If the Pastor Says It, It Must Be So

One of AiG’s Online Education students sent this interesting but sad (but also encouraging in one way) item to Online Education Professor Dr. Georgia Purdom. This item highlights two important things:

1. An AiG Online Education student can see through compromise and was willing to stand up for the truth. Praise the Lord—this is encouraging.

2. The Bible warns us that teachers will bear a stricter judgment—obviously because of the enormous influence they are on those they are teaching. This testimony highlights a sad problem—many people in congregations just believe what the pastors says without being “Bereans” and search the Scriptures to see if these things are really so:

A drama was done in our church this past year. In it were two cave men competing with each other over various kinds of chairs and they were using lots of grunts and apelike behaviour to get their point across. My son, who is on the drama team, turned down one of the ape-man parts and emailed the pastor his reasoning for doing so, which basically was that the drama showed God’s creation as less than good, with the cave man’s grunts and actions contradicting Scripture.

I sent an email to the pastor and the head of the drama team. In it I pointed out the Scriptures from Gen 1-3 where it first of all states that man was created in God's image and secondly that Adam and Eve were able to speak clearly to each other and to God and the serpent. I stated that although it may seem insignificant, that the accuracy of the Word of God was being questioned.

The pastor's response to both of us was that, this had nothing to do with theology but was an art form using humour to convey the truth. He called it a non-issue and we were politely told that we were wrong because we did not agree with the choice of the staff team. By-the-way, the pastor lines up with progressive creationism. He doesn't feel that this issue is important and it does come across in a subtle way.

I have told you this story to show how even though a man believes in the inerrancy of Scripture, he has interpreted it to mean something totally different and it does affect his ministry and how he treats those who disagree with him. John MacArthur, in his book The Battle for the Beginning, states “More and more are embracing the view known as old-earth creationism, which blends some of the principles of biblical creationism with naturalistic and evolutionary theories, seeking to reconcile two opposing world-views. And in order to accomplish this, old-earth creationists end up explaining away rather than honestly exegeting the biblical creation account.” In the only message I have heard my pastor preach on creation he stated that we “can’t know” how long the days of creation were. At least 600 people heard him say that and there are many who believe that if the pastor says it then it must be so.

Please pray that as we begin the New Year of 2008, the Lord will enable the AiG/Creation Museum ministry to reach many compromising Christian leaders and that they will give up their compromise and return to the authority of the Word of God.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying

Ken