Behold The pattern, Rubel Shelly

Each person or church uses the Biblical "dress pattern" and alters it TO FIT and LOOK ATTRACTIVE: Rubel Shelly. This is an attempt to pass judgment upon and ridicule churches of Christ who believe, with most historical movements, that Revealed Scripture is the basis of faith and practice. While we see "pattern" as something which makes the whole congregation spiritually and emotionally ill, it is probably true that these patterns have long ago abandoned the Bible as model for teaching text and song. From Lovelines.

1.04.11 When people speak out of their own imagination instead of the Word as Spirit by Christ in the Prophets and Apostles, Christ calls it blasphemy.  Of Hezekiah's Plague stopping exorcism used to say that "God commanded instrumental praise and we must not be disobedient" Christ calls them BLASPHEMERS.

See Christ defining Blasphemy of The Holy Spirit

For I spake NOT unto your fathers, nor  commanded them
        in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt,
         concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices: Jeremiah 7:22
But this thing commanded I them, saying,
         Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people: (CENI)
         and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, (CENI)
         that it may be well unto you. Jeremiah 7:23

Jer 23:17 They say still unto them that despise me,
        The Lord hath said, Ye shall have peace;
        and they say unto every one that walketh
        after the imagination of his own heart,
        No evil shall come upon you.  "You can SOW discord and steal from the owners"

    Despise tthe Word of God of God and using your own words is:

Blasphēm-eō , pf.

A. “beblasphēmēka” D.18.10:—speak profanely of sacred things, “eis theous” Pl.R.381e; offer rash prayers, Id.Alc.2.149c; b. kata tinosutter imprecations against, Aeschin.1.180.

2. speak ill or to the prejudice of one, slander, “peri tēs emēs diatribēs” Isoc.15.2, cf. D.l.c., ib.82; “b. kata tinos” Isoc.12.65, cf. Arist.Fr.44; “hosa eis hēmas eblasphēmēsan” D.51.3; “b. tina” Babr.71.6, Ev.Luc.23.39, etc.: abs., Phld.Lib.p.8 O.:—Pass., to have evil spoken of one, “beblasphēmēmenous” Id.Vit.p.12 J., cf. 1 Ep.Cor.10.30.

3. speak impiously or irreverently of God, blaspheme, “eis ton Kurion” LXX Da.3.29(96); “eis to pneuma to hagion” Ev.Marc.3.29; eis ta theia Vett. Val.58.12; “tous theous” Id.67.20: abs., LXX 2 Ma.10.34, al., Ev.Matt.9.3.

I hate to break the noose but the ONLY recorded history makes religious music ONLY fit a female garment or a naked male.

Patternism in Churches of Christ: A Template for Sin Royce Ogle
Jay Guin etal at ONEINJESUS.
A Spirit for the Rest of Us: Tim Woodruff 

See Rubel Shelly and John York use Deborah for the authority for deaconesses and stand up, preside over, non-sedentary women musical performers.

It is easy to see patterns: my wife believes me strange because I can see a scotty dog in the dogwood covered with honeysuckle. If you are creative you can see Mary weeping blood when the sun reflects just right off a window. A Catholic heckler sent me the Shroud of Turin and right there on the left I found Mary riding a bike with a tower on her head (or candle). That proves that the Catholics see Mary as Semiramis or the Tower Bearing Mother of the Gods.

So, pattern makers can see great things. However, Gobel Music in Behold the Pattern takes note of God speaking in the Word defining some things as patterns because inspiration calls them patterns. Therefore, it is not spiritually safe to ridicule the idea that God has the right to define His will by commands, examples or inferences. Click to see an outline before you join the band taking away the keys to knowledge even from the God of the universe.

First, let's note that:

All churches give themselves authority to establish their own pattern by which they judge that another pattern is not correct.

However, "we" are minimalists and reject the idea that Christ established a pattern of "five acts" of worship when the Epistles list many dozens of "acts" of humans honoring God. However, that is not to say that certain things are not clearly "patterned" by commands. Dr. Rubel Shelly rejects the idea that "commands, examples and inferences" can be used for authority because the Bible has no "command, example or inference"' that "commands, examples and inferences" from God's Word can be used as a pattern.

Therefore, we have posted just a few of the clear Biblical statements of this "pattern" and that all of the non-Catholic reformers and denominational statements confirm that God does have the Biblical authority to command that we honor His commands.

However, some things come to us as "patterns" by having a "clear conscience" and able to co-understand the Spirit of God, the Mind of Christ.

The "pattern" for music is not a legalistic "law of silence." Nor is it an equal-but-opposite legalistic "law of permission."

The conservative sees the hole in the donut as prohibition against filling it in with raw dough: the legalist sees the hole as a "Divine oversight" giving us permission to fill it in. However, the "hole in the donut" makes it "cook" well and was not the baker's oversight.

Therefore, to denounce the idea that God has an expressed will of His own, has the goal of "judging" that all denominations are ok. We don't have the authority to do that and if we help form the "assembly" in our local area we will not have time to try to impose either our positive or negative patterns which have no Biblical authority.

This review is based upon the fact that the article is a "rat-a-tat-tat" effort to define churches of Christ as legalistic for believing that Christ ought to have some say in our worship as we reject the cut-n-paste of those who attempt to add Old Testament "fabric" or "wineskins" to the New Testament church. This, of course, includes instrumental music whose sole rationale was to make noise during animal sacrifices in a "like the nation's worship" permitted to lead Israel to their ultimate destruction. In the "Gospel of Thomas" which parallels the Gospel of Mark, he has Jesus saying:

Young wine is not poured into old wineskins,

or they might break,

and aged wine is not poured into a new wineskin,

or it might spoil

Click For an Index of Rubel Shelly Sermon Reviews.

The choice is between ignoring Christ's Words for song and sermon, and "teaching the Word as it has been delivered to you." A pox on both wings and applause for the quiet churches which meet the needs of its community without too much stress on old or new pattern.

Well, let's just face it honestly -- there are not many options:

We will follow the example approved by inspired Apostles who had witnessed the risen Lord and went forth with His Spirit to guide them to establish order "In all of the churches" or

We will follow the pattern designed by Willow Creek, Woodmont Hills, Jubilee 99,

To understand how he treats the "pattern" about the non-use of instruments you may want to read Rubel Shelly's repudiation. We will show in this review that the source of the pattern of "commands, examples and inferences" which is so easily dismissed is God Himself.

This was also covered at the Restoration Forum at Abilene Christian University (ACU), Dr. Shelly had already established a foundation hostile to the purely A Capella view by repudiating those who resist full fellowship with instrumental groups. The only way to arrive at some views you have to repudiate 2000 years of "patterns."

This has been expanded to part two which discusses Romans 14 which gives many permission to use instruments.

