SILENCE AND AUTHORITY

Believers in the Bible must decide:  (1) Does God permit everything which  He has not specifically condemned,  or (2) is all that He has not specifically  authorized forbidden?

Silence limited in the Old Testament:  (1) Moses was commanded to kill a red  heifer; silence excluded ant or horse  (Num. 19:2). (2) Noah was commanded  to use gopher wood; silence excluded  oak or pine (Gen 6:14). (3) Nadab and  Abihu were commanded to get altar  fire; silence excluded any other fire  (Lev 10:1-2; 16:12). They got other fire  and God killed them.

Martin Luther and Ulrich Zwingli  (cir 1500) struggled with this question.  Zwingli said that practices “not taught  in the New Testament should be  unconditionally rejected.” In the American  movement to restore New Testament  Christianity, the same question arose.  (1) When the Bible authorized immersion  of adults as the act of baptism, siience  excluded sprinkling or pouring of  babies. (2) When it commanded singing  in worship, silence excluded playing  mechanical instruments. (3) When it  commanded bread and fruit of the vine  in communion, silence excluded water  and ham.

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