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When Pastors Go Bad

After the Harold Camping debacle in 2011 where "pastor" Harold Camping predicted the end of the world -- which obviously failed to come true -- people should be asking what should they do when pastors go bad.

Or how about a local pastor who may have started out on the straight and narrow but at some point either embraces some radical individualistic view or begins supporting some blatant heresy.

Further, what if an entire ministry goes bad? What should the "lowly" Christian do? Often, we're told we just should move on. Vote with our feet per se.

In the Bible, there are very few examples of elders/pastors who go bad and eventually return to the Faith. Most examples are of elders/pastors going bad and never again returning to the Faith. The Bible has an of example of warnings of how to avoid installing a bad pastor. (1 Tim 3:1-7)

It is disillusioning when people we trust or want to trust not only let us down but even betray us. As I said, typically we just move on; look for new heroes. Maybe the problem is that not only do we often make heroes out of these people, but they sometimes present themselves as heroes. As "authorities". As "experts". As "presidents". Who are we to question them? But when the corruption becomes so obvious that they can no longer deny it, the illusion is shattered.

It becomes worse when people rally around these bad pastors. It becomes worse when the followers of these bad pastors viciously attack anyone who would dare speak out against these bad pastors.

The purpose of the attacks against the critics of bad pastors is not only to shut them up, but to destroy them; to make their name "mud". Most of the time it works, because who would want to endure all of that?

So, typically an episode of a bad pastor ends with his critics smeared and his followers with their chests puffed up in "vindication" that they have protected their leader from what they call "slander". However, eventually if we believe God gets justice for those wronged bad pastors and their followers will finally expose themselves once and for all.

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(With all due respect!)

(With all due respect!) Isn't the Harold Camping debacle just another example of "extreme" futurist eschaetology run amuk? There just seems to be a disconnect between the paradym and outcomes? Care to discuss? Thanks for any info.Mike

Camping

Mike, I have to respectfully disagree with you you but I should note that my context on Camping is quite deep because I was an off-and-on regular listener to his "Open Forum" program for a period of 20+ years. And his case is most bewildering and disturbing because, as best as I could discern, he was teaching solid essential doctrine until around 1987-1988-ish, a timeframe when I stopped listening to him for a number of years.

At that time, when it came to the end times, he was still heavily emphasizing "no man may know the hour," was highly critical of those who tried to prophesy dates for the second coming, said that the second coming couldn't be "just around the corner" because we were not yet in the final tribulation, etc. and he held to a strict "test each interpretation of any scripture against all other scripture" method of biblical exegesis.

Then he falls off my radar until around 1993, when someone I worked with mentioned his 1994 prediction to me. I was flabbergasted to hear that. Shortly afterward I bought the book 1994, and it really wigged me out because here was someone whose teaching I had respected so highly preaching something so contrary to what he taught before. I ended up taking the book pretty seriously, and when the falsehood of his prophecy was revealed it was a deeply faith-jarring event for me that contributed to a heavily lapsed / backsliding / near-atheistic period in my life that lasted around seven years.

To this day I can't quite get my head around what happened to this "good teacher gone bad," except that maybe he started to get a little crazy in his old age or came under some kind of very heavy duty spiritual attack. Or, even more frightening is the possibility that in spite of all appearances he may never have been saved in the first place and instead was sort of a Pharisee type who got deeply caught up in self-pride in his scholarly knowledge.

Either way, it's a non-simple "case history" and it really took me a long time to recover my faith after that. My takeaway is to start with the assumption that ANY human teacher or pastor will eventually fail you to some extent or another, and that ultimately you have to take the attitude that your understanding has to come from your own diligent engagement with scripture with the help of prayer and the Holy Spirit. Rely too heavily on the "crutch" of second-hand teaching and you will sooner or later see the truth that all men will in some way fall short.