Graduation Celebration: Part 1

"Deciding Hard Issues: Dancing" [part 3]

What comes next in the Sequence For Understanding are the Biblical Principles we derive from Biblical Truth. But before we get to Biblical Principles, first, let’s consider two common justifications for or against dancing which aren't relevant.

1. “I Like It, so it’s OK” or “I Don’t Like It, so it’s not OK”.
The fact that a person likes or dislikes dancing is not the basis for deciding the rightness or wrongness of dancing. The fact that someone likes dancing or doesn’t like dancing only tells us 1 thing: That there is some characteristic of that person which likes or dislikes dancing.

The question to ask now would be: Why does someone like it or not like it?
What is it about dancing that you like?
If you believe dancing is wrong, then why?

What a person likes doesn’t determine truth. What you don’t like doesn’t determine truth.
These only tell us what you like or don’t like. And that is all they tell us.

People use these arguments as if they decide everything. But they don’t decide anything.

2. “Other Christians Dance”
Again, that doesn’t prove the rightness or wrongness of dancing or anything else. Some churches give away money to get people to come. Many Christians drink wine & beer.

All this means is that there are Christians who believe dancing, alcohol, etc. are OK.
I could also say that there are many Christians who do not dance. But again, that doesn’t prove anything either except that some Christians have reasons to believe dancing is wrong.
Those reasons may be good or ridiculous, but numbers of people for or against something doesn’t prove legitimacy.

"Deciding Hard Issues: Dancing" [part 2]

The 1st step in approaching any issue is very simple:
What Does The Bible Say?
Part 1 of this series mentioned Two Foundational Principles of Hard Issues:

• Know your Bible

• Know your Heart

Knowing your heart means thinking through why you are for or against something. If you believe dancing is wrong, then are your reasons Biblical or is it something more personal & less spiritual
such as: "I can’t dance." Perhaps more than we realize, we cover up our real reasons with a spiritual reason that sounds better.

It's interesting how we all agree that the Bible is our authority, but when it comes to our pet issues, to issues that we know are going to cause us problems, issues which force us to ask difficult questions and force us to make decisions about how our friends & family perceive us—well, we’re not so eager then, are we?

So, 1st we need to look at the raw Biblical data: What does the Bible say about dancing?
This is the 1st step in our Sequence of Understanding & Living: Get The Facts

Summary Of Data
26 ref to dancing, most in the OT
7 ref to women—rejoicing
4 ref to David—rejoicing
3 ref to children—unknown
Very few refer to men & women dancing together. When men & women dance together, sin seems to be involved. Other references have an unknown purpose or it is unclear who is doing the dancing.

This data shows men & women rarely danced together. In some of the references, sin is clearly occurring. In a majority of the references [17], rejoicing & praise, not personal pleasure seems to be the reason/occassion.

What can we conclude from this?

1. If you are going to use the Bible to justify dancing as people do it today, you will not find any help there. Dancing at the Prom is not rejoicing before the Lord!! Mixed-Gender Social Dancing does not have any support in the Bible.
   
2. What we do see is a few warnings that dancing can be very dangerous & can be associated with sin.

A Good Question: Did the sin encourage the dancing or did the dancing lead to the sin?
Answer: In some references, we can’t tell. They are so intermixed that you can’t tell what came first. But in Ex 32, the sin came first, and dancing resulted from that sin.

This sequence--sin, then dancing--is interesting. Sin occurs in the human heart before being seen externally. Are many Christians today, who see nothing wrong with our modern cultural form of dancing, using dancing as a way to express sins in the heart? This is a valid question that deserves serious reflection.

Deciding Hard Issues: Sequence Chart--From Truth To Standards

"Deciding Hard Issues: Dancing" [part 1]

Years ago, the topic of “dancing” was not a controversial issue for Bible-believing Christians. Dancing had associations with certain places and behavior that Christians did not go to & did not do.
But today, the situation is much different.
Christians go to dances at school, clubs, and at church.
Churches even use dance as part of worship.
So, the question we have to ask: Were the Christians of another generation wrong?
Or are Christians today wrong?
We need to be very careful before changing the standards of previous generations of believers unless we have clear, Biblical reasons for doing so.

