Spotting A Wolf In Sheep's Clothing

This morning, when I walked through the parking garage from my car toward my office, I came upon the garage attendant, Gerald, who greeted me with his typical, friendly “hello.” We shook hands and exchanged pleasantries. Then his expression suddenly turned serious. He asked, “Did you see that Jean-Claude Duvalier died?” “Yeah, I read his obituary in the newspaper yesterday.”

I remembered from the obituary that Duvalier had lived a lavish lifestyle while ruling the desperately poor nation of Haiti through the 1970s and into the 1980s. His army enforced the will of a brutal regime. He held hundreds of political prisoners in horrible jails and squelched dissent by closing down independent newspapers and radio stations. He eventually was exiled to France, and, most recently, he had been charged by a Haitian court with human rights abuses and large-scale corruption. But why was Gerald so interested in the death of this former dictator?

Gerald explained: “I met him when I was a kid in Haiti. I didn’t know it was him. It was around Christmas time, and they announced in our school that we would have a special visitor. In came this man, dressed as Santa Claus. He gave us each a present. Afterward, I learned that he was President Duvalier. It felt so strange. I knew he was a bad man. His army was doing horrible things.”

I could understand Gerald’s confusion as a boy – meeting a brutal dictator who hid behind a fake Santa beard. Talk about a wolf in sheep’s clothing!

 "Watch out for false prophets. 
They come to you in sheep's clothing,
but inwardly they are as ferocious as wolves."
 -Matt. 7:15 (TNIV)  

In a sermon preached in 1978 – a year in which Duvalier ruled in Haiti and Jim Jones led his cult followers to commit mass suicide in Jonestown, Guyana – my father observed that our world is one filled with false authorities. “This is a very real danger in our day. … False authorities never pass themselves off as false. They claim to be genuine – the one and only true voice of God. Wolves almost always come in sheep’s clothing, with many of them masquerading under the guise of Christianity and hiding behind a lot of talk about Jesus. And that makes you and me as Christians susceptible to them. We must be wary and discriminating.”

“So, how do we know in this confusing age what is the voice of true authority, the voice we should listen to? Who is really speaking for God?” Looking to the example of Moses in Deuteronomy 18:15-22, my dad set out to answer these questions by identifying five marks of true authority, especially within the church, but also beyond it:

1.   “Every good authority, right from the start, realizes that he/she is dispensable. In our lesson from Deuteronomy, Moses is speaking to the Hebrew people about the qualities of a true prophet of God. Why? Because he is preparing the people for a shift of the mantle of authority from himself to whomever his successor will be. Moses knows that he is finite and that God’s plan extends far beyond him. … This is a sign of a wholesome authority, one who is not afraid to take up the mantle, but one who is willing when the time comes to put it around the shoulders of another.

2.   Every leader who wields true authority, standing as he/she does between God and the people, needs to be a friend of both – intimately acquainted both with God and the people he/she leads. … In some sense, it is the duty of the leader to stand between God and the people. [A]ll of us need leaders who are so in touch with God and with us that they become a meeting place for us with God. Their very presence then reminds us and inspires us to honor God.

3.   The one who wields rightful authority points consistently over his/her shoulder to God and not to himself or herself. Any discerning person should become wary when the leader becomes egotistical, when the movement turns from serving human need and honoring God. This happens in religion (think of Oral Roberts naming a university after himself), but it happens in local churches, too; it happens in business; it happens in politics. It happens wherever leaders forget that, as the Apostle Paul said, ‘there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.’ All power belongs to God, and any bit of that power any of us wields – whether it be in our family, or in our work, or in a committee, we wield on behalf of the Lord. A worthy leader bends over backwards to make this perfectly clear.

4.   Authorities worth their salt, worthy to be followed, have a track record of effectiveness. [Moses warns to beware of] a prophet [who] speaks in the name of the Lord, [but] the word does not come to pass or come true[.] I think what he means is don’t follow after flashes in the pan. Don’t let your head be turned by any Johnny-come-lately. Listen to leaders who have a record of consistent, faithful and true stewardship of their authority, leaders who do not abuse their power, leaders whose service has truly met the needs of their people. Look to those ministries which God has blessed with fruit.

5.   There is a final mark of good authority which is exemplified by our Lord Jesus Christ himself. You can be sure authority is from God when it arouses the opposition of known evil. If leadership doesn't provoke evil, it is suspect. [In Mark 1:21-28,] Jesus began teaching with authority in the synagogue, and all of a sudden here before him was this man possessed of an evil spirit, raising a fuss and harassing Jesus. … [T]hat’s the way it is when you’re doing the will of God. Evil is upset and disturbed. The devil comes out to do battle with you. And if he doesn't be very suspicious that perhaps you’re not doing the will of God at all. [W]e must be suspicious of any would-be authority that sits well with too many people, that doesn't arouse opposition, that attracts money and success and popularity, that nestles in snugly with the establishment and the status quo. There’s too much wrong with this world for any Christian to get along that well with it.

As Christians, let’s show the world whom to follow – those who are humble and know us as well as the God they serve, who readily acknowledge that their authority is a trust from God, whose efforts have produced good, and who have stood firm in the face of the efforts of the Evil One to undo them.”

From: “The Voice of Authority” & “As One Who Had Authority”

Scripture: Deuteronomy 18:15-22 & Mark 1:21-28