1. Biblical forgiveness comes with a pre-condition.
Many have long quoted Acts 2:38 without listening to the words: And Peter said to them, “Repent, and let each of you be baptised in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38).
There is no biblical forgiveness without repentance, no matter what the soft-hearted religious types say. Jesus said, Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish (Luke 13:3).
I have the responsibility before God to hold these men accountable for their sin and to insist that they repent publicly. Without such repentance, they face a loss in eternity.
2. Disputes between brothers can be solved, subject to the same pre-condition.
Jesus laid down a crystal-clear rule governing the resolution of disputes between brothers:
Be on your guard! If your brother sins, rebuke him; and IF HE REPENTS, forgive him (Luke 17:3).
No repentance, no forgiveness — there is no confusion in Scripture.
3. Abuse of the responsibilities of spiritual leadership, without genuine repentance, abrogates forgiveness.
After King Saul had refused to obey God's command (1 Samuel 15:9), built a monument for himself (1 Samuel 15: 12), lied about his rebellious behaviour (1 Samuel 15:13) and blamed his failures on the people (1 Samuel 15:21), he demanded that the prophet Samuel forgive him, “and return with me, that I may worship the Lord” (1 Samuel 15:25).
Samuel refused to be deceived by Saul’s religious posturing and said, “I will not return with you; for you have rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected you” (1 Samuel 15:26).
So much for the shallow demand that Christians forgive Spiritual Abusers without evidence of genuine repentance on their part.
4. Why not just forget about it?
I have an abiding responsibility to warn others.
Obviously there is a limit to how much I can do in this regard, but the least I can do is accept the challenge to publish the facts on the Internet.
