Emasculation

I want to share something with you that blessed my very much yesterday. It will probably will not bless you, but that is okay. A few years ago or so we were going to a Church that was Dispensational and Baptist. The Pastor was teaching through the book of Galatians in an adult sunday school class. He came to the chapter 5, verse 12 where Paul tells us that he wished the false teachers that came into the church, and preached that you needed to be circumcised in order to be a Christian, would just go ahead and cut the whole thing off.

"I wish that those who are troubling you would even mutilate themselves."

Well, in my NASB Bible, there was a cross reference to Deuteronomy 23:1 which says...

"No one who is emasculated or has his male organ cut off shall enter the assembly of the Lord."

I quickly reasoned that Paul, who was a Rabbi, was thinking back to this text in Deuteronomy. He had the Old Testament flowing through his veins. He was probably reasoning that if the false teachers who had come into the Church at Galatia, would just go ahead and emasculate themselves, they would not be allowed to come into the Church. If they were not allowed to come into the Church, they would not be able to teach their false doctrine, and lead the Christians astray any longer.

The Pastor was teaching from this text in Galatians that Paul's use of vulgar and explicit language, gave us the right (in certain situations) to do the same. That was the application he drew from the text.  I did not think the Pastor was wrong, only that Paul had a desire for the Church to be purged from all false doctrine and false teaching. He did not want the people to be led astray away from a pure devotion to Christ. Paul's desire, I thought, was not that we should all run around with knives, trying to lob off the privates of false teaches, but that we should do everything in our power to keep the Church of Christ free from error. (Matthew 18 and Church discipline.)

I raised my hand and asked what he thought of my interpretation. He quickly silenced me and told me that in no way Paul had that idea in mind. He wouldn't have had the Old Testament flowing through his veins, he was a New Testament Christian. This really helped me understand what it was I was feeling was wrong with a Dispensationalist. They treat the Bible as two separate and distinct books; the Old Testament and the New Testament. They would say there are many things that are helpful in the Old Testament, and we can get some pointers from looking back there, but it isn't a whole lot of help to us now. There are obvious differences between the two testaments, but I believe from Genesis to Revelation, it is but one book with one main message.

The Church we go to now is Covenantal in its interpretation of Scripture. What blessed me yesterday was that our pastor is preaching through the book of Galatians right now. He spoke about this text and Paul's hatred of false doctrine. He spoke of needing to be diligent to go to the wall with those in the Church who are trying to distort the doctrine of justification by faith alone in Christ alone. Amen. I approached him after the service and ran my interpretation of Galatians 5:12 by him. He listened carefully and asked me to clarify a couple of things. He then said that Paul was a Rabbi and would have had the Old Testament flowing through his mind. He told me that I was probably right and he wished he would have thought of that himself. He was going to think about it some more, and said that he would probably use that understanding next week in his sermon.

What blessed me was a couple of things. One is that my pastor is a humble, precice, and teachable man. He is pursuing his second doctorate degree, and is still willing to listen to the ideas of a 38 year old HVAC Technician. And two, he sees the Bible as one book, with one main message, written from One main Author.