And we have specificially looked at Romans 14 as discussing the Orphic vegetarians and Dionysus raw meat eaters in Rome. Both of these groups used charismatic instrumental music. However, Romans 15 has Paul demanding that the Word of God be used for teaching or singing. Romans 15 parallels to Rome Paul's absolute command to the Collosians that we speak the Words of Christ and Ephesians 5 which defines the resource as "Spirit" which Jesus defined as His word (John 6:63)

Dr. Shelly sets up the straw man that churches of Christ demand that we restore the "congregational organization and worship" according to the first century churches such as Jerusalem or Corinth. This is clearly not the fact.

Churches of Christ attempt to follow the New Testament rather than any specific church which Paul often uses as an example of what not to do. However, Paul explicitly outlawed instrumental effort when he fined teaching the Word to the Romans, Ephesians and Colossians.

Before we look at the denial that the Bible is a pattern or example "worthy to be copied" for modern church worship, we should look at Webster's definition of pattern and paradigm.

Pattern: "Anything proposed for imitation; an archetype; an exemplar; that which is to be, or is worthy to be, copied or imitated; as, a pattern of a machine.

Stuff sufficient for a garment; as, a dress pattern. Something made after a model; a copy. --Shak. The pattern of things in the heavens. --Heb. ix. 23. Anything cut or formed to serve as a guide to cutting or forming objects; as, a dressmaker's pattern.

Paradigm: "to show by the side of, to set up as an example (exemplar); beside + to show. See {Para-}, and {Diction}.] 1. An example; a model; a pattern. [R.] ``The paradigms and pattern of all things.'' --Cudworth.

"Rhetorical: An illustration, as by a parable or fable."

While a paradigm is a pattern and a pattern is a paradigm, Webster may leave some room to cut-and-paste our own pattern by seeing the ten commandments as ten suggestions or Paul's description of the church in various settings as purely an illustration which we may alter to fit our own whims ike a dress pattern.

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In Lovelines, Rubel Shelly takes pattern makers to task because they do bit fit his paradigm making. The judgmentalism is particularly directed at those who publish competing books such as Behold the pattern. Rubel is in red, comments are in black or blue.

The best example to explain the new theology has people seeing the New Testament, inspired by the Spirit Christ, like a dress pattern: you can tailor it, pick the fabric and modify the pattern to fit your particular style or body type. Don't you wonder why God Incarnate went to all of that trouble?

Behold the pattern! July 14, 1999. Rubel begins:

Rubel Shelly: I was walking by a table and saw a stack of dress pattern. Probably stirred by a conversation the day before with my friend Paul, I said aloud, "Behold the pattern!"

Inside each envelope was a tissue-paper-thin outline. There were solid lines and dotted lines. There were numbers and letters. There were other markings I don't know how to interpret.

On the front of the pattern envelope were four drawings of its infinite possibilities. Depending on the placement of a hemline or the shape of a neckline, a novice like me would never know two dresses were made from the very same pattern. Long sleeves, short sleeves, or no sleeves? Solid color or printed fabric? The looks are incredibly diverse. And we haven't even begun to consider personal accessories!

Enough about sewing. I've never done it and probably never will.

It is a fact that all priesthoods have demanded males but performing the roles of women: singing, clapping, swaying and playing instruments was the result of musical idolatry at Mount Sinai. The "stola" or garments of the priests were derived from feminine garments either the nobility or by prostitutes.  The Church of Christ is patriarchal and it does not wear clergy garments.

Everyone sowing discord claims that instruments aree just AIDS so we worry about people who want to accessorize their religious performance always the mark of the effete

Isaiah III. For, behold, the Lord, Yahweh of Hosts, takes away from Jerusalem and from Judah supply and support, The whole supply of bread, And the whole supply of water; [2]  The mighty man, The man of war, The judge, The prophet, The diviner, The elder, [3]  The captain of fifty, The honorable man, The counselor, The skilled craftsman, And the clever enchanter. [4]  I will give boys to be their princes, And children shall rule over them

5953.  ALAL, aw-lal´to effect thoroughly; specifically, to glean (also figuratively); by implication (in a bad sense) to overdo, i.e. maltreat, be saucy to, pain, impose (also literal): abuse, affect, x child, defile, do, glean, mock, practise, thoroughly, work (wonderfully).

5954 THRUSTING youself, 5955 Grape Gleaning.
chALAL wound, profane, play flute, take inheritance, gather the grapes, playe on an instruments, pollute PROSTITUTE.

Women oppressors  

Nagas (h5065) naw-gas'; a prim. root; to drive (an animal, a workman, a debtor, an army); by impl. to tax, harass, tyrannize: - distress, driver, exact (-or), oppress (-or), * raiser of taxes, taskmaster.

Nagash (h5066) naw-gash'; a prim. root; to be or come (causat. bring) near (for any purpose); euphem. to lie with a woman; as an enemy,

Nagan (h5059) naw-gan'; a prim. root; prop. to thrum, i. e. beat a tune with the fingers; espec. to play on a stringed instrument; hence (gen.) to make music: - player on instruments, sing to the stringed instruments, melody, ministrel, play (-er, -ing.. 

Propheta and prŏphētes , ae, m., = prophêtês, I. a foreteller, soothsayer, prophet  [Miriam, Levites] sacerdotes Aegyptiorum, quos prophetas vocant,” Macr. S. 7, 13, 9: “Aegyptius, propheta primarius,
Hariolus   I. a soothsayer, prophet, prophetess  Chresmodotes one who gives oracles, p;ophet, soothsayer

Eloquium poets, and their imitators among prose writers, for eloquentia, eloquence,  Hor. A. P. 217,  uses with Ignis.

Boys: Effemino II.Trop., to make womanish, effeminate, to enervate, A.Womanish, effeminate,
            Histrio, stage-player, actor, mimus, boaster, used with
            Scaena, 1. Of a place like a scene of a theatre, school of rhetoric, display of eloquence.
B. In mal. part., that submits to unnatural lust: pathicus, Cinaedos: a sodomite, catamite, one who dances publicly

Matt. 11:8 But what went ye out for to see? A man clothed in soft raiment? behold, they that wear soft [Catamites] clothing are in kings’ houses.
Matt. 11:16 But whereunto shall I liken this generation? It is like unto children sitting in the markets, and calling unto their fellows,
Matt. 11:17 And saying, We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned unto you, and ye have not lamented.

