Posted by Marvin, et al on 5/8/2002, 7:49 pm

Posted by Marvin on 12/25/2001, 12:29 am From time to time I have heard an opinion expressed here or there that the people who post on this board are “living in the past,” the implication being that the good (or sometimes bad) ol’ days of Chapel should all be forgotten about forever, and all talk about it should just be cut off and stopped for good, that we should just wipe it from our memories, lose ourselves completely in the lives we have today and do our best to try to make the whole time and the whole phenomenon of Community Chapel cease to exist and cease to ever have existed, if it were possible. The people who feel that way may harbor unpleasant memories of it, but for those of us who feel that in spite of whatever bad happened, great amounts of good also came from it, I want to say that I do not believe forgetting about it is what God wants for us. When people say that, what does this phrase they use mean, for somebody to be “living in the past”? Usually what people are trying to say is that those who do so have no life in the present, no pleasant things going on in their current lives, and the only way they can derive any enjoyment from life is to get together with others and remember and talk amongst themselves about some big event or some better life they used to have at some time in the past. Well, I can’t speak for everybody on this board, but for most people, I don’t think that’s what is really taking place here, the part about not having any life in the present, and I think that whole line of reasoning is mistaken. I say there is no evil in: one, having and carrying on an enjoyable life in the present and, two, getting together from time to time with your friends and other acquaintances and using the memories that God gave to each and every one of us to talk about and remember the old days, and share insights about things that went on back then that maybe some people didn’t know about and that might be of benefit to some of the others. Frankly, I don’t know where some people come off trying to brand such a thing as an act of evil in and of itself. Why would God have given the human race memories if he didn’t want us to use them? Or, if it were the kind of situation as in some cases, where God perhaps gave the human race some kind of function, but after the fall of man it became twisted into some kind of evil and he forbade us to practice it or something... well, that has happened in a few areas of life, but in those cases, the Word of God clearly states that such things are evil and are forbidden to do. But getting together with your friends and talking about and remembering old times? Some people act as if they were convinced that it really is some kind of evil, and they say, “Oh, those people are ‘living in the past’.” Well, I would like to ask those people, If you are so sure that this is such an evil thing, what Scriptures can you find that tell us so? And if you can’t find any Scriptures forbidding it, what grounds do you have for stating so dogmatically that people can’t or shouldn’t do this, just get together and talk amongst themselves about the olden days? And if you think it’s such an evil thing, will you also accuse the first-century church of practicing the same kind of evil? You know, in the New Testament Scriptures they talk about the days when Jesus was on earth, though they were written from about AD 40 to about AD 90, a long time after Jesus left, a much longer time than it’s been since the time Chapel was going, up till now. Was it an evil thing for them to do? “What?” you ask, “Are you comparing Community Chapel with the life of Jesus?” No, the life of Jesus was a bigger event than Community Chapel. But Chapel was still a big event, and we have the right to continue talking about it if we want to. It was a mighty and powerful manifestation of the Holy Spirit in the lives of thousands of people, as well as a sudden, massive influx of spiritual knowledge from the Word of God that changed our lives—and changed them completely and radically and thoroughly. And since it was such a mighty and powerful thing that took place in our lives back then, it shouldn’t be surprising that we continue to have a lot to say about it even up to this day, as well we ought to. How many message boards are there on the Internet where people get to gether and talk about some church they used to go to, and they have so much to say that the message board just goes on and on and on endlessly? “Oh, those people are living in the past.” Don’t ever let anybody get on you that way. You know, that big wrinkled organ we have inside our heads called the brain, you know, when God put that thing inside there, one of the functions he gave it was the function of memory. And when he gives us functions, he gives them to us for the purpose of using them, not just to throw them away. Or, in the cases where some twisting of some function arose after the fall of man, God will have given us clear-cut instructions about refraining from it, and if no such instructions have been given by God in his written Word, then refraining from something is only a thought in the opinions of some fallen-natured human beings that they think other people ought to do. And thoughts in the opinions of some fallen-natured human beings aren’t commands from God that are binding on other human beings, and those of you who go around saying that (if you are reading this) need to bear that in mind. I think it’s a perfectly good and healthy thing to: one, have and carry on a good, pleasant and wholesome life with the people you have as your friends and acquaintances among whom you live in the present, and two, at the same time get together with your old friends and acquaintances and spend time reminiscing about all the things that happened in the past that you still like to talk about together. There is not one thing written anywhere in the Word of God that says anything to the effect that doing so is wrong, bad, unhealthy, undesirable from a spiritual point of view or in any other way looked down upon. Looking down on it is just a fallen opinion of fallen man. So, I ask those who say this, What case do you have against doing so? Now let’s take a look at the positive side of it: Since the time this board has existed, many important things have been revealed on it by many people, that have done much to set many other people free in many ways. Although so much good was happening at Chapel, due to the fact that our leader had secretly backsidden, was living in sin and was trying to staff off any opposition to being dealt with about the sinful state he was living in, he had to put a lot of misguided policy in place, much of which was hurtful to people. Well, a number of people have had information that they have shared on this board that has posthumously undone much of the harm that many suffered as a result of that. Another thing: Sometimes when we dig up from our memories some of the times when we were experiencing the glory of God back then, and share them with one another today, reminding one another of them, sometimes it helps others to remember the times, and then, upon remembering them, they can once again re-experience some of the glory that they are helped to remember from times past. There is no question that this is, spiritually, a positive thing to do for one another. (Continued)