Dear Pastor Whoever….
Ordination. Let’s talk ordination. Is it Bible or is it “tradition of men”? There’s not only a split in Christ’s church between the salaried and the non-salaried, but the salaried are themselves split between the ordained and the non-ordained. Some of your contemporaries are ordained, some are not, and, I suppose, all yearn to be. The ordained are the special amongst the special. Let’s call them Super-Special Pastor Whoevers. But are the super-special special from Christ’s perspective, the only perspective that matters?
Please excuse my severe skepticism that has developed over almost five decades of christianity. So much of evangelicalism is religious add-on; is ordination also Bible-plus? For any Bible-believing christian the answer can easily be found. Type in biblegateway.com in the google search bar…. in the search bar of Bible Gateway type“ordain”, “ordination” and “ordained”. Check a good cross-section of translations, the NKJV, the ESV, and the NASB. Can these words, pertaining to men being ordained by God or men, be found in the New Testament of these three translations? No, no and no.“The [only] man whom He [God] has ordained” (NKJV), is His Son.
Can we assume the people you pastor mistakenly assume ordination is Bible, and therefore the will of God? If ordination is merely another “tradition of men”, as the NKJV, the ESV and the NASB verify, should not a leader under Christ, as you claim to be,educate them. And should you not inform the trusting congregation of all other evangelical traditions of men? Christianity, true christianity, is simply responding to the question: “What would Jesus have me do?” And that’s my question to you, Pastor Whoever:“What does Jesus want you to do?” Love is obedience. Amen?
Larry Jones