"Can", "Can not", "Should", "Should not": of such issues, there are as many opinions as there are people. Mankind is noteworthy for its erroneous beliefs. It is common knowledge that man often ascribes to scripture things that are simply not there: quotes from ‘Poor Richard’s Almanac’, for instance. Man, also, has a propensity to believe a thing because he feels it strongly: (after all, he thinks, it must be true - I felt it!).
When my thoughts turn to these matters, as my mind is want to do, I am reminded within my spirit that nowhere in the Bible does God say "Come, let us emote together" - and I do not mean to point this saying at those Christians who know their salvation by way of an emotional experience (:in the absence of reason, men often resort to feelings), but I would like to make it plain to a people whose system of belief has become overly effeminate, That the Living God did say "Come, let us reason together".
People believe that God is love, and that would do them well if they really understood love, but the same scripture also tells them that God is a man of war. People believe in Christ’s advocacy for the ‘little children’, and this is right, but it is usually used secondarily, that is - to rationalize their feelings about abortion.
The God that Jesus prayed to in the new testament was the same God that in the old testament sent the chosen people into the pagan lands commanding them to slaughter all. The people of God were under injunction to kill old, young, male, female, children, and even the unborn still in the womb. People believe that an all-seeing God cannot look upon sin. That is like their belief that God cannot lie. Yet, God sent an angel, as a lying spirit, into one armed camp of an old testament confrontation, causing them to lose.
People also use these same erroneous, effeminized, emotional beliefs, like a blunt club, against their own kind. One will say of the other, if he was a Christian, he would do thus and thus; or, one will say to the other, if you don’t do it the way I am used to seeing it done then you are wrong. And really, how much of the language of peer pressure is the communication of an unapproving glance, or a turning away, or even a hesitation?
The contemporary Christian ‘way’ has come down to modern times through centuries of ‘monkey-see-monkey-do’ custom: "...teaching for doctrines the commandments of men". Contemporary religion is pretty much what contemporary man wants it to be. It is the church as a building and as a place in time; it is the well ordered - modular - service; it is a congregation that worships the richly dressed preacher with plentiful ‘amens’.
Those of us who practice our faith rather than works, live under pressure from those above us, for like the medaled military general; like the double-vested business baron, the preacher has gotten papers to hang on his wall; has gotten power over others.
On the other hand, living one’s faith (or, abiding in the truth) can be likened to a house with many rooms: while you may always reside in the same house, that is not to say that you are always in the same room. Jesus did not describe the faithful as stolid attendees of the same building, and the same hour, and the same day - that is a tradition of man. Rather, Jesus described His own in terms of the unseen, spontaneous wind - known in its passing, and its tree shaking propensity.
Not even the sermons in a contemporary church show the spontaneity of the Holy Ghost, but are pieced together from the sermons and commentaries of those who have preached, and commented before. Books are printed and sold that are filled with nothing but prefabricated, ready-to-use sermons.
People learn, sans the true understanding, by doing the thing. The contemporary Christian church is a sect of mimickers, who do what they have seen others do. They are trapped in a loop - preaching salvation to the saved, and revival to the revived. But, where are those zephyr -like, spiritually mature ones who have graduated past the milk of the Word to the meat of maintenance?
There are spiritual matters that we need to be learning now, but who will teach us? - certainly not the contemporary. He will stand before you in his fine, expensive suit - as if that was the insignia of his social rank - and his shiny Florshiems and Rolex look-alike - as if such accessories made him appear more humble and down to earth - and he will teach you to be ever so sweet natured and ineffectual. His stock sermons will begin and end with the gathering of his flock, the maintenance of his pulpit, and the well funded continuation of his work.
Let me clarify an important, and as yet unspoken point: I do not see the contemporary Christian as a rival, or as an enemy. The Bible tells us that God’s ways are equal; it does not automatically follow that God has adopted an ‘across-the-board’ policy.
Man desires a single answer to the many questions he bears like a cross. This can be seen in man’s attempts to deal with his brothers and sisters; it can be seen in law, as well as the casual gem of wit, such as, ‘what’s good for the goose is good for the gander’.
It is clear that God deals with each issue based on its own merit.
Man, on the other hand, preaches a ‘personal savior’ to a faceless multitude. Man ultimately deals with man based on physical constants, such as: ‘motion follows the path of least resistance’.
God, on the other hand, says in the scripture 'Of some have compassion making a difference, others save with fear, pulling them from the fire, hating even to touch their garments spotted with the flesh'.
The word ‘pulling’ is a word of physical force akin to ‘yanking’ or ‘pushing’ or ‘kicking’. This latter group doesn’t even merit compassion, but is jerked up by the nape of the neck, like the wreckless guttersnipe you would just as soon throttle for good measure.
Man, too, in dealing with man, is admonished to avoid the simplistic, or across the board approach. Use compassion where compassion is right - anywhere else, it will be like casting your pearls before the swine.
Let it not be said, in all my bashing of the contemporary Christian, that I do not have compassion, for I, like a life guard, desire to save the drowning man - knowing full well that he will fight against his rescuer - and I would not see him bruised. But for those contemporary Christians that stand littering my beach, I would just as soon save them with a swift kick.
If we saw the beliefs of the contemporary Christian as a body that only exercised its big toe - how much atrophy would we note?
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