Pastors
Pastors should be like shepherds who tend to all the welfare needs of the people in a daily ministration of faith, hope, and charity, so that none of the sheep of Christ have to eat at the tables of legal charity provided by the exercising authority of the Fathers of the earth.[1]
Before Jesus was able to provide the people with loaves and fishes in Mark 6:39 He "commanded" His disciples to "make" the people sit down in Tens. And then those groups were to organize in companies upon companies in divisions and "ranks" of "fifties and hundreds".
Christ also told His disciples not to be like the rulers and princes of the Gentiles who provided benefits by exercising authority one over the other.
Everyone who got the Baptism of Christ was "put out" by the ordinance of the Pharisees of the Jewish synagogue system which was also composed of ten families through which they provided welfare with the "Corban" of the people.
Christ appointed a kingdom to His "called out" group He called His "little flock" to be ministers or servants to the people in "free assemblies" not rulers like the "benefactors" of the "world" who "exercise authority". Every man should be led by the Holy Spirit to gather in order to love one another. The minister is supposed to be serving by making or requiring the people voluntarily organize themselves in Companies of tens, fifties and hundreds, and thousands so that people may love one another through daily ministration in the practice of Pure Religion as we see the early Church doing in history for centuries.
If all the people who say they are Christians were actually doing what Christ commanded, socialism would be obsolete and no one could be or would be exploited. Socialism is the religion you get when you refuse to do what Christ commanded and have no Pure Religion.
The word pastor appears in both the Old and New Testaments but it does not mean today what it meant thousands of years ago. If we want to use the term in the way that the scriptures intended we have to look back to the context in which it was originally used.
The word pastor in the New Testament is more commonly translated shepherd[2]. Of course in the Old Testament the word we see as pastor which is Rah[3]is translated shepherd more often than it is translated pastor. It is actually far more often translated feed or fed.
The word Rah includes the letter Reish which is often related to the idea of a ruler. The term is even translated "ruler" in some translations but within the context of the Bible, it is not describing men as rulers over men who can exercise authority one over the other. But they may have ruled over some thing freely given them.
Jesus was clear on the subject of not being like the 'rulers of other governments' but we were to love one another. Still, there was rank mentioned by Christ.[4]
Jesus also commanded that His disciples organize the people in small groups or companies of ten "elders" who were simply the heads families. These small intimate "companies" of ten families were further organized into "ranks" of a hundred. These groups of tens were linked by individuals who might be called pastors by the nature of their mission to rightly divide the bread from house to house.
The driving and ruling force in the early Church was not pastors or priests but the Holy Spirit dwelling in the hearts and minds of the elders and their families.
The ministers or pastors were also elders of their own families. An elder was not an office of the Church but a description of a status within the foundation of society, the family. Shepherds, or pastors as a general descriptive term consisted of those who were chosen by the people in this network of tens, hundreds and thousands to help provide for the needs of society by charity alone, which is love. This would include everyone who was a part of the working network of charity from Apostles, Bishops, or Deacons.
Paul brought supplies and aid all over the Roman Empire to the early Christians during major dearths. He was able to do so because the early Church required those Christians organize themselves in a network by ranks of Tens as Christ commanded.
The duties of pastors in the early Church included rightly dividing bread from house to house[1] in a "daily ministration" of fervent charity.
The diligence[5] and sacrifice required in the practice of pure Religion created the bonds of fellowship of Christ.
When Christians were being persecuted by the government of Rome Justin the Martyr wrote Emperor Antonius Pious and explained why Christians did not sign up for the "free bread" offered by their government.
“And the wealthy among us help the needy ... and willing, give what each thinks fit; and what is collected is deposited with the president, who succours the orphans and widows and those who, through sickness or any other cause, are in want, and those who are in bonds and the strangers sojourning among us, and in a word takes care of all who are in need.” "Justin the Martyr's Apology"
In providing the welfare of the people through charity they naturally bound the people through love. If "pastors " used some other means to feed or tend to the people other than charity or neglected their care altogether they were often condemned in the text.
