legalism Archives - Gospel Union - A blog about Christian faith and unity

Live free or die

Wednesday, 13 January 2010 by Editor

I read an article in the Idaho Statesman noting that Cuba may be angling to get rid of its ration books–the little booklets passed out by the government allocating equal shares of rice, beans, and other staples to all of its citizens. What was more shocking was reading that there are Cuban citizens upset by

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Love, legalism, and marriage

Wednesday, 06 June 2007 by Editor

A frequent subject of my prayers is to thank God for the love of my amazing wife. Because I have her love, I feel blessed and honored beyond measure. I could argue that most everything good in my life flows from the fact that I know without a doubt that I am loved by her.

legalism love marriage

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The last shall be last

Sunday, 26 March 2006 by Editor

After years of trying to train my kids not to fight over being first in line at the dessert table, we recently encountered an interesting twist. They were fighting over being last. That’s right, instead of arguing about who was going to be first, they began arguing over the right to be last in line.

legalism motives

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Too good to be true

Thursday, 26 May 2005 by Editor

Are you skeptical of those who talk about Christian liberty? To many of us, freedom in Christ seems too good to be true. It just doesn’t seem possible that the same God who struck down Uzzah, Nadab, and Abihu for breaking rules and regulations under the Old Law could shake heaven and earth with a

christian liberty legalism

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What makes sin sin?

Tuesday, 15 March 2005 by Editor

Ponder for a moment what makes sin sin. Is murder wrong because it is listed in the Decalogue? Is it wrong because it is listed in the new testament scriptures as sin? Or is it wrong because it violates our “social contract,” or the law of the land? No, forgive the circularity, but murder is

Law legalism Morality Origin of Morality sin spirit

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Is God binary?

Friday, 11 March 2005 by Editor

Too often, I’ve made the mistake of thinking that God is binary–that He can only be “for” something or “agin it.” Fortunately, he’s more merciful than that. Often times, there is a third option that may be in play that we haven’t considered–“I don’t care, as long as you act in love.” I see this

hermeneutics legalism

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The deep things of God

Tuesday, 15 February 2005 by Editor

What are the deep things of God? Sometimes I lose sight of what’s deep and what’s not so deep in the scheme of things. Was tithing of mint, rue, and other herbs a good thing for the Pharisees to do? Yes. Were those things the deep things of God? Forget about it. Luke 11:42 –

greatest commands legalism love

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Obedience: not if, but how

Tuesday, 16 November 2004 by Editor

Believe me when I say that I have wrestled with the paradox of rejecting “pattern-finding” in the New Testament scriptures while accepting the self-evident notion that we ought to obey the instructions we find there. What makes this seem paradoxical is merely the presupposition that the examples and instructions we find recorded in the sacred

Command Keeping hermeneutics Law legalism unity

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Want to go to edification service?

Thursday, 07 October 2004 by Editor

We often call the Christian assembly “worship” or “worship service.” But is the congregation a forum for worship and service to God, or is it to strengthen and build up believers? Is it for Him or for us? These are two very different philosophies that lead to two very different conclusions about church practices. I

church edification legalism worship Worship Service

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Freed from the law

Monday, 04 October 2004 by Editor

When God spoke to Moses on the Mount, he delivered to him both a detailed, proscriptive law, and a pattern for the construction of the tabernacle. There were details for nearly every contingency. When questions arose about the application of a particular law, Moses would receive supplemental instruction directly from God to clarify. Was God’s

Bible Law legalism love sin

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Barton Stone - "I blush for my fellows who hold up the Bible as the bond of union, yet make their opinions of it a test of fellowship; who plead for union of all Christians, yet refuse to fellowship with such as dissent from their notions. Vain men! Their zeal is not according to knowledge, nor is their spirit that of Christ. Such antisectarian-sectarians are doing more mischief to the cause and advancement of truth, the unity of Christians, and the salvation of the world, than all the skeptics in the world. In fact, they create skeptics."

Alexander Campbell - "We will not hearken to those questions which gender strife, nor discuss them at all. If a person says such is his private opinion, let him have it as his private opinion; but lay no stress upon it; and if it be a wrong private opinion, it will die a natural death much sooner than if you attempt to kill it."

Alexander Campbell - "But men cannot give up their opinions, and therefore, they can never unite, says one. We do not ask them to give up their opinions--we ask them only not to impose them upon others. Let them hold their opinions, but let them hold them as private property. The faith is public property; opinions are, and always have been private property. Men have foolishly attempted to make the deductions of some great minds the common measure of all Christians. Hence the deductions of a Luther, and a Calvin, and a Wesley, have been the rule and measure of all who coalesce under the names of these leaders. It is cruel to excommunicate a man because of the imbecility of his intellect."

Alexander Campbell - "Dear sir, this plan of making our own nest, and fluttering over our own brood; of building our own tent, and of confining all goodness and grace to our noble selves and the "elect few" who are like us, is the quintessence of sublimated pharisaism. The old Pharisees were but babes in comparison to the modern: and the longer I live, and the more I reflect upon God and man--heaven and earth--the Bible and the world--the Redeemer and his church--the more I am assured that all sectarianism is the offspring of hell; and that all differences about words, and names, and opinions, hatched in Egypt, or Rome, or Edinburgh, are like the frolics of drunken men; and that where there is a new creature, or a society of them, with all their imperfections and frailties, and errors in sentiment, in views, and opinions, they ought to receive one another, and the strong to support the weak, and not to please themselves. To lock ourselves up in the bandbox of our own little circle; to associate with a few units, tens, or hundreds, as the pure church, as the elect, is real Protestant monkery, it is evangelical pharisaism."

Alexander Campbell - "I have tried the pharisaic plan, and the monastic. I was once so straight, that, like the Indian's tree, I leaned a little the other way. And however much I may be slandered now as seeking "popularity" or a popular course, I have to rejoice that to my own satisfaction, as well as to others, I proved that truth, and not popularity, was my object; for I was once so strict a Separatist that I would neither pray nor sing praises with any one who was not as perfect as I supposed myself. In this most unpopular course I persisted until I discovered the mistake, and saw that on the principle embraced in my conduct, there never could be a congregation or church upon the earth."

Alexander Campbell - "I have no idea of adding to the catalogue of new sects. I labor to see sectarianism abolished and all Christians of every name united upon the one foundation upon which the apostolic church was founded."