Pastor’s Blog

As to the “other” books of the Bible, they fall under two main categories:  Pseudopigraphia and Apocrypha.  here’s a little history lesson:

The Apocrypha was part of the Septuagint (Greek translation of Old Testament).  The Apocrypha contains a lot of books that cover the intertestamental period - the time after the last book of the OT (Malachi) and the first book of the NT.  This period of time is approximately 400 years, and the most common books of the Apocrypha include 1 & 2 Maccabees, which details the struggle for freedom that the nation of Israel fought, led by Judas Maccabees.

For the most part the Apocrypha was considered historically but not spiritually relevant to the church, which is why it was never included in the Bible as authoritative on equal with the Bible. Because of the historic value the Apocrypha was included between the OT and NT all the way up to the time of the Luther’s Reformation.  There were quite a few heretical Catholic teachings based on the Apocrypha (which was labeled as such during the Reformation period).  Interestingly, the NT quotes the Apocrypha quite a few times.  Immediately following the Reformation, the Catholic church canonized certain Apocryphal works. Interestingly, ones that supported doctrines that Luther was opposed to (salvation by works, etc).  In short, the Apocrypha was never understood to be equal to the Holy Scriptures.

The Jews never did accept these books as “on par” with Holy (OT) Scripture.  They saw them as historical, informative, inspirational, culturally relevant, but not Authoritatively the Word of God.  Some of the main reasons they are not included in the Cannon (and, inversely, others are)

1. Apocrypha does not claim to be Holy Scripture
2. Apocrypha contains inaccuracies (Tobit, Judith)
3. Apocrypha teaches doctrine that contradicts the rest of the accepted cannon of Scripture (IE, prayer for the dead, 2 Macc. 12:45-46.

The Pseudopigraphia is a different story, however.  The word “Pseudopigraphia” was given to the collection of books thought to be written by someone who claimed to be someone else.  Psuedo = “false,” grapha = “writings.”  This does not mean the content is necessarily untrue, but rather the authorship is called into question.  The most popular example is 1 Enoch.  The prevailing thought on it (and the rest of the Pseudopigraphia) is that it was not actually written by Enoch, but rather someone else, from a much more current time period.  The use of an “alias” like this was not too uncommon, but it is important to note that the NT does not do this.  When we read, “Paul, a bond servant of Jesus, to the church of…” we can be assured it is actually Paul writing this, not some other person who just wanted his thoughts to be taken more seriously, so he used the name of a famous person.

Apparently some of the Pseudepigraphal writings were discovered in the Qumran area, along with the Dead Sea Scrolls, which means they predate Christianity, which may lend more reliability to the original authorship of some of them.  Remember, we don’t have the ACTUAL writings that Paul or anyone else wrote by their own hand.  What we have is copies that were made by other people.  They were copies of an actual accurate writing, however.  This “could” be the case with “some” of the Pseudepigrapha.

Well, I guess that’s good to get the conversation going, anyway!  A LOT MORE information can be found here:

http://www.bible-researcher.com/canon.html

I welcome any questions and or discussion on the subject!

Ian

I had several people ask me recently about what the bible says about giving/tithing/offering $ to the Lord.  Below is a recent paper I wrote on the subject.

As to tithing, the perspective that one needs to have is that all we have comes from Him and is on loan from Him.  So if you were to say, “Give God what is His first and then use the rest for our needs” you’d need to understand It’s all His!  Here is a brief sketch of some of the key things to consider in the topic of tithing:

• Does the New Testament REQUIRE a believer to “tithe” per se’ as the Old Testament required a Jew/God Fearer to tithe?
• Is there a biblical difference between tithe and offering?  Is this difference only found in the OT or NT?
• What does the NT teach about giving?
• What sort of attitude should I have regarding $?
   

Ok, so, that’s my list of issues when it comes to “tithing.” The concept of tithing originated with Abraham, when he defeated the kings who had taken his nephew Lot and his family captive, along with all the bounty.  Abraham gave one tenth of the spoils of that victory to Melchizadek, king of Salem.  The only other place he is mentioned is in Hebrews, where we learn that he has no mentionable origin of family.  There is some speculation that he is the preincarnate Christ or something like that.  The story is in Gen. 14
 
Anyway, in the OT they were commanded to SEVERAL ”tenths.”  A few things to Keep in mind:

• The OT Law doesn’t speak much of giving money, because they lived in an agrarian society (at least at the time the law was given.
• The tithe was to support the Levites, because they didn’t have an inheritance in the land
• The tithe was to support the poor
• Israel was a theocracy, so this could correlate to governmental taxation (but then, when they were under the Roman government,  they still tithed).

