Pastor Jeff Crippen preached a 26-part sermon series called Wise as Serpents — A Practical Theology of Evil in which he focused on how we must be wise to evil and the ways of evildoers. The purpose is to expose evil in its practice. Also the method is not primarily to produce an academic, theoretical, nor philosophical threat, but rather an experiential and earthy (yet profoundly spiritual) walk in the footsteps of Christ’s people sent out as sheep in the midst of wolves. It is practical truth for practicing followers of Jesus Christ who, whether they fully realize it or not, actually do have a roaring lion on the prowl seeking to devour them. We adapted each sermon into a post at this blog over 2015 – 2016. Here is list of all those posts.
At the end of each post we give a link to where you can find the audio and full written version of the sermon, should you wish to do so. Jeff Crippen is the pastor of Christ Reformation Church, Tillamook, Oregon, and was co-leader of this blog until he resigned from co-leadership in late 2017. He is still a full time pastor at CRC, Tillamook.
We did not reproduce the entire written text of each sermon. Where we use some exact text from the sermon, it is in black. Where we summarize some of the sermon, or insert a comment that was not in the sermon, we made the text grey rather than black.
1. Wise as Serpents: Exposing Evil in its Practice
2. Wise as Serpents: Evil Comes to Eden
3. Wise as Serpents: Light Comes into the World — and Evil Attacks
4. Wise as Serpents: Do You Want to be Healed?
5. Wise as Serpents: Cain is Still With Us Today
6. Wise as Serpents: Broadway is Evil
7. Wise as Serpents: What Does Evil Look Like?
8. Wise as Serpents: What Does the Holy Spirit Look Like?
9. Wise as Serpents: Evil is Among Us, Why are We Surprised?
10. Wise as Serpents: Innocent as Doves Does not Mean Ignorance of Evil
11. Wise as Serpents: The Seductive Beauty of Evil
12. Wise as Serpents: Evil and the Road to Rome — Craving Power and Control
13. Wise as Serpents: The Consistent Motive of Evil is to Enslave
14. Wise as Serpents: Evil Always Distorts God’s Word
15. Wise as Serpents: Why Do We Keep Silent About Evil?
16. Wise as Serpents: Christ is Risen and Satan is Thrown out of Court
18. Wise as Serpents: Calling Evil Good, and Good Evil
19. Wise as Serpents: The Church’s Other Mission Field
20. Wise as Serpents: Increasing in the Wisdom and Knowledge of the Lord
21. Wise as Serpents: Grace is Not for Everyone
22. Wise as Serpents: Stop Being ‘Nice’
23. Wise as Serpents: Take the Lord’s Warnings About Evil Seriously
24. Wise as Serpents: Does the Christian Still Have an Evil Heart?
25. Wise as Serpents: If the Word You are Hearing Does not Set You Free, it is not the Word of God
26. Wise as Serpents: The End of All Evil
[May 5, 2023: Editors’ notes:
—For some comments made prior to May 5, 2023 that quoted from the post, the text in the comment that was quoted from the post might no longer be an exact match.
—For some comments made prior to May 5, 2023 that quoted from the post, the text in the comment that was quoted from the post might no longer be found in the post.
If you would like to compare the text in the comments made prior to May 5, 2023 that quoted from the post to the post as it is now (May 5, 2023), click here [Internet Archive link] for the most recent Internet Archive copy of the post.]
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UPDATE Sept 2021: I have come to believe that Jeff Crippen does not practise what he preaches. He vilely persecuted an abuse victim and spiritually abused many other people in the Tillamook congregation. Go here to read the evidence. Jeff has not gone to the people that he spiritually and emotionally abused. He has not apologised to them, let alone asked for their forgiveness.
A Cry For Justice 
Thank you, Barbara, for this list! I just recently started listening to this sermon series, but I think a written summary will be much easier to get through, as I rarely have time to get out the headphones and listen for an extended period without interruption. God bless the life-changing work that you and Jeff are doing. It is making a difference in many lives, especially my own!!
Thank you, Momto7 and Seeing Clearly. 🙂 🙂
Can you tell us why he resigned??
Hi, Deanna,
Welcome to the blog. If you haven’t already we encourage you to read our New Users’ Information page as it gives tips for staying safe when commenting on the blog.
To answer your question “why did he resign” — Pastor Jeff wrote this post when he announced that he was retiring:
Dear Readers and Friends — An Announcement from Jeff Crippen
UPDATE Sept 2021: I have come to believe that Jeff Crippen does not practise what he preaches. He vilely persecuted an abuse victim and spiritually abused many other people in the Tillamook congregation. Go here to read the evidence. Jeff has not gone to the people that he spiritually and emotionally abused. He has not apologised to them, let alone asked for their forgiveness.
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Sure, you can read his resignation statement here:
Dear Readers and Friends — An Announcement from Jeff Crippen
Did Jeff resign from being pastor in Tillamook or from co-leading the blog?
UPDATE Sept 2021: I have come to believe that Jeff Crippen does not practise what he preaches. He vilely persecuted an abuse victim and spiritually abused many other people in the Tillamook congregation. Go here to read the evidence. Jeff has not gone to the people that he spiritually and emotionally abused. He has not apologised to them, let alone asked for their forgiveness.
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Jeff resigned from co-leading this blog. Sorry for my lack of clarity. I will amend the post so it is more clear.