Micah 3:9-12 BSB (Berean Standard Bible)

Now hear this, O leaders of the house of Jacob
and rulers of the house of Israel,
who despise justice
and pervert all that is right,
10who build Zion with bloodshed
and Jerusalem with iniquity.
11Her leaders judge for a bribe,
her priests teach for a price,
and her prophets practice divination for money.
Yet they lean upon the LORD, saying,
“Is not the LORD among us?
No disaster can come upon us.”
12Therefore, because of you,
Zion will be plowed like a field,
Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble,
and the temple mount a wooded ridge.

Institutional “Churches” Not of God

The problem with most institutional “churches” of today here in the USA (and perhaps in other nations) is not just that so many of them are partnered with the world and with the government in unholy unions, which God forbids, and that they are marketing their “churches” to the people of the world, and so they deliberately dilute the gospel message to make it less offensive to the world, which God also forbids, but they are businesses of human origin being controlled by big business and not by Christ as Lord.

[Matthew 21:12-13; John 2:13-17; Acts 5:27-32; 1 Corinthians 1:10-13; 1 Corinthians 3:1-9; 2 Corinthians 6:14-18; Philippians 3:18-19; Revelation 2:1-29; Revelation 3:1-22; Revelation 13:5-8; Revelation 18:1-5]

Church Planters Twice

My husband and I were church planters twice. Twice we went to their seminars on how to build, to plant, and to grow a “church.” At the last one we were taught that we were to “use needy people” until we get up and running. But once we get up and running we are to “get rid of the needy people for they will drag you down.” Ouch! Nowhere in the Bible was anything taught like that! We are to be those who are reaching out to the needy, and who are caring for them and who are ministering to their needs.

And the pastors are being taught who they should want in their “churches” and who they should “get rid of.” And people like me were among those on the list of who to get rid of. I even had one pastor tell me, first of all, that I should let him be God’s voice to me, if I were to stay there. And then he told me that he was warned about people like me (in his marketing training seminars), “people with strong convictions,” and that he was to get rid of people like me, and so he invited me to go “somewhere else.”

Followers of Man

And then they are being taught what they should teach and what they should avoid teaching, and that we should friend the “unsaved” for maybe as long as two years before we present the gospel to them. And I had one pastor tell me that I needed to follow Rick Warren, in this case in place of the Scriptures, in place of God. And so many of them are teaching that God does not require repentance and obedience to His commands but all they have to do is just profess they believe in Jesus and now they are saved.

There is so much crooked stuff going on inside these “churches” which is against God, and against His Word, and against morality, honesty, faithfulness, and love for one another. One pastor called me into his office and told me something, then he did a non-denial denial in front of our college group, saying, “I would never do that,” but never admitting one way or another that he actually said that. So I asked him about that, why he did that, and then he told their elders, who then called me to a meeting.

But they demanded that I admit that I lied about the pastor before I could attend their meeting, but I did not lie. So I asked to have that prerequisite removed, but they refused, so since I could not lie, I did not go to their meeting, and so they put me on church discipline. And so we took our college ministry, which we had been sharing with their “church,” and we all went back to our house. And it was a lawyer and the pastor who were behind all this. But you don’t make someone admit something before you bring them to trial to see if they actually did what you accused them of.

So Many Crooked Pastors

And I could go on and on and on. For we have faced so many crooked “pastors” and “elders” who are following after the ways of man in how to “grow their churches” and in who they want in their “churches,” and who they should “get rid of,” all of which is anti-biblical and contrary to the teachings of Christ and His New Testament apostles. And this is because they are being run like every day businesses which are making money off the people. And they spend the people’s money on stuff that will attract the world to their gatherings while they often ignore the needs of the needy.

And I am not claiming here that I am absolutely perfect, without error, and that I have never done anything wrong. I have shared my testimony many times. But the instances which I notated here about these pastors and their “institutional churches” are absolutely true. And this is just a sampling. So much of what Micah 3:9-12 says is what is happening in so many of these market-driven institutional “churches” today. And that is a very sad reality! But God will have the last word in this. They will be judged by God.

[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 1:18-32; Romans 2:5-10; Romans 3:23; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; Romans 12:1-2; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; 2 Corinthians 5:10,15,21; Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-13; Hebrews 10:19-39; Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:1-10; 1 John 2:1-6; 1 John 3:4-10; Revelation 2:1-29; Revelation 3:1-22]

Pastors Who Pervert What is Right
An Original Work / August 29, 2026
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

Seven Woes

Based off Matthew 23
An Original Work / May 31, 2012
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

Woe to you, teachers of the law;
Hypocrites, you keep men from God.
You refuse to obey the truth,
Nor will you permit others to.
You travel o’er land and sea
To win a single convert to you.
When he becomes one
You make him twice as much
A “son of hell” as you are.

Woe to you, blind guides of mankind.
You distort the words of your God.
By your practices you declare
Your oaths mean nothing, though you swear.
You give a tenth of your spices,
But you neglect justice, mercy.
When you focus your
Time and talents on
What is external, you miss out.

Woe to you, who appear so clean,
When inside you are crass and mean.
You work hard to look so upright,
While you hide all your sins inside.
You deceive yourselves when you think
You would not have done what others
Did to God’s messengers
And prophets of old,
For you will do much the same.
You’re to blame.