Editorial
Axios!
The Good Pastor Finishes His Course
by S. M. Hutchens
Numerous times in the history of this journal we have made a point of praising good pastors (and this, of course, includes good bishops in the churches that designate their chief elders thus), holding them up to be admired, supported, and emulated. In these days of the office's great tribulation, experienced in withering attacks on the pastor's office from forces within and outside the churches that seek to discourage, weaken, discredit, adulterate, confuse, pollute, madden, and depress good servants of the Lord, we wish once again to give them honor, noting that by the grace and power of God they still exist in large numbers (and are found "where one finds them"), refusing to bow the knee to Baal, embrace the goddess, or offer sacrifices in the Lord's name in the high places of the world.
We would add that it is the responsibility of God's people to recognize the faithful among the formally ordained, to distinguish men of faith and merit from the poseurs, the hirelings, the wolves—the teachers of false doctrine—and to follow and obey the faithful pastors rather than the others.
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S. M. Hutchens is a senior editor and longtime writer for Touchstone.
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