Spiritual leadership always have the responsibility to protect the people of God, not make friends with his enemies. And yet how common is it for high-profile pastors—I use the term as lightly as possible—to do that very thing. Notice their response: we do not have anything in common with you! In other words, to put it in New Testament terminology: what have you to do with us? The answer is: obviously, nothing! Or to put it in a different way, in the way Tertullian put it in the middle of the third century: what does Athens have to do with Jerusalem? In other words, the leaders were absolutely clear that these people are not under the same authority as us. They do not believe in the same God as us. They do not share the same worldview as us. We do not have any common ground with them. Nothing. Why would we let you join in building a temple to our God when we do not even have anything in common?...In other words, they remained exclusive and separated, in order to maintain the integrity of the people and the integrity of the mission.1
Brian Borgman
3 Mais Zorobabel, Josué, et les autres chefs des familles d'Israël, leur répondirent: Ce n'est pas à vous et à nous de bâtir la maison de notre Dieu; nous la bâtirons nous seuls à l'Eternel, le Dieu d'Israël, comme nous l'a ordonné le roi Cyrus, roi de Perse.