Monthly Archives: July 2013

//July
30 July

Rules of attire

By |2019-04-11T02:08:00-06:00July 30th, 2013|Uncategorized|170 Comments

With this post, I'll begin a series on various rules of men that have been created by this church. Some may have changed here and there over time, and some may not have been enforced equally across all congregations. But every one of these has been verified by former members. Keep in mind that the point here is not to argue the validity of the reasoning behind any of these rules, but to argue that the church composed of fallible humans should not be making rules like these at all. "They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules." Mt 15:19 (NIV) "But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men."  Mt 15:19 (KJV) Dresses for women required on [...]

29 July

Changing doctrines

By |2019-04-30T09:53:03-06:00July 29th, 2013|Uncategorized|104 Comments

One of the staple teachings I had growing up in the Stanton Church of Christ was the idea that truth never changes. Therefore, if any church had ever changed their doctrines, you could be assured it was not the True Church, because 1 Tim 3:15 says the True Church is the pillar and the ground of the unchanging truth. The only problem is that the church has most definitely changed its doctrines over the years. That's the purpose of the May Meetings, in fact...to discuss doctrine and reach conclusions for the sake of "unity." Invariably, each May Meeting creates a flurry of excitement around all the "new understandings" of scripture "brought back" from the meeting. These "church councils," which are nothing more than the equivalent [...]

10 July

What is a sect?

By |2019-04-11T02:07:55-06:00July 10th, 2013|Uncategorized|18 Comments

Members of the Stanton Churches of Christ will not like my use of the term "sect," and I assure you, it's not meant to be hurtful or derogatory. Here is the definition: a dissenting or schismatic religious body; especially : one regarded as extreme or hereticala religious denomination a group adhering to a distinctive doctrine or to a leader party faction I think any fair-minded person would have to agree that all of these definitions apply. They were founded based on Merie Weiss's dissenting views from the mainstream Churches of Christ in the late 60's and early 70's. As such they became a schism when she broke away and formed her own distinctive church body or "fellowship." They adhere to a distinctive set of doctrines [...]

10 July

What is legalism?

By |2019-06-17T07:15:51-06:00July 10th, 2013|Uncategorized|29 Comments

Legalism is a term that gets thrown around a lot, and it's generally referring to an approach to the Bible that is law-centric rather than grace- or love-centric. A legalistic theology (or more accurately, hermeneutic), does not necessarily preclude the idea of grace; but generally pushes love and grace to a very minor role in our approach to God, and establishes our compliance with God's laws as the primary means of approaching him. The Pharisees of Jesus' time were a legalistic sect. They measured their own closeness to God by their adherence to the Law, and judged harshly those who did not measure up to their own standards of law-keeping. Of course, the legalist would not describe himself that way. He thinks that his standard [...]