A summary of his article as edited by
Ray Downen follows:
One
of Satan’s successful strategies is to get us believing in and defending
behavior and practices that are bad, that are really wrong for man. He’s
especially adept at twisting thoughts and lives of deeply spiritual persons
into such a posture.
Wanting strongly to be like Jesus,
when we feel we’ve finally made it, we’re apt to decide that only those who
are exactly like us are like Him. Those who agree with US are right!
A prime example of legalists are the Pharisees of
Jesus’ day. Jesus found them of all the Jews most opposed to the Way which He
taught. With their traditions, they in fact transgressed the intent and spirit
of the law God had given through Moses. Jesus told them about it.
He also found them hypocritical even in observing the
commandments they themselves had made. Themselves imperfect, the Pharisees
often accused the disciples of Jesus of doing wrong things when Jesus pointed
out that the disciples were in fact NOT transgressing God’s law...
LEGALISTS WANT
THEIR “JUST
DESERTS”
Paul, in his
letters, spent much time dealing with the erroneous idea that by perfect
obedience we can save ourselves. And, as Luke tells us in Acts 15, the early
church finally had to have a definitive word from their accepted leaders as to
whether or not Christians were under law.
In the
Galatian letter, Paul describes the system of seeking salvation through
perfect law-keeping as being a yoke of bondage (BAD news) which will separate
its practitioners from Christ. Legalism is not a way of salvation, but a way
instead that leads only to death.
The “law” of Christ
leads to LIBERTY (freedom from law), for His “law” is love. Under law, guilty
persons face punishment. Since all are guilty, Paul advises that law always
leads to death! The gospel is not a law code. Christ’s Way is a way of life,
joy, and peace for unworthy sinners who trust in Jesus for salvation.
LEGALISTS TRUST IN
PERFECT
OBEDIENCE
Rather than
trusting in God, those who choose the way of death trust that their law code
is perfect and complete, and that their obedience to what they say are
commandments from God leads to justification.
Note that
all who love Jesus are sure to “keep his commandments.” We will never
deliberately do what we think Jesus wants us to NOT do. We will always do what
we think Jesus wants us TO do. If our actions were as good as our intentions,
we would all be perfect. Likely.
Before Paul met Jesus
on the road to Damascus, Paul was a legalist of the deepest dye. Turning to
Christ caused Paul to turn against legalism...
Legalists assume that they, by their actions, can earn salvation. They can’t.
No one can. The Bible makes it perfectly clear that the gospel of Christ is
good news about what God HAS done (and IS doing) rather than it being news of
what men must do for themselves.
A perfect man, Jesus
of Nazareth could die for others. We who trust in Jesus for salvation will do
many good deeds because He wants us to do them. But we’ll not think those
deeds earn salvation for us!
LEGALISTS FIND FAULT
WITH
DISSENT
Legalists
always find fault with, they criticize, those who disagree with the laws
created by the legalists. Naturally they do.
For they
convince themselves that God really meant to speak to create law about the
matter they think important. They imagine that what they read into the Bible
was really put there by God. Most of us are apt to do this sometimes. But we
never should do so.
The legalist is the (Romans 14)
weak brother who judges those who know that there is no law against what the
weak brother says and thinks is wrong. The weak brother demands that everyone
accept his decision, for he is sure that he knows God’s will in the matter!
Anyone who disagrees is thought to be a
“brother-in-error,” disloyal to God, and weak in faith. Yet the dissenter
didn’t lack faith in God. He just couldn’t agree with the weak brother’s
judgment...
Contemporary legalists are convinced, for
some reason, that the Sunday morning assemblies are the most important hour of
the week. They gleefully “withdraw fellowship” and condemn anyone whose ideas
about how to praise and please God in Christian assemblies differ from their
own theories.
Unlike Jesus, who said the sure mark of
recognition would be whether one who said he was a brother loved his brothers,
they identify brothers by agreement on doctrinal details. Those whose practice
in Sunday morning “worship” is identical to theirs are THEIR brothers.
