The Amish Voice 9
to become acceptable to God—was
being depended upon for righteous-
ness.
2. It led to a religion of external relig-
ion. In other words, if a person was
respected by his or her lifestyle, and
did all the right things, then s/he
was judged acceptable to God.
3. It led to an attitude of self-
righteousness. If a person kept the
rules and regulations, he naturally
felt righteous and sometimes dem-
onstrated it. There was a depend-
ence upon himself, upon keeping
the right rules and thereby becom-
ing righteous.
There are other places in the New Tes-
tament that tell us how a little leaven,
left unattended, brings harm on the
whole body. For example, take 1 Corin-
thians chapter 5, where Paul shares
about the young man that was in a sex-
ual relationship with his father’s wife.
And rather than mourn, the church be-
came puffed up.
In verse 6-7, God’s Word tells us:
“...Know ye not that a little
leaven
leav-
eneth
the whole lump? Purge out there-
fore the old
leaven
, that ye may be a
new lump…
I would like to bring out one more in-
stance in Scripture where God clearly
illustrates the devastating results of
NOT dealing with leaven (sin) in the
camp.
Consider the following: The Church at
Galatia, had at one time, clearly under-
stood that Christian liberty could only
be received through faith in Christ; not
anything man could do on his own.
However, as time went by, many of the
church members began to fall back into
the same bondage they had been saved
from—bondage of believing that in or-
der to be completely saved from sin and
hell, a person had to continue to follow
parts of the law. That’s when Paul be-
gan to make statements like the follow-
ing:
Galatians 1:6
I marvel that ye are so
soon removed from him that called you
into the grace of Christ unto another
gospel:
Galatians 2:16
Knowing that a man is
not justified by the works of the law, but
by the faith of Jesus Christ, ... for by the
works of the law shall no flesh be justi-
fied.
Galatians 3:1-3
O foolish Galatians, who
hath bewitched you, that ye should not
obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus
Christ hath been evidently set forth,
crucified among you? This only would I
learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by
the works of the law, or by the hearing
of faith? Are ye so foolish? having begun
in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by
the flesh (man-made rules)?
Galatians 3:10-11
For as many as are of
the works of the law are under the
curse: for it is written, Cursed is every
one that continueth not in all things
which are written in the book of the law
to do them. But that no man is justified
by the law in the sight of God, it is evi-
dent: for, The just shall live by faith.
Galatians 3:23-25
But before faith
came, we were kept under the law, shut
up unto the faith which should after-
wards be revealed. Wherefore the law
was our schoolmaster to bring us unto
Christ, that we might be justified by
faith. But after that faith is come, we
are no longer under a schoolmaster.
Can someone say AMEN to those Scrip-
tures! Aren’t you glad we are on the
side of the fence called “Faith, Grace
and Liberty” and not on the side of the
fence called “Law, Regulations and
Bondage”? Ok, let’s continue reading
the various statements that Paul made
to the members of the Galatian Church.
Galatians 4:9
But now, after that ye
have known God, or rather are known of
God, how turn ye again to the weak and
beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire
again to be in bondage?
Galatians 5:1
Stand fast therefore in the
liberty wherewith Christ hath made us
free, and be not entangled again with
the yoke of bondage.
And finally, Paul comes toward the end
of his letter (middle of chapter 5) and
he points to the people who have al-
lowed the law and bondage to creep
back in the church. He is clear, if you
don't stop this corrupt teaching, it is
going to act as leaven that leaveneth
the whole church. Look at the Scripture:
Galatians 5:9, A little leaven leaveneth
the whole lump.
Most of us, including myself, underesti-
mate the devastating affects that man-
made rules can have on God’s grace.
Here is why: When you and I come up
with our own standards, we tend to put
our trust in us, rather then God. We
also tend to measure other people by
our standards, rather than using God’s
standards. And in Galatians 5:9 (the
verse we just read), we are all re-
minded, it only takes a little leaven to
affect the whole lump. In fact, right be-
fore we read “A little leaven leaveneth
the whole lump” Paul wrote:
Galatians 5:4,
Christ is become of no
effect unto you, whosoever of you are
justified by the law; ye are fallen from
grace.
Illinois Reader Writes:
I am a member of
the Old Order Amish church. Became a
member when I was 18 years old. Yes, our
church is not perfect, but have seen many
improvements in spiritual issues over the
past 50 years. I have no desire to hinder
any ones spiritual condition and have no
intentions of making insulting remarks
but am thinking of hopefully being a help
one to another.
On page 3 of your last mailing, in the cen-
ter column, you say over the years there
have been some extreme cases where cer-
tain members in the churches have taken
their own lives because they saw no way
out of their emotional and mental misery.
Their thinking has been described in the
following ways: Then you use two para-
graphs to describe what they think that
causes them to take their own lives.
Question: Have any of these people that
you personally knew told you or anyone
else that you know that they are going to
end their own life because they were in
such a situation? If not then, by what other
Continued next page —>
Spirit of
God
Works of
the Flesh