The Old Testament Altar
Was Holy
Not Sanitized
Every religion promotes some version of Separation and this isn’t unique to religion. Even social groups impose restrictions on their members. If you want to be a member, you must abide the rules.
With churches, the rules have a moral element. It usually involves a series of Can’t-Dos that aren’t just bad for the group but just bad, as in immoral. Things like you can’t go there or do that or wear that or eat that or say that or think that and so on.
Churches can’t legally tell you who to vote for but they usually find a way to make their opinions known.
Separation on a church level is tolerable because if you don’t like the restrictions in one, you can always move to another.
In recent years, though, religious restrictions have been creeping ever closer to the State level and that’s a problem. Once the State has fully incorporated religious rules, there’s no place you can go.
You don’t have to be religious to know what I’m talking about.
But my focus is not so much on the specific restrictions but the bad spirit they engender in adherents. The people who observe these rules “religiously” become very negative, critical and condemning toward those who don’t. Not just toward the people in the church but everyone. They consider their ideas the gold standard and anyone who falls short is not just different or wrong, but heretical.
History is full of examples. The Women’s Christian Temperance Union loudly protested the consumption of alcohol and played a significant role in establishing the 18th Amendment which prohibited the production, sale and consumption of alcohol.
Much like Muslims but on a smaller scale.
Some majority Muslim countries (Iran, Iraq, etc.) impose heavy social restrictions on their citizens, maintain distant (at best) relationships with other countries (even Muslim countries) and consider anyone who isn’t them, Satan.
The two groups are very different. They have little in common but one idea they share is their hatred for alcohol and both approached the issue with the same vehemence.
The symbol associated with the WCTU protest was the hatchet. Heart warming they were not.
Those are extreme examples but that same spirit is only just below the surface in many religious groups. When it comes to differences of opinions, religions manage relationships at some level of DefCon. If anyone questions the rules, attack-readiness rises several notches.
Separation’s Spirit Can Be Bad
Just to be clear, the use of the word “spirit” here is not a reference to a personal being, like the Holy Spirit or a demonic spirit or even the human spirit as in body, soul and spirit.
Spirit refers to one’s attitude or mindset. There’s a big difference between what you know (facts and information) and what those facts mean to you, how you feel about them.
Your mind is just the depository of information.
What you do with that information, how you use it, feel about it and apply it to life, is influenced by your attitude or mindset.
Information must be interpreted and interpretations are influenced by those around us, the people we know and trust.
Immigration is another good example.
One person sees immigrants as filthy, poor, broken down, uneducated riff-raff that drain our resources and infect our society.
Another person sees them as people looking for opportunities to learn, grow, develop, expand and contribute.
It’s not a matter of information (mind). Everyone has access to the same set of facts. It’s a matter of attitude (mindset) about those facts.
Immigration, though, isn’t a teaching. It is a sociopolitical issue that’s been at the forefront in US politics ever since the late 1700s.
My focus in this post is the actual teachings proposed by religious groups, what they actually say about the issues. There’s nothing new about these groups or their teachings. Both have been around for centuries.
And my argument is that these teachings are not neutral. They are infused with one of two spirits – one bad and one good. Adherents don’t see it coming. They may not realize how infectious the spirit is or how negative it can be but it’s there, none the less.
Let’s look a little deeper.
Separation Is The Seed Bed Of Division
An article on the Gordon Conwell website reported that as of 2019 there were some 45,000 different Christian denominations and at the present rate of expansion would probably reach 49,000 by 2025.
Those groups ranged in size from several 1,000 to fewer than a 100.
More importantly, those divisions are spurred by differences of opinion and justified by separation.
Each of the 45K plus churches has identifying beliefs that, like oil and water, don’t mix well with others. In light of Jesus’ prayer for unity (John 17) can this level of division be justified?
Maybe separation is interpreted improperly.
At the heart of this phenomenon is an attitude. We separate from other groups because we are right and the other groups are wrong.
I’m not oversimplifying the problem. If you’ve spent any time in churches, around churches or know people who have, you’ve seen it.
