About the roundabout.

Everyone, go read Laura’s blog and post comments to cheer her up. Becauise… um… I said so. Yeah.

Anyhow, inbetween co-ordinating production, honing drills, writing on whiteboards, and spilling my thoughts on headcoverings (yikes!) all over the internet, the day’s been going by pretty fast. When I’m honing drills (which is basically a boring, repetative action that requires some manual skill and a great deal of patience) I had some thoughts.

These are my thoughts:

Denominations are given no scriptural support. There’s mention of a council being called (at Jerusalem, if I recall correctly?) to decide a few things, but no mention of the extensive and top-heavy church government exhibited by churches such at the Catholic and Anglican churches. Even the synodal model of the URC/CRC/OCRC and the Presbyterian model aren’t drawn from scripture, unless you consider “let everything be done in good order” to be the scriptural foundation for a denominational superstructure. So call me postmodern, but I think unity would be promoted further by a loose association of like-minded churches than by a tightly-controlled denominational framework - because you could have a presbyterian elder-for-life style and a traditional Reformed give-the-people-a-vote existing in the same association, and as many slight variations as you like. The only real power the body at large should have is the power to “excommunicate” churches from the fellowship on a solid basis that needs broad scriptural support.

Also, I dislike Reformed Fundimentalists that beat you with Calvin’s Institutes. They’ve translated Calvinism into a vulgar religion based on a set of impersonal facts and Truths(tm) that Win Arguments rather than serve any useful purpose - like for instance increasing the Glory of God. You think you winning your argument with the full weight of Calvin, Van Til, and Plantinga resting on someone’s head is bringing glory to God? Think again my friend.

On the other hand, there’s enough people that get so turned off by Reformed Fundimentalism that they embrace the Anything Else with arms wide open. I’ve seen it happen on the internet (where the hardcore Calvinists and the flavour-of-the-week Calvinists are out in force) and in real life (where the Born Reformed and the Don’t Know Why Reformed graft themselves into the Baptist or Pentacostal denominations after getting sufficiently pissed off at Home Base).

I don’t want to be either of those things - a Reformed Fundimentalist of part of the long line of leavers. I don’t want people to point fingers at me and legitimately call me a “wooden shoes, wooden head, wouldn’t listen” Dutch Reformed stick-in-the-mud, but I also don’t want them to legitimately label me a liberal Scripture-tosser.

*Sigh.*

Dan (Oh, what a twisted web we weave when first we practice to believe…)

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Posted June 21st, 2005 in main.

23 comments:

  1. Laurs:

    I’m fine :P

    June 21st, 2005 at 12:40 pm
  2. daniel:

    Oh yeah, that’s what you say now… ;)

    June 21st, 2005 at 12:47 pm
  3. Chris Hubbs:

    I’m with you on the denominational thing. I’m part of an independant church, but that loose affiliation thing would be good.

    And I’ll ditto your comments on Reformed Fundamentalism while noting that I’m not really Reformed myself.

    Nicely said, as usual. I don’t comment here enough.

    June 21st, 2005 at 12:54 pm
  4. daniel:

    I know… if you don’t start commenting all the time, I’m going to send Trey over to start fondling your feet :)

    June 21st, 2005 at 12:55 pm
  5. Chris Hubbs:

    *shiver*

    I guess I’ll be commenting more…

    :-)

    June 21st, 2005 at 1:20 pm
  6. daniel:

    Goooood choice.

    June 21st, 2005 at 1:39 pm
  7. Geof F. Morris:

    I’m fine with denominations … it’s not the greatest thing in the world, but it’s not the worst.

    June 21st, 2005 at 2:22 pm
  8. daniel:

    It’s not as bad as genocide, I hear.

    June 21st, 2005 at 3:12 pm
  9. Laurs:

    It’s up there with hugging people tho

    June 21st, 2005 at 4:35 pm
  10. daniel:

    :hug: for Laura… ;)

    June 21st, 2005 at 4:53 pm
  11. Laurs:

    SICK

    June 21st, 2005 at 5:41 pm
  12. Roger:

    Can we all hold hands?

    June 21st, 2005 at 6:42 pm
  13. daniel:

    Laura doesn’t like holding hands… or so she SAYS… (don’t knock it till ya been there girl!)

    June 21st, 2005 at 8:46 pm
  14. Roger:

    Why? Does she have hairy palms?

    June 21st, 2005 at 9:40 pm
  15. daniel:

    Hobbit-like… :yes:

    No, Laura’s just afraid of love is all.

    June 21st, 2005 at 9:45 pm
  16. Roger:

    You can’t be afraid of love, you gotta embrace it with everything inside you.

    Or else you’ll never know the experience of your heart being ripped out and mangled before your very eyes!

    June 21st, 2005 at 9:48 pm
  17. daniel:

    Exactly. Roger, you sound a little bitter there.

    I could be bitter, but I’m actively fighting against it. :)

    June 21st, 2005 at 9:50 pm
  18. Roger:

    I’m just a good actor.

    June 21st, 2005 at 10:04 pm
  19. daniel:

    You’ve never had your heart ripped out and fiddled with until it resembled an Asian dog breed?

    June 21st, 2005 at 10:10 pm
  20. Laurs:

    I’m not afraid of love. I’ve just been hurt enough as it is, why bother ASKING for more pain?

    June 21st, 2005 at 11:37 pm
  21. daniel:

    Because, frankly, it’s worth it. By far.

    June 21st, 2005 at 11:43 pm
  22. Laurs:

    Never

    June 21st, 2005 at 11:43 pm
  23. Laurs:

    Well in any case, I’m going to bed in hopes that I fall asleep before I start to cry. Ciao.

    June 21st, 2005 at 11:47 pm

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