Three Critical Questions to Ask Your Pastor

There are three questions you should ask your pastor. These three questions will determine how intelligent he is, but also whether your pastor truly believes that Jesus is the way, the truth and the light. If your pastor even hesitates to answer these questions, even if he ultimately answers them correctly after a pregnant pause, it may be necessary to walk away and find another church. His hesitation demonstrates that he has not thought these issues through at best, and at worst that he is not a committed adherent to Biblical truth.

Number one: Is Christianity superior to all other religious philosophies? This includes every other philosophy, from secular humanism to Islam, Hinduism and Judaism. Regarding the latter, it is typically pointed out that Christianity comes out of Judaism. But this is only partly true. Christianity is a fulfillment of promises made to Abraham. Without this fulfillment, Judaism is just another empty philosophy. As Paul has noted, if Christ has not risen from the dead, then we are all doomed… including the most committed adherent to any other religion.¹

As an aside, it must be noted that every person on earth is “religious.” Everyone believes something as the ultimate truth about life. If your pastor hesitates to state that Christianity is superior, that is, the true way, then he’s not committed to Christianity. Walk away.

Number two: Should a culture or civilization be Christian or Secular? Again, if your pastor hesitates, then he either doesn’t understand the issue, or he’s not committed to the Christian worldview. In particular, he most certainly misunderstands or even mangles the passage in Romans 13:1-7.² This means that he is more than willing to rob God of what is His, and give to Caesar what does not belong to Caesar.

It means that your pastor doesn’t understand the place of the State within a Biblical worldview. He will hand others, including you and your family… and especially your children… over to the government on a whim, especially when his little empire is threatened. This includes supporting government schools, or demanding that you give in to government demands for medical experiments on you and your family. If your pastor hesitates when answering this question, even if he ultimately gets it right, walk away.

Number three: If a culture or civilization is to be Christian, how is that determined? If your pastor got the first two right, I can almost guarantee that he will fail this one, because he will say “according to the Bible” or “the Word of God,” or some such answer. This answer is a shibboleth, a form of code talking that doesn’t say anything. Using the phrase “the Bible” has no specific application. It can mean one thing to you, and a totally other thing to your pastor. I have worshipped in churches of nearly every domination over much of the world, and have seen this countless times.

I know one pastor who will point out an emphatic passage in the Bible, and then say “this is a command, and what does it mean if we don’t obey it? It is sin.” And yet, the passage cited has no penalty attached to it, whereas sin has a penalty. For example, in Deut. 23:12-13, it says that when you need to answer the call of nature, you should go outside the city walls, dig a hole and do your business. Does that mean that if you use a toilet in your home, within the city limits, that you are now in sin? What nonsense! Sin is a violation of the moral law of God, laws that have a penalty attached to them. When a pastor doesn’t understand the difference between law and guidance, he begins to stray into Phariseeism, where taboos and personal foibles, even ostensibly based on Biblical passages, take on the weight of eternal law.

But, regarding this last question, should you walk away? On the one hand yes. But then again, no. The reason is simple… there is no such thing as a perfect church group or perfect pastor. I would suggest that if your pastor can without hesitation answer the first two correctly, but has a sloppy answer for the third, there is at least hope. However, if he can’t even say “the Bible,” then he’s not even in the ballpark. Then you must walk away.

Many Christians in the West do not understand that the church is in exile. Lip service is paid to “religious liberty,” but there is no true liberty in this regard. By and large, you can engage in “religious” activities, such as going to church, Bible studies (where the people running them typically have little knowledge about the Bible), or prayer meetings. This is all fine… so long as you don’t attempt to apply your Christianity to the world around you, especially in the realm of the State. The official State religion of Western nations, even the United States, is Secular Humanism, and has been for many decades, and even hundreds of years in Europe.³

It is understandable if a pastor sees this, and realizes that the church is in exile and that compromises might be necessary in certain areas so as to co-exist in this exile. For example, we have to live with government schools. But when the State demands by the force of law to put your children in these brain laundries, your pastor and your church must take a stand against it. Moreover, your pastor should urge his flock to avoid government schools.

But it is another thing for a pastor to support and endorse the exile of the church, either out of ignorance or outright acquiescence. If your pastor cannot answer these three questions properly, then he is in this group.

Eat your Passover meal with your staff in hand, and then walk out… fast.⁴