Separation Shouldn’t Feed On Absolutism
Absolutism views personal beliefs as inalterable and any arguments opposing those beliefs is met with inflexible, implacable, here-I-stand resistance. That attitude eventually translates to:
What I believe is so right, you and everyone else must believe it too.
Absolutism isn’t a specific doctrine. You’ll find it discussed more in philosophy than theology but its prevalence is clear.
Religious folks believe that God’s truth is absolute and inalterable. I agree with that. Most others do too. It’s the acid test. If you reject the idea that God’s truth is absolute then your Christianity is in doubt.
The problem is Christians widely agree that the Bible is accurate and true but they broadly disagree on what it actually teaches. Catholics pray to Mary; Protestants don’t.
Churches agree that the Bible teaches us to be baptized but they don’t agree on how to do it, when it is done and which church has the right to administer it.
The fact that the Bible teaches us to baptize new converts is undeniable. What churches teach about baptism is not.
All of that is to say that Absolutism is not so much a doctrine as it is a response to different ideas. Once a belief is set, once it is recognized within a group, it becomes untouchable. Any variation becomes heresy.
Separation Is Ultimately Shaped By Human Nature
Religion may be God’s idea but it is managed by humans and the Bible doesn’t give us a great deal of detail on exactly what it should look like and how it should be organized.
Historically, Religion hasn’t displayed an inclination to rethink idea. Churches do move and change to fit in with societal trends but only eventually. The first response to change is resistance.
That happens because human nature doesn’t like change. It makes us feel insecure and our first reflex is opposition.
But the ideas you can’t rethink become absolute.
One person says one thing about a belief and another says something different. Each believes their idea is not just correct but absolutely correct and both become unyieldingly adamant. Neither gives the other a hearing or recognition and the dividing begins.
Obviously, God’s truth is always absolute and can endure no alteration. The problem is God’s truth often formulates in the mind of one believer a little differently to how it formulates in the mind of another. Both can’t be right.
One truth we don’t admit to readily is the fact that a truth may be absolute but how I understand it is not. When religion forces issues on everyone because they believe their understanding of a truth is as absolute as the truth itself, they’re overstepping and must learn to be forgiving.
We have to make a difference between the beliefs we hold and the truth as it really is. Change is inevitable and changing one’s perspective on a truth is not the same as changing the truth.
Separation And The True Nature Of Belief
Churches will often provide summaries of their beliefs in printed handouts and websites. Before you join a church, you should always refer to this statement of beliefs to make sure your ideas and theirs align. That way you avoid the conflict before it happens.
What you don’t find on those summaries is a discussion about the nature of Belief. We call our ideas Beliefs because we can’t prove them.
I believe in God but I can’t prove He exists. That’s why we call it faith. If we could prove what we believe, it would be a fact, not a belief. And if we can’t prove it, we can’t impose it. Believing is a choice. Even if the idea you hold is accurate, it’s still a belief.
If you can’t hold a belief without imposing it, maybe you’re not really comfortable with it.
Separation’s Two Directions
Separation is the teaching that we, as believers, should not engage in illicit activities. Instead, we separate from them, avoiding even the appearance of evil.
The idea is well represented in the Bible so anyone would be hard pressed to prove it isn’t there but what is said gives us only a partial picture.
Separation actually has two directions, one negative and one positive. We can separate from sin (negative) or we can separate to decency (positive). One does not guarantee the other.
Because a person never commits adultery doesn’t mean they will love their partner. Because an employee doesn’t pilfer doesn’t mean they’re doing a good job otherwise.
The ultimate goal of separation isn’t to avoid the wrong thing but to engage the right thing.
Separation becomes unbalanced and negative when it is one-sided, when the goal is actually obscured. Separation’s point is not avoiding sin but building our lives, becoming something, going places, expanding.
Separation’s Negative Side
On the negative side are all the things we cannot or should not do. It’s a can’t-do approach to Christian living and it doesn’t take personal development into account.
What I don’t do is not the definition of who or what I am.
Admittedly, there are things Christians (or anyone else for that matter) shouldn’t do. Even non-believers would agree and the Bible makes several statements along these lines.
