FALSE WHAT?

There are eight verses in the New Testament that warn us about false leadership. In each one it refers to either false prophets, false apostles or false Christ’s. In addition, a couple talks about false brothers.

In Jeremiah 50:6 it says speaking of Israel, “ My people are lost sheep, their shepherds have caused them to go astray; they turned them away on the mountains, they have gone from mountain to hill; they have forgotten their resting place.”

I started pondering these verses and this fact and something began to dawn on me. There is no warning against false pastors, only the one verse in the Old Testament that speaks of shepherds who let the sheep go astray.

So, I asked myself, why does the New Testament warn against false prophets, apostles and Christ’s but not false pastors?

I deduced that there could only be two answers to the question.

The first is that the pastors all walked in spiritual humility and were not led astray by power and position.

The second one is that pastors as leaders of the church did not exist, so there were none to lead anyone astray.

The first one is really quite untenable when you consider that no one was perfect and there were obviously men who were leading people astray, so it would have been highly improbable that not one pastor was tempted to put himself first and lead the flock astray as well.

The history of the church has included pastors who have led the flock astray and abused their position of power, so the second reason has to be the more believable, bearing in mind you will not find one reference to a pastor leading the congregation in the New Testament. It is always Elders, plural, who were chosen from the local congregation in which they were part of.

If there were pastors and they were leading the flock astray, I can’t imagine that Paul would have said beware of false apostles or prophets or Christ’s but don’t worry about false pastors. Anyone who was making himself out to be what he was not would have been on Paul’s warning list.

He was acutely aware of the situation as false apostles in Corinth were accusing him of being one.

It is interesting to note that the word “pastor” does not appear in the original. The word we translate pastor in Ephesian 4 is in fact “shepherd” the same as the Old Testament always uses the term.

A shepherd generally speaking was not a leader in the Old Testament except a leader of his flock of sheep who depended on him for safety and sustenance. His job was to look after them and make sure they had a safe place to sleep and sufficient food and water. If there was a gate, the shepherd would sleep across it to protect the sheep from predators.

Because the New Testament church was a branch of Judaism and they didn’t stop being Jews, they would have still been operating according to Old Testament concepts. Therefore they would not have talked about pastors; they would have talked about shepherds as the word pastor does not appear in the Old Testament.

I can hear some saying “does it really matter what word we use?” I believe it is because we are talking about two different people. The shepherd lays down his life for the sheep that is why Jesus was referred to as the good shepherd.

In western democracy, the pastor in the church rarely does this. Usually he has authority over the sheep and his word is final on everything to do with the church. It is more of a master servant relationship rather than a shepherd and sheep. Some even demand that the sheep live their relationship with God through them.

Sad to say, many of them use the church as a platform for their ministry so everything revolves around them. We should not be surprise at this as usually you cannot be ‘a pastor’ unless you are approved by denominational leaders; you have a theological degree; and you have said and done all the right things. These very facts give the person an impression that they are different and superior.

The qualifications that the scriptures demand are to be foolish, weak and none existent (1 Cor 1:27). Can you imagine sending in a resume that asked for your qualifications and you wrote “being foolish, weak and a nobody.” Guess how many leadership positions you would be offered.

The fact that there were no pastors leading the church, false or otherwise, in the New Testament, one could say that every pastor that does lead is a ‘false pastor.’