Are pastors “trained” to undermine Jesus’ message? That’s the question begged by the video entitled “Pastors Trained to Undermine Jesus’ Message” which I’ve embedded here. (requires a flash player to view).
Having received my theological training from a highly respected Midwest Bible college over twenty years ago, and the experience in ministry and interaction with many, many pastors over the years since then, I have first hand knowledge of this issue. And my answer therefore ends up being more “nuanced.”
In short, I don’t think pastors are trained “to” undermine Yeshua’s message. In fact, their training is intended to do just the opposite. BUT, the sad result of their training is that it almost always does end up undermining Yeshua’s message.
That’s because of what I call “Biblical Sophistication.” They have been deceived into making the irrelevant important. In that process they largely and consistently ignore what is vital to the faith of a New Covenant believer. The end result is to slip further into error. In the slipping, their error must be even more rigorously defended and more blindly embraced irregardless of the truth.
What is reaped in this folly is a vicious downward cycle. Sadly, they unintentionally (generally) lead others blindly down into the same pit. The broader problem here is something I call “Biblical Sophistication.” I’m using the word sophistication with a sense of irony here of course.
“Biblical Sophistication” is the attempt to know all things Biblical from an intellectual standpoint. The major motivation in “doing” the Bible for many of these biblical sophomores becomes to demonstrate the level of their sophistication with the Bible. In other words: to show off how smart and righteous they are. Bad news already. But it gets worse.
In order to aid in that hell-spawned effort (and profit from it), all kinds of systematic theologies, pop religious idols, glossy Bible “studies” and a whole host of gimmicks disguised by biblical-sounding lingo and pious buzzwords are hatched. The net result is that, by and large, flocks of believers are led away from what is absolutely vital for all under the New Covenant: to simply (and faithfully) read their Bible and do what it says.
Biblical Sophistication is not equal to Biblical Understanding. Biblical Understanding is the experienced and event-shaped understanding of YHWH’s word that leads to the moral living that is the mark of YHWH’s people. “Biblical Sophistication” acts as a cheap substitute. In fact, the brand of Biblical Sophistication I’m referring to actually leads to an argumentative, self-righteousness, and judgmental spirit. A sure mark of the flesh.
Reading the Bible, and most vitally important, doing what it says to do, leads to “Biblical Understanding.” Biblical Understanding is the internalized word of YHWH that is nurtured in us by the Spirit and truly impacts the world as we apply it, by the Spirit again, in an experienced and skilled manner. The result is that the Bible comes to life and is expressed (demonstrated and communicated) through our life.
To sum up, pastors are (usually) not trained to undermine Jesus’ message, but their training usually results in doing just that. They have been deceived. I thought the video above does a good job in describing a major trap into which so many pastors (and many more laypersons, for that matter,) fall.
We must be careful to not fall into the same kind of traps ourselves. The trap works on non-pastors as well. And don’t get too caught up in titles. I’ve run across more than a few “messianic rabbis” (of both the real and the three-dollar-bill type) making the same mistake from a different angle.
Our best defense? Our greatest hope in this mess? As always: read our Bible and do what it says. That is always the bottom line for New Covenant believers. And since I’ve reached the bottom line of the issue, that’s all I have to say about the matter. Today.
Blessings, family in Messiah 
PS. If the embedded video above didn’t play, you may have better luck viewing it here.
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Copyright 2010 Jim Zboran. All rights reserved.
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I actually had a pastor say to me during ‘a get to know him meeting’ that said he did not teach from Genesis or Revelation because they were too controversial. I had anoter pastor who said, he did not think the Bible was to be taken literally. Beware is the watch word.Read the Bible for yourself.
Hi Marcie,
Lol, I guess you got to know that pastor better than maybe he wanted! Nothing surprises me anymore. But you summed it up well: “Beware” and “Read the Bible for yourself.”
Thanks for commenting
Blessings
Thanks for sharing this Jim!!!So true..:)
Sure thing, Jayne
Blessings!
Are Pastors trained to undermine Christ’s message? Yes. Unequivocably yes. The reason lies not in the initiates original intent, but rather the school. Again, as in all else the things of God, not all schools.
