"Religiosity......"

Wednesday evening Bible study was about as good as it gets, the only thing missing being some point where the Spirit overflowed the vessel we provided, His presence manifesting itself giving concrete evidence of that fact. That’s not to say He wasn’t there, only that the “fourth man in the fire” chose to remain incognito on this occasion. Neither is it meant to suggest that our class was without error, in this old man’s opinion. The teacher was using Acts, Chapter Fifteen, for a focus on “the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees”, pointing to Christ having equated the doctrine of those religious Jews to being filled with yeast, and asking if Christianity today wouldn’t be found guilty of the same charge. All were agreed in the affirmative, discussion not just involving what we considered such matter within other members of the ecclesiastical body, but within Pentecost as well, mostly, however, looking at the latter’s view of “holiness”, not so much its interpretation of the Word. Funny how, when it comes down to “translating the Covenant”, we think ourselves infallible. This, for me, was made quite evident when, near the end of our ninety minutes, Steve asked us to list what we considered to be concrete Scriptural demands regarding salvation. While he was fishing for the “ye must be born-again” answer, what he got was several other items like “giving grace to others”, “a valid recognition of just who the Holy Ghost is”, and (of all things) “homosexuality is sin”. I gave no comment concerning that last one, agreeing with the statement, at least in so far as it not being part of God’s original plan, but was pleased that another spoke of her own learned manner of dealing with those individuals was to “just be Jesus”. Humanity will remain humanity, both in and out of the sanctuary; but, when you boil it all down, surely there is no better way to put it than that……