The Lord will enter into judgment with the ancients of his people, and the princes thereof:
        for ye have eaten up the vineyard; the spoil of the poor is in your houses. Isa 3:14
What mean ye that ye beat my people to pieces,
        and grind the faces of the poor? saith the Lord God of hosts. Isa 3:15
Moreover the Lord saith, Because the daughters of Zion are haughty,
        and walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes,
        walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet: Isa 3:16
Therefore the Lord will smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion,
        and the Lord will discover their secret parts. Isa 3:17
In that day the Lord will take away the bravery of their tinkling ornaments about their feet,
        and their cauls, and their round tires like the moon, Isa 3:18
The chains, and the bracelets, and the mufflers, Isa 3:19
The bonnets, and the ornaments of the legs, and the headbands, and the tablets, and the earrings, Isa 3:20
The rings, and nose jewels, Isa 3:21
The changeable suits of apparel, and the mantles, and the wimples, and the crisping pins, Isa 3:22
The glasses, and the fine linen, and the hoods, and the vails. Isa 3:23  

And it shall come to pass, that instead of sweet smell there shall be stink; and instead of a girdle a rent; 
        and instead of well set hair baldness; and instead of a stomacher a girding of sackcloth; 
        and burning instead of beauty. Isa 3:24 

Luther who invented Sola Fide but repudiated "faith only" wrote and confirmed that if God does not tell us what to do we are left with our own imagination and God says that is "evil continually." Paul outlaws doubtful disputations in Romans 14 which includes any songs or sermons or "diversities" which originate in our own mind. That permits ekklesia or synagogue where we just have to speak "that which is written" without self-pleasure which points to the perverse-musical connection in the pagan diversities."

12. Now, we know ourselves to be of the same clay whereof they are made; indeed, we perhaps have the greater call from God: yet we cannot boast of being capable of ourselves to advise or aid men.

We cannot even originate an idea calculated to give help.  And when it comes to the knowledge of how one may stand before God and attain to eternal life, that is truly not to be achieved by our work or power, nor to originate in our brain.

In other things, those pertaining to this temporal life, you may glory in what You know, you may advance the teachings of reason, you may invent ideas of your own; for example: how to make shoes or clothes, how to govern a household, how to manage a herd. In such things exercise your mind to the best of your ability.

Cloth or leather of this sort will permit itself to be stretched and cut according to the good pleasure of the tailor or shoemaker. But in spiritual matters, human reasoning certainly is not in order; other intelligence, other skill and power, are requisite here--something to be granted by God himself and revealed through his Word.

What the writer doesn't know is that patterns are made for beginners. In time, you will know more than the pattern Designer and only then will you dare alter it to fit or begin to improvise. Some of the ladies in my family can whip out a patter for an aunt 600 miles away and make a perfect fit, choice of fabrics, colors and all of that stuff.

However, it is part of the pattern that you can pick and choose your fabric, color and pattern.

The pattern-designer gave you that liberty.
But about using the "pattern for Disabling an Atomic Warhead" and improvizing!

Rubel Shelly and the antis like to claim that "those what pays him" are pretty ignorant and lust to restore a church JUST LIKE IN CORINTH. Why not? Rubel has given this as PATTERNISM for "unity in diversity." However, that sets up a false premise to be disproven. ALL of church history accepts the idea that the Bible is all that we know about the Will of God for determininging our faith and practices. ALL of church theologians and founders of denominations PRACTICE the fact that the Bible must be the authority or one simply cannot be a Christian or follower of Christ. Men like John Campbell understood that what is defined in the Bible is the ideal and that we should RESTORE the church to that PATTERN--or if you are a "scholar" a PARADIGM.

John Calvin grasped that only FANATICS think that they can get direct messages from God to CORRECT what Rubel Shelly says the Bible DIDN'T HAVE ROOM to include--but, now we are hearing those LEFT BEHIND words.

John Calvin understood that Faith Only was virtually insane. Martin Luther defined FAITH ONLY as faith in the BIBLE ONLY because that is what we HAVE. Because the Bible commands baptism, then faith only means BAPTISM ONLY if you don't want to call Jesus a liar.

All of the scholars grasped that DIRECT COMMANDS and to a lesser degree, examples and inferences ARE authority.

None of them preached a halucinated PATTERNISM but they all understood that SOME THINGS like instrumental music to worship a Spirit God was the practice of paganism

Thomas Campbell did not preach a PATTERNISM which included seeing the church as anything more than A SCHOOL OF CHRIST and worship as reading and dialoging the Scriptures.  That patternism is defined by Christ for the church in the wilderness which outlaws "vocal or instrumental rejoicing."  Why would any simple simon want too make noise when the godly congregation assembles only for instruction from God through LOYAL elders.

The Restoration Movement saw RESTORATIONISM as FREEING people from any kind of PATTERNISM which would load down people 'with anxiety by incurring extra expenses.' His was a Declaration of Freedom which was a dangerous thing even as it was to declare Political Freedom.

The paradigm or fable or "suggestion" authority example won't work unless the Biblical message revealed by the Spirit of Christ specifically allows alterations to fit by such terms as: "This is my judgment for you at this time." However, Paul does not couch his writings in terms of suggestions but in terms that Jesus bled and died to reveal His Word to inspired Apostles who, in turn, sacrificed their own lives to preach the word as it had been delivered to them. Peter wrote so that we "would have a memory" of this inspired, once-for-all revealed Mind of Christ--the Spirit.

Consistent with the Blackaby, Southern Baptist model: you too can get your assignement to be the Christ or Moses or Elijah for your time and place. This causes some people to have hands laid on and become The Thirteenth Apostle or a Christ for today. This Behold the Paradigm cannot replace what Jesus taught.

We suggest that whether right wing or left wing the divisive problem arises in seeing "church" bound up in some kind of pattern of acts which, when performed, earns merit from God. Most people don't do that.

A better "pattern" would be to see "church" as edification, learning or dramatizing certain events:

1. Baptism is one of the few "dramas" which is defined. By imitating the death, burial and resurrection of Christ, the believer is saved "because they have accepted the will of Christ for their lives," and the watching world sees the initiate "naming" the name or taking on the name of Jesus Christ as their savior: there is no formula!

2. The Lord's Supper is not a "act of worship" which earns or merits God's approval because we have performed the actions. Rather, the Lord's Supper "shows forth" the death of Christ which means that it "preaches" or illustrates or dramatizes this death on a weekly basis. The action is directed to the teacable people present. We don't do it on the Sabbath because we would remember Christ still in the tomb. Furthermore, we would miss the point that the new creation began on the first day of the week.

3. Paul never defined "singing as a legal act of worship." Rather, the external action is speaking and admonishing one another with pure revealed Biblical truth which is Spirit or the Words of Christ. This, again, in an external sense, is not "worship" in the celebrative sense but edification or education consistent with the Synagogue which had no praise service.

Only in the internal sense is the: "Singing and internal melody directed to God." If the "songs" are not the "Words of Christ" then the action is a legalistic means to prompt "worship" in the audience with sentimental poetry. Click to see how the new Praise Leaders imitate an ancient, Babylonian superstition.

