EVIDENCE OF OLD/FIRST COVENANT RELIGION
Religion takes its cues about religious titles from the Old Testament where we see many references to prophets, priests and shepherds. And the practice of appointing leaders over divisions of people appears to be affirmed in Jethro’s advice to Moses regarding appointing leaders. The New Testament reinforces this practice through references to elders, priests, prophets, bishops/overseers, deacons, and rabbis.

Literal interpretations of these scriptures lead religious people to the conclusion that God has established a kingdom that includes levels of leadership and authority and that people who occupy positions of leadership should be identified titles. This conclusion makes perfect sense to Old/First Covenant religionists who are raised in religions that evolved from Catholicism which, because of its complicated hierarchical structure, has always identified its leaders with honorific titles (e.g. priest, bishop, pope, deacon, etc.) Protestants disagree with Catholics on many doctrinal issues, but they do like the practice of using titles to identify their leaders. So, instead of following Jesus’ teachings about not using religious titles, they follow Catholic teaching.

Jesus’ teaching about religious titles appears at the beginning of Matthew 23 which contains a long list of “woes” to scribes and pharisees. He did not mention scribes and pharisees specifically as titles to be avoided, but, since the rest of Matthew 23 addresses scribes and pharisees directly, it is reasonable to say that these titles are to be avoided also. This is important for religious leaders to recognize because the label “scribe” and “pharisee” are terms that the Bible uses to symbolize religious leaders of all religions in all ages.

STUDY TIP: See Pharisees and Scribes

This practice of giving honorific titles such as Pastor, Priest, Rabbi, Apostle, Bishop, Elder, Deacon, Overseer, Rabbis, Pope, Missionary  and Evangelist makes sense to people who interpret the Bible literally. Permission to give these titles seems perfectly clear because these titles are used often in the Bible. But, and this is a big but, Jesus gave clear direction that titles should not be used.

It also makes sense to view religion as a business. But these worldly practices are not what God wants. ***