None are so blind as those who refuse to see.
CS Lewis wrote a wonderful book called
The Screwtape Letters. I highly recommend it. In one particular chapter, Mr. Lewis details how one of the best ways to undermine a new believer's faith is to get them to disregard Jesus as He actually is, and instead come to believe in a pseudo-Jesus, of one's own making.
As long as that believer is fixed on following and worshipping the pseudo-Jesus of his or her own making, their faith will never really take off and eventually, they will end up falling on their face, and never understand the reason why. Their version of Jesus will fade from view and they'll never even realize their version of Jesus was a fake Jesus all along.
This is what man-made traditions and ideas do to the saints: they create false views of Who Jesus really is. To embrace such things at any level is to undermine true faith in the Lord. You (figuratively speaking) don't believe that? Fine, go your way and continue on in your convictions and may your faith in them make you whole.
But think for a moment what is at stake. We believe all scripture is inspired by God, and is profitable for doctrine and etc., right? We believe that, right? We believe Paul, for example, was an Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, and his writings are eternally binding on all believers everywhere, right?
So, when Paul writes to the Corinthians and tells them "Not that we have dominion over your faith", we understand that not even Paul, the greatest apostle and evangelist in the history of Christianity, whose writings make up the bulk of the New Testament, could claim to be able to or have the right to, be a "lord" (check the Greek here) over someone else's faith. And that statement was "God-breathed" was it not? It's Holy Scripture, right?
And what does Simon Peter write about lording it over God's heritage? It's all derived from the same Greek word. What does Jesus say about how the gentiles exercise dominion or lordship over one another and think themselves benefactors of those whom they rule? It's all from the same Greek word/concept. He emphatically and unequivocally states "
It shall not be so among you".
But here we are, not quite 2,000 years removed from those days and we're still coming out of Babylon, still entertaining catholic spirits of papist wickedness, giving in and allowing one another to exercise dominion over each other, and over the faith's of one another, in CLEAR VIOLATION OF THE TEACHINGS OF THE SON OF GOD AND HIS APOSTLES, and we think ourselves benefactors for doing so, just like Gentiles who walk in the darkness of their minds.
You have only one Leader, and it's Christ Jesus:
Matthew 23:10 (NASB),
Do not be called leaders; for One is your Leader, that is, Christ.
Go and look at the word "leaders" above in the Greek. It is the correct way to translate καθηγηταί.
Paul, by the Spirit, told his audience to "acquit yourselves like men". What does that mean? How should men act like men? How do they maintain their masculinity, their "male-ness", if you will. What did the Lord through Paul want His men to be or do, to make sure that verse of Holy Scripture was obeyed?
Certainly it's not to let another man replace Christ as your head?, Or to allow someone else to replace you as your wife's head?
If you (figuratively speaking) cannot see how letting another man tell your wife what she can and cannot wear is emasculating, I suspect you (figuratively speaking), either are the one doing the emasculating of other men, or you don't mind being neutered by someone else.
What grows out of my face is my business, between my head Jesus and me, and if Jesus can't Himself give me a scripture for it one way or another (because none exist), then no one else can either. And so they don't. Realizing how faltering their position is, instead they go for the jugular a completely different way.
They call it rebellion and pride.
I call it a bunch of cr@p, or dung if you prefer a more Biblical term. It is impossible to rebel against an authority that does not exist. You cannot break a law that isn't actually a law. There is no violation of Holy Scripture occuring when there isn't any verse of Holy Scripture whatsoever on the matter.
And the idea that you can say, "well, chapter and verse don't have to exist" for the pastor or leaders to create a standard; it's just within his or their authority to do as elders and leaders, then you admit you "go by the Book" but something else, too.
And we wonder why the USA is circling the drain and national Christianity is falling away? We blame it on a lot of things, but the fact is, it's because God's not in it, that's why. No one can resist God. Who can contend with the Almighty? Would the state of our culture and society be where it's at today without God being the One to let it come to this?
Our Lord is not involved because we aren't just people of the Book. We are people of the Book, plus these other opinions and ideas. Those other opinions and ideas are what got Christ crucified, His apostles martyred, and the true church of the Living God split open nave to neck on a regular basis by the catholic nightmare.
But any dares try and draw a line in the sand somewhere in Pentecost and say "No! We aren't caving in on this one", and accusation of rebellion, heresy, hypocrisy all start to fly from the lips of the status quo who see nothing wrong with adding in a little leaven here and there, for the sake of some popish "platform" that never existed anywhere in the New Covenant Church.
None are so blind as those who refuse to see.
When Paul wrote about the kind of church Jesus is coming back for, what did he mean, or rather, what did the Spirit of Christ mean through Paul, when He/he wrote that she must be without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing, that she must be holy, without blemish?
To answer, imagine wearing a nice suit and tie or dress for a wedding or funeral. Ever find a little spot on that nice tie? Or realize too late your slacks are a bit wrinkled, but you don't have time to change them? Or that your dress is a bit blemished by discoloration from the sun, or something like that?
All these things we would call small and inconsequential. We'd like for them not to exist, but time being of the essence, we go to the wedding or funeral, realizing no one is actually going to care that much about a little stain here or there, a bit of a wrinkle or etc.
But guess what? Try going to the Wedding Feast of the Lamb with that attitude. You're going to be shown the door that leads to wailing and gnashing of teeth. I promise you, or what Paul wrote in Ephesians isn't actually binding on us and we can present ourselves as the Church to the Lord any old way we please.
What does God say in Malachi about when the priests offered him weak and sickly animals, ones that are blemished or damaged in some way? He says He would prefer that they not even open the doors of the temple! Why?
Because they mixed man-made ideas into how to serve God by becoming partial in the Law. I'm sorry if no one ever told you this, but God is going to recompense every man-made idea and human tradition tacked onto His People, particularly those who ought to know better because they are supposed to be more spiritually discerning and wise regarding the ways of the Lord, which is to say, the ministry.
And the answer to that fearsome truth is simply, if you don't like it, go somewhere else. To such a flippant response, I offer you
Ezekiel 34.
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