I have a couple of dictionary definitions for the word “Reverend”
“A member of the clergy and a spiritual leader of the Christian Church”
“A title of respect for a clergyman”
So I ask you, should certain people be called spiritual leaders of Christians or be respected by Christians after they continually and willfully disgrace themselves through obvious worldly and religious Harlotry? Should Christians call these religious harlots “Reverend” just because they got through some religious training program?
Somehow the title “Reverend” just does not fit many that are using it today.
Jesus did not like titles for good reason (Mt 23 7:12), leaders in the Church are to be servants. Titles like “Reverend” just puff people up.
Okay, having said that, I will give those with the title “Reverend” some slack since you really have little say in the matter.
But, don’t you think that the Body of Christ should also be able to choose not to use the title when it is clear that the “Reverend” is nothing but a figure that is in worldly religious harlotry?
Should Christians call race baiters and those in radical socialist or liberation theology “Reverend”? Should we “Reverend” people dispensing Communism, Universalism, same sex marriage, or a gospel of name-it-and-claim it, under the guise of Christianity? Should Christians call those that deny biblical doctrinal truths “Reverend”? Hardly a day goes by that I do not read some statement by some “Reverend” that is totally contrary to biblical truth but even the Christian publications quoting him/her will still use the title, “the Reverend Blank-and-Blank”. Is there some law that says you have to use the title “Reverend”?
I do not mind revering some leaders in the Church that earned honor but I will be darned if I will ever call the leader of the Latter Day Church of Deception and Harlotry, by the title “Reverend”.
The Bible says to give honor to whom honor is due, but these people are dishonorable so I am not going to honor them. I know it would be futile to even suggest that the institutions that give out these titles rescind them when their “Reverend” do not honor the biblical doctrine of Christ, because many of these same institutions are where the “Reverend” obtained the seeds of their heresy and harlotry in the first place.
I really think there is more hope for unbelievers and believers bound in sins than there is for the “Reverend” that blasphemy God by using Christianity (founded on His Son’s name) in order to promote their own selfish worldly agenda. Many of these “Reverend” were never in the body of Christ and their honorable title will not go with them where they are going.
Lest you think I am being a little too hard on our Reverend filling many of our church pulpits read what Dave Daubenmire has to say about the power of the pulpit.
Hence, a major reason of the “falling away”, although I suspect my use here is not the same meaning or interpretation as in the prophecy of the same phrasing, which likely means falling away from the true God, vice my next sentence:
My use of “falling away” here is an observation of even the genuine body walking away from [corrupted] churches in their area in disgust — very much characteristic of myself, sad to say;
If I’m not mistaken, I think Don had a post on “why he left his church” somewhere on the site;
As I recall…
In the past two decades, I left one church because they hired a legalistic pastor but I returned to that church after they fired him several weeks later.
I left another church became they hired a pastor and then the deacons pretty much forced him to resign for dubious reasons. I would have left soon anyway became after attending there for over a year and fully explaining to the leadership the reason for not joining they made no attempt to take their legalistic church covenant oath out of their church constitution.(Agreeing to the Church constitution was required for membership.)
I left another church because the pastor and his father kept beating up on the faithful congregation because the numbers were not growing. Soon thereafter he took his Calvary Chapel license and worship team to another city and abandoned the people that were still attending.
Why the Calvary Chapel license reference? Just Curious. I attend a Calvary Chapel and it has been such a blessing. Great leadership, spirit led, bible believing and teaching church.
I gave the Calvary Chapel reference because for a pastor to take their license to use the Calvary Chapel name to another city is something foreign to those in real denominations. In a regular denomination the local congregation would just hire a new pastor or be given a new pastor. I do not think people in regular denominations could understand what I was saying unless I mentioned that it was a Calvary Chapel. Don’t anyone get me wrong I like most Calvary Chapel teachers and their worship and I have been known to attend them when I am in a location to do so, but the pastor has all the power in Calvary Chapels so Christians also need to be discerning.
To give equal time, the first church I mentioned was a Southern Baptist and the second was a Baptist church not affiliated with any denomination.
The point was that I left these three churches for good reason. In the first one I left because I could not worship where I would continually be aggravated by a legalistic pastor. I reconsidered after the congregation got rid of him. In the second church the deacons in power were the problem and l could not be a voting member without being a hypocrite. In the third church the Pastor let his father use his platform for continually blaming the attending faithful for the problems. This was ten years ago and I still member every other phrase out of his mouth was “youse people better…….blank-and-blank”. The congregation stopped growing after the father got to speak more and more. The pastor let his father destroy the congregation that he wanted to build and it was not like he wasn’t told. I suspect he suddenly moved his license and worship team to the other city just to get out from under his father.
Don, I hope you find a Christian Church that preaches God’s word. I go to http://www.seacoast.org. I’ve heard somewhere that “if you’re not growing, then you’re dying.” Does that apply to churches? I don’t know. God is not boring, but people seem to have a short attention span these days, no?
Have a great day everyone.
Hi Don,
Thank you for mentioning that the pastor has such power in a Calvary Chapel local body. That goes far to explain some issues we are having at ours, and why the congregation has split under the same pastor at least three times in about a dozen years.
Our pastor is generally quite Biblical, but he cannot deal well with people who do not agree with him, rather believing that he is never wrong (though he gives lip-service to the idea that he is not infallible). It’s a blessing to be firm on the absolutes, but he is like this even the things honest believers find debatable. Sooner or later, people or groups who cannot agree with him, find themselves dismissed from “leadership” positions (and often they leave), or they simply leave on their own. This is sad, and it does seem to be why this congregation remains fairly small.
David, I have moved many times and I always find a local church that teaches God’s word.
Brett, I do not want to pick on Calvary Chapels because I generally think they are about the best places for Christians to go.
Calvary Chapels also often split on purpose. They develop teachers and then these teachers go out to set up churches in other locations and many times the teachers will take part of the original congregation with them to the other side of town.
What you said could be a problem in any church where the Pastor has all the control, but frankly all forms of church government have strengths and weaknesses. For example, the average stay of a Baptist pastor is only about 3 years. Why? The pastors are selected outside of the local congregation and they often have conflicts with the member selected lay leaders.
In addition, many young pastors only get jobs in small town churches or as assistants and they are always job shopping for their next career opportunity. Conversely, Calvary Chapels teachers usually gain a following within their church by teaching or threw the youth program and then they split off with the help of the parent church to grow a new church. They are far less likely to leave a church that they built from scratch. Of course pastors that never leave also pretty much select and control the local leadership.
One problem I have observed in some small Calvary Chapels is that the Pastor may be a great teacher but he does not have the nature of a Shepherd. This is less of a problem in larger churches where they hire assistants to do most of the pastoral functions.
The false teachers are a big problem to the church. They cause a lot of confusion and create adverse reactions towards christians in general. Their sin stain everyone who they contact with. It is terrible. And people believe in them!
I’ve been reading some passages about false teachers and prophets: Mathew 23, Jude, 2 Timothy, and 2 Peter 2. None of them says we should revere them. Actually, Mat 23 says that even among us we should not call each other titles as Father, Master, or Rabbi.
God is going to deal with all this false teachers. Their pride is part of their life in here, but in eternity they will have the worst place ever: the blackest darkness in hell.