Shepherds, Pastors, and Teachers

Dr. Couch, are the shepherds (pastors) the same as the teachers in Ephesians 4:11? ANSWER:  Yes, indeed. The charismatics are dead wrong by trying to make these two separate gifts, or gifted men given to the church. Paul writes:  "And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as PASTORS (Shepherds) EVEN TEACHERS."    The reason there is confusion and mistranslation is that pastors today are so ignorant, and few today can work the grammar of the Greek text. So the church is becoming more and more ignorant about what the Bible is truly teaching!    The grammar is saying "pastors EVEN, INDEED, THAT IS, TEACHERS!" So then, how does a pastor pastor? By teaching! Most pastors are foolish and do not study nor do they teach from the pulpit. They emote, devote, promote, and do not exegete the Word of God line by line. They haven't been trained that way; they don't think that way; nor do they know that this is what they are supposed to do from the pulpit.    One of the greatest grammarians concurs with me grammatically—Dr. Kenneth Wuest. He says almost line by line what I have been saying, though I only learned recently that grammatically this is what he has always taught!    He says in his Greek commentary on Ephesians:    "Paul only mentions four individuals (not five) in verse 11. The student of the English Bible could never know that the words, 'pastors' and 'teachers,' are in a construction in the Greek text called Granville Sharp's rule which is stated as follows: 'When two nouns are in the same case, connected by the word "kai" (and), the first noun having the definite article, the second noun without the article refers to the same person or thing to which the first noun refers and is a further description of it.' Not knowing this rule, the pastor would fail to see that Paul was only referring to one individual when he spoke of pastors and teachers. Thus, he would miss the important truth that God's ideal pastor is a teaching pastor, one who specializes in expository sermons, one whose ministry is a teaching ministry."    Wuest and I have been yelling in the dark. Few are getting it or listening to what Paul is saying here. This is why most pastors are ending up being cheer leaders, CEOs, psychologists, advertising agents, etc., giving puny sermonettes for weak-minded and simple christianettes!    Satan just loves it! Because the full explanation of the Word of God is not going forth, nor are the pastors able to explain it!      Thanks for asking.    Dr. Mal Couch (Oct., 09)

A Third Great Awakening

Dr. Couch, With all that is prophesied about the church in the last days, is it possible to have a great revival in the church as a whole? There is great concern for our nation. So is it possible to have a third great awakening as previously happened in the past with Finney, Whitfield, and Edwards? What is needed to achieve this? And if it is impossible, then what should we be doing?

ANSWER:    But also, if indeed we are into the last days, the apostasy, then there will be no turning back. How do we know we are in the end times? Israel is back in the Holy Land, and it is prophesied that she would return in unbelief, and that is just what is happening.

   What should we do? We should keep on keeping on! We can only touch those nearest to us. I find the harder we teach the more people are responding, but of course, I am resonating with believers and they are identifying with my hard and straight-on, tough explanation of Scripture. I would urge pastors to (1) teach their hearts out. (2) stop babying the sheep! (3) quite thinking that you must go easy and placate people. Some will walk, but so what?

   I had some young-ish soft Bible teachers tell me one time that I was too harsh in my presentation. But they failed to notice that this is what people really wanted. Often people want to hear righteous indignation! And many want Bible teachers to be prophets and speak the truth head-on! If we don't tell people the way things are, how will they change? (By the way, those young-ish Bible teachers ruined and destroyed everything they touched. They were not as smart as they thought they were!)

   The apostle Paul, Peter, and the writer of Hebrews often use the Greek word "stereos" when describing that we should use "steroids" and make people strong in the difficult times coming. For example:

   "The foundation of God must stand strong (be tough) not stand in a weak manner" (2 Tim. 2:19). "They were not able to eat strong T-bone steak" (Heb. 5:12). The churches are to be strong, tough in the faith (Acts 16:5). And "You be tough, steadfast in your faith in Christ" (Col. 2:5).

