Should I Tell My Pastor Why I Left His Church?

Should I tell my pastor why I left his church? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of CORE Christianity. Well, hi, this is Bill Meyer, along with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and this is the radio program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day. You can call us right now with your question at 833-THE-CORE.

You can also post your question on one of our social media sites, and you can always email us your question at questionsatcorechristianity.com. First up today, let's go to Jamie calling in from Missouri. Jamie, what's your question for Adriel? Thank you, Pastor Adriel, for everything you do and for taking my call. Thank you for giving us a call, Jamie.

What's your question? I wanted to ask you about your opinion on curses. If there is such a thing of curses being placed or carried over from generation to the next, my husband and I seem to have so many challenges in our lives, and I know everyone goes through hard times and difficult seasons, but it seems to be constant for us. We do attend church, and it's been almost two years ago that we started having Bible readings and prayer time together every night. We had never done that before, and we always prayed separately but never together as husband and wife, and we just never really felt very comfortable doing that. But the more that we did pray together, the easier it became, and now we do that every night. So that has helped us feel closer to God and closer to each other.

What can we do about that? Well, Jamie, I just want to take a moment right now to pray for you. You mentioned some of the difficult things that you guys have been going through, the constant challenges, and so let's just take a moment to pray for Jamie and for her family. Gracious Heavenly Father, we come before You today, Lord, thanking You for Your goodness to us, thanking You for Your Word, and for the many ways that You do bless us, Lord, and yet we know that You are the Father. We know that we also experience trials and tribulation. We remember the words of our Lord Jesus in this world. We will have tribulation. Help us to take heart, Lord Jesus, that You have overcome the world, and I pray for my sister and for her family, Lord, that You would strengthen them, that You would sustain them, that through the trials that they face, they would cling to You and experience Your grace and rest in that grace. And so please be with them, Lord, in Jesus' name.

Amen. Now, with regard to this idea of curses, generational curses, sometimes people will go to places like Exodus 20, verse 5, where God says, You shall not bow down to them nor serve them, speaking of idols, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate Me. This idea of generational sin or generational curse, and in one sense, I think we can say yeah, we do inherit original sin from our first parents, from Adam, and so that is a judgment, a curse. All humanity is born in Adam, but in terms of trying to hunt down specific generational curses, of course, we can think back to habits that our family has or our parents had that can be hard for us to break as individuals as well, but I think it's best not to try to uncover whatever the sort of secret thing.

If the struggle is here, is it some sort of curse on my family that's causing these bad things to happen? I think entrusting yourself to the mercy and the providence of God and recognizing ultimately, Jamie, that through Jesus Christ, the curse, the curse of sin has been broken. And this is precisely what the Apostle Paul says in places like Romans, chapter 5, where he's talking about the original sin that we inherit from Adam and the fact that the free gift, this is verse 15, is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man, Jesus Christ, abounded for many. And so, Christ, Galatians chapter 3, Paul says, Christ has borne our curse. He's taken the curse that was on us because of sin onto himself. And given us his righteousness. And so, I think, you know, resting in that reality and saying, Jesus, you've taken whatever was against us, the sins that we had, you've taken that on yourself.

And now we have life in you. Now, why do we still suffer? Why do we still experience those trials and tribulations? This is what we face right now, and it's in 2 Corinthians chapter 1. It's the Apostle Paul talking about the trials that he faced, the difficulties that he experienced, and he says, we do not want you to be unaware, brothers.

This is verse 8, by the way. We do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia, for we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received our sentence of death, but that was to make us rely not on ourselves, but on God, who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us.

On him, we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. Let me just think about Paul's words there. Here's an apostle, and he's saying, we were burdened beyond our strength. Sometimes people will say things like, God will never give you more than you can handle.

That's not true. There are times where we experience trials that are beyond our own strength to bear. That's precisely what the Apostle Paul is saying here. We despaired. I despaired even of life, Paul says.

