北米のブラザレンの問題点を指摘した手紙のオリジナル（8）

4.LEGALISM ANDPHARISEEISMの続きです。

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We“Gospel Hallers” love our externals, because they are easy. Got yourskirt? Check. Got your hat? Check. But internal issues? Wellthat’s another matter. It’s not so easy to discern whether someone isstruggling, now is it? It takes being spiritually minded and in tune withthe Lord, His Word, and submission to the Spirit’s leading to discern thespiritual needs of others. Someone once told me that people don’t care how muchyou know until they know how much you care. Another has said that actionsspeak louder than words, so maybe we should all start putting ourChristian love for one another into action and then we wouldn’t lose so manypeople.

Concernabout losing young people is one thing, but we should be concerned too aboutthat fact we are not even getting them in the first place! For example,there is a brother in our assembly who teaches the older Bible class. Butas these kids are from a poorer background with no Biblical influences, anddon't do so great in school, this brother wanted to use a version of theBible more suitable to their reading level. He was refused permission, soit was back to the KJV for all of them. One of the girls in turn refusedto use the KJV because she said she cannot read it and does not understandit. Do we really want to win people for Christ, or are we more concernedabout things like which version of the Bible we should read than a soul’ssalvation! For the sake of our legalism, we would jeopardize a young girl'sopportunity to study the Bible and learn about the Saviour. It's legalismlike this that just turns us young people off. We strain at a gnat andswallow a camel! Major on minors, and minor on majors. The older brethrenmay refuse to acknowledge it, but many young people are getting fed upwith all this ridiculous legalism.