and examined the history of the great men of biblical history, they all were accused of many evil things.

4. Church history records that all faithful ministers were accused of many vile things. Athanasius was accused of murder. Calvin was accused of burning Servetus. Luther was slandered as mentally ill. Whitfield, Spurgeon, Edwards, etc. were all slandered and maligned by their enemies.

5. All pastors must take to heart that accusations and slander are part of a faithful ministry (John 15:18-2; 2 Tim. 3:12).

6. Recent examples would be the internet accusations against Jerry Falwell, Francis Schaeffer, James Kennedy, John MacArthur, etc..

PART TWO

Since anyone can get on the internet and accuse people of anything they want, godly pastors and ministries are attacked and maligned every day. This was documented by the following three books:

1. Character Assassins: Dealing with Ecclesiastical Tyrants and Terrorists by Peter Hammond and Brian Abshire

2. Clergy Killers: Guidance for Pastors and Congregations Under Attack by G. Lloyd Rediger

3. The Wounded Minister: Healing from and Preventing Personal Attacks by Guy Greenfield

The damage done by internet bloggers is great. Churches have been destroyed and reputations ruined by groundless slander and gossip. No wonder that the word “slander” comes from the word “devil.” It is demonic in power and goal. No good ever comes of it and is it used by Satan to oppose anyone who is faithful to God and the Word.

The following questions should be used when confronted by slander and gossip.

All accusations are not equal. Scripture forbids accepting different kinds of accusations.  (ex. 1Tim. 5:19)

1. Does this accusation concern a biblically defined “sin” according to specific biblical texts? What Scripture clearly states that this is real sin?

Note: Accusations are often differences of opinion of how a situation or person should been handled or normal ministerial judgments. One pastor was asked by the Board of his new established church to place the Sunday offering in his safe until Monday morning. Since the offering was counted and recorded by church staff, and no one else had a safe to keep it secure, he agreed. But a disgruntled member accused the pastor of the “sin” of keeping the offering overnight in his

safe. Where in Scripture is this called a sin? Did the accuser have any evidence that the pastor stole one penny? No. Was he an eyewitness to any theft? No. The keeping of the offering in a safe overnight was a wise and prudent way to protect it from theft. The church was later able to purchase a safe.

2. Valid accusations concern clear moral or doctrinal wrongdoing, not ministerial judgments. One pastor was slandered because he canceled a church picnic due to tornado warning. Pastors make all kinds of judgments everyday and should not allow others to criticize them for what they preach, how they counsel, the discipline they enact (Tit. 2:15).

3. Does this accusation judge the motives or heart? Such accusations violate 1 Cor.  4:1-5. Accusations concerning pride, greed, lust, mean spiritedness, etc, are not valid. No prophet or apostle ever accused anyone of pride. One pastor was slandered by a woman in his congregation because she “felt” him undressing her

with his eyes during the sermon!

4. What are the names, addresses, and telephone numbers of the people who made the accusations?  Note: If an accusation is anonymous, it should be dismissed at once. Also, the internet is filled with people who pretend to be someone else by using other people’s names. One pastor was victimized by someone who sent out filthy emails in the pastor’s name. Before accepting the accusation of anyone on the internet, you must research to see if he or she actually exists and if they are credible.

5. Did this accusation come from someone who is a firsthand eyewitness to the issue? One pastor was accused of immorality on the basis of groundless internet rumors. Another pastor was accused of being in the Mafia and other foolish accusations. The burden of proof rests on the accuser, not the accused.

6. Does the accusation come from a credible witness? The host of witnesses against Moses, Jesus, Paul, etc. were not credible as they were all personally opposed to Moses, Jesus, and Paul. Thus they acted in collusion with an agenda in mind. A neutral witness is always preferred to those who have an axe to grind. One pastor was accused of being a thief in the presence of the denomination’s representative. The representative asked if the accuser had any bank records or

other hard evidence and discovered that he did not have any evidence. He called the book keeper and found that the pastor was not guilty of any theft whatsoever. The issue concerned ministerial support, which is not moral or doctrinal in nature. The issue was not a biblically defined sin. The neutral representative supported the pastor and met with the congregation to give his witness. The accuser resigned but sought revenge by blogging slanderous attacks against the pastor and the representative. When you attack someone personally, it is a sure sign that you have no evidence to back up your accusations.

7. Does this accusation come from a single witness? Deut. 19 and 1 Tim. 5:19 forbid listening to a single witness. Thus all “he said/she said” single testimonies should be thrown out. There is no way to find out what was supposedly said during a phone call unless it was recorded. A pastor was accused by a man who admitted that he had no witnesses to back up his accusations and he himself did not personally see anything either. No witness and single witness testimonies are unbiblical.

8. If several witnesses rise up as a group, were they all present at the same time and place and witnessed the same biblically defined sin? One accuser gathered together several disgruntled ex-members and accused a pastor of being “mean.”  This nebulous accusation of the heart was invalid because several single  witnesses are still only single witnesses. Ten people got together and signed a statement that a pastor was a liar. But they were not eyewitnesses to the same

lie, at the same time and place. They offered no evidence to support their accusation. They foolishly thought that just because ten people called the pastor a liar, it proved that he was a liar. It is called the ad populum fallacy. Moses, Nehemiah, Isaiah, Jesus and Paul would have been convicted as sinners by the united witnesses of enemies.

9. Is the accuser trying to redeem his reputation or the reputation of a friend by slandering the pastor or elders of the church? A book keeper was exposed as a thief by two CP accountants, bank records, and the Arbitrator called in to adjudicate the issue. Instead of hiring his own accountants and dealing with the bank records, he slandered the pastor in the hope that if could discredit him people would not listen to the accountants, banks, and Arbitrator. This is called the “red herring” fallacy. Another man claimed to have been ordained an elder by his pastor when this was a lie. When the video of the service was examined, the man was only given a license to preach along with nine other people and the pastor repeatedly stated that a license to preach does not make anyone a pastor or elder. Videos, audio recordings, and written documents always negate accusations that do not have such facts behind them.

10. Did the accuser first go in private to the pastor before putting his accusations on the internet, in letters or phone calls? Slanderers usually go to everyone else but to the man they are slandering. If an accuser did not follow Matt. 18 by first going in private to the pastor he is slandering, his accusation must be rejected as

unbiblical. Anyone who receives such accusations is sinning by listening to gossip. One pastor was invited to a meeting where he was asked to deal with accusations that he had never heard. He was blindsided by the unethical behavior of those who called the meeting.

CONCLUSION

The above ten points give us a biblical way to handle the slander and gossip that come against pastors today. Church history always judges a pastor by the works he accomplished- not by the slander of his critics. While we remember the good done by Spurgeon, no one remembers the slander of his many enemies. Slander is badge of honor to the servants of the most maligned Man who ever lived. If their Master was so treated, it is no surprise if they also bear the cross of slander in their ministry."

Reference

Unknown Author,  2009, Located on 1-22-09 at:

http://faithdefenders.com/wp- content/uploads/2008/11/pastors_guide_to_handling_accusations1.pdf.