Beware of Trojan Horses - Pastor Stacey Shiflett

Trojan Horses are a real threat to our churches. The phrase comes from the ancient Greek story of the Trojan Horse in the Iliad. The Greeks, unable to defeat the city of Troy through traditional warfare, built a large wooden horse and hid soldiers inside it. They pretended it was a gift and left it outside the city gates. The Trojans brought it inside, and at night, the Greek soldiers emerged and opened the gates for the rest of the army—leading to Troy’s downfall.

Earlier this week, I posted a warning on Facebook in reference to a video that was available on a church's livestream. As usual, people either didn’t read the post, or they got so emotionally distraught that they totally missed the whole point of the post.

That, along with Satan’s usual tactic to distort and confuse, the message was completely lost to many people and turned into a flurry of debate about music styles and the autonomy of the local church.

My post had NOTHING to do with those two issues.

Let me be perfectly clear about this. Again. What you do at your church is NONE of my business.

As I said in the post, you can paint your steeple purple with orange polka dots. I don’t care.

·        You can use a set of drums for your pulpit. Go for it!

·        You can serve Cokes and tacos for the Lord’s Supper. It’s none of my business.

·        You can bring Jelly Roll and Taylor Swift in for your Youth Conference. It’s your church.

I DON’T CARE! I don’t agree with it, but IT’S NOT MY CONCERN.

What IS my business is protecting my preacher friends and their young people from a possible Trojan Horse IF I THINK THAT IS WHAT IT MIGHT BE.

If you are bringing Trojan Horses into your churches, and I know what it is, and you don't, it’s partially my fault.

The issue that got totally obscured by emotional responses and carnal lack of discernment is this – if you know something that preachers NEED TO KNOW and you know they would WANT TO KNOW, you must tell them! You have to.

When a church or pastor has a very clear position on an issue, regardless of what it is, and they bring in someone that is living in direct contradiction to that issue, THAT is a Trojan Horse.

A Trojan Horse can be a preacher, a singer, a music group, a song, even a staff member.

It might look great and have a lot of admirable qualities, but what is hiding beneath the surface that might harm your church?

What is the long-term negative effects of bringing that into the church?

Only time will tell. But it will happen. Guaranteed.

If that is not a concern to you, then fine. Bring it in.

Roll it through the front door and thank the enemy for their generosity.

Celebrate it, enjoy it and flaunt it until your heart’s content.

Assume all is well and have yourself a good time!

You can even call it "anointed" if it makes everybody happy.

But don’t be surprised when the hidden dangers manifest themselves.

Don’t act shocked when it doesn’t end like you thought it would.

That was the WHOLE POINT of my post.

(I cannot believe how many people missed the point!)

When you bring a man in to preach to your church, YOU NEED TO KNOW WHAT YOU’RE BRINGING IN.

If you’re ok with him preaching on modesty in your church when he doesn’t agree with or practice your definition of modesty, then go ahead. Book him for your Youth Conference.

If you’re OK with him warning your young people about the dangers of the “wrong “kind of music, but you and he do not even agree on what “wrong music” even is, then go for it.

If you’re fine with your young people pulling up that preacher’s livestream services and getting hooked on the Hillsong, Elevation and Bethel CCM music at his church that you preach against, then fine; roll with it.

But the fact of the matter is, he’s changed. You might not have known it, but he changed.

That is not in doubt. Understand something.

We have preached together. We have worshipped together. I've heard him preach many times and was blessed immensely. He is a phenomenal singer and preacher.

No doubt many souls have been saved in his ministry. I’m sure of it.

God has used him in ways we won't know until we all get to Heaven.

And when he almost died with COVID, we prayed fervently for him.

All that being said, he changed.

And many of the men he preaches for had NO IDEA.

I know this because I preach for some of them. And with them.

And they called me and TOLD me how shocked they were at what they learned from the video link I posted.

I reached out to him Monday to express my concerns and confusion and intreated him to change course. He told me that he hasn't changed or drifted.

But he has. We all know it.

The Recovering Fundamentalists are congratulating him for changing.

They are rejoicing in his courage to leave the dry, dusty hymnbook and get with the program.

Even the Bad Preacher Clips video scorners and mockers are defending him.

Trust me - they don't defend old time religion. EVER!

He used to preach against CCM, to thousands of young people, in churches all over America - but now he embraces it, encourages it and enjoys it. SEE PROOF HERE:

That’s his business. That’s his right. That’s his liberty as a Christian.

But to preach against one thing at YOUR church, but then do it at HIS church is a problem.

To change that drastically and NOT TELL the men you've been preaching for IS A PROBLEM.

To stand next to me and pretend to be like me when you're not IS A REAL PROBLEM.

The Trojan Horse is when your kids leave the service where he just preached and then does a deep dive on their cellphones into his ministry. Now you've got a problem.

The Trojan Horse is when you endorse a man that has a completely different philosophy on matters that of great importance to you, but you had no CLUE.

The Trojan Horse is when you as a pastor are trying to promote what you believe to be biblical modesty and biblical dress at your church, and then bring in a man that doesn’t even remotely share that same belief. Now you've got a mess on your hands.

The Trojan Horse is when you allow a man to win the hearts of your young people, only to find out later that he’s leading them down a different path than you are as their pastor.

AGAIN: This is not about music. Or dress standards. AT ALL.

It has EVERYTHING to do with you think you're getting one thing, but you're getting something entirely different, and you don't know what you don't know.

