Ole Wives Tales: And Church Doctrine

By Forrest Davis

I define Ole Wives Tales, as a belief or practice that is not completely supported by the bible. Have you ever heard someone say: I dont care what the bible says; I know what Ive been taught? If so, you were a witness to an Ole Wives Tale in action. I used the word completely in the first sentence because most of the ole tales rely on excerpts from scripture to support their conclusions. Jesus taught us that the whole bible must be merged into a consensus about any subject that is taught. He illustrated that when He was being tempted by Satan and also when He exchanged views with the Chief Priests and their lawyers. In each of those examples Jesus answered their quoting of scripture by declaring Have you not also heard and went on to quote other scripture that constructed a completely different (consolidated) conclusion. He taught us one cant pick and choose stand-alone excerpts from the bible without verifying them with the balance and consensus of everything else taught about the same subject. Not to believe that is to endorse another Ole Wives Tale.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Nov 28, 2011
• ISBN: 9781467097871

Forrest Davis

He was raised in a traditional Southern Baptist family who were very active in attending and supporting their local Church. In fact, Church attendance took priority over most all other family activities. Considering his extensive protestant background with its specific definition of Christianity, not much of his early training is reflected in his present concepts and conclusions about the bible, God, the church, prayer, or even the definition of Christianity itself. He has authored three other books critiquing Christianity as it is taught and practiced: A View From The Pew, Let Us Create God In Our Own Image and Ole Wives Tales and Church Doctrine. It is interesting that his books reflect an evolution of opinion over a ten year period on such subjects as “The Trinity” as well as the definition of just who Jesus was and the stated purpose of His mission. He explains this as being the result of a continued “seeking” of the truth. He also sees it as examples of being able to emerge from what one has been taught to a new understanding based on scripture. Over time, the studies that went into writing those first three books led him to what he believed to be an inescapable conclusion discovered in the contradictory writings of Paul. This current book, “The Paul Factor” is reflected in each of his other writings, which over time just naturally came together to be an unexpected conclusion to all of his searching. That search had led him to question specific scripture which revealed how Paul and other individuals ignored what Jesus taught and how they reversed Jesus’ instructions, which had the affect of putting men in charge of Institutional Christianity and subsequently in charge of those seeking God through Jesus.

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© 2012 Forrest Davis. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse  5/11/2012

ISBN: 978-1-4670-9787-1 (e)

ISBN: 978-1-4670-9788-8 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4670-9789-5 (sc)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2011919518

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

About the Author

From the Author

Introduction

Is Scripture Inerrant?

The Church

What is Salvation’s Purpose?

Do Unto Others?

The Apostle Paul that is Not Taught

When Does Jesus’ Righteousness Become Our Righteousness?

Sin

The Things People Pray For

Questions About The Trinity Teaching

The Pre-Tribulation Rapture of the Church

Jesus Who?

How Does It All Shake Out?

Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on Him: If ye continue in My word, then are ye My disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free….If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.

John 8:31-32 & 36

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About the Author

The author was born on April 30, 1928 in Weatherford, Parker County, Texas to Forrest Landon and Minnie Mae Davis. He married Alta Mae Etheridge when he was 19 and she was 18. They had four children, Steven, Kent, Connie, and Linda. They were married 53 years until her death on April 11, 2000. The author is 84 years old with the publishing of this book.

He was raised in a traditional Southern Baptist family who were very active in attending and supporting their local Church. In fact, Church attendance took priority over most all other family activities. Considering his extensive protestant background with its specific definition of Christianity, not much of his early training is reflected in his present concepts and conclusions about the bible, God, the church, prayer, or even the definition of Christianity itself.

Beyond high school, he was pretty much self-taught, as well as taught by experience. He was and continues to be innovative in his ongoing search for knowledge. Some of his diversified accomplishments include licensed pilot, computer technician in the 50’s, certified member American Society of Traffic & Transportation, Railroad Director, Executive in a large international company, active US Naval Air Reservist, and Christmas tree farmer. His hobbies include art, photography, cartooning, music, softball, golf, fishing, writing and reading.

The well known reformer Martin Luther once said: A simple layman armed with Scripture is greater than the mightiest pope without it. One thing alone should make this book interesting. It could not have been written by a person coming from within the trained talent pool that makes up the leadership of Christianity as we know it. It is the author’s belief that scripture stands alone, not needing to be propped-up by him or by anyone else, and should create interest by its own authority. If that’s all the authority you require you and this book could be very compatible.

From the Author

The most significant thing to be said about the author at this point in his life is that he is 84 years old and still learning. He has written two other books critiquing Christianity as it is practiced: A View From The Pew and Let Us Create God In Our Own Image. He expects this to be his last book on the subject because just as Forest Gump said: That’s all I have to say about that.

