Sheep Don't Bite

I read a short blog the other day that has been stuck in my craw. The writer was attempting to encourage pastors with a list of quips concerning the ministry. One of those quips was, "Sheep bite; they just do." or something like that. Though I confess that I am unable now to find the blog to reference it, I was able, through a simple Google search, to find several Web sites that contain articles about sheep biting. The idea of course is that Christians, who are characterized as sheep in the Bible often hurt there pastor, who is characterized as their shepherd or one another.

This is interesting and I think addresses a flaw in our definition of who exactly is a sheep. The fact is real sheep do not bite. Their teeth and their palate is designed to graze and bite off grass. They so not bite. Not one another; not their shepherd. This isn't to say that sheep are perfect.

• They do wonder off
• They do get ill  but
• They don't bite

Sheep are a unique animal that has no chain of authority. There is no alpha sheep in the flock. No one in a flock of sheep is fighting to be lead. It is against their nature.

Dogs, or rather biblically, wolves bite. They bite each other and they bite anything else in their way. They are pack animals and the leader must always assert and defend his lead because every other wolf in the pack is waiting for its chance to assert itself and become lead.

All of this reflects on the current concept of what constitutes a Christian and what the role of the pastor is. Today's model sees anyone who attends church or makes any sort of profession of believing as a child of God. We view Christianity as a life choice today so anyone who chooses to may claim the status of "sheep." consequently a shepherd's job in today's Christianity has the role of coaxing as many self professed sheep as possible into choosing his flock and then managing those "sheep" well enough that they won't go looking for another shepherd and some other flock. The shepherd of this sort of flock, the contention is, must expect to get bitten once in a while. It is the nature of the sheep.

I have a different idea. It sounds to me like that kind of shepherding isn't shepherding at all; I think that's just managing a wolf pack. Anyone working with wolves of course has to be careful of being bitten. That is not true of shepherds. Our trouble today is that we accept that wolves are sheep just because the wolf says he is a sheep. The Bible warns that wolves will enter among us. The Bible warns that there will be many false professors. We would do best to remember that and warn those who are prone to bite that they don't possess the character of their profession.

Marvin McKenzie

In the fields

Influence In Theology

I read a blog recently entitled, How To Lose Your Influence In Theology. (reclaimingthemind.org) The author offered several points that he suggested would discredit the influence of the one practicing them in theology. Some of his suggestions have merit. But some were typical among the ecumenical kind of Christianity. Among his challenges were Insisting upon an inerrancy version of the Bible Holding a particular view of end times And do so with passionate relentlessness. It is not the desire of my heart to lack grace. However I do believe that his article must at least have an answer. First, I have some trouble with the goal of having "influence." I know that influence is an outcome of either preaching or writing about the Word of God. But influence cannot be our end. To make it so is to expose our work to compromise. The goal of influence can override our goal to be true to God's calling upon our lives, the convictions we hold and to the truth of God's Word itself. Our goal must be God; to grow on grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is the only appropriate goal because that is the only goal we can pursue without risking compromise. As we pursue that, God will then gives us whatever influence He may please us to have. Secondly, the blog sounds like a rehearsal of the messenger's advice to Micaiah in 1 Kings 22:13, "Here is what all the other prophets have told the king. Tell him the same thing they said and you will have credibility." Micaiah wasn't as worried about having credibility or influence with the prophets or with the king as he was about preaching God's message. This man's blog is designed to dumb down the message of the preacher until every opinion about God is as good as the next. I am aware of the objections raised concerning the inerrancy of any particular version of the Bible (They mean the King James Version - it is attacked with a hatred similar to Jehoshaphat's hatred for Micaiah). I am aware that even the translators of the King James never ascribed to it infallibility. But I remind you that John nor any of the other penmanship (with some exceptions) of the Bible never ascribed that to their books either; it was concluded that they were the very Words of God at a later date. The translators did know that they had been given a rare opportunity. They engaged in their work with reverence and completed their work with confidence that God had permitted them this privilege. It has been since its publication that the obvious blessing of God upon it and the hatred of the word the flesh and the devil against it has demonstrated that it, above all the more modern translations is the very Word of God. Someone needs to say that God can intervene in the Work of man. Someone needs to say that despite all of the protests and objections of the so called learned, God is capable of and indeed has preserved for the world a Bible that is without error. Someone has to say that the devil hasn't left us with enough of the Bible but not a perfect Bible. Someone needs to say that the message of the Word is clear. That we are not left helpless to follow only those men who gather together to tell each other what to say. That because we have a perfect Bible and because the God is still at work today and because the Holy Spirit is still the true teacher of the Word, any man woman or child can pick up a Bible, and with some sanctified study, find what God says. -- Marvin McKenzie In the fields

INDIVISIBLE

I watched James Robinsons program this morning precisely because his guest was Glenn Beck. They said Glen's radio broadcast is the third largest in our country today. Beck makes no apologies for being Mormon. His program, though thematically a political one has taken on a heavily spiritual tone and Christians who are conservative in nature have embraced his conservative politics and in many cases have even unwittingly embraced his brand of religion. Robinson said that Beck had recently spoken in his home church named Gateway and that he was sure Beck knew Jesus. I have spoken to enough Mormons myself to know these two things:
One, they will claim to have accepted Christ as Saviour
Two, they do not mean the same person as the Bible describes as Jesus.

Robinson and apparently this Gateway Church and scores and thousands of professing believers have invited a different doctrine concerning Christ into their home.

Shame!
The were lots of playful jabs between Robinson and Beck today. Beck also made some playful jabs at the Bible that were laughed at by Robinson and his audience. Beck said he had been reading First John A lot this week. Then he backed up and corrected himself. He said he had been reading chapters one through four because the author gets off on chapter five. Everyone laughed.

• Is not First John inspired? 
• Is John's epistle just his opinion about Christ? 

Chapter five is then nothing to laugh about. It says he that hath the son hath life but he that hath not the son of God hath not life. It says that there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word and the Holy Ghost and these three are one. That is nothing to laugh about.
 
Beck's politics may appeal to the conservative Christian today but his theology is damnable. Some careless Christians have endorsed his theology just because they like his politics.

Ones theology is so much more important than his politics we would be better off giving this country to the devil than giving one soul the false impression that Mormonism is a viable Christian faith.

--
Marvin McKenzie
In the fields