Author's Preface
1. Accepting Or Uniting
   
2. Who Is A Christian?
   
3. "Why Don't You Leave The Church of Christ?"
   
4. The Iniquity Of The Fathers
   
5. Our Judicial System
   
6. "You Are My People Now"
   
7. Serving "Otherwise Than As Prescribed"
   
8. Does Baptize Really Mean To Immerse
   
9. Our Relationship Through Baptism
   
10. Those Gospel Meetings
    
11. A Prelude To Worship
    
12. Worshipping In Spirit And Truth
    
13. The Forbidden Prayer
    
14. "I Didn't Hear Nobody Pray"
    
15. Communion Prayers
    
16. Communion With Bread, Wine, And Money
    
17. Thursday Is The Lord's Day Too!
    
18. Not Forsaking The Assembly
    
19. Acts 20:7 One More Time
    
20. Our Father Who Art Where?
    
21. Does Nature Reveal God's Love
    
22. Copyrighted: All Rights Reserved
    
23. Don't Pour Water On Them
    
24. The Remaining Restriction For Women
    
25. Some Questions About Revelation
    
26. Must One Fully Repent Before Baptism?
    
27. Nicodemus In Context
    
28. Our Respected Myths Of Religion
    
29. Hook's Points: A Potpourri
    

When the twentyfive year old Hezekiah came to the throne in Judah, the house of the Lord was closed, defiled, and in disrepair; the priesthood was no longer sanctified; the ceremonies of the Law had been abandoned; and the kingdom had long been divided. This youthful king ordered a restoration of the house of God and an observance of the passover. Then he sent an invitation to the remnant of the divided brethren.

In making their plans for the passover, some technical problems came to light. Because the priests could not consecrate themselves properly in time for the lawfully prescribed fourteenth day of Abib, they set a date in the second month. And "a multitude of the people, many of them from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun, had not cleansed themselves, yet they ate the passover otherwise than as prescribed" (2 Chron. 30).

How could they have dared to disregard God's laws in such a bold manner! Did God respond to their presumption with some awesome vengeance?

They had acted neither presumptuously nor in disregard to God's laws. Prior to the passover, "Hezekiah had prayed for them, saying, 'The good Lord pardon every one who sets his heart to seek God, the Lord the God of his fathers, even though not according to the sanctuary's rules of cleanness.' And the Lord heard Hezekiah, and healed the people" (v. 1820). Even though they respected God's code of law given through Moses, they were made to recognize that there are overriding principles which can make arbitrary law flexible.

The enjoining of the sabbath rest was an arbitrary law deriving from the authority of God, for example, yet Jesus commended their showing mercy to an unfortunate animal on the sabbath even though it involved labor on the sabbath.

From this incident relating to Hezekiah and the passover, we can learn that God is more concerned about "everyone who sets his heart to seek God" than about lawful details through which he is sought. This points to a principle that is greater than the law intended to promote it. God is more concerned with man than with law. Whatever laws and regulations are given are intended to aid man in finding and worshiping God rather than hindering. God loves man more than his law. "The sabbath was made for man," Jesus explained, "and not man for the sabbath." The law was made for the good of man, but man was not made to conform to arbitrary laws. In the instance under study, the keeping of the regulations which were meant to encourage worshipful expressions of the heart would have prevented that very worship.

If this principle prevailed under the legal code of Moses, how much happier it is with us since we are justified through the principle of grace through faith instead of lawful rituals.

You may protest that they received a special dispensation from God through a direct answer to Hezekiah's prayer; that we do not receive such communications today; therefore, we must not trifle with God's laws. We are not suggesting that we trifle with his message, but we are emphasizing the discernment of the principles that govern God's dealing with us. We do not hear voices like Hezekiah might have heard, but we can learn of God's dealing through the Old Testament scriptures. Paul told Timothy that the writings could make him wise unto salvation. Can we not also discern that wisdom?

Accepting the principle of this text, we can believe that God excuses circumstantial inadequacies such as ignorance when one sets his or her heart to seek him. That's good news for me, and it should be to you, for no one can know and understand all of God's message perfectly. The person who may think he masters all does not even recognize his own ignorance.

Through the centuries, the men of greatest mind and sincerest dedication have not come to common understanding of such basic matters as the triune divinity, the nature of Christ, the nature of the kingdom, justification, predestination, election, the communion, baptism, the work of the Holy Spirit, the return of Jesus, and countless other fundamental subjects. Yet they set their hearts to seek God.

Which is more important, legal correctness or the proper heart? Do you say that both are necessary? We need not strive for legal correctness because we are not serving under a legal system. The demand for complete knowledge and detailed observances is the breeding ground for endless divisions.

If Jesus gave us a set of lawful details concerning the Lord's supper, for instance, involving a proper time, one cup or multiple cups, wine or grape juice only, leavened or unleavened bread, etc., we would be obligated to observe them accurately in order to be "wellpleasing in Thy sight." But whom could we trust to have all the right answers? And would confusion about any detail of such a pattern prevent one from properly remembering the atonement? Those with various scruples about these things have set their hearts to seek God and they serve to the best of their understanding. That is as much as any of us can do. This same application can be made widely to the things we fail to agree upon, or even agree upon in our misunderstanding.

The purpose of the passover was not to test Israel's ability to keep rituals in detail, but it was to remind them that God called and delivered them. In like manner, the Lord's supper is not a ritual established to test our ability to understand and keep detailed specifications, but it is to call to our remembrance regularly the very basis of our salvation in Christ. The principle overshadows any confusion about the details.

We err when we try to limit God's grace or demand that he dispense it through law.

This essay is not intended to give license to anyone for willful omission, rebellious disregard, or deliberate change of any instruction God has given us. We do insist, however, that God meets man in his circumstance when he sets his heart to seek his Creator and will accept him out of love instead of out of the person's ability to know, understand, and perform proper rituals, even when "otherwise than as prescribed."