James Rattazzi Blog

Well it is Saturday and the time has run out for the sermon project as tomorrow is the day for the sermon to be delivered. Thank you to Michelle and Valencia for participating. I will certainly make use of your input. This was an experiment in using the blog as a venue for this sort of interaction. I hope to be using this space for similar experiments in the very near future. Comments and suggestions are very welcome.

Times-a-wastin’ so I’d better kick this business into high gear. I am going to integrate both of the suggestions made in response to the first post. I will use Michelle’s quote and suggest a reading schedule as a possible way to go as per Valencia. I think a good idea for starting off the sermon is to pose a series of questions the answers all of which are connected with immersing yourself in God’s word. Questions such as: How can I get to know God better? How can I determine what is true or false? How can I increase my faith? Or, how can  we have better unity? This might be a good way to present this message in a positive light. Any suggestions for other questions or better wording of the questions are welcome here.

I also think it is a good idea to emphasize that this message is for myself as much as anybody. We all need to be more diligent with our personal Bible study. There have been periods in my life when I have been more diligent with my Bible study and periods when I have been less diligent. Also I can mention that whenever anyone gets up here and preaches or teaches it is predicated on the idea that everyone will go home and follow up with his or her own independent Bible research. (Acts 17:11) When Don read the previous post he characterized it as being on the topic of “personal responsibility” I am planning to use that characterization in my presentation also.

We all come from different and widely varied backgrounds. We all believe different things about the Bible some of these things are correct and some are incorrect. The Spiritual challenge facing us here today is to come together and be in agreement (have unity) on what the Bible actually says. We need to all grow together in our best understanding of what the word of God is telling us. None of this can be accomplished without each of us spending time with God’s word every day. This is an especially important message for the newbie. Habits now have to change. I was raised in a culture that did not include reading the Bible. In fact in my personal religious experience I was discouraged from reading through the Bible myself. Those of us who come from this sort of religious background need to firmly set our hearts on the task of making the Bible an integral part of our daily lives. Let me know what you all think of these points. The next post will start to look at some of the Scripture references I intend to use. Any suggestions are welcome.

I haven’t blogged in a while. Hopefully this will be the beginning of a return to the blog. I will be preaching October 4 at the upper west Manhattan Church of Christ. I had the idea to use this space to open up a forum to shape this coming sermon. I hope to give voice to a sector of the members that is so often untapped in planning this sort of thing. I have discussed this with a few individuals and I am hopeful for their support in this project.

I have had a few discussions that touched on some of the possible points that perhaps should be included to make this a useful and helpful sermon. It became clear that one point that needs to be included in this presentation is the importance of the word of God. Now of course, no one will give me an argument on this one but I hope to spur everyone on to greater diligence in the daily reading of the Bible. Certainly there are passages of Scripture that we are all more familiar with than others, but there should be no part of God’s word that we have not read. So first I would like to encourage all to read through the entire Bible especially if they haven’t or haven’t in quite some time.

It is not possible for each of us as individuals to firmly and confidently follow God’s instruction if we are not well versed in what the Bible actually says. We should not rely on the preacher or anyone else to tell us what it says or what it means. We can be helpful to one another in study and application, but each of us needs to go home and do the necessary study and this starts with reading through the entire Bible and becoming familiar with the text.

I had thought about speaking on the topic of some departures from the faith that are common in the Church of Christ so that we can each be on guard and prepared to deal with these issues. But the main tool that we have to accomplish this is God’s word, and so we all need to be encouraged to develop a closer relationship with God’s word. Other topics have been suggested also, like women of the Bible, and this is a first stab at preliminary conversation. So I hope to get some responses here, and we can shape this event together.

I was having a conversation yesterday about God and religion and such and the subject turned to the necessity for “organized religion”.  Does God really require that you “go to church”?  Anyone who takes an objective look at the religious world today can see that it is a mess and so the conclusion that it would be better to stay away from organized religion.   The conclusion to just be a good person and worship God alone in solitude is a perfectly reasonable one.  Does the Bible give us this option?  The very last book of the Bible, the book of Revelation contains seven letters from Jesus Christ to seven local churches in Asia.  Jesus appeared to the apostle John in a vision while John was on the island of Patmos and told him to write down what he saw.  Look at chapters two and three in the book of Revelation and you will see even back then the churches were in a mess.  Jesus was not pleased with most of them.  but Jesus does not give them the option to just give up on the church, rather he emphasizes the necessity of cleaning up their act and doing the right thing.  Please read those two chapters in the book of Revelation.

