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Old 07-12-2009, 04:47 PM
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greenbear greenbear is offline
 
Join Date: May 2009
Location: Ohio
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve Schwenke View Post
FWIW, I think you are reading too much into this definition. It is the pastor's function to teach the Christian what to believe and how to live.

I Tim. 3:1 ¶ This is a true saying, If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work.
2 A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach;

All of the other major portions of Scripture dealing with the Pastor reflect the same thought. Eph. 4:11-15, Acts 20, I Pet. 5. That is part of the function of the office.
I see Jassy addressed the same point I have to make about your comment:
Quote:
It is the pastor's function to teach the Christian what to believe and how to live.
One of the problems is that the majority of pastors teach the doctrines and "way to live" (much of it works related) according to their particular denomination's traditions. There are hundreds of denominations and sects in the US alone with varying doctrines and as brother George pointed out apparently around 450 different baptist groups. It seems obvious that the reason why there are so many churches is that Christians do not search the scriptures to find out what God says but instead follow men and man's traditions. Why should I believe what you teach and follow your standards of conduct when I can go down the street and get a whole new set of beliefs and code of conduct from another pastor. We are told to compare what men teach with scripture. It's funny how taking that very scriptural stand has elicited some very negative responses on this board.

George gets attacked a lot on this board lately, as you pointed out. He's attacked on his posting style, his decision to avoid divisive people and his teaching from scripture. Honestly, the first two are not the real reasons for the attacks. It all boils down to his teaching of scripture. He has a high level of scriptural knowledge, he approaches the Bible to find out what it says, not to support his private interpretations and he posts his Bible studies. That's what the devil doesn't like.