Final Point of the Radmacher Lesson - 28

False ideas get stuck in your head.

What about binding things? And agreeing in prayer? What about two or more necessary to make a church?

Earl Radmacher expelled them all. They are products made up from verses used out of context. It happens all the time and Christians get these ideas stuck in their heads.

1. Two or three Christians do not constitute a church, local or otherwise. Rather, the two or three people has to do with witnesses against sin and/or crime.

2. This is not about power in prayer either. Just because you have one Christian praying, or two, or one hundred and twenty-two, this verse has nothing to do with Christians getting what they want by agreeing through prayer. Rather, it has to do with disciplinary decisions which prayerfully rely upon God for support.

3. Jesus is not suggesting, here, that a few Christians have the power to bind Satan or anything else for that matter. That is not the context of His conversation either. Rather, he is telling his disciples that if proper disciplinary steps are taken in attempts to restore a wayward brother, and if the brother refuses to submit himself to the Church, then the remaining step is to put him out of the fellowship, to treat him as a “Gentile and tax collector.” This is to officially bind up the abuser. In words from the text, “Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heave.” In other words, Jesus assures the disciples, their work is not in vain, for their decision will be supported from heaven by His Father.

You can see how people get false ideas stuck in their heads, when they take verses out of context.