Pork Barrel Projects in Christendom

Do we eat pork? Do we worship on Saturday? Is water baptism necessary? Should we be washing each others feet? Tongues? Musical instruments or no? Is God a God of love?

Questions that have been asked and answered a zillion times on the BB, all over the internet, book after book after book written about them, millions of messages preached from the pulpit, and, strangely enough, topics found in the bible itself. What is this endless thirst to prove a point, to post scripture after scripture, without ever letting these topic rest, this eternally elusive conclusion? From whence commeth this egoism, that man has the answer(s)?

O, I answered my own question. Ego. Ego that is never satiated, always salivating, always wandering about the earth, going to and fro, seeking whom it may devour in the never-ending ritual of GOTCHA!

It reminds me of the criminal justice concept of entrapment. Set the trap, then pounce on your prey, (Aha! Gotcha! Pin the tale on the dummy! [yes, t a l e]), then have your "bust" overturned. Many there are who employ this tactic, few of that many who ever come to realize how destructive it is for those seeking our Savior, for those who remain babes in Christ, for those who are confused and struggling in the faith, for those who are attempting to provide accurate, authentic, spiritual interpretation of scripture for themselves and others. These great minds are here to tell us that Jesus didn't do enough at the Cross. That's right. They need to add something, and they must tell us about it! Several of them follow "chosen ones", who received a divine revelation that scripture needed to be corrected. We were getting it wrong -- they came along to set us straight -- and to correct the other "chosen ones", who obviously got it wrong, as well. And it never ends.

No, they do not stop, or back up, or reconsider any of that. Plow on, digging deep into blatant misinterpretation and misapplication of Holy Writ, details conjured up in the intellect of an individual who perceived himself or herself to be called upon to correct the Gospel. Paul explores the topic, bluntly, in Galatians 1:8-9. Less bluntly he reminds us of our approach to scripture in 2 Timothy 2:15. 1 Corinthians 2:1-16 lays out the how of scripture interpretation, apparently never visited by some.

In no case does scripture tell us that it is not adequate, that it will need, 2,000 years later, someone else to get it right, to set us straight. There's a long list of those who think they were / are called to do that. In every instance, EVERY instance, they were / are dead wrong: Smith, Eddy, White, the Kingdom Now crowd, the word-faith groupies, those who race about casting out demons while uttering unintelligible gibberish, Jim Jones, David Koresch, et al et al et al. Jude 1:19 encapsulates it best. For the rest of us, there is Jude 1:20-21, and John 3:16-17, and John 14:6, and Romans 10:8-13, cited by someone in this or another forum as "the gospel in a nutshell."

Father, please get the attention of your authentic, born-again followers and all of the wanna-be's. Our hope is not in 19th or 20th century, or in new, newer, and newest revelations. It is in the shed blood of Jesus Christ, our hope, our trust, our faith, our everything. Amen.