CONTRARIETIES

The Law of Contrarieties

R.D.Ice   May 27, 2013

 

      Truth really is stranger than fiction.  All these things really did happen.  In 63 years of working among the churches, this writer has come across many things.  The ‘Law of Contrarieties’ is: reacting to an idea, sometimes without thinking through implications and consequences.  "We didn't expect that to happen!"

      We each have distorted images of God. Partly because we're human and incapable of fully understanding God. Partly because of our backgrounds and experiences. And if we've had negative relationships, it's difficult not to reflect some of that onto God.

      There are people who "masquerade as Christians," and sin by being excessively superficial or overly rigid, forgetting that a true Christian is a person of joy who rests their faith on the Rock of Christ. Some think they can be Christian without Christ; others think being Christian means being in a perpetual state of mourning.  Rigid and sad. Or happy but with no idea of ​​Christian joy. These are two - in a sense opposite - "houses", in which two categories of believers live and which are both seriously flawed: they are grounded in a Christianity made of words and fail to rely on the "Rock" of the Word of Christ.  To put it simply, they have no joy. They do not feel that they rest on Jesus, with that firmness which the presence of Jesus gives. And they not only have no joy, they have no freedom either. They are the slaves of superficiality, of this life, and the slaves of rigidity, they are not free. The Holy Spirit has no place in their lives. It is the Spirit who gives us the freedom! Today, the Lord calls us to build our Christian life on Him, the Rock, the One who gives us freedom, the One who sends us the Spirit, who keeps us going with Holy Joy, on His journey of life, following His proposals. "  

      Peter spoke of “Joy unspeakable and full of glory!”   Paul said: “Rejoice evermore!”  Satan works to steal our Holy Joy away.  Notice 2 Cor. 3:17-18; Gal. 5:1; Phil. 4:1; 1 Thess. 1:5-6.

      “It is better to light one small candle than to curse the darkness.”  John wrote of Jesus: “That was the true Light which gives light to every man who comes into the world.  He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.” John 1:9-10 NKJV.

      Our human nature tells us to go on cursing the darkness!  React in fear and anger!  Yet the only successful way to conquer darkness is to lift up Jesus Christ the True Light.  “For it is God who commanded light to shine out of darkness who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”  2 Cor. 4:6.

      “Destroy and be free!”  If you really want to get rid of the mice, set fire to your house and burn it down.  You probably don’t think this a good idea.  Yet in church matters, this is sometimes how people seem to think.

      Perhaps you know of the preacher/elder/deacon who left to form a new church just down the street.  "But I wanted to do God's will.  They weren’t conservative enough.  I was in the right.  That church wasn't obeying God.  This city needs a church that does it right!"

      Paul warned against "choosing up sides" and he commanded that all stand together.  A new birth makes us brothers and sisters in the Lord's Family.  Note Colossians 3:10-11; 1 Corinthians 12:13.  And note the attitude of the older brother in Luke 15:25-32.  Yet the father loved the older brother also.

      Never were the faithful in the Seven Churches of Revelation told to withdraw to form a “true” church!  Rather, they were to “hold fast what you have until I come.”  “Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die, for I have not found your works perfect before God.”  “Behold, I stand at the door and knock.  If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.”  And the continual refrain: “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

      Some say: “But if we are not different, and peculiar, we have nothing to preach.”  Yet Paul said: “For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.”  1 Cor. 2:2.  The ancient church spoke of the Fish <”)))><  - Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior.

      Someone said of old Uncle John Rogers (not his real name and he is a composite), “He is the most spiritual man I know.  He is against everything!”  He had not heard of the Law of Contrarieties, but he followed it religiously.  And he had a lot of zeal!

      Uncle John said, “I don’t remember who said it, but if the denominations go in and out the door, why, we will go in and out the window.”  “We’ve got to be different,” he said,” or we don’t have anything to preach.” 

      “What about preaching Christ?” someone asked.”  “Oh, the denominations do that.  We’ve got to tell people just how different we are, that we are the true church because we are different and peculiar.” 