So now is the church an idea that came from God and is part of his eternal plan for us or did this idea come from man?   The gospel of Matthew records a conversation between Jesus and some of hid disciples:

When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”
They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”
Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.

Jesus is telling Peter that the firm belief that Jesus is “the Christ, the Son of the living God” is the rock that Jesus will build his church on.  He goes on to say that this idea came from God and not man. On the day of Pentecost, in Acts chapter two, the apostle Peter instructed his listeners to repent and be baptized and then the chapter goes on to indicate that after that they continued to meet together and follow in the apostles teaching.  The chapter ends with the statement: “And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved”.  In the letter to the Hebrews chapter ten we find this instruction:

Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.  And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.  Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another — and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

This is a clear instruction not to choose the route of going it alone.  One of the reasons given here is so that those in the church can “encourage one another”.  God knows that we all need help.  Especially in Spiritual matters it is crucial to have the support and encouragement of those who also believe in God’s promise because we are immersed in a world that works to pull us away from God.  Much of the Bible deals with this very struggle.  The apostle John makes some very strong statements about those who left the church.  Look at this passage from 1 John chapter two:

They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.

The apostle John made this connection very clearly that being a part of the church is a necessary part of being there to love your Spiritual brothers and sisters.  We need to gather to help each other and do the things that Jesus Christ instructed us through his apostles.  Look at the contrast the apostle John makes later in the same letter:

We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death.
Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

Clearly John puts his emphasis on love.  But this idea did not come from him.  He is following the example that Jesus Christ set for all of us.  Jesus always did exactly as God the Father instructed him. And Jesus summed up the law and the prophets by saying that you should love God and love your neighbor as yourself.  Jesus also connected loving him with following his instructions.  The gospel of John chapter fourteen quotes Jesus saying this:

If you love me, you will obey what I command.

If we claim to love God and love our fellow man we will follow his instructions.  Those who believe the things God has promised and follow his instruction will receive eternal life with God in heaven.  Clearly, included in these vital instructions is the instruction to gather together as the church.  This includes but is not limited to assembling for worship on the first day of the week, Sunday.  Jesus also said:

For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.

Now someone might look at a statement like this and just think that it expresses a nice sentiment.  but remember this is the word of God and is for our instruction.  This is more than just a comforting sentiment.  If we decide to go it alone we will not be following God’s instruction.

I have noticed an unfortunate pattern in the course of my religious discourse. This pattern has to do with the typical reaction to any sort of disagreement concerning the proper application of Scripture to specific issues.  The disagreement, even if it is noted or brought up is all too often ignored or glossed over.  I am talking about internal relationships within a religious group or local church.  The reaction should be when these discrepancies come to light is everyone involved making every effort to resolve the disagreement according to the Scriptures.  All too often I find myself in the position of being the only one making an effort work out these differences.  It is becoming clearer to me as time goes by that most programs of religious instruction fail to apply the teachings concerning unity found in the Holy Scriptures.  Let me say before I continue that the local church (Upper West Manhattan church of Christ) where I currently worship has some members who are aware of this problem.  I have had more conversations with Don Bunting on this topic than I have had with everyone else put together.  But this is a serious problem in many other local churches and denominations.  Lets look at some Scripture.  I often quote this passage from the gospel of John.  Jesus Christ is praying to God the Father just before his betrayal:

I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name — the name you gave me — so that they may be one as we are one.
“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.  I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one:  I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

I have covered my thoughts on this passage in various postings in the past so I will just say here that our unity is clearly very important to Jesus Christ.  Our continued disunity undermines the very authenticity of the Gospel as the world observes us. The apostle Paul understood the importance of unity among believers and when divisions arose in the church at Corinth he was very specific and firm in his response:

I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought.

The apostles commands us to be “perfectly united in mind and thought”.  So when these disagreements come up, even minor ones, we all need to be obeying this command and making every effort to come to perfect unity in Spirit and in truth.  The way this should work itself out in our nuts and bolts daily interaction is that when we become aware of any points where we are not “perfectly united in mind and thought” it should be job one to obey the instructions found in the word of God and make every effort to agree with one another.  Over time divisions will naturally become more entrenched and we will be moving away from the kind of people Jesus Christ wants us to be.

Jesus Christ spoke with authority when he taught.  The Gospel writers made note of the contrast of the authority Jesus taught  with and the way their teachers presented the word of God.  Note this passage from the Gospel of Matthew:

When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.

