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The Holy Nope Breakdown: Hirelings
Deliverance guru Vlad Zavchuk twists scripture in a terribly ironic way in the Holy Nope, episode 293. Notice immediately Vlad's minimizing of theological precision and sound doctrine in the name of keeping the main thing the main thing.
This issue, can a Christian have a demon? It's very simple. We don't ask the question, can a Christian have a demon? We just ask, if they have a demon, Jesus has deliverance. Versus going into this theological debate and going to the spiritual laboratories that are not consistent with real life.
And so if they have a demon, they need to be delivered.
We don't need to get into the theological weeds of, uh, can Christians have demons? We just want to bring deliverance to Christians who need it. Now he's able to assert that Christians can and do need deliverance from demons without having to back it up biblically and theologically and still sound very spiritual.
Now Vlad is going to use scripture to go on the offensive against pastors who don't agree with his deliverance theology.
As a leader or as a pastor, I want to read to you, uh, John chapter 10 verse 12. It says, but a hireling, who is not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep. Deliverance exposes hirelings.
Don't you love when these guys mic drop themselves? Jesus said, how do you know a hireling from a shepherd? When warfare comes. When warfare comes, we need to understand what he's referring to. He's talking about spiritual warfare.
But Vlad and the other demon slayers have an unbiblical doctrine of spiritual warfare that is about engaging in hand-to-hand combat with the devil through various strategies not found in scripture, according to knowledge not gleaned from scripture.
I've read Pagani's book, The Secrets to Deliverance, and we're going to review it on the Holy Note podcast and it is a trip. So immediately he is assuming that John 10 is talking about spiritual warfare as he understands it.
Who leaves? Who runs? Who do they run from?
A wolf.
Deliverance is what separates shepherds and hirelings. Not sickness, not healing ministry, not a discipleship ministry. It's the wolf that exposes your true colors. So those of you or those of us who will say I'm not comfortable with deliverance, based on God's word, I have the audacity to question the validity of your calling.
In John 10, Jesus is contrasting his sacrificial care for his own sheep that is manifested principally in the laying down of his life for them with the self-interested hireling who would abandon the sheep at the threat of danger represented by the wolf.
When it is no longer personally advantageous, the hireling flees from his duty to protect, care for, and lead the sheep. But somehow Vlad is teaching that this text means that the wolf is demons inhabiting Christians and pastors who refuse to do their brand of deliverance are the hireling of whom Jesus speaks.
This is a classic example of the common scripture twisting of the deliverance ministers, reading their specific theological errors into the text to make it say what they wanted to say. Maybe the demon slayers are getting more bold with their claims as their movement grows.
They like to say that deliverance is a secondary issue, but then they say stuff like what we just watched wherein Vlad brings into question the ministries of every faithful pastor around the globe who does not engage in this buffoonery.
You're a giant man. I'm his ancestor. You are his ancestors. So many who live here.
How did you And then of course again, he says very plainly at the end. Oh, deliverance is not my thing.
Maybe you're a hireling. So when a leader or a pastor uses this cheap excuse that I don't do deliverance, I don't believe in deliverance, that doesn't belong in my church, according to Jesus,.
You are a hireling. This is the same guy that says Christians often pick up demons at funerals.
And this is the message I heard the Lord say to me, that it ends with me. Majority of demons we deal with have come through the ancestor line. Because demons don't die with our ancestors, they get passed on.
People die, demons don't. That's why a lot of people get demons at the cemetery when their parents or their loved ones get buried. Now in light of Vlad's final words in this clip,.
I want to talk about the true application to be drawn from John 10. You have to not only love the sheep,.
You have to prove your love for the sheep by tearing lions, bears,.
And wolves. You have to prove your love for the sheep by casting demons out of the sheep. This is nonsense. As we said earlier, Jesus is contrasting his own sacrificial love as the good shepherd who lays down his life with the self-interest and self-preservation of hirelings who abandon the sheep when it becomes dangerous for them.
These are the false shepherds against whom Ezekiel prophesies in chapter 34, who have been feeding themselves.
Should not shepherds feed the sheep? You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fat ones, but you do not feed the sheep. The weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, the injured you have not bound up, the strayed you have not brought back, the lost you have not sought, and with force and harshness you have ruled them.
So they were scattered because there was no shepherd and they became food for all the wild beasts.
Jesus, on the other hand, as the good shepherd, is identifying himself with Yahweh who says that he will seek the lost and bring back the strayed and bind up the injured and strengthen the weak and feed them.
Jesus will even lay down his life for them. So is the application of John 10 -12 that pastors must prove their love for the sheep by doing deliverance lest they be hirelings? Nope. Rather, it would be that the under shepherds of the good shepherds should likewise so identify with the interests of the sheep that rather than being self-interested and fleeing when danger comes, they too sacrificially lay down their lives for them by seeking the lost, bringing back the strayed, binding up the injured, strengthening the weak, feeding the sheep with God's word.
I think a good modern example of this sacrificial care can be seen in pastors Tim Stevens and James Coates in Canada who were jailed for continuing to pastor the flock in the midst of government tyranny.
The hireling is someone who would compromise and flee from his duties in this situation, content to let the sheep scatter exposed to the threat of the wolf so long as no harm comes his way. Is the hireling someone who refuses to do the Demon Slayer's made-up brand of deliverance?
Nope.
Like i'm losing my mind. Is everybody in the world blind? Please lord, give me a sign. A sign.