Often, we hear professing Christian people complain about all the ways the government is intruding on their lives. There is some validity to much of this concern.
But it is also helpful for us to turn as wary an eye to our own faults, especially in this general area of keeping within the proper spheres of our responsibilities.
Some churches, both individual congregations and (in some cases) entire denominations, overstep their proper bounds, and call on behavior (and even beliefs) in their people that are not required by God in His word.
Take, for instance, the always hot-button issue of education. We have dealt with this topic in prior posts on this blog site. Is it proper for a church to dictate that officers (and maybe even members) must either homeschool their child(ren), or send them to covenant (private Christian) schools? I argue, “No; it is not their legitimate sphere to do this.”
Someone might object, and urge on us passages such as Deuteronomy, chapter 6; and assert that God’s teaching there demands the essence of home- or private Christian education. But, if you were to go to that chapter and read it, you would find yourself arriving at an entirely different conclusion. God is not speaking of formal education in these verses. Instead, He is insisting on something much more profound yet—namely, covenant life, fully and joyfully lived in and through the hearts of fathers, which then is communicated down to their child(ren). All of the contents of this chapter have to do with redemption (with the Exodus from Egypt being the template), and walking in atonement (with the Old Covenant church being the focus).
How many fathers who insist on homeschooling, or private Christian schooling do you know, who actually keep the spirit (or even the letter) of Deut., ch. 6? If you know a lot, you know more than I do. Could it be that their practices are in reality just their convenient excuse for not fulfilling what God actually intended there?
Again, the point of this post is this: it is dangerous to demand of people what God Himself does not require. We would naturally object to the state overstepping its bounds, if it insisted on behavior in churchmen that the Bible prohibits. On the same token, however, we should balk at the notion of churches foisting on people what God Himself does not insist on.
The Forum for Ecclesiocentricity is designed to educate Christians and non-Christians alike to understand the Biblical teaching concerning the Church (the "Puritan" church in particular), with regard to its principal role on the earth. When this is achieved, it is hoped that the Church would then be in a better position to convey Christ's redemptive virtues to the civil government (state), and the family. (You may email me at: markjhenninger@gmail.com)
