Yes, we have kicked God out of our Schools
One of the clearest
and most significant points that
God makes is
HIS word,
is to correctly ordain biblical teachers and pastors,
for the sole
PURPOSE
of avoiding Scriptural Error
that hinders the
GOSPEL MESSAGE
Owning or co owning financial and relational stock in a
congregation of people is not an ordained biblical pastor in
the official universal Christian community
and
is precisely what scripture refers to as
the
blind leading the blind
The Title Pastor
needs to meet scriptural qualifications
when leading people under that term
because it represents
Gospel Message
not a frivolous matter..
Lets start with the Terminology,
“Pastor”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pastor
A pastor
(abbreviated to "Pr" or "Ptr" (both singular), or "Ps" (plural))
is the leader of a Christian congregation who also
gives biblical advice and counsel to people from
the community or congregation.
The person must
meet scriptural qualifications
(1 Timothy 3:1-7; Titus 1:5-9).
In Lutheranism, Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental
Orthodoxy and Anglicanism,
pastors are always ordained.
In Methodism, pastors may be either
licensed or ordained
Pastors are to act like shepherds by caring for the flock, and
this care includes teaching.
The New Testament typically uses the words "bishops" (Acts 20:28)
and "presbyter" (1 Peter 5:1) to indicate
the ordained leadership in early Christianity.
Likewise, Peter instructs these particular servants to "act like shepherds"
as they "oversee" the flock of God (1 Peter 5:2).
The words "bishop" and "presbyter" were sometimes used in an interchangeable way, such as in Titus 1:5-6.
In five
New Testament passages though, the words relate to members of the church:
- John 21:16 - Jesus told Peter: "Feed My sheep"
- Acts 20:17 - the Apostle Paul summons the elders of the church in Ephesus to give a last discourse to them; in Acts 20:28, he tells them that the Holy Spirit has made them overseers, and they are to feed the church of God.
- 1 Corinthians 9:7 - Paul says, of himself and the apostles: "who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock?"
- Ephesians 4:11 - Paul wrote "And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;"
- 1 Peter 5:1-2 - Peter tells the elders among his readers that they are to, "Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof
Peter was first a disciple, then he became an apostle after his conversion
Peter had a wife- the bible doesn't give her identity
but she didn't have a relationship with Jesus so i hope she didn't go off
and call herself pastor to all the little
kids that are looking for
Jesus Christ
after the living God spoke to her,
but she didn't see or hear him and did what she wanted
regardless of what
God said because she didn't hear God
Tell people you are a community building, Jesus sharing, generous,
serving person with a popular brand and great people skills who does wonderful things for the community, teaches what you were taught,
but you are not a biblical pastor of the living word of God,
so lets not further confuse lost kids
Why do you tell the community of
lost kids who seek a relationship with
Jesus Christ that you are
Teaching the Word of God,
when you are not?
Tell them
that you love kids, love Jesus,
love raising up leaders,
do many great community things,
but you are
not a biblical teacher, not a biblical pastor,
and its
not a biblical school
That teaches
full and accurate
biblical scripture
That is the Truth
whether you tell people that truth
or lie about
Gods Truth instead
Tell them you pray, love Jesus, and memorize things Jesus says,
teach what you were taught,
but don’t further study and teach accurate, sound scripture
as indicated in the
Fully Revealed
Word of God
and they arent going to find their god given identity through
your method of “biblical teaching” because you are
not a biblical teacher
You might be kind and giving, but call a banana a banana,
dont call a banana an apple
Call sound Scripture the Truth
and Call False Doctrine a Lie
Call Man a Man… And God, God
Call yourself a Jesus loving, praying, community building,
group leader that started a school and
gave yourself the name "pastor"
That is a disciple, saved by grace through Faith,
its certainly not an apostle, and
definitely not
a biblical pastor or biblical teacher
There is a Process in learning Scripture and Teaching Scripture
and the things of God
The Truth cannot Lie
The full truth cannot be a partial truth
The full truth can not revert to a partial Truth
The Gospel Truth
is of
Highest Priority
Delivering that message comes from
Biblical teachers and biblical pastors
who are
entrusted to handle the word of God
Accurately,
and continuously study it
accurately,
to correctly minister it,
accurately
Do not tell children that you are a biblical teacher and Pastor
when you are not a biblical Pastor,
you and the firm gave yourself that title, a business did, a
franchise or community friends, but God didn't
The Title Pastor has
implications and responsibilities to
accurately divide the word of Truth
A church leader and Church planter is not a biblical pastor and
shouldn't be called Pastor,
its a business leader and Jesus Lover who tells others about Jesus
and gathers a large crowd to do the same and
prays their interpretation of
Jesus Christ based off fragments of Scripture
taken out of Context
Disciples of John the Baptist and
Apostles of Jesus Christ had
different roles
Baptizing in the name of Jesus and
Teaching the word of god about Who Jesus Christ fully is, and
how to truly understand and know God better so that we can glorify God and achieve his will, his Way…
are different
Not all are called to be teachers, and those who arent qualified to teach the
bible correctly arent given the name of pastor according to God
They love Jesus and baptize people,
but they are not biblical pastors according to Gods word, and are not to preach to the sheep that they are
Pastors lead sheep in biblical theology
or the blind lead the blind
We have to know who God is before we can know who we are
Understanding God is first, we discover God, then we discover our identity and calling in God
If we don't know God, we arent supposed to blindly tell the lost sheep who God is, because we dont know ourselves
We are not doing God's work by calling ourselves biblical pastors or biblical teachers when we are not, we can call ourselves Jesus lover and baptizing leader
Dont go advertising your school to every lost kid under the name of biblical theology by teaching false doctrine so that they never discover their true purpose
If you want to run church schools fine, but dont call yourself a
biblical teacher when you are not a biblical teacher.