How the brother lives and loves others seems to matter
little!
LEGALISTS SEEK TO
CONTROL AND
RULE
Loyal legalists
seek to domineer. Since they know they are entirely and always right, they
feel they must demand that their ideas/interpretations/opinions become those
of all. Any dissenter is doomed, for legalists know exactly what God teaches
and requires. If persuasion doesn’t change a brother’s mind, then other means
are appropriate, even means which most Christians would say are totally
inappropriate for a Christian.
Conformity is demanded,
or the brother is no longer accepted as a brother.
Legalists trust in law-keeping, find fault with all who dare to disagree with
any conclusion they reach, and demand that all accept their judgments as final
and correct in every religious question.
Christians
cannot be legalists. The Way to unity in Christ is a way paved by love. It’s a
way where brothers enjoy the company of brothers of every race and persuasion
while all find peace by seeking and doing the will of the Lord Jesus.
ENSIGN, 2710 Day Rd, Huntsville AL
35801 is
a monthly, edited by R. L. Kilpatrick. $10/year.
--- And here’s an
interesting letter about the
Attitude best described as
LEGALISM.
(A reply to comments
addressed to Cecil Hook by Brent -- Few groups are as good at practicing
legalism as the U.S.-based “Churches of Christ” to which Cecil and Terry and I
belong. I’m really in the Churches of Christ/Christian Churches group since I
don’t believe God cares whether or not we use musical instruments in praising
Him.)
Brent -- I do not know all of
the persons or scenarios to which you refer as “bulldozing God’s word out of
the way,” but I do know that many of the voices among Churches of Christ which
are challenging the traditions that have often been referred to as “the old
paths” are in fact much more diligent in trying to allow the Biblical text to
speak.
Many of our “old paths” are not all that old --
150, 100 years, or less -- and many of us are allowing God’s word to bulldoze
tradition out of the way, something that I believe to be consistent with the
teachings of Jesus (cf., e.g., Matt. 15:1ff.). What you seem not to realize is
that most of us who no longer will allow tradition to pass uncontested as
gospel -- who insist that “we are not under law but under grace” -- have done
our time as die-hard legalists whose “narrow way” was actually our “narrow way
of thinking” that the truth which sets men free is whatever our group believes
and practices, and that the “pattern shown to thee on the mount” was a model
for duplicating the New Testament church on earth (a model that requires us to
carefully select some, but negate other, attributes of virtually every
congregation described in Acts - Epistles.)
We believed
it, defended it, preached it, and debated it -- until we found that we could
not answer even some of the most basic questions of faith and doctrine by
using that man-made, self-limiting, self-serving paradigm.
I can assure you that the transition from legalism to
liberty was not made without soul-searching AND Scripture-searching. It was no
easy pilgrimage from earned-righteousness-by-obedience to
imputed-righteousness-by-faith, but it was worth the trip in terms of greater
understanding of the word of God and of less manipulation of the text for the
sake of protecting one’s arguments and positions.
Despite the charges of the most ardent defenders of the “faith once for all
delivered to the saints [in the 19th and 20th centuries]” that this undermines
or negates obedience, to the contrary, it frees and impels us into greater
service to God and a deeper commitment to honoring and being faithful to His
word.
Brent, the mere quoting or citing of
boatloads of scripture references or tossing about Biblical quotes is no
evidence of soundness of doctrine. Nor does hard-line defense of our
established status quo prove that one is biblically conservative.
A Biblical conservative truly does what our slogan
claims. He speaks where the Bible speaks, is silent where the Bible is
silent.” Goebel Music’s Behold the Pattern (and other articles and
books of a similar direction) is patently guilty of doing a great deal of
speaking on matters which the Bible does not address (“is silent”), either
explicitly or implicitly. At the same time, it avoids (or distorts) some
rather clear teachings of Scripture (matters on which it “speaks” in
abundance).
