Scripture, Tradition or ?

There's an interesting discussion emanating from an article on A Pilgrims Progress. As a Christian of many years, a large part of which was in so-called, "full-time-ministry", I speak from my own experience, and with some amount of shame:

When a man/woman, Christian or otherwise, has been well instructed, in whatever philosophy or teaching we may choose, Christian or pagan, we develop a mindset which may take years before one is willing to examine that mindset, and allow it to be challenged.

The genuine Christian is not exempt from this fact of human frailty, hence Luke's commendation of the Bereans.

Apparently the Thessalonians were more like me. I trusted my professors, pastors and teachers, and received what was taught without question. After all, they were the experts. I was only a novice. What they said the Bible taught was more important than my own convictions. Their expectation was that those under their teaching became carbon copies of themselves, teaching what they taught.

From new birth, in my very early teens, God moved me over a period of years, by what I read in the Scriptures, from rank Arminianism, to Reformed theology, which I embraced, and preached for 30 or so years, finally rejecting much of the ecclesiology, but holding firmly to the doctrines of grace.

As I prepared sermons, wrote Bible Studies and articles, I would often find myself challenged by Scripture, especially on matters ecclesiological, which caused, not a few, internal struggles. I dismissed the turmoil by reminding myself of what my systematic theology taught and the perceived need to be consistent with the system, which I adhered to.

After all, I subscribed to a Statement of Faith, which was thoroughly Reformed, and, I well knew that my tenure as the pastor would be very short if I upset the status quo, even if I could show the truth from Scripture. I was told in no uncertain terms that it was important to stick to what we had always done, regardless of the fact that some of our practices and beliefs were radically different to what Scripture revealed.

What would the denominational leaders say if the church allowed me to challenge some traditions which could not be sustained from Scripture? What would my peers in ministry say? I was already under a shadow of suspicion because I had already dared to be Reformed in a traditionally Arminian denomination, and to now suggest that, from an ecclesiological point of view that both the Arminian and Reformed might need to rethink some of what was accepted was close to being blasphemous in the eyes of those who saw themselves as the authoritative voices on denominational matters.

There is only one authoritative voice, no matter how famous or well recognized other voices are, and that is the Scriptures. Sola Scriptura.

PERVERTED AUTHORITY

There's a fellow blogger whom I've learned to love, whose grasp of Scripture I truly respect. He's an old-timer, just as I am. He's even got a similar hair-do! So he must be good :)!

Whatever you do have a look at his recent blogs, the latest of which is HOW FAMILY LEADERSHIP WORKS.

Make sure you read the previous three first, in the order written, WHO'S THE BOSS? ; I-YOU-WE; PERVERTED AUTHORITY.

Just to whet your interest he says, "This means that they were viewed to be gifted leaders by others and were thus appointed by the Holy Spirit and then recognized by the people. So that, even when the writer of Hebrews admonishes believers to follow the leadership of elders, it uses the Greek language that according to W.E. Vine, means [peitho] "to persuade, to win over, in the Passive and Middle Voices which indicates one voluntarily does so with an eye on their [The elders] character and life. [Hebrews 13:17]"

TRYING TO MAKE A SILK PURSE FROM A SOW'S EAR

My walk with Christ began in my early teens, at which time, an aunt gave me a novel by a Congregational pastor, Charles Sheldon, it’s title, In His Steps. The story was written in 1896, and was read to the young people, a chapter at a time, on Sunday evening servicess in the Central Congregational Church, Topeka, Kansas.

That novel had a huge impact on my life. Later, as Scripture began to open up for me, I was often reminded of the tramp, of whom Sheldon writes, and his words to a church full of people, words which helped me avoid the problem of regarding the Gospel as simply a list of abstract facts, about which we are to learn.

Even though fiction, I think the tramp’s words are important in the “Christian” climate in which many of us live today,

“I lost my job ten months ago. I am a printer by trade. The new linotype machines are beautiful specimens of invention, but I know six men who have killed themselves inside of the year just on account of those machines. Of course I don’t blame the newspapers for getting the machines. Meanwhile, what can a man do? I know I never learned but the one trade, and that’s all I can do. I’ve tramped all over the country trying to find something. There are a good many others like me. I’m not complaining, am I? Just stating facts. But I was wondering as I sat there under the gallery, if what you call following Jesus is the same thing as what He taught. What did He mean when He said: ‘Follow Me!’? The minister said,” — here he turned about and looked up at the pulpit — “that it is necessary for the disciple of Jesus to follow His steps, and he said the steps are ‘obedience, faith, love and imitation.’ But I did not hear him tell you just what he meant that to mean, especially the last step. What do you Christians mean by following the steps of Jesus?