Obviously Jesus could speak with authority because of who he is, but there is a deeper Spiritual principle that contributes to the authority of his presentation.  We can apply this principle to make our teaching more authoritative.  notice what Jesus says here:

So Jesus said, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am [the one I claim to be] and that I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me.  The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him.”

We should follow the example that Jesus laid down.  When we teach we should speak only what we find in the word of God.  We should keep conjecture and opinion out of our teaching as much as possible.  That is the only way we can have a prayer of being able to speak with any sort of authority.  In other words that is the only way we can pass on to people the things that they must do.  Not to mention informing people about what pleases God and pleasing God ourselves.

Now let me give you an example of how this might work in our day to day teaching.  This is actually a pretty minor point but it often comes up and might be useful as an illustration.  The letter to the Hebrews does not indicate the identity of the author.  Some consider the writing style to be indicative of the apostle Paul.  Some point to elements that may indicate otherwise.  We do not know.  The text does not say.  Some teachers go as far as to indicate their opinion concerning the identity of the author.  The class is now divided according to their own various opinions.  And no definitive position is able to prevail because God chose not to provide that particular piece of information in his word.

Is this how we should teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ?  Do we have the authority from the Father to include our opinion on this issue as part of our Gospel teaching?  We do not.  God has made it clear that he knows exactly what is going on and he has given us everything we need for life and godliness.  So what he hasn’t given us we don’t need.  A step away from passing on exactly what we have heard from the word of God is a step away from the example that Jesus Christ laid down.  let’s keep our opinion points to a minimum.  let’s resist the urge to go beyond what is written.  The Bible does not say who wrote the letter to the Hebrews and we can say no more than that  and still be speaking with authority.

Whenever any sort of dispute arises between individuals, until the dispute gets resolved each side believes their position is more correct.  The longer the dispute or disagreement remains unresolved the more polarized the situation often becomes.  In other words as time goes by the divide between the disputing parties deepens.  The facts remain the same but the division increases.  This is human nature and happens all the time.  Unfortunately this is very much the case in the religious world today.  This has always been the case in the religious world and is one of the most prominent elements that continues to give religion a bad name.  How can all these people who say they are doing God’s bidding have such disagreement?  The truth is they can’t.  Many who claim to be doing God’s bidding are really working for the other guy.  What does Jesus think of this prevailing state of disunity?  Jesus Christ prayed to God the Father just before his death, notice what he says about his followers in this excerpt of that prayer:

All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them.  I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name — the name you gave me — so that they may be one as we are one.
My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.  I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one:  I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

What Jesus Christ did and said was always in perfect agreement with God the Father.  He even went so far as to say: “These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.“  His prayer for us as we see from the passage above is that we all do the same.  We should all be in perfect agreement with each other because we are all in perfect agreement with God the Father just as Jesus was.  So what then is our responsibility when we disagree, especially on religious matters?  Well we need to get ourselves into agreement.  One thing that will very much help that process along is if we each decide to keep within the boundaries of what God has given to us for our religious expression and practices.  Let’s avoid clever ideas and inference upon inference that is not specifically supported by the text.

The reason why there is so much division is that most in the religious community fail to do this.  If someone states some principle or practice and some other conscientious student of the Bible does not agree then this disagreement  is evidence that one or both of them has gone beyond what is written. One or both of them is not in perfect agreement with God the Father.  As I stated at the beginning of this post, if every effort is not made to get to the truth of this dispute, both parties will walk away believing they each are more correct and these divisions will only deepen over time.  Also please note from the prayer of Jesus: the unity we demonstrate will let the world know that this is from God.  If we fail to have unity our case for divine discipleship is weakened.  So this is important.  If we make every effort to achieve unity and we truly succeed we will only then actually be more correct.

In the secular world the phrase “it’s a sin” usually expresses the speakers personal opinion about one thing or another, for example: “it’s a sin how you eat your food” or “it’s a sin the way he reads the paper”.  This mode of thinking carries over into the religious world also.  The word “sin” should only be used to express God’s judgement.  God is quite specific in his word regarding what he defines as sin. We need to use the word with the same specificity.  One error often committed in this regard is what I have lately been referring to as: “the associative rule”.  Let me illustrate the associative rule with an example used in a previous post.  Gambling, nowhere in the Bible is gambling declared a sin.  In this culture today gambling is often connected with and may lead to many things that the Bible indeed does declare as sin.  Therefore due to this association many feel compelled to also label gambling a sin.  This is not the way the apostle Paul would handle such an argument.  He would certainly be careful to express the conditional elements and nuance to the recommendation to keep yourself from the thing without expanding on God’s reasoning by declaring the thing itself sin.

