Leadership Part 3

We update studies as the Lord Jesus leads us. You can find the latest update of this study at ChurchAges.net

Human leaders have a limited time of being effective

In 2022 President Putin had been in charge of Russia for 22 years. That is not democracy.

The first major country founded on the principles of democracy was the United States of America. The first president, George Washington, stood down of his own free will after eight years. By regularly allowing new blood to take over the leadership, The United States has flourished into the world’s most powerful country.

Unfortunately, power corrupts.

By staying in power, Putin changed from being a President to be a dictator.

In 2022, as Dictator of Russia, Putin involved Russia in a horribly vicious and wasteful war in Ukraine that badly damaged Russia’s reputation and economy. Many important people who were close to Putin were suddenly killed. A Dictator does not allow people to disagree with him.

Putin has destroyed Russia's reputation. He should never have had that kind of authority as he has brought death to tens of thousands in the pointless war.

A one-man leader has both power and money. Especially the power to take people’s money and then force them to obey him.

One man being in charge for too long does more harm than good.

The power of a President has to be moderated by having a fixed term of office.

The sons of Kohath, who was a son of Levi, served in the Tabernacle from 30 to 50 years, then had to retire.

NUMBERS 4:2   Take the sum of the sons of Kohath from among the sons of Levi, after their families, by the house of their fathers,

:3   From thirty years old and upward even until fifty years old, all that enter into the host, to do the work in the tabernacle of the congregation.

:4   This shall be the service of the sons of Kohath in the tabernacle of the congregation, about the most holy things:

The priests could only serve for 20 years.

We come across an unusual verse in the Bible.

I SAMUEL 13: 1   Saul reigned one year; and when he had reigned two years over Israel,

Many people regard this verse as being a mistake in the King James Bible.  But this verse actually helps to illuminate the mistake of appointing one man as the head of a church whether he is called a priest, a minister, a reverend, a vicar, a pastor, or a Pope.

The office of a church leader is assumed to be for life and thus it easily develops into a dictatorship for life.

Revelation 17 refers to the six members of the family of Julius Caesar who were the first Emperors of the pagan Roman Empire. Julius Caesar had declared himself Dictator for Life.

REVELATION 17:10   And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space.

“Five are fallen”. Julius Caesar, Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, and Claudius.

“One is” Nero, the killer of Christians.

When Nero died, the military General Galba usurped the position of Emperor before being assassinated 7 months later. That ended the family line who were the successors of Julius Caesar.

These awful men began the pagan Roman Empire. As the leader of the Empire they unleashed cruel spirits that destroyed any opposition to their supreme rule. This pagan Roman leadership spirit was destroyed by the barbarian tribes in AD 476 but resurrected back to life in the succession of Popes of the Roman Catholic Church. The Pope was established as the infallible Dictator of the Catholic Church for life. The succession of Popes, as so-called successors of Saint Peter, went on to murder tens of millions of dissenters.

REVELATION 17:11      And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition.

The beast is the succession of Popes.

Seven represents a complete system, like seven days in a week.

Then eight represents a new system.

Julius Caesar and his six family members began the pagan Roman dictatorship of one-man-having-supreme-power. This succession of family members ended with a Christian killer, Nero. Then a military dictator usurped the power.

The beast, the succession of Popes, is the eighth. The new system of the pagan Roman Empire resurrected up on the ruins of the Roman Empire as the Roman Catholic church. The Pope is the only dictator in Europe.

"The eighth is of the seven". Of the same nature as the seven. The succession of Popes were often cruel and greedy dictators who killed tens of millions in the Dark Ages. The line of Popes will finally end when the son of perdition, the man of sin somehow usurps the position of the Pope in the time of great Tribulation.

DANIEL 11:21    And in his estate shall stand up a vile person,

to whom they shall not give the honour of the kingdom:

but he shall come in peaceably, and obtain the kingdom by flatteries.

The Council of Cardinals will not vote him in.

But somehow he will talk his way in.

The leader, acting as a Dictator, will always want to eliminate and remove any opposition to his own ideas.

So, a one-man human leader can have a time of successfully serving God but as time rolls on the bad years happen where he goes off in his own direction. That is why we have 45000 different kinds of churches and denominations and over 100 different kinds of Message groups.

After being chosen as the first king of Israel, Saul was only able to rule in a godly manner for one year. That is the only part of his forty-year rule that God recognized as being in the will of God.

After that first year, Saul separated himself further and further from God’s Will.

