THE STORY OF JOHNNY STUMBLE

By Ryan Hicks

This is the sad fictional story, with a good ending, of a man who gets saved, becomes a pastor, and later falls away from the Lord and becomes a false teacher with the sole goal in life of leading people astray and excusing sin. The person is not a real life character, but the actions and events are similar to other false pastors who excuse sin. This story is here to make a point and hopefully draw those pastors who have also followed such a course of action to repent and come back to the Lord and His salvation.

Johnny Luke Stumble was born on October 8, 1945, in Brooksville, South Dakota. He was born into a family whose head was a minister of the gospel. Sadly, his mother was unsaved and later chose to leave his dad for a life of sin. She divorced his dad after 20 years of marriage. His dad being a man of God, chose to remain single while trying to reconcile with his wife who had went off and married another man, thus becoming an adulteress (Matthew 5:32; 19:9; Mark 10:11; Luke 16:18; Romans 7:2-3; 1 Corinthians 7:39).

Soon after this divorced his father and married another man like she did. This was Johnny's first experience in compromise and denying the Lord, and he sadly responded, "No, mother. Divorce ends the marriage covenant."

He knew in his heart he had sinned greatly and denied the Lord and His holy word, but he could not bring himself to tell "mommy" the truth of the wretchedness of her sin before God and man. He then developed an intricate system of warped illogic and denying of the Scripture in order to deceive himself into believing that divorce really ended the marriage covenant. He knew that Jesus was plain in saying that marrying a divorced person was adultery, thus obviously divorce did not end the marriage covenant. But he had to prove his false teaching so his mother would feel good about her sin. He did this by taking Greek dictionaries and destroying the definition for divorce while accepting only a few paraphrased definitions as "true." He also rejected the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ and perverted those of Paul, thus wresting the Scriptures to his own destruction, and, sadly, the destruction of others (2 Peter 3:15-18).

He realized quickly that he needed to drastically change the meaning of repentance, because otherwise people would read verses like Matthew 5:32 and see that "whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery." They would read Matthew 19:9 and see that "whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery." They would read Mark 10:12 and see that "if a woman shall put away her husband, and be married to another, she committeth adultery." They would see that "whosoever marrieth her that is put away from her husband committeth adultery." They would see that "the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man" (Romans 7:2-3). They would see that the only options in a marriage are to stay together, separate (though not encouraged), or be reconciled if separated (1 Corinthians 7:10-11).

In order to change repentance he decided to make confession a mere mumbling of words to God with little sorrow and no godly sorrow. He the made repentance into merely thinking that you are sorry, instead of the Biblical truth of confessing and forsaking sin (Proverbs 28:13; 1 John 1:9). He then realized that he needed to change the grace of God from something that teaches "us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world," and instead followed the wicked men mentioned in Jude 4 and turned "the grace of our God into lasciviousness" and denied "the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ." He then made God's grace into lasciviousness by pretending that if one got remarried after divorce while their true spouse still lived, thus being in adultery, that if they said they were "sorry" to God they could then continue in that sin with impunity. Thus he pretended that God's grace made sin no longer sin if someone said they were sorry, proving that God's word was not in him (1 John 1:10).

He had many new excuses that ranged from David committing adultery to Rahab lying to protect the spys to even picking corn on the Sabbath. He had a long list of things he could pervert in the Scriptures to "prove" his teachings that excused sin. He knew in his heart that lying and adultery damned the soul, and that in Rahab's case God winked at her ignorance (Acts 17:26), but he needed these excuses to make sure he could deceive others. He said about any attempts to tell him that obedience was necessary for the saved that "the higher law is that God's best interest are for the person rather than the law." Thus, he totally dismisses the word of God's plain teachings on true believers obeying Jesus' New Testament laws (John 14:15 with 1 Corinthians 16:22; John 14:21, 23-24; Romans 6; 8:1-15; 1 Corinthians 6:9-11; Galatians 5:19-24; Titus 2:11-15; 1 John 2:4-6; 3:1-10; 5:1-3, 18; etc.)

In 1977, with his new false repentance, false confession, and lack of salvation, he started a church in Brooksville, South Dakota, his life-long home town. He called the church, "Basic Gospel Sanctuary," and with his new teaching on sin, salvation, and especially divorce and remarriage not being adultery like Jesus said it was, he quickly assembled a decent amount of followers, the majority of which were in the adultery of remarriage themselves, or were committing adultery by being married to another woman's husband, or another man's wife.

