When the Bible condemns the false prophets who preach error to their people, the danger is for us to see the reference to those other churches, the 'unfaithful' ones, but not ours, the 'faithful' ones. Our church, our denomination, is faithful and true to the Gospel, but these others have 'sold the pass' and have apostasised. In the northern kingdom of Israel, the church and her prophets were condemned by Jeremiah, and rightly so. Now, the southern kingdom, Judah, would have breathed a sigh of relief because he condemned the northerners. But now, he turns to the south and he says they are no better. Come right into the HQ of the Jewish church, and what do you see? "I have seen ... evildoers," (Jer.23). He sees "a horrible thing," a thing that causes horror, terror, fear. And He sees this "in the prophets of Jerusalem."
Here, too, the preachers come under the searchlight of God's Word, and what is exposed is not impressive. Jeremiah tells us plainly what he sees in the clergy class: "they commit adultery, and walk in lies." Adulterers in the church's ministry! Ministers who walk in lies - in the church! Now what do these people do, what is their purpose and intent of their ministry? "They strengthen also the hands of evildoers that no one returns from his wickedness." In other words, no repentance is preached. Why? Because to do so might resurrect all these skeletons in the cupboard of the preachers' lives. They have no moral authority to preach the truth. Preachers who "walk in lies" have no authority to peach the truth. If they say too much, their hearers might know secrets about them and expose them; so they preach a cosy message that keeps their people anesthetised , spiritually paralysed and inert. That's a safe place fr such people and pastors - each admiring the other.
With this obtaining within the churches of today, is it any wonder that the situation in the nation is so bleak! If the church is rotten inside, we cannot expect the society within which she lives to be any better.
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