Introduction

Human nature instinctively searches for answers to our existence in a universe that is beyond our comprehension. Many have concluded that a higher and more permanent intellect than our own must exist and we have named it God. I am part of that God group. Others have concluded that mankind’s intellect is supreme in the universe. They also theorize that a similar intelligence to their own may also exist somewhere else in the universe and they search for it incessantly, thinking such discovery alone would disprove the God theory. They assume that life as we know it occurs anywhere in the universe where the combination of chemicals and temperature produces an atmosphere or element which would sustain life. To me, it doesn’t matter whether other life does or does not exist. That alone does not discount God’s existence.

Many, who sense God’s existence, undoubtedly experience a dilemma as they search for that higher being. If God has not yet manifested itself to them in an understandable dimension, their spirit nevertheless continues to confirm God’s existence. Consequently, they continue pressing their own search for a connection with God. As they look out among themselves they are confronted by outstretched hands and voices coming from every direction that are all declaring: I have been sent to you by God. The truth is there are many different Gods being declared and offered by (what has now become) a religious industry and one would think a person would be more diligent in checking out what they are being told. Not so! Our emotion often betrays us to an otherwise obvious slight-of-hand. Some say for anyone to believe in a God they cannot see or prove demonstrates a lack of intelligence. My answer to that is:Intelligence tells us that everything has a source. ‘Cause and effect’ is at work in most everything that can be understood. The universe and everything in it is an obvious observable ‘effect’ that has been ‘caused’ by something. It consists of a vast field of complex creativity partly comprehensive and partly beyond our comprehension. While not understanding just how or why it occurred, some have named its ‘cause’ to be a result of ‘The big bang,’ attributing it to an explosion of unknown origin. They attribute it to an accident and I attribute it to an intelligent source that has been named God." They feel good about themselves and about their own perceived intellect and I feel good about myself and about my awareness of a desperate need for greater intellect. Universal contentment is a marvelous thing.

Having been raised in a Christian environment, I have found it extremely interesting in recent years to learn about the many contrasting ways Christianity is practiced. One thing that drove me into a search mode is an attitude I have found that goes something like this: I don’t care what the bible says; I know what I’ve been taught. This book touches on the recent history of just one small segment of Protestant Christianity in the USA. This is a short summary of that history: The Protestant institution was invented by John Calvin. The institution had its initial beginning all the way back to the Apostle Paul and grew to outrageous magnitudes in the Catholic Church. ‘He (Calvin) was a principal figure in the development of the system of Christian theology later called Calvinism. Originally trained as a humanist lawyer, he broke from the Roman Catholic Church around 1530. After religious tensions provoked a violent uprising against Protestants in France, Calvin fled to Basel, Switzerland, where he published the first edition of his seminal work: The Institutes of the Christian Religion in 1536.’ (Wikipedia encyclopedia) In the light of day, Calvinism turned out to be nothing more than his own invention of many Ole wives tales, designed to control congregations by giving power to the institution he invented. The cumulative effect of Ole Wives Tales to the practice of Christianity were eventually judged to be so negative by the generation beginning in the 1960’s and 70’s that the institution unexpectedly found itself having to confront the problem of losing support of an entire generation. The church eventually addressed the dilemma by retooling the Christian concept to a brand new model. Whatever would work was what they were looking for. Rick Warren came along and redesigned that new model for them with the publication of his two instructive books The Purpose Driven Church and The Purpose Driven Life. In my opinion, neither the old model of Christianity, with all of its Ole tales, nor the new model with all its spirituality, truthfully represents Biblical Christianity in its simplicity. There were some who recognized the negative changes to the Christian message as they were occurring but those who spoke-up against them were branded as malcontents. There was a great independent thinker in the early days of reformation that we will never intentionally be taught about. His name was Michael Servetus and he was put to death by the authority of that great reformer, so highly acclaimed by many, none other than the one and only…. John Calvin; the same John Calvin who set the stage for the future practice of Christianity for many innocent souls. Servetus was a remarkable medical physician of that day as well as a trained Bible theologian. Servetus became a burr under Calvin’s saddle, taking opposite positions from Calvin in his (Servetus) own writings. One significant disagreement was Servetus position that the Bible does not validate the teaching about the Trinity. For that Calvin branded Servetus a heretic and spotting him one Sunday sitting among the congregation to whom he was preaching, had Servetus arrested and later burned alive at the stake. It is said that green wood was used to intensify and lengthen the suffering of Servetus. Good ole John Calvin; many to this day continue to revere and teach Calvinism because it helps consolidate power to the institution. Michael Servetus paid with his life for disagreeing with reformer John Calvin and in my opinion is one of God’s heroes. Biblical Christianity is so simple that the truthful promotion of it could have serious consequences toward the livelihood of the Institution officially fronting the Church. On the other hand, I believe if the truthful promotion of biblical Christianity was taught and practiced, Christianity would not be under such assault as it is today. Unfortunately it appears our new Christian culture has trashed the Bible because of their disdain for Calvinism, assuming there may be some connection between them. Any such assumption is just another Ole Wives Tale.