As long as these adulterers and adulteresses tithed and gave offerings at his "church" they knew that he would keep giving them the false gospel their itching-ears craved, and that he would continue to be a blind watchman, and ignorant. He would continue to be a dumb dog that refuses to bark and warn them of their sins and demand their true repentance from their wickedness. They knew he would continue to love to slumber and be a greedy dog which can never have enough (Isaiah 56:10-11). Essentially, they all knew that pastor would keep teaching that "Jude 4" theology they had come to love and excuse their sin by, if they kept his pockets filled with money and his belly filled with food and wine.

Many years of teaching such false and damnable heresy lead this "pastor" to believe he could lie, lust, cheat, teach a false gospel of sin, drink, deny the Lord, smoke, use profanity, commit adultery, etc. and that God just looked the other way. He committed adultery against his wife, and then when his wife, Charlotte, found out about it June 2000, she divorced him and married a leader in the church that Johnny pastored, the leader was named Matt.

The only reason Charlotte divorced him and did not try to work it out was because the many years of false doctrine and telling people they could divorce and remarry and do as they please had been rooted in her heart. Thus, Pastor Adultery, as I called him, had birthed the very false doctrine that caused his wife to divorce him and commit adultery via remarriage.

He tried with all his power to get his wife back, but she refused. He then realized that his dreadful decision to compromise and deny the Lord when his mother wanted to know the simple Bible truth about divorce and remarriage back those many years ago, had just cost him his wife, daughter, and young son. Deep conviction came upon him. Instead of rejecting this conviction like he normally did, he embraced it and realized how tragically lost in sin he really was. He realized how he had lead many astray and that they would go to hell if he did not tell them the truth and demand they repent of their adulterous remarriages. He realized his constant lying had destroyed many people, and that those people did not trust anything he said.

He was deeply repentant of all the families he had destroyed, and the illegitimate ones he had blessed. He was sorrowful with a godly sorrow for telling people that because their remarriage involved children that that somehow made it a legitimate marriage, and not adultery like the Lord Jesus said. He was set on telling these people the truth, regardless of how it affected the money they gave him.

Johnny Stumble cried out to God to save him from his sin. He begged God's forgiveness for leading people astray for so many years. He pleaded that God would show him mercy for resisting His Spirit each time he saw the truth about confessing sin and forsaking it being required for forgiveness. He thanked God for granting him space to repent before he himself had died and entered his eternal abode in hell with the devil that he had served for so many years. He confessed and forsook all his sins, and believed on the true Lord Jesus Christ, and not the imaginary one he had made up. He believed the truth and was sanctified by the Spirit (2 Thessalonians 2:13). He was now born again, and made a new creature, with the old things passed away (2 Corinthians 5:17)! He was a child of God again! He was adopted back into the family of God that he had left so many years ago! Praise God!

Now, pastors and ministers who have read this. This story is based on things that have happened to many pastors. Some of the things that Johnny did may not apply to you, but the point is the same. Have you compromised God's word? Do you tell people they can sin with impunity? Have you performed a marriage ceremony for divorced people together or a divorced person with a unmarried person, thus blessing their adultery? Have you told people that once they were saved they were always saved so they could continue on in sin without fear of losing their salvation, thus mocking holiness and causing people to trample under foot the blood of the Son of God? Have you taught something that you know is not what the Scripture says simply because your denomination, group, friend, or whatever taught so? Have you compromised the word of God because you are too weak and cowardly to stand up against the sins of people you know, maybe even friends and family?

If you have done any of these things or something else that you know you need to repent of then you must get right with God now while it is still called "To day" (Hebrews 3:13-19)! You must confess and forsake your sins and accept God's word as truth (John 17:11). You cannot go on in teaching whatever you want, you must teach the word of God if you are going to teach anyone. You are making a conscience effort to teach the truth and nothing but the truth. You are choosing to teach "the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world" (Titus 2:11-12), and not a false grace that allows for sin and forgiveness of sin without proper confession and forsaking of such sin. If you are choosing to be true to the Lord and His word, and come back into His grace (or for some of you it may be the first time you have been saved), then pray this prayer:

Heavenly Father, I come to you today in the name of Your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. I confess and forsake all my sin. Lord, though my sins be many, I ask you to forgive me and cleanse me from all unrighteousness. I believe on the Lord Jesus and that He died, was buried, and rose again the third day! I accept His saving work in my life and receive your grace, Father. I ask you to keep me and empower me to stay free from sin. I ask you to baptize me in the power from on high and make me a mighty witness for You. I thank you and praise you for saving me and showing mercy on me when I deserved none! Thank you Father! In the name of Jesus I pray, AMEN!