You Won't Believe This Church Class

Admonisher
"…able also to admonish one another."(Romans 15:14)
PUBLISHED MONTHLY IN THE INTEREST OF TRUTH AND RIGHTEOUSNESS BY THE
Jackson Drive Church of Christ
1110 Jackson Dr., Athens, AL 35611

Vol. 5

April, 2003

No. 4

[Note: The above title and following article were on my internet news service a few weeks ago. It sheds light on what some do when they think they are having a “Bible class”! Some churches of Christ are not far removed. Please read my review following this article. --Phillip Owens]

Your homework assignment for Sunday School class is to watch "The Simpsons." Come prepared to discuss Lisa's skepticism about the idea of God.

Don't laugh. That's what happens on Sunday mornings at the Immanuel Baptist Church adult Sunday School class in a small town in Ontario, Canada called Don Mills that sits on the outskirts of Toronto. "The Simpsons" may be television's favorite dysfunctional family, but they have a lot to teach about religion if you pay attention and listen closely, notes Toronto's Town Crier newspaper, which profiled this unusual Sunday morning Christian education offering.

--Marge Simpson does whatever she can to coax her husband and kids to church on Sundays, however reluctant they may be.

--Bible-thumping neighbors Ned Flanders, his late wife Maude, and their sons Rod and Todd are, shall we say, very enthusiastic Christians.

--Homer may not go down in history as a great religious figure, but religion is part of his life because it's part of his culture.

--In the episode airing tonight, which is titled "Pray Anything," Homer decides that praying is the secret to material success. That's a none-to-subtle jab at the successful "Prayer of Jabez" books.

--Lisa was so outraged when she learned that Mr. Burns had become a corporate sponsor of the First Church of Springfield and was selling seats that she converted to Buddhism.

Inspired by the book, The Gospel According to the Simpsons: The Spiritual Life of the World’s Most Animated Family, by Mark I. Pinsky, David Tang of Immanuel Baptist Church started teaching a Sunday School class by the same name. And the students really do have to watch the show for homework or they won't be able to keep up with the discussion. "The reason I chose to use it is because what it does is reveal quite a bit of public sentiment about religion. I don't think religion these days is seen as being something that is untouchable any more," Tang explained to Town Crier reporter Andrew Matte. "I think 'The Simpsons' is reflective about our attitudes about religion, so that's good for people in organized religion to sometimes hear and recognize. It can deal with the issues to which our faith is relevant without appearing to be preachy. And it raises issues that people ought and need to think about."
-- by Cathryn Conroy

What About Using The Simpsons, Andy Griffith, & other entertainment in Bible Classes?

At first, I thought that Immanuel Baptist outside Toronto must have heard of the “success”(?) that one of the institutional churches of Christ in Huntsville had with a class based on The Andy Griffith Show, and thought they needed to do likewise. I also understand one of the non-institutional churches in Athens used Andy Griffith in a similar way some time ago.

This is nothing really new. About twenty years ago, a Methodist church made national news when it played an Elizabeth Taylor movie as a “text” for their Bible class(?), then afterwards discussed the (im)morals of the movie. I suppose they thought if they drew crowds at the “box office” and ratings for TV, it was good enough to draw crowds for churches.

I wonder how drinking, vulgarity and profanity are “explained” in these “classes”? Or are these little(?) matters overlooked to get to the “moral” of the story? I also wonder how it is right to teach the Bible while exposing students to sin at the same time? Do you ask, “How is that?” Is drunkenness not a sin (Gal. 5:19-22)? Is profanity not a sin (Ex. 20:7; Matt. 6:9)? Is vulgar speech not a sin (Eph. 5:3-4)? And aren’t all these parts of The Simpsons episodes? If so, what actually occurs is a church encourages its members to view a program in which sins such as vulgarity, profanity, and drunkenness are made to look right. On the other hand, the Bible teaches that “fornication, and all uncleanness,…let it not even be named among you, as becometh saints; nor filthiness, nor foolish talking, or jesting, which are not befitting: but rather giving of thanks” (Eph. 5:3-4). Some illustration!

1. God’s word should always be the focus, not illustrations or entertainment. In both testaments, God places a premium on knowing His word. According to Hosea, the reason Israel was destroyed was “for lack of knowledge” (Hos. 4:6). According to David, laying God’s word up in our heart keeps us from sin (Ps. 119:11), and the way young people are to keep themselves spiritually clean is by taking heed to God’s word (Psalm 119:9).

The gospel, or New Testament, teaches the same. “And now I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you the inheritance among all them that are sanctified”(Acts 20:32). Andy and the Simpsons may entertain some, but they do nothing toward building us up spiritually!

Paul told Timothy that “the sacred writings” were able to make him “wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus,” and that it is the “scripture” that is “profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction which is in righteousness” intended to make a Christian “complete, furnished completely unto every good work” (II Tim. 3:15-17). In the next chapter Paul instructed Timothy to “preach” this word, recognizing times would come when people would tire of it and turn away from it (II Tim. 4:1-4). The point: God has designated that His word be the focus of our study spiritually, that we must know IT, not a few things about it, or merely morals that it may uphold, but THE TEXT ITSELF! Such programs deprecate God’s word as unimportant and nonessential to our spiritual lives by emphasizing entertainment—the very opposite of what God says!

2. It makes entertainment and funny stories the drawing power rather than the gospel. No doubt, Paul could have “wowed” his audiences with his oratory (“excellency of speech”—I Cor. 2:1), and drawn by the droves Corinthian Greeks with his “persuasive words of wisdom” (I Cor. 2:4). After all, Greeks sought after wisdom, likely Greek philosophy and philosophers (I Cor. 1:22), and to accommodate them Paul could have used what he had earlier studied, at least to draw them in at first.

