Never Trust a Pastor

I am making a bold statement in this article, one that is sure to raise some eyebrows and make some people mad. I hope you'll be willing to read through and hear me out however, as I have a very important point to make. I'll repeat my statement here before I begin. You should never trust a pastor or take them at their word. Now I don't mean that pastors are liars or that the pastor of your church is out to swindle or cheat you, in fact I happen to really enjoy talking with the pastor at my church, unless he reads this article and decides to kick me out of his congregation. Please let me explain my bold statement in the following article.

Act 17:10 And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea: who coming thither went into the synagogue of the Jews.
Act 17:11 These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.

When Paul preached to the Berans, they did not take his word for it, they did not believe Paul simply because he said it. The people he preached to went and searched the scriptures to see if what he said was true. This underlines what I am saying about pastors and trusting them, while yes I trust my pastor and I believe him when he says he's going to do something, and I truly love to hear him preach I also read the scriptures daily, to see if he is speaking the word of God in its entirety or not. There is a sad trend among churches today to remove some things, sweep others under the rug and avoid others all together. While I do enjoy my pastors preaching and know him to be a strong man of God I also know that everyone can come upon rough waters or be misled by false doctrine. I would also like to point out that he and a few other pastors I have spoken to encourage their congregations to study God's word and see if what they say is true. Now this has really been an overly long introduction for me to get into the real reason for this article, which is to say how important the bible is!

2Ti 3:16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
2Ti 3:17 That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.

From beginning to end the bible is given to teach us, help us grow, show us what we do wrong and how to do it right. All scripture means all of it, not just the parts that make us feel good, not just the parts about God's grace and love but everything including God's wrath and judgment. There are some churches lately that have downplayed hell, or even worse, removed it all together! The problem with that is that Jesus talked about hell almost three times as much as he did about heaven. He wanted people to know it was real, he wanted them to know what it was like and he wanted people to avoid it. I do not do a lot of 'boogey man' preaching when I share the gospel, but I am always ready and willing to share the truth of Hell. Another frightening change is that a few churches have recently begin teaching that eventually everyone gets out of hell and goes to heaven with God. Admittedly a nice concept and one I wish was true. Jesus however tells us that it will be forever and that the worm will not die and the fire will not be quenched.

Joh 17:17 Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.

The next point I want to make is that the bible is true and infallible. It is God's word and God's word is truth. God cannot and will not lie to anyone for any reason. I have heard many complaints that the bible was written by men, that the translators made mistakes or changed things on purpose. Well I have a few problems with that, first off if God is all powerful, if He can create a world with a word, if He can cause a virgin to be with child why can He not keep His word safe from corruption? Secondly, we have thousands of manuscript copies of the Greek new testament, in nearly complete or fragment pieces, this is more manuscript ascertain than any other ancient document, the next closest is Homer's Iliad, with just over 600 copies. As for mistakes or changes made, all the changes or mistakes found throughout the oldest documents to today's bibles are mostly errors in spelling or differences in pronouns-he said compared to Jesus said-and sometimes the difference is similar to me saying an apple or a apple. Only 1% of the errors or differences affect any doctrine and no cardinal doctrine is challenged.

Another point Id like to make about the bible's truth is that it was written over 1500 years, by over forty authors living in thirteen different countries on three different continents, but from beginning to end it has the same internal cohesion. Book series written in the same decade by the same author do not boast that kind of continuity, if that's not something you consider the work of God maybe this is. The bible makes many, many predictions which have all come true-save for the ones talking about the second coming. Unlike the prophecies of Nostradamus or those of books like the Quran, the prophecies are not vague or self fulfilling but detailed and impossible to be fulfilled by anyone but God. I'll include some of these prophecies at the end of the article.

Mat 24:11 And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many

If we remove infallibility from scripture we open the door to false teachers and doctrines that can do damage to us and our faith. When you view the bible as having errors and say that some is wrong and some is not it begs the question, which are right and which are wrong and who is qualified to figure it out? It comes down to people throwing out the doctrine they don't want to follow. When we read the bible, examine the scriptures and see what is said about life, Jesus and truth and look at the Word as being always right we have a strong foundation to go on built upon Jesus Christ and supported by the holy scripture. The bible from beginning to end is really all about Jesus; it tells us about who Jesus is, why we need Him and how to receive Him as savior. The bible tells us to stand on Jesus as our solid rock and foundation of building our faith, if not for the bible itself we would not know how to build upon this faith or even what this faith was. For those who don't believe me I would ask you to do me a favor, forget everything you ever read about Jesus in the bible, or in text based on the bible, and tell me what you know about him now?
I hope people understand why I made such a bold statement earlier. I do not want people to look at their pastors with distrust or contempt, I want to point out how important the bible is, how much we need to be in God's word every day, reading God's truth so we may be ready to spot false teachings when they rear up their ugly heads. I hope this article has helped you to understand why the bible is so important and to reinforce your desire to read God's word. Thank you for reading, God bless and keep you all.

Fulfilled promises-

As promised, here are a few fulfilled prophecies, I am going to use three prophecies relating to Christ.

Zec 11:12 And I said unto them, If ye think good, give me my price; and if not, forbear. So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver.
Mat 26:15 And said unto them, What will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you? And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver.
God said that Jesus would be sold for thirty silver and he was.
Isa 7:14 Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel
Luk 1:31 And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS.
Luk 1:32 He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David:
Luk 1:33 And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.
Luk 1:34 Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?
A virgin with child, who but God could cause this, or predict it?
Psa 22:16 For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.
This prophecy was given hundreds of years before crucifixion was ever used as a form of execution, yet God's word predicted it would happen this way!