I determined not to know anything among you
except Jesus Christ and him crucified.
–1 Corinthians 2:2 (NKJV)–

There’s a lot of evangelical podcasters today that seem to preach church as the answer. I see all of these examples in the Bible, they say, of church involvement, eldership, all these sorts of things, about being deeply involved, plugged in, and submitted to a local body of elders. After all, this is what we can see in the Pastoral Epistles. And so why take any issue with it? GOD’S WORD is one thing, but WHAT PREACHERS DO WITH IT is quite another! That’s why you should at least ask a few questions about preachers that are heavy duty on being submitted to elders. WHO? YOU? WHY? You have to understand that we’re living roughly about 2,000 years after the time of Jesus and the apostles. This means that there’s been so much divergence, so much diversity of teaching, experience, and practice, in the past two millennia, that without the process of reformation and revival among church leaders, that have a reformational and revivalistic mentality: we can’t even approximate towards coming close to Timothy and Titus, let alone Acts. The way that church is supposed to be practiced in the Bible.

People can’t just cite Bible verses and then push the concept that what they’re doing is right. You might say, “I’m an Assembly of God pastor, or a Presbyterian Church of America pastor, or a Southern Baptist pastor, a Vineyard pastor, or a Church of the Nazarene pastor, or even a Catholic priest,” but one thing’s for sure: is that in all of these cases, ALL of these church leaders are not living in the first century and they don’t even agree with each other. Theologically, all of them contradict one another on some very fundamental points of their teaching. And at the same time they all point back to the Bible, which says well, you need to be submitted to church leadership and deeply involved in church. YOU MEAN YOU? Who are you? To tell me that your church is the church spoken of in the Bible. Can you also show me your pastor’s first and last name in the Bible? Then I could be really sure the Bible means you’re the elders for me to submit to. Clergy abuse scandals are rampant in these times, with an extreme lack of theological direction, an extreme lack of holiness, righteousness, and eternal punishment being preached, an extreme doubt and unbelief, skepticism, and cessationism among pastors. And you want me to submit to you? You’re probably a video game addict, porn addict, womanizer, unless you’re an ugly old guy: and you want me to submit to your leadership? Why don’t we reframe this question: instead of viewing people as “renegades,” or being unwilling to submit to what the Word of God says about ecclesiastical leadership–why don’t we look at the church leaders and ask THEM whether or not they qualify as the type of people described in the Pastoral Epistles!