False Teachers?

False teachers?

Luke 6:46 – 49

Rabbi Rev. Dr. Michael H. Koplitz

Luke 6:46 “aWhy do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say? 47 “aEveryone who comes to Me and hears My words and 1acts on them, I will show you whom he is like: 48 he is like a man building a house, who 1dug deep and laid a foundation on the rock; and when a flood occurred, the 2torrent burst against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. 49 “But the one who has heard and has not acted accordingly, is like a man who built a house on the ground without any foundation; and the 1torrent burst against it and immediately it collapsed, and the ruin of that house was great.”

I was at a friend’s house, and one of his son's family was there. We were having a nice social time and dinner when the question of church came up. My friend and his family went to the church where I was appointed. It was time for me to move on and his son did not like the new preacher that was assigned to the church. That happens from time to time, and it is expected for people to move from one church to another because, in the United Methodist system, the bishop determines how long a person can serve a church.

So, my friend's sons started talking about visiting different churches. I asked him the question: how do you determine that the pastor or preacher that you’re listening to is conveying to you the truth about the gospel? There are so many ways that people today seem to interpret Scripture. He didn’t have an appropriate answer for deciding how to know what is truth versus what is false.

As I think back on that time, I wonder if I could have come up with a set of criteria that one could judge a pastor or preacher to see if they are truly preaching the Scripture. One of the biggest problems is that people can interpret Scripture in many ways. I can remember when I first started preaching over 25 years ago that my views of Christian doctrine were different than they are today. Of course, today I have a high level of education and can weigh Christian doctrine against the Bible because I have received training in it. However, I have people come up to me and tell me how wrong I am. The biggest issue, when I’ve been told I’m wrong, had to do with social issues.

In my first church appointment, a middle-aged woman came up to me and said that I needed to preach on social issues and tell people what I think the Bible said about it. My heart said yes, but my head said no. At my second church appointment, I said that a certain social convention was against the Bible. My summer organist quit and left the church because he had a child that followed that social convention, which I just said was against the Bible. He said he couldn’t support the ministry of someone who thought that way. Even though the Bible says what his son was doing was sinful, that didn’t matter. Unfortunately, what I learned from that experience is don’t talk about social issues because you will upset somebody. If you have to talk about a social issue, you have to frame it in such a way that it works for both sides of the coin and frankly it’s easier just to skip.

I know some of you might say no, you have to stand up for the principles of the Bible. It is a very fine line to walk. When I was in North Carolina at my first doctoral residency one member of the cohort was telling us that in the church he was at if he gave a sermon that someone did not like they could stand up at the end of the worship and declare a nonconfidence vote in the pastor and the congregation would vote whether he could stay. Therefore, he was afraid to touch anything that had any kind of social or cultural implications. The other 12 of us in the cohort unfortunately agreed with him. Now I say unfortunately, because should we stand up when something in our society is anti-biblical?

It is a tightrope that we have to walk. On one hand, we want to say what the Bible says and convey that truth, but on the other hand we have the elders of the church and, in my case, the bishop who determines which church I end up at. The bishop has reassigned some of my colleagues to four and five church charges because they believe in certain social principles.