The Biblical Way to Confront Your Pastor If You Believe Him to be Teaching God’s Word Incorrectly

By Mark W. Christy, PhD

Recently, the charge of being a heretic was placed upon me by what I hope to be a well-meaning brother in Christ. Unfortunately, he openly charged me on the internet, labelled me a heretic, and called upon my church to fire me immediately. Not once did he ever contact me to make sure that he perfectly understood my theology regarding his areas of concern. Instead of questioning his knowledge of what he thought to be my position and questioning his own position as true humility dictates, he simply pressed forward with his open rebuke. While I plan to address his major concerns before the church on Sunday (January 9, 2021) and even post articles on those topics on that same day, I would like to offer here some biblical guidelines on how one should go about confronting a preacher who they believe to be in error.

In Acts, we find an example of a teacher who is quite knowledgeable and yet still lacking in their understanding of God’s Word:

“Meanwhile a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was a learned man, with a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures. 25 He had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and he spoke with great fervor and taught about Jesus accurately, though he knew only the baptism of John. 26 He began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they invited him to their home and explained to him the way of God more adequately” (Acts 18:24-26).[i]

Apollos, though quite learned in the Scriptures, still needed to learn the Word of God “more adequately.” In his heart, he clearly was striving to be faithful in his preaching, and yet he was somehow lacking in his knowledge. Did Priscilla and Aquila lambast this saint which charges of heresy? No, they lovingly and redemptively made efforts to correct him, and he proved by his response that his heart was right. In other words, he submitted to their sound instruction and allowed that to inform his ministry.

When Peter, an Apostle no less who had known Jesus on earth, witnessed His resurrected appearance, and even been directly instructed by Him, sinned, Paul rebuked him directly:

“When Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray” (Galatians 2:11-13).

While Peter was obviously applying false theology to his life and witness, Paul did not move directly to brand him a heretic. Rather, he confronted him in his sins and even uses strong language to identify Peter as “condemned” by the charge. From biblical history, we know that Peter ultimately did not get branded a heretic, but instead came under Paul’s redemptive rebuke. To put this another way, he aligned himself with the truth and put aside his error. In the end, the brotherly relationship between Paul and Peter was maintained as was the unity of the brethren. From both Peter and Apollos, it is quite obvious that God’s servants, though being called of God and true Christians, can indeed err in their knowledge and application of the Word. The test of whether or not their calling and their status as a Christian has never been whether or not their every word and action perfectly aligned with Scripture. Rather, the test lies in how they respond when corrected by a legitimate charge against their being out-of-sync with the truth of Scripture. Do they humble themselves, repent, and reaffirm the truth in according with the proper correction, or do they persist in their falsehood?

[i]All Scripture reference are taken from NASB1995.