So, Lev. 27:33 shows the tithe to be annual and agrarian.  Numers 18:21-24 indicates that the tithe is to support the Levites, because they had no land to grow crops or raise flocks.
 
There is an additional tithe mentioned in Duet 14:22-27 that seems to be put in place for people to be able to afford the required annual pilgrimage(s) to Jerusalem to engage in the feasts.  This was so they could ENJOY GOD, AND WAS TO BE USED AT THEIR DISCRETION, TO A POINT.
 
Duet 14:28-29 mentions a tithe to be done every 3rd year, for the use of caring for the poor.
 
if you were to add all this up, it would be like 23-24%.
 
 
Notice that this tithing was not optional!  Also notice in Malachi 3:8-12, God says, Why are you robbing me!”  (check out the message someone gave at the church a while back, “oracles from Malachi” a two part series, really good, given while i was in Mexico.  It addresses that passage quite well.)
 
in the NT actual tithing is mentioned a few times:
In Matt 23:23 and Luke 18:12 Jesus addresses people who were tithing “correctly” but were self righteous or looking for loopholes so they could tithe less.
 
The NT never commands a believer to tithe a certain amount.  We are instructed about the heart we have regarding material possessions, however.  Paul in 2 Corinthians 9:7 says that each person should give as they are able, but not out of compulsion, but rather out of gladness.  We are given the contrasting examples of Barnabas and Annaias/Saphirah in the book of Acts (end of chapter 4 and on into chapter 5).  Barnabas lived life with his hands open, everything he had was available to God and to the saints.  Annaias and SAphirah loved money and wanted to keep some of it for themselves, while appearing to be like Barnabas.
 
A person who is blessed materially by God may be able to give 20, 30, 40, or even 80 or 90% of their income, and still live well.  I would like to think that if I won the lottery I’d still drive the same cars, live in the same house, and wear the same clothes.  I’d give a lot of $ to the church and other worth while causes, probably more than 10%.
 
Other people who can barely make ends meet may not even be able to give 2, 3, or 5%.  The attitdue of both people should be the same, though.  “All that I have is on loan from Him.  All I need is provided by Him.”  Paul does command people to give proportionately to their prosperity (1 Cor 16:1-2)
 
My only word of caution would be if you find yourself saying, ”we just can’t afford to tithe right now” make sure you are living as though all you have belongs to Him.  I’m not saying a person should only eat Top Ramen, cancel their cell phone, home phone, tv, sell their car, and never spend any money on anything except food clothing and shelter - THEN if there is anything left over, AFTER giving to God, THEN you can spend some on yourself.  I would caution, however, to evaluate priorities.  Do I really put God first?  Does that extend to how I spend my money?  Where our treasure is, there our heart is also.  If I say I can’t afford to give back anything He’s given me, but then they go out to the movies several times a month, eat fast food for lunch several times a week, and indulge in various hobbies and expensive recreation activities, what does my lifestyle say about how important God is to me?
Why should we give, then, as NT believers?  To meet needs of other believers (Acts 2:44-45) and to meet needs those in ministry (1 Tim 5:17-18 & 1 Cor 9:6-14)

I have given several message in the book of acts that discusses giving, as a side note.  “Barnabas the encourager” is one that is currently available on the website, there are others from earlier that are available via the podcast.

Anxious to hear your thoughts,

Ian

There could be an argument made, at least, at first glance, for the possibility that people in the first century believed in ghosts.  IF they did, this would not mean ghosts exist, but rather just that they believed in them.  So, I’m going to take a quick look at:

 Why would some say that 1st century believers believed in ghosts?

Did they actually believe in ghosts?

What does the bible say about ghosts?

why does it seem the 1st century believers believed in ghosts?

There are two main stories that come to mind.  The first one is when Jesus came to the disciples walking on water.  The story is found in Matthew 14 and Mark 6.  In Matt 14:26 and Mark 6:49 the Word tells is that when they saw Jesus, they thought it was a ghost. 

 The Greek word translated as “ghost” in both these passages is  fantasma transliterated it would be “phantasma” which is where we get “phantom.” 

 Sounds like they thought it was His ghost, doesn’t it?  What are your thoughts?

