The Amish Voice 6
In all the years that we have been writng the
Amish Voice, I don’t believe that we have ever
received as great of a response as we did on
the January artcle, Jacob Amman, Excommu-
nicaton and Shunning.
Quite a few of you called or wrote to let us
know how much you appreciated the whole
January magazine. And I might add, a large
number of people requested that we send
their friends and families a copy, and we did.
In fact, we went one step further and added
your friends to our actve list of subscribers.
Since excommunicaton and shunning is such
a powerful discipline tool within the Amish
church, various ones were also troubled by
some of the things that were writen about
excommunicaton and shunning. Here is one
such response that I appreciated, and at his
request, am putng it in the this issue.
Thank you,
Deacon of the Plain Churches,
for
sharing your honest thoughts—I want you to
know, I appreciate your thoughts and willing-
ness to share your interpretaton of the Scrip-
tures. Together, we can learn and grow in the
One we serve and love.
————————————————
Hello, I received your publicaton of the
Amish Voice and was surprised with your
view of Mat. 18 vs 15-18. You point out
that if a brother was caught doing a great
sin by another brother (was compared
with adultery) he should then take the
three steps of Mat 18 vs 15-18.
Here are some reasons why I could not
agree.
First:
I do not understand Mat 18 vs 15-
18 to extend to all ofensive carnal sinners
to whom the eternal sentence of death is
already pronounced, but is reference only
to the short comings between brother and
brother. Notce in Mat 18 vs 15 the tres-
pass is against thee and not against God.
According to Luke 17 vs 3 you can forgive
your brother if the sins against you. This
would be the hundred pence. Mat 18 vs
28.
The scripture plainly teaches that none
can forgive the ten thousand talents but
God himself. Fornicaton is a sin against
the temple (your body) in which God
lives. Can I according to step 1 forgive this
sin or is this Gods job? (Holy Spirit) As it
seems this sin would be against God
.
Second:
Titus 3 vs 10 writes that a heretc
needs only one or two admonitons.
Third:
According to I Corinthians 5, I
would understand that an open ofensive
sensual sinner who is already condemned
by the word of God needs no admoniton
before the brothers of the church should
keep no company with him. Apostle Paul
did not instruct them to frst admonish the
one who had his father’s wife three tmes
before delivering him to Satan.
Please refect upon what the scriptures
say without hypocrisy.
A deacon of the Plain churches.
PS. I challenge you to put this in your next
issue.
————————————————
I would like to frst comment on your inter-
pretaton of Mat 18.
Deacon writes:
I do not understand Mat
18 vs 15-18 to extend to all ofensive
carnal sinners to whom the eternal sen-
tence of death is already pronounced,
but is reference only to the short com-
ings between brother and brother. No-
tce in Mat 18 vs 15 the trespass is
against thee and not against God...
Afer again reading your and my artcle on
excommunicaton, as well as Mat 18:15-18, I
have to agree with you on your interpretaton
of the Mat 18 Scripture.
Mathew 18:15
Moreover if thy brother shall trespass
against thee, go and tell him his fault be-
tween thee and him alone…
Like you pointed out, this is speaking about
one church member ofending another. And
as you also pointed out later, Jesus clearly
said that we need to be ready to forgive the
ofensive church member seven tmes seven.
Thank you for pointng this out. I believe that
we would all agree that your interpretaton is
a beter one than mine.
I want to thank you as well for shedding
more light and understanding on the difer-
ence between a church member ofending
another member vs. a church member sinning
against God. Since you did not specify any
Scripture reference, I am guessing that you
are referring to 1 Cor 6:15-20.
Note:
Reader, I encourage you to read
1 Cor 6:15-20 before proceeding.
Without going into all the details and looking
up the various Scriptures that refer to this
passage, I think we would agree on the fol-
lowing:
1. The moment a person is born again, the
Spirit of God moves into his/her body
and starts to dwell there, just like He did
in Solomon’s temple.—1 Cor 6:19
2. When a Christan becomes involved in a
sexual relatonship outside of a marriage
relatonship, the Bible calls it fornicaton.
3. When a Christan commits fornicaton
with his/her body, she/he is commitng a
sin against the Temple of God (body).
For that reason, 1 Cor 6:18-20 says:
Flee fornicaton. Every sin that a man
doeth is without the body; but he that
commiteth fornicaton, sinneth against
his own body.
What? know ye not that your body is the
Temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you,
which ye have of God, and ye are not
your own? For ye are bought with a price:
therefore glorify God in your body, and in
your spirit,
which are God's
.
According to the last three words in that pas-
sage,
if we have been born again, our body
and spirit belong to God.
And for that reason
there is a diference whether we sin against
another church member or sin against God.
And as a result of that diference you, Deacon
of the Plain Churches, interpret Scripture as
only God can forgive the sin of fornicaton.
Again, thank you for shedding some light on
this subject. If my understanding of your in-
terpretaton is correct, than you have been a
help and a blessing to me, and I am sure oth-
ers too.
There are, however, some things I would like
to add. And hopefully I do not confuse any-
body with what is on my mind.
There was so much more to my artcle on
excommunicaton and shunning. And I feel as
if it would be unbalanced, even wrong, if all
we do is end the discussion at this point.
Not because I want to be right on something,
or that there is pride in me. God forbid!!!
Some day, I am going to stand in front of God
and give account as to how I lived my Chris-
tan life. And like you, I'm sure, it is my ut-
Excommunication and Shunning
Response and Follow up on the January Article
—Written by Joe Keim