At the end of his second year, when he was no longer guided by God, Saul decided to attack the Philistines.

A human leader seeks to uplift himself

I SAMUEL 13:2   Saul chose him three thousand men of Israel; whereof two thousand were with Saul in Michmash and in mount Bethel, and a thousand were with Jonathan in Gibeah of Benjamin: and the rest of the people he sent every man to his tent.

I SAMUEL 13:3   And Jonathan smote the garrison of the Philistines that was in Geba, and the Philistines heard of it. And Saul blew the trumpet throughout all the land, saying, Let the Hebrews hear.

Jonathan, a son of Saul and a skilled fighter, attacked and defeated a Philistine garrison.

I SAMUEL 13:4   And all Israel heard say that Saul had smitten a garrison of the Philistines,

and that Israel also was had in abomination with the Philistines. And the people were called together after Saul to Gilgal.

Saul, as the leader, wanted to get all the glory for Jonathan’s success.

Once he was elevated to be the leader, Saul wanted all the credit that was due to Jonathan. He was not happy when someone else outshone him. The leader always had to try to prove that he is the best. Today we call this propaganda, as it is the desire to create a falsely inflated reputation.

The human leader has to uplift himself and his organization.

Saul trespassed into the office of the prophet Samuel

I SAMUEL 13:5   And the Philistines gathered themselves together to fight with Israel, thirty thousand chariots, and six thousand horsemen, and people as the sand which is on the sea shore in multitude: and they came up, and pitched in Michmash, eastward from Bethaven.

The Philistines gathered together in great numbers to get their revenge.

I SAMUEL 13:6   When the men of Israel saw that they were in a strait, (for the people were distressed,) then the people did hide themselves in caves, and in thickets, and in rocks, and in high places, and in pits.

The Israelites were dead scared of this great host and were in deep distress, running away from the Philistines and hiding in caves.

The churches today are becoming anxious as things like same-sex marriage and abortion have entered the church. Praise and worship depend on drumbeat music. Teenage anxiety is extremely high.

I SAMUEL 13:7   And some of the Hebrews went over Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead. As for Saul, he was yet in Gilgal, and all the people followed him trembling.

The people were scared and unsure. They waited seven days for the prophet Samuel but he never came.

I SAMUEL 13:8   And he tarried seven days, according to the set time that Samuel had appointed: but Samuel came not to Gilgal; and the people were scattered from him.

Panic was setting in and Saul felt that he had to do something for God. We often feel the same.

I SAMUEL 13:9   And Saul said, Bring hither a burnt offering to me, and peace offerings. And he offered the burnt offering.

The sacrifice was good but it was not offered by Samuel.

Saul thus took on the role of being a self-appointed prophet as well as being the king. That was not allowed.

God wanted the political king to be separate from the spiritual priesthood. Politics and religion must not combine in one person. The church and the state must remain separate.

I SAMUEL 13:10   And it came to pass, that as soon as he had made an end of offering the burnt offering, behold, Samuel came; and Saul went out to meet him, that he might salute him.

Saul was unaware that he had done wrong.

I SAMUEL 13:11   And Samuel said, What hast thou done? And Saul said, Because I saw that the people were scattered from me, and that thou camest not within the days appointed, and that the Philistines gathered themselves together at Michmash;

Saul saw that the people were suffering and needed a spiritual leader, so he decided to be that leader.

I SAMUEL 13:12   Therefore said I, The Philistines will come down now upon me to Gilgal, and I have not made supplication unto the LORD: I forced myself therefore, and offered a burnt offering.

The army and the people were scared so Saul decided that he must do something.

Pilate was the same. The people were getting riotous so he felt he must do something to appease them. So, he sacrificed Jesus.

Humans must never do anything that is not in God’s will. We must never get impatient and must wait on God until He decides to move.

Saul claimed that he was forced to do something for God.

That was just his excuse for his impatience and self-assertiveness.

He thought that he could do as he wished because he was the leader.

But Saul was not the prophet. His impulsive move to take the spiritual leadership when he was not really up to the task of fighting the Philistines, was a disaster.

I SAMUEL 13:13   And Samuel said to Saul, Thou hast done foolishly: thou hast not kept the commandment of the LORD thy God, which he commanded thee: for now would the LORD have established thy kingdom upon Israel for ever.

God was no longer going to establish Saul’s family as kings of Israel.

Saul would lose the kingship.

