Now before you read this I want to say I thank the Lord that there are many pastors who are sticking to Bible preaching of God's word, and are winning souls (Pr 11:30) to our Lord Jesus Christ. What we need today is Bible preaching! We need to pray that God will continue to send men who are bold (Pr 28:1) enough to go against the grain of this manpleasing society and teach and preach the word of God to a lost and dying world. The intent of this article is that maybe a pastor who falls into this discription of Jeremiah 23 would get right with God, and that someone who is under such a ministry would see the light (Ps 119:105) and get to a place where he or she might be able to grow (1 Pt 2:2).

Everything starts with God's word. John 1:1 says In the beginning was the Word. In Hebrews 1:3 the Bible says that He upholds all things by the word of His power. In Psalms 138:2 we find that His word is magnified above all His name. When you magnify something everything else looks small in comparison. The Bible says that God will preserve His words forever in Psalms 12:6-7. Now what we find in Jeremiah's day were pastors scattering the flock of God and they did this by perverting the words of God. Perverting the words of God caused them to corrupt themselves and lead others astray.

The Bible is our plumbline. It is the only thing we have to measure everything else by. When it is perverted, falshood is taught and this leads the listeners into error. What we have today with most of professing christianity is a bunch of pastors like these in Jeremiah who are teaching and preaching a Book they do no believe, and perverting the words to say what they want them to say. We have a generation of people who are to lazy to study and check the facts, and many are scared of the truth they might find.

The Devil started off in Genesis 3 questioning God's word, and divided Adam and Eve and caused the fall of man. He has used the same tactic since then, which is divide and conquer. Now today God has preserved His words in the King James Bible and this is called heresy today just like it was in Paul's day (Acts 24:14). Paul said he believed all things written in the law and the prophets. You say, "that wasn't the King James Bible." It was the word of God he had up to that time. Jesus said in Matthew 4:4 that man was to live by every word of God. At that time the whole New Testament wasn't even completed yet. They were to live by every word that they had at that time. God's word was in the purification process, remember (Ps 12:6-7)? That is in the Bible. Well, if you have a King James. The NIV says God will "keep the needy safe", instead of the words of God. What you have here is an example of a perversion of God's word. When pastors stand up and preach from a version like the NIV, a spirit comes from those pages that speaks from the Devil and not the Lord. Jesus said in John 6:63 that His words are Spirit. When a pastor speaks form the perfect word of God, the King James Bible, the Holy Spirit uses those Spirit words and truth comes to the hearer. This hearer is able then to have faith in those words because Romans 10:17 says So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. This hearing causes gathering of the sheep, not scattering. The sheep are able to get closer to God because they are getting built up in the faith by His true words. Acts 20:32 says And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified. Amos 3:3 says Can two walk together, except they be agreed? Pastors who teach from false versions can't have close fellowship with the Lord because they don't agree with Him. If I said to you that I only believed about 1/3 of what you said, we wouldn't walk very far together. Many congregations today are told every Sunday that "a better translation would be," and "older manuscripts say," and "this word should be translated," and on and on the lies go. These kind of lies cause the hearers of God's word to disagree with Him and they are not walking with the Lord because they are being taught to doubt His words. These things ought not so to be!

I said earlier that may are too lazy to study and are scared of the truth they might find. Most of the modern versions take the command to study from the believer. The NIV says in 2 Tim 2:15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved. The command to study is gone. Look what the real word of God says. 2 Timothy 2:15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God. Another passage you might not have noticed is in Proverbs. The NIV says in Proverbs 15:28 The heart of the righteous weighs its answers, and the King says, The heart of the righteous studieth to answer. Why are we to study? 1 Peter 3:15 But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear: I can hear someone say to themselves, "well, my pastor is a godly man and he uses an NIV." The Bible says in Job 32:9 Great men are not always wise: neither do the aged understand judgment.

So what you have today is false pastors who haven't been sent by God (Jer 23:21), yet they are running around with false words (Jer 23:25) and scattering the sheep. The people are not studying how to answer these false teachers or others who want to know about the Lord, because the command to do so has been perverted (NIV Bible, etc.). Now we have a nearly full grown mustard seed (Matt 13:31) full of tares with a faith in this world system (Matt 13:38), that is run by the Devil ( 2 Cor 4:4) and is getting gathered together to be burned (Matt 13:30). How did this come about? Pastors perverting the words of God so they could make friends with men (Gal 1:10) instead of God.