Ignorance Isnt Bliss

Yesterday I watched an interview with the pastor of Amazing Grace Baptist Church in Canton, NC from my local NBC affiliate.  In this interview he stated that his Church is having a "book burning" on Halloween where they would be burning "satanic books".  Sounds weird...not something I would do...but, to each his own...right?

Wrong...

Then he started listing off some of the main items they would be burning which includes EVERY VERSION OF THE BIBLE OTHER THAN THE KING JAMES VERSION.  Yes, you heard it right, this guy and the rest of his "flock" are going to burn bibles, because they believe that the only true inspired word of God is one released in 1611 for the Church of England and commissioned by King James I.

Like I have stated here many times, I grew up in a rather conservative culture - one with tons and tons of copies of the KJV - the bible I took to college was a KJV (although, it quickly gathered dust in place of my NIV).  For many years the KJV was the only readily accessible translation of God's word and many, many people have come to know the Lord using it as their guide.  I do not believe there is anything really wrong with the KJV if you prefer it, then use it - wear the pages out - that is awesome...

However, what I do have a big problem with are people that condemn others for using anything but that version of the bible.  For me, the decision is easy, the New International Version (NIV), is accurate (over 100 scholars worked for over 10 years on it), and easy to read and understand and it has held up well over the years as a reliable bible version.  There are still very many people that prefer the KJV and I embrace them, because it is God's word.

Marc Grizzard, however, is a different story.  Not only does he prefer the KJV, he believes it is the only true interpretation of the bible and that the others are works of Satan.  Then he get's his face on the news and the next thing you know it goes "viral" and thousands of people get to hear his ignorant message.  To some non-Christians, he becomes the face of Christianity.

Mr. Grizzard, I wish you would shut up and keep you lunatic ravings to yourself and your hand-full of followers - burn your bibles and whatever else you need to keep you fire going and do it next to your Church building and be quiet.

I do have one question...did the apostles carry the Thompson Chain-Reference edition or just a simple Zondervan Study Bible in the 1st century?

Social Networking and The Church Part 1

I'm working on a proposal for managing Social Networking at my Church... I thought I would just let if fly here while I'm working... Silly me...

Communication is critical to success in life – this is nothing new. If you don’t think so, historians around the world believe that one of the greatest achievements in the last 1000 years is Gutenberg’s printing press in or around 1440. It’s interesting to realize that the one of the first things ever printed in Europe was The Bible. Communication was coming out of the “dark ages”, but no one then would have dreamed where that first book would take us.

Fast forward about 569 years and the world is very different, how we communicate has changed a great deal, but our need to communicate is stronger than ever. If there was anyone in Gutenberg’s time that thought what was happening wasn’t important they have long since been forgotten. One of the reasons that the movable printing press was so important in the course of history was that it allowed information to reach people that had no way of getting it before. Now, more common people had a chance to own a copy of God’s word or some other important communication, to read for on their own. 569 years later we take communication for granted, we don’t just like it – we expect it, we crave it and we live for it.

Gutenberg’s printing press was “bleeding edge technology” – I can only imagine those around him clamoring to find out what was next, how it worked and how they could get in on the action – just like some of us do with technology today. Technology is a word that we throw around a great deal in our society and when we do with often put the technology before the purpose behind it (“form over function”). When we do that we often get into trouble and the message get’s lost and our credibility disappears with it which then affects our effectiveness of spreading God’s word. Christ would want us to be as effective as possible with our marching orders in Matthew 28:19,10

“go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you”

using every tool available to us and using those tools in such a way as to allow us to be successful in spreading His “good news”.

Knowing this, we need to be diligent, careful and creative with the communication tools at our disposal in order to be as effective as possible in our mission to tell the world about the good news of Christ.

Bumper Sticker II

The other day I was driving down the road and saw another interesting bumper sticker.

On the surface, this bumper sticker seems completely harmless and even a bit good, but the more I thought about it the more it disturbed me.

It was one of those oval stickers that mimics the OBX stickers but gives support for something else other than the Outer Banks. This one, too, was just three letters...

KJV

For those of you that may not know, KJV stand for King James Version. It is a version of the Bible. Now I am not a fan of that version for a number of reasons, but I also have no real issues with the version itself. It has brought the gospel message to millions of people over the years.

What bothers me is the attitude that comes from putting "KJV" on the back of your car.

Yes, it's a harmless support for God's word, but if you wanted to share your support for God's word then why not just have these three letters? G, O, D, or only two... J, C, or put one of those fish symbols on your car (you know the one's that the early Christians used to identify each other by drawing them in the dirt...).

By putting KJV on your car you do the following, you confuse those that have no idea what KJV means, you exclaim to the world that the version of YOUR Bible is more important than the message in it and you condemn those that don't use KJV by choosing sides that were not meant to be drawn.

I grew up with King James, I read it in my youth
I read it in my Sunday school, It's how I learned the truth
Learning to decipher Elizabethan voice
Newer versions came along and now I have a choice!

