Have you ever answered a question with "so-and-so told me..."?
When I was a kid, I trusted my teachers when they told me that George Washington was the first president, 2+2=4, and that water and the element sodium, when mixed, creates a nasty explosion. When I was a kid (eighth grade), I believed my camp counselor, for the first time, that Jesus Christ was Lord and I spoke in the language of asking Him into my heart. When I was a kid, I believed a lot of things because I was told they were true.
Paul uses an analogy in I Corinthians 13 that I feel applies well here. He says, "when I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child. When I became a man, I did away with childish things." The church is not meant to speak, think, or reason as a child does. The church's job is to train up leaders who will take the gospel to the ends of the earth. I submit that today's church is incapable of accomplishing the Great Commission so long as it stands in the way of spiritual puberty.
For an adult, "my pastor told me so" is not a good enough answer. For a mature believer, this just doesn't cut it. When it comes to important issues such as salvation, baptism, and studying God's Word, it's time the church taught adults to think for themselves. It's time for the church to train its members to find their own answers in the Scriptures. It's time for the church to take it's members off of milk. It's time for meat. It's time for a change.
History advises against Christians placing their faith in the clergy. It shows that when the people place all authority in the hands of mere men, the church becomes a power-hungry animal. Nothing good can come of laymen placing the right to Biblical interpretation squarely in the hands of priests and pastors. The "Dark Ages" stands as evidence for this. For centuries, the Catholic Church banned the reading of any Bible but the Latin version, which could only be understood by priests. This allowed the leadership to take control and drag the church into idol worship, the selling of indulgences, and the unholy crusades.
Through the Protestant Reformation, average people had the opportunity for the first time to read the Bible in their own langauge. This was a hard fought battle and came with a steep price. Many protestants were martyred by the Catholic Church when they claimed that the Scriptures were written for all men. For nearly 4 centuries, people like you and me have had the chance to read and understand God's Word for ourselves. Yet, America has taken this for granted. Not only is our nation Biblically illiterate, our church is Biblically illiterate.
Unless we search the Scriptures ourselves, we are in no better position than those who lived before the Protestant Reformation. Countless men gave their lives at the hands of Catholic persecution to bring more Bibles into print in more languages. If we continue to put the power in the hands of today's clergy, they too will begin to take advantage of the people. And yet it already has begun; today the Biblically illiterate are helpless prey for liberal "Christianity."
We must learn to read the Bible; we must learn to understand what it says. No longer can we lean on pastors and stand on blind faith. True faith is not blind; it was never meant to be. True faith is based upon fact.
We need pastors who will not rape the Scriptures of its truth. We need pastors who will not train men to be blind followers. What the church needs is pastors who understand that they are not a necessity for the growth of the church. The church is in need of leaders who will raise up better leaders. The church is in need of men who will seek revival through a renewed fervor for the Word of God.
And as for the people, our faith belongs in Christ, not in the men sent to be His servants.
2 comments:
The fascinating part of a lot of this is that people choose to be ignorant. We are at an age where we cannot claim to have no access to the tools that we need to move and to grow. People back in the early church and the middle ages had so little compared to us, yet their faith, by comparison, appears so much stronger.
Not only do we need pastors who will preach the word as it is, we need congregations who will not settle for status quo.
One of the best way to do this is to teach the whole Bible. Verse by verse, chapter by chapter. It's not the only way to teach but in my opinion it is the most beneficial (and from a teacher's standpoint, the easiest, as you don't have to wonder what you will be teaching next week - it is just where ever you left off this past week)
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