Posted on 06/26/2002 12:22:27 AM PDT by JohnHuang2
Silence does NOT give consent where God is concerned. Two men (priests) were struck dead by God for offering something He hadn't commanded (Lev. 10:1). The Bible doesn't say that they were punished for offering something that God has specifically condemned. Whatever reasoning they used for obtaining fire from another source is not given. They might have reasoned, "Fire is fire, and one burns as well as another", or, "Well, after all, God didn't say not to use this other fire.." Whatever their reasoning was, it was not acceptable to God. It was not that God had specifically forbidden the fire they used, but rather he had specified what fire they must use.. (Lev. 16:12; Numbers 16:46). God didn't have to go down a list of other sources of fire, specifically forbidding each source..just tell them what fire to use was enough. Whatever is unauthorized, (i.e. not commanded, or lacks biblical approval) is wrong. Failing to adhere to what God has said, failure to respect His silence, is to manifest disrespect for God. God is "treated as holy" when we have enough respect and awe for our God that we simply are happy to do what He has said, no more and no less. These priests were innovators and progressive. They were on the cutting edge of expanding the worship. They were trying something different and experimenting. And God wasn't impressed. Biblical authority spares us from the religious rat-race to try everything and anything, lest we lose our members to a religion that is trying the latest religious fad (Mormons or Heaven's Gate..take your pick). It keeps us from being blackmailed by the argument, "If we don't do this, we will be left behind". And since fads are always changing, it keeps us from becoming irrelevant.
Read Hebrews 7-8. In 8:4, it is affirmed that Jesus Christ, if on earth, could not function as a priest. And why was that the case? Because, as indicated in 7:14, Jesus was from the tribe of Judah (not Levi). Here is my point: concerning priests from the tribe of Judah, "Moses spake nothing," or, to say the same thing in another way: He was silent about it!
Silence amounts to no authority, and is thus prohibitive. If it were the case that anything not expressly forbidden in the New Testament is permissible in Christianity, then we could not only use Marilyn Manson CD's to accompany our singing but "blessed" beads to aid our prayers, crucifixes to focus our devotion, and hashish to enhance our sensitivity. We could also initiate an organizational network similar to that which has been protested so strongly in Catholicism or begin financing church projects with bingo games (where legal) on Tuesday nights. Not one of these things is explicitly forbidden in the New Testament...right?
The Book of Judges ends with the statement, "In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes" (21:21). And that is exactly where we are headed if we start adding to the church those things that are not authorized by Him. One can easily see this in Catholicism. Any any event, when God is silent about a matter, humanity has no right to be presumptive, and thus to speak (or to act) without his bidding.
Silence does NOT give consent where God is concerned. Two men (priests) were struck dead by God for offering something He hadn't commanded (Lev. 10:1).
They offered fire that was expressly NOT what God had commanded. That is why they were struck down. It is not that they did what God didn't command it's that they did wrongly what God did command.
As to the rest of your post, no where in the bible does it command Vacation Bible Schools, regular schools, meals on wheels, clothing banks, or for that matter, any organized charity through the church. (We are all commanded to do these things but the church IIRC is not so commanded). If we did only what God expressly commanded we'd be just like the pharisees, making great show of obeying the letter of the law but totally missing the spirit of the law.
Any any event, when God is silent about a matter, humanity has no right to be presumptive, and thus to speak (or to act) without his bidding.
So you basically believe that whatever is not mandatory is forbidden? I guess our readings of the Word are a bit different.
1 John 3:17 But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?
The bible tells us to fill a need when we see it. Seems that some people are in need of small arms practice, why shouldn't the church make possible the filling of that need?
GSA(P)
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