Jesus Christ, the Living Head of the church, the body of Christ on earth, calls, anoints and places teachers in the body of Christ. Those who attempt to perform that function on their own introduce confusion and gross error into Christianity. When Jesus Christ said, “I will build my church” He meant just that. (See Matthew 16:18). “God has set the members every one of them in the body, as it has pleased Him” (See I Corinthians 12:18). “God has tempered the body together” ( I Corinthians 12:24). And again, in the 28th verse of this same chapter, Paul repeats dogmatically that God has set teachers in the church.
A wise and honest hospital administrator is not going to appoint, or hire, a first year medical student to head up the department of surgery. He wouldn’t even place a graduate student in that position even after that student had studied and applied the medical arts for eight full years and graduated head of his class. The chief surgeon will be a physician who has practiced his profession for many years and is generally recognized as a skilled surgeon. Yet millions believe Jesus Christ anoints and appoints mere youths to be teachers in the body of Christ, youngsters who have never even read the Bible from cover to cover one time!! No wonder there are so many denominations in the Christian religion. It is a wonder there are not ten thousand or more!
And then there are some people, both men and women, who claim “God called me to preach” later in life. They drop their present jobs or professions, attend some Bible college somewhere and are “ordained” a few years later and assigned a congregation to pastor. Meanwhile across town, or in another state, some man or woman graduates from an opposing denomination’s Bible school and they, too, are “ordained” and begin preaching their brand of Christian doctrine. And this process goes on day in and day out across America and pretty much around the world.
Yet the Lord says to His hand-picked and carefully selected teachers of divine truth what He said long ago to His prophet Jeremiah: “Behold I have put my words in your mouth. See, I have set you this day over” the people of God. (See Jeremiah 1:9-10). To His church, Jesus says, “I will give you pastors (teachers) according to my heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding” (See Jeremiah 3:15). A truly called and anointed teacher of divine truth has an uncanny knowledge of scripture – ALL OF IT! He is as familiar with Zephaniah’s prophecies as he is with Paul’s letter to the Galatians. He is “at home” in Isaiah’s writings as he is with Peter’s two epistles. Show me a pastor, or teacher, who says, “I don’t get my doctrine out of the Old Testament” and I will show you someone you need to flee from as though they were pointing a gun at your head and about to fire!
God have mercy on any believer who does not comprehend what I have just written for I assure you Satan is deceiving you day in and day out.
Christ’s Aged Servant (Galatians 1;10-12),
Donald Wiley