True, Jesus did say, “Where two or three are gathered together in my name there am I in the midst!” He did NOT add, “and I approve of all that I see and hear.” In Revelation 1 we are told that Jesus Christ is standing in the midst of the seven churches of Revelation 2 and 3, but He does not approve of much of what He sees and hears. Jesus was present in the Jerusalem assembly of God’s people when Ananias and Sapphira, Ananias’ wife, lied to the apostle Peter as to the price of some land they had sold. The Lord struck them dead on the spot. He saw their sin and the Jerusalem assembly saw graphic evidence of His disapproval. Those assemblies who use a perverted portrait of Paul as an excuse for continued sin in their lives need to question which Jesus they may be following. (See 2 Corinthians 11:3-4). Satan has blinded millions of believers from seeing the basic truths set forth in this article article. Paul told the Corinthian assembly, “You come together not for the better but for the worse” (See I Corinthians 11:17). When profound error is spoken from the pulpit that is the situation you have.
A pastor’s responsibility is a weighty one. “For it is written, ‘As I live’, says the Lord, ‘every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.’ So then every one of us (we believers) shall give account of himself to God.” (See Romans 14:11-12). Pastor, you are building on the foundation of a sacrificed Son and His apostles and prophets. “Let every man take heed how he builds thereupon.” (See I Corinthians 3:10-11). “Every man’s work (especially every pastor’s) shall be made manifest.” (Did you really know the Word of God? Did you really teach the truth or merely your particular denomination’s private views?) “The fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.” (See I Corinthians 3:13). “LET NO MAN DECEIVE HIMSELF!” (See I Corinthians 3:18).
There are some preachers I wouldn’t want to be within a country mile of when they are judged. The weeping and gnashing of teeth that will be heard will probably echo through God’s hall of justice causing even holy angels to hide their faces and mourn. “For we know Him that has said, ‘Vengeance belongs unto me. I WILL recompense,’ says the Lord. And again, ‘THE LORD SHALL JUDGE HIS PEOPLE. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” (See Hebrews 10:30-31). Tell Ananias and Sapphira all the judgment a believer will ever face was poured out on Christ on Calvary! (See Acts 5:1-11). That eleventh verse says “great fear came upon all the church” when they heard how God still judged sin in His people long after Calvary. (Read I Corinthians, chapters 10 and 11 slowly and carefully if you doubt that God judges believers if they continue in sin). Remember Peter warned that “judgment must BEGIN at the house of God!” It was at Peter’s feet Ananias and Sapphira dropped dead. (See I Peter 4:17). And the judgment of God’s people begins with the elders, the leadership, the instructors, guides and pastors. (See Ezekiel 9:4-7). The phonies will receive their judgment in the next world, not this one.
These various and sundry assemblies, differing as widely as the church at Laodicea differed from the church at Philadelphia, had better get back to doing things God’s way if they are going to publicly proclaim they are assemblies of God’s people for truly we are snared by the words of our own mouth. When an assembly urges those in their community to come fellowship with them, assuring them that they will hear the truths of God proclaimed from their pulpit and by their pastors, they have a heightened responsibility to know and teach God’s Word accurately and in its completeness. Of course common sense alone assures any thinking person that such is not the case with many of these congregations as a Baptist assembly will be teaching doctrines diametrically opposed to those taught in the nearby Pentecostal assembly! The Methodist pastor will teach doctrines at variance with what the Nazarene or Amish preacher proclaims as God’s truth.
Most merely believe and teach what they have been reared to believe are the true doctrines expressed in the Bible. A Baptist minister was reared in a Baptist home, exposed to Baptist doctrine all his life. A Mennonite minister hails from a Mennonite home, an Episcopalian from an Episcopalian home. Very few Christians really search out the scriptures to prove their beliefs. In their memory they have scriptures here and there that seemingly support their beliefs. That’s good enough for them. The Baptist reasons this way, but he forgets that the members of the nearby Church of God or Assembly of God think and reason in a similar fashion. That old while haired Mennonite minister lying in his casket was a Mennonite youth. That ninety year old Baptist deacon was baptized in a Baptist church eighty years previously.
All of my early life, primarily in the Baptist churches I attended, I heard preachers preach and teach from Romans 7, portraying Paul as someone as carnal and sinful as the next guy. This would not have been the case had they really proved all things of a spiritual nature, had they really known the scriptures as they should have since they claimed that God Himself had “called” them to preach. Of course the Methodist, the Nazarene, the Pentecostal, etc., etc., etc., preachers ALL claim they have been “called” to preach. I fear many of them will be face-to-face with Jesus Christ one day and hear Him say, “I never called you to be my representative, for had I called you I would have enlightened you to a good understanding of my Word – ALL of it!” Many preachers merely parrot one another with that line about being “called” to preach. Few even understand just HOW and WHEN Jesus Christ anoints someone to speak forth His Word and instruct others in the truths of God. And don’t even suggest to one of these preachers that God might not have “called” them to preach. You will see a flash of anger and a short fused temper displayed. But ask the Baptist preacher if he thinks God “called” the Jehovah’s Witness minister, or the Pentecostal preacher, or the Seventh Day Adventist bishop.
Christ’s Aged Servant (Galatians 1:10-12),
Donald Wiley