I went to dances in high school.
Although the styles change, they don’t change that much!
And I liked being close to the girls; Most guys do!
Soft in all the right places, smell good, look good.
And many like watching movies set in the time when dancing was more formal with waltzes and minuets.

When I talk to people about this topic, I find out something very interesting:
Very few Christians have studied what the Bible says about dancing.
Many assume that the Bible doesn’t say much, if anything, about it, and are surprised at the suggestion to look at the Bible.
Many assume that since the Bible doesn’t condemn dancing (and it doesn't), then dancing must be OK.
If you follow that reasoning, then since the Bible doesn’t forbid smoking, marijuana, drinking alcohol, or chewing tobacco, then those are OK too.
In fact, that approach to hard issues is a type of legalism:
Looking only for specific verses & look no further.
Is that honest?
Living for the Lord is much more subtle than that.
And you should be willing look at the issue honestly, instead of deciding an issue by whether the Bible mentions it or not.
It is odd how we will look at what the Bible says about money, about family, about moral issues, but rarely if ever look at what the Bible says about topics such as dancing.

Issues like dancing reveal a person’s heart.
They are hard issues and show something of what’s going on in your heart.
For example, do you have your mind made up about this before you even look at what the Bible says?
If you do, then is that fair?
Is that honest?
Are you willing to honestly consider Biblical principles?
And when I say honest, I mean really honest.
If you turn me off before you hear what I have to say, that tells me more about you than you realize.
If you can’t justify your views from the Bible, then all you have is personal opinion, & that won’t go very far.

I know this is a difficult issue for parents today, especially parents whose children attend public school because dancing is a major social event. But the Lord uses hard issues to teach us how to make good decisions. The hard issues refine our thinking and sharpen our assumptions. The hard issues are an opportunity from the Lord to grow & learn. Hard issues are an opportunity to see what you’re made of.
They force you to think through your assumptions & wrestle with the Bible and your heart
And this is always good for you.
For example, if you do not allow your children to participate in school dances, then you must be prepared for the arguments you will get.
If your children don’t go to dances, then their friends will ask them why, and it may be embarrassing for them to explain why?
So they might say: “My father is sooo mean.”
We want our children to be different because they are Christians, but we don’t won’t them to be too different, do we?
It may be that you as a parent have decided you just don’t want to deal with the family conflict about it.
It may be that the parents disagree about it: one parent is against it, the other parent sees nothing wrong with it.
Dancing is one of those issues that reveals how much our society has permeated, affected, and influenced believers probably without our realizing it.

Next: "What Does The Bible Say?"

"What Is Missions?"

During WW2, an island native in the South Pacific showed a Bible to an American soldier. The soldier said "We've outgrown that sort of thing." The island native smiled back & said "It's a good thing we haven't. If it weren't for this book, you'd be supper by now."

I hear a lot of people, especially young people, talk about "mission trips" they have participated in. They usually tell how they spent a few days in a poor area of America or perhaps in a poor foreign country. They usually talk of how they helped build a home, cleaned up a neighborhood, or some other similar project, and they often come back excited about "missions".

But is this all "missions" is supposed to be - - - building someone a house or picking up garbage? In our rush to "broaden" missions to include all kinds of social action & projects, we have changed the fundamental nature of missions from verbal proclamation of the gospel to active involvement in changing society. Several times, I have asked those who have gone on these "mission trips" at what point did they proclaim the gospel to those they were helping. Usually, the gospel was never mentioned or brought up. Supposedly, the "good works" of the "missionaries" lets their "lifestyle" proclaim the gospel.