This dishonors Christ by repudiating His Words and it leaves the church ignorant by vain songs or heretical songs.

No first century church would believe that it was an act of worship for "four different groups, singing four different sets of words, at four different times, to four different tunes sung ala-hootenany" as an act of worship. Paul would call it "speaking in tongues" or "madness" because someone hallucinates that it makes God happy or educates the congregation. Philo called it "enthusiasm" which was "Enthus-o-mania" and not God filled but ecstasy from the "gods."

4. Paul wrote Second Corinthians to make it clear that there is no "legalistic law of giving." The "laying by HIM in store is not a legal act of worship." To demand it violates the voluntary principle of Christianity and probably deprives the church of money. Something cannot be a law and voluntary at the same time. However, Dr. Shelly defends outdoing the tithe.

5. Preaching is not a legal act of worship because it is not authorized in the extablished church and because it almost never honors the Word as it has been written. Preaching is a church-forming job.

In John Calvin's Restoration Movement he said the same thing.

6. Jesus said something about entering the closet to pray, and while others' prayers should be "amenable," there is no hint that the church met for regular rote prayers.

All divisive innovations circle little wagons and bigger wagons around the "five acts" which could be legitimate but miss the mark because of the BIG ^I and the little _christ

Rubel Shelly again:

Rubel Shelly: I am a theologian and struggle with the "pattern" concept as ^we have understood it in the Church of _Christ.

The Fiction: Dr. Shelly is short on history. All religious groups follow a pattern of authority or they would not exist. The view is not, as charged about our view of music: "The product of an ignorant, southern, rednecked mentality" even as Shelly, in The Second Incarnation uses the words "decadent and deliterious" to define his "brethren and sistern."

The Fact: The Reformed Presbyterians understood the Regulative Principle which churches of Christ simply continued as "speaking where the Bible Speaks and being silent where the Bible is silent." It ia a time-honored Biblical principle followed until secular education gave people superiority over the pattern-_Maker with power to, like Israel in Amos 5-8, "invent like David and improvise."

The result was that the preachers of Israel spoke of dresses (filled with drunken worshipers) and new wineskins while the people starved to death for lack of the Word of God. Furthermore, the Presbyterians regarded instrumental music in worship as heresy long before churches of Christ restored the name. This, too, was the general understanding of most religious groups until the liberal scholars began slithering in out of the cold of the mission field in the early 1800s with their outrageous seeker services.

Some Presbyterian for the Regulative Principle:

See the Regulative Principle applied to ballet and drama and other forms of worship.

See George Girardeau's Views on Instrument Music

Musical Worship Wrong R. L. Dabney Presbyterian To see the Music, Seeker and speaking in tongues connection.

Rubel Shelly continues to pass judgment upon churches of Christ by reading their minds:

Rubel Shelly: There is no doubt that we [churches of Christ] have meant to create uniformity with the concept-- lifestyle, worship, ministry, etc.

How unfortunate.
How frustrating.
How ungodly.

Rubel Shelly is just absolutely frustrated that he cannot effeminize the total church of Christ and make the new "dress pattern" of Biblical authority fit the female form. And, too, the inability to get "ungodly" churches of Christ to ignore the total pre-Biblical association of music with emasculated and perverse worship where the "team" was always "the harem of the gods."

And they just won't ignore the fact that Lucifer was the musician in the garden of Eden, as the king/queen harp playing prostitute personified by Tyre, as the king/queen of Babylon whose harps and harpists would go with him/her into sheol to rest on a bed of maggots, the absolute Old Testament connection between music and telling God: "We are post-modern, we just accept the core and reject the doctrines YOU presume to teach."

They will not ignore the fact that Jesus was attempted to be fatally triumphed over in the Judas or Satan filled model of music (Psalm 41), that history associates musical worship with the pagan prostitute (only queer men got involved), that all of the church founders repudiates Rubel Shelly, that the denomination founders repudiates him and that the very nature of IN SPIRIT WORSHIP repudiates him.

This then is the shrill scream from a sort of Cosmic Christmas urging us to REALLY BELIEVE that that God's turning Israel over "to worship the starry host" is TRULY a pattern for Christian worship and practice. Or that we should baptize the S.U.N. god (the starry host) as the S.O.N. God (Jesus) just as the ZOE of ancient Gnosticism is the female part of Lucifer: the "beast" and "female instructing principle."

Rubel Shelly: It is fairly typical out of ^my background to hear people speak of the New Testament church as a "pattern" for us. Not so! Jesus is our pattern, and the New Testament is our guide for understanding him. The church is in the business of trying to understand, imitate, and reproduce both his manner in and impact on the world.

Jesus knew that there would be JESUS ONLY heresies and said "the flesh counts for nothing: my WORDS are SPIRIT and they are LIFE." (John 6:63)

See Dennis Downing of Max Lucado's group and JUST JESUS.
See Rubel Shelly Just Jesus Plus Nothing.

Then, when you decide to be baptized as "the first act of worship" then why don't you just get ^your hide nailed to a cross and she ^your blood for the forgiveness of your sins? Jesus was the FACT of the matter but our participation is after a pattern.

No one ever suggested that the "churches" exampled in the New Testament are our pattern. Most of them are HOW NOT TO DO IT patterns. For instance, don't use "lifeless instruments" or sing your own songs or speak in charismatic ecstasy or don't let the professionals make a fool of you or don't let women get turned loose 'prophesying' because it will go charismatic or don't promote NEW WINESKINS because that is DEFACTO AUTHORITY to get drunk in the spirit.

The "pattern" is the Word of God which He inspired. He outlawed private interpretation which is "further expounding." That is an absolute pattern and therefore anyone who claims that God selected them as a FURTHER EXPOUNDER and you must pay me has been cut loose from reality and the Mind of Christ which is the Spirit of God.

Unless you have gone charismatic I just doubt that you are going to REPRODUCE Jesus in any sense. Jesus didn't say that we had to be even a tiny bit like an infinite Being but that "If you love me then you will keep my commandments."

Jesus set the pattern that a SON of God speaks only what the FATHER has told Him to speak.

We don't (most of us) hear the Father directly so as SONS we repeat only what Jesus has delivered to us as the PATTERN OF SOUND SPEECH where "My words are Spirit and Life."

If the church of Christ had intended to "create uniformity" of lifestyle, worship and ministry then it would have, like the Disciples, helped creat a denominational structure. It did not and we all know that it had no "machinery" like Jubilee and the Zoe Group to try to force uniformity upon all of the congregations.

As Rubel. Shelly uses the Exodus as a pattern for community and worship he notes that:

Using the Exodus as PATTERN for church organization and worship!

