“We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not please ourselves.”  (Romans 15)

 

1 Timothy 3 gives us the qualifications of the pastor or the bishop. The unfortunate truth is however, that when a pulpit committee, elders, or deacons (deacons would demonstrate an unBiblical church governing body) sits down with a potential pastor or a candidate for pastor, 1 Timothy 3 is rarely used or reviewed. Instead the candidate is asked a bunch or questions that may not be necessary.  a lot of the questions reveal or betray a bias.  This is unfortunate to say the least and an affront and offense to God to say the most. i Timothy has been inspired and written for a purpose and that purpose is not to ignore it.

You may have noticed that I have written on the pastoral office recently.  This is due to a pastoral theology book I have been studying and then discussing with two (2) other pastors. This study is encouraging and challenging. We will list, in bullet point form, what the qualifications are:
*The office must be desired by the candidate.
*The bishop must be blameless, the husband of one (1) wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality — because churches were in homes, apt to teach.
*Not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but patient, not a brawler, not covetous.
*One that ruleth his own house well, having his children in subjection with all gravity.
*Not a novice or new convert, moreover he must have a good report of them which are outside of Christ or unsaved.

Again, the above is the inspired qualifications of a man seeking the office of pastor AS WELL as that which the church must use as they consider any man for the office of pastor or overseer. Please note, a man that preaches well does not a pastor make. Read that last sentence again. The call to preach was different than the call to pastor in the past. The call to pastor today includes the call to preach. In the early days of the church men were called to preach in terms of evangelizing.  I will not say that the office of evangelizing has ceased. I will say that men are not called to be evangelists today BUT and this is a Big BUT: Ministers that have aged in the ministry still have a place in the ministry. This is usually called evangelizing. The offices that remain are the offices of pastor, teacher, missionary, elder, deacon.

Offices that have ceased include: prophet as in prophet speaking about the future and speaking for God.  I contend and i use that word on purpose. I contend that the pastor or minister is still a prophet in terms of his forthrightness and his Scriptural FORTH-Telling, not FORE-telling. I used the word contend because this position has caused contention. To be clear, the office of prophet, in terms of prophets like Elijah, Elisha, etc is closed, but it is an office that may be given life again in the two (2) witnesses of Revelation 11.
The office of Apostle is closed, there are no apostles today. I have had this discussion with a believer once. This believer held to the apostleship being open and alive.  His arguments were astoundingly fictional. This man made the silly argument that Paul was not an apostle at his calling by Christ, but would become an apostle at a later time.  How this argued for the apostleship I know not. I have thought about this for years and am still dumbfounded.

A reason for the FORE-telling prophets to have ceased is because we have God’s full revelation in the Scriptures and Christ-ians now FORTH-tell what sinners need to know. The reason for the apostolic office closing down is due to the qualifications of apostleship. These are: viewing the life and resurrection of Christ and having been Personally sent by Christ. This eliminates every single person on this earth, another qualification was the sign gifts to authenticate their apostleship  All of these are not being used by God today. The person that calls himself or HERSELF is having an issue with keeping pride in check.

A note regarding tongues. I am wishy washy on this. I don’t believe in them, but if a person began speaking in tongues and an interpreter was present and the message was God glorifying and Scripturally sound, I probably wouldn’t shut them down, oh and if it was men doing so. However if a bunch of women stood up and began speaking in tongues with or without an interpreter, I would shut it down quick and fast. Again, as with the person calling himself or HERSELF an apostle, the tongue-talker is calling attention to self. Let us differentiate between the gifts of tongues from Acts and God giving today’s missionary a gift to speak the language of the people. I’ve heard of this before; I know not the veracity of the claim. However, I limit NOT God. If He so pleased, He would gift the missionary. This would be a miracle, as He would be bringing the supernatural into the natural or over-riding the natural with the supernatural.

After writing all of that, these are the disqualifiers, other than not meeting 1 Timothy 3’s requirements.
*Denying the virgin birth
*Denying the Trinity
*Denying the Deity of Christ
*Denying what is called the five (5) Sola: Grace Alone, Faith Alone, Scripture Alone, Scripture Alone and of course, Christ Alone.
*Affirming universal salvation, IE. Exalting God’s Grace above His Holiness, Justice, Righteousness, and Wrath.
*Affirming a small group that never heard of Christ….I think this heresy is going to be big in the coming days.
*Denying the death, burial, and PHYSICAL Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.  His Resurrection was Bodily and He remains in that Body.
*Denying the Absolute necessity of the Holy Spirit initiating Salvation.
*Affirming that a person can be saved whenever or where-ever they please.
*Baptism having any saving power at all. Baptism is the first thing the Lord….the Lord…the Lord Jesus commands us to do.

The above represents just a few of the doctrinal errors that must disqualify a man from pastoring a church.

Some beliefs that would keep me from attending a church on a regular basis.
*A church that is HEAVY on service as in service being a status maker.  My father in law heard a man once say to him, “If there isn’t work in Heaven, I don’t want to go.” To be honest I don’t think he has to worry about going to Heaven.  If that is the man’s way of thinking, he is a Galatian believer.
*A church that does not call the people of God to service.  There is a balance and it is easy to get off balance, to be sure. The church must have a balance between worship and service. If the reader or the student of Scripture is observant, they would not that worship and service is always in that order, just as Lord and Saviour is always in that order.
*The church that puts a new convert “to work” immediately s a church I would not be part of. To put a new born saint “to work” is to spiritually kidnap the saint from God!!! To put this into perspective: Imagine yourself in a delivery room and you see a mother give birth, the new born is then sent off to another facility where they will grow up to serve a need. All of this is done without the parents permission.  Would you, Reader, not call this kidnapping?  When a church takes a new creation or a new creature and puts him or her “to work” they are committing spiritual Kidnapping and the Parent is God.
*A church that preaches an impotent God instead of the Sovereign God…Sovereign over ALL things is a church I could not attend nor support financially or prayerfully.
*A church that has as it’s pastor, a man that went to a Christ-ian college and is still towing the line of that school; this church I would not attend.

There are more traits that would put me off, but the above will suffice.

The benefits of disagreements on secondary issues and even primary, sound doctrine is both persons sharpen each others mind…iron sharpeneth iron. One (1) may see the error in one’s (1’s) belief or doctrine. God is pleased to see His servant contending for the faith. It could inspire others to discuss the issues with others. Many benefits come from an argument over doctrinal issues…argument as in positing one’s (1’s) side and not arguing in the sense of anger and name calling.

Godspeed.