Each one of the little girls is busy at church on this Wednesday evening making something out of
a paper plate at the direction of their teacher. The teacher doesn’t know it,
but she’s a legalist. The teacher doesn’t know it, but she’s training the
little girls to be legalists too. The little girls are around 8 years old,
impressionable, their minds like wet clay, malleable to the molding of the
lesson of the paper plates.
The teacher has supplied something else in addition to the
paper plates—green material cut in the shape of a circle, a circle smaller than
the round paper plates; they fit perfectly in the area where we’d put our food
if we were eating one of those ubiquitous green bean casseroles filled with
cheese at a church social.
But these plates will carry no portion of sister Martha’s
casserole; they have a different purpose—indoctrination into legalism. (By
indoctrination, I mean that neither the girls nor their parents will be allowed
to question what the lesson of the paper plates. To question the lesson of the
paper plates would bring scorn and ostracism from the church.)
The teacher has brought glue to affix the green material and
that’s what the little girls do--perfectly, right in the center portion. The
transformation is almost complete.
Now, with just one more addition, they’re ready to learn the
lesson of the paper plates.
The little girls have transformed the plate from a cheap,
ordinary food-bearer into an offering plate, and it looks good. They can and do
take justifiable pride in their accomplishment. Some are so proud they’ll give
it as a gift to their parents or grandparents. But there’s one more addition they’ll have to
make.
A plate, transformed into an offering plate? Cute.
Well-done. Simple. Cheap. What’s so indoctrinating about that? Nothing at all.
What makes this an indoctrination is what the teacher has prepared and waiting
to be glued to the green material in the center of the plates—unlined 3 x 5
cards on which she’s written six words, “Bring a tithe to the church.”
And there it is, the Mosaic Law, abolished at the cross, no
longer a way of life,[1]
writ large and resurrected by the legalistic teacher, putting the little girls
back under the Mosaic Law system with its tithes.
Right now, they don’t know the meaning of “tithe,” but the
day will come when they do. Right now, the fact that Israel isn’t the church in
the Old Testament is something too deep for them to grasp. But there is a day
coming when they’ll be taught that Israel is the church. They’re being set up
for that day.
One wonders what these children will do if and when they
read such texts as II Corinthians 9:7 which state that each believer is to give
“as he has purposed in his heart.” The Mosaic Law did allow the Israelite to
give as “he purposed in his heart;” the Law prescribed the percentage, over and
out. For the Jew, there was no decision to be made. So let it be written, so
let it be done.
Will the little girls, all grown up, read both II
Corinthians 8 and II Corinthians 9 which give the church its instructions on
giving in the grace dispensation and come to the conclusion their teacher was
wrong? I hope so.
Their parents should be teaching them grace giving, but they
can’t because they’ve been indoctrinated too. They too have been indoctrinated
with the lesson of the paper plates.
Or maybe the girls will one day read those two chapters and
conclude the Bible is contradicting itself: in one place God demands a tithe;
in another place God says, “You decide.”
I hope not.
I hope someone will explain to the girls that Israel isn’t
and never was the church. But in the midst of church advertisements such as one
that bragged, “Come to our church; your kids will have a blast in a safe
environment” and that attendees can win free movie tickets, one wonders if
they’ll be taught anything in the environment of having a blast and they have
parents who attend to win free movie tickets.
So, there you have it: eight-year old legalists in the
making, all learning the lesson of the paper plates.
[1] II
Corinthians 3:7-11; Hebrews 7:11-18; 8:13; Galatians 3:24-25; Colossians
2:13-14; Romans 10:4; John 1:17
No comments:
Post a Comment