Rubel Shelly: The church of Christ view is: "grossly inaccurate and horribly self-serving view of thingsl.

Then "Another problem is that it is terribly judgmental and divisive to the body of Christ,

^allowing each group with this view of history to judge all other denominations."

If the view of churches of Christ is "grossly inaccurate and horribly self serving and terribly judgmental and divisive then Rubel Shelly has just identified all of the scholarship Ante-Shelly as inaccurate. How sad! We have noted that the Bible gives God the right to define patterns and that every scholar and denomination founder believed exactly what churches of Christ believe about "patterns of sound speech."

Rubel Shelly pretends that no one ever heard of Commands, examples and inferences before the world was swept into hell by his paymaster. Click to see that this is terminally ignorant or terminally ignorant.

In order to be Judgmental beyond limits (that Raca concept) Rubel Shelly pretends to believe that the silence of God has no meaning. Click again to see that you should not put people in charge who dare NOT let others hold their own views.

This defines a "broader fellowship" to make all other denominations the body of Christ. Is that judgmental or what?

Are we reaching too far to see implied violence?

Well, if the Vineyard view of the "now but not yet kingdom" prevails then ^WE will just NOT ALLOW _{EACH GROUP} to make any decisions.

The theme of the Catholic Jubilee expressed by one priest visited by Mary was that SHE was going to return at Jubilee 2000 and destroy all of the Satanics and Masons. Because when the Pope called for a Jubilee (for the atonement) Rubel Shelly and crowd jumped into bed in order to try to silence those who will not dance when the new agents pipe.

"My great victory against all the Masonic and Satanic forces will begin from here (the Basilica Shrine), for the greatest triumph of my Son Jesus. I confirm to you that by the Great Jubilee Year 2000, there will take place the Triumph of my Immaculate Heart, of which I foretold you at Fatima, and this will come to pass with the return of Jesus in glory, to establish His Reign in the world."

"May we walk in step with the Holy Father on Our Lady of Guadalupe's path toward the Great Jubilee Year 2000!

In the ancient documents, Eve or Mary or Sophia or Zoe was the feminist goddess who will come to dominate the "Patriarchal god."

But Paul said:

You became imitators of us and of the Lord; in spite of severe suffering, you welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit. 1Th.1:6

For you, brothers, became imitators of God's churches in Judea, which are in Christ Jesus: You suffered from your own countrymen the same things those churches suffered from the Jews, 1Th 2:14

You cannot imitate Christ as the pattern without imiatating His Word which defines His Spirit.

Where, oh Where, then, cometh celebrative musical worship when Jesus repudiated the Jewish clergy (loosing their payroll) as children playing musical games trying to get Him to do the effeminate singing and dancing of the Dionysus girl performers?

Jesus Yes! Church, No! Haven't we heard that before? Yet, it is always the cry of those who skin their knees prowling through the underbrush of ancient legalism for Jubilees, instrumental music, dancing, clapping; and into paganism for direct revelation from the gods through the exhilaration of musical worship -- even leading you into the presence of God! Like, WOW!

Jesus said that where two or three are gathered together in HIS NAME He will be in our midst. How many can you get in a prayer closet? Paul warned the Athenians that they didn't have to do the pagan rituals "to the unknown god" because the True God is not far from any of us. I just don't know whether that promise extends to several thousand or not: there is no evidence that true Christianity has ever been that popular (Pentecost was not a church with "roots" and Christ blew it out into all of the world.).

Didn't Paul say something about the church being the body of Christ or the temple in which He, as HEAD, lives to directs the church? Jesus (full Deity Col 2:9 and therefore the Holy Spirit) caused the Apostles to remember what He had personally taught and he promised to continue with them to fully reveal His mind. How can we know how to imitate Christ if we ridicule His pattern?

Dr. Shelly cannot permit or allow the use of the Bible because that would destroy his Behold The Gospel Core message. But a minimal Bible student knows that Paul's Core Gospel was preached over and over to people who were carnal and not yet able to eat the Doctrinal meat.

Therefore, Rubel Shelly's "Core Gospel" has him insulting his paymasters as "fools who love to be fooled."

THEREFORE we ought to give the more earnest heed (honor or worship) to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. Hebrews 2:1

No female garments (slips) and "performing the roles of women" by David and by all musical worshipers of the starry host.

For if the word spoken by angels was stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward; Hebrews 2:2

How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him; Hebrews 2:3

God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will (pattern)? Hebrews 2:4

Because Peter says that the WRITTEN EXAMPLE left by Jesus Christ through the prophets and apostles was supernaturally affirmed, NO human has the right to private interpret or "further expounde" the prophecies and the prophecies made more perfect by Jesus Christ. The command is to "give heed" to the prophets and apostles with the promise that the Day Star will arise in our heart.  Whey would a person presume to add chemicals to a known cancer cure just because of some inborn rejection of authority.

Which of the "five acts of legal worship" do you wish to dispense with? Which of them had no relevance past the first century? Isn't the problem the fact that we see the human-directed functions of the church as hanging on to the "I was glad when they said let's go to the house of the Lord to worship." Well, the congregation didn't go into the house to worship in the modern sense. They had no temple but a place out of the rain.

Peter understood that the "pattern" was not a "musical worship team" versus three erroneous or even heretical songs and a prayer. He understood that the church should be about the business of teaching the Word knowing that pattern-makers or pattern-cutters and modifiers are not to be on God's payroll. Paul said of the "many" who "saw godliness as a means of financial gain" (employment): "If they will not work neither shall they eat!"

And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount. 2 Peter 1:18

And we have the word of the prophets made more certain, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. 2 Peter 1:19

Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. 2 Peter 1:20

For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. 2 Peter 1:21

The old legalistic pattern was (is) to cut God's Dress pattern to fit a skinny country girl. This would be like reaching into the DNA pattern in the egg which will become my grandson and cutting and splicing the "pattern" in either literal or parable-like pieces.

The new legalistic paradigm is (was) to cut the pattern of God's DNA to make it fit a big fat city girl.

HOWEVER: Peter said something mystical and magical: Keep paying attention (this is a worship word) to the word of the prophets (through the Spirit of Christ 1 Pe 1:11) and suddenly, like the developing DNA in my daughter's womb, the day will dawn and the morning star will rise in our heart.

This can only happen if

1. We READ the word to "pay attention to God's Word."
2. We take the Lord's Supper to remember Christ and "preach" His death.
3. We sing God's Word (until the last century) to teach God's Word externally
   and Honor God in our heart internally.
4. We pray for ourselves primarily and never get caught doing it as a required "act."
5. We give because "the light shines" and not as a legal act.

Christ will be present as the same Spirit of Christ Who inspired the old "pattern-Book."

Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow. 1 Peter 1:11

False prophets will say "Lord, Lord" but the Lord will not own them because they nibble the pattern around the edge to make the wineskin skirt fit the fermenting wine rather than making the WATER we drink fit the pattern:

BUT there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. 2 Peter 2:1

We never say, "Let us go up to the house of God to worship" because God doesn't live in houses unless you trim the pattenr pretty harshly. But how about David?

David had violated God's will and was so fearful because he had brought destruction to the family and he could no longer go to the symbol of God's presence to enquire of Him. That is, he separated the Ark in which He believed that God was captured from the Tabernacle which was according to God's pattern. God permitted this because David was God's choice to govern a people demanding to live like the nations so that they could worship like the nations.

Scripture was given as SELF DEFENSE offensive and defensive armor to fight off exactly the new ANTI-PATS who want to perform female roles as if in DRAG if we believe all recorded history.

Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness, as he had appointed, speaking unto Moses, that he should make it according to the pattern that he had seen. Acts 7:44

Which also our fathers that came after brought in with Jesus into the possession of the Gentiles, whom God drave out before the face of our fathers, unto the days of David; Acts 7:45

A. Who found favour (grace - not approval) before God, and desired to find a tabernacle for the God of Jacob. Acts 7:46

B.  But Solomon built him an house. Acts 7:47

C.  Howbeit the most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands; as saith the prophet. Acts 7:48

Israel rejected the Tabernacle pattern, adopted a Phoenician temple adorned with columns or Asherah poles and brought pagan worship right into the temple in Jerusalem. Rejecting the "pattern" of the New Testament in favor of "just Jesus" is always the prelude to leaving God's pattern and adopting like the nations pattern to suck in the seekers to help pay for the new temple.

Behold the Alteration Tailor:

Rubel Shelly: God is not interested in uniformity, but unity.

In the "unity" of John 17 God does not even reveal Himself to the wise or SOPHISTS (speakers, singers, instrument players) or the WORLD which is th Pythogaras word KOMOS which was invented to define a life chained to the worship of the Starry Host and the music of the spheres. Jesus doesn't even PRAY for the world.

How can we know that? When Jesus prayed for unity it was based on several important facts. That they all be ONE does not mean UNITY.

First, Jesus as the Word or SON spoke only what He heard from the FATHER Who was within. Most trinitarians repudiate Rubel Shelly's THREE PEOPLE God head and see the Father as Thought, the Son as Word and the Spirit as that flow of information OUT into the visible world.

The meaning of SPIRIT WITHOUT MEASURE was that Jesus spoke the WORDS of God and not those of the body He Incarnated. The word measure could just as easily mean METER and we know that none of the commanded Text is metrical and cannot be sung.

This unity is the opposite of postmodern's desire for SCHIZOPHRENIA. It means that there is a CONNECT between the SPIRIT of a being and the MIND of the person. Paul insisted that we filter our words so that there is an agreement between our SPIRIT and our MIND.

Jesus gave the Apostles the WORDS of God. The only meaning of ONENESS was that they teach and teach the elders to "teach that which is written."

The STONEITES preached unity at about all costs: the churches of Christ preached unity based on the Word of God.

See that Romans 14 defines the DISUNITY between externals and the KINGDOM which is spiritual or based on the Word. Romans 15 defines the ekklesia or synagogue Jesus died to bring UNITY in the form of the synagogue. This EXCLUDES music, preaching or secular songs.

See Romans 15 to prove that you CANNOT have unity with MUSIC as worship.

See that Martin Luther used Romans 15 to repudiate instrumental music

When your dress looks radically different from my dress then one of us has followed the pattern and the other has followed the myth, fable or their own head believed to be superior to God Incarnate. Notice what Isaiah prophesied:

Now therefore, what have I here, saith the Lord, that my people is taken away for nought? 
        they that RULE OVER them make them to howl, saith the Lord;
        and my name continually every day is blasphemed. Isaiah 52:5

Therefore my people shall know my name: therefore they shall know in that day that I am he that doth speak: behold, it is I. Isaiah 52:6

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth Isaiah 52:7

Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing: for they shall see eye to eye, when the Lord shall bring again Zion. Isaiah 52:8

Break forth into joy, sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem: for the Lord hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem. Isaiah 52:9

The Lord hath made bare his holy arm (Messiah the only Intercessor) in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God. Isaiah 52:10

After a beautiful prophesy of Jesus, Isaiah shows that He suffered because:

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. Isaiah 53:6

Isaiah then identified the ultimate false, unscriptural, ungodly, un-Christ honoring "paradigm" which does not fit God's pattern:

If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: Isaiah 58:13

Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. Isaiah 58:14

To suggest that our human "time studies" or "change agent bring 'em to the brink and jerk 'em back" attempts to surf the waves or navigate the prevailing winds is a clear repudiation of the power of the First and Final Incarnation.

The common Second Incarnation themes among the denominationss see the church as an incarnation superior to that of Jesus and the Incarnators more powerful than Jesus.

Paul wrote:

Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. 1 Corinthians 1:10

But! But! But! How can that be? You went to Unity U and Joe lived in Diversity Dorm! Well, God had a solution. Perhaps you both should just sit down and shut up with silly sermonizing and let God speak for Himself. Of the elder as the only local pastor-teacher, Paul wrote:

He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it. Titus 1:9

Didn't say much about "worship patterns" in the sense of attempting, like the lost Jewish leaders, to find the lost God or to scramble the brains of the watching world. Rather, Paul puts the focus, like the synagogue with no instrumental music and chanting the text as the only singing, upon reading and explaining the Word as it has been delivered to you. If you don't, you scramble God's DNA!

But, then Paul went to Rabbinic University and understood that since all dress-pattern are not allowed, there must be some cuts, styles and colors which are not allowed!

How Speaking the Same Things is Really Possible!

First, the Word of God is Free of Charge -- Don't let anyone repackage it into a new wineskin, add water and sell you your own property! Jesus threw these bums out of the house of prayer.

All division comes from people who believe that they are ordained by the sovereign grace of God because they are "charismatic" and have the terminal nature of denying the Word of God other than the "seven facts about Jesus." That Denies that Christ came in the flesh.

HO, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Isaiah 55:1

Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Isaiah 55:2

Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David. Isaiah 55:3

Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David. Isaiah 55:3

Those who believe are the senders and the evangelist is the sendee to make sure that those who receive the Word the first time don't have to pay for it.

Second, you should not endanger your soul by presuming to alter God's "dress pattern" because:

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. Isaiah 55:8

For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are ^my ways higher than _your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:9

Sorry, old diluted-wine merchant: the Word of God is not for sale. You cannot "sermonize it or versify" it any more than you can cut-and-paste the genetic pattern God used to make your body. You simply don't know how to alter the pattern and if you try you it will fail while you are singing, dancing, and playing musical instruments even as you believe, like David, that you are leading God into His temple or the worshipers into the presence of God.

Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: Revelation 3:17

I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. Revelation 3:18

Third, evangelism and worship must not alter the words of God, the Spirit Christ, or you will reject Lord Jesus Christ first century pattern as a "decadent and deleterious" pattern and you will involve the whole Body of Christ in a turf battle between false prophets and prophetesses and, contemplating your belly-button or dress pattern, you will believe that someone else is guilty -- pass the blame is the name of the game:

For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: Isaiah 55:10

So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which ^I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. Isaiah 55:11

God established a genetic "dress pattern" for the human kind. If you alter the pattern even slightly beyond that which God has engineered in, you may create something so different that it is no longer human. And if you take God's Spiritual Genetic Code and presumptuously cut-and-paste it to make a fairly-silly and self-evident point so that you will be considered cute as you _stand-in for ^Christ in the pulpit, you will destroy the work of Lord Jesus Christ because the "audience" cannot see through you.

A human idol as "preacher" or "musical worship team" is not in the pattern of Jesus. Like the nations religion Israel demanded under David, it does not declare its freedom from pattern; it simply picks up an old dress pattern dropped at the foot of Mount Sinai or the Tower of Babel when the dancing girl could no longer speak the words of the tribe and had to leave.

Rubel Shelly: He made the human race according to a common human design. But no two of us are alike.

That is why Jesus is the image or PATTERN and His Words are spirit and life for us to follow.

When our daughter was born she had perhaps half a million eggs and they were all identical! As "laying" time comes around, an egg follows a God-ordained pattern which puts a slight deviation into the genetic material so that you won't all look like me. The deviation is not evolution depending upon the whims of the mother: they follow the pattern which God ordained when He created the mother. These are changes made by God and you do not have the authority to alter your children to make them look like you.

Some "skirt length" is allowed by human common sense but if the "dress" looks like the tutu of the pagan dancer then clearly the pattern-Maker has been ignored and your new dress may be an old wineskin which contains the "decadent and deleterious" yeast of ancient paganism and the universal symbol of God's wrath.

Rubel Shelly: If we pray and work for unity, we ^allow others the freedom to chase the same godly goals we pursue -- but differently, in their own way, by their best insights.

It is Rubel Shelly and crowd including Don Finto (prophet, apostle, speaker in tongues) and Max Lucado (ditto) believed that then why did they found the Jubilee to atone for the sins of their paymasters? Why did you not allow people to do what they wanted to do and just singled out those who had done you wrong? And why has this sown more discord than any effort known to church history.

Too bad again: that prayer is God's job. Our job is to be united around the Word which was a primary work-product of God in the flesh. No room for "insights" unless you are inspired:

I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word. John 17:6

For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me. John 17:8

And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are. John 17:11

While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled. John 17:12

I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. John 17:14 (Oh, how religionists hate the Words of Christ!)

Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; John 17:20

Then and only then: That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. John 17:21

Rubel Shelly: Rubel Shelly:
If our goal is uniformity, however,

we cannot tolerate disagreement --
and get angry in the face of it.

Why would you spend 1/4 of a million dollars to bring people to Nashville to teach them how to form musical worship teams, saunter around the Asherah poles, raise their holy hands, lay on holy hands, worship from the RIGHT SIDE (effeminate) and turn church as "school" into Venue for Rock and Roll?

All deviations from the pattern are allowable except for those who believe that no alteration is allowable. Tolerance for all of those who are tolerant of deviation but no tolerance for the non-tolerant. "Isn't it easy to love the lovable?" (J.C.Bunn). Repudiating churches of Christ seems to me to be a sign of extreme, out of control anger, especially if you spend 1/4 million dollars to try to instill a Performance-Worship-Seeker form of entertainment which does not seem within the allowable limits of the Pattern Designer.

Rubel Shelly: Not every dress made by pattern #3217 has to be cut from light brown cotton cloth with a rounded neckline and eight-inch sleeves. I'm grateful, come to think of it, that they're not! And not every righteous believer or sound church will be a carbon copy of some other.

We know that: that is why we don't attempt to impose a Jubilee or Look to the Hills to learn how to worship like Woodmont Hills. We don't join denominations and if brother Joe remains in his city and preaches the gospel there will be no problems with some differences. How if Jimmy writes a book and tries to teach others how to by like me then division will result.

It is very important that each dress made after the pattern "cover the nakedness" of the person. That is the one requirement and if not then there would be only one pattern. However, there are probably millions but ONLY ONE BIBLE. Since the Bible is the informer for the Christian religion one simply does not have a dress which covers one nakedness if they presume to write their own.

Rubel Shelly: Using the same pattern, each God-fearing person or Bible-believing body cuts its cloth, makes choices based on background and makeup, and pieces things together -- more or less precisely, more or less attractively to onlookers.

One wants to make sure that the dress is not made out of Saran wrap or tissue paper because dresses for the rain must follow a PATTERN. If God hadn't given the Pattern and demanded that "if you love me you will keep my commandments" and promised punishment for those who had no respect for the pattern then the Shelly, humanistic pattern sifted out of philosophy might make sense.

This implicitly and explicitly declares that God had nothing in mind when He had the Word inspired. Each person according to the Post Modern, Narrative Theology of Rubel Shelly can "take liberties" with the word which, after all, has already been fragment, and make their own pattern: ho! even to include themselves as a Moses or Christ with more authority.

Rubel Shelly: A different look doesn't mean there was no pattern or skill employed. It may mean nothing more than what we already know: Good people are not all alike. Godly people aren't clones of one another. Smart people frequently draw different conclusions.

Doesn't this say that God and God's word is made in our image. Doesn't it say as Narrative Theology assuredly says: "Truth has no meaning until it becomes truth to men." That might make sense out of one who has been dissociated by "experiences" or who is a philosopher but the watching world is not laught WITH these guys but AT their silliness and blasphemy.

Rubel Shelly: Don't be thrown by brighter colors than you prefer. Don't miss the similarity of the ones with and without sleeves. See instead the beautiful commonality of their general shape and design. Behold the pattern.

Contributed by: Rubel Shelly

We repeat that some pattern such as having "women and children rule over you," singing, dancing, clapping, instrumental music, priestly performers and pulpit mediators, rejection of Jesus' definition of baptism and a host of other "just to be different and attract the worldly seekers" is not part of the allowable deviations of the pattern established by Jesus and Paul for a constructive, rather than destructive, "church worship." You simply have no right to "insight" when Jesus Christ has been so explicit about Baptism.

Rubel Shelly's primary "hang up" is our refusal to "sing and dance when the musicans pipe" as we have noted in another article. Dr. Shelly has invented curse words to throw at those who won't endorse instruments and "apologize for their shooting the church in the heart" which assuredly adds up to RACA.