I felt that I had received the sentence of death, but that was to make us rely not on ourselves, but on God, who raises the dead. God, whatever you're bringing us through, these trials, these afflictions that we face, help us not to rely on our own strength or trust in ourselves, but to rely on you, God, the God who is able to raise the dead. May the Lord comfort you, and may his strength be perfected in your weakness.

God bless you, and God bless your family. We appreciate you listening to Core Christianity. You know, Andrew, we get a lot of calls about related questions, whether it's generational sin or the fact that, you know, there might be some kind of a curse on a person's family. I recall in John chapter nine, there's that question where the disciples ask Jesus about the the man who was born blind. And, you know, was it something to do with the sin of his parents? And how did he respond? I don't know.

I'm just joking. Well, what does Jesus say? You know, this thing that has happened, because in that instance, people are wondering, you know, who's at fault here?

And they want to lay the blame at, you know, the feet of the parents, perhaps. Was it this person's sin? Was it his parents' sin? And Jesus says, no, no, no, no, stop, just stop thinking about that. This was so that the mighty works of God might be put on display. And so somehow God in his providence was using this difficult thing, this blindness, to bring glory to Christ. And again, you know, that question that the people are asking is the question that oftentimes we ask when something bad happens is, well, whose fault is it? And sometimes truly, you know, you know, it is the consequence of sin. That can be the case. But that doesn't need to be the conclusion every time.

And certainly it wasn't there in John chapter nine. So good text to bring up, Bill. Thanks. Well, let's go back to the phones.

And by the way, if you have a question for Adriel about the Bible or the Christian life doctrine or theology or maybe some kind of struggle that you're facing in your family or in your Christian walk, we would love to hear from you. Our phone lines will be open for the next 20 minutes or so. Here's the phone number. It's 833-THECORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. Let's go to Jim in Missouri. Jim, what's your question for Adriel? Jim, are you there?

Yeah, I'm here. Hi, Pastor Adriel. I have a question about being an authentic Christian.

What does that look like? The reason because of my question is because I asked a lot of people about reading the Bible. They said they read it one time in their lives or they claim they're a Christian, but yet they vote for people who are for abortions and this and that, that are big sins with God's word.

So I was wondering if you could outline what it actually looks like to be authentic Christian. It might help a lot of people. Yeah.

Well, I mean, this is a huge concern, right? So it sounds to me like what you're seeing is people who profess faith in Jesus Christ, but that faith doesn't really change the way that they live. Would that be right, Jim? Is that what you're touching on? Yeah, yeah, that would be correct. Yeah.

And so I think when it comes to that specifically, I think there needs to be a challenge that's made. Hey, look at this great disconnect between what you profess to believe and how you actually live and, you know, order your life. James is really clear about this and, you know, this is a text that oftentimes is controversial thinking about salvation by faith and a lot of people, you know, have a hard time understanding James here, but James specifically, when he talks about good works and the importance of having good works for us as believers is an evidence really of true faith. He says in James 2, verse 14, what good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?

If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food and one of you says to them, go in peace, be warmed and filled without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. And so I think what you're seeing is a lot of dead faith, not true faith.

It might be, you know, a profession of faith in Jesus, but it's not really grasping the truth of the gospel and laying hold of Jesus because true faith, genuine faith works. It does result in and produce that change. Now, of course, you know, we can look at an individual's life and say, well, man, I think you should have more works and we all could say that about ourselves as well. But the fact of the matter is the person who's justified, the person who really has an authentic relationship with God, that does change the way that we think about ourselves and about the world and about sin and all of those things. And so I think it's just opening up that conversation. And I would say, Jim, especially for people who profess faith in Christ, holding them accountable and encouraging them and saying, OK, how does this faith actually shape the way that you live? Or is it just sort of something that you, you know, you give lip service to and you never go to church, you don't seek to follow the Lord, you don't seek to pray?

