When you read the Bible how do you approach it? How do you decide what to practice and what to discard? Take the following quiz and see how you come out. Look at what to do next at end of the 20 commands.
Write a "T" (today) beside each of the following statements that you believe should still apply to Seventh-day Adventists today.
Place a "NT" (not today) beside each statement that you believe no longer applies today. Do not answer according to what is practiced today but what you think the practice should be.
1. Whoever curses his father or mother shall be put to death (Exodus 21:17).
2. You may eat all you want from your neighbor's vineyard [garden] as long as you don't carry any produce away in a container (Deut. 23:24).
3. If a woman bear a male she shall be unclean seven days, but if a female she shall be unclean two weeks. If she bears a male she must wait 33 days to be purified from her bleeding but if a female 66 days (Lev.12:1-5).
4. He whose testicles are crushed or whose male member is cut off shall not enter the assembly of the Lord (Deut. 23:1, NIV).
5. Do not eat any meat with the blood still in it (Lev. 19:26).
6. Do not cut the hair at the sides of your head or clip off the edges of your beard (Lev. 19:27).
7. Do not degrade your daughter by making her a prostitute (Lev. 19:29).
8. Rise in the presence of the aged, show respect for the elderly and revere your God (Lev. 19:32).
9. When a man is newly married, he shall not go out with the army or be charged with any related duty. He shall be free at home one year, to be happy with the wife whom he has married (Deut. 24:5).
10. If men get into a fight with one another, and the wife of one intervenes to rescue her husband from the grip of his opponent by reaching out and seizing his genitals, you shall cut off her hand; show no pity (Deut. 25:11, 12, NIV).
11. "But the priests (ministers) . . . are to wear linen clothes; they must not wear any woolen garment . . . they must not wear anything that makes them perspire" (Ezek. 44:15, 17, 18).
12. When you fast put oil on your head and wash your face (Matt. 6:17).
13. Men everywhere should raise their hands in prayer (1 Tim. 2:8).
14. Women should dress modestly, with decency and propriety, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or expensive clothes (1 Tim. 2:9).
15. A woman must not teach or have authority over a man; she must be silent (1 Tim. 2:12).
16. The church elder must not be given to much wine (1 Tim. 3:2).
17. Provide for widows over sixty who have been faithful to their husbands but do not help those under sixty (1 Tim. 5:9-11).
18. Greet everyone with a holy kiss (Rom. 16:16; 1 Cor. 16:20; 2 Cor. 13:12; 1 Thess. 5:26; 1 Peter 5:14).
19. Women must cover their heads when they pray (1 Cor. 11:5, 13, 15).
20. If your right hand causes you to sin cut it off (Matt. 5:30).
How many of you will practice all 20 today? If you do not, how did you decide? Does anything go when using the Bible or are there some core principles to guide us? What principles do you use that help you decide?
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2 comments:
I'm glad you brought this up, pastor. It's been a burden of mine for some time.
I believe Christianity in general, and Adventism in particular, have staked their "reasons to be" on the ability and necessity of telling others what to think. This is essentially the "codebook" approach of which you speak.
But this approach is very limited, it seems to me. While it can be used to buttress various doctrinal points, it typically leaves vast patches of Biblical data unaccounted for. Many of these data you have itemized in your post.
This presents at least some of us with the need to try on some other templates or heuristics for relating to the Bible. The "casebook" approach is one of these. It suggests that the various Bible stories and instructions should be understood, in so far as possible, from the vantage point of the individual or collective situation, and of course, in keeping with the context of the Bible passage.
Alden Thompson, who adopts, or at least offers this approach in the book "Inspiration" (unfortunately no longer in print but available from the author) also outlines an approach to the law that hinges on, if memory serves correctly, "The two, the ten, and the many". The idea being that as reiterated by Jesus in the gospels, there are two great commands, which specify loving the Lord our God with all our heart and mind, and loving our neighbor as ourselves. On these two hang the ten commandments. The many commandments, those presented in the Levitical code, are understood to be less permanent but reflecting the temporal applications of the two and the ten.
Anyway, I've probably gotten of course here. But the casebook approach offers more of a "let's teach people how to think, not necessarily what to think" manner of developing spiritual growth. The two and the ten are unchanging. The application of those two and ten may and does vary from situation to cultures. Maybe this subject would make for a good sermon series, Pastor?
Glenn
Good suggestion Glen. I approach this subject based on the following presupposition: Behind every command in Scripture these is a principle. Pinciples are universals truths stated in the abstract such as kindness, love, patience, courtesy,obedience etc., But these principles need to be applied within a cultural context, thus specific applications. In interpreting Scripture we must first understand the cultural context in which the command was given. If more of us would do this there would be less divisiveness regarding how we understand Scripture.
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