One of the first place we see the word Pastor is in Jeremiah 2:8
- "The priests said not, Where [is] the LORD? and they that handle the law knew me not: the pastors also transgressed against me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal, and walked after [things that] do not profit."
While the root word Ra'ah is ReishAyinHey but in the actual Hebrew text in this verse we see וְהָרֹעִ֖ים or wə·hā·rō·‘îm consisting of the letters VavHeyReishAyinYodMem.
This form only appears once in the Bible and is a reference to a Pastor who does not know God and His way and are seen as transgressing against Him.
If you remove the Vav from VavHeyReishAyinYodMem you get הָרֹעִ֖ים or hā·rō·‘îm consisting of the letters HeyReishAyinYodMem. This form of the root word Ra'ah appears some 23 times in the Bible. It might refer to shepherds doing their job or failing to do their job in service to the people.[6] That job is often related to feeding or tending to the needs of the people.[7]
Whether we translate these words shepherd, pastor, herdsmen, or keep, feed or tend the people the term is referencing the manner in which someone assists the people in the practice of Pure Religion through a system of charitable welfare that strengthens the people and keeps them as free souls under God.
Ignorance of The Way of God may be a serious problem again with pastors who provide little or nothing of the temporal needs of their flocks.
Just 200 years ago almost all social welfare was provided by charity through the local community and the local Church. The welfare of America was not provided by men who just call themselves benefactors but actually only give what they obtain by exercising authority one over the other and forcing the contributions of the people through taxation.
Such free bread was condemned throughout the Bible. Jesus told us not to pray to the Fathers of the earth but to our Father who art in heaven for our daily bread.
If shepherd or pastor provide a daily ministration in a righteous way the people will be blessed by freedom under God. If they provide for the people in some unrighteous manner or unrighteous mammon (or even fail to provide for them altogether) then the pastors will be cursed as they have cursed the people and lead them back to be entangled in the yoke of bondage, make them merchandise and curse children as a surety to debt.
As we see the same word wee see for pastor in Ephesians 4:11[8] is translated shepherd in John 10:11.[9]
The early Church provided daily bread for the poor through a daily ministration of Pure Religion thereby blessing the people with the wages of righteousness rather than the wages of unrighteousness offered by the world. The world had provided free bread through a system of Corban that sustained the welfare of the people through a system of force making the word of God to none effect.
Jeremiah warns[10] that "the pastors are become brutish" and is talking about when the people lose their religion of charity and take up the ways of socialism. The administers of those systems of welfare through public religion use force do not feed the people as much as they feed upon the people.[11]
Those welfare programs that use force depend on brutish pastors of the world who feed, tend and provide for the people through a system of force which David and Paul call a "snare".
The Modern Church does not do what the early Church did because the Modern Christian is engaged in more covetous practices than fervent charity.
2 Peter 2:12 But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption;
Jude 1:10 But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves.
A true pastor today would be a true and good shepherd[9] for both temporal and spiritual needs.
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Footnotes
- ↑ "If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love. 11 These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. 12 This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. 13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. 14 Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you." John 15:10
- ↑ 4166 ~ποιμήν~ poimen \@poy-mane’\@ of uncertain affinity; n m AV-shepherd 15, Shepherd 2, pastor 1; 18
- 1) a herdsman, esp. a shepherd
- 1a) in the parable, he to whose care and control others have committed themselves, and whose precepts they follow
- 2) metaph.
- 2a) the presiding officer, manager, director, of any assembly: so of Christ the Head of the church; the NT uses the term bishop, overseers, 1985 pastors, 4166 elders, and presbyters 4245 interchangeably {#Ac 20:17,28 Eph 4:11 Tit 1:5,7 1Pe 5:1-4 etc.} 2a1) of the overseers of the Christian assemblies 2a2) of kings and princes
- The tasks of a Near Eastern shepherd were:
- -to watch for enemies trying to attack the sheep
- -to defend the sheep from attackers
- -to heal the wounded and sick sheep
- -to find and save lost or trapped sheep
- -to love them, sharing their lives and so earning their trust.
