Reprinted Articles

Not long back I had a retired Pastor reprove me very sharply, for making some interesting points while preaching on the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. He was very old school, and he referred to 1 Tim 1.4 “nor to be taken up with with myths and never ending genealogies.. ”

I quietly and respectfully asked him if I had said anything that was heretical or inappropriate to which he answered. “No”. I explained that this Scripture was never meant to exclude genuine enquiry into the Bible, but rather it was targeting the false philosophy of Gnosticism. But he would not have it.

You would think that with 40 years experience this past and would have had some understanding of what Paul was referring to in this letter and the problem of Gnosticism. We have a problem here, how can a congregation understand these things either and be able to interpret their Bible?

It is unfortunate that so many pastors in our churches will preach shallow and light weight messages, and the result is that their people will hardly grow in and Scripture and interpretation. Preachers love to give to us ‘moral essays’ and ‘warming affirmations’ because, supposedly, if we truly ‘love’ others this is what we will do.

Well, who cares if God’s people are falling through the cracks ‘for a lack of knowledge’ (oracle), what’s really important, is if we are very positive and ‘nice’ to everybody.

Let’s face it, the more ‘relevant’ we become, to the world, the less relevant we Christians are in point of fact, to the world. :o(

Why do Pastors get stuck in a rut of favorite topics and ‘feel good’ messages? Preachers preach on a verse from 1 John further a part about a victorious one from Luke; topical address from Matthew following on with the true faith of Mary Magdalene or the rigtheousness of Abraham.

We preach a portion from here and another from there, but we need to put it all together in a clear understandable format.

We seem to have a constant flow of new books and ideas, with dangerous Liberal leanings. We are repeating history, but if we were to teach the basics of Church history, we would be more equipped to avoid repeating that history.

Our role as teachers of the flock is to take the fragments of God’s Word and plan certain together in a beautiful tapestry that the Church can draw on, helping them to understand God, the Bible and the Church.

This is not some gruelling, unachievable task, all it needs is study with prayer.

John 17:17 Consecrate them in the truth. Your word is truth. (NAB)

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Tags: Education