I guess all I wish to convey to you is that
I know and understand exactly where you are at theologically, and I can hardly
expect you to understand anything else. But I do want to encourage you to
consider how consistent is your method of ascertaining truth by the way in
which you deal with difficult questions. I found that, in order to reach many
of my conclusions, I had to speak where the Bible was silent, to ignore some
things on which the Bible spoke abundantly, and to skip over far too many
questions that arose under that line of reasoning.
Ultimately, it is not by our wisdom or knowledge that we come to know God or
his truth -- it is through his Holy Spirit, whose message is contained in the
vessels of human language (words) but whose truth is deeper than the words can
possibly convey.
One more thing: 2 Peter 1:3 has no
reference to the Bible, as your quote contended. “All things that pertain to
life and godliness,” Peter says, God has already (at the time of writing)
given. 2nd Peter was not the last book of the New Testament to come about, so
that the five writings of John (probably dated in the last two decades of the
first century) and perhaps a couple other post-A.D. 70 books would not (by
this definition) pertain to life and godliness. A perfect example of forcing a
preconceived idea on the text.
Read it again to
discover what things God ALREADY had given in reference to life and godliness.
[I remember using this verse in the Open Bible Study format of Ivan
Stewart years ago, and a prospect with whom I was studying asked me how I knew
this referred to the Bible. I blush with shame now to recall the verbal
gymnastics and outright distortion which I used to “prove” my case. He did not
become a Christian, at least not under my clever tutelage.]
I’ll be praying for you. I know so many whose views
were just like mine, and whose hearts I trust were basically sincere but who
(like me) subscribe to and defend a position that frankly does not stand up
under the pressure of scrutiny and under the weight of the biblical text
itself. And God can work in hearts such as these, even though they may be
zealously misdirected. Such seems to have been the case with the apostle Paul.
The only hearts God may not work in to reveal truth are those who credit
themselves with having already learned all the truth that really matters --
anything else to be learned is just icing on a cake that is already baked,
cooled, and on the plate.
Blessings in Christ, Terry
Danley
---------------------------------
(This letter is also Viewpoint Study #76, where
the letter to
which it responds -- from Stanley Adams, may be found.)
---------
From: Ray Downen
To: “Stanley Adams”
Subject: Re:
In ONE Spirit
Date sent: Wed, 15 Oct 1997 09:25:18
Stanley, It’s appropriate that each of us
should realize that Jesus wants us who belong to Him to love ALL who belong to
Him. I think you are right that in matters essential to the Christian faith,
we must be of one mind (one spirit). In all things we must love one another,
each regarding the other better than himself. You well say,
“But please don’t think that
there aren’t legalists among those who are progressive. They are so very quick
to tell me where I am wrong and thousands of others. Who made them priests and
lords over me and the body of Christ?”
One reason Cecil Hook is so well liked by so many is
because he is NOT quick to scold and nag others who don’t see things exactly
as he does. I admit that I am less kind and loving in speaking of my ideas
which, as any honest man will, I think (at the time) are very right and also
should be seen immediately by everyone exactly as I see them. In fact, I
sometimes later see that I was NOT right, but of course it’s too late then to
correct myself!
I’m sorry if I fail, or any brother in
fact fails, to properly respect your right to not see things exactly as I
(they) do. In our hearts we know you DO have the right to disagree. And we
know that we ALL can learn and should do so. So please forgive us if we seem
to think we know it all and seem to feel that anyone who disagrees is ignorant
or else just misinformed. Try to love us anyway. Thanks!
I’m troubled by the wording you’ve chosen (quoted
below) that the only ones saved will be in “the body known as the church of
Christ.” If you mean the brotherhood which has pre-empted that name as
their denominational identification, that’s bad. If you mean the church Jesus
actually built, which includes all who are reborn and who are scattered abroad
in hills and valleys we seldom or never traverse, then of course you’re right.
Most Christians are NOT in our “brotherhood.” All Christians are in the REAL
assembly which was founded and which belongs to the Christ. We don’t own the
name, “Church of Christ.” I hope I’m just misunderstanding the implications of
your statement, so that we both already see this matter exactly alike.
