Since When. . . .?!

I received a very disturbing phone call from a very good friend of mine who posted a question on Facebook asking about truth. A friend of his that he used to go to church with sent them a message attacking him and his wife for leaving the church they attended and became full time members of the congregation that all of us attend every Sabbath.

The well meaning friend scolded them for leaving the church and their, "spiritual parents", aka, the pastors. I do not yet know what their response was to this misguided attack but one thing that bothered me was something that I have heard from the pastor's of this particular church before which is you do not leave this church unless the pastors, "release", you. Another statement made during this attack was how can you just uproot yourself from the place where the Holy Spirit dwells? (in so many words)

Now I have a problem with that. Since when has anyone NEEDED the pastors permission to do anything? How long have we as Christians put just about all of our trust and faith in a person whom we believe to be the spokes man for Yahweh? To be honest with you, this is not uncommon at all. I'm sure many of us can look at our congregations and ask this same question. How many people wait until they get to church to crack open their bibles? How long have we repeated what was said across the pulpit without the benefit of studying for our selves?

Since when did we have the right to NOT speak up when we hear the preacher, teacher, etc make a mistake or misquote a scripture, or anything else that we know is wrong but yet not say anything because if we do, then we would be made to feel inferior or be accused of being rebellious? We have all given our leaders much more power over our lives than we would like to admit. I remember once at my former church, some of us had begun wearing prayer shawls. We had some ordered for ourselves and one of our friends ordered the particular ones we wanted and had them shipped to us. My wife's prayer shawl resembled the one the pastor's wife had and the pastor's wife had a problem with it. She made it know that my wife should return it and get a different one. I had a problem with it since we had to put in a special order for the prayer shawl.

That night, all of us who ordered the prayer shawls discussed how we could resolve the issue with now harm and we came to a conclusion, case was closed. . .or so we thought. That Sunday, we were pulled to the side for a meeting with the pastor's wife and she figured that she had been the topic of conversation during the week (which she was not), and told us that we were wrong for having these prayer shawls and that we should have gotten her permission to order them for ourselves.

Do you see the problem with that statement? I certainly did. And in my own colorful way, I made it known that I had a problem with it. But this just serves as an example of what type of power church leaders have had over their respective congregations. I think we need to remember that when Peter, James, Paul, Silas, etc taught, they were questioned at every turn. And when the teachers in the various synagogues taught something that was incorrect, the apostles were quick to speak up.

Since when did we become passive and allow wrong teachings to come across our ears without a challenge? And what are we going to do about it now? Or are we afraid of being branded? I am asking everyone who will stand up for the truth to speak up. I am not asking anyone to disrespect anyone. I am asking everyone to be like the Berean's and study for themselves and tell the truth. What is truth? Just what the scriptures say it is; Thy word is truth.

Shalom in Messiah, Yeshua