The term Pastor does not mean you started a business or planted a church,
it is a term used for teaching the word of God
You're still serving the community, a beloved child of God,
and doing great things, but not a biblical Pastor
Why?
Because thats what Gods says!
Anyone who understands Gods Word will recognize when people
don’t teach correctly.
So you're only harming the most vulnerable,
who dont know enough to even realize
you're teaching false doctrine
Youre a church planter, you serve the community,
you love kids, youre a leader,
but you are not a biblical minister to the gospel,
don't distort the gospel by falsely claiming its Truth
(Says the God of all creation through his Word)
and the Word of God is valuable,
the lost deserve the truth of Gods word so that they can know
who he is
and who they are in relationship with him
Historically, baptism has been used as a rite of initiation, showing the inductee’s entrance into a new belief or observance. Baptism in the church is also a token of the forgiveness of sins we experience at salvation—in much the same way that Pilate attempted to show his innocence by washing his hands with water (Matthew 27:24), Christians show they are cleansed by Christ when they are baptized by water.
Some Bible students have identified seven baptisms in Scripture. The seven baptisms are usually listed as being these:
1) The baptism of Moses (1 Corinthians 10:1–3) – when the Israelites were delivered from slavery in Egypt, they were “baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.” That is, they were identified with Moses and his deliverance by passing through the Red Sea and following God’s presence in the cloud (Exodus 13:21). Paul uses this as a comparison to the way that Christians are identified with Christ and His salvation. Those who followed Moses passed through the water and were thus initiated into a new life of freedom and Law-keeping; those who follow Jesus Christ, who is greater than Moses, pass through the waters of baptism and are thus initiated to a new life of freedom and grace.
2) The baptism of John (Mark 1:4) – as John the Baptist preached repentance of sins in preparation for the coming of the Messiah, he baptized people in the Jordan. Those who were baptized by John were showing their faith in John’s message and their need to confess their sin. In Acts 18:24–25, a disciple of John’s named Apollos preaches in Ephesus; however, only knowing the baptism of John and the need for repentance, he needed to be further instructed in the death and resurrection of Christ. Later in the same city, Acts 19:1–7, Paul encounters some more followers of John. These disciples had been baptized for repentance, but they had not heard of the new birth or the Holy Spirit. Paul taught them the whole message of salvation in Christ, and they received the message and were subsequently baptized in Jesus’ name.
3) The baptism of Jesus (Matthew 3:13–17) – this was Jesus’ act of identifying with sinful humanity. Although Jesus did not need to repent of sin, He came to John to be baptized. John balked at performing the baptism, saying that Jesus should be the one baptizing him (Matthew 3:13–14). But Jesus told John to proceed with the baptism: “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness” (verse 15). In this baptism, Jesus put His stamp of approval on John’s ministry and also began His own. As Jesus came up from the water, the Father spoke from heaven, and the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form upon Jesus (verses 16–17).
4) The baptism of fire (Matthew 3:11–12) – John prophesied that Jesus would baptize men “with fire.” This speaks of Jesus’ judging the world for its sin (see John 5:22). Immediately after mentioning the baptism by fire, John describes Jesus as overseeing a harvest to come: “His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire” (verse 12; cf. Matthew 13:24–30, 36–43). Those who are judged by Christ in the last day will be cast into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:15).
5) The baptism of the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13–14; 1 Corinthians 12:13) – John also predicted that Jesus would baptize men with the Holy Spirit (Matthew 3:11). This is a spiritual baptism, and it is the baptism that saves us. At salvation, we are “immersed” in the Holy Spirit. The Spirit covers us, indwells us, fills us, and makes us a part of the spiritual body of Christ. The baptism of the Spirit is what initiates us into new life in Christ. The first people to experience the baptism of the Spirit were the believers in Acts 2 on the Day of Pentecost. The spiritual entity known as the body of Christ is formed by this baptism: “We were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body” (1 Corinthians 12:13).