I SAMUEL 13:14   But now thy kingdom shall not continue:

the LORD hath sought him a man after his own heart, and the LORD hath commanded him to be captain over his people, because thou hast not kept that which the LORD commanded thee.

When Saul died then David would become king. A new line of kings, because David was more inclined to listen to what God wanted.

The leader Saul disobeyed the commandment of God

Samuel the prophet told Saul that God wanted him to utterly destroy Amalek because Amalek had opposed the Israelites during their Exodus under Moses.

I SAMUEL 15:2   Thus saith the LORD of hosts, I remember that which Amalek did to Israel, how he laid wait for him in the way, when he came up from Egypt.

:3     Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.

Opposing an exodus will always be a great sin in God’s eyes. Today, God wants an exodus of the Bride to come out of the organized churches with their unscriptural pastor-is-the-head-of-the-church structure.

This was not the way that the apostles set up the leadership of the first church age.

In the 3½ years of great Tribulation, God will have no mercy on those saved Christians who refused to fully come out of the traditions of organized church denominationalism.

Modern churches are a copy of the Roman Catholic church system as they were the first to set up a priest as the head of a church. Then, after the Reformation of Martin Luther, the Protestants called the head of the church a vicar, then a reverend, then a minister, and finally a pastor.

I SAMUEL 15:8   And he [king Saul] took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword.

I SAMUEL 15:9   But Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the fatlings, and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them: but every thing that was vile and refuse, that they destroyed utterly.

Saul’s mistake was to save some of the good items of the Amalekites.

The Roman Catholic church obviously has some good aspects.

But modern churches make the same mistake by saving some of the unscriptural Roman Catholic beliefs like Trinity, God the Son, having no name for the Triune God, Good Friday, Christmas, 25 December, regarding a man as being infallible, and having a man as the head of each church. The churches have no real insight into the mysteries of the Bible that need to be revealed in our day. Thus, they are unable to escape from Roman Catholic church structures of human leadership and the church traditions like drum-beat disco music.

I SAMUEL 15:15   And Saul said, They have brought them from the Amalekites: for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen, to sacrifice unto the LORD thy God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed.

God is not impressed with our church traditions like same-sex marriage and the acceptance of abortion where 50 million conceived babies are murdered each year.

I SAMUEL 15:22   And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD?

Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,

and to hearken than the fat of rams.

Obeying the Bible and being Scriptural is the only thing that interests God.

Not the great sacrifice and service that we make in obedience to church traditions and opinions.

I SAMUEL 15:23   For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king.

Rebellion against Scripture is simply witchcraft.

To be stubborn in defense of unscriptural church traditions is iniquity and spiritual idolatry.

Human leaders want to appease the people and thus have to accept unscriptural ideas.

God thus rejects our church leaders just like he rejected Saul.

All saved Christians in the churches are fast asleep

The parable of the ten virgins that describe all our saved Christians, both wise and foolish or fooled, says that they are all asleep. Waiting for a drastic wake-up cry that tells them all to get out of whatever church they are in.

MATTHEW 25:5   While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept.

Every saved Christian who is in a church is fast asleep. Lulled into complacency by the preaching of the pastor or vicar or minister.

MATTHEW 25:6   And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh;

go ye out

to meet him.

A massive disaster like an earthquake will wake everyone up. The saved Christians will realize how inadequate and unscriptural their pastors actually are who have built up their unscriptural church structures. Their agenda is their own gain and their own importance. By claiming that being the pastor makes them the unscriptural head of the church, they thereby lay claim to the church tithes. They demand power and money, the power to take your money.

Eventually, you will have to get out of your church! That will be the midnight cry of distress.

REVELATION 18:4   And I heard another voice from heaven, saying,

Come out of her, my people

that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues

[in the soon-coming 3½ years of great tribulation].

Sadly, there is not one parable or prophecy that deals with the end-time church that says anything good about the church.

A group of local elders must rule the local church

ACTS 20:17   And from Miletus he sent to Ephesus, and called the elders of the church.

Paul wanted the local elders at Ephesus to rule the local church.

ACTS 20:28    Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.

The shared leadership of the elders who met as equals.

Peter, an apostle, referred to himself as an elder when writing to the elders.

I PETER 5:1   The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed:

:2    Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre,

but of a ready mind;

Elders must not preach or feed the flock because they want money.

Peter never said that a pastor was in charge.

Peter never said that the tithes belong to the pastor.

Paul warned about church leaders who had selfish and greedy agendas.

ACTS 20:29   For I [Paul] know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock.