The other story of interest is found in Acts 12 (one we just studied in church recently, check out the message at our home page if you’re interested).  Peter is freed from prison and goes to Mary’s house, where the disciples are praying (assumably for him).  He knocks at the gate and Rhoda, a servant girl, hears him, goes and tells the church gathered there, and they respond by saying, “it is his angel.”  (Acts 12:15).  The Greek there is aggeloV transliterated this is angelos, where we get angel, specifically, “messenger” in the New Testament. the phrase in that passage is interesting though.  it says, “the angel of him.” ( aggeloV autou ) Could it be that they thought he had died at the hand of Herod and his angel/ghost had come to them? Or did they think this was his “guardian angel”?

Matthew 18:10 is relevant here.

“See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that their angels in heaven continually see the face of My Father who is in heaven. ”

 The Greek there referring to “their angels” is aggeloi (plural of angelos) autwn (plural of his, “their”).  So the Greek would be “the angel of them.”

 Comparing the two passages, it seems that “his angel” in Acts 12 and “their angels” in Matthew 18 are referring to the same concept.  The question is, are these passages referring to an apparition, or a guardian angel.  I lean toward the guardian angel concept, because if it meant otherwise, it could have used the word “phantom.”

 This doesn’t explain the fact that they thought Jesus appearing on the water as a phantom.  Notice it says, “a phantom.”  not “HIS phantom.”  They thought it was some sort of spiritual apparition, but not necessarily HIS “ghost.”

what does the bible say about disembodied spirits?

My favorite passages to go to here are Hebrews 9:27

“And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this {comes} judgment,”

and

2 Corinthians 5:8

“we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.”

This indicates we die, enter into eternity, and receive judgment.

What about alleged ghost sitings, then?  I my suggestion is that they are either demons pretending, in order to lead people astray, or people putting forth a hoax.

What do you think?

~Ian

Someone asked me after church if I was implying that it was merely an “accident” that Paul ended up writing most of the NT, but if things had been different, Barnabas would have (or maybe should have) written most of the NT.

This is not at all the case.  The statement in question was made when I was emphasizing the significance of Barnabas being a “team player.”  He was more than willing to recruit someone to his team, even if that someone was of such a high caliber that it would mean Barnabas would fade into the background.

Obviously God’s hand was in it, God had selected Paul and had plans for Paul to become His INSPIRED author of much of the NT.

Hope that clears things up.  Please fire away with any questions, and keep on encouraging!

As promised in my message on Sunday, I’m blogging about the idea of a gentile eunuch converting to Judiasm.  This question comes up because we were studying the passage in Acts 8 where the Ethiopian Eunuch is told about Jesus by Philip.  The text in Acts 8 seems to indicate he was some sort of a convert, or as close as could be.  He was on his way back from Jerusalem where he had gone to worship (Acts 8:27).  He was reading the scroll of Isaiah, which shows his commitment (both in the action of reading the scroll, and in the possession of it, as it was not an easy or inexpensive scroll to obtain).  Luke does not explicitly say that he had converted to Judiasm (as he does in Acts 6:5 in reference to Nicolas), but it describes the Eunuch in such a way as to indicate he was at least a God fearing gentile.

 There are several passages that discuss a gentile converting to Judiasm.

 Let’s begin in Deuteronomy 23:1.  it says, “No one who is emasculated or has his male organ cut off shall enter the assembly of the LORD”

The main question that needs to be answered about this passage is what does it mean when it says, “enter the assembly of the Lord.”  It could mean the gathering of Israelites together for religious purposes.  It could also be referring to the physical Temple itself.  It can also refer to the Nation of Israel in general, as it seems to in Numbers 16:1-3, where the rebellion of Korah is detailed, and Korah is quoted as questioning Moses and Aaron saying, “why have you set yourselves up above the Assembly of the Lord?” (verse 3, paraphrased).  The previous verses are clear, Korah is saying, “All of the Nation of Israel is holy and chosen by YHWH, what makes you so special?”

If this is the meaning in Numbers 23, it is likely teaching that a gentile cannot “become” Jewish if he fits the description of someone found in Numbers 23.  If this passage is referrng to Assembly of the Lord, it could be referring to Jew and/or Gentile not being allowed to enter God’s prescense in their “imperfect” condition.  It could also be referring

Another interesting passage is Isaiah 63:1-6, where God seems to affirm His acceptance of Eunuchs who love Him.  Should this influence the way we interpret the Numbers passage?

What are your thoughts?

