Андрей Викторович Шибанов - Leave Your Pastor

church but he meant leader in the church:

Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. – Hebrews 13:7

Jesus clearly explained who the leaders in the church are:

And he said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those in authority over them are called benefactors. But not so with you. Rather, let the greatest among you become as the youngest, and the leader as one who serves. – Luke 22:25-26

Jesus came to serve people. He washed the feet of his disciples, showing an example of a good attitude among believers. He set a new standard for the people of God. You must serve others and let no one call you a church leader.

Don’t forget Jesus Christ has paid a high price for you. You must decline any spiritual authority of men over you and become not a slave of them. You belong to whom you obey. Whom do you want to be: a slave to Christ and receive eternal life or slave to a church leader (the Antichrist) and receive eternal condemnation?

Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation. When his breath departs, he returns to the earth; on that very day his plans perish. – Psalm 146:3-4

Excommunication

…ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. – 2 Peter 3:16

Disfellowshipping, shunning, expelling and excommunication practices are all demonic practices which serve the purpose of persecuting those who reject the doctrine of the organisation. The disfellowshipping practice is the favorite tool of the Antichrist to fight those who oppose them in their falsehood and wickedness.

Church leaders excommunicate others and believers are fine with it. According to the church leaders, pastors and priests, a deviation from the doctrine and traditions of the church is considered to be a sin of division. This is not true. Division occurs only when someone teaches contrary to the doctrine of Christ, not the doctrine of the organization. Jesus Christ condemned the traditions which made void the word of God:

thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do. – Mark 7:13

Initially, the excommunication practice was developed by the Catholic Church. At the time of the Inquisition, the Catholic Church used to excommunicate many whom they perceived as a threat to the organization. They used to request a state to kill those they have excommunicated. When some discontent Catholic members have created new churches, the excommunication practice has been passed on to these new organizations but under different names: disfellowshipping, shunning, expelling, ostracizing, banishing, etc.

On this picture by Cristiano Banti (1857), Galileo facing the Roman Catholic Inquisition.

Catholic Church leadership convicted of heresy, excommunicated and condemned Galileo Galilei, who correctly claimed that the earth moves around the sun. The Catholic leadership thought otherwise and put Galileo under house arrest, where he remained until his death.

Galileo was forced to refute his teachings on the rotation of the earth and signed the document while on his knees before the inquisition:

I, Galileo Galilei, son of the late Vincenzio Galilei of Florence, aged seventy years, being brought personally to judgment and kneeling before you, Most Eminent and Most Reverend Lords, Cardinals, General Inquisitors of the Universal Christian Republic against heretical depravity having before my eyes the Holy Gospels which I touch with my own hands, swear, that I have always believed, and, with the help of God, will in future belief, every article which the holy Catholic and Apostolic Church of Rome holds, teaches, and preaches because it has been signified to me that the said doctrine that I held is repugnant to the Holy Scriptures.

Namely that, I held and believed that the sun is the centre of the world and immovable, and that the earth is not the centre and is movable. I am willing to remove from the minds of your Eminences, and of every Catholic Christian, this vehement suspicion rightly entertained towards me, therefore, with a sincere heart and unfeigned faith, I abjure, curse, and detest the said errors and heresies, and generally every other error and sect contrary to the said Holy Catholic Church;      

At Rome, in the convent of Minerva, 22nd June, 1634, I Galileo Galilei have abjured as above with my own hand.

As it turned out, Galileo was correct and Catholic members were wrong. The earth indeed rotates around the sun. Catholic Church leadership, particularly pope John Paul II, admitted their fault only in 1992 which is 358 years after Galileo's imprisonment. It shows how prideful and arrogant church leaders are.

Disfellowshipping practice in modern organizations

The modern churches operate in a similar manner. The difference is that modern churches are acting separately from the government, so the church leaders are unable to kill their opponents anymore like it used to happen at the time of Inquisition when Catholic Church had an extremely high influence on the state, being a government itself.

Church leaders disfellowship others for a variety of reasons: sin, disobedience to church leaders, marriage to a non-member, showing not enough commitment to the organization and many other. Clergy request ushers or building security staff to restrict access to the meeting place for the disfellowshipped one. They command ushers or building security staff, “We don’t welcome him.” Church leaders might call the police and request them to arrest the disfellowshipped one charging him or her with trespassing the private territory – the church building. Those who choose an online platform to speak against church leaders or their doctrine might be charged with social media violations or slander.

When church leaders disfellowship those in sin, they often quote the below scripture:

But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler – not even to eat with such a one. -1 Corinthians 5:11

The above scripture does not speak of oppression, but just not to associate. Some of the disfellowshipped ones even commit suicide due to the feeling of being rejected by a family which is not a family at all.

Amber Sawyer was just 8 years old when her sister committed suicide. She was watching cartoons on the living room floor of her Mississippi home when she heard the bang. She went to investigate and found her 21-year-old sister, Donna, dead in her bed. She had shot herself in the heart with their father’s hunting rifle weeks after being excommunicated by their church for getting engaged to a non-church member. On this picture, Amber pointing on the photo of her singer Donna.

Another church member Kaye was in her early 20s when her friend committed suicide after being disfellowshipped for getting pregnant out of wedlock. The woman was 20 years old and seven months pregnant at the time. Kaye said her friend tried to get back into the church, but the elders told her, “No, you need more time. You’re not qualified to come back.“ (Ex-Jehovah's Witnesses break silence on shunning: 'My mother treats me like I'm dead', 2020)

When church leaders disfellowship some of their opponents, they quote the below scripture:

As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him, knowing that such a person is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned. – Titus 3:10-11

Church leaders, just like Catholic Inquisition, are twisting the same Scripture for heresy-hunting. Speaking the truth is not a sin of division, just like --">