Elders

Over at the blog 'The Assembling of the Church', Alan Knox has written some excellent posts on Christian elders and if they should be paid for their ministry according to the Bible. I recommend them as a good read, and they fully vindicate the policies of Jehovah's Witnesses on eldership. Here they are in chronological (as in when they were posted) order:

1) What about work

2) What about work for elders/pastors

3) What about honor for elders/pastors

Sunday

Christianity Today magazine has an interesting article about Craig Harline's new book called "Sunday: A History of the First Day from Babylonia to the Superbowl". The article contains an excerpt from the book, which shows how so-called Christians adopted the pagan 'Sun Day' into their worship. Here is a sample:

And when Christianity moved into northern Europe, "Sunday" was so common among Christians that the new northern converts simply used that name exclusively. Just as pagan forms had been conquered and appropriated, now the greatest pagan day was absorbed as well. Emerging vernacular languages around the mediterranean, where the early church was born and raised, certainly retained "Lord's Day" in common usage, but a good Christian in either north or south could now find as much Christian imagery in "Sunday" as they pleased, and thus uttered the word without a second thought. Only the later vernacular languages of eastern Christianity, and Portuguese in the west, would reject all planetary names for the days of the week as offensively pagan.

Organised chuch programs

Over at Alan Knox's blog 'The Assembling of the Church' (where he blogs on ecclesiology) there is a post explaining his indifference to church "programs". This is of interest to me because Jehovah's Witnesses are commonly asked why they do not have organised programs to feed the poor, or to run hospitals, etc. It is true that we do not. What we are recognised for though is being the first to arrive on the scene when an emergency occurs. When Hurricane Katrina occured, while the Red Cross and American government fumbled under the weight of bureaucracy, Jehovah's Witnesses managed to get into the New Orleans area and begin helping out. When a Jehovah's Witness loses their house in a natural disaster, a crew of brothers and sisters turn up and fix or rebuild their house, sometimes within a weekend.

Alan's comments sum up my thoughts on the matter:

For example, if a family's house is destroyed by fire, an organized program to help them with money, food, accommodations, etc. would be very beneficial. In this case, the "benevolence" program has a specific purpose: to help the church show kindness and to serve this family who is in need. When the need is met, then the program would stop. What usually happens, though, is that this "benevolence" program is continued after the need is met. Thus, we feel a need to continue to staff and maintain a "benevolence" committee or program which has no specific goal, other than show benevolence, which is the requirement of all believers, not just those in this program. The program becomes the goal, instead of the means to meeting a goal.

Check out his post to read more of what he says on the matter.

Remaining without spot from the world

Tom over at Sheep & Goats has a post on a book entitled "The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience- Why Are Christians Living Just Like the Rest of the World?" by Ronald Sider, a professor of theology and contributor to Christianity Today magazine.

Tom mentions that Jehovah's Witnesses do not suffer from many of the same problems as Evangelicals have picked up over the last century, as they have stuck closely to the Biblical commandment to be "without spot from the world." The article is a good read.

Are JWs the last people to believe in replacement theology?

After years of Protestant churchianity teaching that Jews are still God's chosen people, Zionism, or even that God has "dual covenants" by which people can be saved (the Jewish and the Christian), it appears that now even that stronghold of replacement theology, the Roman Catholic Church, believes that Jews can be saved by their Old Testament covenant with God.

"Campaigns that target Jews for conversion are no longer theologically acceptable," said the now-retired cardinal, 83, who was president of the Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews and the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity.
The Catholic Church taught that salvation is found only in Christ through the church, but Cardinal Cassidy said it now accepted that the Jews were saved by their (Old Testament) covenant with God.

It seems these days that Jehovah's Witnesses are the only religion left that teaches that salvation is only by having faith in Jesus Christ and his atoning sacrifice, and that the Israel of God is not literal Jews but Jesus' spiritual brothers.

Read more on the Catholic's change of heart at The Religious Write.

Shunning

Tom Sheepandgoats has written an excellent post defending disfellowshipping (more popularly known as shunning) in the Christian congregation.

So it is with Jehovah's Witnesses today. They could not be more unlike in personalities, backgrounds and talents (besides the factors already mentioned) yet they enjoy unshakable unity. God's spirit makes it possible.
We're zealous to safeguard this unity. When a person leaves JW tenets, he begins to lose the thinking that makes such unity possible. Some lose it instantly. More
often, it happens over time. But it does happen.

Pope says only Roman Catholicism is proper church

The Vatican has issued a document claiming that only churches in full communion with the Pope of Rome can expect full salvation (whatever that means) and other Christian faiths "lack elements considered essential to the Catholic Church". He says that Protestants are in error and Orthodox Churches have true teachings but are dissenters from recognising the Pope's authority.

As can be expected, the document has upset evangelical Anglicans and other Protestants around the world. For more on this story, click here.

Baptists yearn for church discipline

One of the things that Jehovah's Witnesses face much criticism over is their practice of "disfellowshipping". Much of the criticism comes from born-again and evangelical "Christians". Yet there is a movement arising in the Southern Baptist Convention that is seeking to re-claim the practice of church discipline that was historically a prominent part of the Baptist movement.

The Baptist Press reports:

"Prior to the last century, Baptists "practiced church discipline on a large scale" and regarded the practice as a normal part of church life, according to church history professor Greg Wills."

and also this:

"The return to church disciple has been gaining momentum for several years."The decline of church discipline is perhaps the most visible failure of the contemporary church," R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., wrote..."

Yes, Jehovah's Witnesses have been vindicated once again for using only God's word for direction, and following its scriptural advice on discipline, rather than the theologies of men. I wonder what the next thing Baptists will realise they have abandoned that their Anabaptist forefathers promoted - unitarianism, mortalism? I doubt it.