My purpose in this blog post is not to cast a negative light on preachers of the gospel. After all, I am a preacher myself. But one day, I met a former preacher who is now an atheist. Such an encounter can be eye-opening with regard to who is sometimes preaching in the pulpit.
Anyway, I was just sitting on a bench in the mall minding my own business. This guy walks up to me, introduces himself, and starts talking about the end times spoken of in the Book of the Revelation. “You know things don’t have to end that way,” he says to me.
First, I didn’t grasp where he was coming from. But as he continued to expand on his point, I got it. So, I asked him if he was saying that things don’t have to end the way the Bible says they will.
“That’s exactly what I am saying,” he replied. At that point, he set upon the bench beside me for a more engaging conversation. As we continued to talk, he revealed that he was once a Christian minister. He mentioned five or six local congregations I was familiar with that he used to minister to.
Of course, most people in those churches had no clue of who was preaching in the pulpit. But that’s the point. Even during biblical times, there were false teachers (1 John 4:1).
He Was Preaching What He Didn’t Believe
“So, you were up there preaching and did not believe what you were preaching?” I asked. He became defensive about his status, bad-mouthing the church as if the church was the problem.
He also challenged the authority and accuracy of the Scriptures. He used a simple example of walking down the corridor of the mall. He said you can plan to turn left and then change your mind and go right.
“Are you equating an incident of walking down the mall to some right we have to choose to obey or disobey the Word of God,” I asked. “It’s not that simple.”
He countered that it is that simple. And remember, this terribly confused man went around preaching in local churches in our city.
As our conversation neared its end, I asked the man what he has been doing spiritually since he stopped preaching twelve years ago. He said nothing.
Me: “So are you an atheist?”
Him: “What is an atheist?”
Me: “One who does not believe in God.”
Him: “What God are you talking about? The God of Judaism?”
It was clear to me that I wasn’t going to get far with this guy. We both saw the need to part ways. But I prayed for his lost soul. The point is that, sometimes, you just don’t know who’s preaching in the pulpit.
Copyright© 2021 by Frank King. All rights reserved.