Nine Marks of a False Prophet, according to Zwingli

You may know of 9 Mark Ministries, the ministry emphasises on those 9 marks that the church needs to show in order to be a healthy church.

However, in this entry, I offer to you 9 marks of false teachers, penned by Zwingli.

I hope they may resonate with you, and help you to discern those who are false and those who are true shepherds.

1. All who do not teach are nothing but wolves, though they might be called shepherd, bishop, or king. See in this connection how many teaching bishops there are.2. Those who teach their own dreams rather than the word of God are wolves.3. Those who teach the word of God, yet not to the honor of God, but for themselves and their head, the Pope, for protection of their fabricated high station, are harmful wolves, coming in sheep’s clothing.4. Those who teach already and teach even with the word of God, but do not, however, disturb the greatest aggravators, the leaders, but allow their tyranny to grow, are flattering wolves or traitors of the people.5. Those who do not practice with works what they teach with the word are nothing among the Christian people, destroying much more with their works than they build with their words.6. Those who do not pay attention to the poor but let them be oppressed and burdened, are false shepherds.7. Those who wear the name of shepherd, yet rule in the worldly sense are the most evil werewolves.8. Those who gather riches, filling sack, purse, storehouse and cellar are true werewolves. And finally, those who do other things with doctrine than undertaking to plant the knowledge, love and childlike fear of God among the people are false shepherds. They must soon be removed from the sheep or they will devour them entirely.9. Therefore it is easy to understand that all those are false shepherds who lead from the Creator to the creature. 

If you loved Angry Birds, you will love this new game, Angry Pastors

No, it's not out yet, and I wonder if they will ever make it. But the thought sounds interesting.

Check this out, what a pastor wished for Christmas. And he is a friend of mine, jejeje.

Angry Pastors!  A fun new app that allows players to be pastors and to hurl unrepentant and recalcitrant church members into the waiting arms of demons who drag them to a fiery pit where they meet their eternal blis(tering).Users will be allowed not only to name themselves but any and every church member!And, most excitingly, once Pastors reach level 2 and beyond, they can even hurl angry atheists, dilettantes, heretics, and other bespotted and befouled pagans into even lower levels of hell where their torment is more pronounced and more intensive!Maybe someone will develop such an app in 2012.  God willing.

There you go, a game for pastors who need to let out some steam!!!!!  Hum...maybe for the iPhone....

If you want to be really serious about bible study, this are the languages you need to know

This comes via Jim West's Blog, that I am mostly enjoying (mostly because he doesn't like Pentecostals, but hey, nobody is perfect):

So, what languages must people know? I’m going to answer in parts-

Part One- Pastors

Pastors need to know the Biblical languages: Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek. At a minimum. No pastor worth his salt will ‘kiss the beloved through a sheet’ and come away satisfied and none can expound the biblical text without being able to read it.

Part Two- Old Testament Scholars

These folk need to know Hebrew, Aramaic, Ugaritic, Akkadian, Eblaitic, and Greek.

Part Three- New Testament Scholars

Greek, Aramaic, Hebrew, Coptic, and Latin

Part Four- Text Critics

These need to know the relevant ancient languages of the text they are examining. If an OT text, than all those which the OT scholar masters plus those of the NT scholar plus at least German and French. If a NT text critic then, frankly, many more (since the NT is attested in numerous languages from up to the 5th century CE).

All of the languages listed by section above are the bare minimum for each. It really is necessary to read one or more modern language as well so that one can keep up with developments in one’s field and not be shackled to the narrow parochialism so common of pastors and academics in North America.

Without mastery of the requisite languages, pastors will be deficient, and academics will be as well, incapable of understanding that which they profess to be explaining to others.

Therefore, I am in dire stribes, barely knowing Greek and rusty Hebrew. There's a lot to learn, apparently.

So when you see someone saying that they have a Doctorate in Theology, ask them if they at least know Koine greek. If they don't, they don't know what they are talking about.