Saved Without A Pastor??

[LaVonne]

Originally Posted by Michael Phelps

Ok, I'll elaborate a bit here since I have a few minutes, lol.

To say that a person has to have a pastor to be saved is to say that the pastor has power to save a person. And the scripture clearly states that we must all "work out our own salvation with fear and trembling".

To say that a person must have a pastor to hear from God is to violate Jesus statement that "The Holy Ghost will lead and guide us into ALL truth".

To say that we need to submit to a pastor in every situation would cause us sometimes to violate Peter's edict that "we ought to obey God rather than man", because sometimes the pastor feels strongly opposed to what we feel led in the Spirit to do.

Now, does God sanction pastors? Of course. And I believe in having spiritual advisors in my life.

But, in many cases in scripture, when people were seeking a word from God, He sent them to people who were NOT their pastor, i.e. Saul on the road to Damascus was sent to Ananias, who was not his pastor, nor would he become Saul's pastor.
The Ethiopian eunuch was searching for truth, and God picked Philip up and set him down to reveal truth, and then Philip was gone again.

And the list goes on and on....

I fear that many people have deified the pastorate to the point where they can't buy a home, a car, make a move, do anything without the pastor's blessing, and that's a shame.

Are there good pastors out there? Most certainly!

But, a good pastor is smart enough to know that the folks under his care can hear from God directly, and they don't need him to be saved.

Just my humble opinion.........I now anxiously await the onslaught, lol.

Do you think this is where the five-fold ministry comes in? Since they all work together (or are supposed to) for the perfecting of the saints.