The wolves would be ambitious church leaders who pursued their own gain.

Men who wanted preeminence and money and ruled as one-man leaders (or dictators) like Diotrephes.

III JOHN 1:9   I wrote unto the church: but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not.

Diotrephes had taken over the leadership of the church. He did not want the apostolic and Scriptural teachings of the apostle John.

III JOHN 1:10   Wherefore, if I come, I will remember his deeds which he doeth, prating against us with malicious words: and not content therewith, neither doth he himself receive the brethren, and forbiddeth them that would, and casteth them out of the church.

Diotrephes opposed the Scriptural teachings of John. Diotrephes also assumed the right to cast anybody out of the church if they disagreed with him. Too many modern-day pastors behave in a similar dictatorial manner.

Paul was speaking to all the elders of the church at Ephesus when he told them to feed the Ephesian church.

This was not a one-man ministry. It applied to all the elders.

In addition, when Paul wrote to the Ephesian church he mentioned the word “pastors” in the plural.

The church at Ephesus was not run by one man who called himself the pastor. The Ephesian church had many pastors.

Pastoral care was the responsibility of all the elders.

EPHESIANS 4:11   And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;

This is the order that things worked.

Apostles and prophets established the truth.

Apostles wrote the New Testament.

Prophets wrote the Old Testament.

By believing the New and Old Testaments you already have access to the beliefs of the apostles and prophets.

There also has to be a Gentile prophet who reveals the mysteries of Scripture in order to restore us back to the first church age.

MATTHEW 17:11    And Jesus answered and said unto them, Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things.

Evangelists would labour to bring in new souls. This was like blasting out rocks in a quarry.

Pastors were responsible for shaping up the rough rocks and turning them into smooth bricks.

Pastors (plural) would labour amongst these new souls to provide pastoral care to help them cope with their problems.

Pastor was not a one-man ministry that dominated the church. Any elder could provide pastoral care if he had experience concerning the problems that faced the new converts.

Pastoral care was the duty of all the elders to help the people get closer to Jesus and so build up their basic faith in Him. Pastoral care was needed to reconcile the differences and any friction between the people.

Once the people had been established in the basics then the teachers could place the people’s beliefs in the Scriptures and thereby reveal the Bible mysteries to them. That would place them in their position in their respective church ages.

The teachers could place these bricks into their position in God's great New Testament building. The supernatural Temple that God has built over the last 2000 years.

63-0724  GOD  DOESN'T  CALL  MAN  TO  JUDGMENT  WITHOUT  FIRST  WARNING  HIM

And then the prophet of the Bible... A real, genuine prophet is a special person. Not "a special," be any different from anybody else, but he's got a special job. See? And, having a special commission, he's got to be special (a little out of the way from the others) in order to do that.

It's just like God has liked His prophets to be "an eagle."

Now, an eagle is a special bird. He's just a bird, but he's a special bird. And he can fly higher than other birds. He can see farther than other birds. And, now, in order to go higher, he's got to be built so he can go higher. And what good would it do him to go up there unless he could see what he was doing after he got up there? See? So he has to be a special built bird. See? He's kind of in the hawk family, he's "a ripper with the bill." And he eats the... many of them are scavengers. There's about forty different kinds of eagles.

But, you see, in the church there is the pastor, and that pastor is a special person. He's built to where he can put up with the fusses of the people. He's a burden-bearer, he's the ox of the team. He's a man that can sit down when somebody's got something against somebody else, and sit down with them two families (and take neither side) and reason it out and bring it right back into sweetness. See? He's a pastor, he knows how to take care of things.

The evangelist is a special man. He's a man that's burning like a fireball. He runs into a city and preaches his message, then gets out of there somewhere else. See, he's a special man.

The teacher is a special man. He sits back under the anointing of the Spirit and is able to take the Words and put them together by the Holy Spirit, that, the pastor or evangelist either one could not compare with him.

And then, we find out, the apostle is a special man. He's a "setter-in-order." He's a man that's sent from God to set the things in order.

When God set the church in order, He was interested in the church believing the truth.

JOHN 16:13    Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth:

The main purpose of the Holy Ghost is to make us understand the mysteries of the Bible.
I CORINTHIANS 12:28   And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues.

The apostles wrote the New Testament and the prophets wrote the Old Testament. That is the source of our Bible truth.

Then God uses teachers to explain the Bible truth to people.

There is no mention of a pastor, much less of a pastor as the head of a church.