If any of you have looked around while motoring about on the internet, at any time since approximately, say, May 19 of 2004, you will have noticed that the ol' Information Superhighway is veritably littered with the wrecks and rusted out hulks of blogs that were begun with good intentions, but failed to interest their authors once the nouveau had worn off. In fact, with apologies to all concerned, I myself have just such a blog stuck in the emergency lane somewhere between the North Carolina state line and Norfolk, VA. It's only just run out of gas, and the hazard lights, I believe, are still blinking, but there it is frozen in time taking up electrons that somebody might have made good use of. Then again, those electrons might have been put to use by someone who still claims that it was inevitable that the U.S. lost in Vietnam; or in yet another of those facile lists of 'Favorite Movies' or 'Who I'm Listening To Right Now'; or worse yet to power Jan Crouch's hairdryer. So in that light I might be doing everyone a notable service.
Nevertheless, with all these concerns in mind we do not enter into this blog lightly, but with sober consideration and a sense of duty – duty, I say, toward our fellow man, of course; but especially toward our Brothers and Sisters in Christ (oftentimes known as "the church"); but particularly toward our God, first and foremost above all. The only issue yet to be seen is the Cause is that Impels us to this Separation – to borrow from Jefferson. Well, in point of fact this Separation is a wound already a few years scarred over by now. And though, in truth, mankind are more disposed to pack things away in boxes under the bed and try to ignore them while ignorance is possible, this is simply not the sort of thing that stays put in a box under the bed very well. In fact, it's much more like our two-year-old who is very prone to letting himself out of his bed and waiting quietly but insistently beside our bed with his blank-blank at inconvenient times like 1:00, 2:34, and 4:43 in the morning. Or sometimes waiting not-so-quietly. But either way you have to deal with him somehow. So I guess we're just tired of continually trying to keep this thing quiet enough for us to get back to sleep.
I do want to be very clear up front that we your humble servants certainly do not claim to have all the answers – or even all the questions – regarding this unquiet issue, but what we do claim to have is an important point of information that, like the story of the Emperor's New Clothes, should be obvious to all, only somehow it just does not seem to be. And if you bring it up it isn't generally very well received – as though perhaps we are somehow at fault; or as if there is some particular virtue in pretending that it isn't true – a virtue which I am afraid seems not to be in our possession – and some particular vice for so lacking in social graciousness as to discuss it out loud where people might hear you. Certainly some well meaning brothers and sisters in Christ have indicated that we simply ought not see such things – if we really love Jesus that is. And I am afraid to say that at times we may have tried to take this advice. Certainly we have wondered at times if there isn't actually something wrong with us, as everyone else seems to be getting along just fine, but we suspect that perhaps everyone isn't really getting along as fine as they might seem, and from time to time we learn things that indicate that things are not all that fine at all.
The observant reader will undoubtedly have noticed that while I have been prevaricating about the bush I still have not quite got round to actually stating our point in all this; and so, I suppose, I had better come to the particulars in mind. But how best to begin to describe it? Have you ever noticed that the United States is certainly blessed with churches, that there is quite literally almost a church on every corner, and yet somehow, America keeps slipping downward in almost every sociologically measurable way and many ways not measured? Indeed, Western Civilization is clearly slipping, although I myself can't claim to know whether there is a church on every corner throughout the West.
It is our contention that there is a definite reason for this decline, and the definite reason is the declined condition of the so-called Church, and that at least a very large portion of the reason for the decline of the so-called Church is that it simply does not take the Bible very seriously as our guide to life and church practice, although it thinks, on the whole, that it takes the Bible very seriously. Put another way; Walk into any church, ask how many believe the Bible is our inerrant guide, and almost all hands will go up. Yet, show them a clear contradiction between church practice and the Bible, and you are now being legalistic. We believe that every church is called to follow clear New Testament teaching and example, yet we know of no church that gives that serious consideration. And in the no-mans-land between the two, real people are getting hurt.
Now what do we mean that God's people do not take the Bible very seriously while they think they take it very seriously? Depending upon exactly which church you walk into, you will see a church functioning according to traditions that are normally anywhere from 400 to 10 years old, but maybe as new as the latest book from Rick Warren (or whomever). These traditions may be brand new or only a decade old, and they may be spread all over the rainbow from one another, but churches by and large do not give a fig about how it was done in the New Testament if that clashes with the established tradition. And regarding exactly this sort of thing, in Jeremiah 2:13 God says, "For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and hewn themselves cisterns—broken cisterns that can hold no water." (NKJV)
In our case, we have forsaken the traditions of Jesus and the Apostles – traditions from God if the NT is to be believed – and made for ourselves newer, shinier, man-made traditions. Now folks, granted we can't be absolutely certain about some of the fine details of New Testament church life, but by and large the New Testament scriptures paint a pretty good picture of the shape and form of the early church, and it looks quite a bit different from the post-NT church of any era.