But he didn’t use that, even at the first! Said he, “when I came unto you, (I) came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified…And my speech and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God” (I Cor. 2:1-5).

Was Paul’s preaching dull, dry, or uninteresting? It depended on the character of the one who heard. Yes, from those who were looking for something other than salvation from sins, such as interesting philosophies and stories! But No from those who were looking for salvation from past sins and eternal life in the future. To those, the gospel message of Christ is “the power of God, and the wisdom of God” (I Cor. 1:24) and the source which places our faith in God. Paul says one has a misplaced faith—it is not in God—when one is drawn by something other than the gospel! If people thought the gospel was all-sufficient for the spiritual drawing, saving and staying power that God says it has (I Cor. 15:1—3), they wouldn’t be so ashamed to magnify and preach IT! It seems that some are ashamed of the very thing Paul said he was not ashamed of—the gospel. “It is the power of God unto salvation” (Rom. 1:16). This is undoubtedly why Jesus commissioned the apostles to preach it to the whole world (Mark. 16:15). Why? It is the only message that will save a soul from hell!

The apostles were to give every responsible person a chance to hear the truth. The same is true of our responsibility today (Matt. 28:18-20; II Tim. 2:2)! We not only waste precious time that souls could be saved and strengthened by preaching and teaching the gospel to them, but we also deprecate, denigrate, and depreciate the very gospel itself by using entertainment in its place in a class and calling it a study of the Bible!

What about “entertainment” in preaching! Certainly Jesus illustrated His teaching. Parables were illustrations, but the parables provided further teaching (See Matthew 13 & others). Jesus also wrote something on the ground (Jno. 8:1-11). Whatever it was, we don’t know, except it must have been something that convicted the scribes and Pharisees of their own sins. Blackboards, feltboards, overhead projectors, and PowerPoint presentations allow the eye to aid the ear in understanding. However, some overhead charts and PowerPoint presentations can become more entertaining than illustrative, calling more attention to themselves than the Bible text which should be highlighted! Have you felt like a worship service minus a PowerPoint projector is a “downer” just a few days after having been in the audience when one was used? Am I saying PowerPoint presentations are wrong? Absolutely not, when used in such a way that one comes away with a greater appreciation for the Scripture! But if people come away more impressed with the illustrations than the Scripture, we may not be showing The Simpsons, but we have moved some steps in that direction. One must be careful how he uses such, and the emphasis it leaves.

What about Bible Classes? Again, emphasis should be on the text. Some “Bible Classes”(?) I have heard about in some churches of Christ were no more than “chat” sessions. A friend of mine mentioned that where he worshipped, a Bible class was supposed to be studying the family. In one class period not a single passage was even referred to. But he said that most enjoyed the “discussion.” Again, where is the emphasis? Certainly, applications need to be made in Bible classes. But applications should be made based on the Scripture! We must be careful that God’s Word is our TEXT, our focus, that which draws our attention and reverence, and is the basis of our faith. -- Phillip A. Owens

It is the teaching of Premillenialists that at Jesus' first coming a literal, earthly kingdom like that of David was to be set up. However, the Jews rejected Jesus and His kingdom. In fact, they killed Him. But since God had promised such a kingdom, and He cannot lie, He postponed the kingdom until the second coming. In the meantime the church or, as it is sometimes called “the church age,” was introduced. This church age was completely unknown by the Old Testament prophets or any other man.

As already noted, according to the Bible, the kingdom came during the lifetime of some of the apostles (Mark 9:1). And Paul and others of the first century were in it (Col. 1:12-13).

What about this postponement period? It implies to many people that God has some special work for the Jews who are still His special people. As O. T. Allis in his classic work Prophesy and the Church on page 78 shows by an appeal to the scriptures, “Jesus declared to the Jews that the kingdom should 'be taken from them' (Matt. xxi.41f.). The children of the kingdom (the natural and lawful heirs) are to be 'cast out' (vii.11f). None of those 'bidden' are to taste the marriage supper (Lk. xiv 24.) The vineyard is to be given to 'other husbandmen'; to 'a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof': men are to come from the 'highways' from 'the east and west, and north and south,' to partake with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob of the marriage supper. As he notes, these scriptures “imply clearly that the period of Jewish particularism was ended.” Nothing is said or implied about a postponement and a second chance later.

John the Baptist said the same thing. “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand... Think not to say within yourselves, we have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.” (Matt. 3:9). As Paul says, “For ye are all sons of God, through faith, in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ did put on Christ. There can be neither Jew nor Greek...” (Gal. 3:27).

This doctrine of postponement has some serious consequences: (1) Did Jesus know that the Jews would reject His offer of the kingdom? If He did, did He tell the truth when He said the kingdom was at hand? (2) If it was a sincere offer, theoretically they could have accepted it. If they had, what would have happened to the cross? One of their writers said, “It can be said at once that His dying was not God's own plan.”

As it relates to the theory that the establishment of the church was completely unknown to Old Testament people and it was a mystery until it was revealed, consider the following: On one occasion a leading light among Premillenialists came to the town where I lived. He had a call-in question and answer type radio program. One day the following took place. “Is it your understanding that the coming of the church in the church age was completely unexpected, not foretold in the Old Testament scriptures and was not expected and the kingdom was postponed? How do you know that when Jesus comes again that He will not be rejected and another postponement will occur? After all, that was the situation among the first century people; how do you know that it will not happen again?” His response was that we just don't think that will happen. That is an insufficient answer.

The Jackson Drive