The Church Murdered Dr. Tiller

You may have heard about the murder of Dr. Tiller (the killer). The Dr who performed the late term murders on children who could have as easily been delivered and lived. He was interestingly enough murdered while serving as usher at his church. Apparently Tiller was a professing Christian who even went so far as to baptize the corpses of his victims in the name of Jesus. There is a very sad commentary here about the state of the church in America where this kind of behaviour would be tolerated by a professing Christian. Doug Phillips has a good article about this tragedy called George Tiller is Dead, for whom shall we mourn?, I would only add to Phillips article by saying that we SHOULD mourn for Tiller, and also recognise the sin of Tiller's church in an effort to keep from this sin in our own churches.

In fact I'm sure in the twisted mind of Tiller's killer the hypocrisy of his being a welcome and professing participant in a Christian church only added fuel to the hatred that led to his murder. The Bible is clear that in our fellowships we must admonish one another in order to keep each other from sin. The bible even outlines specific steps to take to confront a fellow believer who is sinning.

Matthew 18:15 If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.16 But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.

So here is a clear command of Christ of how to handle a brother who has sinned against us, here is the way by which we reconcile ourselves to each other. The wisdom in this passage is profound. But Dr. Tiller was overtly engaged in a horrendous sin, countless people had obviously shared with him that what he was doing was wrong, yet he continued, even to the point of using his "Christianity" to somehow purify his evil deeds.

Paul says:

1 Corinthians5:1 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father's wife.2 And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you.3 For though absent in body, I am present in spirit; and as if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing.4 When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus,5 you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.

Paul pleads with the church not to overlook overtly practiced sin and be arrogant about it. This man's eternity is at stake. Expel him! Do not allow him to somehow justify his behaviour by allowing him to remain in your fellowship while he persists in his sin unrepentant. This is for HIS good, so that his sin will work out it's course in him, so that his Spirit might be saved. He is to be delivered to Satan so that he may carry out his sin to it's logical conclusion, the destruction of the flesh. I believe that in this process the man may not die, but as he sows the seed of sin in his life, he will begin to reap the fruits of it, and see that it can only lead to death, and therefore repent and turn to Christ and be welcomed back into the fellowship.

Let's be clear, these actions are toward the professing Christians of your congregation. Not toward unbelievers. Unbelievers have NO POWER to overcome sin, they must hear and receive the Gospel so that they can repent. But once someone has proclaimed Christ and attests to being a Christian, then it is the loving duty of his brothers and sisters in Christ to hold him to that standard in love and out of fearful concern for his eternity.

If only Dr. Tiller's church would have done this. If only they would have, in love, said to him, "No sir, you are not welcome in our fellowship so long as you perform your sin, you proclaim Christ, therefore until you turn from your sin ,we must cast you out to be consumed by it." If they would have taken this stand Dr. Tiller may still be alive today, but because they didn't, the likelihood is that Dr. Tiller's eternity in Hell will be on the hands of the Reformation Lutheran Church and it's elders and teachers.

So do I feel sad for Tiller? Of course. He is most likely in Hell, unless somehow at this particular church service or sometime before then, he had repented and turned to Christ. He reaped what he sowed, and that is sad. He was a doctor, a bright man, possibly even a man with a misguided heart to help people. But he did not seek the council of God and was led away by Satan, with the blessing of the church, to his death. The church could have saved his live, and possibly his soul. We created a martyr for the cause of abortionists, when we could have created a repentant man who would have been powerful in putting an end to the wicked craft that he practiced.