Many pastors, teachers, and Christian leaders today have blood on their hands.

I think most of them are unaware of this situation. Some of them sense this dilemma a bit, but they don’t care sufficiently to be or do anything different. Lastly, there remains a remnant group who ARE aware, who DO understand, and they care a GREAT deal.

Let me explain. It’s all about being a ‘watchman.’

In the Bible, watchmen were sentinels. They guarded cities and towns, military camps, and even fields and vineyards. As their position specifies, their job was to keep watch for the interests and welfare of others. It was their duty to be alert and to warn of looming threats.

Several things about being a ‘watchman’ are made clear in the Bible.

FIRST, there’s a larger principle here than just guarding a city. God raised up His prophets as ‘spiritual watchmen.’ God said to Ezekiel in Ezekiel 33:7, “I have made you a watchman for the people of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me.”

Ezekiel’s job was to stay focused and vigilant, to urge God’s people to live faithfully, and to warn them of dangers. As watchmen, God’s prophets warned those who were falling away from the Lord of His judgment. The hearers needed to repent of their choices and evil ways.

SECOND, it was a major responsibility to be a ‘spiritual watchman.’ There was only one right way to do the job. This is clear in the larger passage of Ezekiel 33:2-9.

Ezekiel – and other Old Testament prophets like him – needed to properly ‘hear’ God. They had to be in the right spiritual place themselves to do that, and then they had to faithfully declare God’s word. This was their primary responsibility.

There is no wiggle room here. God’s ‘spiritual watchmen’ could not twist the truth or dilute it. They couldn’t pretend it was something other than what it was. They had to shoot straight.

They couldn’t delay either. It was a time sensitive message, and they needed to be plain with it so folks could heed the warning, respond properly to it, and save themselves. If the people didn’t respond to the message as they needed to, then ‘they would die for their sin’ (vs. 9).

THIRD, Isaiah 56:10 tells us that God’s spiritual watchmen couldn’t be lax, asleep, blind, disobedient, silent, ignorant, or distracted. If they were any of these things, this exposed the people they were responsible for to danger and suffering.

Put another way, strict obedience, faithful declaration, and constant alertness are the only postures for a true watchman.

FOURTH, it’s tough to be a good and responsible spiritual watchman. If that isn’t clear by now, then Hosea 9:8 makes this obvious. It says concerning how a watchman of God is received, “….snares await him on all his paths, and hostility in the house of his God.”

Did you see that? Hosea says it’s a rough journey being a spiritual watchman for God. A faithful watchman is marked by encountering snares and setbacks. He is constantly facing enmity and misunderstanding from those who are ‘in the house of his God’ (you can insert ‘church’ here, or ‘other believers’ to bring the same point closer to home).

Make no mistakes about it. Being a watchman for God is a tough haul. Not only do they have to speak boldly, but they must act timely and declare accurately. To top it all off, they are constantly trapped, opposed, and despised by the people they are trying to warn and teach.

Ah – – – but there’s a MUCH greater problem here! There is one more thing I need to say.

And that is, FIFTH, there is a lot of blood on the hands of many spiritual watchmen today. Coming full circle, Ezekiel 33:6 says, “But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the horn and the people are not warned, and a sword comes and takes a person from them, he is taken away for his wrongdoing; but I will require his blood from the watchman’s hand.”

Let me paraphrase this. If pastors, teachers, and Christian leaders today don’t start ACTING like the spiritual watchmen they need to be, if they don’t start DECLARING a bold message, if they refuse to HEED God’s Word as they need to be doing, if they continue to REMAIN ignorant and silent in the face of mounting threats and developments, and if they refuse to RAISE an urgent, true, and timely alarm – – then God says they have ‘blood on their hands.’

Oh – – – what’s that? You don’t like what I’m saying? Do you think I’m being too harsh and insensitive?

Well, deal with it! It’s God speaking here, not me.

Read and study all these passages for yourself. If you take God’s Word at face value, you’ll see what I’m saying is the truth.  If you’re still not convinced – or perhaps if you don’t WANT to be convinced – then I urge you to read James 3:1 and Hebrews 13:17.

James 3:1 says pastors and teachers are held to a higher standard before God. That’s because their roles carry greater responsibility and influence. They will receive stricter divine judgment as a result because their words and choices affect the spiritual welfare of others.

And Hebrews 13:17 makes it self-evident that the role of spiritual watchman continues today in the form of church leaders. This verse says, “they WATCH over your souls as those who must give an account.”

And that’s why ‘blood is dripping from the hands’ of more pastors, teachers, and Christian leaders today than at most points in church history. It’s because they are failing to do their job by God’s standards at a very critical point in time.

A lot of them shouldn’t be in their roles in the first place since they are not properly qualified or gifted. Most of them refuse to teach the full counsel of God’s Word as they ought to.

Many of them push a ‘social gospel.’ Most of them avoid teaching about sin and hell. Lots of them want to be ‘attractive to the lost.’ Many of them push the ‘good news’ of the Gospel, but not the ‘bad news’ which drives true repentance. Nearly all of them dismiss, dilute, or deride the one-quarter of Scripture that is Bible prophecy. Most of them refuse to literally interpret God’s Word, and a lot of them nurture a bias against Israel.

The problems with our watchmen today are myriad. But it all comes down to this: they aren’t ‘hearing’ God as they should be. Many of them don’t want to. They’re not properly watching and warning as a result – and so those they are responsible for are not responding as they need to be. It’s a grim picture.

