GRIEF

Hugo McCord

My heart is heavy with grief concerning one whom I love very much, but who will not repent from a modern “life style” After a recent appeal to that one to repent, this note came, “The Bible says, ‘Judge not.’“

“JUDGE NOT”

Many misuse Jesus’ words. He was not saying you must never criticize anyone, for he himself did that often, as, “Snakes, brood of vipers, how will you escape the judgment of hell?” (Matthew 23:33) He said that he was talking about hypocrites, people who regard themselves as righteous while looking down on everyone else (Matthew 7:5; Luke 18:9). And he instructed how you are to judge: “Judge not according to appearance, but judge righteous judgment” (John 7:24). One cannot drive a car down the street without judging whether the oncoming driver is on the right side of the road or not.

“HIS INTERPRETATION”

The loved one thinks that my request for repentance is based only on my interpretation of the Bible, while the loved one has a different interpretation.

Many Bible teachings are discounted and rejected by the remark, “That is just your interpretation.” For example, the Unitarian denies that Jesus is the divine Son of God, saying to a Christian, “That is just your interpretation.” The Unitarian is mistaken, for “if anyone wishes to do” God’s will, “he will know” the certainty of Jesus’ claim (John 7:17).

Also, if one objects to calling a priest “Father,” he is told, “That is just your interpretation.” If one objects to baby baptism, he gets the same response. If one says that water baptism is necessary for salvation, or that sprinkling is not baptism, or that the only right name for Jesus’ followers is “Christian,” or that the only day for the Lord’s Supper is the Lord’s Day, he hears, “That is just your interpretation.” If one objects to holy water, images, incense, candles, prayers to Mary, instrumental music, and rosaries, again he hears, “That is just your interpretation.”

If the Bible can be interpreted in so many different ways, it is not a holy book from a God who is unwilling that even one be lost (2 Peter 3:9). Instead, the Bible is muddy, ambiguous, obscure, equivocal, capable of many meanings. The result is that no one can be sure of what God wants him to believe and to do. The world would be better off without that kind of Bible.

But God thought that he wrote a clear book, saying “the entrance of” his words “gives light” (not darkness), “understanding” (not confusion) “to simple” people (plain, everyday folks) (Psalm 119:130). David wrote that God’s word was to him “a lamp for my feet” and a “light for my path” (Psalm 119:105). Paul assured people that by reading they would “understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ” (Ephesians 3:4). Is he a God of love if he gives a book by which we all will be judged “in the last day” that trips up even honest people? (John 12:48).

“WE CAN ALL MAKE OUR OWN DECISIONS”

That loved one, in the two quotations cited above (“Judge not,” and “His interpretation”) showed some respect for the Bible, but now comes another statement, “Leave me alone. ... I am not interested in listening to your Bible talk anymore. ... We can all make our own decisions.”

Alleged self-ability goes back to the Greek philosopher Protagorus (485-415 B.C.), who said, “Man is the measure of all things,” and a rejection of any authority outside of self goes back to a period in Israel’s history when “every man did that which was right in his own eyes” (Judges 17:6; 21:25).

Humanitarianism, says the dictionary, is the doctrine that “man may perfect his own nature without the aid of divine grace.” This philosophy was popularized by the Humanist Manifesto I in 1933 (signed by educator John Dewey and 33 others), and by the Humanist Manifesto II in 1973 (signed by more than 200 people).

Millions of people make their own decisions “without the aid of divine grace,” without the Bible. Their decision is anything that feels good, and they always end up hopeless in the cemetery. With no moral standards and no Bible guidance people’s own decisions lead to divorce and remarriage for any reason, to marriage of two men, to marriage of two women, to homosexuality, to child abuse, to bestiality, to cannibalism, to euthanasia, to voyeurism, to exposure, to evolution, to abortion, etc. Anyone who criticizes such conduct becomes a judge and a bigot and is automatically placed in a hate group.

But God’s word says that mortal man is incapable of making his own decisions: “the way of man is not in himself; it is not in man ... to direct his steps” (Jeremiah 10:23). “There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death” (Proverbs 14:12; 16:25). The assumption that we can make our own decisions is pure egotism, concerning which Solomon warned, “Be not wise in your own eyes,” and Paul wrote, “Be not wise in your own conceits” (Proverbs 3:7; Romans 12:16). “Be not foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is” (Ephesians 5:17).

Humanists with Governor Pilate ask, “What is truth?” (John 18:38), holding that truth shifts from century to century, that all truth is relative, that nothing is certain. On the other hand, Jesus held that one can “know the truth” and be made “free” by it, yes, sanctified by it (John 8:32; 17:17).

A wise person searches for the “things that are true,” non-variable, and gladdens an apostle’s heart: “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth” (Philippians 4:8; 3 John 4).

Bible-hating Robert Ingersoll, in an oration at his brother’s grave, admitted than man is helpless:

We are all between the cold and barren peaks of two eternities. We strive in vain to look beyond the heights. We cry aloud, but the only answer is the echo to our wailing cry. But in the hour of death hope sees a star and listening love can hear the rustle of a wing.

Truly, if we “strive in vain” man is not the measure of all things. Without a divine guidebook man does not know from where he came, why he is here, nor where he is going, if anywhere.

When we make our own decisions we have what John Gipson (Sixth and Izard Church, Little Rock, Ark.) calls “Home-Brew Religion,” and he describes it this way:

We are not bashful. At the drop of a pin, we are ready to say, “This is what I think ...”

In religion everyone seems to have their own ideas about what is appropriate:

“I think Christians should be more tolerant. I don’t

think everybody has to believe in Christ to be o.k. with God.”

“I think it’s ridiculous that some churches make such a big deal of baptism. What’s that got to do with what kind of person I am?”

“I think homosexuals and women should be ordained to the ministry like anyone else.”

“I think I know what God wants me to do without having to look it up in the Bible.”

“I think all truth is relative. What’s true for you doesn’t necessarily mean it’s true for me. You have your truth, I have mine.”

“I think churches of Christ should catch up with the times and use instrumental music in the worship.”

Feel free to make up your own list. Everybody’s doing it.

There’s a hitch, however. It’s found in Proverbs 3:5, 6. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.”

There’s a world of difference between “insight” religion, and the revealed will of God. With no confidence in God, but with complete faith in ourselves, we examine our subjective thoughts and feelings, and proclaim them to the world as The Truth. I can almost hear the apostle Paul saying, “They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator” (Rom. 1:24).

This generation desperately needs to hear, “do not rely on your own insight ... do not rely on your own insight ... do not rely on your own insight.” It should be a mandatory warning label printed on every bottle of home-brew religion. The white lightning we are concocting is going to kill us.

A certain father, grieved by what his prodigal son had done, “moved with compassion,” looked down the road for him “while he was yet afar off” (Luke 1520). I, like the prodigal’s father, grieve and look afar off. I have seen some change in the right direction, but my heart’s desire is for a full repentance.