npetreley said:
Since Jesus and Paul were often downright abrasive and insulting to certain audiences, how do you reconcile that with these instructions?
Jesus said: Don't cast your pearls before swine.
Concerning religious leaders, Paul said:
1 Timothy 5:20 Them that sin
rebuke before all, that others also may fear.
Leaders such as Benny Hinn who pretend to be Christians and are not; Cult leaders; leaders of false religions such as Islam, etc. need to be exposed as heretics before all, publicly. There is no doubt about this. They are leaders expounding their doctrine publicly. When a person preaches publicly their false doctrine, they need to be exposted publicly as a false teacher.
However, when one professes to be a Christian on this board, for example, and is a debate with another poster it is somewhat unethical to call him a heretic. Perhaps the exception to this rule was when we had Catholic e-pologists on this board who were here for no other reason than advertising Catholicism and recruiting people to Catholicism. In that case Catholcism needed to be exposed and these teachers needed to be shown that they beleived in heresy, and therefore were heretics. They needed to be sharply rebuked. They were the foremost leaders in their religion.
DHK