Nevertheless, with all these concerns in mind we do not enter into this blog lightly, but with sober consideration and a sense of duty – duty, I say, toward our fellow man, of course; but especially toward our Brothers and Sisters in Christ (oftentimes known as "the church"); but particularly toward our God, first and foremost above all. The only issue yet to be seen is the Cause is that Impels us to this Separation – to borrow from Jefferson. Well, in point of fact this Separation is a wound already a few years scarred over by now. And though, in truth, mankind are more disposed to pack things away in boxes under the bed and try to ignore them while ignorance is possible, this is simply not the sort of thing that stays put in a box under the bed very well. In fact, it's much more like our two-year-old who is very prone to letting himself out of his bed and waiting quietly but insistently beside our bed with his blank-blank at inconvenient times like 1:00, 2:34, and 4:43 in the morning. Or sometimes waiting not-so-quietly. But either way you have to deal with him somehow. So I guess we're just tired of continually trying to keep this thing quiet enough for us to get back to sleep.
I do want to be very clear up front that we your humble servants certainly do not claim to have all the answers – or even all the questions – regarding this unquiet issue, but what we do claim to have is an important point of information that, like the story of the Emperor's New Clothes, should be obvious to all, only somehow it just does not seem to be. And if you bring it up it isn't generally very well received – as though perhaps we are somehow at fault; or as if there is some particular virtue in pretending that it isn't true – a virtue which I am afraid seems not to be in our possession – and some particular vice for so lacking in social graciousness as to discuss it out loud where people might hear you. Certainly some well meaning brothers and sisters in Christ have indicated that we simply ought not see such things – if we really love Jesus that is. And I am afraid to say that at times we may have tried to take this advice. Certainly we have wondered at times if there isn't actually something wrong with us, as everyone else seems to be getting along just fine, but we suspect that perhaps everyone isn't really getting along as fine as they might seem, and from time to time we learn things that indicate that things are not all that fine at all.
The observant reader will undoubtedly have noticed that while I have been prevaricating about the bush I still have not quite got round to actually stating our point in all this; and so, I suppose, I had better come to the particulars in mind. But how best to begin to describe it? Have you ever noticed that the United States is certainly blessed with churches, that there is quite literally almost a church on every corner, and yet somehow, America keeps slipping downward in almost every sociologically measurable way and many ways not measured? Indeed, Western Civilization is clearly slipping, although I myself can't claim to know whether there is a church on every corner throughout the West.
It is our contention that there is a definite reason for this decline, and the definite reason is the declined condition of the so-called Church, and that at least a very large portion of the reason for the decline of the so-called Church is that it simply does not take the Bible very seriously as our guide to life and church practice, although it thinks, on the whole, that it takes the Bible very seriously. Put another way; Walk into any church, ask how many believe the Bible is our inerrant guide, and almost all hands will go up. Yet, show them a clear contradiction between church practice and the Bible, and you are now being legalistic. We believe that every church is called to follow clear New Testament teaching and example, yet we know of no church that gives that serious consideration. And in the no-mans-land between the two, real people are getting hurt.
Now what do we mean that God's people do not take the Bible very seriously while they think they take it very seriously? Depending upon exactly which church you walk into, you will see a church functioning according to traditions that are normally anywhere from 400 to 10 years old, but maybe as new as the latest book from Rick Warren (or whomever). These traditions may be brand new or only a decade old, and they may be spread all over the rainbow from one another, but churches by and large do not give a fig about how it was done in the New Testament if that clashes with the established tradition. And regarding exactly this sort of thing, in Jeremiah 2:13 God says, "For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and hewn themselves cisterns—broken cisterns that can hold no water." (NKJV)
In our case, we have forsaken the traditions of Jesus and the Apostles – traditions from God if the NT is to be believed – and made for ourselves newer, shinier, man-made traditions. Now folks, granted we can't be absolutely certain about some of the fine details of New Testament church life, but by and large the New Testament scriptures paint a pretty good picture of the shape and form of the early church, and it looks quite a bit different from the post-NT church of any era.
It is our simple contention that if we Christians love God and believe that the Bible is His word, it shouldn't look that different, and, more importantly, it doesn't have to.
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