Following\u00a0 Sunday morning class at the Church of Christ back in 2010 Anno Domini, I wrote a fellow church member and SS class participant.<\/p>\n
24 September 2010<\/p>\n
Dave,<\/p>\n
Some after thoughts regarding my cursory reply to your broad question on Sunday morning: \u201cWhat is the will of God?\u201d<\/p>\n
To say it is the \u201cLaw of God\u201d begs for clarification, of course.\u00a0 But that effort is in dreadfully short supply in our time.<\/p>\n
But to answer as you did, \u201cthat we are not under the law of God,\u201d but under grace misses the point.\u00a0 The question is not whether we are saved from the condemnation of the Law by the atoning work of Christ.\u00a0 It is this: Does God provide Law to guide our personal lives and the civil order?\u00a0 Is there Law for persons, families, and governments given by the Scriptures?<\/p>\n
That is a discussion which has not been presented in the six years I have been sitting in the pews and classrooms.\u00a0 Neither, until now, it seems with Dale, has there been any mention of the relevance of the Scriptures (the \u201cOld Testament\u201d as interpreted through the NT) to moral standards for church and state.<\/p>\n
One of the shortcomings of the Churches of Christ which apparently proceeds from its origins in a settled Christian culture is the absence of a tradition of contending for political justice, i.e. the advocacy of the Law (as \u201cdistilled through the NT\u201d).\u00a0 This ministry is summarily referenced in places like the Epistle to James where concern for the \u201cwidows and orphans\u201d \u2013 i.e. \u201cpure religion\u201d \u2013 is taken for granted.\u00a0 It calls to mind all the warnings and exhortations from the prophets about JUSTICE.\u00a0 We are to be a light for justice in this world.\u00a0 That is what the Gospel-energizing conversions of people drives toward \u2013 all for the Glory of God.<\/p>\n
Yes, Stone and Simpson lived in an era of \u201cdead orthodoxy\u201d where the structures of God\u2019s churches had lost the Spirit, some would say. And, yes, they did not need to lay political\/ethical\/just foundations for the society they lived in.\u00a0\u00a0 The land was still grounded in the Law of God and recognized him in the laws of the states and the nation.\u00a0 They were revivalists calling people back to Jesus to make genuine personal commitments to Him or to re-establish in sincerity their commitments-to-Christ-gone-cold and to become true followers of Him.<\/p>\n
That is not our present milieu.\u00a0 We live in a post-Christian, neo-pagan land in need of not only the Gospel to save sinners but the Law for the guidance of Christians and civil rulers.\u00a0\u00a0 Our breath must give a voice for sanctification and justice in both areas \u2013 the personal as well as the civil arenas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Following\u00a0 Sunday morning class at the Church of Christ back in 2010 Anno Domini, I wrote a fellow church member and SS class participant. 24 September 2010 Dave, Some after thoughts regarding my cursory reply to your broad question on Sunday morning: \u201cWhat is the will of God?\u201d To say it is the \u201cLaw of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[21,37],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2676"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2676"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2676\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2680,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2676\/revisions\/2680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}