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Jarrod Jacobs: The Silence of God: Restrictive or Permissive?

            Many today think that God’s silence grants permission to act. How many times have we heard people ask, “Where does God say not to do _______?” Others ask, “What’s wrong with __________?” Believe it or not, this argument has been going on for millennia. Tertullian (150 AD – 222 AD) wrote that some people in his time said, “the thing which is not forbidden is freely permitted.” (I.E., “It doesn’t say not to.”) Tertullian responded, “I should rather say that what has not been freely allowed is forbidden” (Tertullian. Ante-Nicene Fathers. 1995. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson.). Several centuries later, Martin Luther (1483-1546) would argue with Ulrich Zwingli (1484-1531) over the same thing. While it was not his original belief, Luther digressed to the point that he said, in essence, that if a practice is not against Scripture, then it is for it. The import of Luther’s teaching was, “If God didn’t say not to, then go ahead and do it.” Zwingli vehemently denied this, saying that if it is not taught in the New Testament, it ought to be rejected.

            What is the truth concerning the silence of God? Is it true that we can act so long as “God doesn’t say not to?” Or is it the case that we cannot operate if God has been silent? The answer to this question is found in God’s word (I Pet. 4:11; Deut. 29:29).

            As we begin, let us acknowledge the fact that men today reason from silence, and men’s silence is understood to be restrictive. For example, when we order something from a restaurant, we place an order for the food we want. If we are brought the wrong order, don’t we usually say, “This is the wrong order?” Of course, we do! Why would we say this? What problem did we have? Our problem was that we placed an order for a specific food item, and the order was not fulfilled.

            Our “silence” restricted the order to only what we wanted. In other words, when we order something at the restaurant, we do not ask for a specific meal and then tell the one taking our order, “But, don’t bring me this or this or this …” until we have named every item on the menu we do not want! Why not? It is because folks understand that we ordered what we want, and this is the only thing we want. Yes, with men, silence is restrictive.

            At our job, we have specific rules. Perhaps you work at a job that requires employees to wear a hard hat. Would an employee be able to convince the employer that wearing a paper hat is OK? Could someone argue to the employer, “You didn’t say not to do that,” and be successful? If a hard hat is required in our job, all that was necessary was for the employer to say this. He didn’t have include an additional list of all the hats you cannot wear while working!

            If we understand that man’s silence is restrictive, why do we have such a hard time understanding this with God’s word? He made us in His image (Gen. 1:26-27; Jas. 3:9). He made our brains and our reasoning capabilities! Just as man’s silence is restrictive, so also is God’s.

 

-- You are invited to visit with the Caneyville church of Christ. Times of services: Sun.: 10:00 am, 10:45 am, 5:00 pm; Wed.: 7:00 pm. Website: http://caneyvillechurchofchrist.com Tune in to our radio program 101.5 FM at 5:30 am, Mon-Fri. Questions? Call: (270) 589-4167

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