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BIBLE
SEPARATION
By K. David Oldfield
http://www.baptistpillar.com/
Not only does the
Bible graphically demand separation from sin, apostasy – sinners and apostates, it also teaches it by example. You
see, separation is not a fanciful pastoral plot to make Christians’ lives miserable, nor is it a matter of
congregational jealousy to keep their new converts from becoming other church’s new converts. It is clearly taught,
generally and specifically, in the pages of God’s Holy (sanctified – separated) Book.
It is possible to
write volumes analyzing the unmistakable demands of God about separation, but in this article lets’ note a couple
of actual cases – Noah’s ark, Lot’s house arrest in Sodom, and the three Hebrew children in the fiery furnace. Each
was separation but vastly different in several areas, so let’s tie them together with four simple
questions.
Who Ordered This
Separation?
Pastors are often
accused of preaching separation arbitrarily. They condemn shorts, bathing suits, ungodly hair styles, fraternal
groups, movies, political entanglements, religious mixed marriages, etc., and people sometimes accuse them of
‘lording’ over the people – arbitrary meanness. But it’s God’s Word that demands that people who call themselves by
God’s name must live holy lives.
Who ordered
Noah’s isolation from society? Jehovah! Who came to the house of Lot in wicked Sodom with murderous homosexuals at
the door? It is God who says, "Love not the world, neither the things that
are in the world..." It is Jehovah who says,
"...Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of
darkness..."
In the case of
the Jews in Shushan the situation was different. God didn’t order their arrest and furnace fling. No, but it was a
result of their obedience to God’s Second Command, "Thou shalt not bow to false gods." They obeyed God and
separation from the ungodly came automatically. Noah choose to separate; Lot was forced to depart; and the three in
Shushan found it came automatically, but all these lived the life of pleasing to God, no matter how
temporarily.
The
responsibility for the results of Bible separation lies on God’s shoulders, just as does the authority.
What Was The Separating
Substance?
Silly question?
Not at all! In each case, God’s servants were separated from the unbeliever by a door – a very real, substantial,
heavy barrier, telling us that separation is as real and tangible as a two inch mahogany door with a dead-bolt and
chain.
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