This chapter, also mercifully short(er), drills home
the point that the body of Christ needs to do its share to help others. It does
however get paranoid to excess:
“If the world's BIG PROBLEMS are YOUR
responsibility, then YOU ARE GUILTY. As long as there is ONE MORE thing you can
do, or ONE MORE dollar you can give, you are STILL GUILTY”.
Now and then, every true Christian thinks he hasn’t
given away all he can to help others. Now and then, all true Christian think they
haven’t done enough to help others... And so on. The bottom line is that one
can always find an excuse to say someone isn't “doing enough”, but let's ask a
simple question: Did the apostles never sleep? Did not Jesus bring the
disciples to Tyre and Sidon to get
away from the crowds (Mark 6:31) and rest?
Is rest and “down time” therefore not part of the paradigm? Obviously it is,
but even though Dean agrees with us he tells us that we are not near the
communal model of the early church, where all shared in common. He is right. But
then Dean comfort us listing many things Jesus did NOT do (i.e., he did not
heal all sick people at the pool, just one). All this contradiction is to warn us that we must not choose our good deeds, we must expect the Holy
Spirit to let us know what, where and how we should do them.
Just to make his paranoia even more prominent, Dean then
cites James 1:5 to tell us that the Holy Spirit is definitely talking to us and
giving us assignments. It may interest Dean to know that Joseph Smith cited
this very passage to justify his own visions. Is this license a hotline to the
Holy Spirit? If it were, one wonders why Paul and James ever had to write
letters. The best Dean can do is grossly universalize the Spirit's directions
for Paul and Barnabas in Acts 13:2 as though the Spirit will speak at all times
like this. And just in case you doubt, Dean has the guilt trip ready: “The reason why some people don't want to
believe that The Holy Ghost still SPEAKS to specific persons with specific
instructions is because THEY DON'T WANT to hear those instructions”.
The lessons that the Mormons and New Agers should
learn, so likewise Dean.
We consider the Bible as authoritative for faith and
practice because of its very nature. We insist that the divine nature of the
Bible is the basis of its authority. No other writing compares to the Bible.
The Bible stands alone among all other writings in that it is uniquely from God
and about God.
We emphasize that the Bible is the sole written
authority for Christian faith and practice and deny that other writings such as
creeds, confessions of faith, traditions, the teachings of theologians and the
statements by founders of denominations have such authority. Although one may
gain insight from and express appreciation for some of these documents, we
refuse to accept them as authoritative.
How does God usually guide us in this age? Does He
guide by visions, dreams, voices or neon signs? No. As we read God’s Word and
pray about a matter, God gives, or withholds, His peace and guidance in that
matter.