We suggest that the Great Commission is a pattern which must be imitated. By ridiculing that which Jesus and those who sacrificed their lives to deliver to us there is self-derived authority to build bigger and bigger buildings flanked by huge phallic symbols (Asherah poles) proclaiming the superiority of the (Mansion) house and therefore the superiority of the located agent of the gods.

Note Carefully: men who squabble over accepting any form of plan or pattern from the New Testament and instead look to modern commercial forms of religion always put the emphasis upon that one hour on Sunday morning. My God! They tell you that God is gonna be there and if you don't attend you are gonna miss God! "This here is where we perform our worship and you don't want to miss out on worship do you?"

They will try, and you are supposed to look where the slight of hand is not pointing, to involve you (the sheep) in the battle of the self-appointed shepherds

So that you will not see that they have hired on as ministers and have become masters. They have used the Biblical pattern Authority for the evangelist to be fed, housed and sent on his way as the new authority to move into your house, rule your family and even receive the honor of your wife.

Paul illustrated the pattern that fools love to be fooled:

You gladly put up with fools since you are so wise! 2 Corinthians 11:19

In fact, you even put up with anyone who enslaves (devours your food) you or exploits you or takes advantage of you or pushes himself forward or slaps you in the face. 2 Corinthians 11:20

Here is the Absolute PATTERN for anyone who accepts minimal help from a church.

We hope that Rubel Shelly can convince God that God just gave a "suggested pattern" and that he (Shelly) decided that he had the liberty to translate evangelist or "traveling salesman" into preacher or "located salesman." Heaven help us all: "We have a Missionary in Residence!"

That is why Paul told you that Fools love to be Fooled.

If you are going to be an oxen able to eat while threshing; or a soldier who receives his daily dole of food you had better get off the temple throne and obey the Great Commission or surely the Supreme pattern Maker will sentence you as a thief and a peddler of diluted wine. Paul defined the pattern which contrasted with the "located evangelists" in Corinth. (Located traveling salesman is an oxymoron):

Are they ministers (diakonos) of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more; in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. 2 Corinthians 11:23

Labors: Kopos (g2873) kop'-os; from 2875; a cut, i.e. (by anal.) toil (as reducing the strength), lit. or fig.; by impl. pains: - labour, / trouble, weariness.

Kopto (g2875) kop'-to; a prim. verb; to "chop"; spec. to beat the breast in grief: - cut down, lament, mourn, (be-) wail. Comp. the base of 5114.

Based on Paul's patter, those who clearly seek ^{THEIR OWN} GLORY do not qualify and whatever "dress" they wear during worship God is not going to accept it.

The Paul Thessalonian pattern for the "many preachers" is "that if you are not doing that then neither shall you eat." This is probably because God has cut off the Spiritual Water of the Word and allowed you to believe that you can deny the WATER and try to get a direct transfusion from the "separated out" Holy Spirit person.

Paul was not ecumenical or he would not be beaten up by the "Jews."

Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. 2 Corinthians 11:24

Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; 2 Corinthians 11:25

In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; 2 Corinthians 11:26

In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. 2 Corinthians 11:27

If you are still on the payroll as the ^{Chief pattern Alterer or Facilitator} then you are not following the pattern of Jesus and I declare to you that it doesn't matter much what you do to improve upon the Word of God during that little ritual on Sunday. If you cannot say with Paul:

Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christs sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong. 2 Corinthians 12:10

Then God is giving you a little time to repent: don't waste time!

Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent. Revelation 2:5

Looking at the Lack of Interest in the Biblical pattern

The order for the church was not to "meet your felt needs" to trim God's "dress pattern" to fit your body. God's plan is that you conform your body and soul to fit His "garments" which, as far as I know, don't come in many colors in heaven. Have you seen the commercial? All of the angels are dressed in white and here comes this fellow who still has the instincts of a kid -- wearing a robe of many colors - tiedied!

God's plan is to provide peace for that short moment in time when He is honored and we do not fall into the "idolatry of talent" of the "many" super-apostles and musical performers (prophesiers) in Corinth. Speaking of the uncovered prophesying which in the women's old religion was "singing, playing musical instruments, dancing and speaking in tongues and sell it as a revelation from the gods." Paul insisted that they not "let the hair fly loose" as the sign of madness:

But if any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the churches of God. 1 Corinthians 11:16

These were not "legalistic pattern" but they were the requirements for unity and to prevent division over personalities:

For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints. 1 Corinthians 14:33

Let your women keep silence (that includes being sedantary) in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law. 1 Corinthians 14:34

The issue is not what I can legalistically get by with and still be legal: the issue is unity and every time the Ancient Pattern is trimmed around the edges, division results and the primary purpose of educatation cannot take place during the "new and improved worship."

At the same time, the Bible is always twisted rather than just trimmed to fit:

Rubel Shelly: "The Bible is not against women ministering, using their God-given talents, standing up and speaking, administering church programs, singing (congregationally, small groups, or solo), reading Scripture, sharing information about church projects, testifying, teaching sub-groups of the church's membership (whether female, male, or mixed)

Rubel Shelly knows that when he makes that statement that he is SOWING DISCORD among Bible students who know that Rubel does not have authority (contrary to the claims) to UPDATE Paul and Jesus to fit our culture.

Rubel Shelly clearly proves that the old dress pattern can be freely altered to meet the whims and styles of the moment.

It is clear that "theologians" range from one extreme to another and that there are many who get "pattern" and "acts" out of the first century by a simplistic reading of the Scriptures. However, the Scriptures as normative for faith and practice should never be abandoned, and will not be abandoned by religious groups which expect to rise above the legalistic traditionalism of developing a temple-state to perform the worship for the converted while those living in relationship with God's natural laws out in the mission field are waiting for the gospel.

If you are literate and mature you will be happy that we stress the Bible as the work-product of Christ and now defended by the Spirit Christ. Those who have left churches of Christ to become community churches will use the Bible to defend their practices even when the practices are lifted from surrounding denominations. Churches of Christ will focus upon the Words of Christ as the Spirit-Sword of Christ.

Yes, Christ is the pattern, but preaching Christ demands preaching what Christ preached and inspired the Apostle-prophets to preach and record in the Bible

There really are only two sources for patterns or paradigms:

the revealed word of God

or the head of human theologians more insterested in "worship rituals" than obeying Christ's mandate to take the gospel into all the world.

I choose the Words of Christ revealed through the Apostle-Prophets. And the "acts" called "worship" will just have to be tolerated in both liberal and conservative churches.

In an age of celebrities and wannabes you must take personal responsibility for your own Study and worship -- That's Christ's plan anyway.

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