Pastor Ordination Quotes

Malachi 3: 8-9 is probably the most misrepresented scripture tithing advocates quote in the Bible. They contend that anyone that does not pay tithe is robbing God and will be cursed. However, Malachi was not speaking to the Jewish nation he was speaking to the priests. The priests were the ones criticized for robbing God and received the curse for failing to follow God’s ordinances. They were withholding the best meats for themselves and offering God “blemished” sacrifices. Pastors that knowingly deceive others by preaching a false tithing doctrine are the real thieves and are no different than the priests that Malachi rebuked. They are blind guides that lead God’s people astray. They have cherry picked certain principles from God’s tithing system and turned it into something that looks nothing like Moses’ design. It is an inequitable system that does not provide for the poor and allow prosperity preachers and false teachers to profit far beyond the members of their congregation.

When I became Archbishop I set myself three goals for my term of office. Two had to deal with the inner workings of our Anglican (Episcopalian) Church—the ordination of women to the priesthood which our Church approved in 1992 and through which our Church has been wonderfully enriched and blessed; and the other in which I failed to get the Church’s backing, the division of the large and sprawling Diocese of Cape Town into smaller episcopal pastoral units. The third goal was the liberation of all our people, black and white, and that we achieved in 1994.

That line of reasoning, however, is patently bogus. Discussion of women’s ordination among Adventists predated the “women’s lib” movement by 70 or more years: we already noted that the 1881 General Conference Session considered a resolution favoring ordaining qualified women pastors. Furthermore, the current push among us comes not from women but from men, especially ordained ministers in several different countries who have surrendered their credentials in solidarity with their female counterparts.

The word “authority” is an ambivalent word. In my experience most pastors/ministers are completely unaware of this fact. The word can speak either of how someone can influence others and gain their respect and ear, or of the power one person exercises over others. The first kind of authority is called “intrinsic authority”; it comes from within. It speaks of how one person may influence others. The other kind of authority is called “extrinsic authority”; it alludes to the power one person exercises over others. Jesus exhibited intrinsic authority and this is what all pastors/ministers should aspire to do. However, intrinsic authority cannot be given by ordination or church licensing. It is earned. It is summed up in the word “respect.

In August, 1746, disputes about baptism were first brought into this church; and while the pastor, Mr. Backus, was prayerfully considering the subject, ten persons were baptized by Elder Moulton. The description of his subsequent exercises, and the result to which he was brought, is thus given in his own words.   “About three months after, when the heat of controversy was abated, the question was put to my conscience in my retired hours, Where is it, and in what relation to the church, do those stand, who are baptized, but not converted? I could see that all the circumcised were obliged to keep the passover; and I had seen that there was no halfway in the Christian church, nor any warrant to admit any to communion therein, without a credible profession of saving faith. No tongue can tell the distress I now felt. Could I have discovered any foundation in Scripture for my former practice, I should most certainly have continued therein: But all my efforts failing, I was at last brought to the old standard, so as to leave good men and bad men out of the question, and simply inquire, What saith the Scriptures?” By this means his mind was at length settled, in the full conviction of the baptism of believers only, and he submitted himself to this ordinance, August 22, 1751.

It is not wise for humans to argue against the ordinances of God as useless, to find fault with His service instead of doing it, or to set their minds in opposition to their Maker.

God can make His own ordinances useful, or else He would never have appointed them.

Neither call nor ordination confer a status, an indelible character, worthiness or some quality that enables the one so called or ordained to fulfill the office. Neither call nor ordination, make the one called or ordained “a repository of sacral or numinous power.

Christ had a Church in the world before there was either Apostle, or Prophet, or Evangelist, or Pastor, or Teacher, and He will have His Church around Him through eternal ages, after all His saints are 1 Sermon, p. 8. 1 Ibid. s See foot-note on p. 8, Sermon. gathered and perfected, and when oracles, ordinances and ministry shall have fulfilled their work.

Thirsting for God O God, you are my God; I earnestly search for you. My soul thirsts for you; my whole body longs for you in this parched and weary land where there is no water. I have seen you in your sanctuary and gazed upon your power and glory. PSALM 63:1-2 NLT David wrote many of the psalms in the middle of difficult times. Biblical scholars believe this one was written when David fled Jerusalem when his son Absalom took the throne from him. Even in the midst of David’s breaking heart, he sought the Lord with a deep, soul-parched thirst. He was the deer being hunted by his son; he was the one longing to be filled, to be completely satisfied through the only source who truly satisfies. Many years later, Jesus said, “God blesses those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they will be satisfied” (Matthew 5:6 NLT). The thirst Jesus describes is the same thirst David spoke of. Charles Spurgeon, a nineteenth-century pastor in London, explained it this way in his Treasury of David: This thirst is “the cry of a man far removed from the outward ordinances and worship of God, sighing for the long loved house of his God; and at the same time it is the voice of a spiritual believer, under depressions, longing for the renewal of the divine presence, struggling with doubts and fears, but yet holding his ground by faith in the living God.” Father, I, too, thirst for You in the dryness of my soul. Thank You for Jesus who alone is able to satisfy this thirst.

R. C. Sproul (theologian & pastor; b. 1939): “We are persuaded that the biblical mandate is still in effect... If there's ever an indication of a perpetual ordinance in the church, it is that which is based on an appeal to Creation... I don't think it matters one bit whether it's a babushka, a veil, or a hat, but I think that the symbol should remain intact as a sign of our obedience to God.”[150]

The record of the saints shows that, until we have been shaped, trained, and appointed to our respective ministries, our inward sense of calling can be either true or false when we are left to our own devices. In many of today's ordination processes, far too much emphasis is placed on the candidate's inward sense of vocation, which reflects an unhealthy kind of subjectivism. In the selection process and throughout a lifetime of ministry, the perceptions and faith-experience of the community should be the greatest indicator of leadership potential and success. In the individual candidate, the surest sign of a pastoral vocation is a recognizable desire to build up the church, with some awareness of its joy and satisfaction as well as its labor and difficulty. Any other form of personal self-fulfillment is misleading in the selection process, and it will cause even greater problems down the road, when pride and vainglory become enormous impediments to the exercise of a faithful ministry.

Maitland chided Knox for his position that lesser magistrates and the people could oppose the higher authority. He stated of Knox’s position, “I think ye shall not have many learned men of your opinion.” Knox replied: My lord, the truth ceases not to be the truth, howsoever it be that men either misknow it, or yet gainstand it. And yet, I praise my God, I lack not the consent of God’s servants in that head.63 Knox then handed a copy of the Magdeburg Confession to the Secretary and bid him to read the names of the pastors signed at the end of the document declaring the just defense of the city. Then he added, “To resist a tyrant, is not to resist God, nor yet His ordinance.” After looking at the names of the pastors, Lethington mockingly stated, “Men of no note.” Upon which Knox replied of the Magdeburgers, “Yet servants of God.

It is important to appreciate the extent to which, before Hitler, German Jews had been integrated in German society. There were no ghettos, and no one gave any thought to the fact that, for instance, Bonhoeffer’s friend Franz Hildebrandt, who was preparing for ordination as a Lutheran pastor, had a Jewish mother.