We’ve all been there.  By “we” I mean those of us that like it or not, are the primary launderers of our household.  By “there” I mean that frustration situation of what to do with the laundry once it’s been washed and dried.

 For me the dilema started with the division of labor concept.  It came at a time in our life when as a married couple we were both working full time.  Obviously it is not reasonable of me to assume that she would do ALL the household chores while holding down a full time job.  So, we did our best to share the burden.  I of course did the laundry.  She did the dishes, yada yada yada.  I found that things worked better if I helped her with the dishes on a “supplimental” basis.  In turn she said she’d help with the laundry, when she could.  So she said, “why don’t you put the clean laundry on the couch, then I’ll fold it while I watch tv or something.”

It was a great idea, great gesture, but didnt’ really work out.  The couch began to eat laundry, laundry began to be sat on, spread around the living room, wrinkled, made dirty, and back in my cycle, without ever being warn.

So we went through several variations of an attempt to share the folding responsibility and quite frankly, nothing worked. So here’s what I came up with that does work: I have 3 bins (you’ve probably noticed I like bins for laundry!) for each person. 1 for shirts, one for socks/undies/pj’s, and 1 4 pants. I also have a place to hang clothes on clothes hangers, and several bins for towels, rags, sheets, etc - all of this within 3 feet of the washer/dryer. so, as soon as a load is done drying I take the clothes out, fold/sort/hang, and then cycle the laundry. doesn’t really take that long, and the beauty is - whenever the bins get full, I just announce to the family “Come and get your laundry.” They file out to the garage and I hand them their bin, they go and put it away (it doesn’t end up on the floor, in the couch, or wherever else). They bring me an empty bin, I give them the next full bin…easy money!

it is a little extra work for me, but the peace of mind and lack of frustration is well worth it. It is the result of trial and error combined with a little proactivity. We as humans do most stuff by tial and error actually. I think we could use some more proactivity as well. In a world that champions delegation and such, I’d like to remind us that there are some things that are just worth doing ourselves!

Most guys, if they are lucky, will at least admit they may from time to time sort their laundry between what gets bleached, and everything else.  Or maybe they’ll do the ole “light and dark” thing, or maybe even, “warm and cold.”

OK, who am I fooling…most guys would just say, “aw, heck, I just wash it all in cold.”  I’ve even met a few people of the female persuasion that make this confession.  Ouch…man, I wish I could open their eyes, I wish I could cause them to see the value, importance, and pure joy one can derive from doing things the right way (hey…that applies to more than laundry, doesn’t it! People who live life w/out Jesus do not realize they are not doing it right, and that there is a better way, a way that is more fulfilling than they ever imagined.  We, as Christians, should desire to show them that way!)

 Anyway, in my garage, just to the right of my stack-able washer dryer, is a 6 bin laundry sortation system.  My middle child has the chore of bringing all the dirty laundry from all the baskets out to the garage, where I sort it.  Each of the bins is labeled, starting with the top left, moving down, then across: bleach, cold light, cold dark, warm dark, warm light, hang dry.

 Those are my 6 primary categories.  If I had room, I’d create two more (which I plan to do when I build my laundry room in the basement).  They would separate jeans & towels from the cold dark/warm dark, because the jeans/towels are to be washed separately (cotton sturdy) from the other clothing (perm. press).  anyway, getting ahead of myself there.

 Why bother with the sorting?  several key reasons.

More effective cleaning

See, if you wash your hands with cold water (even using soap), they do not get 100% clean.  Try it some time.  wash with cold water and then go ahead and dry your hands on your nice white towel.  It will be brown with the dirt left on your hands.  YUCK.  Wash your hands with warm water, and more dirt comes off.  Warm water breaks dirt down better, that’s just the physics of it.  So, if you can wash your clothes in warm or hot water, you should.

There are some types of cloth that should not be washed in warm/hot, because it may also cause the colors to bleed/fade or the fabric to shrink.  This is why tag reading is important, even for an advanced launderer, like me.  More on that in a moment, though.

Longer lasting clothing

Gunk builds up on clothing that isn’t washed properly, causing the clothing to need to be discarded prematurely.  This is evidenced in clothing looking dingy, showing pit stains and the like. 

Here’s what I do when sorting laundry:

1. all white cotton items get bleached (towels, socks, undies, rags, etc)
2. all dark towels, socks, undies automatically go to warm dark
3. all “dry clean only” and hang/lay flat to dry stuff goes to the hang dry, which, after being washed, does not go in the dryer (shrinkage = bad)
4. all other items go to their tag specified area, either cold light/dark or warm light/dark.