Growin' up with King James
Learning "thees" and "thous"
Learning the unwritten rules that the church allows
Growin' up with King James
Hard to understand what the language means to me
Say who is this man? King James

Back when it was brand new the lingo it was prime
It's safe to say that century was way before my time
When it comes to versions, which is the one for me?
I can honestly declare, It's not the KJV!

No, we are not sayin' The KJV is bad
Countless souls came to the Lord
The only choice they had
If you're tryin' to tell me that's it's the only one
That would mean Jehovah God would be an Englishman

"Growin' Up With King James" - Keith Lancaster

"...Unless you speak intelligible words with your tongue, how will anyone know what you are saying? You will just be speaking into the air. Undoubtedly there are all sorts of languages in the world, yet none of them is without meaning. If then I do not grasp the meaning of what someone is saying, I am a foreigner to the speaker, and he is a foreigner to me." 1 Corinthians 14:9-11

Pintel and Ragetti

Pintel - "What are you talking about, you can't read"
Ragetti - "It's the Bible, you get credit for trying!"
Pirates of the Caribbean - Dead Man's Chest

What an interesting thought...

Lightbulb! (or "Church of Christ Glasses")

In cartoons, when someone has an idea they get a lightbulb over their head shining with inspiration or revelation. That happened to me Sunday morning during Bible class...I just wish I could say that it was inspiration that prompted the light.

In this case, it was revelation...

The teacher (which happens to be one of our evangelists) was leading us in a study of 1 Timothy 2:9-15.

"I also want women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or expensive clothes, but with good deeds, appropriate for women who profess to worship God.

A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner. But women will be saved through childbearing–if they continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety.

He read the scripture and then asked for comments. A man behind me said something to the effect of; women were new at this. They had not been able to participate in worship and Paul was instructing them on how to conduct themselves as they did it. I added that Paul, throughout his ministry, was a major advocate of freeing women of spirtual bondage. I also added that women of that time could be married or sell themselves, those were their options. They were not allowed to even speak to men in public. Women, unlike men, did not have experience in public worship, Paul was telling women the same thing that men of that time already knew.

The teacher quickly, (and politely) told me he did not agree with me. He re-read the scripture and just stated that women were supposed to be silent in public worship. He even agreed that the Bible tells us that women prayed and prophesied in the name of the Lord, but that this passage tells them to be quiet in worship.

At this point, if I were a cartoon character, the lightbulb would have appeared over my head.

All of my life, I have used the Bible to prove what I have been taught at Church. Whenever I opened it up I corrupted God's message by reading it through "Church of Christ Glasses". If I could read a passage and prove something that someone had told me in Bible Class or at Church then it must be true! The teacher was just doing the same thing. I shouldn't be upset (even though I was a little) or mad, but try to help him by influencing him over time. I was were he was for a long time.

It comes from years of practice and has been honed to a perfectly tuned machine.

It's Christmas!

As I have said before, I grew up attending the Church of Christ. This time of year has always been a bit...confusing as a Christian. What's so confusing about Christmas to a Christian? Well, "for the record" the Church of Christ does not celebrate Christmas.

Specifically, we do not celebrate Christmas as a "religious holiday". Momentarily going back to the basics for our beliefs, the phrase "speak where the Bible speaks and silent where the Bible is silent" is thrown around a lot. (Actually, there is some inconsistency in this phrase and how we use it, but that is for another time) Nowhere in the Bible does God tell us to celebrate Christ's birth. There are no examples of such a celebration in the first century Church, no references to such and no command. We are told to celebrate his death and we are given an example of such a celebration happening every first day of the week. So that's what we do.

There are the facts about how the Church of Christ (officially) sees Christmas. In practice, things get a bit wierd.

As a boy and a young adult, I was very adamant about Christmas. It was a man-made event, not authorized by God and therefore not to be acknowedged in our Church or our worship. The name "Christmas" comes from the term "Christ Mass" a special mass from the Catholic Church. My feelings about this bordered on irrational. How so? Let me give you a couple examples.

As a song leader I would never dream of leading songs relating to Christ's birth during the holiday season. Also, whenever (inevitably) someone else lead one of these songs, I would get up and leave. I felt that if we did what the "Catholics" did, then how would the "unchurched" differentiate us? I felt that we needed to be different from the rest of the world that gave lip service to praising God by going twice a year (Christmas and Easter). One ugly side of this is that songs about the birth of Christ are rarely ever sung in our services. Why would you want to sing "Silent Night" in July? The answer is that there is nothing wrong with it, in fact if songs about Christ's birth were standard fare in our Churches, then there would be no problem with singing them during the holiday season.

Also, even though we celebrated Christmas at home there was to be no religious symbolism. That means, no angels on the tree, or stars and especially no nativity scenes (I still don't like those).

So, why celebrate Christmas? The simple answer is because everyone else does, the ironic thing is that this same response answers the question of why we DON'T celebrate Christ's birth around Christmas. It wasn't until I started to stop and look around that this hit me in the face, and that's when I started asking questions...

