I’ll speak as a non-denominational Protestant here.
I mentioned in another thread that the heart of Jewish law and “the greatest commandment” are the same. Love the Lord with every ounce of your being and love your neighbor as yourself. Everything else is a derivative of that.
The problem I personally have with a church hierarchy is that it inherently removes the Spirit from individual guidance into a “Read the catechism” mode. Paul wrote of the individual guidance in 1 Corinthians 8, when he warned to
“Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak. For if anyone with a weak conscience sees you who have this knowledge eating in an idol’s temple, won’t he be emboldened to eat what has been sacrificed to idols? So this weak brother, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge. When you sin against your brothers in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause him to fall.”
I know in the church that I last regularly attended, there was a pretty good amount of diversity of every type. There were those who would wear their best clothes, and there were college kids who would have shorts and sandals. There were those with short hair and were clean-shaven, and there were those with long hair, piercings, and an abundance of facial hair. There were women that wore no makeup and men that did. And in worship, there were those who would jump around and dance and those that would quietly stay where they were. And afterward, everyone would gather together for a nice Sunday dinner with a great mixing among the flock. And I’ll tell you something…the Spirit was
alive in that place.
In 2 Chronicles, Israel suffers under a succession of idolatrous and apostate kings, resulting in the fulfillment of the covenant curses. Keep in mind that Israel’s civil and criminal law was Mosaic law and violation by an individual could also bring trouble to the entire country. But when Hezekiah was king and he implemented reforms that resulted in the restoration of Passover, the law of celebrating Passover was openly and actively violated. But it clearly says that:
Since many in the crowd had not consecrated themselves, the Levites had to kill the Passover lambs for all those who were not ceremonially clean and could not consecrate their lambs to the LORD. Although most of the many people who came from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar and Zebulun had not purified themselves, yet they ate the Passover, contrary to what was written. But Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, “May the LORD, who is good, pardon everyone who sets his heart on seeking God—the LORD, the God of his fathers—even if he is not clean according to the rules of the sanctuary.” And the LORD heard Hezekiah and healed the people.
Ultimately, this is the litmus test:
- Do I, by a particular action, cause a brother or sister who is weaker in their faith or even a non-believer to sin?
- Do I, by a particular action, cause a breach in my relationship with the Almighty?
To address the first point, why do I not (nor will I ever) display Christian bumper stickers on my car? Because if I do something on the road that causes someone else to become annoyed, I’d rather be the object of scorn. If I have a bumper sticker, I may cause them to curse God and thus bring trouble upon themself. Others don’t feel that way, and that’s fine. The Spirit has led me to go sticker-less.
To address both points, I’ll give an example using sex. I got married fairly recently (within the last year), so there’s still some amount of passion
. The Roman church is very clear on what constitutes “permissible” sexual activity. Contraception is out, oral sex is out, “finishing up outside” is out, self-stimulation is out, and so on. Depending on how strict of an interpretation you want, most positions that involve intercourse are out as well.
Now, there are certain things that would violate both questions from above. If I pleasure myself while fantasizing about someone I’m not married to, it would both damage my relationship with my wife and with the Almighty. If I pleasure myself while fantasizing about my wife who works different shifts than I do (limiting our time together), does that damage either? The Spirit has not convicted me on that. If I “finish up outside”, does that damage my relationship with my wife or the Almighty? She hasn’t stated that it negatively affects her, and the Spirit has not convicted me. If we go without contraception and I “finish up inside”, it most certainly would negatively affect her relationship with me, and my justifying with “God says I have to” may also cause her to curse the Almighty.
I can accept difficult teachings; the Bible is full of them. I can accept difficult circumstances; it’s a part of life. What I can’t accept is a micromanagement of what is supposed to be a Spirit-guided life by a church hierarchy. If it helps some on their journey, great. If it keeps others down, that’s not so great. This isn’t a slam on the Roman church, it’s more or less a slam on every established denomination that maintains their own absolutes on really anything beyond what is laid out in Scripture.
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