Don't Give Me That Old Time Religion

Give me that old time religion
That old time religion
It was good enough for Cain
And it's good enough for me

Bob Goulding and Ray Elliot--"Bob and Ray" of earlier fame--did a skit about collectors. One fellow collected antique meat. He had albums of really old meat. The oldest was a pork chop found in a log cabin over two hundred years ago.

The idea of "older is better" can sometimes be true. Many very old varieties of roses are unmatched by today's offerings. But I believe the opposite is true concerning religion.

A very prominent preacher (he was once my associate pastor) brags that he has a Latin Vulgate in his pulpit. This man feels the King James, or Authorized Version is too modern. His theology stops with Calvin. I am a "Calvinist" of five point supralapsarian persuasion and, in that regard, can feel at home in such churches as he represents.

But what he and his church do to prophesy shouldn't happen to a dog. PETA and the SPCA would complain. As a mark of their often antiquarian system of theology, they do not like prophecy. Their churches do not teach it or debate it.

This is not just something I have read about. It is something I have lived. I once was assigned to regularly meet with a charming but superficial pastor who said, "I was told not to teach prophesy. It divides people." He was TOLD!

John, who wrote Revelation, says of this book, that those who read it and those who hear it are blessed. So who were those who advised this naive man to the contrary? They are known as the "Kingdom Builders", who teach that we are presently building an earthly kingdom.

Revelation teaches that this present world ends in destruction. So if you want to invest in the world, you must avoid Revelation. Simple as that.

But back to old religion. I know very little about Sumer and Akkad. But if I desire to study the horrible, pagan religions of the later ancient nations, Like Babylon and Egypt I can do so without leaving the church. It is marinated in "Old time religion. Easter is a perfect example.

I could happily live with those of the old religions, if they would keep it out of the church. Drink all the beer you want, but please don't toss the cans in my yard.