Hi Ken,
I apologize for the length of this email
I read your article in the Oct-Dec 09 edition of the MM and I share some of your concerns.
You mentioned that you thought instrumental issues had been resolved. They probably had been 50 years ago. One preacher told me we have the right position the wrong argument. That wrong argument is failing. On the subject of unity with instrumental groups I have said for years we are either already unified or we can never be. We are either both the church Jesus established on Pentecost or one of us is or neither of us is. The latter two obviously prohibit unity under the name of Jesus.
Some of the discussion centers on the importance of what is done in our assemblies. No place in the New Testament do we read where the "good guys" are told to separate from the "bad guys" so that their Sunday worship would be acceptable. In fact nowhere are we told to worship and nowhere are the activities described or defined as worship activities. That appears to be man's term. And possibly can be traced to a desire of the clergy to maintain their place as intermediary between God and laypeople. After all most of our assemblies are sit and listen with little active participation.
That Jesus did not instruct separation of the churches in Asia suggests who is sitting next to us on Sunday has no affect on you or me. Being in an assembly where instruments are played has no affect on the individuals not in agreement with the instruments being played. If anything could affect the "good guys" surely Jesus would have encouraged them to separate from the "bad guys." He did not which tells us nothing should be permitted to divide the church. When congregations split neither side is right. By our love for each other the people will know we are followers of Jesus. But we prefer to permit the world to enter eternity lost while we argue over meaningless differences, meaningless because the activity is not worship.
I have asked several preachers including some of the authors of articles of Gospel Advocate with no responses. I can only believe that like me, they have no idea either. Old habits are some of the reasons for the decline of the church of Christ. Young people today want answers and we are not providing any.
The Church of Christ habitually calls what we do on Sundays and Wednesdays, in fact every assembly, worship. We have even identified five acts of worship: praying, singing, preaching, giving, and the Lord's Supper. Not finding any reference to these practices as "items of worship" in the Bible I have to consider the term originated by man.
Members of the Church of Christ claim commands, examples and necessary inferences for what we do but considering these items to be worship confuses people because there are none. To say praying for ourselves, singing to each other, giving to ourselves for our comfort, listening to preaching are items of worship and primarily nonparticipatory at that being sit and listen is difficult for people to comprehend them to be worship. We conduct memorial services for the deceased all the time and hardly call it worship so calling the Lord's Supper worship is a stretch. All can be edifying but worship?
Nowhere are we commanded to worship which is good because worship cannot be commanded. Even the creator of the universe cannot command worship. Worship comes from within. In John chapter 4 Jesus was assuming or taking for granted his followers would worship and Paul told us along with the church in Rome when. As a side note the author of Hebrews tells us the purpose of our assemblies and he or she does not mention worship.
My questions include: Why do we call these items worship? How are they worshiping? How is giving to ourselves considered comparable to Paul's instructions for the collection for the poor saints in Jerusalem?
Maybe if we understood our assemblies maybe we could have less conflict.
Concerning examples for what we do.
We talk about commands, examples, and necessary inferences. Have you ever wondered if that was the way Jesus thought?
The manner in which Israel was to prepare the lamb and eat the Passover is clearly described in Exodus 12 but in Matthew the manner in which Jesus and His Disciples ate the Passover meal reads more like a meal in a restaurant.
How about not following an example?
In Moses' retelling of the events recorded in Exodus he repeats the punishment for sexual immorality?
In Deuteronomy 22:22-29 God told the people the punishment to be meted out on a woman and or a man for sexual immorality.
In the New Testament we have the story about Mary being found to be pregnant and we are told because he was a just or righteous man Joseph was unwilling to put her to shame. Joseph was going to divorce her quietly instead of following the Law.
In Genesis that God blessed the seventh day and made it Holy and he rested. We don't hear any more about it until Israel had left Egypt and was at Mt Sinai and God provided food on the sixth day so no work would be done on the seventh day. Notice gathering food was among the work not to be performed. When it was included in the Law no work was to be done by neither man nor beast nor visitors (women were probably allowed to cook and fetch water and pickup after their man etc). Jesus said the Sabbath was made for man's benefit and appears to have done what the Israelites were forbidden to do and that was to gather food on the Sabbath.
How do we know which commands, examples, and necessary inferences are applicable to us. How did the Israelites? Have we taken conveniences and personal preferences from the first century and made them law in the 21st century?
We shun brothers and sisters who disagree with us and if we are wrong in our shunning what will be our outcome?
Fifty years ago preachers believed in the all sufficiency of Scripture. I can explain some of the problems the church Jesus established on Pentecost is experiencing are the result of forty years of unsupervised youth ministers and parents and elders delegating the responsibility to those men who at the time needed instruction and guidance themselves.
But how do we explain those parents and elders? Go back another fifty years to a time when the church was experiencing growth? What happened to the children of those leaders of the church? Apparently they failed to pass along their view of the scriptures.
If a man is to get credit for having obedient children he must accept the blame for children who are not obedient. That suggests how one's children turn out is under the control of the parents. Parents must understand their responsibilities. Until the bible is back in the family and the family is back in the fold the church will continue to struggle.
One solution is Christian education. Sometime I will explain how the worst enemy Christian education has is the Church of Christ.
Again, if you are still reading this email, I apologize for its length and thank you for your time.
Thanks, John Jenkins
865-803-8179 cell
Gatlinburg, TN
Email: jrjenki@gmail.com
Website: http://www.greenbriersolutions.com
Blog: http://littlepigeon.blogspot.com/
If it's true that we are here to help others, then what exactly are the others here for?
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