Roman Customs

March 21, 2009

Today's Reading: Deuteronomy 7-8 and Romans 3

I believe that I have stated before that there are parts of the Bible that are way too boring. Sometimes it is as tedious as watching paint dry.

Parts in the Old Testament after Exodus are somewhat repetitive and I’m not certain how needed that they are. I am now headed to the section of the New Testament where it gets pretty tedious.

Yeah, the gospels are great because it is about Jesus, pure and simple, and Acts is sort of the sequel to it. In fact, it even takes the story the next level as the action of Christianity begins.

However, it then becomes a series of letters. It becomes rather tedious from there. It is way to easy to blur it all as you are reading.

Since we just started Romans, it would be good to read it aloud to keep your attention. Romans is one of those book that really summarizes the gospel message, but not in a way that most understand it.

Most people have a very overly-simplified version of the gospel, which usually involves saying some sort of special prayer so that you can be “saved”. This model is shunned in Romans, and it gives something a little more complex.

I’m sure that it probably came as a shock to many of the Jews at the time that simply being a Jew did not qualify you for this new program. In fact, the Jews and Gentiles now had some common ground, that they were both sinners.

I believe it was verses about righteousness by faith which caused Martin Luther to completely rethink what was going on. I mean, people actually thought that by donating money to the church, you could free your loved ones from Purgatory. I honestly don’t know how such a sick system got implemented. I’m certain that it was probably never meant to be that way. It’s funny how little customs become laws over time, and before you know it, everyone is joining the dance. Oftentimes, it is difficult to listen to the one who adds some new steps.

I imagine that was the turmoil of change that was going on in Paul’s time. People’s faith was being shaken up, and all the customs were being thrown out the window.

This is still happening today. There is so many customs that Christians are doing today that are completely whack. Some of them are based on actual Scripture, but if you really look at some of them, many are more of a custom than anything else.

For example, why does church meant on Sunday? Why do we sing songs at it, and listen to a Sermon. What in the Bible tells us to do a church service this way? What in the world makes us build buildings called churches? Is this for tax purposes?

No one wants to ask these questions, as they genuinely lead to a lot of revolution, which you will either love or hate. However, maybe that is what needs to happen.