For no one is saved outside the church of God
which is the Lord’s church and which is the body of Christ and
will be the bride of Christ. Many are saved outside the “church of Christ” or
“Church of Christ” which identifies itself as such here on earth.
In a real sense we are not saved by the church, or by
our knowledge of the church. We’re saved by Jesus. We’re saved by a new
birth of water and spirit. After we’re saved, the church can bless us and
strengthen us. That’s why God planned and built it.
But
in the episode of the conversion and baptism of the Ethiopian we surely can
see that in God’s providence, the man was saved and “the church” had nothing
to do with it, and Luke doesn’t mention that “the church” ever did have
anything to do with it. We infer that when the man got home he would tell
others about Jesus, baptize them, and then they would meet together as the
body of Christ. But nothing is said about the apostles sending an organizer
there to “set the church in order.” Not then, and at no time. Also we note
that It was many months after churches were begun by Paul that he instructed
his follow-up crew to set apart in those young churches men to become their
leaders.
Nowhere in the Bible is there record of any
prescribed or required “order of worship” by Christians. We do infer from what
is said about their meetings that they met to edify and encourage one another
and to pray to and worship our God. But we have no scriptural warrant for
insisting that another group do exactly the same things in the same way that
WE choose to do them. And if we harmoniously decide to do next year something
we didn’t do last year, or to omit something that was done, we surely have
that right.
By which I mean -- if one congregation has
the servers and leaders march in procession from the back to begin the service
time, they have the right to do so. One church I attended for a time in Kansas
City liked it that way. I felt no call to tell them they couldn’t do it that
way and please God. They weren’t trying to please ME, and were trying to
please God and conform to the expectations of the majority of their own
congregation.
Some congregations pass the emblems, then
partake together. They have the right to do it that way now, and later change
and eat as the emblems are passed. Or vice versa. Some share one cup. We are
not required to have individual cups. We’re not condemned if we do. In some
congregations there is a dress code. All servers must wear a tie. Sometimes a
suit coat. But the Bible doesn’t set up the code. Men do, and what men do can
be redone or undone. And we’ve no proof that God will be displeased if we
don’t follow any code set up by men.
Many Christians
are serving God the best way they know, and are sincere in loving Jesus, yet
they don’t know anything about Campbell or Lipscomb or Ketcherside or Hook. Or
you or me. It’s Jesus who is their Lord. Many do NOT know some things we think
are important to know about the church and about the Way of salvation. They
can be saved without much that WE think is very important.
The requirement is first outlined in John 3:3-5, then
clarified in Acts 2:38. What brings us INTO CHRIST is hearing the good news
that we CAN be saved despite our sin, then choosing to turn away from sin in
order to let Jesus be our Lord, and confessing this by tongue and by that
action designed to show forth not just OUR death to sin but also HIS death and
resurrection. We are not saved by the one who baptizes us, or by the words
that person uses, or by the church which pays his salary and which accepts us
into its fellowship.
We’re saved by Jesus. At
the baptism of a penitent sinner who now believes that Jesus is the Christ, a
new Christian is created. The Bible sets up no “pattern” of worship or dress
or work by which we have the right to judge any brother or sister in Christ.
If he in good conscience serves Christ in ways which we think are not
appropriate, we can share our thought with him, but we dare not JUDGE him to
not be a Christian if he disagrees with us.
I thought
from your comments that possibly you were really thinking that folks had to be
“of us” in order to be saved. If so, I have to disagree -- vigorously, as you
noted!
Paul makes a definite contrast between those who
see we are saved by grace and those who, on the other hand, pay only lip
service to grace while believing that we are saved by works. “Legalist” is
what we call the extremists who demand obedience to a law code they create.
Legalists earn the right to their title by setting up unscriptural
requirements and refusing fellowship to any who won’t accept their right to
make laws in God’s name.
Cecil Hook is free in Christ.
So am I. I hope you are as well. The worst enemies Paul faced in doing the
work of the Lord were legalists. Those who may destroy the church which
belongs to Jesus today are those who today earn the title of legalist. I
personally know no legalists in the ranks of those who recognize that we ARE
saved by grace. You say you do.
