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"We Must Be Different" 5/27/01 Past/Future Articles |
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"We Must Be Different" 5/27/01 Past/Future Articles |
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God has always demanded that His people be separate and distinct from the world. The fact that Israel was to be "a light to the Gentiles" required them to be "different" (Isaiah 42:6; 49:6). They were commanded, "separate yourselves from the people of the land (Ezra 10:11), and in earlier generations were required to separate themselves from Egyptian and Canaanite cultures and ways (Leviticus 18:3). That principle of distinction holds true for the New Testament Christians today (Romans 12:1-2; I Peter 2:9). The Lord's church of today faces a mounting threat to surrender its doctrinal distinctiveness to the "liberal" mode of many churches today. Theses churches are trying to reach a goal of some kind and will disregard the "thus saith the Lord" to meet that goal. They contend that music, disorderly hand clapping, women preachers and/or elders (naming only a few liberal and unscriptural practices of worship), are methods of keeping the people pleased and coming to worship. We must realize the PEOPLE are not the ones to be pleased. GOD is!
Bud Butcher, Elder