The presumed principal custodians of our faith; the pastors, bishops and popes of our churches, are ungodly and unrighteous.
Christians are told lies so repeatedly; many no longer recognise the truth. Answer me on this: did your pastor happen to mention that Jesus was killed by pastors?
Not likely! Pastors don’t want people to know their fore-fathers killed Jesus; otherwise they would soon recognise they too are in the same business. Jesus says to the pastors of old: “You are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets.” (Matthew 23:31). Even so, the pastors of today testify against themselves that they are the descendants of those who killed Jesus.
Testimony of Jesus
Let me tell you a story you must have heard before but have probably been led to misunderstand. Jesus told the story to some pastors and they were very angry with him because they recognised it was a veiled attack on them. They even wanted to kill him right there and then but held back because of the crowds. Perhaps you need to listen to the story one more time.
“There was a certain landowner who planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it, dug a winepress in it and built a tower. And he leased it to vinedressers and went into a far country. Now when vintage-time drew near, he sent his servants to the vinedressers, that they might receive its fruit. And the vinedressers took his servants, beat one, killed one, and stoned another.”
“Again he sent other servants, more than the first, and they did likewise to them. Then last of all he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the vinedressers saw the son, they said among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance.’ So they took him and cast him out of the vineyard and killed him.” (Matthew 21:33-40).
Let us get certain things straight about this true-to-life story. The landowner is God. The servants of the landowner are the prophets. The son is Jesus Christ. The vinedressers are the priests and the pastors.
What you may not have realised is that, precisely because Jesus told this story against pastors, they have gone to great lengths to distort it. They now insist it was not the vinedressers who killed the son of the landowner, but that the landowner himself killed his own son. They tell men God sacrificed Jesus for their sins, instead of the fact that pastors killed Jesus in order to continue in their own sins.
Mercy and Not Sacrifice
Jeremiah says: “Among my people are found wicked men; they lie in wait as one who sets snares; they set a trap; they catch men.” (Jeremiah 5:26). Who are these wicked men? Make no mistake about it; pastors are at the top of the list.
Hosea says: “The priests are like a gang of robbers who wait in ambush for a man. Even on the road to the holy place at Shechem they commit murder. And they do all this evil deliberately!” (Hosea 6:9). Today, there are even gangs of Catholic priests raping young boys.
Jesus said prophetically to the Pharisees: “If you had known what this means, I desire mercy and not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the guiltless.” (Matthew 12:7). What did he mean? He meant if they understood the love of God, they would not kill him, an innocent man, in order to protect their corrupt lifestyles. If pastors today knew the love of God, they would not continue to kill Jesus by misrepresenting him.
A man walked in on a gang of men robbing a bank. He switched on the light and declared: “Repent. I am the light of the world.” What do you think the robbers did to him? They had him killed, switched off the light and continued with their robbery. They then claimed it was God who killed him as a sacrifice for the sins of men. But God demonstrated unequivocally that he was not responsible for Jesus’ death by raising him from the dead.
Fleecing the Flock
Jesus says: “I am the good pastor.” (John 10:11). “All who ever came before me are thieves and robbers.” (John 10:8). Those who came after him are no different. Their primary focus is to fleece people of their money so as to build up their own kingdoms. Jeremiah says: “They are as greedy as dogs, never satisfied; they are stupid pastors who only look after their own interest, each trying to get as much as he can for himself from every possible source.” (Isaiah 56:11).
In many respects, what holds today is no different from the falsehood popularised in the days of Martin Luther, when priests maintained a man could purchase forgiveness of sins for a dead relative by giving money to the Catholic Church. The Dominican monk, Johann Tetzel, was one of those sent out by the pope to preach this message in order to raise money for the church.
His message was straightforward: give money and your sins will be forgiven. Like the pastors of today, he came up with a popular refrain: “As soon as a coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs.”
Unrighteous Pastors
Jesus came to set the captives free by giving us true first-hand information about God. But after he did, pastors have endeavoured to distort even the true portrait he gave. They pretend to reveal God to men but have a vested interest in ensuring they don’t know him. How would they continue to rip people off if they were to know the truth of Jesus’ message that makes men free? (John 8:32). The result is that more falsehood about God is taught in the churches today than almost anywhere else.
So what does Jesus do about this? First, he tells us a parable that a man travelling from Jerusalem to Jericho was attacked by armed robbers and left for dead. A priest came along, saw the dying man but quickly walked away. A pastor also came along but he too ignored the dying man. Finally, a Good Samaritan came along. He bound up the wounds of the poor man, took him to the hospital and paid for all his medical expenses. When the man recovers, should he remain the disciple of priests and pastors? Certainly not!
Jesus is the Good Samaritan. One of his major assignments is to convince us that the presumed principal custodians of our faith; the chief priests, the Pharisees, the religious hierarchy; indeed the pastors, bishops and popes of our churches, are ungodly and unrighteous. Accordingly he says to them: “Assuredly, tax collectors and harlots enter the kingdom of God before you.” (Matthew 21:31).
Jesus’ life demonstrates this conclusively because these so-called “men of God” kill him, an innocent man, in order to protect their interests and positions. Jesus’ adversaries were not “sinners” but “holy” and religious pastors. Therefore, contrary to what it seems, many of those who claim to speak for God are not of God. Instead, they rob men of God. They rob them of his knowledge by presenting counterfeit portraits of God. They rob them so that they and not God would be the gods of their lives.
faribisala@yahoo.com; www.femiaribisala.com
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Thanks. We’ll scripted. And that’s why you hear them say “daddy GO”; “mummy GO”; “my pastor said …”; etc. I wonder when they will shed their garb of gullibility. Most times illiteracy is at the root of this gullibility.