Here's what I know (and what I don't). Christ was not born on December 25th. Yeah, so what. I don't really know of anyone that really and truly believes that. "Christmas" is a man-made holiday. I used to think that many religions saw it as a religious holiday, that's where I was wrong (even though there are some that do). "Christmas" as we know it is really different that it used to be. Now, it just one of many holidays during our "Holiday Season".

So, the big question for me is "what is so wrong about recognizing Christ's birth on December 25th?" Honestly, I'm having a hard time holding on to my old answers to that question. Yes, God did not command us to celebrate his birth, however...

HE sure made a big deal about it. Take a look at Matthew sometime and tell me he didn't want us to remember his birth. Every word in the Bible is God-breathed and there for a purpose. That's one of the reasons we study it so often (or should) and intently. Since every word comes from God himself, it's an extremely important form of communication with and praise to God. If he didn't want us to know about Christ's birth of if he thought that it was not important, then why did he devote so much space to it in the Bible and, more importantly, why was it so wonderfully miraculous!

There are many examples in our relationship with God and our worship and service to him that displays our own personality into what he set forth. I don't remember anything about using song books in the new testament, he didn't tell us to meet on Wednesdays to study the bible and have an "invitation", he didn't tell us to spend Church funds to buy softball uniforms, the list goes on. Most of us (almost all of us) have no problem with these man-made infusions of personality into our worship to God.

So, for me, I am an old dog that is learning a new trick, a mule that is finally starting to move, the stick in the mud that is wiggling it's way out. I am embracing Christmas for what it is, a man-made celebration of the miracle of Christ's birth. It's not nearly as important as his death, but one comes before the other and his birth WAS miraculous, wonderful and God-given. Praise God, Christ was born!

"Church Music" - Part III ... anyway....

Like I said, music has defined us. There are Instrumental and Non-Instrumental Churches of Christ (CofC). My guess is that (in general) those that worship at an Instrumental CofC would have little problem worshipping with those at a Non-Instrumental CofC, but that the opposite would not be true. It has become what we talk about, what we worry about, what we pray about and what we fight about.

Why does something discussed so little in the Bible take up so much or our time? Whole books, sermons and bible classes are devoted to it. Articles in Christian magazines put their "two cents" in. Over what?

Meanwhile, our kids listen, our members listen...our vistors listen. What many of them hear is "WE HAVE IT RIGHT AND THEY DON'T - THEY ARE GOING TO HELL". Yep, you just told the daughter that her mother who goes to the Church down the street is going to hell, the teenager that his friends as school are going to hell, that if someone brought a musical instrument into this building they would...well you get the picture. It's not very pretty, is it?

Meanwhile, we forget that we are bombarded everyday by images, words, lyrics and other forms of stimulus that have much more impact on our lives than whether or not there is a piano in our Church building or that someone clapped during a song. We are concerning ourselves with the splinter in our finger while the whole tree is falling on us!

Let's stop being so paranoid about instrumental music in our worship and start ministering to each other. We all hurt and we all just want to be closer to our God.

I think part of this is a generational thing, more on that in the next chapter...(did you think I was done?)

"Church Music" - Part I

I want to talk about a topic that brings fear and cringing to most Christians that attend Churches of Christ. Music.

Specifically ACappella vs. Instrumental. ACappella, is simply translated as "Church music", but has come to mean music without instrumental accompaniment. But, even that definition is not enough for some. For some, even a human voice (or hand or other body part) that mimics an instrument is no longer ACappella music. For such people, mimicking a bass or creating a beat (for example) defies the spirit of the idea of "Church Music".

On the other side we have something as simple as a Church that might use an organ or a piano along with congregational singing, then there are Choruses, all the way to full bands with electric guitars and drums. There is an organization here in our town that proclaims that they are "The Church That Rocks".

Speaking as someone that has spent his whole life singing ACappella music in worship to God, and in choruses in High School and College, at devotionals and even in a somewhat short-lived group, I feel uncomfortable with the idea of using an instrument (other than that which God gave me) to worship him in an assembly. For me, it's distracting and unnecessary, the human voice is beautiful and simple enough for our corporate praise to God.

The Church of Christ's stance (at least traditionally and generally) on this issue is that instrumental music is not commanded in the Bible, nor is there a New Testament example of any Church using instruments in their corporate worship. It's really that simple, the Bible doesn't mention it, so we don't do it. Actually, the idea of instrumental accompaniment is rather new, only for the last few centuries have Churches used instruments in corporate worship to God, so those that would try to use the Bible to explicitly show that we should use an instrument in corporate worship would be foolish, it's not there. It is truly a man-contrived addition to what God established....

However, so are song books...and, Nurseries....and, Bible Classes...and, V.B.S...and, "pew Bibles".

(I originally called this "Let's Get This Over With...", but I decided to change the name to reflect what it was actually talking about)