Awaken Bible Prophecy Update 11-9-22: An Open Letter to Pastors

The times are such that what I say in the following several minutes will more than likely be ignored – if even heard by any pastors to whom this applies. Given the small size of my audience – and it is what it is by the grace of God – there may not even be any pastors among it. Perhaps if what I convey convicts some of you who are still in a church – as opposed to worshiping each week at home because you can’t find a good one – maybe you’ll decide to have a conversation with your pastor and ask him some hard questions.

I am a credentialed, licensed, (technically) retired pastor with the Assemblies of God. I never was a lead pastor, as I obtained my credentialing at the later age of 65. From there I served as the Missions Director and Bible teacher in my church until my wife and I felt we needed to leave there when a new lead pastor came in. I say this to give the caveat that I’ve never shepherded a church flock, so to speak. I don’t have the experience of the stresses and balancing acts that may indeed be necessary to engage in such a role successfully.

The one thing that I do have is a deep and enduring love for the Word of God. I came to saving faith in Jesus Christ in 2005, again later in life at the age of 54. At that point – because of how the pastor in my church at that time challenged me – I began faithfully reading the Bible completely through at least once each year. In fact, - not bragging, just providing the contextual background – I typically read the Bible multiple times through yearly and have read it completely some 30-plus times in these intervening years, in addition to the New Testament alone numerous other times. Astoundingly, through God’s guiding hand on my life, I’ve never missed one single day in reading the Bible. I’m not much for memorizing Scripture – that hasn’t worked real well for me trying to do so being older – but I can tell you I know the Bible pretty well from having read it so many times. I know what pleases God and I know what grieves Him – just as He has conveyed in Scripture. Because of my faithfulness in God’s Word – I’m absolutely convinced of this – He has blessed me and my family beyond measure.

When I turned to the Lord 17 years ago, because of the conviction I had that He was real, and that my true and only salvation is indeed solely through Jesus Christ and being faithful to Him, I made a vow that I would always follow hard after Him. In other words, I wasn’t messing around with this salvation thing. If you’ve read Biblical accounts of people making vows, you know how seriously God takes them. People that go back on their vows to Him often suffer greatly. Having learned that since beginning my Bible reading journey, it makes me even more determined to obey Him to the fullest.

I started thinking about this and about writing a letter upon receiving my quarterly Ministers’ magazine from the Assemblies of God. In there are articles that talk about being more effective in various ways, from handling the abortion issue in the church to the very real problem of pastors who face depression. The one thing I couldn’t ever recall seeing was an article that brought rebuke upon pastors as a group for how they might have aggrieved God.

From what I’ve previously said in this forum, many of you are probably aware that I’ve spoken quite forcefully about the issue of: Where’s the church, i.e. where are the pastors and ministry leaders speaking out against the evils of the COVID mRNA injections? That has distressed me immensely, and I wondered if the A/G ministers’ magazine would even publish a letter/rebuke dealing with this subject. I’ve sent an email; I week later I don’t even have a response to my basic inquiry. However, I figured maybe I should just write what I want to say as a letter to pastors and bring it into my sphere by doing this Prophecy Update on it.

Gary Ritter website: books & blog
http://garyritter.com/

Kindle Vella story: Tribulation Rising
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B099Z462WD

Please visit my website blog where the transcript is posted under the article with the same title.