What these well-meaning, enthusiastic "missionaries" forget is that the way you change society is by proclaiming the gospel of salvation by grace alone through faith alone by Christ alone. Even though certain pastors who preach in glass cathedrals don't like the word "sinner", building someone a home won't change their status before God as a sinner. Yet proclaiming the gospel of Christ will do just that. The gospel transforms lives. And transformed lives lead to a transformed society, one person at a time. In a few decades, the early church spread from Jerusalem to all over the known world because of the verbal proclamation of the gospel, not because of social action.

One reason so many emphasize the social aspects of "missions" is because they no longer have any gospel to proclaim. They long ago abandoned belief in the necessity of trusting Christ's death on the cross as totally sufficient for forgiveness and redemption. "Missions" is no longer freeing from the penalty, power, and (eventually) presence of sin, but instead "missions" is freeing from the injustices and hardships of society. This "social gospel" has infected many churches to the point that the true, Biblical gospel would be unrecognizable (and unwanted!) to them.

All four Gospels (Mt 28:16-20; Mk 16:15; Lk 24:46-47; Jn 20:21) and the book of Acts (1:8) emphasize sending, witnessing, and proclaiming. Although social works may be helpful ("faith without works is dead", James 2:17,20,26), social works can never replace or dominate missions. The mission that Jesus Christ has given His church can only be fulfilled by the proclamation of the inspired, inerrant Word of God. Anything else is not the gospel and certainly not missions.

"115 Years And Still Remembered"

On January 31, 1892, Charles Spurgeon died in Mentone, France while resting and trying to recover his health. For many years, Mrs. Spurgeon had been unable to leave their home due to her own physical problems, yet for the last few months of his life she was able to be with him in France.

Many biographies have been written about Spurgeon, yet, amazingly, no recent biography has been written similar to the recent biographies about Jonathan Edwards by Murray and Marsden. Perhaps there is an historian somewhere who is working on a new biography of Spurgeon which thoroughly incorporates previous biographies, his sermons and books for personal information, and what remains of his personal library [now located at Midwestern Baptist Seminary]. If no one is writing such a biography, then someone should.

Spurgeon became a Baptist through reading his Bible. Basically a self-taught man, he is teaching us today through his books, sermons, and life. His minisry was a balance of ministry to the soul and body, of evangelism and practical social work.

Dying relatively young at 57 [as did Tyndale, Calvin, Whitefield, and Edwards], the last years of his ministry especially are an example of fidelity to God and His Word when many others, including his friends, chose to compromise and “look the other way” as unbelief spread through the Baptist churches.

Spurgeon was something of a pioneer in England in many ways, but especially when he left the Baptist Union. Time has proved Spurgeon correct as the Baptist Union today is heavily involved in ecumenical work, social gospel emphases, and the World Council of Churches.

He also had strong words for those Bible-believing Christians who maintained their membership in the Anglican Church. Over 100 years later, the Anglican Church has deteriorated into more unbelief. Yet well-known men such as John Stott and James Packer insist on “maintaining a faithful evangelical witness” to the Church [John Stott: A Biography, p.347-348]. Men such as Spurgeon, Campbell-Morgan, and Lloyd-Jones have the Bible on their side while men such as Stott and Packer can only appeal to pragmatic patience. Although we benefit from Stott and Packer’s writings, those who control the Anglican Church smile approvingly as Bible-believers in Anglicanism keep giving their money.

It is ironic that many who admire Spurgeon refuse to follow Spurgeon’s example and leave unbelief to its own demise. Perhaps those who admire the “Prince of Preachers” should examine more carefully their reasons and motives for remaining in denominations which have continued to embrace liberal theology for well over 100 years with no sign of changing.


Side Note: I have about 90 books from Campbell-Morgan’s personal library, including his personal copies of The Expositor’s Bible. In the Genesis Exp Bib, Morgan made notes strongly disagreeing with the liberal views of Marcus Dods. Today, Campbell-Morgan would be shocked to find that some of his descendants are giving his personal library to the Chicago Theological Seminary which is associated with the United Church of Christ.