Why is this a problem?  This sort of associative reasoning changes with the times so you have an ever changing list of “sins”.  disputes arise when the listener has in his or her mind a different context or set of conditions than what the speaker has.  This causes disputes and divisions and leads to often tedious arguments that are not shedding any light on God’s thinking, which is what we actually should be focused on.  Also an argument sometimes goes on like this: one states gambling is a sin because it often leads to sexual immorality (which clearly is a sin).  Then another one does not agree that gambling is a sin, then the first one accuses the second of arguing in favor of sexual immorality.  This sort of thread of reasoning is often employed and causes nothing but division and results in the obscuring of God’s clear instruction.  Now some instructors are able to successfully navigate these pitfalls but the environment is created where the less experienced or less knowledgeable teacher often stumbles.

Finally, let me play the unity card here.  Jesus prayed to the father as recorded in the Gospel of John, chapter seventeen that we be one just as he and the father are one.  The apostle Paul echoed these instructions when he appealed to the church in Corinth against divisions in that church.  We can only have unity if we follow the example of Jesus in only doing and saying what the father has shown us.  Even after many, many years of attempting to get some traction with this issue of conditional instructions in various religious settings I am unable to see the correctness of those who strongly disagree with this line of reasoning.  This either indicates that I am exceedingly stubborn or stupid (a possibility I am willing to accept) or that the text does not support the widely held method of declaring all sorts of things sin.  If we are serious about following God’s instructions we will do our very best to correctly sort these matters out according to the truth and have unity.  This is my goal.

Youming pointed out to me in his response to my previous post: “Conditional Instructions” that even today food sacrificed to idols is an issue in some parts of the world.  It’s difficult finding an issue that is equally neutral to everyone.  Now some may shy away from conditional instructions because they consider them to have less weight or authority than a direct unconditional command.  We noticed in the last post that the apostle Paul makes a very strong yet conditional point on food sacrificed to idols.  But is that it?  Is that my only precedent?  Jesus Christ himself makes a series of very strong yet fundamentally conditional instructions as recorded in the Gospel of Matthew:

If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.  And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell. 

“Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to sin! Such things must come, but woe to the man through whom they come!  If your hand or your foot causes you to sin cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire.  And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.

These are all conditional statements yet the underlying instruction is just as strong as any direct command, perhaps even stronger.  Jesus is not only vividly underscoring the vital importance of doing away with the things that cause us to sin, he is also demonstrating quite graphically how conditional instructions can still be very strong statements.  Many well meaning individuals when preaching the Gospel often shy away from the conditional element in many instructions in order to say: such and such is a sin.  I am not certain if they reason that the listener might not have the intelligence to understrand or if they were never taught the thing correctly in the first place.  Jesus was fully capable of making a strong but conditional instruction.  The apostle Paul did not dumb down the message either.  Some of his discussions included multiple conditional clauses, yet he still was able to make an extremely compellling statement.  Why then, do some distort the Gospel in this way?

In Acts chapter fifteen food sacrificed to idols appears as part of the recommendation: “If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well“.  It’s appearance in this setting is not defining eating food sacrificed to idols as a sin despite the fact that another item in this list (sexual immorality) is a sin.  This would contradict the words of the apostle Paul mentioned in the previous post.  This full list applies to people living under the conditions that this note was sent.  Now let me say two things about this.  Saying: “If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well” does not weaken the command for those who have set their mind to carefully following the instructions from God.  If God suggests something it has no less weight to us than any direct command.  But when we are attempting to communicate God’s mind to those who have not made any sort of commitment to God we look at the very least dogmatic and perhaps even ridiculous if we fail to express the conditions of the instructions.   The mind of the listener is not in the same place as ours concerning God’s word and not taking this condition into account is similar to the wounding of a weak conscience that the apostle Paul talked about in First Corinthians chapter eight.  It does not have the same weight to them as it does to us so the reasoning behind the conditional instructions needs to be expressed to be able to bring others into agreement.

