January 16, 2014
Excommunication
One of my on-line college classes is titled
“Historic Christian Belief” and it has my head spinning with all the theories
and heresies that have been handed down through the centuries. On the day of
Pentecost, A.D. 431, during the Third Great Ecumenical Council, Nestorius was
excommunicated before his supporters could arrive. Then, “When the bishop of Antioch and his
party arrived a few days late, they in turn excommunicated the Alexandrians!”
And today we get heartburn and change churches over hymns vs. praise
songs…seriously?
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Gail;
-----I will never forget that evening at my fifth-grade Christmas party when my brother was trying to show me the use of variables in math. It was a simple concept, indeed, but I just didn’t get it. It takes me more thinking than others to catch on to things. But when I finally did get it, I loved it. Variables are really useful concepts.
-----The Bible is full of stuff that could benefit from the use of a few variables. “And it shall be that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved,” (Acts 2:21) and “’Knowledge’ puffs up, but love builds up,” (I Cor 8:1) and “If any one comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into the house or give him any greeting,” (II John 10) which is somehow supposed to be walking “with all lowliness and meekness, with patience, forbearing one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” (Eph 4:2) Hmm? Ok.
-----Or maybe it is that the Bible has used lots of variables from which we could benefit by noting. Notice the “name” we call upon to be saved. It's acting as a variable for holding many values which all validate the statement’s meaning within the overall context of God’s Word. “Of the Lord” more specifically limits it's set of proper values. “Humble” is a value of Jesus' set. So could I say whoever calls upon humility will be saved though he ransacks neighbors, murders strangers, steals from the poor and gives to the rich? Fortunately, it doesn’t work that way. The Bible is plump with concepts of who and what the Lord is which all fill up the meaning of the name we call upon for salvation. In fact, it is so filled with such that we spend our lifetimes locating all the values in the Bible for exploring its entire meaning. We who live in the peaceful unity of forbearance, patience, and meekness, building one another up in love, build our knowledge of God by filling Scripture’s variables with Scripture’s values.
-----The revelation did not come with an ink and paper teacher’s manual showing what values go into what variables for knowing the more complex doctrines it revealed. The only manual given was the Spirit to every believer. That some could reflect upon the Word and make statements as if from it into the hearing of mankind was by the laws of physics. That others could do the same and make statements into the same actually from it was by the laws of spirituality. The church leaders figured it their post to study and teach these things rather than the things of walking in the Spirit.
-----So, these early years of Christianity were the tumultuous period of sifting the Word for values to supply variables, and for sorting through people for values of tinkering hearts showing more old death than new life. It didn’t help matters that a little misapplication of some values to some variables happened by hearts showing more new living values than old dead ones. All of us get our values mixed up some, for we all being men are false. By that I count on God comforting me by His being true even more than my own thinking. Then I can gladly hope my Mormon neighbor is only mistaking about some bit of puffy “knowledge” so his calling upon Christ’s sacrifice, mercy, goodness, etc will be little less invalidated as the things puffing me up invalidate mine.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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