Ignoring Scripture
Was the Apostle Paul serious when he wrote that church elders must be above reproach? The public exposure of
gross sin among many church leaders has become all too common, and often we
discover that their more egregious faults existed even before they entered the
ministry.
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| [Photo by Samantha Sophia on Unsplash] |
Almost as bad are the committees that select men for the ministry despite knowing about their proclivities before appointing them, yet they do so all the same.
In part, these sorry situations
develop when elders, pastors, and ministry boards ignore clear teachings found in
the New Testament.
I understand the
desire to recruit preachers and prophets that speak well and draw crowds, but
eloquence and sex appeal are no substitutes for sound teaching and holy
conduct.
In the rush to place
charismatic and popular individuals in the pulpit, cooler heads do not always
prevail. Doing one’s due diligence
becomes an inconvenient irritant all too easily discarded for the sake of church
growth.
A HIGH STANDARD
But the Apostle Paul teaches
us that an “overseer must be without
reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate,” etc., and he needs to
be above reproach in the church AND the surrounding non-Christian community.
Of course, none of this is rocket science. You do not take a man with a track record of sexual sins, intolerance, financial improprieties, or mental abuse and elevate him to lead God’s flock - (1 Timothy 3:1-7).
I am not talking about
difficult or ambiguous passages. You do not need the gift of discernment, an
angelic visitation, or a trip to the “third heaven” to understand this
straightforward principle. Just read the plain
text of the New Testament.
Take another example, this
one from one of today’s leading “prophets.” Jesus declared that no one EXCEPT
THE FATHER ALONE knows the day or hour of His Son’s return.
It does not take a doctorate
in languages or theology to understand that the one and only exception to the
statement of Jesus is God, period, and end of discussion. Not even the “Son of
Man” knows the day, hour, “season,” or the “times and seasons”
of that last day, yet many prophecy preachers presume that they do!
Nevertheless, our erstwhile
“prophet” writes that “Jesus didn’t say the last generation would not know” the
timing of that event. Talk about false logic, arguing from the Lord did not
say!
PREACHING A DIFFERENT FAITH
Unfortunately, sledgehammer hermeneutics is now the
modus operandi of the end-time Prophecy Industry. Just keep pounding the
round peg until it “fits” into the square hole!
The examples can be
multiplied quite easily. One reason why too many church leaders wander so far
off the biblical ranch is that they ignore and even reject plain scriptural
passages and sound principles of interpretation in the pursuit of deeper “spiritual”
experiences, power, popularity, or packing the church building full every
Sunday.
In Galatians, Paul
instructs the church that if anyone, even an “angel from heaven,”
proclaims a gospel different than what they received from him, “let him be accursed!” Strong words.
Perhaps he is only using hyperbole for effect. But if not, well, his words call
for God Himself to curse the offending individual!!
Sadly, all too often today, the practice is to ignore and push Scripture aside whenever it inconveniences someone’s latest vision, spiritual fad, pet doctrine, etc.
The results
of ignoring Scripture are never good and doing so is shortsighted and foolish.
And I write this as someone who spent years in Pentecostal churches and
continues to believe in the gifts of the Spirit.
And it grieves
me to say it, but the problem is especially acute in the Charismatic Movement
where reliance on the apostolic tradition preserved in the New Testament has
been replaced by an ever-increasing emphasis on the experiential, the
metaphysical, the emotional, and the mystical.