We’re told plainly to avoid every kind of evil (1 Thessalonians 5:22) and to never be identified with darkness (2 Corinthians 6:14-17). We’re given lists of things we should never be caught doing (1 Corinthians 6:9-10).
But we are also told that it’s impossible to minister to this world if we avoid all contact with people who do these wrong things (1 Corinthians 5:9-10).
We’re in a scary situation. On the one hand we are commanded to reach sinners and on the other we’re told to avoid all sin.
Being around people who freely do the things we try to avoid, especially if we engaged in and became accustomed to those activities before we came to belief, makes us feel vulnerable.
It’s also true that people who were delivered out of alcoholism, drug addiction, food abuse or any other extreme state when they came to belief are the loudest voices encouraging separation and the most condemning toward anyone they deem living too close to the edge.
It’s easy to understand. There’s a lag between stopping a sinful practice and getting over the sensations associated with it. Ex-smokers report desires for a cigarette occurring for years after quitting, even waking up from nightmares in which they lit up.
They’re insecure. They feel vulnerable and making noisy claims about separation is one way to mask the insecurity. It’s a self protective response.
These types are usually tagged as the Pharisees.
Jesus was judged for this very thing (Luke 7:33-34). He spent time in close proximity to the “wrong” people, especially the obvious sinners (like prostitutes) and it made people uncomfortable. Even His disciples flinched when He was approached by a Canaanite woman (Matthew 15:23).
These are great teaching moments. We learn from this that one of His methods was to do what was necessary (in this case get close to sinners) in order to get the job done.
He was showing us the way. Do the thing no one else would in order to achieve what no one else can.
Separation Can’t Prevent Getting Soiled
Three things are true. If you do the necessary work, you’re bound to get close enough to the smelly stuff to step in it occasionally and maybe even get some on you (Proverbs 14:4). A barn that never gets dirty is evidence that no work is getting done.
Secondly, ministering to people is more important that self-protection. Failing occasionally, though we don’t recommend it, enables us to learn. It also makes us a little more human and far more approachable.
And thirdly, Christians don’t agree on right and wrong. History is filled with examples of Christian extremes. Billy Sunday preached more loudly, widely and adamantly against drinking alcohol than anyone and was another key advocate for prohibition laws. He was sincere, he meant well but, looking back, it’s clear he was misguided. Prohibition laws were replaced with regulatory laws that brought sense and accountability to an issue about which there was no agreement.
The Bible clearly tells us to be forgiving toward those who disagree (Romans 14:5) meaning separation is personal. One person deciding that something is wrong for them is fine as long as it doesn’t become a rule for everyone.
Don’t misunderstand, separation isn’t in question. The direction in which you take it is.
Separation’s Positive Direction
What about the positive direction?
All we talked about so far is separation from. It’s an effort to stay clear of wrong things.
On the positive side is separation to!
Life is nothing if not growing, expanding, learning and developing. Christianity should be defined by what it doesn’t do but by what it does do.
Separation involves the commitment to do some particular things, to dedicate your life to a purpose that is useful.
In the Old Testament, the utensils used at the altar were said to be Holy. Does that mean they were sanitized and purified? Not at all. They dealt with sacrificial meat and charred grates and were handled probably by soiled hands.
Holiness in this instance was determined by dedicating those utensils to being used only at the altar. Using them for any other purposes was a desecration.
It’s like a toilet brush. We all have them. In our home, we have three, one for each toilet and we use them only for cleaning toilets. That is the purpose they are committed to.
Those brushes are neither sanitized nor purified but they are Holy because they are dedicated to a purpose. If they were used to brush hair, teeth or clean sinks, that would be sacrilige and desecration.
Separation’s Preparation
If you wish to be properly separated, two thing must happen.
You must first dedicate yourself to becoming something. Expand your abilities. Learn something. Gain experience. Develop the ability to think and to express your thoughts.
You are a whole person and God uses complete people best. Become that person.
Secondly, try things out. A person’s abilities is one consideration but ability alone doesn’t determine where you fit in. Because you’re able to do something doesn’t mean that’s what you should do.
If you focus on preparation and then on finding the thing you’re meant to do, you won’t have a great deal of time or energy to get into trouble.
THINK!AboutIt
Leave a Reply