Man with authority feels a heady rush of power. He or she is submerged in it, and unless strongly rooted, flounder. Their church, their denomination and their church culture all take the place reserved for God.
Much less those institutions with overt agendas.
Much like megachurch’s fast food religion, and psuedotheology, seminary has taken a devious route of instant gratification. Problem is it is focused on the giver rather than the receiver.
Many in charge of Christ’s flock, find their own vindication and satiation in this process. Gone is the outward look at the students, but rather an inward look at personal needs.
This of course is the wrong venue to seek such and leaves the student gasping for air as they drown in the flood of need washed over them from those given the responsibility to meet THEIR student’s need—and not their own.
The real tragedy is that this failed system is passed on to the student, who in time will in some cases become the teacher of a new generation of postulates and the circle then becomes complete.
Complete in failure.
Relationship to and with God is simple. The tenets of faith are simple. The truths and principles that Christ gave concerning Grace and our walk of faith, are again, simple. This then beckons to the teacher, how do they differentiate their voice.
How do they stamp the things of God with their own human need to validate themselves? If you are always viewing the rearview mirror while driving you will have an accident. If you must always validate yourself you will devalue and change God’s message and dilute it’s validation in lieu of your own.
You fail your student, yourself and ultimately God.
It violates the first tenet of faith as summed up in Luke 9:23 which Christ told us how we must follow Him. The first thing is that we are to ‘deny ourselves’. This is the only way to follow Christ. If you can not do this then your faith is vain. It has no power because the specter of your own needs, your own power, your own human filters place upon the Word of God, separate you from a real faith—thus a real relationship with God.
So what is endemic to this whole problem is that man becomes the arbiter of truth, and not God. All in the name of self validation.
The Bible addresses this well: a form of godliness but denying the power thereof.
Blessings Jim
Thank you, Jonathan. You’ve provided an excellent (and expertly written) analysis of the root causes of apostate pastors.
Of course these are not really pastors at all, irregardless of man-granted titles, but are in reality “hired hands.” And these apostate hired hands are hired by an apostate church. You quote well from 2 Timothy 3:5:
Those words of Paul, advising pastor Timothy to shun “religious” apostates explains why the apostate church breeds apostate “pastors:”
And thus we see the other side of the equation when it comes to hired-hand “pastors” and it includes what you rightfully point out as endemic to the whole system:
Paul’s advice to pastor Timothy in regards to these “itch-ears” was:
When a Spirit-gifted pastor does this, the only ones that will remain are those that are Spirit-led or Spirit-seeking. Either that or he will not be tolerated and will be tossed out. An honor, in my book. Almost eight years ago I stood in the pulpit as I started out with the congregation I currently lead and said: “A good congregation won’t keep a bad pastor, and a good pastor won’t keep a bad congregation.”
I am more sure of those words today than I was back when I first said them. I preached the Word, “reproving, rebuking, exhorting with all longsuffering and doctrine.” And I paid the price. But the reward is a congregation of New Covenant saints that are true and beloved partners in the Gospel.
In my opinion, many congregations deserve exactly the pastor they have. They call, enable, cultivate, endorse, and otherwise promote pastors based on their version truth, rather than YHWH’s truth. In fact, they not only deserve what they have, they want what they have. I have little sympathy for hired-hands that pose as Spirit-gifted pastors. But I have no more sympathy for congregations that call or keep such hired hands.
The bottom line to all this is we live in the day when the apostate church lives fully up to (or down to, actually) the end-time church promised by Paul in 2 Timothy. I personally don’t believe (because that isn’t the testimony of Scripture) the apostate church will be eradicated. So the popular church system will remain broken and will only get worse as we get further into the “last days.”
The answer for us, the body of Messiah, to this Babylon-ish church scene is here I think:
In short, don’t try to fix the broken system (as you have well analyzed its problems), but ditch it. If you have a bad pastor, get rid of him. If the congregation won’t, then get rid of the congregation. Then find a pastor that has been gifted and called for the edification of the body. The Spirit gives that gift to the body to play a vital role in the big picture of His work today (see Ephesians 4). Far too important a role to entrust to a hired-hand.
Thank you again, Jonathan. You’ve added some excellent analysis to this post. Blessings back to you, brother