      A visiting preacher said he would not preach about grace because the Baptists preach on that.  "Amen," said Uncle John.  "It's Law and don't you forget it!!  We've got to work for our salvation!"

      But some said, "What about Jesus?  'For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ' (John 1:17)."  "We only go by the Book of Acts," said Uncle John.  But the Book of Acts emphasizes JESUS and the Holy Spirit.

      When some of the young people began singing: “There’s a Sweet, Sweet Spirit In This Place,” (page 882 in Praise For The Lord), Uncle John called the elders together and said those young people should be put out of the church to protect it.  “Why, there never was a Spirit in this place, sweet or otherwise.”

      He was against “premillenialism.”  But he didn’t stop at that.  If Christ would really come to usher in a 1000 year kingdom, Uncle John would have surely given Him a strong argument against it.  “If premillenialism is true, why, you might as well just throw the Bible out the window!”  But of course God doesn’t need our advice on what He does or does not do.

      Uncle John was so against the idea of a thousand year reign that he began following the AD 70 argument (Preterism).  He bought a book on Revelation that taught that everything had been fulfilled when Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 AD.  For a while he taught that Christ would never come again.  This world would just go on forever.  But finally he had to give that up when he saw where all this was leading.  Surely Jesus is Coming Again!

      Anything Uncle John didn’t want to have done now, he would say was “just for the first century” and write it off.  But when someone tried to tell him that “baptism was just for the first century, and only for the Jews,” he really got angry.

      Someone tried to say that the Lord’s Supper was only for the first century.  They quoted 1 Corinthians 11:20.  “When ye come together therefore into one place, this is not to eat the Lord’s Supper.”  “See,” they said, “you cannot eat the Lord’s Supper today.”  But Uncle John would have none of that.

      Someone said that the bread should never be broken before passing it.  “You are breaking the body of Christ.  It is only right when each person breaks off a piece.”  And for a while Uncle John argued that the bread should not be broken before it is passed.  Then another argued that since the ‘elements’ had been blessed in the morning worship, they should not be blessed again when offered at the evening service.  And for a time Uncle John offered the Lord’s Supper at the evening service without ‘blessing’ it.  But a visiting brother attacked that, and Uncle John again “blessed” the Lord’s Supper at the evening service.

      A Brother came to hold a Gospel Meeting.  The first night he preached that no one at all could be saved, except just maybe a tiny remnant.  He quoted what Jesus said about "entering in at the strait gate."  One of the young people asked, "what about Matt. 8:11 where Jesus said “many will come from the east and the west and sit down in the kingdom of heaven?” And what about the ‘great number that no man can number’ in Revelation 7?"

      The next night the brother preached on how sinful it was to have a kitchen in the church (building)."  Uncle John said, "There has been enough gospel preached here tonight to save the world!"

      A contentious young man from another congregation came to harangue Uncle John.  "You've go to trouble people." he said.  "Hell fire and brimstone!"  Then he said, "Your baptism is no good.  You didn't repent right.  I know you didn't.  You’ve got to be totally troubled first to repent."  He kept on at this and finally convinced Uncle John to be rebaptized.  "Now" he said, "you are a novice.  You can't continue to be an elder anymore."  So Uncle John stepped down.  About three months later Uncle John began to think things over.  "The Eunuch was baptized on his statement of faith in Christ.  He wanted to be right with God. I was baptized on my faith in Christ.  There was nothing at all wrong with my baptism."  And so he went back to being an elder again.

      A much older man visited from another congregation.  He went to one of the other elders and tried to convince him that the qualifications were so strict that no one could possibly be an elder (except this man of course).   The elder finally became so convinced of how unworthy he was that he resigned.  And then he left the church altogether.  When Uncle John tried to reason with him, he would not talk about it at all.

      A visiting preacher said he would use a sermon on the Holy Spirit.  "We don't want any of that Holy Spirit stuff here," Uncle John said.  "You better preach on something else."