I think that's the issue. And so I think confronting that nominal Christianity, that faith without works is precisely what James is doing there in James chapter two. And it's what we should do, too, when we see it in our own lives and in the people around us. And so may God give you wisdom in order to do that. And maybe starting in a place like James chapter two is a good place to begin.

God bless you. You know, we see a lot of that in our culture right now. We see a lot of nominal Christianity. And you wonder if God is bringing us to a point as a nation where my wife seems to feel this way, like before long, it's really going to be our culture and God himself separating the wheat from the chaff where you can no longer to the point where you sort of, yeah, I go to church occasionally on Christmas and Easter and I call myself a Christian.

I check the Christian box on the form. You wonder if we'll get to a point where you're going to either have to stand for your faith boldly or abandon it. Yeah, well, I mean, it does seem like more and more there's an open hostility towards the Christian faith, or at least, you know, almost like the entire thing is viewed with suspicion, at least. And so it's not popular to follow Jesus.

And of course, it never has been. And Jesus says as much. So this is why the Apostle Paul says that all those who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.

There are going to be people who disagree with the way that you live, with the way that you think about sexual ethics, with the way that you think about raising your kids, any number of things. So that's why it's so important for us as believers to be grounded in the truth of God's word. And, you know, may the Lord give us boldness to be able to graciously with charity and love, really confront the false beliefs that exist in the world. And so we may be seeing that more and more in the days ahead, Bill, as you mentioned. But the hope that we have, and this is what I always go back to is, Jesus is going to build his church, you know, regardless of what the culture does, or the people around us do, Jesus made that promise to us, I'm going to build my church and the gates of hell are not going to prevail against it. No matter what we see, we don't have to despair or panic, we continue to trust in the Lord and the fact that he is going to do the work through the lives of faithful men and women who are trusting in him and following his word.

Good word. And along those lines, we actually have a wonderful resource. If you have teenagers in your home who are getting set to graduate, maybe have already graduated from high school and are heading off into the work world or into college or maybe the military, they're going to be coming up against some challenges to their faith. And this booklet that we have will help them prepare to face those challenges. One of the big issues that we're seeing is as high schoolers go off to college, just dropping out of the church, not getting plugged into a solid local church, and also not really grasping the core tenets of the Christian faith. And so this booklet, as you mentioned, Bill, How to Keep Your Faith After High School is really helpful in that it highlights both of those things, right? What is the gospel and how can we be grounded in that truth and understand why we believe it? And also, you know, how do I get plugged into what is a true church and how do I make sure that I'm tethered to the church even as I go off to college? That's so important, still continuing to be a part of that community of faith, the local church.

That's what grounds us. And so get a hold of this resource for yourself or for someone who's graduating from high school here or just graduated. I think it'll be really helpful. Once again, it's called How to Keep Your Faith After High School. And you can find that by going to corechristianity.com forward slash offers again, corechristianity.com forward slash offers.

Well, our phone lines are open. If you have a question about the Bible or the Christian life, maybe some doubts about the Christian faith. Maybe you consider yourself an agnostic or an atheist and you kind of stumbled on this program for the first time.

And you're like, I don't know if I agree with all this stuff. We'd be happy to talk to you as well. Here's the phone number. It's 833 the core. That's 833-843-2673. Here's a voicemail that came in from one of our listeners.

This is from Jessica. My question is, I used to attend a church that was more into the Word of Faith prosperity teaching. In that time from that I was there, I was encouraged to make YouTube videos about stuff that I was learning while I was seeking God. But I also realized I needed to leave that type of church and I found myself in a church that actually does divide the word accordingly in context. The thing that I am wondering is if I should actually explain to the pastor why I left because that's a big concern because I am actually going to probably meet this person in the future since we live so close to each other. Thank you.

Yeah. Well, one, I'm grateful to hear that you're transitioning out of the Word of Faith movement church because there are some serious problems with that theology, with that prosperity gospel theology, the sort of name it, claim it, Word of Faith stuff. I mean that's just not biblical and it's really destructive to people, heartbreaking really, not just in the United States but all around the world. That Word of Faith theology has spread and poisoned so many places.

