5 minutes a day 5 days a week - a year of Bible Wisdom

I belong to a Baptist church.  The pastor calls himself a “shepherd”… but don't care about his sheep.  He tells every one to hug everyone's neck but don't do that himself.  He do not shake anyone’s hand.  Don't even know the names of people and don't care.  It is not a big church, only three hundred members.  It is a fully-paid church with a capacity of 750.  Now he wants to buy a larger facility and wants every one to pay extra for it and told the congregation that those who do not wish to support him should leave the church!  He fired the associate pastor because he did not agree to his idea.  His wife is the music minister, and he gets a fabulous salary between the two.  He also sells his personal CD’s and his wife's music CD’s to make extra money.  We were paying for his luxurious house with swimming pool.  In this economy, people are struggling to make both ends meet.  There are people in our church who lost their homes to foreclosures and got their power cut off, but all he cares is for the people to contribute more money for his idea.  What can we do to get rid of this money and power-hungry preacher and his family, so that we will have a quiet place to worship?  We have contributed to this church heavily in the past but don't think we should do it any more.

Sincerely,
Fed Up

Dear Fed Up,

Our advice is to take this money-grubbing false teacher’s advice – LEAVE.  All you can ever do is work out your own salvation with fear and trembling (Php 2:12).  We get buckets of questions from people asking for help because every church they find seems to only care about money… it’s horrid what people have done in the name of religion.  Unfortunately, there is nothing new under the sun (Eccl 1:9).  Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for the same greedy behavior (Lk 20:46-47).

In the end, you want to be a christian – not a Baptist, Methodist, Calvinist, Lutheran, etc.  Baptist churches only make Baptists, Methodist churches only make Methodists, and so on.  You need to find a church that belongs to Christ, not men.  This preacher has warped and twisted the Scriptures to make religion all about him… and not about God.  Such men have a very strict judgment awaiting them (Jas 3:1).  We would be happy to help you find a faithful church that will teach the Bible and leave all the manmade garbage out.  E-mail us at askyourpreacher@mvchurchofchrist.org if you would like help finding a peaceful, faithful, and godly church to attend in your area.

The recent series of posts on creeds got me thinking about a few more questions.  It seems like there's a tendency to make concise statements of important beliefs such as "speak where the Bible speaks; be silent were the Bible is silent," "No creed but the Bible," or "To be saved one must hear, believe, repent, confess, be baptized and remain faithful."  It seems like sayings such as the Apostle's Creed or the Nicene Creed can be tweaked a little, so that they agree with Scripture as much as these shorter sayings do.  What's fundamentally different about saying, "We are a church that accepts this modified version of the Apostle's Creed" versus "We are a church that speaks where the Bible speaks and is silent where the Bible is silent?"

Sincerely,
Catch Phrase

Dear Catch Phrase,

The difference between a creed and a concise statement of beliefs is often subtle, but it is also important.  Creeds often start out as simple statements meant as “sermonettes” on Bible topics, but eventually, they take on a life of their own.  A creed is defined by the dictionary as ‘a set of beliefs or aims that guide someone’s life’.  A creed is created when someone takes a commentary on the Bible and turns that commentary into a stand-alone doctrine.  There is a difference between saying, “To be saved one must hear, believe, repent, confess, be baptized and remain faithful… here let me show you in the Bible where it says that” and simply stating something as doctrine without Biblical proof.  Creeds are created when a statement becomes authorized as a specific standard for a church.  A creed is a statement of belief that is treated as an accepted authoritative standard separate and apart from the Bible.  There is nothing wrong with making concise statements about important beliefs… we just better be ready to back them up with the authority of the Scriptures.  Otherwise, we will be guilty of going beyond what God wrote (1 Cor 4:6).

5 minutes a day 5 days a week - a year of Bible Wisdom

5 minutes a day 5 days a week - a year of Bible Wisdom