6) The baptism of the cross (Mark 10:35–39) – Jesus used the language of baptism to refer to His sufferings (and those of His disciples). James and John, the Boanerges, had come to Jesus asking for a place of honor in the kingdom. Jesus asked them, “Can you . . . be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?” (Mark 10:38). They replied that they could, and Jesus confirmed it: “You will . . . be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with” (verse 39). The “baptism” Jesus speaks of here is the suffering He was to endure. James and John would suffer, as well.
7) The baptism of believers (Matthew 28:19) – this is a washing in water to symbolize the action of the Holy Spirit in a believer’s heart. Believer’s baptism is one of the two ordinances given to the church. Different churches practice different modes of baptism, but all who follow Christ should be baptized, since it is commanded by our Lord. Water baptism pictures some wonderful spiritual truths. When we are saved, we are “buried” with Christ and “rise” to newness of life; our sins are “washed away,” and we are cleansed. It is Spirit baptism that saves us, but water baptism is our outward expression of that event. “All of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death[.] We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life” (Romans 6:3–4).
Of the seven baptisms found in Scripture, only two are of personal significance to the Christian today: the baptism of the Holy Spirit (that saves us) and believer’s water baptism (that identifies us with the church).
The other baptisms were uniquely for other times, limited to certain people, or (in the case of the baptism of fire) still future.
Acts 19:2-7 – Disciples of John the Baptist
Luke intended this paragraph to be read along with the previous unit, the introduction of Apollos as a disciple of John. Just as Luke contrasted Barnabas with Ananias in 4:36-28 and 5:1-2, Apollos and the other disciples of John stand in contrast. One disciple heard John and accepted Jesus as the Messiah (although not fully understanding the implications of the resurrection, most likely with respect for Gentile salvation), the other disciples heard John but were ignorant of Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
The dozen disciples of John indicate that even 20 years after John’s death there was a movement among the Jews that held John to be a prophet and in some way kept his teachings alive. Perhaps the gospel of John gives us a similar hint, especially if it can be shown that John wrote from Ephesus near the end of the first century.
These disciples cannot be considered Christians at this point since they had not yet received the Holy Spirit. While Luke only uses “disciple” for believers in every other case in Acts, his use of μαθητής here is without a definite article, the such example in Acts. At the very least these are unusual Christians, perhaps “fringe” Christians, similar to the “unusual, fringes of Judaism described in the first half of the book. Paul’s question – did you receive the Holy Spirit – is equivalent to asking, “are you believers?” Not only have these disciples not received the Holy Spirit, they do not even know that there is a Holy Spirit!
Paul asked them “into whom” or “into what” they were baptized. The NIV obscures this a bit, interpreting the question as “who baptized you,” rather than “what was the medium in which you were baptized.” Witherington comments that the image of being immersed into the Holy Spirit was common in the early church, (see Rom 6:3, 1 Cor 1:13, 15, 10:2, 12:13, Gal 3:27).
His point is that the “whom” of this verse cannot refer to water;
he sees the baptism of the Holy Spirit as entry into saving faith,
while baptism in water is entry into the Christian community (Acts, 571).
Since they had been baptized “in John’s baptism,” Paul explains that John’s baptism was not enough, it was a “baptism of repentance,” which looked forward to the ministry of Jesus. One could not be saved at this point in history only by accepting the message of John, it is
only through faith in Jesus that one can be saved
(as Acts has made abundantly clear prior to this point in the book!)
As has happened at several points in the book of Acts already, there is a manifestation of the Holy Spirit (tongues and prophesy) after Paul lays hands on these disciples. There is no consistent “order of events” in Acts, sometimes the Spirit comes prior to baptism (10:44-48, Cornelius) and other times baptism is prior (19:1-7), and in the case of Apollos, there is no mention of a re-baptism or of the coming of the Spirit. Perhaps this is because he properly understood the message of John as pointing forward to Jesus, but that is not clear.
In fact, this is the only case of re-baptism in the New Testament, even the twelve were not re-baptized into the name of Jesus, they only had experienced the baptism of John (although one wonders about Matthew, since he was called to be an Apostle after John’s ministry.)
The point of this brief narrative is to show that it is possible to have a limited knowledge of Jesus which is not enough to be saved – theologically there was nothing wrong with these disciples except that they did not quite believe enough. They did not believe something that was wrong, but they did not take their belief to the full extent needed for salvation.
Here is another problem for Applying Acts – what do we make of these disciples? Are these disciples “partial believers” who have participated in a ritual (John’s Baptism) but did not believe enough to be actually Christians? What is it that “saved” these disciples? In any case, it is the reception of the Holy Spirit which demonstrates they are in fact now Christians.