We need to write out exactly what we learned from the workers, then compare it to the Bible.

What the Workers Say - What the Bible Says By J.M.

The whole idea of going Two-by-Two is not some magic prescription

given by Jesus for our salvation as the workers have inferred. 

- - -COMMENTS- - -

Even they wouldn't come right out and say that going Two-by-Two saves anyone.  They believe that people have to be associated with THEM and obey the headworker for salvation.  They think that anyone else who goes Two-by-Two or has meeting in their homes are lost.  Not only that, but if you pin a worker down and ask him or her point blank if they KNOW he is saved or if anyone is saved, they will tell you they can't know for sure because no one can know until life is over.

THAT IS NOT SALVATION according to scripture.
 
This morning I was thinking about the problem of postmodernism, the philosophy which says that everyone has his own truth, that there is NO TRUTH at all, that people are supposed to deconstruct what is written or said and then reconstruct it to fit whatever view of reality they prefer.  This is what the media, college professors, the political leaders and those who want to reshape society are doing.
 
This actually isn't too far from what people have done for millenia.  And I believe this is what the early workers accomplished with so many country people.  Our relatives and most early Two-by-Two's were farm people who were well meaning, hard working and wanted to serve Jesus.  Along comes some people who denounce education and status, they look a bit countrified and appear to be serious and committed to their ideas, so our ancestors bit the baited hook.  It was an appealing and comforting idea that didn't take any mental effort, no monetary expectations. 

It fit their comfort zone. 

They didn't have to learn anything from the Bible, or believe any specific doctrines.  They could read a scripture, allegorize it, or read a comic strip and allegorize it and give their testimony and feel spiritual about it.  It was an entertaining way to live and they had a 4 day camping trip every year to socialize with others in their same comfort zone.
 
But their children and grandchildren saw through the lies or became aware that the lie was not satisfying them as had been promised. 

But they are still caught on the hook and don't know how to get off. 

They are held there by their own Biblical ignorance and the influence of familial love.
 
I think that some people, just like post modernists want to believe these things because it fits their own comfort zone.
 
All we need to do is sit down and write out exactly what we learned from the workers, then compare it to the Bible. 

• They are not teaching the Bible, they are winging it. 
• They make up lies every time they speak.

Going Two-by-Two isn't the issue and it isn't the issue for the workers either.  They really think the salvation issue is giving up a family, a job and a home and THAT is what saves them, not that they are going Two-by-Two.  (They have to die to life) The Two-by-Two thing came from the Mormons, the Jehovah Witness and the workers....  The Mormon missionaries go Two-by-Two, and the Jehovah Witness used to go in pairs to the door but now they bring extra's so they can teach other people how to witness.
 
The workers don't actually follow the directions given in Matthew 10 and Luke 10.  Those instructions were temporary instructions, just like Paul who asked for someone to bring him his pens and scrolls and his cloke when they came to him in prison.  Just because something is in the Bible, doesn't mean it is meant as instruction for all time.  You have to read it in context, who it was to, why it was said, and what was happening at the time.  After Christ was resurrected, everything changed.  The old things were passed away and all things were new.
 
A search for "two and two" of both the KJV and the NIV show this;

KJV
Genesis 7:9
Genesis 7:15 -      Animals into Ark
1 Cronicles 26:17  Levities - 2 & 2 towards Asuppim
Mark 6:7              The Twelve Disciples sent 2 & 2 with power over unclean spirits.
Luke 10:1

Sometimes there were only one Apostle alone, sometimes there were 3, sometimes there were as many as 8 together in one place -- and those were Apostles (after the resurrection when there was a church) and not disciples as are sent out in Mark and Luke before the resurrection, and before there was a church in existence.

Name Withheld

2-22-10