While I was in the throes of writing on the teachings of men I came across an article on preachers and how they are to be embraced. At about the same time something astonishing, shocking, and not the least surprising made national news.
Those two things flowed together for me like two creeks coming together to make a river. I read one article and saw just how far the 'church' system has gone to gain control of the minds of those that live within that system. I read the other one and saw exactly what the result is when any system has so much power that it can use it's own rules (or teachings) to wipe out all objections to what it does.
The first article I read was titled 'Private accusations against your pastor is a sin'. I almost gave the link to the article here but after giving it more thought I have opted not to do so. It is not my intent to tear apart what someone else says, nor is it my intent to give anyone that may read this a target for them to tear into should they be opposed to what this person wrote. Rather than giving that link I am going to give a brief summary of what the article said, as if the title isn't enough to clue you in.
The gist of the whole thing is that one should never speak badly in any way about their preacher as that is a sin. There were examples given and bits of Scripture cited but the entire point was to tell the readers that should they speak badly against their preacher they are in grave error and are in fact sinning.
In my last post I wrote of how we should embrace Arminians and be grateful for them and their belief systems. I have not changed my stance on that. I still firmly believe it. Their faith system is a gift to every believer out there because they are what makes Christianity acceptable. The elect are still the elect. The Lord will not lose a single soul that belongs to Him. He will save them out of whatever life they live, whatever faith they hold. We should, therefore, embrace and accept every professing believer as if they are one of the elect so long as they show signs of the fruits of the Spirit. And we should be grateful for the restraint their beliefs puts on an evil society.
I firmly believe that. What I don't believe, however, is that every facet of a religion, of any kind, is innocent in their belief. I do not believe that there are not some with deeper motivations. In this case I believe that the man that wrote that article is trying hard to instill the idea that a preacher should never be questioned. To give him credit, he did go into 1 Timothy 5:19, telling the way to go about correcting an elder. The problem is his whole article came across as one should never question their preacher, that preacher knows best.
And it's that mindset, that cult like following, that brainwashing, that gets those in the 'church' into dangerous ground. When one believes that they cannot question or speak against those in authority than who is there to say when the leaders are out of line? Who can and will stand up and say 'this is wrong'?
And when there is no one to say that...??
You get the second thing that prompted much thought on my part and this post. Late this past summer my husband pointed me to a news article about a Methodist 'church' that allowed a homosexual woman to be their pastor. Not only was she allowed into laity but she and her female companion were welcomed openly. This new preacher was very open about her sin filled life and this 'church' welcomed her as their leader.
Now....what happens when a congregation is led to believe that they cannot speak against those in leadership because it is sin? What are the so-called leaders setting their congregation up for? I have attended a 'church' where the leaders were not to be questioned under any circumstances. They ran the place. They ruled the roost. In that particular 'church' it wasn't even the preacher that was in charge, he was just the puppet for those that were in charge, and he was handpicked to make sure he would do exactly what they told him too.
When those in leadership, in any capacity, are believed to be above reproach and no one is allowed to question them...how far can they go?
And what can they teach those under them?
In this case sin is being taught as a good thing. Everyone should welcome and embrace it because...well, because we say it's okay.
The teachings of men has far reaching effects and I firmly believe the Lord allows everything that happens to happen. There is a distinct cause and effect that takes place. That must take place. We usually cannot see the end results. Our view is limited to the here and now and to hindsight. The Lord can see all of time though.
Just as he moves someone to a town so that they can meet their spouse to be, or he marries two people and creates a child from that union...he also moves things within this world to get us to whatever His end goal is.
I do not know why the 'church' must have such control. Maybe it's because without it some of the restraint on it's people would be lessened and they would wreck more havoc, more evil, in this world. Maybe it's because...because...I don't know. There is a reason though.
In this case maybe it's possible that more homosexuality needs to be embraced by the 'church' so that homosexuality, at least to some extent, can be restrained. Just as other sins are restrained through 'church' maybe the Lord will use 'church' to restrain some of the homosexuality that now runs rampant in our society.
I don't know.
All I know is that when I read those two articles, at about the same time, I saw a connection there that made me ponder on it for a very long time. Months actually. And I find myself asking the same question today that I did on the day I read those articles...
What are they teaching us now?
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