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URBAN LEGENDS
The advent of the Internet has made it possible
for ten thousand urban legends to take wings and fly around the
world. Every one has received one or a thousand of these by email.
Most of these urban legends are harmless, albeit time-wasting. But
there are other legends that have arisen in recent years within
the environs of New Jerusalem, the church of the living God. Consider
the following stories that are circulating among our churches. They
have the same merit and value as the urban legends in your email.
Some say that a preacher with his PhD from a denominational
or secular university is a more capable teacher and church builder
than a man without a terminal degree but has spent years immersed
in the Word of God and the work of the church (2 Timothy 4:2).
It is being circulated that long-held beliefs and
practices of churches of Christ are now obsolete. Therefore new
ideas and practices must be found for modern man (Jude 3).
Some have bought the legend that people will grow
more spiritually on entertainment than on old fashion Bible-based
worship and Scripture teaching.
It has been implied by some that youth know more
about how a congregation should function than those who are advanced
in years.
The legend is circulating widely that there is
no such thing as a Law of Silence; that we are free to do anything
that God has not specifically forbidden (cf. Acts 15:24 & Hebrews
7:12-14).
In some quarters the rumor is heard that God didn’t
really mean it when he said, “I suffer not a woman to teach
or have authority over a man…” (2 Timothy 2:12).
It is being said that Christ has no law and therefore
Postmodern man can safely disregard the precepts and principles
of the Bible and still please God.
Many have repeated the legend that one church body
is as good as another; that God does not have one unique church
He will bless and save (Ephesians 4:4; 1:22).
From several quarters we have heard that immersion
is not really essential to man’s salvation; that God’s
grace will save good people even though they are not baptized as
he instructed.
In the same vein, some are whispering that because of the grace
of God, honest folks can be saved by faith before and with obedience
to His Son.
Another legend is that the New Testament is not
to be viewed as God’s pattern for us to follow (See 2 Tim.
1:13 & Heb. 8:5).
Like other urban legends these are widely circulated
and commonly believed. Actually they are more wish than reality.
But the fact is, they are false and therefore not only worthless
but absolutely dangerous to those who fall for them. Strangely,
these legends seem to flourish in the atmosphere of religious schools
of higher learning. There are other legends and more yet to be born
from those fertile minds that create such worthless rumors. These
baseless legends, if believed, can cost man his good standing with
God and rob him of his home in heaven. Only God’s truth can
make us free. May we reject forthrightly all such legends which
are circulated within the family of God’s people.
Written by John H. Waddey -- Copied from Christianity:
Then & Now
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