Sunday School : Scriptural ?

This is what happens IMO when the "regulative principle" runs amok.

I in no way doubt pinoybaptist's sincerity or genuine walk with God.

However, how is it we would think corporate study of God's word is somehow wrong?

Furthermore...i find that many who hold this view have evening worship and midweek services (also not "scriptural,") sing from hymnbooks (not found in scripture) and use something other than Hebrew and Greek scriptures (another "no-no."). Other things not mentioned in Scripture include sermon notes, ushers, offertories, and much more.

Since I don't subscribe to the regulative principle, it's not a problem.

But when one does, the problem arises: Where is the line?

Back to the OP: the way I see it, corporate Bible study cannot be a bad thing. And like it or not, many, many of the younger crowd we have get no Bible study whatsoever, except what they receive in SS and worship...and SS allows for more depth, application, and dialogue.

 

Not to mention the eating at church!!! Paul even says that if we are hungry we should eat at home...

But how many non Sunday School churches break Pauls commandment to not eat at church?

This is why I praise God for the normative principal...

 

I find it an extremely weak argument to suppose that those who use Sunday School are removing the responsibility of parents to teach their children. Both are certainly acceptable.

Bottom line on Sunday School: It is not mandated, but it an acceptable way of carrying out the biblical command to study and teach the Bible.

 

Hello Fellow Primitive Baptist brother. I think it was Robert Rakes that founded Sunday School in England....Do you know of an Elder Pyles in Texas?

 

I do hope you are joking.
He was talking about communion.

 

A couple Sundays ago, I was at a SS teachers' banquet that was held in a church's cafeteria!!!!

Guess I'm in a heap ah trouble now!!! :tonofbricks:

When these dear brethren -- who will be seated right next to me in heaven-- can produce specific scriptural support for pews, sound systems, heated & electrically lighted church buildings, then we can talk about the evils of Sunday School.

Yes, one can always find some bad examples of SS teachers or programs, but I can also tell them about some really bad preachers too.

If these brethren of mine claim it's a sin to eat "in church," well then I better not catch them eating out at a restaurant after the Sunday morning service either. You've just made that food staff work on the Lord's day, and we all know that to work on the Lord's day is absolutely, positively one of the greatest evils that a born-again child of the thrice holy God could ever even think about committing!!! Right?!!? :thumbs:

 

Well, let's see now.

How about Matthew 28:19-20
"Go ye therefore and TEACH all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, TEACHING them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you......" KJV

Another rendering is
"Go ye therefore and MAKE DISCIPLES of all nations....(NASB)

We all know what TEACH means. The word DISCIPLES comes from the Latin which also translates as "pupil" or "student."

In Romans 12, Paul lists a number of gifts that edify (build up) the local church. In verse 7, he lists the gift of teaching.

In Ephesians 4:11, Paul also mentions that God gave Pastors and Teachers to the local church. I believe the best rendering of that verse is Pastor/Teachers or Teaching Pastors. IOW, pastors are also to be teachers.

Jesus himself placed a high priority on the church's teaching responsibility, and placed men and women in the congregation to carry out that commission. It logically follows that we are to be disciples, learners, students. I seen nothing in the scriptures which excludes children.

 

While the words of Paul are right the context is not.

 

Pastor Jason Anderson on the evils of Christian women teaching children's Sunday School classes:

"And women should not be teaching doctrine in the public assembly in any way, shape, or form. Rather, they are to be taking up the high calling of instructing their children under their husband’s authority in the home as well as instructing the younger women in caring for their home and family. Those who have been assigned to teach doctrine in the local assembly as it gathers for worship are those men whom God has appointed and the church has recognized through formal examination. . .

. . . To separate a segment of the congregation from the teaching of such men is to deny that segment what God has ordained for their equipping and edification. . . .

. . .Also of interest is the formation of the Women’s Missionary Union and the birth of 19th century feminism in this period. Perhaps there is a connection between the Sunday school movement and the disruption in the proper roles of headship and submission for men and women in the local church."

 

It was a man who started Sunday School and the NT church had instruction for the assembly on Sun.
In the early church were women who instructed the women in the church. The Bible addresses that same issue in Titus 2:3-5, " Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good, so that they may encourage the young womento love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be dishonored."

 

Oh, good grief.

 

==Let me get this straight. You believe that God is going to judge people for holding Sunday School (ie...Bible studies) on Sunday mornings? You actually believe that God is going to commend you for not having additional time to study His Word in a group?

I am always suspect of these primative movements and this is a perfectly good example as to why. Spiritual pride is a dangerous thing because it causes people to forget what is important. Studying Scripture is important, whether it is done in a group or in a Bible study (Sunday School) format. It is not Biblical for parents to depend 100% upon pastors or Sunday school teachers for anything. However it is not unBiblical for pastors and teachers to add to, to supplement, that learning. It is not unBiblical for adults to get extra group Bible study time.

Pinoybaptist, your post was one of the most tragic things I have read in a long, long time. To launch an attack on Sunday Schools is the same as launching an attack on extra Bible study.

 

I just moved over to my desk so I could erase those verses referring to female deacons and preachers in both the Old and New Testaments, despite the fact that Paul specifically applauded one.

Please forgive me.

Cheers,

Jim

By the way, most of the leaders in the first "Sunday Schools" were women..Guess the men were busy at home beating their wives into submission.

 

Sunday School is nice for the children with parents that don't come to church, aren't Christians and don't teach their children anything at all about Jesus.

 

Bingo. It's not only nice, it may be the only Bible teaching they've ever heard, and through which they will be exposed to the gospel. Pointing children to the Savior is not our job?

 

It could equally well be argued that you are one more disobedience accountable for failing to teach the Word and develop other teachers and ministers of the Word.

 

Imagine telling that to the early church? only bout 2% of the population could read. So where does that leave the teachers and pastors in those congregations? It takes more than just a few to raise children. The main responsibility is on the parents but when everyone helps it makes a big difference. Sometimes it takes people who care enough to care for children who are not theirs.