Wednesday, December 23, 2020

Church of Christ Doctrine

Church of Christ doctrine is a meadow of sacred untouchable cows. They have not always been that way. The churches of Christ have been willing to adjust their thinking on numerous "doctrines" throughout its short history.

 1. The Churches of Christ were once universally tolerant of slavery. Churches appointed elders who were slave owners. Many preachers unabashedly advocated for the institution of slavery—race-based slavery! Today, most Christians believe it is a sin to own another person. The case for slavery is easy to make. It depends on a plain reading of scripture. Abolitionism is a difficult case to make. It requires a careful reading of scripture with a non-hermeneutical emphasis on God's character.

2. Amillennialism. The churches were almost universally premillennialist until the recent preaching of Foy Wallace and Jim McGuiggan. Those two change-agents moved the whole body of churches of Christ away from premillennialism.

3. Women's vote: The churches of Christ were universally against women voting on politics on the basis that (a) the man is the head of the household and (b) women are more easily deceived than men—as evidenced by Eve"s deception and Paul's mention of Eve's deception in several places. The church resisted the women's vote for decades after the right for the women's vote became law. The church slowly changed its view when it became abundantly clear that women are no more or less deceivable than men. Women are also equally able to excel academically as men. (An argument against the women's vote was that women were not able to achieve the level of academics that men can). 

The church has changed majorly in other non-doctrinal ways.

Sunday, April 26, 2020

Genesis 32: Be afraid


Genesis 32:6-7
The messengers returned to Jacob, saying, “We came to your brother Esau, and he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him.” Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed; and he divided the people that were with him, and the flocks and herds and camels, into two companies,...

Sometimes fear is a good thing. Being fearless is a character flaw. Being afraid is a strength. It can keep you out of trouble.

Saturday, April 25, 2020

Genesis 31: It is best not to think too highly of one's self

The theme of Jacob's life with Laban is that God gave Jacob the increase. Laban's actions had always been to try to personally profit from God's wealthy blessing of Jacob. We see in 31:14-15 that Laban had even spent his daughters' dowry on himself so that they had no inheritance to look forward to. The girls agreed that God had blessed Jacob and that Jacob did not get wealthy at Laban's expense. In this chapter, Jacob makes explicit that whatever is Jacob's is God's blessing.

Genesis 31:42
If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been on my side, surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed. God saw my affliction and the labor of my hands, and rebuked you last night.”

It seems that God had honored the bargain Jacob made back in chapter 28.

Genesis 28:20-22
Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, so that I come again to my father’s house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God, and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God’s house; and of all that you give me I will surely give one-tenth to you.”

It is important to note that God blesses different people in different ways and there are no guarantees of health and wealth to the faithful. God chose to bless Jacob the way God blessed him. We need to be careful to not boast improperly about whatever successes we experience by God's grace.

Romans 12:3
For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.