Traditions in the New Year

Happy New Year!

Last night we celebrated at the church with some families while playing games. It was a good time.

While we were cleaning up, I was told of a teacher in our church "who has some weird ideas, like being able to lose your salvation." What a great way to start the New Year. To learn of someone who teaches the incomplete work of salvation in our lives as believers.

Part of the problem, as I began to explain to this person, is that in a volunteer ministry, we as leaders of the church do not equip our volunteers with the ability to "rightly divide" the Scriptures. Too many people who have no ability to exegete the Scriptures are in positions that they should not be in. Jesus and His Apostles remind us throughout the New Testament that false teachers will always be IN the church. I am not saying this person in particular is a false teacher. Quite often we have people in our churches, who have never been challenged in their "traditions" and hence never been forced to come to "consistent" conclusions.

Perhaps in this New Year, we as Christians will be willing to be "ever reforming" as the Reformation sought in centuries past. Traditions are not evil, as long as they are submitted to the final authority of Scripture.