A word on tag reading:

I am amazed at how many people don’t know how to read clothing tags.  First of all, if the instructive tag is not located at the back of the neck/waist, look in the side inseam for shirts and near the pockets for the pants.  Once locating the tag, it may not have clearly disclosed instructions.  There’s a secret code, using dots and geometric shapes.

If you look at the shapes on the tag, there is one that is clearly a washing machine, and the other is clearly a dryer.  I’ll let you figure out which is which (I can’t spell it all out, what fun would that be!).  Inside the shapes you’ll see either 1, 2, or three dots.  1 dot means “low,” 2 = “medium,” 3 = “high.”  You could substitute hot for high, warm for medium, and so on.  My guess is that they invented this system of symbols for the illiterate yet meticulous launderers out there (insert sarcasm here).

 If you’re an astute launderer and reading this with a critical eye, you may be asking yourself why I would put a dry clean only item in the washing machine.  I’m glad you asked.  I have three reasons.

1. Lazy - I don’t feel like going to the dry cleaners.
2. Snobby - If a piece of clothing really does need to be dry cleaned, its not worth my time.
3. Sneaky - most “dry clean only” can be washed on a delicate cycle and hung to dry.  Your local dry cleaner doesn’t want you to know that! (great, now the DCAOA - Dry Cleaner Association Of America - has a price on my head!)

I should issue a warning about tags, though.  A lot of tags say, “wash inside out.”  I think that’s dumb.  most dirt ends up on the outside of the clothing…unless you emit a medically questionably large amount of toxic foulness…so the thing is, why hide all the dirt on the inside by making it inside out.  A lot of the reason tags say this is because they want to protect the print, embroidery, or fancy sequins on the garment.  If there are a bunch of sequins you should throw it away - i mean - turn it inside out.  Otherwise, don’t worry about it.  My experience is that turning it inside out is more important for the drying phase, so that is when you’d want to turn it inside out, after washing it.

In closing, while I sort, I also “fix.”  I uncrumple socks, make clothing be right side out, fasten clasps on bras, and close Velcro.  I do this because bra clasps and Velcro can really garble up a good batch of laundry.

As promised (if you’re still reading this, which you’re probably not), here are a few life connections.

1. If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing right.  This applies to more than laundry.
2. No body wants to walk around feeling dirty.  Let that soak in (no pun intended).  How often to you walk around feeling spiritual fouled up?  Why not get clean?  Why not go strait to Jesus, every time you get gunked up by the world, and allow Him to spray-n-wash you (metaphorically speaking)?  And, why not share this great feeling with others?
3. In life you can’t just cram everything into one bucket, press the “old” button, and expect it to be right. There are things in life that need to be dealt with separately, specifically, intentionally.  Marriage, kids, finances, God…you can’t cram all that into the bucket labeled “life” and expect it to work out.  I’m not saying you should compartmentalize your life, but you should give each compartment it’s propper due.

In closing (hey, didn’t I already say that?) - Take the time you spend sorting laundry and pray for the people that wear/use that clothing.  It makes the task seem much more significant!

Till next time,

Laundry obsessed pastor guy

When I was a young man, my mom taught me how to do laundry.  She didn’t take me through a huge training program, or give me a test afterwords.  What she did was simply show me the directions on the back of the soap box and show me the tags on the articles of clothing.  Normally the male species does not respond well to directions, but I was young enough to not know any better!

So, I read the directions, and I started doing laundry.  At the time, she had no idea what a laundry monster she had created!  Fast forward to me being 20 years old, picking up my fiance’ to go do a date or something.  She says, “oh, wait just one second, I need to go put in a load of laundry.”  Being curious, I followed her into the basement.  What I saw was a horror that causes me to shudder to this very day!  She picked up a mountain of clearly unsorted laundry and began to stuff it into a *gulp* toploading washing machine.  The mountain must have been 5 feet square, and at least 3 1/2 feet tall.  it had socks all curled up, shirts and pants partly inside out, and all different colors and types of clothing in it - whites, darks, perm. press, cotton sturdy, and probably even some delicate/hang dry.  She crammed them all in there, to the point where the lid wouldn’t stay shut.  This presented a problem for her, because it was the type of model that wouldn’t run unless the lid is shut.  Not being daunted, she sprinkled a little soap on the top, forced the lid shut, and sat up on there.  Then, without any bashfulness she said, “It will just take a minute for it all to settle in, then we can go.”

