23. September 2009 by Annette Colon-Alvarenga.

Recently I was taken back to a defining time in my youth. I was 17 and beginning my last year of high school. I needed to take an elective class and since I never liked art classes, I opted for a class titled The Bible as Literature.  Believe it or not, this was a secular high school.  I was not a Christian and had never read the Bible. While I had always believed in God and believed that Jesus was the son of God, born of a virgin, I had no understanding of anything else. Anyway, in the first few weeks of class we studied the creation and I was stumped from the get go. I couldn’t get past the idea that Adam and Eve were the only humans God had created and that they were the basis for the population of the earth at that time. To me, it was absolutely inconceivable. Because I simply could not believe the truth in the Scriptures, I dropped out of the class.  I got an “F” for my incredulity.

Many, many years later when I finally came to know Christ there was one thing that God placed in my heart, one thing I could never deviate from – an absolute belief in His Word as it is written. I have become a literalist, understanding that there are portions of God’s Word which are symbolic and others that are metaphoric, but mostly, the Word to me is what it is. And I take very seriously the warnings in the Book of Revelation 22:18-19:
 

¹⁸I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book. ¹⁹And if anyone takes words away from this book of prophecy, God will take away from him his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.

So what brought me back to that high school class? Recently I was visited by a young man who had left the congregation I attended. While he did some handy-man work for me, I asked him if he was still attending church to which he responded “yes.” Then he started explaining to me all of the things he is learning at this new church and I was flabbergasted by what he is being taught.  I think the expression on my face let him know exactly what I was thinking. Of all the heresy he shared with me, there was one thing that took me back to high school: he stated that it was explained to him why Adam and Eve could not have been God’s only created humans “in the beginning.” He gave me some scripture verses and was absolutely convinced that what he was being taught was truth. Wow!  I couldn’t think of doing anything else except to pray for him, that God would give him wisdom and discernment to separate truth from fiction.

In all my years in attending a Christian church, I had never heard such a theory of the creation. I thought it was clear from Scripture:

²⁷ So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.  ²⁸ God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.”  (Genesis 1:27-28)

My understanding of these verses of scripture is that Adam and Eve did just that; they got busy. And the many, many years they lived, they definitely increased in numbers. Of course, this means that there were things in the beginning which are totally unacceptable now (i.e., incest) but that was the only way the earth could be filled. After my conversion, I never doubted the creation story again and had I never heard any other version of the creation, until recently.

I thought that the teachings this young man was receiving were simply an isolated incident in that specific church, but apparently it is not. A few Sundays ago I heard another young man, a visiting pastor, suggested the same thing: that God created other men and women aside from Adam and Eve “in the beginning.” He even said he had scripture verses that could back up this belief, but unfortunately (fortunately for me), he did not have time to get into the whole theory. He made a quick mention of Genesis 4:13 as a basis for his theory.

Now, I do believe that there are things that are absolute mysteries and for which we will not receive an answer. But God’s Word is clear on this issue. There is nothing in the Word that could possibly lead you to a conclusion of an additional creation except adding what was never intended in violation of God’s own commandment (Rev. 22:18-19).  And I am not concerned about sitting and having to listen to what I consider an aberration of the God’s written word. My concern is, and always has been, for those who don’t know any better; those who are just coming to faith in Christ; those who struggle just in reading God’s Word. What type of confusion does this step away from established doctrine cause these people?

Years ago in that Bible as Literature class, the teacher was very clear that Adam and Eve were in fact the method God used to fill the earth.  God called me on my incredulity and I vowed never to doubt the truth of His written word again.  While my zeal has been confused for “focusing on the negative” when I call something or someone out for what they have said or insinuated, I will not stop defending God’s revelation to us through His word.  Each and every one of us is responsible for recognizing false doctrine and rejecting it when we hear it. Distortion of doctrine causes confusion and changes the character of God. And that is simply not acceptable.

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10. September 2009 by Annette Colon-Alvarenga.

In the last year it seems that people inside and from outside of my church come to me and confide in me regarding issues they are having within the church. I don’t know what it is, but at least one person told me it was because they could see that I am not involved in any specific group or clicks and that gave this specific person the confidence to confide in me regarding challenges they were facing. Another reason has been that they believed I would not see them as a “complainer.” And each time I hear what they are dealing with or have had to deal with, it really breaks my heart.

I have come to believe that the difficult time I personally went through in my prior church and the hurt I experienced was allowed by God himself so that I could better counsel these people. My concern however is that, while I can counsel them and convince them not to leave their present church and remind them that they must keep their eyes fixed on Jesus, the people causing the harm continue on with business as usual.

One of the best books on the subject of leadership I have read to date is titled Spiritual Leadership by J. Oswald Sanders. It is a timeless classic which should be read at least once per year by all whether you  are in church leadership or a bench warmer.  The focus of the book is the privilege of the position as a servant leader and the responsibilities that follow such a position. That is, of course, the only type of leadership Jesus demonstrated to his disciples and followers and He expects no less from us.

I understand that we as Christians are all in a process of growth and maturity and that we will make mistakes. (I’ve made some pretty hefty ones myself.) However, the people I talk to seem to all have run into the same problem: a leader who in the beginning shows compassion and then later turns from servant leadership to authoritative leadership. I don’t understand exactly at what point the change in treatment towards the disciple happens but what I have been told breaks my heart: they don’t see any difference between how they are treated in the church from how they have been treated in the world. If this was one or two or even three incidents within one church I wouldn’t take the time to write about this (although even one incident, in my opinion, is one too many). The problem is that it seems to be widespread.

I’m not writing this to condemn anyone. I simply want to exhort the church in general to take extreme care of how we treat each other and how we treat those in the world. Servant leadership or spiritual leadership is not just for the leaders of the church. It’s for all of us.  Think about it for a minute: if we are doing a disservice to those within the church, what message are we sending to an unsaved and unforgiving world?

I do not hold any leadership position within my church and so I won’t pretend to understand the type of pressure and/or responsibility a leader within any congregation surely faces. I have no doubt it is a difficult task. But even under the most difficult pressure we cannot lose sight of our absolute duty (whether in a leadership position or not) to serve others in love and unity. The eyes of the world are on the church of Christ. Let them always see Christ in us.

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