What are Ordinances?

It’s been a while since I’ve written a Words Not Found in Scripture post… but I still have a list of words that I want to get through. Today’s word is Ordinance. You may have heard this word from time to time while listening to a preacher or perhaps in a business meeting. It is usually coupled with the word “Church” as in “Church Ordinance”.

There are several different ways to define Church Ordinance and the differences largely depend on your religious views. I would say the most global way to define Church Ordinance is a command or ritual that was given to the Church and must be obeyed. The list of ordinances will grow or shrink depending on your religious views. For instance, Baptist commonly hold two church ordinances

1. Believer’s Baptism
2. The Lord’s Supper

From my understanding of Church Ordinances, they are tasks that are given to the church to perform and only by the church can they be performed. So, the Lord’s Supper and Baptism must be administered to the church, by the church. Some might argue that their validity lies in the who is doing it and who is receiving it.

In Catholic circles, Church Ordinances are synonymous with their Sacraments, which are:

1. Baptism
2. Penance (Confession)
3. Holy Eucharist (The Lord’s Supper)
4. Confirmation
5. Matrimony
6. Anointing of the Sick
7. Holy Orders (“Ordination” or recognition of people as “ministers”)

Usually in practice Baptists believe that “Ordination” can only be administered to the church, by the church — but I would doubt they would say it is an Church Ordinance (in the scripture sense). I have also heard of some Baptist theologians who believe that Matrimony is indeed a Church Ordinance.

In practice, we generally look for a single professional to administer these ordinances. In Catholicism, they have Priests who perform these deeds; Baptists usually look toward their Pastor to perform them. Sometimes this changes the definition of Church Ordinance, from “tasks that are given to the church to perform and only by the church can they be performed” to “tasks that are given to the church to perform and only by leaders of the church can they be performed.” I contend that this change can be somewhat detrimental to the heal of the church.

Church Ordinances Are Not Found in Scripture

Of course, most of the things we usually call Church Ordinances or Sacraments can be found in scripture. The Lord’s Supper is very good to recognize, to remember the sacrifice made for us by Jesus. Baptism is a great ritual, as a recognition of the accepting of God’s freely given gift. But these rituals are not commanded, nor are they prescribed, and they are barely even described. Their lack of description is mainly why Catholics believe the Lord’s Supper turns into the physical blood and body of Christ (transubstantiation) and Baptists believe the Lord’s Supper is merely a symbol or memorial to Christ himself. Or why Catholics believe that Infant Baptism is the proper mode and method of Baptism, while Baptists believe that Believers Baptism is the proper mode and method.

One could say that a devout non-believer performing the Lord’s Supper ritual is meaningless and essentially I would agree. However, the examples we have in scripture of the Church performing this ritual does not mean that it was an Ordinance given to the church to perform. It is merely an example of what the Church did to recognize and remember their savior.

Church Ordinances, Are They Found in Scripture?

Ok, so maybe I lied… there is not an official lists of Church Ordinances, but there are some rituals and commands that were given to the church and would be beneficial if we followed them today. I am just not sure that Believer’s Baptism or the Lord’s Supper are them. How about these?

1. Consider One Another (Hebrews 10)
2. Imitate Christ (1 Corinthians 11)
3. Rejoice in Jesus (Philippians 3)

What about you, can you think of some Church Ordinances that we ignore?

From time to time we all hear about the United States of America being a “Christian Nation.” Many Muslim terrorist hate the U.S. because they believe it is a Christian Nation. Many U.S. citizens desire the U.S. to become a true Christian Nation. Many U.S. citizens believe the U.S. is already a Christian Nation. There are even some who feel that you should be a Christian to be considered a citizen of the U.S.

In the olden days, when Rome ruled the world, it was quite common to convert all the people of a nation to Catholicism. If you were a citizen, then you were Catholic. This was when the church and state were one. My question to you all is this: Do we really want the United States to become a Christian Nation?

If everyone in the United States were a Christian, there would be a few issues that we’d have to deal with. First, who would they share the gospel with (apart from their newborns)? Second, who would they disciple as new believers? Third, how would they influence the world?

It seems to me that God already has a nation… or a “Kingdom” and he has sent it into the world. A “Christian Nation” would not only be impossible from a obedience stand-point, but also would be impossible from a logistical stand-point. If everyone in the U.S. were Christian, then there would be no one in the U.S. For all would be obedient in sharing the gospel and discipling the Lost. So the U.S. would be empty and then ultimately be filled with non-believers.

What do you think? Should the U.S. strive to become a Christian nation? Are there more logistical issues with being a Christian nation? Are my concerns invalid?

Yesterday I talked about two posts concerning Christmas. In the second post, Mrs. Black’s post, something caught my eye that made me think about Santa Claus. She wrote:

In many homes, the first act of parental betrayal is the lie of Santa Claus…many children go thru a deep depression & anger when they first realize that everyone in the world know he wasn’t real except them…and their own parents betrayed them.

As I said in my first post, this is not really what happened to me. Because of this, I tend to think that this position is a little more extreme. In fact, of all the people I know, I had never knew anyone who felt this way about finding out Santa wasn’t real. I also sensed that if this was the case there would be more and more people refusing to teach Santa Claus to their children because of the emotional damage done to them. At the same time I do understand that a lot of times our traditions (good or bad) tend to take over any emotional trauma that we may have endured.

