Most pastors are not representatives of Jesus Christ per se, but are representatives of their particular denomination. If there is one pastor preaching Lutheran doctrine to his congregation and another pastor two blocks away preaching Methodist doctrine to his congregation, it is a no-brainer that they can’t both be representatives of Jesus Christ as Jesus Christ will not lead and inspire one of His servants to preach one doctrine while leading and inspiring another servant to preach a contradictory doctrine to his congregation.
Many pastors enjoy a host of benefits provided to them and their immediate family by the church they pastor. They are often provided with a rent free parsonage, a late model car, an oil company credit card to be used for the purchase of gasoline and oil for their car, health and dental insurance for their entire family, a two-week paid vacation each year, and a salary that will range from modest to exorbitant. All too often these become what I call Satan’s fringe benefits, because Satan will use them to prevent a pastor from introducing a newly discovered doctrine to his congregation. Let’s say a pastor through much careful in-depth study of God’s Word discovers that God’s eternal seventh day sabbath is just that – eternal and was never abolished and replaced by Sunday observance. He also realizes full well that if he begins expounding this “new” doctrine to his congregation the deacons will have an emergency meeting and will meet with him and inform him he is no longer considered their pastor and must vacate the church parsonage within the next thirty days, surrender his oil company credit card and give the keys to his car to the senior deacon. His health and dental insurance is immediately cancelled and his next paycheck will be his final paycheck. Satan will whisper to his mind, “You don’t want to lose all of that do you? Where will you find another congregation that will want you as their pastor as your denomination has now labeled you a heretic.” And so the all too human pastor forgets about sharing the sabbath doctrine with his congregation. Satan’s fringe benefits have locked him in to continuing teaching error to his congregation. The Spirit of God is quenched in his mind and heart and no further divine revelation is afforded him by the Lord.
As I have said so many times before, Satan is an expert at his craft, the art of deception and spiritual enslavement. Some pastors recognize this. Many never do. And the one most endangered of all by Satan’s expertise and ingenuity is the novice, the one who is a babe in Christ, having only recently embraced the faith. All such need to make absolutely certain that they have abandoned all sin and maintain a continual walk of holiness lest they become fair game to Satan’s wiles.
Christ’s Faithful Servant (Galatians 1:10-12),
Donald Wiley