Matthew Stuckey here, and I want to make a quick video giving you some blasphemous and unbiblical
Baptist titles. Some blasphemous and unbiblical Baptist titles that sometimes Baptist churches
give to people when they're not proper, they're not biblical, or sometimes they're even blasphemous.
As Baptists, we often call out the Catholics for calling men, you know, Holy Father. And we should,
because the Bible specifically mentions that, and yet Baptists can be guilty of the exact same thing.
And so one blasphemous title that Baptists sometimes give is calling the church leader
Reverend. Calling the church leader Reverend. It says in Psalm 111 verse 9,
he sent redemption onto his people. He hath commanded his covenant forever. Holy and
Reverend is his name. This is the only time the word Reverend is mentioned in the Bible,
and it refers to God and says Holy and Reverend is his name. Saying, you know,
basically he's worthy of being revered. This is a title that is only given to God in the Bible.
This is not a title that any man should take on because none of us are perfect,
none of us are worthy of being revered. And there are biblical titles that the Bible gives us,
and yes, you know what, there's a respect inherent in giving them that title, and there is some
respect to the pastor, but you know, there's also called having way too much. And when it says
Reverend, you know what, that is a blasphemous title because that's actually only given to God
in the Bible. We should never call a man Reverend. My church growing up, the United Methodist Church,
we called our church leaders Reverend. Well, I mean, that is a term only given to God in the
Bible. So a blasphemous title is calling someone Reverend. You know, another bad title is this,
is calling people, you know, basically a doctor of theology, okay? Or basically we were saying
someone is an expert at the study of theology, an expert at the study of God, and people go to
that to Bible colleges and seminaries, and they get these degrees, and they're declared experts
by the university. They're an expert at the study of God. Is that really a title that you see in the
Bible? Actually, it is. Here's what it says in Luke 5 verse 17, and it came to pass on a certain
day as he was teaching that there were Pharisees and doctors of the law sitting by which were come
out of every town of Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem, and the power of the Lord was present
to heal them. So notice the doctors of the law are mixed in with the Pharisees. Look, being with the
Pharisees is not exactly a good club to be a part of, but there are these people that were these
doctors of the law. They were experts at the law, an expert at religious matters. Anyway, they were
phonies. They were frauds. They were bad guys, and so this term of doctor of the law, it's not
actually a good term. You know, the term doctor, I always think of just a medical doctor, and I
understand you can get a doctorate degree in various different things, but can you really
become like an expert at the study of God? When you're calling someone a doctor of the law, you
know, you're an expert at theology, it's just an unbiblical title. There's really no need to have
that. Anyway, what it says in 2 Corinthians 3 verse 1 is this, do we begin again to commend
ourselves, or need we as some others epistles of commendation to you, or letters of commendation
from you? Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men. What Paul says is, you
know what, I don't need a letter of recommendation. I don't need to have my Bible college certificate
on the wall saying that I know the things of God, and I'm worthy. I don't need man's approval,
because he says, you know what, the proof is in the pudding. He says, you know what, I brought a
lot of you to church. I baptized some of you. I've taught you the Word of God. Anyway, my proof is
the people here, and so I want you to realize that, you know, to be a pastor, there are requirements,
but here's the thing about this, you know what, you don't need a Bible college degree to show
that you're worthy of it. What you need is to go to a good church, to prove yourself, to train,
and the proof is going to be in the pudding from your preaching, from your soul winning,
from bringing people to church, from teaching them the Word of God, for helping them get sin
out of their life. That's the proof, not a Bible college degree on the wall, being a doctor of
theology, a doctor of the law. So point number one is calling a man reverend. That is blasphemous.
Point number two, calling them a doctor of the law, doctor of theology, or something like that.
