The Lord's Anointed, Pt. 1

Pastors are people too. They are human beings just like the laity. They are fallible just like the rest of us. They make mistakes and need to learn from those mistakes. Pastors need to serve their congregations with a sense of humility.

I bring this up because of one of the most common arguments we have encountered throughout this experience has been, "Yes, the pastor may be wrong, but if he is God will deal with him. We cannot touch 'the Lord's anointed.'" God does deal with His anointed. At times God does this by sending members of the congregation to talk with the pastor when the members feel the pastor is on the wrong course. Pastors need to be willing to listen to their church leaders and parishioners. They need to be willing to accept wise council.

We will consider this subject in three sections. The first will explore the scriptural justification of the “Lord’s anointed” theory and the accuracy of this common interpretation. The second will seek a balanced interpretation of instructions from Scripture and the Spirit of Prophesy regarding proper attitudes/relations with clergy. The third will consider the dangers inherent in misinterpretation of these relations and explain how all of this pertains to issues of adhering to the Church Manual.

Let’s start this analysis with a look at the text the concept of “the Lord’s anointed” springs from. This terminology is used by David when referring to King Saul. It appears in 1 Samuel 24, and again in 1 Samuel 26:8 & 9, “Then Abishai said to David, 'God has delivered your enemy into your hand this day. Now therefore, please, let me strike him at once with the spear, right to the earth; and I will not have to strike him a second time!'

“But David said to Abishai, 'Do not destroy him; for who can stretch out his hand against the Lord’s anointed, and be guiltless?'”

Notice that what David is refusing to do is kill Saul. He is not refusing to disagree with Saul, or tell Saul that he is wrong, or point out to Saul that he has been treated unfairly. He is refusing to murder Saul. The SDA Bible Commentaries don’t have anything to say about the instance of this phrase in chapter 24. Of the situation quoted above from chapter 26, they offer the following observations, “David exercised independent thought. He was above taking any living man as his criterion for conduct. He had developed his philosophy of life, not from tradition, but from the principles laid down in divine revelation. Among the precepts of the Mosaic law, with which David had familiarized himself, was the following: “You shall not revile God, nor curse a ruler of your people” (Ex. 22:28, RSV). David possessed keen spiritual discernment and understood this law to prohibit such action against the king as Abishai advocated…” (Vol. 2, p.578).

Further investigation of Exodus 22:28 helps to shed light on the meaning of this encounter in 1 Samuel. The Commentaries have this to say, “It is in the divine order that we should respect the authority of those placed over us, in both church and state” (Vol. 1, p.624).

Two other texts are mentioned by the Commentaries on Ex. 22:28 which help us further understand this concept, Romans 13:1-7 and 1 Peter 2:13-17.

“Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same. For he is God’s minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil. Therefore you must be subject, not only because of wrath but also for conscience’ sake. For because of this you also pay taxes, for they are God’s ministers attending continually to this very thing. Render therefore to all their due: taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor” (Romans 13:1-7).

“Therefore submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake, whether to the king as supreme, or to governors, as to those who are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men—as free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bondservants of God. Honor all people. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king” (1 Peter 2:13-17).

Both of these texts speak not to some radical or revolutionary concept of unquestioning devotion, but to a common sense continuation of respect for those in authority inherent in any civilized society. “Render therefore to all their due: taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor.” The underlying notion is that being under the law of God does not exempt the Christian from the laws of civil society—taxes should still be paid and civic leaders should still be acknowledged.

It is also worth noting that none of these texts differentiate between secular and religious leaders—what applies to one would seem to apply equally to the other. If we assume for the sake of argument that these texts do demand unquestioning devotion and obedience to religious leaders then the same must be true for secular leaders as well. Following this line of logic to its conclusion, the following secular activities must therefore be wrong: voting in elections, holding protests against disagreeable laws, and impeaching or prosecuting corrupt officials. Again, by this logic, since God “removes kings and sets up kings,” all of these actions would be interference in God’s prerogative to set up and remove leaders, or would be attacking God’s servants.

Let’s go back to 1 Samuel. “David said furthermore, “As the Lord lives, the Lord shall strike him, or his day shall come to die, or he shall go out to battle and perish. The Lord forbid that I should stretch out my hand against the Lord’s anointed” (1 Sam. 26:10 & 11).

“David was content to leave all in God’s hands, and in no way try to prescribe the course for God to follow… While expecting God to do great things for him, he knew that he too had a part to act in the present situation” (SDA Bible Commentary, Vol. 2, p. 578).

In other words, David’s reluctance to kill Saul as Abishai recommended was due to an uncertainty that this was what God wanted him to do. If God had clearly instructed David to assassinate Saul he would have done so (as happened with Ehud and King Eglon of Moab, Judges 3:14-25), but in the absence of such a clear directive David chose to err on the side of safety out of respect for Saul as the king God had appointed for Israel.

The principle to take away from these verses, then, is not one of absolute deference to clergy. It is a general call for reasonable respect of all authority figures and a caution to be certain that the course of action you embark on is what God wants you to do.