Everyone reading this post.....and everyone that we know.....are held captive to a certain extent to the mores and methods of this day and age that we live in. Our opinion of government.....or the education system.....or marriage.....or almost anything.......is constructed around our life experiences concerning the subject. We can read history....and even study history....and may have had long conversations with older people who lived their youth in an entirely different time period.....and this certainly helps.....but for most opinions that we have.....we started on a grid....therefore we have an ingrained personal bias....and work outward from there.
There are people.....usually men....who live the Civil War today in their extended and oftentimes tedious research. Consequently they tend to know more than the rest of us on the 1860s in America. I have had a continuing fascination now for nearly a half a century on the Kennedy assassination......and a similar but lesser fascination on the sinking of the Titanic....and I would certainly proffer an opinion on either....but I would never even think about giving advice on how to play the game of golf.
It's necessary, I believe anyway, to keep this in mind as we think about our Christian worship and our Bible reading habits. If we do not....then the general consensus of the day may very well be the only thing that determines our conclusion. Worship and Bible reading on one side or the other of the norm will naturally be considered extremes.
Most Christians of a few decades or more have been in numerous Christian services of one kind or another.....and of one denominational and theological perspective or another....but the message from the pulpit does not vary as much as the actual outward worship might. Our Bible study today is pretty well set in stone. One might have more Bible studies than someone else but they are going to be similar. This has been my 35 year experience anyway
Common sense and logic should tell us that as the time periods change....and therefore the sermons and the importance of the Word of God vary.....that one must be better in some way and to some degree or another than the other. Would it not therefore behoove us to enter into this study of church history if we truly want to get as close as possible to what God envisions for us?
If you will allow me to be the Civil War buff on this so to speak.....since I have studied these very issues....and for that very reason.....then please at least consider my findings......and then decide for yourself if they are worthy of looking into. Those findings are these.....
We live in a very poor age of preaching. We are well over a century past having the gospel preached....and the glories of Jesus Christ preached.....as they once were....in various places....in the 19th century. Our opinion of the Bible has taken on a weaker valuation and we might have to go much further back than the 19th century to find a period where the Word of God was literally reverenced in the lives of Christians.
I just glanced up at a print of a famous oil painting that we have on our living room wall.....Pilgrims Going To Church.....painted by George Henry Boughton in 1867. You would recall the painting if you saw it.....it's winter in New England....and fifteen or so Puritans....or Pilgrims....are on their way to church......muskets at the ready.....one man even holds his hand out as if to say 'wait....I think I may have seen something.' The sermon that they would hear would most likely make our sermons today seem off center from Christ.....and peripheral as to the cross of Christ. Their Bible reading in the 17th century might seem to us like something out of the movies....where they pour over every word as if the word was just written and delivered by Timothy or Titus.
I don't mean these descriptions to be critical for we are captive to our time period....just as these pilgrims were captive to theirs......or Jonathan Edwards to his.....or Martin Luther to his.....but Luther refused to remain a captive to his time....choosing instead to be captive to his conscience. Paul essentially said....do as I do....would it not be wise for a pastor today to look at Charles Spurgeon.....and do as he did.....or Spurgeon to have looked at John Owen and.....do as he did....or Owen to have looked at Augustine and....do as he did?
There are people.....usually men....who live the Civil War today in their extended and oftentimes tedious research. Consequently they tend to know more than the rest of us on the 1860s in America. I have had a continuing fascination now for nearly a half a century on the Kennedy assassination......and a similar but lesser fascination on the sinking of the Titanic....and I would certainly proffer an opinion on either....but I would never even think about giving advice on how to play the game of golf.
It's necessary, I believe anyway, to keep this in mind as we think about our Christian worship and our Bible reading habits. If we do not....then the general consensus of the day may very well be the only thing that determines our conclusion. Worship and Bible reading on one side or the other of the norm will naturally be considered extremes.
Most Christians of a few decades or more have been in numerous Christian services of one kind or another.....and of one denominational and theological perspective or another....but the message from the pulpit does not vary as much as the actual outward worship might. Our Bible study today is pretty well set in stone. One might have more Bible studies than someone else but they are going to be similar. This has been my 35 year experience anyway
Common sense and logic should tell us that as the time periods change....and therefore the sermons and the importance of the Word of God vary.....that one must be better in some way and to some degree or another than the other. Would it not therefore behoove us to enter into this study of church history if we truly want to get as close as possible to what God envisions for us?
If you will allow me to be the Civil War buff on this so to speak.....since I have studied these very issues....and for that very reason.....then please at least consider my findings......and then decide for yourself if they are worthy of looking into. Those findings are these.....
We live in a very poor age of preaching. We are well over a century past having the gospel preached....and the glories of Jesus Christ preached.....as they once were....in various places....in the 19th century. Our opinion of the Bible has taken on a weaker valuation and we might have to go much further back than the 19th century to find a period where the Word of God was literally reverenced in the lives of Christians.
I just glanced up at a print of a famous oil painting that we have on our living room wall.....Pilgrims Going To Church.....painted by George Henry Boughton in 1867. You would recall the painting if you saw it.....it's winter in New England....and fifteen or so Puritans....or Pilgrims....are on their way to church......muskets at the ready.....one man even holds his hand out as if to say 'wait....I think I may have seen something.' The sermon that they would hear would most likely make our sermons today seem off center from Christ.....and peripheral as to the cross of Christ. Their Bible reading in the 17th century might seem to us like something out of the movies....where they pour over every word as if the word was just written and delivered by Timothy or Titus.
I don't mean these descriptions to be critical for we are captive to our time period....just as these pilgrims were captive to theirs......or Jonathan Edwards to his.....or Martin Luther to his.....but Luther refused to remain a captive to his time....choosing instead to be captive to his conscience. Paul essentially said....do as I do....would it not be wise for a pastor today to look at Charles Spurgeon.....and do as he did.....or Spurgeon to have looked at John Owen and.....do as he did....or Owen to have looked at Augustine and....do as he did?
