“Salvation: Carrying your share of the Load”

Pastor Rasheed Baaith
Pastor Rasheed Baaith

“Salvation: Carrying your share of the Load”

“Jesus answered them. Be careful that no one misleads you (deceiving you and leading you into error)” John 24:4 – Amplified Bible

By Pastor Rasheed Baaith

      What many of us in the Houses of God fail to understand is that we have a responsibility to be sure that what we hear coming from the church pulpit is indeed the correct Word of God.

That our Pastor whoever she or he may be, is giving us a clear, theologically sound understanding of Scripture. That exegesis has not become isogesis.

Exegesis is defined as the analysis of texts or text of Scripture; it is explanation and interpretation.  Isogesis is that analysis and interpretation done with a personal bias. The letter “I” being the key to understanding the term. But perhaps even worse than Isogesis is the theologically unsound preaching being done in many of our churches.

And many times the Holy Spirit will prick our conscience and let us know that what we hear is grieving Him and it should grieve us. At that point we need to remember John 24:4 and let no man deceive us.

The consequences of not heeding that guidance are almost too many to list. Chief among them is the fact that when many of us have discovered that what we heard is erroneous, we paint all churches with the label of being deliberately misleading or of being led by Pastors who are at best untutored, at worse willfully ignorant.

Then we hear folks talking about how they won’t go back to church because of what happened. I understand the disappointment but I don’t understand how people talk about not giving church another chance but will give everything and everyone else one more bite of the apple.  And that’s after being deliberately hurt.

Another consequence is many of us will suffer from the “But my Pastor said…” poison. Those of us with this infection will believe what the Pastor taught no matter how much proof that what was said was never in the Bible. They respond with “But my Pastor said…” no matter what they are shown or the clarity of the text read to them.

But at some point the issue is not the teacher but the student. Once we know that what is being taught to us or being preached to us is incorrect, it is incumbent upon us to develop a remedy. If what any preacher teaches, no matter who he/she is, no matter how big their congregation or how small, whether they are on television or on the corner cannot be found in the Bible, we are to disregard it.

Jesus gave the command “Be careful that no one misleads you.” Why would He give such an instruction if it were not important? Might it be that He knew that many of us would place the responsibility for our walk on someone else? That many of us would not study to show ourselves approved?

Most times in life we get fooled be-cause we want to be. In our romantic relationships we know when we are seeing signs of betrayal but we choose to ignore them and we make the same choice with our Pastors and church leaders. It is not a question of seeking perfection in someone because no one is perfect. We all have our shortcomings as Pastor Dr. L.L. Ward teaches, That’s true “from the pulpit to the door.”

But is a question of theological integrity and personal integrity. The chief aspect or characteristic of leadership is transparency. Is your Pastor or church leader living what they teach?  Is their life style of Christ or not? And is what they teach you convicting you to live to please Christ or does it let you live to please yourself?

What are we to expect of those who preach to us and teach us?  Just what Ecclesiastes 12:9 – 10 tells us: that they are to wise, teach us knowledge and “seek out and set in order many proverbs.” The Preacher seeking to find acceptable words is last in the list of expectations listed.

It may sound good to you but is it good for you?  Think about it.

Pastor Baaith can be reached at: baaith05@comcast.net (please note that 05 are numbers not letters).

 

About Carma Henry 24481 Articles
Carma Lynn Henry Westside Gazette Newspaper 545 N.W. 7th Terrace, Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33311 Office: (954) 525-1489 Fax: (954) 525-1861

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