Tradition!

A man bound by his traditions.

So I apologize…..we're about to get doctrinal! 

I listened to a recent teaching for the first time in a LONG time. To be honest, it was a little bit difficult.  Star speaks really slow.  He's getting older.  It's understandable. I turned him up to 2x speed, and it was much better.  He sounded normal.  But just my luck, it was a panel.  Jon Miller spoke and I couldn't understand a word he said.  It was hilarious, and was proof that some things never change. 

The actual teaching was twisted. 

Born Again

Before we begin, let's talk about being born again. 

Ephesians 2:8-9

8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

We are saved by grace because of the redemption that Jesus paid for us at the cross.  It allows us to do things like wear multiple types of garments.  According to the law (Leviticus 19:19), that's a no-no.  But the grace of God allows us to move forward in a "just as if I've never sinned" mentality. The same goes for EVERYTHING.  The fruit of our lives should be love, kindness, and a devotion to Jesus out of a gratefulness of what He has done for us.  But ultimately we are saved.  We don't have to do anything any longer but have faith in Jesus.

One of the biggest issues Jesus had with the Pharisees was their attempt to add new standards and burdens on the people so that they could be "better".  The story in Mark 7 is a perfect example.  The Pharisees were mad because the tradition of the day was to eat and drink out of "clean" glasses and plates and to always wash their hands.  At the time the tradition was so ingrained that the Pharisees spotted it immediately. 

But Jesus' response was to quote the prophet Isaiah:  

‘This people honors Me with their lips,

But their heart is far from Me.

7 And in vain they worship Me,

Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’

He later describes the Pharisees as "laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men"…."making the word of God of no effect through your tradition which you have handed down. And many such things you do." Now I skipped a bit, but please read the entire Scripture.  The real issue was that the Pharisees were using their "traditions" to view themselves as better and hold it over others.  Not the most fun people in the world.

Now let's apply the same principle to "Calvary Temple Traditions."  Star spent a long time talking about traditions that the church had, and he was really forthright about the fact that they are "traditions." 

I got excited at first when I heard him.  One of my biggest gripes with Star is the control he creates over the church by creating traditions that appear to force the congregation to become more isolated and more codependent on him.  Any tradition that has been broken has resulted in guilt, badgering, and meetings.

What are these traditions?  Let's look at the ones that Star listed (although there are many more):

 Traditions of Calvary Temple

1. Discipleship Training

" And that's something you want to go into later, traditions in the community that we as a Sterling flock abide by. For instance, one of them is training our children here.  That's our tradition. Is there a command in the Bible that says, 'Thou shalt raise your children in the church building?' No. But there is a principle it says, 'When they rise up, when they lay down, children, children's children, etc.' That's your tradition. And that's something that we see and we value as something that makes us who we are, as a community that's set by Pastor. But those things are not stuff that we sit back and critique."

This is huge.  Years ago, Star made the decision to require all children in Calvary to send their kids to Discipleship Training. His stated goal was to protect the saved children from the unsaved children.  We've heard that it is a requirement for any member to enroll their children in Discipleship Training.  But this is a tradition. 

Recently I heard about some parents who recently joined the church who chose to pull their kids out of the school.  They disagreed with the way in which the school was raising their children, and felt that it was not a good fit.  The church is putting so much pressure on them to "do things God's way" that they could leave the church or divorce because of a difference opinion over the church.

There have been other cases when Calvary Temple has mishandled mentally challenged children.  They beat that child every day because he couldn't stay quiet when he was told, and regularly forgot his homework.  The school was a bad fit for that child, but he was still required to attend.  The mother ended up leaving.

The teachers in the school have not received any formalized training to teach different types of learning abilities.  Shouldn’t a parent have the opportunity to put their kids in a school that can best serve them, without risking their entire lifestyle? 

I understand the benefits of this tradition.  If you want to send your child to DT, do it!  But understand that this shouldn't be a requirement.

2. Daily attendance of church

This one might rub you guys the wrong way, but it's true!  Attending church daily is a tradition. The admonition to "not forsake the assembling of yourselves" didn't necessarily take place at the same time as when the apostles met daily in Acts.  It's unclear if Paul is telling them to meet on Wednesdays instead of just Sundays.  Star mentioned "Friday nights" as the tradition, but that can be applied to any day. 