“I’ve tramped through this city for three days trying to find a job; and in all that time I’ve not had a word of sympathy or comfort except from your minister here, who said he was sorry for me and hoped I would find a job somewhere. I suppose it is because you get so imposed on by the professional tramp that you have lost your interest in any other sort. I’m not blaming anybody, am I? Just stating facts. Of course, I understand you can’t all go out of your way to hunt up jobs for other people like me. I’m not asking you to; but what I feel puzzled about is, what is meant by following Jesus. What do you mean when you sing ‘I’ll go with Him, with Him, all the way?’ Do you mean that you are suffering and denying yourselves and trying to save lost, suffering humanity just as I understand Jesus did? What do you mean by it? I see the ragged edge of things a good deal. I understand there are more than five hundred men in this city in my case. Most of them have families. My wife died four months ago. I’m glad she is out of trouble. My little girl is staying with a printer’s family until I find a job. Somehow I get puzzled when I see so many Christians living in luxury and singing ‘Jesus, I my cross have taken, all to leave and follow Thee,’ and remember how my wife died in a tenement in New York City, gasping for air and asking God to take the little girl too. Of course I don’t expect you people can prevent every one from dying of starvation, lack of proper nourishment and tenement air, but what does following Jesus mean? I understand that Christian people own a good many of the tenements. A member of a church was the owner of the one where my wife died, and I have wondered if following Jesus all the way was true in his case. I heard some people singing at a church prayer meeting the other night,

‘All for Jesus, all for Jesus,
All my being’s ransomed powers,
All my thoughts, and all my doings,
All my days, and all my hours.’

and I kept wondering as I sat on the steps outside just what they meant by it.”

How familiar that all sounds to this old bird! The tramp had experienced exactly, the devastating cancer which a “Gospel” of abstract facts generates. Sadly that “Gospel” of abstract facts is far too common in the groups commonly called “church”.

Even into middle age, I was a zealous, sincere, idealist, but I created tsunami sized waves railing about the teachings of traditions different to mine, their founders and their “intellectualism without feet”, etc. I’m sure you know what I mean. Of course, I made sure that I emphasized how correct my own theological leaning were.

How utterly foolish! I was wasting my time, bashing my head against a brick wall, trying to make a silk purse from a sow’s ear.

Only the living Lord, Jesus Christ can do that, indwelling a person by His Holy Spirit and molding the hearts and minds of sinful humans to be living stones in the Church He is building.

The Lord Jesus Christ, stands over the whole of history like an enormous beacon, and we waste time playing church in His shadow, jumping from ideas of human beings, sinners like you and me. Instead of rivers of living water flowing from us, we spend our time jumping from author to author, new idea to new idea, like stepping stones over the living waters.

Information, whether from the Scriptures or a Puritan, or any other author IS NOT transformation.

Causing sinners to become religious fountains of Biblical knowledge who have flat backsides from sitting on pews, will NEVER grow them into disciples of a living, functioning, ministering family of brethren bound into relationship with one another, by their relationship with their Savior and Lord, which He called “My Church” (Matt. 16:18)

Australia is Hurting

Been too ill to be writing lately, but wanted to alert anyone interested to what has been happening in Oz. The whole of Eastern Australia, roughly the same length as the Western Coast of USA, has been devastated by catastrophic flooding, the like of which I have seen only twice previously in my 72 years.

My wife, myself and family have not suffered any loss, but, literally thousands have lost everything of material value. Many lives have been lost when a wall of water swept through a small country town west of Brisbane, wiping it off the face of the map. At least 50 not yet accounted for.

To get a glimpse of what has happened check out the following web page of our Brisbane newspaper, the Courier Mail:

http://media01.couriermail.com.au/multimedia/4days/day1/index.html

That Sinful Church

And he (Jesus) said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” Matt. 22:37–40 (ESV)

If we profess to love God as Jesus commands, we must immediately ask ourselves why we don’t obey His command to love our neighbor. The problem we find ourselves having to deal with is this: We cannot obey the first if we don’t obey the second.

My wife and I have just read through 1 Corinthians aloud, and as we read we discussed something which has bothered me for many years: I have never heard a message preached on the book which doesn’t emphasize how sinful this church was. We discussed the fact, and began to realize that the Corinthian church was no different to any church we had known over the many years, or now know, traditional or otherwise.

Do we like to have this totally negative view of the Church in Corinth, because it draws attention away from our own sinfulness? Although the actual sin of the members is sometimes quite different to those Paul comments on regarding the church at Corinth, there can be no doubt that sin is still evident, I dare say, at least to the extent it was in Corinth!

