My problem with the "modern" church pt i

ooooh I said it was going to be controversial but starting out like this?

First of all I'd like to say "don't get me wrong people" because I'm only a christian now because of the pentecostal church, and there are a lot of things good about it. I know it's not good to just go around nit-picking but that's not what I'm doing. I feel that there are some serious issues that modern church mind-set has, and they need to be addressed. And by the way, this is only from my experience of the pentecostal church in Christchurch, mainly my previous church, which was a predominant church near the centre of town.

I feel that the teaching in most modern church leaves a lot to be desired. In fact I would go as far to say that months would go by without any teaching in the church. I know I know there are sermons every week, but my question is, "What purpose do they serve"? Well, is it good enough to go to church, and then have some one talk to us about a certain subject that is christian based? Sure, if it's done correctly. The amount of sermons I have heard and forgotten is unbelievable, is that my fault? Maybe, but a lot of the sermons I have heard have dealt with such subjects as "outreaching in your highschool" and "get more holy spirit". Now for what good value these topics have, well, whats the point in just talking about them? I've found most sermons to be mixtures of stories and well chosen bible verses to illustrate a topic followed by a lot of emotion. While I grew up with this kind of teaching, I now realise that it achieves very little. Sure at a "fired" up concert maybe at the time you'll feel like going home and saving the school, but often the next day you just don't feel that same way.

The problem for me isn't the good intentions of the sermon, but the practical aspects of one. We need to understand that man is man and God is God and we cannot in any way shape or form replace God. God gave us the bible to relate to him with. Jesus only had the scripture when we was around on earth but did he have any trouble with motivation? Do you think if instead of reading the scripture, if one of the Pharisees had decided to take some verses from here and there, and talk about a subject, if Jesus would have been the same? No he wouldn't have. He knew everything about God because he had the scriptures and he read and understood them. He had an ability to understand them that we do not possess, but he still got every single thing he needed from them. Is it not wise that we take this same approach to the scriptures? What exactly about our society needs are not met by the scriptures? I have discovered, and through practice, that being taught Gods word, and by having it explained and researched, that I have learnt far far more about God, I am in a position to understand him better, to understand what God wants for us and how he wants us to live our lives.

I have been a christian since I was 15, and I am 23 now (2 days from 24) and only in the past year have I learnt such fundamental christian historical facts as who the samaritans actually are! How come the hebrew people are called jews in the New Testament? I never knew! It's crazy to think that for all this time I hardly even understood the basis of where we get our beliefs from! Sure I used to try to read my bible every night, but unless we dedicate our selves to studying the scriptures, we are only going to end up with nice memory verses.

Which brings me to another topic: The 3 C's of bible study

CONTEXT
CONTEXT
CONTEXT

I was in an old church of mine recently who are doing up the stage. Plastered on the wall was a quote from 1 Kings 5 "I intend, therefore, to build a temple for the Name of the LORD my God" it may have been a different version but it was King Solomon either way. It was almost as if this verse was the reason for the building of this new stage. Why do I have a problem with it though? I mean, it's talking about making a temple for God isn't it! Well, it is, but in context, we should know that the temple Solomon built was a temple for God in the Old Testament. God promised David that his son (Solomon) would build a temple. But God doesn't "live" in temples any more. Every single christian has the holy spirit and so we don't need to make a temple for God, we don't need to offer physical sacrifices anymore for our salvation, as Jesus has died on the cross and achieved that for us. The temple in the Old Testament went hand in hand with sacrifices and other practices now, that were required so we could be ok with God, but don't need to happen anymore.

Now was this sign trying to say "We are bringing back the old style sacrifices"? And effectivly putting the law back in place? No I'm sure they were not, but in light of what the verses were actually in the bible for, does that make it ok to use those verses where we see fit? We need to understand that there are two types of books in the bible. Descriptive and Prescriptive. Descriptive books, like most of the Old Testament, tell of a history, but are not a prescription of what we are to do. That's not their purpose in the bible. The letters in the New Testament are prescriptive, they are instructions to the church. The Gospel and Acts are Descriptive, as in they tell a history. Sure there are commands from Jesus in there that we are to listen to, but we need to understand the purpose of the whole book.

We need to understand that we can't just use verses by themselves because they sound nice. It's called quoting out of context.

A great example is Jeremiah 1:5 ""Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
before you were born I set you apart;
I appointed you as a prophet to the nations."

Wow thats amazing! It speaks right to me!!

Hang on though! What else does God say in the same conversation?

"Now, I have put my words in your mouth. 10 See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant."

Oh crikey! That sounds a bit extreme! Lets see what else he says

From the north disaster will be poured out on all who live in the land. I am about to summon all the peoples of the northern kingdoms," declares the LORD.
"Their kings will come and set up their thrones
in the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem;
they will come against all her surrounding walls
and against all the towns of Judah.

I will pronounce my judgments on my people
because of their wickedness in forsaking me,
in burning incense to other gods
and in worshiping what their hands have made.

What the hell!! It seems like all the Northern Kingdoms are about to be summoned by God!


We need to understand that God was saying that to Jeremiah, and not to us. There ARE lessons to be learnt from reading this book, and it is essential to understand God, else God would not have put it in the bible! But we can't just take any old verse and think that it is God speaking to us, well no more than we can from any book. Just because something sounds nice and comes from the Bible doesn't mean we can just read it how we want.


Now I know I've said a lot, and I've probably rushed it, but I would like THOUGHTFUL comments and INTELLIGENT discussion on this. If you have questions please ask as I want to answer them as well as I possibly can.
Until next time.