Or should I say, why do I have a problem with Pastors ?

Well I already identified several portions of this answer: by and large I believe that they no longer teach their congregations what they should be teaching them.

I believe that most Pastors violate their Oath of Office, the one they took to Jesus Christ.

But that does not answer the why. The problems previously listed are - after all - the problems that one may have with a pastor AFTER he is already installed as Pastor.

So if the problems with Pastors only show up when they are formally holding their office in a church, where do their problems originate ?

I believe in great part - that their problems originate in Seminaries. I never understood why all of us (or many of us) can see HUGE problems with Pastors and the failure of pastors to actually teach their congregations how to study the Bible or know their Bible Doctrine (which if they did, they would be able to refute Roman Catholic teachings with far greater ease than most of them can), and still not wonder if the problem is not greater than merely the specific pastor we are thinking about...at that moment.

THe fact is as statistics will demonstrate...that the failure is not so much in the Pastors as it is in how those Pastors are trained.

Laymen would like to believe that Seminaries are the place where PRotestants are taught how to uphold the Word of GOd, how to defend the faith, how to study the scriptures, how to be spiritually strong, and how to recognize true Heroes of the Faith, in order to be able to share all of this information with their congregations.

Regretably, very little of that is true. Spend 15 minutes talking with a Seminarian from a Protestant Seminary, and almost all of them will tell you that most Pastoral Candidates in Seminaries GO IN to the seminaries convinced of the validity of the Word of God FAR MORE than those coming out of Seminaries.

Why is this ? For one thing, most Denominations have formally separated the Seminaries from the denominations. whereas the Seminaries in the old days used to be guided by the doctrinal statements of Protestant Denominations, most seminaries today are frankly accountable only to themselves.

For another, Most seminaries today are not so much concerned with the spiritual training of the current students as they are with ensuring that their own professors will have the perks and the salaries that would entice them to stay there.

The Ivory tower (university education) is much more about the almighty dollar than it is about spiritual truth. And for those who actually do care to challenge the direction that seminaries are going, termination of professorial contracts CAN be arranged.

So what this means on a practical level is that the Bureaucrats at the seminaries can either Make or Break most professors, especially those starting out.

Now on a different but related matter, This Board here seems to like the KJV and understand that translations can be filled with the doctrines of those who undertook the task of translation. For this reason, what a person believes about God and the Bible is extremely relevant to the task either of translation, or of educating students in any Seminary.

Seminary students are not taught this. IF they were, they would be out digging and doing research on Bible Translations. But they would also be doing research on their Seminaries, such as: on 1) the history of the seminary 2) who founded it 3) what were the principles it was founded upon 4) what were the historic requirements for admission 5) what versions were originally used ? The answer to these questions will determine and disclose much about the politics of seminaries.

But students are taught that most professors can do no wrong, and certainly never intentionally. It is as if Protestant seminaries have Never had any subversion or spiritual enemies in their midst. Apparently divinity has left the RCC, but found its way into all of the professors.

Certainly to question professors rather than be gratefull to find thinking students, will usually earn the student a sharp rebuke if not other kinds of demotions.

Remember those who do not get their degrees will not get letters of recomendation, nor endorsements from their professors. So how will they find a job ? [they could trust God...but we will stay on the topic of seminaries and not seminarians...for now]

Another reason that Protestant Seminaries today produce pastors very different from historical Protestant Pastors is that they are using Corrupt Greek Texts that are different texts from the ones used by Historical Protestant Pastors.

What is the Greek Text that Protestant Pastors used in Seminaries - for hundreds of years - until about the 1920s ?
- The answer is the Greek Textus REceptus

What is the Greek Text that Seminarians in Protestant Seminaries use today ?

THey use the Corrupt Greek Text of Nestle-Aland, which is based in turn on the Corrupted Greek Manuscripts of 1. Westcott & Hort and 2. Tischendorf.

After two years or 3 in seminaries, those students come out familiar with the Greek TExts of Westcott & Hort, not those of the Protestant Reformation.

There is much more to this story. Another factor is the fundraising practices of Seminaries. The methods used to accomplish this today almost garantee that again, the dollar will win over sound theology.

(see for example the book: "The Battle for the Bible" by Harold Lindsell that addresses most of these issues in the context of Fuller THeological Seminary in California, that used to be conservative and now no longer is !!!).

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Now then, a well-meaning person comes along and asks me what problem I have with Pastors ? Given that most of them are products of Seminaries rather than a product of independent studies, and that most of them have learned about their Bibles through the corrupted texts of Westcott & Hort, just exactly what kind of respect should I have left for them, especially in view of the statistics that Josh McDowell cited about the direction that Pastors are allowing their Churches to go in ?

What would Jesus say ? I think that if Jesus were not stoned by most Seminary professors, he would raise most of those seminaries to the ground and start over.

Are there good seminaries ? Yes, a few, but they are far and few between...

That is only one more reason why we actually need and benefit from boards like this one. Personal study of the Bible is the best way to have the spiritual strength that one needs, and these are skills that we all need to have.

The very sad fact is that most of us will learn far more theology here, and knowledge of how to Defend God's Holy Word, than 90% of students in Seminaries will.


In Christ,

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