Why do we tithe again? Seriously. Aside from running to Genesis, Leviticus, Malachi and Hebrews, what grounds do we have to ask any one today, removed from Temple worship and affairs, to tithe? How can we possibly lay this at the sheep’s feet? Stop with all the explanations and attempts to Christianize it. I can read! It is a new practice in this country dating back to the 18th century, so don't tell me we have "always done it".
Why do we adhere to gimmicks like Faith Promise? Do I even need to waste my time on this one? If you want to live in Charismatic fantasy land and carry this on with the prosperity gospel nonsense, help your self, but quit distorting the scriptures in a feeble attempt to make it look biblical. You are lying to your people! I don't care how much fruit or money you are getting. Our blessings are spiritual, not physical. Don't be deceived.
Why do we keep talking about the great commission as if it is something handed down to the church? Please people! The gospels and Acts are not play books on outreach.
Why do we put up with the foolishness that has become street preaching. I am for men preaching the gospel and the word of God publicly, but what we seem to do now is often no more then flesh-filled tirades under the guise of “preaching the word with boldness”!
Why do we put up with foolish Baptist successionism? We are not the godly line of Anabaptists. We are nothing like they were, or like any of the dark age martyrs who spilled their blood for various reasons.
What about Children's church and such? No one should be leading our kids in any prayers for salvation, but it happens every week. No one should be advising our children on their spiritual beliefs. Why do we separate families in our churches today?
Pastoral authority, really? Get real. More like Pastoral preeminence. Most of these guys are egomaniacal, power tripping, insecure men who found positions that make them mini-gods among their people.
Preaching the gospel of Christ with charge? This one is always overlooked. No one ever mentions this prevailing thought vein showcased in Paul's letters. Why? So the bloated salaries, ridiculous offerings, the storehouse, treasuries, and the money involved in the church is never challenged. How we solicit and outright ask for money now is beyond me.
Everything listed above, men have 100 apparent scriptures for them! So what do you do about that? They won’t change, they will not even hear a discussion on how these traditions are not found in the Bible, and they will continue on headlong in open disorder to perpetuate their fantasy land in reality.
Why do we not do it as the Bible dictates? There are some clear and concise facts I want you to be left with. You don’t have to believe them just because I say they are facts. This is a conclusion I came to in my own mind, after my own studying after I took the religious, Baptist blinders off.
Fact: in the early church and well past, they met in their homes. It is a biblical principle and historical principle, so why do we trash those that pull out of the institutionalized setup if they so choose?
Fact: in the early church and well beyond, there was always a plurality of men leading a church and not just one man with his minions. So why are we so adamant about our pulpit control and pastors?
Fact: there was no secured, weekly monetary pay system for pastors in the early church. So why do we grace these fat cats with a salary larger than most of their church members combined?
Fact: tithes and offerings were abolished at the death of Christ along with all the other temple rituals and customs. The only criteria for giving in the NT was cheerful giving, so why do we make tithes and our own created offerings so incessant?
Fact: tithes and offerings were abolished at the death of Christ along with all the other temple rituals and customs. The only criteria for giving in the NT was cheerful giving, so why do we make tithes and our own created offerings so incessant?
Fact: faith promise is a new practice with Charismatic origins. How can we even take its philosophy serious and use it and call it faith?
Fact: pastoral authority is a total distortion of the scriptures. Pastors are a function within the body, not a title of preeminence or position. They are to be submitted to the body the same way they expect the body to be submitted to them. Why do we suffer these men who lord over the flock?
Fact: modern missions is a new evangelical, fundamental idea, devoid of any real biblical grounding. Shocking as that may sound, we have to privately interpret the scriptures to make it teach missions in many of the places that we claim to find it.
Fact: there were no child evangelism systems in the early church. So why do we continue on with our age-segregated ways with Sunday Schools, youth groups, and children’s church creating a new generation of easy believism and retreads with loose gospel preaching and ask Jesus into your heart mumbo jumbo?
Fact: being a Baptist does not make you a Christian or make you right. So why do we operate as cults do and only advocate our own Baptist sources, fellowship, and assimilation?
Fact: the great commission has nothing to do with any NT Christian whatsoever. So why do we make that our overall call to serve or turn it into the big idea that perpetuates all that we do?
Fact: street preaching is not mandated or commanded anywhere in scriptures. PERIOD!
Fact: the book of Acts is about the Acts of the apostles, not a “this do likewise” instruction manual for outreach.
Fact: just because something sounds biblical does not make it doctrinal.
There are reasons that all these things are done, and simply enough, it is just men putting their own logic on things. Sometimes it's because they need the funds or need to carry on an ideology. Sometimes, it’s to maintain the illusion so they can maintain the control.
Sometimes it is done for money. Sometimes it is for notoriety. Sometimes it is simply flesh. Simple as that! It’s just the way things are. Why be disillusioned to it? Why act like it really isn’t this bad? Why keep acting like an ostrich and avoiding the hard issues?
Sometimes it is done for money. Sometimes it is for notoriety. Sometimes it is simply flesh. Simple as that! It’s just the way things are. Why be disillusioned to it? Why act like it really isn’t this bad? Why keep acting like an ostrich and avoiding the hard issues?
We need to start separating reality from fiction. This is not emergent church theology. This is not some new watered down, upset-with-everyone-else rant. This is just a guy from among you trying to be honest with what he sees in the word, and trying to reconcile it to what he has seen for almost 20 years in churches.
Why can’t we just admit that we are simply doing the best we can, and our ways are not necessarily in line with early church manners? Quit being so authoritative with the Authority trying to act like we are in alignment. I guess that is my main gripe. I see it as arrogance! You do not have HIS permission to paraphrase and plagiarize His Holy Word.
Let God be True, but every man a liar.
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