So – here’s the question that nobody wants to answer:

If I know that you don’t know, but I know that you NEED to know, or would WANT to know, AM I OBLIGATED TO TELL YOU WHAT I KNOW??

As a dad, a pastor, a shepherd, a watchman, a soldier of the cross – I HAVE NO CHOICE!

• Is it divisive? Yes.

• Is it contentious? Definitely.

• Is it uncomfortable and gut-wrenching? Yes. (Especially for me. I do NOT enjoy this.)

But I don’t have a choice but to warn you – YOU’RE ABOUT TO BRING A TROJAN HORSE INSIDE YOUR WALLS!! I feel it is my DUTY to let you know.

Friends don't let friends drive drunk.

And friends don't let friends bring compromisers into their church to preach to their kids without them knowing it.

Call it Cancel Culture if you want to. That is EXACTLY what it is.

I have cancelled many preachers once I found out things.

I have cancelled singers when I was informed of things I didn't know about them.

I have even cancelled myself (many times) from going places once I found out things.

I've cancelled taking my youth group to places.

I've cancelled a lot of stuff when I was told the truth about things.

NOT ONCE DID I GET UPSET AT THE PERSON THAT TOLD ME!!

I got swamped this week with messages from pastors THANKING ME for warning them.

I also got swamped with messages from pastors CONDEMNING me for the warning.

Many preachers cancelled him. I'm sure a lot of preachers booked him for a meeting.

Fine with me either way. What you do with it is not up to me.

What I felt WAS up to me was to share the link of their church service so you could make an intelligent decision based on how you felt about it.

If me sharing that link destroys that man or his ministry (as one man accused me of doing), then SOMETHING IS HORRIBLY WRONG.

And if you ever want to share one of our church services on your social media, and it gets 100,000 views, I won't play the victim. I'll buy you a steak dinner.

Here's one of the main roots of this Trojan Horse problem: Most pastors do not properly vet anybody.

·        They don’t vet the missionaries they support.

·        They don’t vet their prospective church members.

·        They don’t vet their kid’s friends.

·        They don’t vet their guest preachers.

·        They don’t vet their staff members.

That’s got to change!!

As the gate keeper of your church, you can’t bury your head in the sand.

You can’t say, “I had no idea!” when that person has a social media page.

If that person's church has a livestream or a church website, all it takes is 5 minutes of research to double-check some stuff.

But to get upset at someone for warning you of a possible Trojan Horse is INSANE!

Why would anyone get offended at a warning of a Trojan Horse?

Why would pointing out a Trojan Horse be “UNCHRISTIAN?

Calling me a legalist isn't going to change anything.

Calling me names isn't fixing the problem.

How is it unbiblical to mark and warn about a preacher that habitually preaches in places that is fighting with all their might the very things he promotes and allows at his church?

I could go on all day with this, but I believe I have made my point.

In closing, one dear old Black pastor called me yesterday. He wanted to let me know that (in his words) “a whole bunch of us Black pastors have your back.” (believe it or not, I've been called a racist for my post!)

He thanked me for the courage to say something and for the thick skin to take the fallout.

He asked me two questions.

1. Do you think pastors just don’t know the truth about him?

2. Why doesn’t anybody say anything?

My first answer was simple. “No, I don’t think that a lot of them knew, but they do now.”

My answer to the second question was: “The reason people won’t say anything is because they will get steamrolled by the brethren if they do.”

The same people that insisted that it was unbiblical, divisive, sowing discord, damaging to the cause of Christ, etc… to call a preacher out on social media THEN PROCEEDED TO DO JUST THAT TO ME. Ironic isn’t it?

It's wrong to warn of a Trojan Horse, but it's perfectly fine to attack the man that is warning of a Trojan Horse. Funny how that works...

The very people telling me to get off Facebook and go win souls were on Facebook instead of out winning souls. (It's ridiculous how people respond when their feelings get hurt.)

Independent Baptist preachers that stand in pulpits at Youth Conferences and tell their young people to "DARE TO BE A DANIEL; Don’t bow to the graven image! God can take you through the fire! Chase down and kill that Goliath! You can do it!..." – that same group of preachers will then BE the very fiery furnace to the man that DARES to call a Trojan Horse what it is and refuses to bow to the graven images that have been set up.

After 32 years in the ministry, the hottest fiery furnaces I've ever walk through were other independent, fundamental Baptist preachers. Nothing or nobody else comes close.

The same preachers that grew up in sound, solid, conservative, godly, fundamental, independent, Baptist homes and churches ARE MY BIGGEST CRITICS AND CONDEMNERS. It’s unbelievable, but it is to be expected. They've all changed too.

Everybody and their brother throws wood on the fire and then blames me for burning the internet down. If they would just ignore me, it wouldn't be a big deal. But they can't help themselves. They've got to respond. They cannot ignore THE TRUTH.

If you throw a rock into a pack of dogs, the one yelping is the one that got hit.

If you think I am going to stop warning people of Trojan Horses, you are mistaken!

I’m not for sale.

I’m not afraid.

I’m not intimidated.

I’m not sorry.

I’m not apologizing.

I’m not ashamed.

I’m sick to my stomach.

I’m tired of the blurred lines and fence-straddlers.

I'm tired of the compromise and worldliness creeping in our churches.

I'm tired of preachers changing and then denying they changed but they still want to preach for churches that HAVEN'T CHANGED.

I’m sick and tired of Trojan Horses sneaking in.

Pastor, DO YOUR JOB!!!

I’m doing my best to do mine.