- 1) a herdsman, esp. a shepherd
- ↑ 07462 ^הער^ ra‘ah \@raw-aw’\@ (רעה) ReshAyinHei a primitive root; v; AV-feed 75, shepherd 63, pastor 8, herdmen 7, keep 3, companion 2, broken 1, company 1, devour 1, eat 1, entreateth 1, misc 10; 173
- 1) to pasture, tend, graze, feed
- 1a) (Qal)
- 1a1) to tend, pasture
- 1a1a) to shepherd
- 1a1b) of ruler, teacher (fig)
- 1a1c) of people as flock (fig)
- 1a1d) shepherd, herdsman (subst)
- 1a2) to feed, graze
- 1a2a) of cows, sheep etc (literal)
- 1a2b) of idolater, Israel as flock (fig)
- 1a1) to tend, pasture
- 1b) (Hiphil) shepherd, shepherdess
- 1a) (Qal)
- 2) to associate with, be a friend of (meaning probable)
- 2a) (Qal) to associate with
- 2b) (Hithpael) to be companions
- 3) (Piel) to be a special friend
- 07462 (רעה) ReshAyinHei ra`ah is also translated feed 75, shepherd 63, pastor 8, herdmen 7, keep 3, companion 2, and broken, company, devour, eat, entreateth once each and 10 miscellaneous other ways. It is defined 1) to pasture, tend, graze, feed 2) to associate with, be a friend of ... It is the same three letters we see in 07463 (רעה) ReshAyinHei re`eh 1) friend, friend of the king (technical sense)
- 1) to pasture, tend, graze, feed
- ↑ Luke 22:26 But ye [shall] not [be] so: but he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger; and he that is chief, as he that doth serve.
- ↑ 2 Timothy 2:15 Study (be diligent) to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
- ↑ Exodus 2:17, Exodus 2:19, 1 Samuel 17:40, 1 Samuel 25:7, 2 Kings 10:12, Jeremiah 10:21, Jeremiah 25:34, Jeremiah 25:35, Jeremiah 25:36 Ezekiel 34:9, Ezekiel 34:10, Zechariah 10:3, Zechariah 11:3, Zechariah 11:8
- ↑ 1 Chronicles 27:29, Songs 1:8, Songs 4:5, Jeremiah 23:2, Jeremiah 23:2, Ezekiel 34:2, Ezekiel 34:8, Ezekiel 34:10, Amos 1:2
- ↑ Ephesians 4:11: "And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;"
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 John 10:11 I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. 12 But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep. 13 The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.
- ↑ Jeremiah 10:21 For the pastors are become brutish, and have not sought the LORD: therefore they shall not prosper, and all their flocks shall be scattered.
- ↑ 01197 ^רעב^ ba‘ar \@baw-ar’\@ a primitive root; v; {See TWOT on 263} AV-burn 41, … away 21, kindle 13, brutish 7, eaten 2, set 2, burn up 2, eat up 2, feed 1, heated 1, took 1, wasted 1; 94
- 1) to burn, consume, kindle, be kindled
- 1a) (Qal)
- 1a1) to begin to burn, be kindled, start burning
- 1a2) to burn, be burning
- 1a3) to burn, consume
- 1a4) Jehovah’s wrath, human wrath (fig.)
- 1b) (Piel)
- 1b1) to kindle, burn
- 1b2) to consume, remove (of guilt) (fig.)
- 1c) (Hiphil)
- 1c1) to kindle
- 1c2) to burn up
- 1c3) to consume (destroy)
- 1d) (Pual) to burn
- 1a) (Qal)
- v denom
- 2) to be stupid, brutish, barbarous
- 2a) (Qal) to be stupid, dull-hearted, unreceptive
- 2b) (Niphal) to be stupid, dull-hearted
- 2c) (Piel) to feed, graze
- 2d) (Hiphil) to cause to be grazed over
- 1) to burn, consume, kindle, be kindled