Perhaps we don’t really
understand the term alike. I very much like what is said in my study #1 copied
from the ENSIGN magazine of some years back, written by a California brother.
I hope you’ve read that study or will do so. And I’ll appreciate any
additional comments you feel led to share!
--------------------------------
The Church
of Christ here spoken of is that group of saints of God who prefer to use only
the one name for their fellowship, and who generally feel it is improper to
use musical instruments in church assemblies.
---------------------------------------
Legalism Is NOT
Christianity
A Second Look
The isms
of Legalism by J. James Albert
It wasn’t until I was in my
twenties that I heard the term legalism used and was told that legalism for
many reasons is wrong. Prior to that time I had heard many a sermon “preached”
extolling the virtues of what essentially constitutes legalism. I was raised
being taught that the new testament is the 27 books of the Bible - Matthew
through Revelation -- and they were written to comprise a written code for the
people of God from Pentecost on, much as the Law of Moses was a written code
for the people of Israel.
I thought that grace was
extended to man on the basis of his meticulous law-keeping. If we wanted to be
saved, we had better work, which included working a lot and working right. It
seemed that the most important works had some connection with our assemblies,
especially the Sunday morning assemblies.
It was a
number of years before I fully realized that the letter to the Galatians was
written primarily to expose legalism. The apostle Paul told the Galatians that
legalism is a yoke of bondage that not only will profit nothing, but it causes
us to fall from grace.
When I began to ask questions
relative to legalism, I got answers like, “Don’t you think you should be
obedient to the commandments of God?” Being obedient to one’s understanding of
the commandments of God is not legalism.
Yet, being
obedient to one’s understanding of the commandments of God with the idea that
correct implementation of his commandments will earn or merit justification
and an eternal home in heaven is legalism. It is an effort on the part of man
to relate to God upon the basis of a legal code rather than through faith.
Legalism is insidious. It causes man to reverse his
priorities and values while at the same time it has him thinking he is growing
in grace and righteousness. It is much as the scribes and Pharisees whom Jesus
accused of emphasizing the external, less important things and neglecting the
internal, more important matters (Matt. 23).
Legalism
is a philosophy that has given birth to a number of other isms that help to
perpetuate and reinforce the concept. They are isms that have negative
connotations, and we like to accuse other parties in the Christian religion of
being guilty of practicing the isms, but we have defined them and apply them
so as to support our own prejudices and to exclude our traditional practices.
An objective and sincere examination of these isms and a comparison of them to
our practices in the Churches of Christ will show that we have been throwing
rocks while living in glass houses, so to speak.
Let’s
notice a few.
1) Creedism.
There are about two
dozen factions in the non-instrumental Churches of Christ. Each one basically
thinks it constitutes the one faithful, loyal and true body of Christ. The
others are all in error one way or another. To be in the fellowship of each of
these factions is not merely a matter of having faith in Christ and expressing
that faith in repentance, confession, and baptism, followed by a sincere
manifestation to be obedient to God in response to His love. Fellowship in
each faction is further conditioned upon following the legalistic creed of the
faction.
Brethren are encouraged to read their Bibles,
and are handed the line that the sacred scriptures require no interpretation.
But when they come up with an interpretation that is different from that of
the party’s, it is quickly pointed out that theirs is a wrong interpretation
and ours is what the word of God really says.
Each
faction of the Churches of Christ insists that we can all understand the Bible
alike, but what they mean is that we should all subscribe to their unwritten
creed. If we don’t, we can’t be a part of their faction and we won’t go to
heaven.
Every faction of the Churches of Christ
overlooks a great many differences within its own ranks, but it insists upon
unanimity of opinion on the issues that they have exalted to form their
unwritten creed which in turn gives them their factional status. Almost every
division in the Churches of Christ has occurred when some men placed their
interpretation(s) above brotherhood and sought to bind it (them) upon others
as the will of God and a condition or conditions of fellowship. This is
creedism and as one of our spiritual forefathers pointed out, unwritten creeds
are more dangerous than written ones.