   Thanks for asking.
   Dr. Mal Couch
(September 2009)

A Sign of the Apostasy

Dr. Couch, where I live we have no Bible churches, so my family is attending a SBC! Our pastors all come from SBC seminaries where they have only been taught how to run a church and "preach." The preaching we receive from them is simply oration containing baby-step advice on how to live, some of it biblical and some of it not so biblical! It is certainly not exegetical.    The SS is even worse. Each quarter when I open the new SS book (put out by Lifeway), I shudder to see what lightweight material they are putting out. More often than not it is written by women with no theological training at all—they have for the most part simply been SS teachers. Is this a sign of the apostasy? ANSWER:  Thank you for your email letter: I am amazed how those trained at SBC schools think they are getting solid Bible courses. They are not! They get big doses of pablum with no meat or vegetables. But they brag that they are "Bap…" and have no idea what they are missing in understanding the Bible. Unfortunately, independent seminaries, and seminaries that used to give good teaching, are also moving toward the lightweight stuff. Doctrine and exegesis is out and simple how-to stuff is in! I find it most disturbing that the material is being written by women. Men are to be the theological leaders in Bible studies. Apparently, no men are available to write and lead, or this denomination is going Politically Correct (PC) in assigning women "elders" to write.    Many in the denominational churches are just playing church. But I would agree with you that, putting it all together as to what is happening in our churches, we are moving rapidly toward the apostasy of the church. Looking at all the passages of Scripture, the apostasy, as Paul puts it, is a departure from THE Truth and from THE Faith!    In my opinion, there is no turning back. The course has been set. And what the Word of God says about "the departure" from the truth is coming to pass. I wish I had some suggestions for you. I keep praying that men such as you will attempt to band together with other like-minded folks to begin a home-church that has a strong and virile doctrinal statement, and that calls upon soundly trained men to exegete the Scriptures for those who are spiritually hungry.    By the way, I get letters like this almost on a weekly basis. People are in deep trouble!    Thank you for your email.    Dr. Mal Couch

Confusion on the Qualifications for a Pastor and Deacon

Dr. Couch, there seems to be a lot of confusion on the qualifications for a pastor and deacon. There seems to be a lot of tradition involved in interpreting some of these issues. Do you have any suggestion? 

 

    ANSWER: Yes, my book Biblical Theology of the Church (Kregel) and my book Pastor's Manual for Doing Church, both deal with the qualifications and characteristics Paul wants in the elders and deacons. By the way, I prefer the term "characteristics" instead of qualifications. No one human being can come up to the qualifications the apostle lays down. I have never seen anyone in office who has done that. 

    The apostle Paul sets forth standards, but we know that he knows none will ever walk perfect. This is not to say we are sloppy with those standards. They stand as ideals for the church to consider strongly for leadership. You are right, by the way, in what you see in traditional interpretation on some of these matters. I have found it is almost impossible to get churches to move away from tradition to true biblical guidelines. They do not understand elder leadership (or they elect not to embrace it). They make the pastor a puppet of the board, or, he becomes the straw boss over the church and the board. Yet all of the biblical balance is in the Word of God, but it is just ignored! 

    Thanks for asking!

    Dr. Mal Couch

Reasons Why Elders and Pastor Are Not Different Offices

Dr. Couch, I agree that the pastor should be one among equals with the church elders, but would you explain the reasons that an elder and pastor are not different offices? 

 

    ANSWER:   In the NT, and the NT alone, we find that there is a leadership group (plural) in the church that is given four titles. Or, to put it another way, they each are given four titles: pastor (shepherd), teacher, elder, overseer. Thus you have a board or group of men with each designated as: pastor/teacher/elder/overseer. This means we have four designations or four functions in the same person(s). 

    All of this is easy to prove from Scripture but the only problem is (1) people are not reading their Bibles, and (2) they are running on traditional denominational gas and not by what the Scriptures say. 

    For example, Paul summoned together the ELDERS (pl.) of Ephesus (Acts 20:17) and he called them also the OVERSEERS (pl.) (v. 28). (Overseer is "episcopos" and means "to over scope, overlook.) He then uses the verb SHEPHERD (to pastor) as what these men together are to do with the flock at Ephesus (v. 28). Paul uses the word PASTORS (shepherds) as a noun describing the church office only once (Eph. 4:11). There, he puts it this way: "PASTORS (AND, INDEED) TEACHERS." So PASTORS are to pastor by being TEACHERS! 

    Thus the four descriptions describing the same group of guys! 

    To further prove that the ELDERS and OVERSEERS are the same guys, all you have to do is notice that Paul describes their characteristics as church leaders in two lists, 1 Timothy 3:1-7, and Titus 1:5-9. Same list, but he begins 1 Timothy 3:1 by calling them the OVERSEERS, yet in Titus 1:5 he calls them the ELDERS! 

    To really get it biblically settled you need my two books Biblical Theology of the Church and Pastors’ Manual for Doing Church. 

    Thanks for asking!

    Dr. Mal Couch