I was speachless!  She had obviously done this before.  I tell you what, I would not have been surprised if the clothes at the bottom were never touched by water or soap, they were crammed in there so tight!

At that very moment I decided that if we were to be married, I would would have to have exclusive access to all things laundry in our home (she readily agreed).  So, though I live in this earth (a fallen, dirty world to be sure) I have the blessed opportunity to remove this world’s dirtiness from the clothing my family wears.  In the blog posts to ensue, I’ll provide a window into the the twisted mind of the pastor-husband that obsesses about laundry.  I’ll share my strategies, methods, principles, and paradygms that I base my laundry world on.  I plan on taking you through a journey of a standard laundry cyle, beginning with sortation, then strategy of load order, folding, putting away, and then special circumstances.  Lest you think this will be a mere trestise on laundry, I’ll share with you the plethora of spiritual symbolism inherent in proper laundry procedures.

 Until then,

 Ian

I don’t know about you, but I am one of those that watched the State of the Union Address this evening.  I recorded on my DVR, however, so I could fast-forward the tons of clapping and standing and all.  I personally think that the SOTUA is a great people watching event.  You get to see the who’s who of pop culture politics, as far as who gets to sit in that special place next to that special person.  You get to watch people’s body language, whether bored, fidgety, sleepy, or even more sinister, like a look of consternation on their face, a forced clap, sometimes even a smirk.

 You get to see Dem’s on one side, Rep’s on the other.  And in an election year, you get to do all of this with the overlay of the recent primary hoopla (Oh, joy!).

 And we all know what’s going to be said.  In fact, I asked a friend today if they were going to watch it.  The friend say, “here, I’ll save you the trouble:  ‘blah blah terrorism, blah blah immigration, blah blah economy, blah blah…clap clap, blah clap, stand blah, soldiers, blah clap clap.’”

While I can’t entirely disagree with him, it does get me thinking - why do (or don’t) we watch the SOTUA?  Is it for the people watching, the political innuendo, the left vs right?  Is that enough of a reason to spend a good 1 1/2 hrs of our precious time watching people, and groaning every time they clap or stand (or, heaven forbid….BOTH!)?

 I think there is a much greater reason for us to spend 1 1/2 hrs watching, and listening, to the President of the United States of America.

1.  We’re Americans.  Good, bad, or indifferent, this is the country we live in.  This is our leader talking.  These are our issues being discussed.  The ideas and people represented here tonight affect our lives, and those of the rest of the world, to a large extent.
2. We’re a democracy.  We actually have a part in the direction our country goes in.  Our success as a deomocracy depends largely on the public being informed and educated.  We should take an interest in the current thoughts of our leaders.
3. We’re forgetful.  Admit it, it’s been 364 days since the last time our President addressed the entire country with such a detailed account of where we’ve been, where we are, and where we’re going.  It’s good to be reminded of these things.

So, why do I care?  Why do I write this?  Well, in about two weeks, I’ll be giving my annual “State of the church” address at Felida Christian Fellowship.  It does not last as long, and there is not nearly the amount of clapping and standing ovations, but it causes me to wonder - are there lessons to be learned from the SOTUA and how people feel/think toward it?  I think yes, when looked at from the perspective of what it has to do with church attendance.

1. Some people go to church to do people watching; others attend to stay current on (political?) drama.  Still others attend because they have positions of importance, and they feel a need to sit and look important.
2. There are some better reasons to go to church, however.  I think we should attend church because things talked about are vital to our existance as a body.  As we study the Bible, as we grow as a unity, and as we embrace a common vision for the future, we are doing so as a body.

Let us not get caught up in the left/right Calvinist/Armeniast, Dispensationalist/Reformed theology debates.  Instead, let us look to the Head of the Body, Jesus, and study His word together, honoring Him.

 Lets face it, as Christians, we have a tendency to forget.  We forget what drew us together, we forget what unifies us, and we even forget certain biblical truths.  We know them, but they end up buried in the stratified layers of mental clutter that accumulates in the chaos of life.  So we go to church, where the Lord reminds us of what we should know already.

I love going to church.  I love being with fellow believers, I love applauding God Almighty, and I love hearing His Word.  Even if I know what is going to be said (Blah blah God, blah blah Jesus, blah Bible blah blah), I need to be there.  I need to be reminded.  I need to be involved.

…and no, you can’t fast forward church!