One objection to leaving the church that Jacobsen did not discuss is the idea that not attending church is unsubmissive to leadership. I've been pondering this today, and looking at what the Bible has to say about it.
We are to select leaders of a certain kind: they should serve like Christ did, laying down their lives, with sincere love for the sheep; able to teach; their personal life should be in order--kids following God and not unruly, just one temperate wife who doesn't gossip, respected by outsiders, and not greedy, holding on to the core truth of the faith.
As these mature believers work among us, we are to respect and love them, valuing their service. We are to submit to them, obey what they say.
I can't find any evidence for the "covering" theory put forth by some teachers that say that the devil (or even God) will get you if aren't under the authority of a pastor or husband, so I won't worry about that (unless someone can show me scripture to the contrary). I guess as I read this, it looks very relational to me: if someone is laying down their life and giving you the benefit of their maturity and wisdom, treat them with the honor due them and listen to them. I can't really find how what our family has done in leaving church is unsubmissive.
The submission issue is very difficult. My husband was recently asked, "Do you think you know better than any one else what is true?" The implication was, "How arrogant to think for yourself!" Yet I can't fathom yielding the responsibility to search out truth. Why should I take another person's word for something? If it doesn't stand up to the Bible, if the Holy Spirit says it isn't so, if logic agrees that the concept is false, why shall I accept instead my pastor's word? Is that unsubmissive? Perhaps we have erred in "rebuking an older man harshly" and that is the disrespect we have made. Lord, make my heart truly humble and gentle and not just afraid of man.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Someone in the 1600's once said this... and I think it applies to the situation... "IN ESSENTIALS UNITY, IN NON-ESSENTIALS LIBERTY, IN ALL THINGS CHARITY".
I don't know all your history, but I hope the Pastor's you've faced and the one's you hopefully will face, will take the non-essential artifact of tithing and have liberty to disagree... as I hope you will too. If there a Pastor that is mandating your attendance to church on Tithing... grace to him cause he's missing out on a real cool family at his church. :) And if you are mandating that a pastor agrees with the non-essential artifact of tithing, grace to you cause your missing out on some really cool churches. (Totally not referring to ours.)
"IN ESSENTIALS UNITY, IN NON-ESSENTIALS LIBERTY, IN ALL THINGS CHARITY".
Ugh, if only you knew how I hate this quote! It means to me, "You are overreacting, our differences don't matter, and who cares what is really true? Let's just be nice." I don't mean that towards you, of course, that is baggage from the past.
It really does matter if what we believe is true. Notice that I'm not saying that being right matters--we need to know what is true, whoever believes it or says it, we need to embrace it and pursue it together. Truth will make us free and error will bind us. If I'm wrong about tithing, then maybe I'm not going to get blessed the way I might. If you are wrong about tithing, maybe you're not even saved. I don't know where God draws that line. Bottom line is, we really need to know what scripture says on this. Not on tithing, but on what the new covenant is and how we are to live.
Preaching tithing in a way that says "this is God's will, because the bible says so, and you're going to get it if you don't participate" is a departure from the gospel of grace. I don't mean that God no longer cares what we do, or that morality has shifted, but the way we are to decide what is right *is* different. We don't have the liberty to grab a bible quote and guide our behavior by it. There is something inherently self-reliant and independent in that. And tithing, as embraced at LWF is totally that way.
I know you believe that we now live in the way of the Spirit and not the law. But the church has chosen this convenient exception to that. In this case, we aren't to listen to the Spirit and obey Him, but we should go back to the book and follow the code. Because what if the Spirit didn't tell us to pay the pastor and keep the lights on?
If we must tithe, I think we should do it Biblically:
Deut 14:23-27
3 Eat the tithe of your grain, new wine and oil, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks in the presence of the LORD your God at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name, so that you may learn to revere the LORD your God always. 24 But if that place is too distant and you have been blessed by the LORD your God and cannot carry your tithe (because the place where the LORD will choose to put his Name is so far away), 25 then exchange your tithe for silver, and take the silver with you and go to the place the LORD your God will choose. 26 Use the silver to buy whatever you like: cattle, sheep, wine or other fermented drink, or anything you wish. Then you and your household shall eat there in the presence of the LORD your God and rejoice."
I'll be there with my beer as soon as this is preached! Seriously, the choice of preaching instead from Malacai when speaking of tithing is a pragmatically motivated return to law. Law is defined as "fulfillthe standard and get the goodies, or the slap if you fail" And that is exactly what is preached regarding tithing. This is the essence of the gospel and the heart of the walk of faith, and it does not seem to me to be optional or non-essential. We must understand the depth of the gift of Christ. We must understand the mechanism of the New Life we've been offered.
And I mean that in all charity.
hehe I'm still waiting for my grain and cattle. Any day now.
:)
Post a Comment