I now live in the US and recently saw such a statue (the monkey demon worshiped by the hindus) in my landlady’s house. Her husband is a retired Baptist preacher. They regarded the statue as a mere souvenir. I told them what I knew about the statue and asked them if I could get rid of it, offering to pay for it, if it helped. The home has had problems.

I am now wondering if I did the right thing. If they did not know its nature as a demon symbol worshiped by those who are not saved, would it have mattered if they had it in their home? I would appreciate scriptural references in an answer.

BF: I would highly disagree with your explanation of the qualifications of pastors being communal instead of individual. Not even sure where you got that. Examining the qualifications passages (1 Timothy 3, Titus, etc), it’s plain to see that the passages are talking about individuals (all of the nouns are singular, etc.).

Of course, the individual pastor does ’set the tone’ for the community in that sense. If that’s what you mean, then I whole-heartedly agree. The community should do all it can (under the leadership of a qualified pastor) to raise men to be pastors. All men should aspire to fit the qualifications of an elder, even if God has not called them to specifically become an elder.

If a fallen pastor desires to be restored to ministry it cannot logically be done in the same community as the public witness has been shatterred. If it were to be done at all it should reasonably be done in distant locale, not at all directly connected with the sin where he can, over time, build a credible reputation for christ-following within that unaffected community/local body of believers and watching unbelievers. Apart from that I do not see how the credibility of the witness of the local church among non-believers can be established again.

No matter how I read the related bible passages, I cannot get away from the fact that the qualifications are about the health of the church AND it’s local witness, not about the fallen or even unfallen elder or pastor.

… Just thinking.

However, I think the move will make it productive. Even though the kids should never be in the Adult church environment. However, giving them there own environment is a good start.

Keep up the good work bro!

I think you are right about the omissions of most ST works, though. On the other hand, it’s kind of understandable why that happens. Frame’s book on Ethics is a beast. I also wonder whether there are different approaches to doing theology (rather than a traditional dogmatics approach) that might connect better with your potential audience.