That's just an unnecessary term. It's not a good term, biblically, even though it is a biblical
term, right? And so number three is calling people pastor. Now here's the thing, it's not wrong to
call someone a pastor. That's not what I'm saying, but what's wrong is to call someone who's not
really a pastor, a pastor. And one thing the Baptist churches can be guilty of is they will
declare someone to be a pastor and call them pastor so-and-so when they're not actually a
pastor. And see what the Bible says in 1st Timothy 3 verse 1. It says, this is a true saying, if a man
desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work. Now bishop, elder, and pastor are
interchangeable terms, but they represent kind of different roles within the same position. And
that's a whole other video, but this is referring to a bishop or a pastor, you could say, okay? When
it gives the requirements, one thing it says in verse 4 is this, one that ruleth well his own
house, having his children in subjection with all gravity. So this man must have children in
subjection with all gravity, with all seriousness. For if a man know not how to rule his own house,
how shall he take care of the Church of God? And the Bible says if he's not able to control his own
house, how is he going to control the house of God? Doesn't that just make sense? That to be
declared a pastor, one of the proving grounds is you do a good job with your own household,
and that's kind of a small proof that you might be able to do a good job with a church. Because
if you can't control your own house of four people, how are you going to control a church
of 60 people? You know, it's amazing in this world we have people that are elected president
and leaders who have been divorced a million times, and it's like they couldn't even be
successful with their own home, but then they're going to be ruling an entire country? It just
doesn't make any sense. And so here's the thing about this, the Bible says to be a pastor you need
to have children. And it also said in verse 2, which I skipped over, a bishop then must be
blameless, the husband of one wife. So you need to be a man married to a woman with multiple children
that are in subjection, and that's a proof you could actually run a church. It also says in
Titus 1 verse 6, if any be blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children, not accused
of riot or unruly. And so you need to be married to a woman and you have faithful children. Once
again, it's plural with children. So look, sometimes people are declared pastors that,
you know, are married but they don't have two kids, they only have one kid, or they don't have
kids. Sometimes they're not even married and they're called pastors. And you know what, that
is an unbiblical term, it's wrong. You shouldn't call somebody a pastor if they're not married. Now
I will say this, that some people that are being called pastor, they're not doing it willingly,
like just in sin where they know it's wrong, they're just not necessarily aware of it. I
remember I was helping a church for the summer, over the summertime one time, a long time ago,
and I'd only been saved for a couple years. And while I was at the church helping, they called
me the assistant pastor because I preach from time to time. Well, you know, was I the assistant
pastor? Well, not biblically, you know, calling me a pastor, I wasn't even married. And I was kind
of doing it without really knowing, you know, I didn't think there was anything wrong with it,
I didn't really think about it, I didn't know my Bible well enough. And so some people that might
be being called pastor, they might not be aware of it. But you know, a person is not a pastor,
according to the Bible, unless they're married with multiple kids, and you need to have proper
ordination, which means you're part of a church, you prove yourself at that church, and you prove
that you know how to preach, that you're godly, and all these things, you have the requirements
for your family, then you're ordained, and then you're a pastor, but you must be married
with multiple children. That's just a basic requirement. In addition, there's a lot of other
requirements as well that are mentioned. So an unbiblical title would be to call somebody a
pastor who is not married with multiple kids, that's not even a gray area situation. Now I
understand there could be gray area situations like people being ordained from the Bible college,
and various other things such as that. But it is unbiblical to call someone a pastor,
unless they have multiple kids, and they're married, according to the Bible. Another thing
is deacon. Deacon is often a term that is misused in the Bible. You know, oftentimes at Baptist
churches, they'll have a church where they'll have the pastor and assistant pastors, then they're
gonna have deacons, which are just normal members of the church. In all actuality, the assistant
pastors are what the Bible would generally be calling as a deacon. So the assistant pastors
should be called deacons. People that are deacons are just faithful church members. What you'll have
is like deacon boards, which is a bunch of church members meeting to make the decisions for the
preaching, the finances, the direction of the church, and things such as that. But that's not
really what you see in the Bible. In the Bible, a deacon is someone who's a full-time worker,
and who knows how to preach, and goes soul-winning, and he also must be married with multiple kids,
according to the Bible. It says in 1 Timothy 3 verse 10,
And let these also first be proved, then let them use the office of a deacon being found blameless.
Even so must their wives be grave, not slanders, sober, faithful in all things. Let the deacons be
the husbands of one wife, ruling their children in their own house as well. So once again, a deacon
must be married with multiple kids, but what you see is when they're chosen in Acts chapter 6,
these are people that are full-time workers. So they, in our modern day, what Baptist churches
generally call an assistant pastor, is actually a deacon from the Bible standpoint. So I'm not
saying that's a blasphemous title, I'm just saying that's just biblically inaccurate, the title that
they actually give. So the four titles I mentioned are Reverend, that is just a flat-out blasphemous
title, Doctor of the Law or Doctor of Theology, needing these Bible college degrees, and getting
approved by a seminary. That's just an unnecessary thing. You know, you get trained at the local
church according to the Bible. Then the terms pastor and deacon are often misused at a lot
of Baptist churches. Now here in the Philippines, it's kind of a big deal with the pastor topic,
because maybe the majority of Baptist pastors aren't actually married or they don't have kids.
And I'm not saying that all these people are bad people, because I actually have some that are my
friends. But you know, what takes place is, churches are started, church plants, and they'll
call the leader of the church plant a pastor, even if he's single. And he's not, he doesn't have the
authority to run that church on his own, though. That church could be stopped at any time by the
sending church. So if the pastor has no authority, he's not really a pastor. So it's not really a
biblical term. When it comes to people that fit under that description, I generally will just call
them brother so-and-so and everything. It doesn't mean that I hate all those people. It is a little
bit different here in the Philippines. Some of them I think are decent people, good people. And
I do remember myself that, you know what, when I was called an assistant pastor at a church for
three months, I didn't realize it was wrong. So I think a lot of people are just unaware of this.
But that's why I make a video like this, to just show what the Bible says, show you things that
I've learned. The Bible says to be a pastor, you must be married with multiple kids. Same with the
deacon. Whereas the term reverend is just a blasphemous term. And look, there's no need
to have a Bible college degree because you prove yourself at the local church. Anyways,
thank you and God bless.