Obey or die! ... or befriend?

There is an apprehensive, fear-instilling and condemning message that most church-goers get to hear on a weekly basis - "Obey or die!" And they pay for it!

Yes, sadly the institutional church assumes the role of our local-law-enforcement-and-kangaroo-court-agency. And it derives its right to do so from a long history of traditions and like things that it do. [Mark 7:13] 

In the opening chapter of their book Pagan Christianity: Exploring the Roots of our Church Practices, Frank Viola and George Barna ponder the question about doing church by the Book. They ask a very valid question that the institutional church subscribes to, but is rather unwilling to comment on: “We do everything by the Word of God! The New Testament is our guide for faith and practice! We live … and we die … by this Book!”

And so, we have been told and also not to question what we are told.

The Standard

We all have a certain standard.

And it has a lot to do with our upbringing and how we are influenced.

So, I looked up what the word standard means, fundamentally.

Isn’t a dictionary a great tool? It shows us what the words we are using really mean, even though we use them randomly, daily and sometimes carelessly.