Some of the annual Assemblies, Pastor’s Conferences, and local church meetings I have observed prove the point.

The traditional church has become like the Pharisees to whom Jesus spoke, covering over what Scripture says with the blanket of tradition, inventing red herrings (straw men ?), and neglecting the weightier matters.

I confess to having preached through 1 Corinthians several times. Each time dissecting it, analyzing and being careful to remain within the bounds expected of one who is attached to a traditional evangelical confession, and, as a result, cannot exclude myself from the criticism I make.

How many of us would receive a letter and read it using the slice and dice methodology of most traditional sermon preparation? How many of us would take weeks, sometimes months, to read a letter addressed to us?

To do so would deny us any idea of the true picture the letter was intended to convey.

We are well aware that to always read and teach, from a Scriptural epistle, in the traditional manner, conveniently allows for the careful avoidance of some matters and the careful protection of others, such as “what we have always done”.

There is no doubt that 1 Corinthians is dealing with a church which fails to use a solid , Biblical disciplinary approach to known sinful behavior, but the failure of the Corinthians centers on two major facts which are spelled out in the above two commands of Jesus in Matt.22:37-40.

This church showed no evidence of love for God revealed in their attitude towards the Lord Jesus, and they showed no evidence of love for their fellow believers, including their fellow believers whose sin was being pointed out.

Having let them know he was aware of reports of their apparent disregard of sinful practices, which reveals to Paul their lack of maturity, so much so that , “…I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, for you are still of the flesh.”

He says this to a church which, he acknowledges, is blessed, “…. in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge— even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you— so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift, ….”. It would appear that even though it appears that this church was doing some things right, is never-the-less actually no more mature than the most newly convinced believer.

Furthermore it is clear that the sinful behavior, which was evidently being ignored, extended to the attitudes shown during their love feast, which gives Paul the opportunity to turn the congregation’s attention towards the Lord Jesus Christ as he reminds them of what this love feast is all about. He reminds them of Jesus’ words at The Last Supper. The Lord’s Supper has a past, present and future aspect to it, and they need to be mindful that in coming to this meal, if anyone, “…eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord.”

The whole church was partaking of this great meal, “in an unworthy manner”!

Some were obviously sinning by what they did. The rest of the church was sinning by what they did not do!

^"Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.”

If they took seriously Paul’s charge for every individual to “examine himself “, not one person of that congregation could escape having to admit their sin because they were not “discerning the body” .

The church, as a whole, had an individualistic, selfish, self-centred attitude towards being a part of this body of people, who are part of the wider Body of Christ.

What I see Paul doing is focusing their attention back to actively proving their love for Christ, by having a Christo-centric view of their membership in the local body, because the Body to which they belong was bought with the price He paid (1 Cor. 6:20; 7:23; ch.15).

Their love for God and one another will then be expressed as they lovingly, carefully deal with the sin in their midst. As Paul told the Galatians, “Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”

Today we are more likely to do things in the way Paul warns against, self-righteously pointing the finger, chest out-thrust ( so the sherriff’s badge can be seen ?), “ For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. For each will have to bear his own load.”

Paul is well aware of this legalistic tendency. After all, he was right in the thick of it at one time.

They were obviously using the gifts of the Spirit in some way, as Paul had already acknowledged the giftedness of this church in chapter one, but they needed to be reminded that the gifting wasn’t for selfish aggrandizement or self promotion, but for the building up of each other as part of the Body of Christ.

To do this, love for one’s neighbor (one another) is second only to one’s love for Christ. Indeed, one without the other is impossible, as Paul demonstrates as he spells out, in ch. 13, what love for Christ and one another is like, and he expects that such love will be actively pursued (14:1).

As he draws his letter to a close, he brings the attention of the church back to its reason for existence, the Lord Jesus Christ, and Him alone.

With this thought to the fore he briefly touches on a few other points, then,” Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love.”

This church isn’t any different to any other church I have experienced both in my country or the USA, sinners, saved by grace, not of works, lest anyone should boast.

MIMICRY OR?

We have some rather unique wildlife in our part of the world, one of which is the Superb Lyrebird, (below) which happens to be the most amazing of mimics. The male is able to sing beautiful, and intricate songs, often including a combination of perfectly mimicked songs of other birds of the forest in which they dwell.

These amazing birds, about the size of a domestic rooster, even perfectly mimic other sounds they hear in the bush, chainsaws, tractors, trucks, etc.

We admire them so much that we put one on our ten cent coin, as you can see.

As much as I like our lovely birds, I don’t really want to write about them at this time, but I do want to mention another mimic, the human mimic, especially the one who seems to be able to mimic what they suppose is Christian.

