We need and desire leaders in which we can put our trust and confidence, and we should. However, that kind of homage is not always justified, because sometimes our leaders are not really leading us in the truth of God's word. When Jesus went to Jerusalem just before His last Passover, the leaders of the people became ambiguous in their approach to His presence. That caused the people to wonder, and to begin to ask them hard questions.

Some of those at Jerusalem said, "Is not this he, whom they seek to kill? But, lo, he speaketh boldly, and they say nothing unto him? - The Pharisees heard that the people murmured such things concerning him; and the Pharisees and the chief priests sent officers to take him." A lot of people began to believe on Him, and even those officers who were sent began to wonder.

In John 7:45-52, when those officers went back to report to the chief priests and Pharisees without bringing Jesus to them, "(the rulers) said unto them, Why have ye not brought Him?" The officers readily admitted their amazement at His words; "then answered them the Pharisees, Are ye also deceived? Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed on him?"

Are not many Christian leaders today the same as those rulers of the Jewish people were. When they hear the truth, and will not accept it, they resort to intimidating the people who are beginning to see something (Luke 11:52). They would like for us to believe that rulers of the Christian churches would be the first to believe what God is doing, and the fact that they are rejecting a ministry or a doctrine is proof that it is not valid. Did the rulers believe Martin Luther, and his doctrine of "Justification by faith," in 1517? When some new sound comes to our ears such as "the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith" (Rom. 1:16,17), does the unbelief of some make the truth of God to be any less true today?

That was then, and this is now, and it is still essential that we prove all things by rightly dividing the Word of Truth, not by word of mouth.