There is an interesting section in the Book of Jeremiah that gives us an indication of God’s viewpoint on those who lead people astray from the truths of Scripture.
Jeremiah 23:1
Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! saith the LORD. [KJV]
The sentiment expressed here is that God was not entirely pleased with those who would destroy and scatter his people. In the times of Jeremiah, those who were supposed to be pastors were not feeding God’s people the truth, and those who were prophets were prophesying lies. Neither of these was something that God had sanctioned.
Unfortunately, this situation that Jeremiah was addressing was not only a problem in his days but is quite prevalent in our times as well. I fully understand that it is up to each individual whether they want to believe the truths of the Bible or not – clearly, each person must make up their own mind concerning this. The problem arises with those who claim to be Bible-believing Christians but decide that they want to preach contrary to the Scriptures.
There are those – and in fact in very large so-called Christian organizations – who say that the truths of Genesis are nothing but myths. They say, “Sure, some of it might be true; the rest, well, you know, it’s just stories”. And they say, knowing full well that the Scriptures themselves stand in direct opposition to their statements.
Then there are those who have chosen to embrace the whole LGBTQ ++ idealogy to the point of ordination of homosexuals, recognition of multiple genders, and so forth. The Bible still says,
Genesis 1:27
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. [KJV]
There are only two genders. And the Bible still says that the practice of homosexuality is “against nature” and “unseemly” despite the fact that everyone has the right to practice it if they so choose. This is not an injunction against those who choose to live that way – the problem is that these preachers of hypocrisy have no right to sanction it when the Bible does not. Many times, the acceptance and sanctioning originate at the very top of these religious organizations. I guess the size of the congregation is more important than the truth of Scripture. Have to keep those donations coming in, don’t we?
And the list goes on and on – whether it’s those who forbid marriage, those who advocate the worship of Mary as the so-called mother of God, those who encourage prayer to saints who have long since died, and so on. Now if you want to be a preacher, a pastor, a prophet – or some other ministry that exists in the Bible, then the least that you could do is to ensure that you do not say things that are contrary to the words of God. If you do not believe what the Bible says is true, then the only honest thing that you could do is to stop preaching. If it’s just a job for you and you have no interest in the accuracy of the Scriptures, then it is nothing but hypocrisy.
Now I am not intimating that everyone who preaches has to get everything perfectly correct – that is most likely not ever going to happen. I fully appreciate that people might see certain Scriptures in different ways, and that is down to each person doing his or her best to understand what God had written. What I am talking about are not those sorts of situations – but the cases where the doctrine is totally and completely clear, and ministers still choose to preach contrary to the Scriptures. There is no excuse for that sort of behavior. If you are a minister, you ought to know better than that. God does not and will not take kindly those who choose to lead his people astray – woe unto the pastors who would knowingly do that.
The Word of God is just that – The Word of GOD! When someone preaches that Word, they are representing God himself and are accountable to the highest authority there is. God’s Word being spoken can illicit multiple kinds of responses:
- Some will believe it
- Some will not
- Some will ignore it
- Some will be antagonistic to anything it says
- Some will be antagonistic to those who speak it
- Some will be indifferent
If you want to preach the Word, then you need to be ready for any of those responses. You do not have the right or authority to modify it to suit your desires or the prevailing winds of society.
Psalm 118:89
For ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven. [KJV]