RELIGIOUS TITLES EXALT FALSE PROPHETS
In Judaism and Christianity, apostles, bishops, elders, deacons, overseers, rabbis, priests, pastors, missionaries, popes and evangelists are elevated to a special level over other religious people out of a belief that God has given them more spiritual knowledge, authority and power than he has given others. This is a false belief based on literal interpretations of the Bible.
Because God does not show favoritism or partiality to anyone, it must be said that religious people with titles are not sent by God nor are they endowed with special spiritual knowledge, authority or power. They are sent by men who control religious organizations.
People with religious titles acquire those titles because religious organizations assign those titles to them or because they assign those titles to themselves when they announce that they have been called by God. Through training at religious schools, hard work, clever speech, charismatic personalities and deception, they have made names for themselves as religious leaders. Their reward for their work is salaries, praise of men and special treatment by the public.
Just like businesses, religions have organizational structures in which individuals with certain training, skills and qualities are assigned to positions of authority. And, just like business, religions assign titles to people to communicate to others that these people have authority to be the public face of the religion. And, like business and the military, religions sometimes reinforce the title with special clothing that identifies them as leaders. They are leaders of synagogues, churches, denominations, missions, non-profits, religious movements, television programs, and other sorts of organizations, incorporated and unincorporated, big and small, public and underground, and they have good reputations that qualify them to lead others. In God’s eyes, however, they are all idols and prostitutes.
Considering the dependent relationships apostles, bishops, elders, deacons, deacons, overseers, rabbis, priests, pastors and evangelists have with religious organizations, it must be said that religious leaders with these titles are affirmed and sent by the religious organization to preach and teach religion to members of the organization and to bring new members into the organization. This is how religious kingdoms grow their kingdoms.
Religious leaders with titles are not sent by God. The people whom God sends are not recognized by titles (e.g. apostle, bishop, rabbi, priest, pastor, reverend, etc.) Jesus made God’s feelings about religious titles very clear when he said that no one should be called rabbi, teacher, father or even religious leader because they have only one teacher and that is God who speaks through christs whom he anoints to speak for him.
Considering Jesus’ command that no one should be called father, it must be said that people who use titles to identify themselves as religious leaders are not true followers of Jesus. It must be said also that they do not speak for God. They speak for themselves and the religious organizations who hire them and pay them to preach/teach the false gospel and religious rules adopted by the religious organization. The are not servants or shepherds as God sees servants and shepherds. They are human leaders in the hierarchy of human, religious organizations. They have reputations for being holy and pretend to be shepherds but they are really wolves in sheep clothing.
STUDY TIPS: See this link for understanding of servants and shepherds. See this link for scriptures that discuss religious leaders who preach/teach for pay. Also see this link for an understanding of what it means to be holy.
The titles “father” and “pope” are best known in the Catholic church which has the most complicated organizational hierarchy found in the world of religion. Being as large as it is, it needs many different titles to identify its many layers of church government. But layers of government and leadership are not unique to Catholicism. Lutherans, Baptists, Anglicans, Presbyterians, and all other religions also have hierarchical structures and leaders with different levels of authority. The complexity of the organization and the use of titles depends on the size of the religion and geography it covers. But no religious leader operates independent of the organization. They are all supervised by the people who sign their pay checks. God is not in the hierarchy when it comes to money. Religions operate like businesses. Businesses always show favoritism and partiality to leaders.
STUDY TIPS: See these links for more understanding of how God sees the business of religion:
The bigger the religion, the greater the need to function as a business. The bigger the religion, the greater the need to hire and empower people to conduct the business. And, just like business, there is always someone to whom the employee reports and from whom the employee takes direction. Religious leaders say that they get their direction from God, but this is not true. They really get their direction from men. If they don’t follow directions and don’t follow the organization’s rules, they will lose their jobs, their authority and their income. It is necessary to follow the organization’s rules.
Religions like to say that God is their ultimate authority. They might even show God at the top of their organizational chart. That sounds spiritual, but it is not true. Religions, like business corporations, are governed by boards of directors that are elected or appointed by people who have a stake in the organization. In business, the stakeholders own stock in the business. In churches, members are the stakeholders who ultimately control the direction of the church and choose its pastor. To a degree, religions and religious leaders in the United States are also controlled by the US Government. It is a total lie, therefore, to say that God is the ultimate authority for religions or their leaders.
God has strong feelings about religious authorities who appear to speak for him. The Third Commandment speaks to this issue and Ephesians 6:11-12 instructs us about religious authorities:
Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.
Apostles, bishops, elders, overseers, rabbis, priests, pastors and evangelists are the rulers, powers, forces of darkness, and spiritual forces of wickedness that God’s people struggle against. They are the face of the enemy against which God’s people struggle everyday. They are Trees of Knowledge of Good and Evil whose fruit (i.e. words) is deadly. Their mouths are full of smooth speech and deception, but their words lead to spiritual death.
It can be said that apostles, bishops, elders, overseers, rabbis, priests, pastors and evangelists have a degree of freedom regarding the words they preach/teach. It must also be said, however, that, if their preaching/teaching does not agree with the religious laws of the organization and its adopted doctrines (i.e. false gospels), the preacher/teacher could be disciplined and even fired. This confirms that God is not their ultimate authority. Religious leaders must always please men. If they don’t please men, they will lose their jobs, their titles and their income. This makes the point again that God is not their ultimate authority.
Religion exists, and even thrives at times, because God allows people to have the desires of their hearts — even if their hearts are evil and even if their their desire is for religious pride. Even though religion leads to spiritual death, God gives freedom to choose life or death.
Religion is the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Religious leaders are the fruit of religion and they spread their fruit (i.e. words) to other religious people. People became religious because they listen to the words of religious leaders, and they, in turn, feed religious words to others. This is how religion grows: Through words. Religious leaders (i.e. apostles, bishops, elders, overseers, rabbis, priests, pastors and evangelists) make their livings by spreading the seeds of religion through words. They are the tares growing among the wheat.
God gave people freedom to eat (i.e. listen to words/teachings) from trees of knowledge of good and evil. And, just like Adam and Eve, people are deceived by words spoken by religious leaders (e.g. satans) because words of charismatic religious leaders are attractive. And so, religion grows through the distribution of deceptive religious words spoken by apostles, bishops, elders, overseers, rabbis, priests, pastors and evangelists.
God is not passive in his response to religion. His strategy has always been, and will always be, to send prophets to speak for him with the call to come out of religion. The words of false prophets create religion, but God uses the words of true prophets to destroy religion.
Religion is God’s enemy, but God does not try to manipulate or destroy religious organizational structures. Because they are evil and sick, religions will destroy themselves from within like any disease destroys the body. God’s strategy is to allow religion to destroy itself and tear down it idols and high places. He does this by changing hearts. When God speaks to hearts, he convicts people of their sin of practicing religion. Then, after individuals learn how to hear God’s spoken voice, they will eagerly choose to quit religion and quit listening to apostles, bishops, elders, overseers, rabbis, priests, pastors and evangelists
In the meantime, all religions continue efforts to expand their kingdoms. Religions don’t want to be destroyed. Apostles, bishops, elders, overseers, rabbis, priests, pastors and evangelists don’t want to lose their jobs or their status. And so they are at war with God.
STUDY TIPS: See the links below for more understanding of how God sees religious leaders with titles: