I have mixed emotions when I remember Earl Paulk. I remember as a young man watching him preach via television and being so impressed with his passion and his ability to communicate with people. Not only that but his sermons were great. I remember thinking how great it was that I could learn form such a man whom God had used to spread the gospel.
Then one day I heard about all the scandals. he fact that he had been in a long term affair and had fathered his nephew and I was crushed. I hate to hear of people like Bishop Earl Paulk, a man that God has used in ministry in such great ways, failing in any way. However I understand that he was just a man. He was a man that I believe had a relationship with Jesus Christ. A man that was battling his human nature, just as you and I do.
I pray every day that God will help me to stay on the right track and that I will not fall and at the same time I know that I am capable of doing anything if I stray from God’s Will and direction for my life.
I have included an article from another blog as well as a news site and the church where Bishop Earl Paulk ministered. It is not for me to judge. Only God knows what the conversation is between He and Earl but I do know that God said when we repent that he does not remember our sin.
Ronnie
A very strange and ugly chapter passed this week as Pastor Earl Paulk died of cancer. News reports http://www.charismamag.com/index.php/news/20211-earl-paulk-dies-after-long-cancer-battle indicated that the megachurch pastor, who helped popularize “kingdom now” theology but was plagued for decades by sexual scandal, died early Sunday morning after a lengthy battle with cancer.
He was 81. Paulk, founder of what is now known as the Cathedral at Chapel Hill http://www.mycathedral.org/, was taken to the hospital on Jan. 1 with an intestinal blockage and was never released. He had previously undergone surgery for prostate cancer. Although he repeatedly denied the allegations, DNA testing proved in 2007 that Paulk lied about past infidelity and was the father of his nephew, D.E. Paulk, who now leads the 1,000-member congregation.
“For whatever good he may have done, my uncle had a serious problem with sexual addiction, and never owned it, and never really took any responsibility for it,” Paulk’s nephew, Bishop Jim Swilley, pastor of Church in the Now in Conyers, Ga., said in a blog posting Sunday.
“He died in disgrace, and, unfortunately, will for the most part only be remembered for the scandals.”