Now some of you are old hands at this but print this article out anyway and keep it handy in case you run into a new Christian or one that is getting all excited about the Bible. After all, we all know just how bothersome and tiresome God’s Law can be. I mean, hey, there are huge sections of Scripture that just don’t fit with our modern times and good solid evangelical culture.
So what we are going to do is find a New Testament verse and a way of interpreting it that will justify throwing out whole, huge sections of God’s Law, so as to really put the Old in “Old Testament” (and parts of the New). That way we can get on with our lives feeling quite good about doing what we want, with fitting in, and getting along, and not sticking out of the crowd.
Now the rules are that: a) you are not to question the interpretation of these handy-dandy verses, and b) don’t take “Old Testament” verses too seriously – always remember that they are old and thus by definition irrelevant to us.
- Now take anything the Bible has to say about food anywhere and just wrap it all in a bundle and tie it up with that vision Peter had with the blanket full of animals and throw the whole thing overboard. (Don’t keep reading on to the part where Peter gives the intepretation himself and it has nothing to do with food.)Now do you see how this works? Lets try another.
- There is a constant theme of patriarchy running through all of Scripture about how the man is the head of the woman, yada, yada, yada. Take that whole idea and then find that verse about how in Christ there is neither male nor female and flush that puppy down the tubes.How handy is that huh!?
- What about all the examples of patriarchs and godly men in Scripture as well as verses like Ex 21:10 that assume it is perfectly okay to have more than one wife? Just take the word ‘mia’ in the verses in Timothy about the qualifications for elders and deacons and translate it ‘one’ instead of ‘first’ and you can completely overturn God’s definition of family and adultery and restructure society along completely Greek lines of thinking and really put the nail in the patriarchy coffin.
- To get rid of any consideration of God’s Law at all there is always Matthew 19:8 where, if you squeeze your eyes together so everything gets blurry, you can imagine that Jesus is tossing out Moses on his ear and subsistuting a new and improved way of relating to our fellow man.Dandy, dandy, dandy.Some things don’t need a verse, but just a plausible sounding idea. Fool youself and pretend others buy it, all at the same time!
- Want to turn your kids over to God’s enemies to indoctrinate them into humanism and the worship of the state, while saving yourself the bother of homeschooling? How about this line: “My kids are missionaries to the lost kids in the public schools.”
This kind of thing is rampant throughout the church. In fact it would be shocking for the people in the pew to actually hear the straight forward word of God preached without any handy-dandy “now here is why this is irrelevant” papering over of whatever was just read. It is hard not to come to the conclusion that the institutional church has become so corrupted that its main purpose is to make sure no one actually knows what God says or does it.
But, like all problems, no matter how vexing, all of this is a nit. Because we all have one problem and it is quite a manageable one. It is God’s requirement that we obey His commandments, that we put them into action just like Jesus did and enabled us to do. All the other things that compete for our attention are God’s problems (Deut. 28: 1-14).
Of course, if you do not like making obedience to God’s LawWord your problem, He promises to give you other problems to worry about (Deut. 28:15-68).
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You put into words in a few paragraphs what I’ve been fumbling around for years to say. Brilliant and thank you.
In Christ,
Perry Pierce