As I was thinking through this I went to a very close friend of mine and asked him about his Santa experiences. I trust this friend probably more than any other friend, he is not a believer, but we have spent many hours talking philosophy with one another and I think we are very similar in many of our beliefs… the biggest difference being that I am a follower of Christ, while he is not.

This is a copy of the conversation that I had with Dan:

lew: when you were little, were you encouraged to believe in Santa? and did you?
dan: I did believe in santa. I can only assume my parents told me about it. They certain perpetuated it
lew: when you found out that he was not real… did you think they had lied to you? where you angry or did you feel tricked?
dan: I was upset about it, yeah. And it played a part in my early teen-age years when it caused me to doubt all “knowledge” handed down as truth, including religion
dan: Santa pretty much destroyed faith for me, honestly

To be perfectly honest, I did not expect this reaction from Dan. In fact, I expected one quite the opposite. I asked him if I could use this conversation in this blog, because I sensed that it was extremely important to this conversation. It has really made me think more deeply about teaching Santa as Truth.

What do you all think?

Yesterday I wrote a testimony about my history and experiences with Santa Claus. Today I would like to talk about two posts I have read concerning Santa Claus and the celebration of Christmas.

The first post is by Lindsey over at Enjoy the Journey. The post is called For those of you who don’t “do” Santa Claus. This short post basically explained that we should not judge those who do (or don’t do) Santa Claus. And that we should respect each other and make sure our Children know to respect others beliefs about Santa. There were 32 comments, some agreed and some disagreed. Some comments even got to the point of saying that Lindsey (and others who “do” Santa) are bad parents. I think sometimes, we as Christians, take things way too far.

The second post is by Mrs. Black over at Dave Black Online. The post is called Why We No Longer Celebrate Christmas. In this post, Mrs. Black writes about some of the research Dr. Black did a few years ago concerning Christmas and how its history has convinced them to not celebrate the holiday. Some of the reasons for not celebrating was because of the materialistic attitude during the season, but also because of some scriptural mandates that seem to go against celebrating such holidays. Mrs. Black does a very good job explaining her position, but at the same time I never once thought she was attacking people who celebrate it with or without Santa. What is sad is that I am sure there are Christians out there who will persecute the Black family for not celebrating Christmas as there are who choose to celebrate it with Santa Claus.

These two post have revealed a lot to me this season. A lot of Christians believe that you have to celebrate a holiday that is not mandated by God exactly the way they do or they will break fellowship with you. I wonder if this is not a sign of the state of the church in America. Why are we so worried about these things? Doesn’t Paul tell us to hold to our own convictions and not to judge those who are weaker or stronger than us?

This post will be broken into a two or three part series.

I do not really like music all too much. But there are some that I do like. My favorite artists include Pink Floyd and David Bowie. The only Christian music I really respect comes from Andrew Peterson – but honestly I don’t listen to Christian music enough to say that there aren’t other decent artists. I do, however, love Christmas music. In fact, you can probably catch me whistling a Christmas tune pretty much any time of the year. Of all the music out there, I think Christmas music is the most fun. This post is about Christmas and my experiences with it.

Although my parents might disagree, I would not say that I was raised in a Christian home. Yes, they are Catholic, and yes, I am a confirmed Catholic (went through all the classes). But the Christian belief system was never really emphasized in my home. With that said, I was raised to believe in Santa Claus. As I grew older I found out that he was not real but it did not make me mistrust my parents – at least, not anymore than I might have already. In fact, when I figured out that Santa wasn’t real, I did not tell my parents. I tried to egg it on in hopes that I would get more presents. In all reality, I probably would have gotten the same amount, but in my mind I figured they had to get me gifts from them and from the fictitious Santa.

When I first became a Christian I decided that it would be a lie to tell my potential children that Santa Claus existed. As far as I can tell there have been disputes about this for ages. Recently, I have became a little more relaxed about the idea of Santa Claus. I am still a little uncomfortable with teaching our children about Santa Claus as if he were a real entity. I think a better solution would be to treat him as a fairy tale. Fairy tales are fun and allow children to use their imagination without having to convince them of a lie.

This year, my wife and I didn’t really do much for Christmas. We bought each other one gift. I got her a DVD (Walk the Line) and she got me a cool little fanny pack designed special for hiking/backpacking. We’ve just been too busy to think about gifts and presents. But in all reality, December 25th really is not a special day to me. I mean, I enjoy the festivities, I enjoy the music, I enjoy giving and receiving gifts, but it’s just a day. Jesus was not born on December 25th and we don’t see any indication in scripture that the early Christians celebrated His birth annually. I’m not saying it is wrong to do so, just that it is not required or commanded.

I am of course very glad that Jesus was born and paid our penalty by dieing a sinless death for us. But I am glad about that everyday.

This post was really just to let everyone know where I am… my next post I think I will talk about what others have written about Christmas/Santa Claus. My last post will be solely dedicated to a recent conversation I had with one of my close friends (an agnostic) about Santa Claus.