WILD BOARS LOOSE IN THE VINEYARD
By Dr. Michael Halsey
03/14/2013
They (that ubiquitous group that rules the world) say the name of the game in Washington is power. Our elected leaders have enough of (our) money and theirs to fund the lifestyles of generations of their children and grandchildren who will rise up and call them blessed.
Since they have stuffed their offshore bank accounts, tax dodges, and tax shelters with their lucre, they turn themselves to the acquisition of power. The power to control others is a heady wine, which has intoxicated many an elected official and a bureaucrat. (an unelected leader we average Joes can’t touch with our ballots.)
We should make it a crime for any government official or bureaucrat to DWIWP (Drive While Intoxicated with Power), and make it illegal to propose or vote on any law while IWP (Intoxicated With Power.) An impossible law, but we can dream can’t we?
“The lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life,” as the sentence goes, is flush within the fallen human race. Politicians are drunk with those lusts and that pride. In the world of the non-Christian, the name of the game is power.
WILD BOARS
But alas, being charged being IWP isn’t limited to the secular world; the guilty rampage in our churches. There are wild, bully boars loose in the vineyard, demanding that the baptistery curtains be open during non-baptismal Sundays, demanding that the new church refrigerator door open from the left and not the right, calling for votes which pit boar against boar, demanding that the Lord’s Supper bread be crunchy and not soft, and demanding that the color of the auditorium and nursery carpets be red and not a subtle beige. (All of these events actually happened in several churches. Bully boars on the loose, demanding their way!)
Fearing a loss of power, these wild boars rampage in the vineyard intimidating others to get more power or retain their present power by ostracism, secret meetings, withholding giving, storming out of meetings, slandering, secretly taping conversations, calling for votes, name calling, rattling chairs, and slamming doors as they depart with flags flying and drums beating. (When boars don’t get their way, they get vicious.) The boar must publicly and dramatically brandish his boarness or it serves no purpose. That’s why bully boars love the drama. (All of the above events are true and are the tactics of all wild boars in all vineyards.)
But those are the gentler boars!
THE CLERGY BOARS
The clergy boars make the lay-boars look like the Little Sisters of the Poor. The clergy boar came into existence back in the day—in the early second century, after the Apostles. Ignatius, a church father, helped create the clergy boar by developing a boar hierarchy. There were the lay boars as seen above; then there were the clergy boars.
Talk about clergy boar power! Ignatius brought his A Game.
Listen to him:
“The church is to depend on the bishop as the church does the Lord Jesus.”
“There is no lawful baptism, offering, or feast without the bishop presiding over them.”
“Anyone who does anything apart from the bishop and the presbytery, and the deacons is defiled. (He claims he heard the Holy Spirit say, “Do nothing without the bishop.”
“Whoever does anything without the knowledge of the bishop serves the devil.”
“Whoever does anything without the knowledge of the bishop has destroyed himself.”
“The bishop, beyond all others, possesses all power and authority.”
“Disobedience to the bishop is tantamount to disobedience to God and is a mockery of Him.”
“God will give heed only to those who give heed to the bishop.”
“The relationship of the bishop to the ordinary believer is that the bishops are priests and the ordinary believer is a servant to the priests.”
In Roman Catholicism, the title of the Pope is, “The servant of servants.” Tell me another joke.
ONLY THE ROMAN CATHOLICS?
We see here the beginnings of the Roman Catholic hierarchy with its raw power over the people, but is such a hierarchy limited only to them?
Let’s change the word “bishop” in Ignatius’ directives to “pastor” and ask, “Do we see shades of the same thing in Bible-believing, Protestant churches?”
Look at the last of Ignatius’ statements, “. . . the ordinary believer is a servant to the priests.” Remove the word, “priests” and insert “pastor,” and there you have it: how many churches write in their constitutions, “The duty of the deacons (or elders) is to assist the pastor.” A lot. That statement helped birth the Roman Catholic hierarchy, and Protestant churches adopted it. (Of course some deacons see that statement as a typo and read it as, “The duty of the deacons is to attack the pastor,” but that’s another matter.)
THE BOOKS
In pastoral leadership books, the church growth experts tell the pastor that he must be “a man of vision, gathering people with him as he climbs the mountain to fulfill his vision.” Poetic, but not biblical.
People aren’t cogs in a juggernaut called, “The Pastor’s Vision Machine.” A clergy
boar loose in the vineyard uses people to fulfill his lust for recognition, power and reputation, all for the sake of his vision.
In some Bible believing churches there can be no evangelism, no home Bible studies, no training of disciples, and no anything unless the pastor puts him imprimatur on it. As one deacon described his internationally famous pastor, “It’s either his way or the highway.”
The clergy boar would say, “Well, we (“I”) have to control these people!”
Does he? Are pastors supposed to control people? I thought the Controller was the Holy Spirit, like Eph. 5:18 and Gal. 5:16 command. Are by -laws and church constitutions that institutionalize power supposed to control people or is the Holy Spirit to do it?
The clergy boar has a neat ploy in his beastly sack of tricks. He’s learned he can control others by saying, “I’ve prayed about it, and this is what God told me we (or you) ought to do.” Couldn’t any member of the congregation stand and say, “I’ve prayed about it too and God told me the opposite.”
THE VINEYARDS
The wild boars are loose in the vineyards and their rampages are destroying the vineyards. During their rampages, they devour believers, inflict pain on them, and leave scars. God forbid a pack of boars gets loose in your vineyard; there’s hell to pay.
The wild boars are always on the move from vineyard to vineyard. It’s up to biblical elders to protect the defenseless sheep from the lay boars and the clergy boars. If you are not in a church that’s protecting you from the boars, you’re in the wrong church.
