Denominational Protocols over God?

by F. L. Anderson

Recently I came across a very interesting passage of scripture. In the book of Philippians 1:9, 10, Paul says the following:

"I pray that your love will overflow more and more, and that you will keep on growing in knowledge and understanding. 10 For I want you to understand what really matters, so that you may live pure and blameless lives until the day of Christ’s return."

This scripture brought to mind an incident between Peter and the other Apostles in Acts 11. As I think about it, I may have discovered the origin of man-made "Church" protocols that become obstacles to the work of God. Let me put it in plain English, denomination protocols that support man-made biases and traditions that don’t “REALLY MATTER”.

Since when does denomination protocols or rules supersede Gods word? Never! Yet many churches, denominations, as well as "Church leadership" put their ideas, rules, concepts and programs above God. Of course, there are some who may not be aware that they're doing this.

Believers are conditioned to do a lot of things that simply don’t matter. Certain things that the Church is fond of doing, becomes habit-forming and old habits dressed up as spiritual manifestations are hard to break. With frames of references based on old assumptions, acquired from the teachings of leaders who came before, rarely will believers truly research the topics or issues in which they speak about or have been taught. This causes a lot of flawed information to be dispensed to non-believers and congregations.

In Acts chapter 10, (Please read it) the Lord Jesus gives Peter a dream, and among other things, He tells Peter, "Do not call something unclean if God has made it clean." This was in reference to what God would have him to do after the dream with Cornelius and his family. To make a long story short, Peter does what God tells him to do. He ignores man or denominational protocols and enters the house of a Gentile. He speaks to them, and the bible says that, "As Peter was saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who were listening." Just think, if Peter would have followed denominational rules and man made protocols, both of which did not line up with Gods word, not only would he have sinned against God, but he would have delayed the gift the Lord had for Cornelius and his family.

The bible tells us in Acts 11, that "The news of what happened reached the apostles and other believers in Judea that the Gentiles had received the word of God." After hearing this great news, you would think that the Church leaders would have been excited that somebody had receive the Holy Spirit and was baptized in Jesus Name. Right? Not so. You see, Peter didn't follow "church protocol". In many denominational circles, it doesn't matter that the Lord and the Angels rejoice when one soul is saved. No, to many of them, that doesn't matter. That soul doesn't count because it was done outside denominational guidelines or because Bishop Green Bean wasn't there to oversee it or bless it.

I wish there was a way to say the words Shut Up! with love.

The bible says that, "When Peter arrived back in Jerusalem, the Jewish believers, (the original apostles) criticized him." In other words, Bishop and Pastor So-and-So, the deacon board and sister Cabbage Patch judged him harshly, and found fault with Peter because he didn't follow Church tradition. Rather, Peters focus was on souls, WHAT REALLY MATTERS.

Notice as you read on, Peter had to defend himself by explaining what all happened. Thank God that His word backed up Peters actions, because some of us are not always clothed in our right minds when we choose man-made protocols and traditions over God's word.

Black Conservative History

Having eyes, see ye not?  and having ears, hear ye not?  and do ye not remember? (Mark 8:18)

• Most of the black community is completely unaware that from its founding in 1854, as the anti-slavery party, the Republican Party has always been at the “forefront of the struggle for civil rights, which is why Dr. King was himself a Republican.” It was Republicans who fought slavery and amended the Constitution to grant blacks freedom, citizenship, and the right to vote.
   
• On November 6, 1956 African-American civil rights leaders Martin Luther King and Ralph Abernathy voted for Republican Dwight Eisenhower for President.
   
• It was the Republican majority in Congress who pushed through much of the ground-breaking civil rights legislation from the 1860s through the 1960s, empowering blacks to help them out of poverty, more than the Democrats. On the other hand, it was a Democratic public safety commissioner, Eugene “Bull” Connor, in Birmingham, who unleashed vicious dogs and turned fire hoses on black civil rights demonstrators. And Democrat Georgia Gov. Lester Maddox “brandished an ax handle to prevent blacks from patronizing his restaurant. And Democrat Gov. George Wallace stood in front of the Alabama school house in 1963, declaring there would be segregation forever.

In 1954, Democrat Arkansas Gov. Faubus tried to prevent desegregation of Little Rock public schools … but Republican President Dwight Eisenhower sent troops into the South to desegregate the schools, and appointed Chief Justice Earl Warren to the Supreme Court, which resulted in the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision.
 

1970, 62% of black women were married compared to 33% today. In 1970, 74% of black men were married, compared to 44% today.
 

In 1970, 5% of black mothers were never married compared to 41% today.
 

Black household income is still just 62% of white households. And the black poverty rate, at twice the national average, has hardly budged since the late 1960’s.
 

Blacks should be asking hard questions when, over this period of time, many immigrants from different backgrounds have come to this country with little and moved into the middle class in one generation.
 

It was Democrats, “fighting to keep blacks in slavery and away from the polls, who started the Ku Klux Klan to terrorize them. And they fought civil rights legislation for years!”
 

Liberal party pushes programs that keep her fellow blacks dependent on government handouts and temporary “fixes,” and encourages them to see themselves as victims.
 

In every election cycle, Democrat operatives fan out into the black communities and preach hatred against the Republican party, to get them to cast protest votes against perceived prejudice. And this activity has succeeded insidiously, convincing several generations of black Americans that the Democratic Party is their only hope. The party strategists’ fear is that “once blacks become prosperous, the Democrats will lose their power base.”