This tradition has been a difficult one.  When a person starts not attending church every day, it raises a huge red flag to everyone that something is wrong with that person.  "They must be putting work ahead of God."  "They must be backsliding."  It is the mark of a gradual decline into sin.

But we are not called to be focused on "works", but instead are thankful for the grace that God has given us.  We should be excited to be around the people of God when we can, and have the freedom in grace to not attend if something is out of whack in our lives. 

What if someone is dealing with marital problems in their lives?  The schedule of always needing to be at church can get in the way of the love that needs to be built through time spent.  Is there any harm in setting aside Tuesday and Thursday prayer to see each other more regularly? Star in the past has said "No! The family is your church.  Sacrifice anything else."  But there should be space and grace to allow people to decline traditions to serve God in a better way if it suits those individuals for a time.

The real shame is when we start questioning and judging based upon their church attendance.  We have the responsibility to uphold the life of grace and NOT fall into the works treadmill that has held so many in bondage.

3. Dating & Marriage

Always a juicy topic, dating has been placed on the no-no list.  But this is not a Biblical directive.  "It is not good to touch a woman (incite passion in her through touch)" is different than not going out for coffee with her or not spending alone time with her. I think it is foolish to expect two people to marry for a lifetime without ever having spoken with each other one-on-one alone for any length of time.  And the fear of fornication should not force us into rushed decisions about marriage.

Calvary Temple has chosen this anti-dating route with mixed results.  Divorce is not allowed unless the person leaves the church.  But think back to how many people say that the first year of marriage was incredibly difficult.  There is a real pressure to never admit your struggles day-to-day, but admit to "past" fighting.   The benefit of dating is to avoid marriages in which the personalities do not naturally mesh.  And once the marriage occurs, it is extremely shameful to divorce.  The difficulties you encounter (social differences, spiritual differences, abuses, etc.) will always be there.

Because dating is wrong in Calvary, the alternative is for the pastors to decide whether or not you can marry a person.  If the pastors don't agree with your decision to a marry a certain person, it is assumed that they know the personality flaws that might make the marriage a bad fit.  This is, once again, a tradition.  But the consequence for not following that tradition is to be married outside of the church.  This is hugely shameful for the couple and their families. 

What's the harm if someone did decide to spend more time with a person of the opposite sex.  What if they chose to spend exclusive time with that person, and *gasp* didn't have a chaperone.  They would then be held accountable before God for whether or not they stayed chaste.  And if they messed up, grace is there to keep them in right standing with God. 

The big question is, what would happen if a couple dated for a year in secret before they were married because they wanted to get to know each other personally first.  Most likely that they would not be allowed to marry in the church. The church would not endorse the marriage because the couple didn't follow the "traditions." These "traditions" would be viewed as rebellion.  Rebellion would lead them to be married outside of the church and ultimately marked.  

Traditions in CT Are NOT Just Traditions

Now the most disturbing part of the teaching is next.  You see, after that acknowledgment that none of these items above were scriptural mandates, Star began to weave some very creative Scriptures together that let everyone know in the congregation that traditions are commandments, not recommendations:

"And he had just asked them to pray that we'd be delivered from wicked and evil men. And then he says, "Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw yourself from every brother that walks disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us."  ["us" is referring to Paul and Peter and rest of those apostles]  And that disorderliness, there's, again, that military term, just being out of step, just out of step with what we're doing. [according to Strong's, simply means undisciplined or idle.  It has nothing to do with being "out of step" with the congregation]. And it's interesting that he wasn't, we know the context of this passage. He's talking about in this specific case here--those who weren't working. And they were just being busy bodies, they were living off of the efforts of others, they were out of step with the community [not this part], he, he wasn't dealing with these major, you know, huge doctrines [laziness]. And I think just along the lines of what you've been trying to encourage us that, you know, as it pertains to each autonomous local fellowship, there are traditions, you know, we've talked about some of the traditions here of prayer, Friday nights, Jon was just mentioning, we raised our kids here together, that that really shook people up. Initially, when you called us to that some people really wanted to homeschool their kids, and, hey, this is what we're doing.