They do everything that traditional dictates. Everything! They sit on rows of seats for an hour or so every Sunday, sometimes twice. Whilst sitting on the seats they mimic each other. Unlike the bower bird, they don’t sing a combination of their own song from their hearts, including the songs of others, they simply sing what everyone else is singing, which is nice, sometimes. It would be lovely to hear the melody of their own hearts as they are moved to glorify God and honor Christ!

Often, when the Master of Ceremonies utters an incantation, “Lettucespray!”, they mimic each other by shutting their eyes while the M.C. (often accompanied by a voice change) speaks amazingly flowery, often banal, words, which we never hear spoken in our daily lives.

These actions often bring about an involuntary reflex action of each person, in perfect unison, placing their hand in their pockets, or purse, and then over a plate or into a bag.

After these goings on, they are seated at the command of the M.C., where they remain for the next 15 or twenty minutes, sometimes longer.

Then, there is a sigh of relief as they rise from their perch to repeat the singing ritual, at the end of which the M.C. utters an incantation, often after repeating of "lettucespray", which seems to release their minds from his control, and they stream from the building, with smiles, nods, and the occasional few second chat.

As they leave the property, where the meeting was held, a change comes over them. No longer the unsmiling, sombre visages, held for the last period of time. As they go their separate ways, they appear to revert to a manner which appears to be quite normal for those who have no part in our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Whatever it was they have been doing for the last hour or so is gone, until next Sunday!.

I cannot help but wonder how many of those who flock together on Sundays, never truly expressing the radical, life-changing work of the Holy Spirit, which the Scriptures indicate are the result of a life indwelt and imbued by Him.

How easy it is for a lyrebird to mimic something which has no part of him. How easy it is for a man, woman or child to do likewise, especially if that is what the last couple of generations have done. It must be right, after all, we have always done it that way!

IT'S ABOUT RELATIONSHIP

It seems to me that the following story is illustrative of what we often speak of. Christianity, on the whole, and without doubt, has become a religion of performance. If those claiming to be Christian are seen to attend church, do daily devotions, do not drink, smoke or swear, get involved with certain works like serve at conferences or childrens' camps, they are deemed to be genuine Christians.

As I was thinking about this I came across a story which Alan Knox tells, a story which I couldn't help but repeat here:

There is a story about an old man and a young man on the same platform before a vast audience of people.

A special program was being presented. As a part of the program each was to repeat from memory the words of the Twenty-third Psalm.

The young man, trained in the best speech technique and drama, gave, in the language of the ancient silver-tongued orator, the, words of the Psalm.

“The Lord is my shepherd …” When he finished, the audience clapped their hands and cheered, asking him for an encore so that they might hear again his wonderful voice.

Then the old gentleman, leaning heavily on his cane, stepped to the front of the same platform, and in a feeble, shaking voice, repeated the same words-”The Lord is my shepherd. . .”

But when he was seated -no sound came from the listeners. Folks seemed to pray. In the silence the young man stood to make the following statement:

“Friends,” he said, “I wish to make an explanation. You asked me to come back and repeat the Psalm, but you remained silent when my friend here was seated. The difference? I’ll tell you. I know the Psalm, but he knows the Shepherd.”

Being a disciple of Jesus Christ, a follower of Christ, is much, much different to what we have traditionally seen as "being a Christian". The word Christian now-days has been stripped of its meaning to simply mean a religious person.

Sadly, there are many who are heading towards the end of their lives, believing they are safe for eternity because they are loyal attenders, workers, etc., when in reality, they are as certain of a lost eternity as any unbeliever.

The above story illustrates the simple truth of what it means to be a follower of Christ, a member of His Father's family. It's about genuine relationship which the Lord Jesus Christ earned for all who would come to Him believing that what He did in His life, death and resurrection, and through the merit of which, those who trust, rest on this completed performance of a work, in faith, are assured of an eternity in His presence.

It's sinful for anyone to want, or expect more, from those who have placed their trust in Him.

Genuine followers of Christ, will want to meet together, not to follow a pre-arranged program, but to celebrate the Lord's Supper, in rememberance of what He did, and what He purchased for us. While they are together they will pray for and with one another, encourage one another, edify one another with what Scripture is saying, exhort one another. Occasionally they may have a teacher they know they can trust.

A strange phenomenon occurs when they understand this; they grow in grace and the knowledge of Jesus Christ, and they can't get enough of it, as they disciple one another, and make disciples, and the prominent figure, central amongst them, is the Lord of the Church, Jesus Christ.

As I said, it's about relationship with the Father, the Son and each other indwelt and bound together by the Holy Spirit.