Gospel of Man vs Gospel of Christ

I believe we all have the goal of bringing the gospel to the lost and yet an important question in our lives goes unanswered year after year. How long will we attempt to maintain a gospel contrary to the gospel of Christ or how long can we keep a lie alive? Yes, brothers and sisters, I see us still bound by our tradition and even recognizing how far we have allowed our hearts to move away from God as we attempted to get things right, we continue to place the gospel creation of man above and foremost in front of the gospel of Christ.

Just take notice of how our youth, when given “permission” to clap (permission never needed) have been hesitant to engage in an expression of their joy in Christ? Our youth are condemned and told not to use any form of music in anything they do connected with the congregation that has instrumental music. I do not know the person or persons placing themselves higher than God who would demand such but I, the youth and many others know they are not reading from the Bible. Controlled by a spirit other than God, the doctrine of man known in the denomination of churches of Christ as the law of silence is making every attempt to keep the message of salvation from those who might benefit. We should never have told our children to read the bible because the courage and dedication to study for themselves has opened their eyes to the world of which I used to belong and now choose to speak against.

Our children fully acknowledge and understand the promotion of traditional (man-derived) beliefs over the Gospel of Christ because the message of scripture does not match the message they are receiving from us. While this has a very easy solution, we ask too much. I know, because I have been accused of being a man for a long time and the hardest thing for me to do as the MAN is stand up and say I was wrong. While I’m not afraid to say I was wrong on this topic, I would guess it may take another four or five thousand readings of the bible before it seems all of our family will be able to acknowledge the many things we hold to as a family simply are not stated in the bible.

I keep bringing up the issue of using the DVD provided with the VBS materials year after year and each time it has been forbidden. Time and time again it has crushed my spirit to see someone put themselves superior to the bible and forbid something taking place simply because a few people might find it objectionable. Leadership demands of us to step forward and speak truth instead of a lie we learned from our heritage. Without being acknowledged as tradition, we continue a lie and it is no wonder the lie we have been fed so long is tearing so many of us apart! We have a heritage in the early years of the church of people giving their lives for the cause of Christ and yet today, there are those unwilling to allow a DVD to play for the cause of Christ. Am I the only one who can imagine how proud this must make God of His children?

What are we willing to do for the cause of Christ? Tradition, just like the giant Goliath keeps stepping out day after day and challenging the people of God and we have not had David come forth to slay this giant! Instead, we have simply tried to make peace with Goliath with small concessions.

Has anyone ever considered why Christians think it necessary to ask permission to do something for the cause of Christ in our services or outside of our services? I hope I am wrong but I believe it is because we believe our congregation, for the cause of Christ, is only allowed to go so far in becoming all things to all people. We have even been given a list of things we will not do “under any circumstances.” For some reason, I would like to hear this statement made again much clearer and add because Christ is not IMPORTANT ENOUGH for us to make changes that might not feel right to some people.

It would be so easy to get all of this behind us and step out with the confidence of David and slay Goliath! This voice doesn’t have to come from one man because it can be a much stronger voice of all knowing the truth not allowing tradition to be presented as truth. Our teenagers are already aware of the lie but many more have “itching ears” to hear the same message delivered to them in their youth. Others still, are still looking in the books of our heritage to explain the creation of those things not taught by God but demanded by our fellowship.

If we allow it to happen, our “army” (like King Saul’s) will sit in our tents and consider our obedience to God. I hope and pray the David’s of our family will have courage and boldly take a stand against the force making us cower in fear away from God and allow God the fullness of our being while we have breath to serve.