I love my church family. I really do. About a year and a half ago, we employed a new minister. He is more a teacher than a preacher, but he has several degrees and has taught theology. My problem is, I am not comfortable with what he says. Most of his sermons dwell on what he calls “legalism.” He especially loves to talk about “the doctrine of baptism.” He believes that baptism is nothing more than an affirmation of faith and not necessary for salvation. That is not what my Bible tells me. I am usually a very tolerant person about other people’s relationship with God, but this man makes my stomach tighten up every time I hear him. He called people who think that instrumental music is wrong “stupid.” Why would you call someone who thinks differently from you stupid? I live in a small rural community. I really do love my church family and I don’t want to leave. But I am very unhappy.<\/p>\n
Any advice?<\/p>\n\t
I suspect that the congregation gives this man too much respect for his degrees. What I would suggest is to talk to the other members to see if they also hold to the false ideas being expressed by this man. It may be a matter that each is afraid to say anything because they think they are alone in their objections. If you find that most agree with the false doctrine, then you need to find a sound church to attend because matters are going to get rapidly worse. If most are in objection, then you gather your Scriptures and study the issues out together. Then you call a meeting of the church, lay out your evidence of false teaching, and insist that the false teacher leave.<\/p>\n
“Now I urge you, brethren, note those who cause divisions and offenses, contrary to the doctrine which you learned, and avoid them. For those who are such do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly, and by smooth words and flattering speech deceive the hearts of the simple<\/em>” (Romans 16:17-18).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\t
Response:<\/h2>\n
Thank you. I am going to take your advice and talk to one of my elders.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: I love my church family. I really do. About a year and a half ago, we employed a new minister. He is more a teacher than a preacher, but he has several degrees and has taught theology. My problem is, I am not comfortable with what he says. Most of his sermons dwell on…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[478,34],"class_list":["post-43146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-false-teachers","tag-false-teaching"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":81706,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/timothy-had-an-authoritative-standard\/","url_meta":{"origin":43146,"position":0},"title":"Timothy Had an Authoritative Standard","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 13, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton Timothy was given the same standard as the apostles delivered to the first church on Pentecost of Acts 2. There, they \"continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine\" (Acts 2:42). Because some were teaching more teaching than the apostles taught, different things than the apostles taught, it\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":745,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-baptism-be-done-only-in-jesus-name\/","url_meta":{"origin":43146,"position":1},"title":"Should baptism be done only in Jesus’ name?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 24, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: For many years the churches of Christ have used Matthew 28:19 as a baptism that adds to the church that was built by the word of the Lord that went forth from Jerusalem, a baptism that was not present when Israel was told to repent and be baptized in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":33526,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/where-are-gentiles-commanded-to-be-saved-by-baptism\/","url_meta":{"origin":43146,"position":2},"title":"Where are Gentiles commanded to be saved by baptism?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 28, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I had not visited this site in a while, and ran upon it, along with\u00a0our correspondence, recently.\u00a0 I noticed that your last comment has an interesting conclusion, and I quote \"You claim that the Philippian jailer was not baptized\". This claim never was, nor ever has been made by\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":56489,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/god-has-spoken-but\/","url_meta":{"origin":43146,"position":3},"title":"“God Has Spoken,” But …","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 1, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"by Dan S. Shipley via Plain Talk, Vol. 20, No. 8, Oct 1983 \"God hath at the end of these days spoken unto us in His Son...\" (Hebrews 1:2). But men have also spoken unto us. With excellency of speech and persuasive words of wisdom, they have troubled us with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":87257,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-martin-luther-taught-about-baptism\/","url_meta":{"origin":43146,"position":4},"title":"What Martin Luther Taught About Baptism","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 27, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton While Martin Luther may have taught the idea of salvation by \"faith alone,\" you might be surprised to learn that he did not think faith alone excluded baptism. It was an umbrella term that included repentance and baptism. So, he didn't place baptism in the category\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13261,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-can-i-convince-a-friend-that-baptism-is-required-for-salvation\/","url_meta":{"origin":43146,"position":5},"title":"How can I convince a friend that baptism is required for salvation?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 13, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: A friend and I are currently studying with an individual who is stuck on the fact that baptism is, in his view, clearly not required for salvation and praying Jesus into your heart will do fine.\u00a0 We go round and round and just when he starts to agree with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43146\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}