3
For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, except they wash their hands oft, eat not,
holding the tradition of the elders.
Traditions;
Sunday School, bus ministries, Grandmother’s day, Church softball leagues,
aerobics in the basement, patriotic displays, and the like plus many others may
be very helpful and seem very pious and godly but are often easily confused
with true worship. I’m sure you can think of traditions that may be based in
Biblical principles or things that are really helpful in today’s world that
churches do but aren’t what was a part of New Testament church practice.
Sometimes even to question these things is considered not to be spiritual. When
a Pastor prefers traditions over Bible reading, letting God speak to you daily
and cleanse your heart, then he is condemning his congregation to powerlessness
and there will be no Holy Spirit revival there.
It
has often been a sort of joke in Baptist churches that something is done not
for a Biblical reason but simply because that’s the way it’s always been done.
No question can be made as to why it has to be that way. For centuries upon
centuries Christians were even murdered by other so-called Christians over
traditions.
Although
in the first two centuries no church leader (called ‘father’ by scholars and
Roman Catholics in spite of Christ’s admonition against the name in Matthew
23:9 referring to a religious leader as per Judges 17:10) even referred to
infant baptism it did start to become a tradition to baptize babies in the
paganized Christian churches. This practice is never mentioned in the Bible.
But, as Christianity became more accepted and popular, even eventually
receiving the approval of Roman emperors or, if not the approval, at least the
leniency toward, pagan ideals and religious practices entered the Christian
practice.
Men
who had been trained in Greek philosophy like Justin Martyr began to speak of
the regenerating effects of baptism and the paganized Christian churches began
to think of baptism as a saving sacrament, as if that was the point at which
you were saved. Infant baptism, sprinkling the child of Christian parents, then
became a saving grace. This unbiblical error became popular and the true
Christians soon became outnumbered by the many Christians who had one foot in
the pagan world of Satan and one in the Christian kingdom of the Spirit.
Whether they were really saved or not, it is not for me to say.
Baptismal
regeneration and infant baptism go hand in hand as does now the idea that you
can lose your salvation. You see, if an unknowing baby can be saved by being
baptized then that same baby, then child, and then adult must be able to lose
his or her salvation if they stray far from the fold or infant baptism makes no
sense. So, heresy after heresy moving away from the authority of Scripture
becomes orthodoxy, conventional wisdom, and if you question this tradition you
can lose your freedom, your family, your property, and your life in the Dark
Ages.
The
person who re-baptizes someone as an adult who had been baptized as a baby was
called an ana-baptist or rebaptizer and in many places and many times to do so
was illegal. The Un-Biblical tradition became an oppression. Other traditions
that developed over time as the tares of paganism became united with the
Scripture believing Christian wheat included making the sign of the cross,
wearing crucifixes and crosses, celebrating Christ’s birth, special Holy Days
or holidays as we know them now, and certain modes of worship. I’m sure you can
think of more.
Is
it wrong to dedicate a baby to Christ and have the parent’s promise before the
church that the child will be raised with the knowledge of Christ? Of course
not, but the tradition became a heresy and then an oppression as people were
murdered for their resistance to sprinkling their babies. Dare we permit any of
our traditions to stand in the way of someone’s faith?
It
is good to be in a church service where you sing hymns and gospel songs, Christ
and the Scripture are uplifted, and you pray for each other, plus testimonies are
given by all present, both sexes, regardless of age. This resembles the early
church worship revealed in 1st Corinthians just before Paul warns about
speaking in tongues (other human languages than the one spoken naturally by the
speaker) which died out with the age of the Apostles;
1Corinthians
14:26 How is it then, brethren? when ye come together, every one of you hath a
psalm, hath a doctrine, hath a tongue, hath a revelation, hath an
interpretation. Let all things be done unto edifying.
This
kind of service reminds me of how far Christianity had moved away from the
simplicity of Christ in the beginning with no sacred spaces except in the
Christian’s heart and with a joyous and Christ directed worship that was noted
for not only its spontaneity but in its active participation by all. Services
have become monuments to dead formalism, and I would say, dead, pagan formalism
of ritually repeated behaviors and speech.
Traditions
aren’t necessarily bad ideas. But, none of us were saved by a tradition.
Colossians
2:8 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the
tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.
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