The head of my church recently told me that an old believer was enticed by heresy.
I remember that she was a fervent sister who followed Jesus for decades. She always cleaned the church early on Sunday mornings and left late after services. She actively enrolled in the preparation for church Christmas programs and gave vivid performances in dances and Biblical plays.
She had a happy well-to-do family: her husband ran a business and her two sons were close in age. Her family built a two-story house long ago in the village. Many matchmakers went to her home to suggest spouses for her sons and she was grateful for this.
Everybody liked her. She was modest and took food to whichever church member was sick. Later she became a deacon in the reelection of the church administrative board and more fervent in the church ministry since then. The church leader said then that our church would have revived if the other believers in the church were like her.
However, one day her husband was suddenly struck with a cerebral hemorrhage. Prompt rescue saved his life but left him partially paralyzed. The family business had to be suspended. She paid the treatment fee with almost all the deposits and transferred the business. Nonetheless, her husband didn't recover his health. Her faith didn't weaken. She still drove a rickshaw to carry her husband on a stretcher to the church every Sunday. Then she put him in a church pew. At first, some believers in her village gave her a hand by pushing her cart, but as time went on, they dwindled.
Her smile faded away due to her husband's illness. There was almost no tithing or offering from her family because she had no source of income after her husband got ill. Even so, she was so strong that she started to followed other people in a small business to support her family. However, a lot of church members opposed her, asking how could a deacon neglect God's ministry for business. Her business didn't last long and was eventually abandoned. She kept driving her husband to church on a muddy road every Sunday.
Since her husband fell ill, matchmakers never visited her home. The marriage of her sons became an anxiety to her.
Then she went to the church and the members prayed for her. In the beginning, they seemed patient to pray for her, but their patience was exhausted over time. Seeing that she was wailing and praying in the prayer room, lots of people refused to enter it, fearing that she would hold some of them to pray for her sons. Later the church leader tactfully told her not to ask the congregation to pray for her. Since then, she didn't ask the church to pray for her family. Moreover, she spent less time attending services. This fell short of a deacon's standard, so the church decided to elect a deacon to replace her.
And then her two sons both got married, but their bad marriages ended in divorce. That was a great blow and a deep hurt for her sons and herself. She went to the church even less, resulting in comments being gradually raised about her. Some even stated that God punished her for her sin. Other people said that her faith was being tested by God to examine whether God was really in her heart. They all agreed that one would attend services after encountering any disaster if he put God in his heart.
Much later, she seldom appeared in services and gatherings...
I was told that she became a follower of the heresy "Association of Disciples" (Mentuhui).
One day the church leader and I went to visit her home. The leader said to her, "Don't be perverse. Come back to the church. You are sinning and God is not pleased with this. Didn't you hear in the church that 'Association of Disciples' is a heresy that harms people and its adherents would go to hell? "
"However, they are nice to me." She answered slowly.
"The Bible says that even Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light." He added.
"They don't pretend to act like that. They really treat me well, helping me with the housework and finding jobs for my children." She replied slowly.
The other church workers tried to persuade her as well, but she got upset and eventually kicked us out.
"(She was) so rebellious!" the leader said, "I should not have visited her since it wasted my love."
I later left that church to work as a free preacher.
I hope that the article will be a lesson to arouse reflection from the church.
- Translated by Karen Luo
