My Father once told me that when he was a new Christian in the early 1960’s the only Bible around was the Authorized Version. Many of the Bibles had comments in the side margins which Christians used to understand what they were reading. One of the comments that my Father clearly remembers was alongside one of the chapters in Acts where it was talking about the Disciples performing miracles. The comment alongside this chapter said something like “obviously miracles ceased at the end of the Apostolic age” Hardly any Christians questioned this statement because it was in their Bible and it seemed that everyone had always believed that.
It was not until the mid 70’s when the charismatic renewal hit that people began to realise that this statement may not be true and that the Holy Spirit does operate in miracles today. I think that a large number of believers today (if not the majority) would except that the comment in that Bible was incorrect and based on a not so obvious Bible basis.
I use this story to highlight how much of what we do and believe as ‘Christians’ is questionable and a lot of it is down right opposite to what Jesus Christ himself said. Yet we are blinkered to our contradictions because we have always done things in a certain way, and we then interpret (including the experts we read and listen to) the scriptures to explain what we do in our Christian Culture.
A brilliant example of what I am rabbiting on about is the cultural habit of giving Christian leaders titles such as Father or Pastor or Reverend etc. Yet Jesus Christ himself (not one of his disciples or Paul) stated very clearly
“But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi’ for you only have one Master and you are all brothers… Do not call anyone on earth Father… Do not call anyone on earth teacher… “(Paraphrased) Mathew 23: 8 – 12
Now Jesus obviously considered this very important as he states this point three times in a row. What he says is not ambiguous or unclear, Jesus is our leader and those with gifts identified with leadership are at the bottom of the ladder. We shall not exalt our selves with titles.
The fact is that we do the opposite and ignore Jesus words by explaining away why we have titles. But the reality is that people with titles in church are exalted and looked to which is why so many church goers have some where along the line had a fantasy of being given a title (it’s not for the money!)
A classic example of our Christian culture explaining away the bits of the Bible that don’t fit are when you read the New International Version Study Bible (which I lived my Christian walk on for my first ten years as a Christian and as a ‘Pastor’). In the notes for the scripture I just quoted it says “Obviously we should avoid unreasonable literalism in applying such commands ". Does this sound familiar to the story I told at the beginning? Why is it so obvious? If we don’t take this clearly stated command literally what else should we not take literally?
Brother Yun in his recent best selling book The Heavenly Man states that the Chinese House Church Movement was of one accord when only Bibles were being smuggled into China from the West. After a while however well meaning Western Christians started popping commentaries on the top of the shipments of Bibles. Brother Yun said that it was then the spirit of denominationalism entered the House Church Movement in China and nearly destroyed it.
To be mature believers we need to read the word of God for ourselves, find truth in it and apply it to our lives. Yes let us share our truths with one another (to maintain balance and safety). Remember never assume anything but weigh it by the word of God, by the whisper of the Holy Spirit and by the counsel of others.