2) Denominationalism.
Every person on the face of this earth who has been
motivated by faith in Jesus as the Son of God and has been “born again” is a
member of the body of Christ and is my brother or sister in Christ. No faction
of the Churches of Christ or all of the Churches of Christ constitute the
church of God in its fullness.
When most people
associated or identified with the Church of Christ use the term Church of
Christ, they don’t use it to include all of God’s children. They use it to
refer to an exclusive segment of believers who agree with the factional creed
relative to the issues which identify the faction.
They
have seized upon a term to designate their church and use it for all intents
and purposes to the exclusion of all other terms used by the Holy Spirit. A
while back I attended an assembly of a nearby Church of Christ where I don’t
normally attend. A person was there who recognized me from my profession as an
educator, and as he greeted me he said, “Jim, I didn’t realize you were Church
of Christ.” Such a statement as that reveals our denominationalism.
To denominate simply means to name. We wear a specific
name, and that is denominationalism in the truest meaning of the term. In
turn, denominationalism fits right in with legalism because we stress that
wearing the right name is a part of the “package” some think merits us favor
with God and helps to insure us of a home in heaven. We use a scriptural name
unscripturally, but worse than that, it does not cover for our party spirit
and the resultant divisions.
3) Isolationism.
It is interesting to note that the letter which was
written to the Galatians to expose legalism tells us that even an apostle was
affected by the pressure of those imbued with the philosophy and, as a result,
he resorted to hypocritical isolationism. The apostle Peter had been
associating with some Gentiles who had become Christians until some Judaizers
came on the scene. The Judaizers were Jews who said that Christians also had
to obey the Law of Moses because man is “justified by works of the law.”
They separated themselves from the Gentile Christians
unless they would conform. The apostle Paul “withstood” Peter “to his face”
and reminded him that we are not saved by obedience to law, but “by faith in
Jesus Christ.”
The Churches of Christ do the same thing
today as did those Judaizers. They regard their interpretations of certain
teachings of the new covenant scriptures as the law of Christ and if you do
not conform they withdraw from you in one form or another. At the most, they
refer to you as one of the “brothers-in-error.” According to what the apostle
Paul told the Galatians, those who do such withdrawing are guilty of an even
greater error than those not judged “fit” to be a part of their fellowship.
The party leaders work at keeping the rank-and-file
from associating with and communicating with those in the other parties of the
Churches of Christ. They discourage attendance at any of their assemblies or
being involved in any forums or studies that cut across party lines.
In the past, I have seen brethren go “by night” to
listen to Carl Ketcherside because they feared the party leaders. Quite a few
years back I began attending the Hartford, Illinois forums which were the
forerunner of the present-day Restoration Forum meetings. One time an older
brother in “my” party told me, “You shouldn’t go. You’ll get to liking
those people, and it will create problems for you.”
It surely did! Not only with brethren who attended the forums whom I found to
be as concerned, sincere, and spiritual as any Christians I knew, but with
brethren of “my own” party who couldn’t tolerate me “crawling over the wall”
to see what brethren were like. Association with “brethren-in-error” other
than to “shoot at them” from the pulpit or party paper, or to meet them in
combat (debate) meant you endorsed their “error.”
Legalism encourages isolationism. Legalists don’t want us to know that our
so-called “brethren-in-error” love God as much as we do and that they
generally have as much respect for the authority of God’s written word as we
do. The job of the brotherhood mafia is easier if they keep us
isolated.
4) Judgmentalism.
- Jesus said, “Judge not, that you
be not judged” (Matt. 7:1). The apostle Paul asked the Romans, “Who are
you to judge another’s servant? (Romans 14:4). Further, he told them
“But why do you judge your brother? (Rom. 14:10). The same apostle told
the Corinthians, “Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord
comes” (1 Cor. 4:5). The apostle James said, “For judgment is without
mercy to the one who has shown no mercy” (James 2:13).
