The Importance of Jots and Tittles

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Wednesday, April 11, 2018

For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.  

Matthew 5:18^(KJV)

In our vernacular to jot something down is to make a quick little note of something you don’t want to forget.  In that same sense the language of Scripture contains jots and tittles, among the smallest of notations.  Jesus was adding commentary to his “Sermon on the Mount” cementing the importance of the entirety of God’s Word.  In short, you cannot pick and choose what you care to obey, or attempt to change what Scripture declares.  In the final verses of Holy Writ John makes that point with stark clarity:

And I solemnly declare to everyone who hears the words of prophecy written in this book:  If anyone adds anything to what is written here, God will add to that person the plagues described in this book.  And if anyone removes any of the words from this book of prophecy, God will remove that person’s share in the tree of life and in the holy city that are described in this book.  

Revelation 22:18-19^(NLT)

The jots and tittles are important in any communication.  Consider just how important the little comma is in English.  In the hymn Jesus Loves Me[2] note how the placement of the lowly comma in the verse about loving Jesus at the point of death can reposition your theological stance from Calvinism (once saved, always saved) to Arminianism:

Calvin:  If I love him, when I die He will take me home on high.

Arminius:  If I love him when I die, He will take me home on high.

It may be straining at a gnat here, but changing the position of the comma makes a difference in how you think about the way God treats us.  Calvin would separate the fact of loving Christ into a momentary change of heart with a life and eternity result all settled (once saved, always in that condition).  Arminius would add perseverance to that, moving the comma further down the line to include loving Jesus when I die.  Calvin just wants to know IF you love Jesus…Arminius thinks it’s important to know if you’ve kept loving Jesus all the way home.

Again…straining out a gnat while swallowing a camel?  Is it THAT important?  Well, it has been; the verse quoted here appears in the Baptist Hymnal version (Calvinist theology), while it is ommitted in the Methodist Hymnal (Arminianism).  That one concept about walking away from the salvation of God has caused quite a stir over the years.

But there is still plenty of common ground Calvinist and Arminian bent thinkers share, despite the difference stated; we both agree it is loving Jesus that is the correct response to God’s love in Christ towards us.  Neither Arminianists nor Calvinists want to change Scripture, or omit what God has said.

There is another contemporary controversy heralding a new split that may be far more pervasive and damaging to the church than moving the jot or tittle a little farther down the sentence…the legitimizing of homosexuality, bisexuality, trans-sexualism, et al.  The Biblical fact – no matter how some may try to deflect or distort the meaning of what God said – is clear; other than heterosexual relations within the bonds of marriage, the rest is perversion.  What do you do with a clear prohibitive like Leviticus?

Do not practice homosexuality, having sex with another man as with a woman.  It is a detestable sin.  Leviticus 18:22^(NLT)

There is too little space in this devotional slot to effect a comprehensive look at how doctrinally and Scripturally far off course we are taken with normalizing sexual sin.  So let me just put my cards on the table, so to speak; the writer of Leviticus (Moses) did not stumble or stutter when he wrote…or more accurately…when he wrote down what God said.  The whole point would be that if Moses was wrong about sexual activity between persons of the same gender being wrong, and detestable to God, he was then also not to be trusted with those other ten words he said were from God!

For You Today

Some will call this hate speech; I prefer it be known as speaking the truth…in love.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

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[1] Title Image:  Courtesy of Pixabay.com

[2] Jesus Loves Me, Bradbury/Warner 1860/62, The Baptist Hymnal (Nashville, Convention Press, 1991), p.344

Fiddling While Nashville Burns

Thursday, September 18, 2014

“Fiddling while Rome burns” is widely applied as a caricature of faulty leadership that just doesn’t get it.  Nero “fiddled” while he watched Rome burn; a fire he deliberately set – then blamed on the Christians.  I think we Methodists are playing with matches.

(For those of you reading this who are not Methodist, please forgive me for tending to our soiled wash load on your time.  This is our current dilemma, but it is a good example of how to destroy a denomination.)

Having attended yet another meeting this week on the dilemma our denomination faces concerning the constant tug-of-war over LGBTQ issues, I came away (again) frustrated that we are arranging the parlor’s pictures on a ship that is going down.

It’s not that the issue over “full-inclusion” for LGBTQ persons is without weight; it is! However, it is a much greater issue that our incredibly shrinking denomination has a consecutive losing streak that dates back to the presidency of Richard Nixon.

In 1968 the Evangelical United Brethren and Methodist churches merged to form the group known as The United Methodist Church with about 11 million members.  Since then membership has dwindled in the U.S. to about 7 million…a loss of more than one-in-three.[1]  In that same time frame the U.S. population grew from 199 million to 319 million.[2]  The UMC went from 5.5% of Americans to 2.2%; not exactly something you’d want to write-home about.

If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting a different result, we Methodists are riding that horse into the ground!

And if the above statistics continue to be our yearly experience, in a few decades there will not be anyone left in the UMC to debate whether LGBTQ persons ought to wear the robes and serve communion.

Well – that’s one way to solve a problem.

So, let me get to the point before I don’t.

The problems we face are not church law breakers, LGBTQ insurgents or doctrinal weakness…our problem is we don’t care about evangelism enough to make it our focal priority.

We are good at arguing social principles and splitting the finest theological hairs around; we are terrible at winning souls and discipling them to be Great Commission believers.  We are fiddling while Nashville[3] is drowning in General Conference amendments to amendments of amended motions to certify what kinds of fiddles to use.

Now, I’m not so naïve as to think we can “opt-out” of social responsibility in favor of becoming a denomination of soul-winning, scalp-counters.  But, geez….give it a rest, guys; a whole generation of “millennials”, “X’s” and whatever else you call groups these days, have faces, names and souls.  They deserve more than an educated-derelict standing before them, holding-forth on social trends and pre-packaged Bible studies.

They may not know it (mainly because we haven’t identified it clearly and unashamedly lately), but the thing their hearts are really crying out is:  Sir….we would see Jesus. 

I dearly pray we can get back to announcing that.

For You, Today…

If you’re a clergy person reading this, I’m sorry…..well, no I’m not really sorry; I’m really hopeful we will get back to preaching and leaving social engineering to elitist politicians.

If you’re a believer, I hope you’ll follow Jesus and bring a whole bunch of your friends.

He’s worth it, even when others, supposedly leaders, are fiddling in the fire.

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[1] The Association of Religion Data - Archives

[2] http://www.measureofamerica.org/

[3] Home of the UMC General Board