Nehushtan

Is there controversy in your church? In your federation or denomination? Do the arguments sound something like this;

"The Bible says right here that...." "But the confession says...the confessions don't allow..."

...Keep your eyes on the guys with their Bibles open. The church has a future, and the light that will be necessary to guide her steps will be found in the Scriptures.

There was a time in Israel's history when God had sent a plague on Israel for her rebellion. God told Moses to build a bronze snake and set it on a pole, so that anyone who looked on it would live. That thing, that image, was commanded by God for a purpose at a certain point in Israel's history. But the time came when it's usefulness had been outlived, and it became a snare to the people of God. "Nehushtan", they named it, and they treated it as an idol, until it finally had to be taken down and destroyed.

The Lord desires His people to make confessions, to set forth what the Scriptures teach about this and about that. These are good things. But good things can be perverted, and confessions are no exception. I have seen a great many evidences, in my observations of current controversies, that this is exactly what has been happening with the 3FU and the Westminster standards.

When the Scriptures cannot be heard over the shouts of "Great is Westminster of the Puritans!", or "Great is the 3FU!" or "Great is the Church Order!", we have left the realm of faithful obedience and have entered the arena of idolatry. When a good-and-necessary-consequence argument from Scripture is greeted with "Let's consider this and how it relates to us.", there is hope. When it is greeted with "We don't do things that way here" or with some kind of confessions-at-all-costs answers, there is none.

Open your Bibles, people. There is still a great deal of bread in there that you have not yet eaten.