      He was sure that the Holy Spirit was just for the first century, and that only the apostles had ever received the Holy Spirit.  For a while he began teaching that the New Testament did not really begin until Acts 2:22, that all that Peter quoted from Joel applied only to the Old Testament times.  He believed that since Jesus lived under the Law, you should ignore all that Jesus said and taught.  But Jesus said His word would judge us at the last day, John 12:48.

      Uncle John decided that the Holy Spirit was the Written Word, and that anyone could only have the Spirit as he read the Bible.  But someone asked, “What about those who cannot read, or who do not have a Bible?  Is the Holy Spirit out of reach of such a person?  And if you say we do not need the Holy Spirit because we now have the Bible, would you also say we no longer need Christ because we now have the church?”

      When he was reminded of Cornelius being baptized with the Holy Spirit (Acts 11:15-17), the Samaritans (Acts 8:5-8), and that Philip’s four daughters had prophesied (Acts 21:9), he began teaching like the Jehovah’s Witnesses.  “The ‘holy spirit’ is just a power like electricity.  ‘It’ is not a person at all.”

      But the JWs have strange ideas about Who Jesus Is.  They teach Jesus was only a man, or perhaps an angel. He read in the JW Bible Version that John was preparing the way of Jehovah (Luke 3:4.  LORD = Jehovah) and compared this with Isaiah 42:8 (“I am the LORD, that is My name; And My glory I will not give to another...”) and he had to change again.  Surely Jesus was Jehovah and the teaching about the Trinity was true.  Father-Son-Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:19).  [Campbell spoke of Jehovah the Father, Jehovah the Son, Jehovah the Holy Spirit (in The Christian System).]

      Uncle John decided that the Holy Spirit “is just the Spirit of God.”  Someone said that was like saying “Jesus is only the Son of God.”  This is the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:19-20).

      Uncle John met some Pentecostals who spoke about the Indwelling Holy Spirit and quoted Bible to prove this.  “Impossible!” he said.  “Why, the Spirit would just burn them up!  The Holy Spirit could never actually indwell anyone.  It’s just a figure of speech.”

      Then he got to thinking.  If the Spirit would just burn them up, how could Jesus be the Son of God in the flesh?  So for a period of time, he began teaching that Jesus just “wore a disguise” and was not really God in human form.  But the Bible really does teach Jesus as the Son of God who came in flesh and blood (2 John 7; 1 John 5:6), and he had to give this idea up.

      Another contentious young man said: "The King James translators were all crooks and scoundrels."  "NO!" said Uncle John.  "That can't be!  They were surely Christians since they handled aright the word of God."  One of the young people then said: "So the borders of the kingdom extend farther out than we thought.  Wasn't that what Campbell said?"

      An evangelist from somewhere in another State held a Gospel Meeting for the church.  He preached on Wednesday night that “The church must grow from the inside out.”  He said that love was even more important than faith and hope, and he quoted Paul to prove it (1 Cor. 13:13).  That was just too much.  “Why the church has gone all these years without love.  That’s just these change-agents trying to get their two cents in.”

      But of course the church has not gone without love.  Someone reminded him of what Jesus said about the greatest commandment to love God, and the second greatest about loving neighbor.  “Jesus taught about God’s love for us in the Parable of the Prodigal Son.  He taught about loving neighbor in the Good Samaritan.  And Jesus taught that love is the identifier of a true disciple (John 13:34-35).”

      But Uncle John remembered a friend who said everything in the Bible is negative!  This friend could read the divorce issue into every verse of the Bible.  He would ask this friend what to do about the “love” issue.  “Forget this love thing.  They are making it too easy.  Just concentrate on duty.  The righteous are scarcely saved.”  But of course Jesus said that Christian love was the identifier by which all would know His disciples (John 13:34-35).  And John spoke of the eternal hope we have in Jesus (1 John 3:1-3; 4:2-4,13,17-18).

