QC and small group accountability (17/6/16)
We talked about ideas and situations from the recently-concluded Church Camp. Noel (visiting for the first time) talked about how the Camp speaker for the Mandarin ministry mentioned a situation where it should not be thought of as appropriate for a guy and girl to cohabitate before marriage, or for a couple to spend the night in the same room. We asked then: where does the Bible say that this is wrong? So we said that the following Scriptural principles would apply:
1. What is lawful is not necessarily helpful (1 Co 10:23). And what is helpful is defined by what makes us and others around us more conformed to the image of Christ (Ro 8:29) and that gives glory to God (1 Co 10:31)
2. We are asked to flee temptation (2 Ti 2:22, 1 Co 6:18) - that is, to be put ourselves in situations where we would find it easy to sin. We are not asked to *fight* temptation.
Underlying the idea of what is not helpful and what is sin is that the Bible teaches that the physical pleasures of sex are always to be joined with the covenantal intimacy of marriage. Genesis speaks of 'one flesh' (Gen 2:24) and of Adam 'knowing' Eve (Gen 4:1).
We also spoke briefly about Ps Daniel's sermon, and whether it was appropriate to call ourselves the '67th book of the Bible'. Some of us felt uncomfortable to be compared to Holy Scripture, but we understood the point of the illustration. This led to discussions on:
1. The limitations and strengths of 'lifestyle evangelism' - the idea that we need to 'live' the gospel, not to 'preach' it. Both the outward witness as well as clarity of the gospel message (Ro 10:13-14)
are necessary in witnessing. In other words, Christlike behaviour may attract others, but is insufficient to save without spoken truth.
2. With respect to being the '67th book' we also spoke about not adding to or subtracting from Scripture (Rev 22:18-19, Dt 4:2, 12;32). My understanding is that this applies to the original written documents by the prophets and apostles (the 'autographs'). It does not apply to sections of Scripture (e.g. Mark 16 and John 8) which are not in the earliest and most reliable manuscripts and which are therefore marked out in modern Bibles. In this case, and in the case of the Apocrypha, we are trying not to add on to what is revealed with tradition.
I stressed the supreme importance of being able to believe that our existent Biblical texts are absolutely reliable from a historical point of view. The discipline of textual criticism allows us to be very sure that our best copies today do not differ materially from the original documents. Without this assurance, we have no basis for our Christian faith.
1. What is lawful is not necessarily helpful (1 Co 10:23). And what is helpful is defined by what makes us and others around us more conformed to the image of Christ (Ro 8:29) and that gives glory to God (1 Co 10:31)
2. We are asked to flee temptation (2 Ti 2:22, 1 Co 6:18) - that is, to be put ourselves in situations where we would find it easy to sin. We are not asked to *fight* temptation.
Underlying the idea of what is not helpful and what is sin is that the Bible teaches that the physical pleasures of sex are always to be joined with the covenantal intimacy of marriage. Genesis speaks of 'one flesh' (Gen 2:24) and of Adam 'knowing' Eve (Gen 4:1).
We also spoke briefly about Ps Daniel's sermon, and whether it was appropriate to call ourselves the '67th book of the Bible'. Some of us felt uncomfortable to be compared to Holy Scripture, but we understood the point of the illustration. This led to discussions on:
1. The limitations and strengths of 'lifestyle evangelism' - the idea that we need to 'live' the gospel, not to 'preach' it. Both the outward witness as well as clarity of the gospel message (Ro 10:13-14)
are necessary in witnessing. In other words, Christlike behaviour may attract others, but is insufficient to save without spoken truth.
2. With respect to being the '67th book' we also spoke about not adding to or subtracting from Scripture (Rev 22:18-19, Dt 4:2, 12;32). My understanding is that this applies to the original written documents by the prophets and apostles (the 'autographs'). It does not apply to sections of Scripture (e.g. Mark 16 and John 8) which are not in the earliest and most reliable manuscripts and which are therefore marked out in modern Bibles. In this case, and in the case of the Apocrypha, we are trying not to add on to what is revealed with tradition.
I stressed the supreme importance of being able to believe that our existent Biblical texts are absolutely reliable from a historical point of view. The discipline of textual criticism allows us to be very sure that our best copies today do not differ materially from the original documents. Without this assurance, we have no basis for our Christian faith.
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