When We were a Movement: 239 Bible Verses

I've received two thumbs-up reviews of the Jim Moss's explanation of the new New Strategic Plan at the ERC gathering this past Saturday.

One reviewer said, simply, that Jim did a good job explaining the plan.

Another said that Jim did address the biblical foundation head-on and said that Jim's remarks were borderline preaching. (I think that that comment was praise, not criticism.)

Jim's message was summarized as describing God (the Father) and Jesus as givers of life and that it is for us to take the life found in Jesus to the world.

Clearly, Jim's remarks were intelligent and biblically oriented.

But, based on those two accounts, I don't think Jim's talk would have passed muster among our people during the movement days...

...for two reasons...

both are important...

...I'll do the lesser important of the two now, and if God is willing, the other later.

----------------

First, I've been looking over Winebrenner's 27 point description of the Faith and Practice of the Church of God which he wrote in the 1840s.

Two features of that list strike me as highlighting a crucial difference between today's CGGC and the Church of God in the days when spiritual and numerical growth were the order of the day.

1. Winebrenner painstakingly provided Bible verses to support each and every one of the 27 points. I count 239 Bible verses in all, provided by Winebrenner, to leave the reader in no doubt, and in the most detailed and specific way, of how the Word of God is the source of what the Church of God believes and does.

2. Winebrenner did not merely provide citations of chapter and verse. He actually printed out the passages of the Bible for the reader to see and judge personally and immediately.

----------------

It's time we faced up to the truth about how far we have fallen in our devotion to the Lord and the Word.

In the day when we were a movement, we were obsessed by a passion to do two things:

1. To know the truth fully, and
2. To practice truth literally...

...hence the marching orders, "New Testament plan."

What Winebrenner wrote, for instance, the 27 Points and his 1829, A BRIEF VIEW OF...THE CHURCH OF GOD, is so filled with Bible quotes and references that it takes dedication and effort to read. Those works are hard to read.

But, in our movement days, among our people, those almost unreadable writings were page-turners...

...because, in those days, the Church of God movement was passionate about Bible truth and our precise obedience to it.

How much time did Jim's talk on God as a giver of life take? How many DOZENS of Bible verses did he read? How painfully did he beat delegates over the head with biblical support for the truth that the Kingdom of God is built on, for instance, healthy, life-giving pastors? (Good luck with that one!)

----------------

I started out saying that I've gotten two thumbs-up reviews of Jim's remarks.

But, gang, the sort of talk that was described to me would have been an embarrassment in our movement days.

The fault, though, is not with Jim, who clearly knew his audience.

The fault is with the audience.

With the body.

With us.

To our people in our movement days, Jim's talk would have been considered flummery. (Great word. Take a minute. Look it up, if you need to.)

But, understand...our whole system is dysfunctional. It's hypocritical. It is talk-ist.

We need to dive head-first into the Word.

We must repent.