It's absolutely heartbreaking. So I'm grateful to hear that as you continue to study the Word of God, you've come to that realization that you're transitioning out of that church. That can still be hard though because even when you disagree, it's very clear that the theology is off. You said you have a relationship with the leadership in the church, that the pastor is a friend, and so that's where it can be hard because it's like, okay, I disagree with the theology.

I love you as a person. But now there's this relational rift. And so I would say if you were going to a mega church, maybe you write a letter or maybe you do try to sit down with the pastor, it would probably be very difficult. But in a situation like this, yeah, an appeal to this pastor as someone who's a teacher of the Word of God and held to a greater account, James 3 verse 1 says, don't let many of you be teachers knowing that we're going to be judged with greater strictness. This is a sobering thing to teach the Word of God especially if we're teaching it incorrectly. We're going to have to give an account for that before the Lord Himself. And so I would say if you have an opportunity to speak with this pastor who's a friend, to plead with him and to say, as I've continued to study the Word of God, I'm seeing some real big problems with the theology here.

And I love you and am grateful for your friendship and the ways that you've invested in my life and my family. But this is serious. And I can no longer sit under this kind of teaching.

And here's why. Now it could be that the Lord really uses that and that that sort of causes a light bulb to turn on. I mean, pray, certainly pray for that conversation or it may be that, you know, He just says, okay, you know, fine, you can go. But I think it's a good thing to be able to be clear and to articulate where you are now for the sake ultimately of hopefully getting Him to change as well and come in alignment with what the Word of God actually teaches. There have been times in the history of the church, by the way, where God used the people in the pew to help, you know, change the direction of the church, broadly speaking, in a positive way. I mean, there were eras early on in the history of the church where there were terrible heresies that were being embraced by different Christian pastors and bishops. And there were instances where it was the people in the church who were really fighting against that. And so God can use you as you grow, as you mature in your relationship with the Lord and in your understanding of the scriptures to a more pure understanding and more pure interpretation of the Word of God. God can use you in the life of your church and even for the good of the leadership of your church. And I pray that He does open this pastor's heart.

Well said. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. We're going to be recording a second episode of the Core here in just a few minutes. So if you weren't able to get through with your question, now is the time to call. You can call us for the next 30 minutes or so at 1-833-843-2673.

That's 833-THE-CORE. Here's a question from Roy. He says, I'm a Christian man who was married for 30 years and fell into adultery and got divorced. I'm currently married to the woman I committed adultery with and my ex-wife is living with the man. I've recently recommitted my life to God and I'm wondering what my status is before him. Am I totally out of his will now and condemned to hell? Well, one, repentance is always on the table, I would say. You recognize what you've done, your sin, and now wanting to walk with the Lord, you've recommitted yourself to the Lord.

I would say all of that is the work of God's grace in your life, the Spirit of God working in you to help you see your sin. Maybe you look back on the things that happened, obviously, with the affair and you think, Lord, that was wrong, that was sin. Now that marriage has been dissolved through adultery and you've been remarried and maybe you weren't seeking the Lord's wisdom or counsel or guidance in any of that time, but now you are married.

So now you're called to commit yourself to the Lord, to love your wife as Jesus loves the church, Paul says in Ephesians, and to seek in all things, to follow the Lord and to honor the Lord in all of your behavior and conduct. So I would say just bring all of this stuff to him, confessing your sins and receiving his grace and his forgiveness. There is no sin, no matter how heinous, that keeps us from repentance. If we'll come to the Lord confessing that sin, he forgives us.

So trust in him and continue to pursue him. God bless. Thanks for listening to CORE Christianity. To request your copy of today's special offer, visit us at corechristianity.com and click on offers in the menu bar or call us at 1-833-843-2673. That's 833-The-CORE. When you contact us, please let us know how you've been encouraged by this program and be sure to join us next time as we explore the truth of God's word together.