Be it so, the role of ‘spiritual watchmen’ is still in effect. That job today is just as hard as it always was. The discipline and burden required now is every bit as significant as it has ever been. The need for faithful watchmen is enormous today.

And so is the consequence of not being a good one.

***

www.solidbreadcommunity.com

Please follow Solid Bread Community’s Facebook.

Subscribe to ‘Solid Bread Community’ on YouTube.

 

This is about confronting the wolves. If you are wise, you’ll do it.

“Whaddya’ mean, ‘If I’m wise!?’” I can hear the question already.

The Bible teaches that wisdom begins with a fear of the Lord (Prov. 9:10). Let’s unpack that and see where it goes.

First, in this verse, “fear” is not the same thing as “afraid” – at least not mostly. If we are truly IN the faith, then we should have a constant awe for God that reminds us of His holiness, justice, and righteousness.

And yes – if we have this posture, we’ll also properly “fear Him who is able to destroy both body and soul in hell” (Matt. 10:28). God is the final judge, and even for the Christian, there will be some face-to-face accountability with Him (2 Cor. 5:10).

But, second, what Proverbs is emphasizing is that a legitimate definition of learning, awareness, and applicable knowledge has to begin someplace. That “someplace” is a correct attitude towards God and a right respect for who He is.

Here’s a gut check. If you doubt Jesus Christ is who He claims to be, then you display a lack of wisdom. If you choose not to believe in Him, if you think there is more than one way to eternal life, or if you’re comfortable defining “God” by your personal preferences and tolerances, then you cannot be wise.

If you don’t believe the Bible says what it means and means what it says – if you’d rather impose your own preferences on Scripture – then wisdom will elude you. You have zero idea how ridiculous and foolish you will become instead (Rom. 1:20-21).

Honestly – this issue is quite plain. If you think you’re wise by any definition other than what is found in God’s Word – you’re not!

Forget about advanced college degrees, framed certificates, and all similar forms of man’s recognition and praise. Big deal!

Those things just mean you got the assignments done. They mean you did what you were told to, and you met man’s standards. A trained dolphin does the same thing.

Some of the most inept, incapable, destructive, arrogant, and foolish people I have known have a parade of alphabet soup after their name. They thought they were something they weren’t. Degrees don’t change the heart.

The truth is real wisdom starts with a proper relationship with God. There is a direct and inviolable connection. That’s the essence of what Proverbs 9:10 is saying.

If you’re not in a proper relationship with your Creator, your views and actions will be futile, irrational, and unwise. If you’d rather embrace a cultural view of Jesus Christ that paints Him as racist, imperfect, genderless – – or anything other than what the Bible plainly states – well, then you DON’T and you WON’T have wisdom.

The implications of this go much further. If you don’t have a right reverence for God, you won’t have a right respect for morality. You won’t pursue God’s values. Sound character – and virtues like honesty, self-control, integrity, and fairness – will mean little to you.

Issues like fair elections, true justice, law and order, the nuclear family, two genders, and national boundaries are some of the things you will be inclined to mock if you don’t have a right view of God. All of these things find their foundation in God’s inerrant Word.

Furthermore, if Biblical truth is not valued BY you, then human life holds no real value FOR you. This is especially the case with those who haven’t taken their first breath – or with those who are close to their last one.

Here’s the heart of what I want to say. We are surrounded by wolves who are working to tear down and suppress God’s truth. Those wolves are attacking the very pillars of wisdom, and they are breeding rapidly both INSIDE the church and OUTSIDE of it.

It’s not a new problem. It was a dilemma many centuries ago when God’s faithful followers encountered wolves inside and outside of their religious convictions. Daniel 11:21-35 tells the whole story.

Here, we find a corrupt leader who came to power deceptively. He tried to enforce cultural conformity because he had no tolerance for the truth. Everyone had to goose-step the same way because his agenda was one that did not revere God.

Though his policies were foolish, and though they made no sense, he still managed to get some of the religious leaders on his side. He flattered them. He made them feel special when they conformed to his mandates, and when they compromised the most important things they needed to cling to instead.

Daniel 11:32-33 contains a remarkable statement, “….the people who know their God will be strong and take action. Those who are wise will instruct many.”

These people were the REAL heroes. They stood up for what was proper. They were not like all the foolish folk. They preserved a proper reverence for God, and they held others accountable to the things that were right.

They went where it was uncomfortable to go, and they said what was uncomfortable to say. And the Bible says they were wise for doing this.

They were few, but they bucked the system. They ‘held others’ spiritual feet to the fire.’ They called a spade a spade. They bravely stood their ground, and they cried, “Fraud!” when it was so.

They refused to compromise or bend. They knew the truth, and they clung to it. They paid a price for doing what was right, but they did it anyways. They did it because they were ‘wise.’

As it was true in the past, so it is true now. Those who truly “know their God” – those who are wise – will display strength and act against deception and compromise just as those who revered God before ALSO did. Those who embrace the truth of God’s Word will resist the encroachment of the world’s ideas upon it.

The hard-hitting example of Daniel 11:32-33 shows there is a distinction between two types of people: those who are strong and wise, and those who are not. It is the strong and wise ones that will resist any invasion into the pillars and expressions of their faith.

It is those who are sincere and committed in their faith who will achieve the things Daniel 11:32-33 calls “great exploits.” It takes a strong person to RESIST the seduction that they are doing the right thing when they let the world define them and their choices.

The wolves are among us – there is no doubt about that. Just look around you.

Confronting them takes great wisdom and strength.

www.solidbreadcommunity.com

Please follow Solid Bread Community’s Facebook

Subscribe to ‘Solid Bread Community’ on YouTube