One of the most tragic stories of failed leadership in the Bible and its impact on the faith community is found in the story of Judah’s King Rehoboam, son and successor of Solomon. Early in his reign, following the secession of the ten northern tribes from the house of David, the Biblical narrative declares:
And it came to pass, when Rehoboam had established the kingdom, and had strengthened himself, he forsook the law of the Lord, and all Israel with him (II Chron. 12:1).
Ellen White comments as follows on this very sad verse:
How sad, how filled with significance, the words, “And all Israel with him”! The people whom God had chosen to stand as a light to the surrounding nations were turning from their Source of strength and seeking to become like the nations about them. As with Solomon, so with Rehoboam—the influence of wrong example led many astray. And as with them, so to a greater or less degree is it today with everyone who gives himself up to work evil—the influence of wrongdoing is not confined to the doer [##1|Ellen G. White, Prophets and Kings, p. 94.##].
Turning to the New Testament, we find a more positive example set by a leader, in the case of the apostle Paul. Twice he exhorts his readers to follow him (I Cor. 4:16; Phil. 3:17), but just in case some might misunderstand this counsel, he clarifies the circumstances under which such following should occur when he writes:
Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ (I Cor. 11:1).
In other words, Paul is saying that so long as he follows Christ, his readers are to follow him. The clear implication is that should the apostle cease to follow Christ, those hearing his counsel should follow him no longer.
The Written Word Our Guide
The ancient prophet declared, “To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them” (Isa. 8:20). The New Testament apostles praised the Berean Christians because, upon hearing the apostles’ witness, they “searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so” (Acts 17:11). The New International Version renders this passage even more clearly when it states that the Bereans “examined the Scriptures daily to see if what Paul said was true.”
The written Word alone can serve as the Christian’s lodestar when it comes to the difference between truth and error. Those who followed the infamous Jim Jones, who eventually led nearly a thousand of his followers to mass suicide and murder in the Guyanese jungle, would have early on recognized the perverse path they were pursuing had they kept the Bible in its rightful place. Indeed, very early in his baleful ministry Jones had publicly discarded the Bible, once even throwing it on the floor during a worship service, declaring, “Too many people are looking at this instead of looking at me” [##2|Jim Jones, quoted in Time, Dec. 4, 1978, p. 27.##].
One can only imagine how many lives would have been saved had every member of that congregation done what they should have done at the moment Jones said this—gotten out of their seats, found the door, turned the knob, and vacated the premises just as fast as they could.
One former member of Jones’ church spoke of how, at services there, “there wasn’t a Bible in sight. Not one person had brought a copy along, and there weren’t any Bibles on the shelves around the room” [##3|Jeannie Mills, Six Years With God: Life Inside Rev. Jim Jones’s Peoples Temple (New York: A&W Publishers, Inc, 1979), p. 121.##]. No professedly Christian movement can be spared spiritual disaster when God’s Word is ignored in this manner, even if the earthly end of such a movement lacks the drama and horror of Jonestown.
Conclusion
The Bible contains the record of leaders good and bad, especially within the faith community. The only way we can tell the difference between leaders we see today is through the adherence or lack thereof on their part to the written counsel of God (Isa. 8:20; Acts 17:11). Neither popular culture, traditional values, formal scholarship, spiritual fads, nor one’s preferred experiential comfort level can carry any weight with the true Christian, in particular those called to leadership. As with King Zedekiah of old, despite his persistent disobedience to the prophetic voice, the inquiry of all true leaders in God’s church must be, “Is there any word from the Lord?” (Jer. 37:17).
REFERENCES
1. Ellen G. White, Prophets and Kings, p. 94.
2. Jim Jones, quoted in Time, Dec. 4, 1978, p. 27.
3. Jeannie Mills, Six Years With God: Life Inside Rev. Jim Jones’s Peoples Temple (New York: A&W Publishers, Inc, 1979, p. 121.
Pastor Kevin Paulson holds a Bachelor’s degree in theology from Pacific Union College, a Master of Arts in systematic theology from Loma Linda University, and a Master of Divinity from the SDA Theological Seminary at Andrews University. He served the Greater New York Conference of Seventh-day Adventists for ten years as a Bible instructor, evangelist, and local pastor. He writes regularly for Liberty magazine and does script writing for various evangelistic ministries within the denomination. He continues to hold evangelistic and revival meetings throughout the North American Division and beyond, and is a sought-after seminar speaker relative to current issues in the Seventh-day Adventist Church. He presently resides in Berrien Springs, Michigan