      Campbell said he tried to approach the Bible every morning as if he had never seen it before.  He meant he tried to read the Bible without any preconceived ideas and biases.  When we read a newspaper, we unconsciously use the laws of language and communication to understand what we read.  Perhaps it would help to read the Bible as if it were a newspaper, or a letter from God.  Paul warned of some who “strive about words to no profit” (2 Timothy 2:14).  Compare 1 Timothy 6:4.  Lipscomb wrote: “They had such a morbid fondness for questionings and disputings over untaught questions and words that it amounted to a disease.  These men deal with subtle, useless and unpractical questions, which have no bearing on ordinary life, and only tend to stir up strife and useless discussions, and make men discontented and rebellious.”

      Let us never forget what Paul wrote in 2 Cor. 5:18-19.  “Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.”  NKJV

      F.L.Rowe wrote in his book: The History of Reformatory Movements: “Forgiveness takes place in the mind of God, and not in the heart of the sinner.”  Compare Hebrews 8:7-13.  "For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more."  (NKJV)

      Brinsmead wrote: “It makes a lot of difference whether we think the body is a prison (of the soul) or a temple of the Holy Ghost.  1 Cor. 6:19.”

      The New Testament church had every problem we have today.  “The Church (at Corinth), torn with divisions, plagued by sex scandals, involved with lawsuits, weakened by corruption of the worship and the neglect of the poor, was one of Paul’s greatest evangelistic successes.  The corrupt urban society of Corinth was a fertile ground for Paul’s preaching.  His success in the pagan and hedonistic culture had a profound impact on the development of Christianity throughout the ages.  Paul was clearly inspired by the Holy Spirit when faced with the daunting task of changing the Corinthians into the very Body of Christ.  The two letters of Paul to the Corinthians deal with issues that have been relevant throughout history and will continue to inspire the Church till the end of time.  In these letters, Paul deals with tawdry sex scandals taking place within the Christian community and also gives one of the loftiest descriptions of true Christian love ever given.” 

      And this about the Book of Revelation.  "Allow God to charge the horses across the canvas of your mind and grant you the sweep of these things.  John sees horses and storms and seas and armies; blood and fire and earthquakes; demons and angels and THE GLORY OF GOD! He was swept along by another vision, another revelation.  BUT THE END IS NOT YET!"

    "To love people, you must really see them, see the horror - but see them as God sees them.  John is saying: “I saw humanity in all of its ragged horror.  I saw the ocean of wounded, rebellious sons and daughters of Adam.  I saw them enslaved by drugs and alcohol, riddled with Aids, aborting babies out of fear and sin, their marriages in turmoil.  Nation rises against nation."

      "God allows upheaval and ferment and change in this sea of humanity.  Yet there is a KINGDOM that cannot be shaken (Hebrews 12:25-29).  Keep this in mind.  God is gathering a PEOPLE out of this sea of peoples, multitudes, nations, tongues.  John sees THE LAMB standing on Mount Zion.  Out of this same sea rises His church!  The Bride of Jesus - His church - safe and secure under His Wings, outfitted with the armor of God, swords, helmets.  We see them bloody but unbowed, wounded yet not defeated.  In submission to God by His Holy Spirit this sea of humanity becomes the church - the Community of Jesus!  VICTORY ALREADY BELONGS TO CHRIST AND HIS CHURCH!!!"

      Jesus said: "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven." Matt 5:16.  As Paul told Timothy, “Preach the word.”

      Paul wrote to the Romans.  “Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery kept secret since the world began but now has been made manifest, and by the prophetic Scriptures has been made known to all nations, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, for obedience to the faith-- to God, alone wise, be glory through Jesus Christ forever. Amen.”  Romans 16:25-27 (NKJV)

      P.S.:  We feel nostalgia for the 19^th Century Restoration Movement.  We certainly do “stand on the shoulders of those who lived before us.”  But a reinterpretation of the R.M. has become a “Sacred Tradition” for some.  And we Americans sometimes think the rest of the world “live in mud huts and paint themselves blue.”  But the actual Old Jerusalem Gospel will always be calling the world to the Cross & Resurrection.  JESUS CHRIST IS LORD!