Treacherous Pastors, Decadent Priests
“The religious leaders do a horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies: they strengthen also the hands of evildoers…they are like the inhabitants of Sodom & Gomorrah.”
(Jeremiah 23:14-16)
The prophets tell us that in ancient Israel false prophets and priests engaged in shameful behavior. They refused to teach the people the absolute importance of the law of God. Many who hold positions of leadership in churches today repeat the same sins, and teach the people that that law of God has been done away. Numerous pastors and priests live private lives of sexual promiscuity, drunkenness and opulence. God is FURIOUS with our nation’s spiritual leaders:
• Almost forty percent of Pastors polled said they have had an extra-marital affair since beginning their ministry. (Statistics on Pastors by Dr. Richard J. Krejcir).
• 37 % of pastors in America say they have a personal struggle with pornography; 30% of 6,000 pastors surveyed had actively sought out internet porn in the prior 30 days. (Christian Science Monitor)
• Moral scandals among pastors and priests are showing no signs of diminishing. The nation has grown numb to the immorality of our church leaders. Remember these?
o 14,000 member church pastor in Colorado resigns because of homosexual acts and drug abuse.
o Oklahoma pastor arrested for “offering to engage in acts of lewdness” with a male undercover police officer.
o Atlanta church pastor lives in a 5,000-square-foot house with five bedrooms, which he bought for $1.1 million dollars.
o Nationally known Pastor admits to having an affair and fathering a child.
o More than 100 students have claimed they were sexually abused at several Catholic schools.
• A report commissioned by the Church of Rome (2004) said more than 4,000 US Roman Catholic priests had faced sexual abuse allegations in the last 50 years in cases involving more than 10,000 children – mostly boys (BBC News).
• The divorce rate among ministers in the United States is 50%. (Statistics on Pastors by Dr. Richard J. Krejcir).
Ministers cater to people’s selfish instincts. The Apostle Paul warned of what we see taking place in so many churches today. He said, “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers who suit their own passions” (2 Timothy 4:3).
Many who proclaim Christ as Lord love to be entertained with music and self-help, feel-good messages. They enjoy hearing about a false Jesus who requires little commitment, no deep repentance or overcoming in one’s personal life.
In ancient Israel the priests failed to teach the people the Ten Commandments. Like then, the law of God is ignored in most churches today, replaced with a message of false grace, yet Christ came not to do away with the law but to bring out its full meaning (Matthew 5:17). God condemns the Christian leaders of our age; they do not honor the law of God before the people.
“Her prophets are arrogant, treacherous people;
Her priests have polluted the sanctuary, they do violence to the law.”
(Zephaniah 3:4)
Steven LeBlanc