Obviously no thinking person would say that any of the
above passages were meant to keep Christians from being discerning persons and
at times exercising judgment. But the Churches of Christ have violated the
spirit of these passages. These passages were meant to prevent the very thing
we do. We pronounce judgment upon our brethren because they disagree with us.
Many times negative judgment stems from a disagreement about something of
which the Bible is silent.
Who are we to say that we
know it all as it is to be known? Are we the official and perfect interpreters
of the sacred scriptures? Who has declared our hermeneutic the correct one?
Are our so-called “erring” brethren to put their faith in us or to study the
Bible themselves and determine what is, in their opinion, true and false?
How merciless we can get in our judgment of our
“brethren-in-error” is epitomized by our use of 2 Corinthians 6:14-17. When I
was growing up in the Church of Christ, I used to hear this passage quoted
frequently to maintain the divisions between our party and those who differed
with us on issues relating to the setting of the Lord’s Table (use of cups)
and teaching (the Sunday School). We classed them as unbelievers because
that’s who the verses are warning about. We wouldn’t even call them brethren.
We called them by Mister. How shameful and how judgmental! Legalism
rationalizes such a crass attitude.
5) Pharisaism.
The Pharisees in Jesus’ time were dedicated
legalists. They thought they could earn their way to heaven by complying with
meticulous rules and regulations based upon their interpretation of a law, the
Law of Moses.
We have understood the Law of Christ to
be a similar law and to think we can earn our way to heaven by strict
adherence to our interpretations. Jesus said that the Pharisees made religion
a burden. We have done the same when our religion should be a joy and help in
our lives.
The religion of the Pharisees tended to
build false pride in their hearts because of their apparent meticulous
observance of the law. We pride ourselves upon our loyalty to the unwritten
word. Each segment of the Church of Christ claims to be the only ones who
respect the authority of God’s written word and fully abide by its teachings.
The emphasis of the Pharisees was upon externals. So is
ours, particularly our methods of "corporate worship." The Pharisees told
others to either conform to our rules and regulations or we will have nothing
to do with you. We do the same to our brethren in Christ.
The Pharisees were more interested in proselytizing
people to their sect than they were in leading them to worship God. We are
more interested in converting people to our church and our way of corporate
worship than we are in converting them to Jesus Christ.
The Pharisees rationalized the evasion of weightier matters of the law and
made it of no effect. We do the same with plain teachings of the new covenant
scriptures, especially in regard to brotherhood and love. And on and
on!
6) Sectarianism.
Sectarianism is a
work of the flesh, yet we have become so twisted in our thinking and practice
we have made a virtue of the attitude that defines it. A sectarian is a person
who asks you, in order to be in his or her fellowship, to believe something
other than (in addition to) the conditions of salvation. A sectarian lays a
foundation other than Jesus Christ. A sectarian divides God’s children by
saying that if you are not right with me you are not right with God.
A sectarian substitutes assent to knowledge of
propositions for faith in Jesus Christ. A sectarian confuses his party with
the Church of Christ in toto. This article might just as well have been
entitled “The isms of Sectarianism” with legalism being a subtitle because the
two go hand-in-hand. They thrive on each other and are so contrary to walking
in the Spirit.
There was a song popular in the 1960’s
which went, “I am a rock, I am an island. and a rock feels no pain, and an
island never cries.” Until we see legalism and its concomitants for what they
are, we will continue to be like a rock and an island. Our divisions will
cause us no real pain and we will never cry because of our separation from
brethren. Instead we will take pride in what we mistakenly see as maintaining
purity for ourselves by separating from brethren who are no more in error than
we are.
Until we truly agonize over our shameful
situation and truly crucify self to serve others, we will continue to quench
the Spirit of God in our lives and we won’t know the joy of God’s children
being of “one heart and one soul” upon this earth. (P.O. Box 811, Corcoran, CA
93212
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- Brief Bible Study #1-A from Ray Downen. Click to go on to Viewpoint
Study #2. Click
for Ray’s concluding remarks.