The Bulletin
of the
Church of Christ at
New Georgia
Tim Johnson, editor
February 15, 2004
In
This Issue:
Hand-me-down
Religion
by
Steve Klein
God's
End Product
by
Dan Shipley
Hand-me-down Religion
Why are you a Christian? Why not a Catholic, a Baptist or a Methodist? Why not a Buddhist? Most people are what they are religiously because it was handed down to them by their parents or their culture. If parental or cultural influences are removed or altered by historical events, most folks will adopt whatever religion is prevalent and accessible. All this appears to be human nature, but that does not make it right or excusable. A true Christian is someone who gives up what has been handed down from men in order to comply with what has been handed down from heaven.
On more than one occasion, religious people have indicated to me that they believe "hand-me-down" religion is acceptable to God. The Buddhist in China, the Hindu in India, the Lutheran in Germany, the Episcopa-lian in England, the Catholic in Italy and the Baptist, Methodist or Pente-costal in America are suppos-edly all in the same boat of salva-tion. Some think God would be asking too much of humans if He expected us to break family ties and overcome barriers of culture and language to be saved.
There may have been a time when the religion of one's culture was good enough. Perhaps before Christ came even the non-Jew who lived a moral life was acceptable (cf. Romans 2:14-15, Jonah 3-4). But God did not send His Son to the cross so that we could all continue in the religions handed down to us. Peter wrote, "You were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ" (1 Peter 1:17-18a). As another translation puts it, the blood of Christ was shed to re-deem you "from your vain manner of life handed down from your fathers" (ASV, I Peter 1:17).
The fact is that people all over the world, whose religion is merely hand-me-down, really ARE all in the same boat -- and it is sinking! They all need to repent and serve God on His terms. "Truly, these times of ignor-ance God over-looked, but now commands ALL MEN EVERYWHERE to repent, because He has appointed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained" (Acts 17:30-31).
by Steve Klein
Most everyone soon learns about the rela-tionship between cause and effect, even if by another name. To the cook, for instance, it may be the relationship between the recipe and the pie. That special apple pie is the result (effect) of mixing certain ingredients in certain propor-tions and baking according to instructions. Only that recipe makes that pie. Even the most conscientious cook could not produce an apple pie by following a hushpuppy recipe - or, even by partly using the right recipe. Any alteration of the recipe necessarily alters the end product. The same is true with the seamstress who knows cause and effect as pattern and dress or with the builder who knows it as blueprint and house. They all well understand that personal prefer-ences and optionals cannot be substituted for explicit instructions in making that pie, dress, or house. At least, we hope they understand it when we engage them to do work for us!
Accordingly, in the spiritual realm we see cause and effect in the gospel and the Christian. This important and fundamental truth is set forth in the Bible under several different figures. First, in the parable of the sower (Luke 8), the seed is identified as the word of God (v. 11), which, when received into the honest and good heart', achieves its God-intended purpose. Only the pure word of God can produce that fruit-bearing child of God; that kind of character God wants in man. The sowing determines the reaping. Mixing the creeds and opinions of uninspired men with God's pure gospel is bound to result in less than that man God wants.
In another sense, God's word is a pattern for men to live by. As Moses was admonished to "make all things according to the pattern" (Hebrews 8:5), so must God's will be the pattern for our spiritual service. All that God says about how men are to be saved, for instance, is God's pattern for saving men. That pattern includes faith, repentance, confession and baptism (Mark 16: 15, 16; Acts 2:38; 8:36, 37; 22: 16). Following this divine pattern produces saved men. Chang-ing the pattern changes the result, just as with the recipe and the blueprint. Further, all that men can know about what pleases God in worship is found on the pages of the New Testament - and all the New Testament says on the subject comprises the divine pattern for worship, nothing more and nothing less. That pattern includes preaching, singing, praying, giving and partaking of the Lord's Supper (Acts 20:7; Ephesians 5:19; 1 Timothy 2:1,2; 1 Corinthians 16: 1 ,2). This is God's blueprint for worship and must be followed if God is to be truly honored.
When Paul writes of the Romans being obedient to "that form of teaching whereunto ye were delivered," he pictures the gospel (teaching) as the mold or cast (tupos) into which the obedient is "poured" by submission to be shaped into a Christ-like character. Thus, following God's pattern conforms men to His Son's image (Romans 8:29) and makes them to be partakers of the divine nature (2 Peter.l:4). The honest and good-hearted man knows that he cannot direct his own steps (Jeremiah 10:23) and so yields himself to walk by faith and in so doing becomes the fruition of God's eternal purpose, complete in Christ.
-- by Dan S. Shipley