Monday, July 24, 2006

Circular Reasoning II - "The Mob"

In my first post about circular reasoning ("Burn the Witch!") there was an angry mob. They already knew what they wanted, they just wanted confirmation from some higher authority to do it.

Years ago, I had my first experience with this...

After my own personal study and discussions with people that had done much more Bible studying than I had, I came to a simple conclusion. There is no biblical requirement to have an invitation after every time we meet. I was filling in for an adult class at the Church I was attending and we were discussing worship. When I suggested that there was no command in scripture to have an invitation at the end of every worship I was quickly reprimanded in public, including an entire Sunday morning sermon on the topic and it was a while before I was able to teach again.

The explanation that the preacher gave was that because Peter gave an invitation at the end of his sermon on the day of Pentecost, then we needed to do it...all the time. Here we go...since we have always had an invitation at the end of every sermon or worship period, and since we are people that believe that the Bible is completely true and infallible then we must find support for this practice in the Bible. So, since Peter did it on the day of Pentecost, that's good enough for me.

Yes, it is good enough for me too. It means that we have an example to do such a thing, but not a command to do it all the time. It's putting the cart before the horse, counting your chickens before they are hatched, waking your spouse to ask them if they are sleeping...

We can't use the Bible to confirm our own expectations. When we do that, we diminish the true power of God's word...to transform us into what He wants...not what we think he wants.

"And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect God's glory, are being
transformed into his likeness with ever increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirt."
2 Corinthians 3:18

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"...Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit." 2 Corinthians 3:7-18