House Church Talk - inclination toward ceremonial

[Glenn Frank]

True. Customs and Tradition (even ritual in some cases) is not necessarily
bad... It is when the thing that these are to remind us of is forgotten and
the ritual itself is all that is left... And everyone thinks that is the
point... That is when it becomes meaningless.


On 8/31/04 8:23 PM, "Dan Beaty" <dlbeaty at copper.net> wrote:

> Brad,
> 
> Why do you think that Jesus established the ceremony of water baptism? I
> know of some brothers who emphasize as you do that all we really need to do
> is be "led by the Spirit." These have no use at all for the literal
> observance of this ritual. Don't get me wrong, I agree totally with your
> reference to Galatians 5, but does this truth really negate the value of
> practices such as water baptism?
> 
> Perhaps in some minds even water baptism, because it is ceremonial, must
> take our focus further away from God. Certainly it has for some. But OTOH,
> some of us see Him more clearly and even sense His presence in this and
> other NT practices.
> 
> That is not to say that I am a ritual-aholic. I just want to acknowledge
> that the Lord Himself has been known to observe customs and traditions. It
> was not because He was "under the law" that He normally attended synogogue
> on the Sabbath, but because "it was His custom." (Luke 4:16).
> 
> Dan Beaty
> www.livingtruth.com
>