Jill Duggar and Jinger Duggar’s social media behavior has sparked rumors of a family feud, and fans think they’ve discovered why the sisters aren’t getting along these days.
Some Duggar fans recently observed that Jill Duggar and her husband, Derick Dillard, aren’t following Jinger Duggar on Instagram. The couple has also snubbed Jinger’s husband, Jeremy Vuolo, by ignoring his social media account. As the Hollywood Gossip reports, some fans believe this is a sign that there’s some sibling rivalry going on, and there’s been speculation that Jill is jealous of Jinger. However, there may be another reason Jill and Derick don’t care to keep up with their in-laws on Instagram; perhaps they’re upset with Jeremy over his comments about missionaries.
Jill Duggar and Derick Dillard have been working as missionaries for almost two years now, and some members of the Free Jinger web forum think that Jeremy Vuolo had the couple in mind when he preached about the importance of being properly prepared for life on the mission field. In a sermon titled “Philippians: God’s Sovereignty in Establishing His Church,” Jinger Duggar’s husband blasts “unqualified, uncalled, unconfirmed, unsent zealots” who “cause more damage than they do good” by deciding to become missionaries.
“How many people have thought, ‘Well, there’s an open door, so I must run through it; there’s an open door for a church plant or mission endeavors, I’m going,’ when they’ve never been established by a local church, they’ve never been confirmed by the people of God as possessing certain gifts?” Jeremy said. “They’re just Lone Ranger types running around solo asking churches for money to support them.”
As E! News reports, Jill Duggar and Derick Dillard have admitted that they weren’t ready for life on the mission field when they left for El Salvador in 2015. However, Derick revealed that he decided to quit his job and move his family to El Salvador “when God brought about an opportunity much earlier” than he and Jill had been expecting. The couple didn’t have time to take Spanish lessons before embarking on their long-term mission trip, so they had to rely on interpreters to help them spread the gospel. As Us Weekly reports, Derick confessed to knowing only 136 Spanish words during an episode of Counting On that followed him and Jill during a shopping trip in Guatemala.
Jill Duggar and Derick Dillard have faced many of the same criticisms laid out in Jeremy Vuolo’s sermon. He calls out missionaries who “have never been established by a local church,” and Jill and Derick’s place of worship, Cross Church, didn’t partner with them for their mission trip. This is likely because the Southern Baptist Church reportedly rejected Jill and Derick as missionaries due to their failure to meet the qualification standards. According to the Duggar Family Blog, the couple is currently serving with S.O.S. Ministries, and they’ve been doing most of their own fundraising by asking fans to donate money to their family ministry.
“There is the issue of many who grow zealous without growing up.”
In his sermon, Jeremy talks about how some “zealots” decide to “abandon it all” for the gospel after hearing the words of men like Calvinist Baptist pastor John Piper. According to Patheos, Derick is a fan of Piper. Jeremy also mentions Nepal, which is where Derick Dillard was living as a missionary when he and Jill Duggar first met.
“Do you have $800 in your bank account? Tomorrow you can be in Nepal preaching to people who have never heard of Jesus in their life.”
Jeremy says it takes years of preparation to become a successful missionary, and he complains that some who choose the lifestyle don’t want to make the necessary sacrifices.
“They don’t want to work to support themselves, give themselves to study, or give themselves to the necessary abandoning of comfort required to do damage to your flesh,” Jeremy said.
Do you think Jeremy Vuolo was thinking of Jill Duggar and Derick Dillard when he wrote his sermon?
[Featured Images by Dillard Family/Facebook, Jeremy Vuolo/Facebook]