Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

Adam made love to his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said, “With the help of the Lord I have brought forth a man.” Later she gave birth to his brother Abel.
Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. And Abel also brought an offering—fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast.
Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.”
Now Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.” While they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.

• Genesis 4:1-8

Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu took their censers, put fire in them and added incense; and they offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, contrary to his command. So fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord. Moses then said to Aaron, “This is what the Lord spoke of when he said:
“‘Among those who approach me
    I will be proved holy;
in the sight of all the people
    I will be honored.’”
Aaron remained silent.
Moses summoned Mishael and Elzaphan, sons of Aaron’s uncle Uzziel, and said to them, “Come here; carry your cousins outside the camp, away from the front of the sanctuary.” So they came and carried them, still in their tunics, outside the camp, as Moses ordered.

• Leviticus 10:1-5

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

• Hebrews 13:8

Some say that change is good.  I disagree.

Some say that change is inevitable.  I cling to my God who does not change.

But then, I looked at two Bible stories from a totally different viewpoint.  Were Cain, Nadab, and Abihu thoroughly evil or did they just think up a different way of worshipping?  In the process of trying out their better idea, things went horribly pear-shaped, and things went downhill from there.

Cain was a man of the soil.  He grew crops.  He may have been a vegetarian.  He might not have owned a lamb to be used as a sacrifice.  At this point, nothing was written down.  Mom and Dad explained that God wanted a sacrifice, so Cain had a better idea than selling some vegetables to Abel in order to have a lamb for a sacrifice.  Sure, Mom and Dad said something about blood being required, but Cain was sure that God would understand.

Nope, God did not accept Cain’s sacrifice.  God even told Cain that he had sinned.  These days, people do not like being told that they have sinned; it hurts their feelings.  It definitely hurt Cain’s feelings.  He went out and killed Abel.  In a rage, he may have thought, “Hey, God!  There’s your blood!”

Now, let’s fast forward to Aaron, the high priest, and his sons, Nadab and Abihu.  They are being commissioned and set apart as the priests in the tabernacle.  Moses has told them what God requires of them, but Nadab and Abihu want to test out this gear that has just been made.  When they do it for real, they want to be able to look like they know what they are doing.  But as they burn some incense, God gets angry with their inappropriate and unauthorized fire.  God sends down fire from heaven and the two eldest sons of Aaron are dead.

Aaron is ceremonially clean.  He cannot touch a dead body, but here are his two eldest sons, dead.  Cousins come forward to handle the corpses and spend seven days being ceremonially unclean.  This way, the next two sons of Aaron can be brought forward, cleansed, and robed to take their older brother’s places.  I add that part only to explain that Aaron saw his sons die, and in service to God, he was unable to go to his sons in their moment of death.  While the boys had a better idea about worshipping God, Aaron held true to the requirements of his position, according to what God said.

A few years ago, I wrote about the change in a hymnal where Amazing Grace does not say “that saved a wretch like me.”  Instead, the hymnal said, “that saved someone like me.”  I became enraged.  I also became sensitive to any and all changes in the hymns.  Often, I simply quit singing.  I am a sinner.  I am a wretch.  “Someone” could be anyone, and I might not even know them, so why should I care?

But it is not just the hymnal.  The words of institution for the Lord’s Supper seem to always state that the bread is “Christ’s body, broken for you.”  But in none of the Gospels does it say “broken.”  The old pastors out there – those passed on or retired – might argue with these young pastors that “broken” is an offense to the Old Testament prophecies that state not one bone shall be broken.  Sure, there was piercing of the skin, but the spear producing blood and water showed Jesus was already dead while the two criminals on either side had their legs broken, to die before sundown since the Sabbath approached.

Some might say that these details are meaningless, but they are not.

I could care less when the offering plates are passed around.  Many modern churches do not even pass the plates, and somehow they have enough money to continue operating.  Do you want the Lord’s prayer before or after the sermon?  Pick one!  I do not care which.  But do not change what the Bible says because some people in the church want a different story told.

A different story means a different god, one that is not the Jesus of the Bible.

Some of these modern “better ideas” are not even good ideas.  And it seems that our seminaries are teaching better ideas instead of the Gospel.

At what point do we fail to have a Christian church anymore?

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.