Sorting Out the Unsolvable

In the last couple of posts, I’ve asked, ‘What does it mean that the Kingdom is here on earth?’  What does it mean to the way I think and act?  We then looked at the history of modern thought and it’s impact on thinking in the church of Christ.  Particularly, we considered the mentality that through hard work and ‘right thinking’ we can solve everything.

This brings us to line drawing.  I think everyone would agree that when it comes to line drawing, there are God’s Lines, and there are ‘my lines’.  The problem is that none of us can agree where one ends and the other begins.

It is also clear that our past factors into the drawing of lines as well.  Think back to our last post about the modern assumption that we can solve everything.  This mentality continues to plague the church today.  The problem with this view is that it is short-sighted.  It is easy for us to see that people were short-sighted when they said that World War 1 would ‘end all wars’, or when politicians say that some program will ‘end poverty’.  Can we see the same thing when we naively believe that we can draw a line and say to ourselves,’That settles that, we’ll never have to think about that again!’  Again, we display our naivety and shortsightedness, when we claim to ‘hold to the old ways/paths’.  We typically say that to mean, ‘we hold to the way of the NT church.’; but what we are actually doing is holding to the way of our grandfathers.

So, for example, I meet with a church, who meets in a building, sings four-part Acapella harmony, and meets twice on Sunday.   There is no evidence, nor reason to believe, that the NT church met in buildings, sung modern four-part harmony, or even that they met twice on Sunday.  Meeting in a building can be traced to the fourth/fifth century A.D., and the other two can be traced to about 100-150 years ago.  I thus conclude that these are not God’s lines, but men’s, and are thus, arbitrary.  Does this make them wrong or bad?

Now, here’s where you can determine whether your mindset is modernist or post-modernist! haha!  A modernist says, ‘My lines are NOT arbitrary, I can PROVE that they are right!’  A post-modernist says, ‘ALL lines are arbitrary, so we shouldn’t draw ANY lines at all!’  I believe both of these view points to be faulty.  The modernist is wrong to try to bind her views on those who see things differently, and the post-modernist is foolish when he says there are no lines.

Let’s focus in on Acapella vs. instrumental music.  I do not use musical instruments when I praise God.  Do I have good reasons for this?  Absolutely, I’d be happy to share them with you if you like.  Included in these reasons, is that I see no evidence of the NT church using instruments.  But, is my line arbitrary?  YES!  I don’t sing like they did in the NT.  I use some modern ‘helps’ to sing with my brothers and sisters.   Can we not do something in full conviction and clean conscious before God, without feeling we have to force everyone else to do it my way?

‘But Ed’, you protest, “We have to ’stand for the truth’!”  Of course we do.  But in the above example, were I to fight with someone about this, am I standing for truth, or standing for my line?  Again, I understand the need for lines and respect that, but let’s be realistic.

Is the goal to do things just like the NT church did?  I don’t see how that can possibly be the goal!  It doesn’t seem to me that God particularly cares that we try to do this.  If He did, wouldn’t he have at least bothered to record a detailed account of a worship service somewhere in the NT?  It seems, in the OT, when God had specific things that He wanted, He was quite capable of being REALLY specific about them.  Did you ever ask yourself why we don’t see this in Acts, or one of the letters to the churches?  There are many things in the NT that God clearly does feel are important, and He is quite clear about these!

Some groups deride others for codifying their beliefs and saying, ‘This is what we, as a group, believe, teach, and expect of our followers.’  But are we any different, when we dissect and pull apart the NT, so that we can come up with a code of conduct and belief that we then try to enforce on those around us?

In the end, all such wrangling does nothing more than distract us from our true goal as followers of the Christ.  Modernists squabble and debate over where the line goes and endlessly chase their own tail in the process.  Post-modernists, rightly, reject this, but wrongly, do nothing and seek escape in the nearest distraction.  Christians must follow Christ!

We seek to follow a Christ who rejected Pharisaical bickering that placed their interpretations on equal par with the word of God.  This same Christ rejected the philosophical Stoicism and Epicureanism of the Greco-Roman society that ignored the will of God. This Christ espoused a path of love and submission, not knowledge and power-grabbing.

Must we draw lines?  Yes, of course, we must.  I must decide in my heart what my conscious will allow, and what I can’t participate in.  I don’t decide this based on some ‘inward journey’ to find ‘what’s right for me’!  I decide this by looking at God’s will with a desire to know what He is saying, not a desire to get Him to back up what I’ve already decided.  So I look at God’s word, base my life on the teachings I find there, and draw some lines in the process.  But, I do this in humility, understanding that some of my lines are personal decisions.  I do this without despising the brother that God has accepted. I do this remembering the very strong condemnations that Jesus, Paul, and the rest of the NT reserve for those who bind what God hasn’t bound, and who live with a combative, divisive attitude.

And so, finally, we come to the Cross, wondering how all of this will play out.  How will God fulfill the mission of unity, freedom, and redemption in the Cross of Christ?  How will I and my fellow believers achieve these things here on earth through the path of our Savior?  I would like for us to continue to explore this together in future posts.

Again, I must say a word of thanks to you all for joining me on this journey.  I very much appreciate your words of encouragement, and your hard questions.  I make no claims to be absolutely right about all this, quite the contrary, I openly confess that I am struggling to work all of this out.  If you disagree, or have questions, I invite you to share them with me.

Love to you all!

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