Lies Men Want to Believe – Part 8 (by Walt Henrichsen)

Because some New Testament commands are cultural, you must decide which commandments apply to you and which do not, is the eighth and final lie I wish to call to your attention. The number of people I know that consider all New Testament commands obligatory are few. I suspect there are a number of reasons for this.

First, most New Testament commands are not affirmed by reason or conscience, such as honoring your parents, women covering their heads when they pray, and men not taking fellow-believers before the civil court in litigation. Furthermore, because conscience is pliable, what violates the conscience in one generation is affirmed by conscience in the next.

Second, when justice is defined by equality, biblical prohibitions appear unjust. People reason that it is unjust for past mistakes to keep people from doing what would otherwise be appropriate. For example Joe and Sue married when young and immature, and decided to divorce. It is unjust to conclude that they cannot find the “right” spouse and remarry.

Culture plays an inappropriate role in the life of the church, resulting in people wanting to appear tolerant rather than biblical. You conclude that a command such as foot washing is impractical in today’s culture where we wear shoes, and the command to lift your hands in prayer only appears once in the New Testament and is therefore not important1. Such conclusions may appear harmless to you, but what you have done is told God that you, not He determines which of His commands should be obeyed. If you feel secure enough with God to do this, my counsel is, “good luck!”