It also puts us  in the realm of saying things that maybe might be true, that is if our body of inferences is correct and applies in this instance.  Jesus spoke with authority because he always said exactly what he heard from the Father.  The apostle Paul was always careful to indicate when he was stating one of his own conclusions despite the obvious validity his conclusions would carry.  We can only speak with authority what we find in Scripture, the further we get out on a limb of various conditions the less authority we have.  We can only say something is sin if God says it’s sin.  If we are making an inference about something under certain conditions we have to be at least as careful as the apostle Paul to indicate what is clearly from God and what is an inference no matter how necessary or compelling we might find the inference to be.  If we fail to do this we sin because we are either adding to or subtracting from God’s word. 

The apostle Paul expresses a conditional element and a flexibility that is so often missing today.  While still maintaining the absolute integrity of the instructions from God he draws an equally absolute distinction between the divine edicts and his own inferences based on his thinking and the current situation.  Even while clearly expressing the validity of his inferences because of his connection with the Gospel he still nonetheless leaves room for the clear and conditional limitations of his own utterances.  He is an apostle and therefore has more authority than the average Gospel teacher today yet many teachers today fail to either recognize or express these distinctions and therefore take on an authority  to themselves that is greater than what the apostles themselves had.  These teachers are going beyond what is written and placing themselves above God.  I have yet more to say on this topic and so “Conditional Instructions Part Three” will follow soon

This is an excerpt from a larger essay that I’m working on.  The New testament book of First Corinthians is a letter that the apostle Paul wrote to the church at Corinth.  In this letter he discusses some various problems they were having.  Some of the letter deals with questions and concerns that they apparently had written to the apostle Paul about.  But the apostle Paul first deals with some concerns he has arising out of some negative reports that had come to his attention. He encourages them not to have divisions and he strongly urges them to deal with a specific instance of sexual immorality in their midst that they thought they were doing right by not dealing with.

Then Paul turns his attention to some of the topics they wrote to the apostle about.  One of these issues was food sacrificed to idols.  Now this specific issue does not come up these days but the treatment the apostle Paul gives this question is very much applicable to many questions that come up today concerning properly following the word of God and correctly handling the Scriptures.  The instruction the apostle Paul gives concerning food sacrificed to idols is a conditional instruction.  What do I mean when I say: “conditional instruction”?  Let me explain by pointing out a contrast.  In chapter five of this same letter the apostle Paul talks about sexual immorality.  In this instance a man has his father’s wife.  Paul strongly instructs them not to permit any sort of sexual immorality in their midst.  The Bible always speaks of sexual immorality in these strong terms.  It is always wrong.  So if someone asks me if sexual immorality is a sin I am on firm ground saying: “absolutely yes”.  There are no examples in the Scriptures where God permits any sort of sexual immorality.  But look at what the apostle says about eating food sacrificed to idols:

So then, about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know that an idol is nothing at all in the world and that there is no God but one.  For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”), yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live.

But not everyone knows this. Some people are still so accustomed to idols that when they eat such food they think of it as having been sacrificed to an idol, and since their conscience is weak, it is defiled.  But food does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do.

This is a conditional instruction.  Eating meat sacrificed to idols is not, in and of itself, a sin: “we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do“.  We are sinning though, if we do not consider the spiritual condition of others before we exercise this freedom.  And this is a very serious matter.  But if someone were to ask me for an unconditional answer to the question: is eating meat sacrificed to idols a sin? I would not be faithful to the Scriptures if I made any other response than: “no”.  It would be a sin under certain conditions and these conditions are important so considering the conditional nature of this issue it would be wise for me to say: “no, but”.  Then I could continue with a discussion of the important relational spiritual considerations that the apostle Paul brings up in this chapter.  It is not correct for me to respond yes to the question: “Is eating meat sacrificed to idols a sin?”

Many in the religion business are eager to label this or that thing a sin.  Observing the religious world and my personal experiences prompts me to say that we can say something is a sin only if God has indicated it a sin.  Anything else is going beyond what is written and not keeping in step with God.  but people in the religion business do this sort of thing every day.  An example more applicable to our culture today is gambling.  Many Christians want to say that gambling is a sin.  But since the word of God does not say that gambling is a sin it is a sin for any of us to take it upon ourselves to pronounce gambling a sin.  Now it is certainly true that gambling can lead to, or bring us into contact with all sorts of sinful things.  Therefore we might do well to avoid it.  This is a conditional instruction.  The correct answer to the question: “Is gambling a sin?” is: “no, but…..”. I want to say more on this topic and explore the concept of things we would do well to avoid.  Please feel free to comment on this so we can move this discussion along.  I know many do not agree with me on this, so speak up!  Part Two will be coming up soon.