Unfaithful Pastors
Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! saith the Lord. Jeremiah 23:1
"Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of My pasture!...Behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doings." "Howl, ye shepherds, and cry; and wallow yourselves in the ashes, ye principal of the flock; for your days for slaughter and of your dispersions are accomplished...and the shepherds shall have no way to flee, nor the principal of the flock to escape" (Jeremiah 23:1, 2; 25:34, 35, margin).
Ministers and people see that they have not sustained the right relation to God. They see that they have rebelled against the Author of all just and righteous law. The setting aside of the hatred, iniquity, until the earth become one vast field of strife, one sink of corruption. This is the view that now appears to those who reject truth and chose to cherish error. No language can express the longing which the disobedient and disloyal feel for that which they have lost forever--eternal life. Men whom the world has worshiped for their talents and eloquence now see these things in their true light. They realize what they have forfeited by transgression, and they fall at the feet of those whose fidelity they have despised and derided, and confess that God has loved them. (The Great Controversy, 655)
Reflection: Now, in their despair, these teachers confess before the world their work of deception. The multitudes are filled with fury. "We are lost!" they cry, "and you are the cause of our ruin;" and they turn upon the false shepherds. (The Great Controversy, 655). Paul was truly a man of God, but the Bereans were praised because they listened to him with reserve; then went to the scriptures and checked him out (Acts 17:11). We should never blindly believe, even those that claim to be ministers of Christ. Our only safety is in the Word of God.
Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! saith the Lord. Jeremiah 23:1
"Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of My pasture!...Behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doings." "Howl, ye shepherds, and cry; and wallow yourselves in the ashes, ye principal of the flock; for your days for slaughter and of your dispersions are accomplished...and the shepherds shall have no way to flee, nor the principal of the flock to escape" (Jeremiah 23:1, 2; 25:34, 35, margin).
Ministers and people see that they have not sustained the right relation to God. They see that they have rebelled against the Author of all just and righteous law. The setting aside of the hatred, iniquity, until the earth become one vast field of strife, one sink of corruption. This is the view that now appears to those who reject truth and chose to cherish error. No language can express the longing which the disobedient and disloyal feel for that which they have lost forever--eternal life. Men whom the world has worshiped for their talents and eloquence now see these things in their true light. They realize what they have forfeited by transgression, and they fall at the feet of those whose fidelity they have despised and derided, and confess that God has loved them. (The Great Controversy, 655)
Reflection: Now, in their despair, these teachers confess before the world their work of deception. The multitudes are filled with fury. "We are lost!" they cry, "and you are the cause of our ruin;" and they turn upon the false shepherds. (The Great Controversy, 655). Paul was truly a man of God, but the Bereans were praised because they listened to him with reserve; then went to the scriptures and checked him out (Acts 17:11). We should never blindly believe, even those that claim to be ministers of Christ. Our only safety is in the Word of God.
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