Insightful Musings on the Scriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67

Good morning, special ones.

Today is a special day for some people I know. It’s my sister Elaine’s 64th birthday…and our granddaughter Joanna’s 21st. Time just keeps marching along—whether we like it or not.

Becki is still not up to going anywhere, but she is much improved. I took time to do a little jog on our own place. 5 circuits of our driveway equals about one mile. Since my memory is so shot that I sometimes have a hard time remembering what circuit I’m on, I decided to mark them by setting little stones on a fence rail near our driveway entrance. When I had 5 lined up there I knew it was a mile. Sometimes my brilliance amazes me.

I used my sawmill yesterday on 3 separate jobs. I put in 4 hours at the big job, hauled the mill home, and did two small ones back to back.

May your day be blessed—even if it isn’t your birthday.

Love. Dad/Ray.

To begin with, I think it could be helpful to our understanding of how God works to point out something that is conspicuous by its absence: There is no evidence of miraculous and supernatural phenomena surrounding this first General Council meeting of the early church at Jerusalem. By deduction I would take that to indicate that God does not intend the supernatural (super-normal) to be natural (normal) in our processing and application of God’s supernatural message (the Gospel) on a permanent ongoing basis. Think about it.

By this observation on my part, you can tell that I’m not a supporter of the notion that Biblical Christian living is meant to be an endless stream of miracles—that everyone, for example, is supposed to be healed of all their physical ailments all the time—and if they are not, it can only be evidence of a lack of faith or failure to say the right words in the right way—or maybe a failure to connect with a super duper faith healer. I see a striking parallel between this form of “Christian magic” and the mindset that we encountered during the course of our missionary exposure to animism in the Pacific islands.

Apart from that, this passage demonstrates the value of balanced organization within the Church. One of the great benefits of church leaders gathering together for the purpose of discussion and sorting out problems and issues in the right spirit is that it allows them to formulate AUTHORIZATION—a set of godly organizational standards, policies, and procedures that represent their best balanced effort at setting forth a sound practical theology. Without this kind of organizational unity, the church too easily becomes a free-for-all of independent “Lone Ranger” operators—pursuing what seems right in their own eyes.

An example of unauthorized independence, and the damage it can cause, is seen in this account where certain believers who still clung to Jewish legalism infiltrated the genuine Gentile revival at Antioch with the dogma that circumcision is an absolute requirement of ALL (male) believers. They apparently claimed to represent the Church at Jerusalem. I’m sure glad Paul and Barnabas didn’t respond with a wimpy, “Whatever.”

Balance is always the key. Too much rigid AUTHORIZATION is just another form of legalism as it tends to view its organizational standards as an END. Balance is most likely when the church body recognizes that their organization is simply a MEANS to the END of proclaiming the Gospel to a lost world.

PS: Once again, let’s be warned of the thinking that the Devil does NOT go to church!