Drinking Root Beer From Brown Bottles

Drinking Root Beer From Brown Bottles

Adam Graham points out that, for all the hazards of legalism, the problem that most churches have now is quite the opposite:

To say the subject of morals in the church is a sensitive topic would be an understatement. An element in many churches is legalistic, placing demands on people that scripture does not place. I was in one church where we were told not to drink root beer from brown glass bottles because people would think we were drinking alcohol. Never mind that even drinking alcohol is never strictly forbidden in the scriptures, though drunkenness is.

Some elements demand pastors prescribe rules on courtship and schooling found nowhere in scripture. These preachers focus on cleansing the outside of the cup through external rules, rather than letting God work to change hearts. Many have been spiritually abused by such legalists and my heart goes out to these wounded souls.

Yet I’m reminded of the passage of the Screwtape Letters where Screwtape advises Wormwood to get Christians to focus on the exact opposite of their most pressing problem. Legalism is a minor problem compared to the church’s refusal to stand for biblical truth.

There is a maxim: “Where the scriptures speak, we will speak. Where the scriptures are silent, we will be silent.” Yet in many cases, where the scriptures speak, churches are silent. Issues such as divorce and cohabitation are rarely preached on from most pulpits. In a select few pulpits is the issue of abortion discussed.

Churches often appeal to Matthew 7’s command to, “Judge not, lest ye be judged.” In the context of scripture, when one reads the whole passage, it’s clearly about hypocrisy. Religious post-modernists turn it into a requirement to abandon all moral judgment about many things scripture speaks to. In other words, they use it, ironically, as a pretext to judge as acceptable what the bible condemns as sin.

I'm gratified to report that my pastor is preaching increasingly serious sermons calling people to consider fully the morality of their lives. Adam points out that many pastors are reluctant to call people to Biblical lives for fear of losing too much of the congregation. I've seen this a lot. We're reaching the point where many churches either need to start preaching the importance of following Jesus, or stop pretending.

I'm also pleased to see Adam's coverage of this Declaration of American Values by a group of conservatives in Denver recently. There's nothing that I can fundamentally disagree with, but I am pleased to see this point made early on, both because liberals pretending to be Christians have been hammering away at this for some time, and because it Scriptural:

Every person is made in the image of God and it is the responsibility and duty of all individuals and congregations to extend the hand of loving compassion to care for those in poverty and distress.

While I understand the reluctance to acknowledge the government's role in this "responsibility and duty," the fact is that it is part of the American tradition from the beginning of settlement here for the government to play a role.