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“Busted! For Attempted High-jacking”
“From Ulster Plantation to the Carolina’s with the Gospel!” *
Russell H. McCullough / Archdale church of Christ, 2525 Archdale Drive, Charlotte, NC 28210
www.archdale.org / gospelcall.blogspot.com - Date:
24 April 2016
Text: Mark 7.9 - 13
Thesis: A fine way to reject the commands of God is
to establish one’s own tradition
1
Introduction - Review
A. The “chosen” did not need, ask for or even want
forgiveness
B. The “chosen” presumed to brag before God of their
“righteousness.”
1) Luke
18.10 – 12
2) Romans
2.17 - 23
C. The Pharisees were “Social Darwinists” 19 centuries before
Darwin!
1) All life moves continually upward from the simple to the Complex,
they saw themselves as the “best and
brightest” of all those who had come before!
2
Establishing The Tradition of Moral Transference
A. “Bragging rights” trumped what “is right!”
B. The irony of Matthew 27.6!
1) “Corban”
(oblation, offering) used here and in our text
C. “The ends justify the means.” Or…
“I’m doing this for the “greater good.”
1) Elder
abuse was wrong then and it’s wrong now even if
one takes their abused parent to church with them!
D. Cloaking evil with “good” is much like having a golden
trash can!
E. We are to love people and use things, not, love things and
use people.
3
Establishing The Tradition of Allegorical
Interpretation
A. They established their doctrine of “corban” by reading
between the lines, as it were, in the Torah
B. Define allegory
1) Hidden
meaning
2)
Personally assigned interpretation
3) A clear
signal of agnosticism!
4) A
vehicle of rationalization and self-justification
C. Allegorical interpretation leads to rationalization,
compromise, surrender, hypocrisy and ultimately disbelief.
4
Establishing The Tradition of Imagination as
Truth
A. The dislodge of “old truth” demands creation of “new
truth”
B. Since “old truth” is revealed, “new truth” must be
created.
C. In order for “new truth” to be created, it must first be
“imagined.”
D. Thomas Aquinas and the “6th sense.” –
IMAGINATION!
E. The Pharisees “imagined” that elder abuse could be
justified by “corban.”
F. It is the “knowledge of the truth,” NOT the “imagining of
the truth that “sets us free!”
5
Establishing The Tradition of Weaponizing
Doctrine
A. In the movie “Hunt for Red October,” the Russian submarine
is destroyed by its own torpedo
B. The Pharisees weaponized doctrine by transference,
allegory and imagination only to have it destroy them and their nation 40 years
later.
C. BEWARE! The
doctrine you shoot at someone else may just miss them and return to make you a
target of God’s wrath!
6
The Meaning of the Text
A.
Handing
down tradition voids the Word of God!
7
The Challenge of the Text
A. Morality and Doctrine must always be in sync in order to
avoid hypocrisy
B. We must embrace the Scripture is its own Interpreter in
order to avoid hypocrisy
C. We must never replace Truth by imagination in order to
avoid hypocrisy
D. We must never weaponize Scripture in order to avoid
hypocrisy
·
My fifth great uncle was Hugh Gaston who was
rector at the Ballywillan Presbyterian Church (pictured above left) in County
Antrim, Ulster Plantation (Northern Ireland) and wrote the most dangerous book
of his time; Gaston’s Collections. It
allowed “the ploughman to know more Bible than his clergyman.” Hugh fled to South Carolina where he died
prematurely of the measles. He is buried
just one hour south of Charlotte in Chester County, S.C. in “Burnt Meeting
House Cemetery.” Uncle Hugh continues
to inspire my ministry to this very day.
You can read more about Uncle Hugh here: http://www.ballywillanpci.org/rev-hugh-gaston
Ruins photo courtesy of: ballywillanpci.org.