03/14/2013
They (that ubiquitous group that rules the world) say the name of the game in Washington is power. Our elected leaders have enough of (our) money and theirs to fund the lifestyles of generations of their children and grandchildren who will rise up and call them blessed.
Since they have stuffed their offshore bank accounts, tax dodges, and tax shelters with their lucre, they turn themselves to the acquisition of power. The power to control others is a heady wine, which has intoxicated many an elected official and a bureaucrat. (an unelected leader we average Joes can’t touch with our ballots.)
We should make it a crime for any government official or bureaucrat to DWIWP (Drive While Intoxicated with Power), and make it illegal to propose or vote on any law while IWP (Intoxicated With Power.) An impossible law, but we can dream can’t we?
“The lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life,” as the sentence goes, is flush within the fallen human race. Politicians are drunk with those lusts and that pride. In the world of the non-Christian, the name of the game is power.
WILD BOARS
But alas, being charged being IWP isn’t limited to the secular world; the guilty rampage in our churches. There are wild, bully boars loose in the vineyard, demanding that the baptistery curtains be open during non-baptismal Sundays, demanding that the new church refrigerator door open from the left and not the right, calling for votes which pit boar against boar, demanding that the Lord’s Supper bread be crunchy and not soft, and demanding that the color of the auditorium and nursery carpets be red and not a subtle beige. (All of these events actually happened in several churches. Bully boars on the loose, demanding their way!)
Fearing a loss of power, these wild boars rampage in the vineyard intimidating others to get more power or retain their present power by ostracism, secret meetings, withholding giving, storming out of meetings, slandering, secretly taping conversations, calling for votes, name calling, rattling chairs, and slamming doors as they depart with flags flying and drums beating. (When boars don’t get their way, they get vicious.) The boar must publicly and dramatically brandish his boarness or it serves no purpose. That’s why bully boars love the drama. (All of the above events are true and are the tactics of all wild boars in all vineyards.)
But those are the gentler boars!
THE CLERGY BOARS
The clergy boars make the lay-boars look like the Little Sisters of the Poor. The clergy boar came into existence back in the day—in the early second century, after the Apostles. Ignatius, a church father, helped create the clergy boar by developing a boar hierarchy. There were the lay boars as seen above; then there were the clergy boars.
Talk about clergy boar power! Ignatius brought his A Game.
Listen to him:
“The church is to depend on the bishop as the church does the Lord Jesus.”
“There is no lawful baptism, offering, or feast without the bishop presiding over them.”
“Anyone who does anything apart from the bishop and the presbytery, and the deacons is defiled. (He claims he heard the Holy Spirit say, “Do nothing without the bishop.”
“Whoever does anything without the knowledge of the bishop serves the devil.”
“Whoever does anything without the knowledge of the bishop has destroyed himself.”
“The bishop, beyond all others, possesses all power and authority.”
“Disobedience to the bishop is tantamount to disobedience to God and is a mockery of Him.”
“God will give heed only to those who give heed to the bishop.”
“The relationship of the bishop to the ordinary believer is that the bishops are priests and the ordinary believer is a servant to the priests.”
In Roman Catholicism, the title of the Pope is, “The servant of servants.” Tell me another joke.
ONLY THE ROMAN CATHOLICS?
We see here the beginnings of the Roman Catholic hierarchy with its raw power over the people, but is such a hierarchy limited only to them?
Let’s change the word “bishop” in Ignatius’ directives to “pastor” and ask, “Do we see shades of the same thing in Bible-believing, Protestant churches?”
Look at the last of Ignatius’ statements, “. . . the ordinary believer is a servant to the priests.” Remove the word, “priests” and insert “pastor,” and there you have it: how many churches write in their constitutions, “The duty of the deacons (or elders) is to assist the pastor.” A lot. That statement helped birth the Roman Catholic hierarchy, and Protestant churches adopted it. (Of course some deacons see that statement as a typo and read it as, “The duty of the deacons is to attack the pastor,” but that’s another matter.)
THE BOOKS
In pastoral leadership books, the church growth experts tell the pastor that he must be “a man of vision, gathering people with him as he climbs the mountain to fulfill his vision.” Poetic, but not biblical.
People aren’t cogs in a juggernaut called, “The Pastor’s Vision Machine.” A clergy
boar loose in the vineyard uses people to fulfill his lust for recognition, power and reputation, all for the sake of his vision.
In some Bible believing churches there can be no evangelism, no home Bible studies, no training of disciples, and no anything unless the pastor puts him imprimatur on it. As one deacon described his internationally famous pastor, “It’s either his way or the highway.”
The clergy boar would say, “Well, we (“I”) have to control these people!”
Does he? Are pastors supposed to control people? I thought the Controller was the Holy Spirit, like Eph. 5:18 and Gal. 5:16 command. Are by -laws and church constitutions that institutionalize power supposed to control people or is the Holy Spirit to do it?
The clergy boar has a neat ploy in his beastly sack of tricks. He’s learned he can control others by saying, “I’ve prayed about it, and this is what God told me we (or you) ought to do.” Couldn’t any member of the congregation stand and say, “I’ve prayed about it too and God told me the opposite.”
THE VINEYARDS
The wild boars are loose in the vineyards and their rampages are destroying the vineyards. During their rampages, they devour believers, inflict pain on them, and leave scars. God forbid a pack of boars gets loose in your vineyard; there’s hell to pay.
The wild boars are always on the move from vineyard to vineyard. It’s up to biblical elders to protect the defenseless sheep from the lay boars and the clergy boars. If you are not in a church that’s protecting you from the boars, you’re in the wrong church.
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