Legal Precedence

Merry Christmas!!!!! Yeah, I know, you're saying to yourself "Tomorrow is Halloween. Why are you wishing everybody Merry Christmas?" You know like I do that, according to the world, we are not entering the Christmas Season; Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years. We are entering the "Holiday Season." With political correctness run wild, I figured I better get it out the way before I am not allowed to say it at all. It is almost maddening the way people go out of their way to avoid offending others during this time of year. But, all they do is offend those who celebrate Christmas for what it really is, honoring the birth of Jesus Christ. It is no secret that the driving force behind the movement to silence Christmas is the belief in something called the "separation of church and state." This doctrine, however, is no where to be found in the U.S. Constitution. I was doing some research about this topic and ran across the following:

"[W]here did we get all this "separation" business to start with? How did we get from point A to point B, only to look back and find ourselves so far away from original intent? The problem can be summed up in one phrase: legal precedence. Instead of basing rulings on the Constitution, the Supreme Court oftentimes bases its rulings on prior Supreme Court rulings. What inevitably happens is that we find ourselves incrementally further and further away from the original intent until the rulings bear little resemblance to what our nation's founders had in mind."

When I read this I realized that is has a familiar ring to it. While our social and political system has gotten increasingly further away from the original intent of the Founding Fathers, the Christian religion has done the same thing.

"For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it. I was advancing in Judaism beyond many Jews of my own age and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers. But when God, who set me apart from birth and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not consult any man, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was, but I went immediately into Arabia and later returned to Damascus." Galatians 1:13-17

I have talked to more than one Christian who, proudly, refers to the "Church Fathers" for their guidance in the Christian life. In most cases, the individuals they are referring to are those who established their particular religious denominations. They will quote respected pillars of their religion like Popes, manmade saints and leaders like John Calvin, Martin Luther and John Wesley. Each of these individuals may have said something of merit at one time or another. However, if they have said anything of value it was revealed to them by the Holy Spirit. The same Holy Spirit that indwells every believer within the Body of Christ and who has promised to reveal God's truth to us. The problem with relying on "Church Fathers" is that as time goes on we have seen their words elevated to the same level as those of the Bible. And then the followers of the various religions end up using their own version of legal precedence in order to determine truth. The Apostle Paul seems to describe doing just the opposite. Prior to his conversion, I would imagine that he was viewed by some within his own religious community as a pillar of the faith. Like is the case with most today, I would not be surprised if there were those who looked to him as a someone who could determine absolute truth. However, Paul admitted that his zealous pursuit of the traditions of his fathers may have advanced his standing in Judaism, but had nothing to do with understanding the truth of the Gospel. He further confesses that it was God who revealed "His Son" to him not any consultation with man. There is a lesson we all can learn from the words of Paul.

"So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, "Why don't your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with 'unclean' hands?" He replied, "Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: " 'These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.'You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men." And he said to them: "You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions!" Mark 7:5-9

What Paul was revealing about himself is what Jesus made clear to the Pharisees. We hold onto our traditions at the expense of God's truth. This happens because we follow behind the leaders of our church without questioning anything they say. When you multiply this pattern by thousands and millions of followers who have repeated the error for centuries, it is easy to see how God's Word is replaced by man's opinion of it. We have, in effect, created our own "separation of church and state" within the Body of Christ. We have set aside the commands of God in order to observe our traditions. It is amazing that we can have hundreds of demonimations, all claiming to be teaching the truth and following Jesus, yet all of them teaching something different. Even more puzzling is that many followers within these separate denominations will act as though they are teaching the same things. You will hear things like "we should focus on the things we agree on, not those that divide us." Sounds like a politically correct comment, right? However, I suggest that we need to focus on those things that divide us because not everybody can be correct. There is only one truth. Either we are all wrong or only one is correct. God does have an opinion on just about every subject that touches our faith. It would behoove us to search out what His truth is even if it means discarding the traditions of men we hold so dear. Think back to your salvation and all the things that fell away since you became aware of the truth that God has been revealing to you in Christ. While it may be easy to discard the wordly things we held so dear when they are matched up against God's truth, it can be very difficult to discard those spirituals things we have grasped on to. But, it is just as important to discard the spiritual things, as it was the worldly things, if they do not match up with truth. The separation of church and state is an error that we have allowed to become truth at the expense of our religious liberties. We cannot let that which we know to be true about the Word of God be lost to our inability to separate that truth from our traditions and the words of men.