The "tradition" they had received was not staying idle, but working.  Star was referencing 1Thessalonians 7, and uses it to say that our traditions must be followed.  But look at what the Apostle Paul (the guy literally writing inspired Scripture) is actually referencing:

6Now we command you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to keep away from any brother who leads an undisciplined life that is not in keeping with the tradition you receivedb from us. 7For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us, because we were not undisciplined among you, 8nor did we eat anyone’s food without paying for it. Instead, in labor and toil, we worked night and day so that we would not be a burden to any of you. 9Not that we lack this right, but we wanted to offer ourselves as an example for you to imitate. 10For even while we were with you, we gave you this command: “If anyone is unwilling to work, he shall not eat.”

11Yet we hear that some of you are leading undisciplined lives and accomplishing nothing but being busybodies. 12We command and urge such people by our Lord Jesus Christ to begin working quietly to earn their own living. 13But as for you, brothers, do not grow weary in well-doing.

14Take note of anyone who does not obey the instructions we have given in this letter. Do not associate with him, so that he may be ashamed. 15Yet do not regard him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother.

It is extremely evident that the conversation here is about lazy people (idleness and laziness are spurned many times in Scripture), not someone disregarding made up rules.   But here's what Star says:

If we're members of this fellowship, we're going to move together in one vision, one heart, and one mind. And he said that, we don't behave ourselves disorderly. And then he goes on to talk about what we need to do. "You know, brethren," in verse 13, don't be weary in well doing, Don't get weary in the manner of Just doing your job. Find your place, it's not a difficult thing. It's hard on our flesh. But the prescription is just so simple, the truth of the Word of God, we know the things that we ought to do, were to fall in line, get in step you.  You've got a job in this army, and do your job. That's a great place to be. And it brings peace. But then he also says, after not being weary in verse 14, If any man obey not our word, by this epistle, then you note that man.  This is just one of the aspects of church discipline, one of the types of markings. And we could talk about First Corinthians five, or Romans 16, or Titus three. And in this case, he says, we're not competing with these people, that they may be ashamed. "

 Do you get what just happened?  Instead of taking the Scripture for what it said and meant, he superimposed his own traditions on top of the mandate to not be lazy. And now he's weaponized verse 14 to justify marking anyone who doesn't follow these non-Biblical traditions.  

Are the traditions possibly good?  Yes! Are they possibly designed to keep everyone safe?  Probably….possibly.  But they have become new rules that are a "test" of whether or not we're truly saved.  If people don't keep these rules, they aren't in submission and can be badgered and/or kicked out.   These traditions become additional works that can make the blood of Jesus of "no effect". 

Putting safety barriers in place for the congregation is not wrong.  But forcing the congregation to follow your non-Biblical rules (or barriers) is taking the route of the Pharisees in Mark 7:  " Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’"

Should we obey them that have the rule over us?  Yes, but within the bounds of what Paul and his apostles have laid out.    Spiritual leaders should be pointing their flock to God's Word not their own personal biases or preferences.  Well intentioned rules can quickly become stumbling blocks.

Tony Wozniak used to warn about being Calvary Catholics.  The only way to avoid this moniker is to stay with the simple consistency of Scripture.  It's hard enough to live a holy life of love.  Yet somehow our traditions have become our sign of holiness, instead of the way we love our neighbor.

We can do better.

One final note.  For years we were taught that the Bereans were noble because they actually looked at what Paul (apostle and writer of New Testament) was saying with a critical eye, but then found that what he said was true.  He praised them because they did not immediately take him at his word but were so eager that they spent time investigating Paul's claims.  Star, however, has been trying to minimize that Scripture:

Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.

 Star and Jon Miller have spent a lot of time saying that the Bereans were not looking with a critical eye, but simply one that eagerly accepts what Paul said as true.  But I disagree.  The writer of Acts (Luke) clearly called them out because they were doing something different.  They didn't just reject or accept, they pursued the truth. Pursuing the church and questioning is never wrong.  Don't get sucked into a very vague interpretation spoken by someone you like.  Read the words of the Word.  Ask questions and research the Bible for yourself!

Hold to the traditions you feel you want to respect, but please do not judge those who do not hold to the exact traditions.  The sin of pride is a sneaky one.