Our limited delving into Christian practices is not presented here in a story format directed to a chronological order of events. We just call attention to selected Ole Wives Tales which influenced the older generations’ practice of Christianity, and then describe some of the cultural evolution of Christianity’s concept emerging from a conversion into what I call Warrenizm. The Institution had to walk a fine line to retain the two differing versions of Christianity, neither of which fully embraced biblical Christianity. Not only did they do radical surgery on the very guts of what they had, they also did a lot of cosmetic surgery to both create and enhance an environment which would be acceptable to the younger folks. Cosmetically, they replaced the old pipe organ and its pious sound with guitars and drums. They either trashed or overhauled much of the old music which reminded them of days gone by. Then they began to dress casually (like exposing their shirt-tails), and that seemed to be a key ingredient. They stirred it all up and put it into the oven to bake and shazam, wouldn’t you know it, out comes a new Wal-Mart style of Christian goodies with something there for everybody. The Institution now has both the old and the new corralled into one multi-cultural diversified organization, having both of them functioning side-by-side under the same roof. What do such things as guitars, Pipe organs, drums, music, dress styles and such have to do with Christianity? one may ask. How does any of that address Christianity? You’d be surprised, like totally.

I see both styles of programming and worship as being overly complicated compared to the very-very simple Christian messages that God and Jesus would have us learn. Scripture declares many will seek but will not find, and that’s too bad because the real Christian message is short and sweet. In fact, it’s so uncomplicated you will probably never hear about it down there at the new Wal-Mart styled church house. The main reason two completely different styles representing Christianity exist in apparent harmony is guess what? You got it! Some elements of the same Ole Wives Tales exist in both models. Son of a gun! They carried some of the Ole Tales over into Warrenism? Is that right? You gotta be kidding me! That could be the glue that bound them together; pretty powerful stuff indeed.

I see the next phase of the practice of Christianity as being primarily contained within hand held electronic communication. It is already a preference by many to text or post or tweet someone rather than actually face them. All of those methods of communication are preferred over (1) Actually talking to someone or (2) Can you believe it.... actually being in someone’s presence? Electronic Christianity will be available to you by subscription and will be presented to you in maybe as many as seventeen or thirty different styles; you just click on the one you prefer. In the overall selections you get to pick your music preference as well as being able to limit the message content to that of your choosing. A subscription is equivalent to what was once known as repentance and salvation. The membership will never miss the back-slapping and hugging they got when they actually met together. They’ve now got all that and more in virtual reality back home. Once it is set up it will really be neat. You can do church during lunch or even during a football game if it becomes boring. Once they get all religions on-line and get all the bugs worked out, they will gradually merge them all into one. Now that’s progress and you first heard all of it right here on our big stage. Anyone there remember TV’s Ed Sullivan and his Big stage? Oh, you say you’re not from the pipe organ era?

I see myself as an average person with average skills. One thing abnormal about me is in recent years I have attempted to give more attention to the Bible contents and compare what is written there to what is being taught about it. The result can be described as truly bewildering. I found widespread scripture deception to those seeking God and have come to a point not to accept anything said or taught about Christianity unless it can be verified by traditional Bible. I use the word traditional here because the Bible has now been re-written (not to be mistaken for translated) into completely different versions of God, as well as the definition of Christianity itself. It appears a large segment of mainstream Christianity is trying to dilute it completely out of existence. There are so many different versions of Christianity out there one can find precisely the version that turns them on and go for it. So what’s wrong with diversity you say? Traditional Bible has become a non-issue to many identifying themselves as Christian in today’s church organizations. Is the church still in one accord as it was at Pentecost or what?

Some may wonder why I chose the phrase Ole Wives Tales for a part of the title of this book. First of all I, of course, didn’t coin the phrase nor is my use of it directed to wives, old or young. I chose the phrase because its inference is so well known world-wide. It so perfectly describes the tinkering that has been applied to the subjects I am addressing that no one will have to guess just how their invention or transformation came about. I might add that the tinkering was primarily done by men. The ladies had little to do with it.

Many churches carry forth old customs that have been handed down for generations and they still remain significant elements of their belief about and practice of Christianity. I refer to them as customs only when they are not completely supported by scripture. They were designed by an ordinary person rather than by the Spirit of God. Some of the Ole Tales are tied to little pieces of scripture here and there which they think allows them a claim to biblical origin. Their made-up doctrines are taught about and sung about by teachers/preachers who swivel and cha-cha-cha their way through the bible, grabbing-on to little excerpts of their choice. So my definition of Ole Wives Tales as used in this book consists of one or more of three things. (1)