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  • Re: Request
    • Carol
      Posted Mar 16, 2006 9:27 PM

      Ya know, if this weren't a message board dealing with issues relating to God, it would be comical. All the dancing on a dime, trying to parse every word as though there is some secret, hidden meaning is just plain goofy. And the really bizarre, telling thing is that so many of you don't even know how silly you look.

      As a life-long coCer, I was taught the lines you are espousing, and used to quote them hook, line, and sinker. I used to look every bit as silly as you did. Then, I grew a brain cell.

      We tell people we have no doctrines or creeds. That we use the Bible only and speak where it speaks and are silent where it is silent. That's such a bunch of bunk.

      For instance...

      Hear, believe, repent, confess, be baptized.

      That is our doctrinal creed. While I don't think it's not the plan of salvation, the way we've organized it, can quote it better than we quote the Bible verses that "prove" those steps, etc., and the many, many aspects of salvation that we conveniently left out because they weren't as catchy in the tract rack just scream "denomination" to me. If you visit with someone from another denomination and take note of their buzzwords, you'll find that what they have done is analyzed scripture to the best of their ability, arrived at some "summary" that they believe is the most relevant assessment of what God wants from mankind, and then "packaged" it as a simple way to get their general picture of Christ's message across.

      From the "Sinners Prayer" to the Nycean (sp?) Creed and on down the line, each of those non-direct summations of something they've highlighted from the Bible and held up as "Prime Doctrine relevant to salvation" has become their defining phrasology.

      And we have it, too: Hear, Believe, Repent, Confess, Be Baptized.

      How arrogant are we to presume that we have this superior ability to discern? In the end, that's really what it is that we do. I've got a tremendous number of friends who are devoted to the Lord who attend group worship events (READ: CHURCH) elsewhere that I daresay are intellectually superior to me, who have sincerely studied scripture, and have come to different conclusions. To throw derogatory comments their way minimizes their faith that God is God and simply makes me look ridiculous as I assert I "know" more than them. Many of them can quote scripture around me.... and yet for some reason I'm supposed to walk around all puffed up because I "know" more? Please.

      This is true where instruments are concerned, as well. We have presumed that you cannot sing with your heart while a hammer is hitting against a taughtly-pulled wire. Those two events are mutually exclusive. Of course, if Frankie Valley is singing a love song to the accompaniment of an instrument, we'd not accuse him of not singing from his heart. That would be impractical, illogical, and stupid. Anyone singing secular music who is desirous of using their talents and abilities to make it sound fabulously pleasing is very likely to pull out a violin, a banjo, a piano, a harp, an electric guitar... whatever they have the ability to play... and spend time arranging it and considering the beauty of the various ways their song might be presented. It's done as an act of wanting their craft, their gift, that which they have to offer, to be as perfectly pleasing to the hearers as it can be. Their hearts - the part of them that loves passionately and is committed and is overwhelmed with loyalty - want nothing but their best work to be "put out there" for their audience....

      And yet, despite the fact that we know God was enamored with David's offering up of his heart via his various methods of music, we somehow claim that there is some mysterious moment where God has temporarily flipped off his "instrument appreciation switch" and created some huge law that cannot be quoted verbatum that has a salvation quotient attached.

      Please.

      If God found it pleasing, and appears to be going to find it pleasing again when Judgement rolls around, were do we get off attributing this switch-flip to Him when he made no such announcement?

      Consider that the early day Christians were rarely of the upper crust... and the lower crust rarely had instruments at their disposal and did not often know how to play them at all. Consider that there were no pianos. Consider that all the "preachers" of the day were traveling men, walking or riding their donkeys, and certainly didn't have a U-Haul to cart any harp from city to city.

      It would be entirely illogical for God to command that they use instruments given that they'd not always be available to a group who wanted to worship together in song.

      It is also illogical to state that he forbids it when there is no such indication, anywhere. All we do know is that we are to sing in praise. The exact words we use, the peripheral events going on (such as whether or not a harp is being plucked) are simply not mandated. What is mandated is that our spirits be engaged, and that the words of our mouths and the meditations of our heart be pleasing to Him. That they be truthful, and that we be singing with a truthful adoration.

      I prefer to sing a capella. I think it sounds better. It's less distracting to me. It's the culture within which I was raised and it's hard for me to concentrate when a big pipe organ is blaring.

      A friend of mine who attends elsewhere tells me that she is entirely distracted by our lack of instruments. She appreciates that her off-key intonations are not as apt to distract the people in front of her and that they can sing along with music eminating from some instrument in the back, and not be focusing on some guy waving his hand to the beat up front (where'd we get that, anyway? The "crutch" of shaped notes and a guy waving his hand in that triangular 4/4 time pattern that we seem to get "off" without is much akin to her "crutch" of a piano.)

      The bottom line is that while we each have our own preferred scenarios within which we sing vocally, the ears of God hear only the music of our hearts. If our hearts swell at the beauty created when an acoustic guitar and a human voice create a tear-inducing ballad of loyalty to the Lord, God hears that swelling heart. The setting within which we worship, married to the thoughts running through our minds and the convictions that lie within our souls, come together to create the spirit with which we offer our gifts of praise. And ultimately, it is that we sing as a gift of praise that is mandated. Not the externals that get us to that place of worship.

      While we pick apart the details that have nothing to do with faith that God Is the I Am, Rome and all the other sinners who do not know of God's existence, his mercy, and his love are burning.

      Is this really the legacy of a life we want to offer up as praise?
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    ...........................THE BOOK

    What Happened At the Madison Church of Christ?


    There are thousands of churches being taken over across America.

    This book is only about one of those churches. It's about the Madison Church Of Christ. By studying the methods used here along with the resource references you might be able to inoculate your church. At the very least you will recognize the signs early on.

    Many of the current members of the Madison Church of Christ still don't know what happened.
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    Madison Church of Christ was a 60 year old church. At one time it was one of the largest churches in the US, and the largest Church of Christ.

    It thrived for many years on the vision of it's elders and those of it's ministers. Those visions undoubtably came from the the inspired word of Jesus Christ.

    At sometime in the last 10 years there was a deliberate plan by a majority of the elders to take the Madison Church of Christ into a more worldly realm.

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    Here is the list of players;

    5 Godly Elders
    10 Not so Godly Elders
    120 "Deacons" (allegiance unknown)
    2,800 - 4,000 church "members"
    2 "teners" (people who have publicly confessed to have broken all ten commandments)
    Unknown number of "sinners" (This is what the 10 elders call us.)
    Unknown number of "demons" (Flying everywhere, to many to count)
     

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