Good afternoon Brother Hamilton and all the saints in La Vista.\u00a0 I have a question that I hope doesn’t sound immature or petty.<\/p>\n
A very close, dear childhood friend of mine died recently and his funeral was today in a denominational church.\u00a0 Presiding over the ceremony was a self-proclaimed “apostle and bishop” and there were other “pastors” both male and female present and involved.\u00a0 There was a lot of instrumental music, “speaking in tongues,” shouting, “catching the Holy Ghost” and a lot of the other foolishness that goes on in the denominational world.\u00a0 I ended up leaving before the ceremony was over because it got harder and harder for me to sit there through all of it and not want to shout the Scriptural truth to all present.<\/p>\n
My friend’s family and mine have been close for several generations and I wanted to give all of the love and support I could but couldn’t stomach all of the nonsense that was going on, so I left.\u00a0 Since I didn’t stay for the burial and repast, should I apologize or send a card to the family asking for forgiveness for leaving so abruptly?\u00a0 Even under these circumstances, God’s truth stands and Christians have a duty to stand on and speak Scriptural truth but it just didn’t seem like the appropriate time to address it. \u00a0I’m concerned that his mother, brothers, etc. won’t understand, even if I give them biblical explanations for why I left.\u00a0 Any advice or insight?<\/p>\n
Thank you and, as always, God bless and keep up the great work!<\/p>\n\t
You are correct that the family won’t understand. I would have left the services too. I’ve had to do similar things at weddings when the celebrations get too far from proper Christian conduct.<\/p>\n
No, you don’t owe anyone an explanation for why you left early. You didn’t do anything wrong. You merely couldn’t stand staying where people were doing things that God doesn’t approve of. Just be prepared that if someone from the family asks, to give them a gentle answer that service wasn’t conducted in a way that you found compatible with the Scriptures. “But avoid foolish and ignorant disputes, knowing that they generate strife. And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will<\/em>” (II Timothy 2:23-26). You never know, leaving an opening for a calm discussion might lead some out of error.<\/p>\n\t Thank you, Brother Hamilton. I’m sure you hear this often, but the work you do is a credit to the Lord, His Word, and all those truly desiring to learn while worshiping Him in spirit and truth. Thank you and God bless.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: Good afternoon Brother Hamilton and all the saints in La Vista.\u00a0 I have a question that I hope doesn’t sound immature or petty. A very close, dear childhood friend of mine died recently and his funeral was today in a denominational church.\u00a0 Presiding over the ceremony was a self-proclaimed “apostle and bishop” and there…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[1505],"class_list":["post-43035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-funerals"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":22078,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-do-you-handle-attending-a-funeral-where-the-practices-are-unscriptural\/","url_meta":{"origin":43035,"position":0},"title":"How do you handle attending a funeral where the practices are unscriptural?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 4, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: This past weekend I attended my grandmother's funeral, but I have a question. My family is very unscriptural in most of their\u00a0ways, but while I was there they had a woman preach or eulogize the funeral I am wondering if I am in sin by attending it and staying\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":33253,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-a-marriage-still-valid-if-it-was-done-by-a-woman\/","url_meta":{"origin":43035,"position":1},"title":"Is a marriage still valid if it was done by a woman?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 15, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Good evening brother. I would again like to commend you for the wonderful work you and the brethren are doing on your website on behalf of the Lord and His church. My question:\u00a0 A friend of mine recently got married.\u00a0 She and her husband were wed in a denominational\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":37631,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-i-speak-at-a-denominational-church\/","url_meta":{"origin":43035,"position":2},"title":"Should I speak at a denominational church?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 8, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi brother Jeff, I was discussing the Bible with a man who happens to be a member of a denomination. He also occupies a high position in their church. After reasoning with him from the Scripture, he asked me to come and preach in their church. I told him\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":17476,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/was-i-married-without-my-consent\/","url_meta":{"origin":43035,"position":3},"title":"Was I married without my consent?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 30, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I will like to first thank you for the work you do. I have a problem that is bothering me, and I would like to seek answers. I met a lady while in my second year at university. We dated for a while, but we had many challenges as\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":43316,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/would-it-be-wrong-for-me-to-skip-my-mothers-funeral\/","url_meta":{"origin":43035,"position":4},"title":"Would it be wrong for me to skip my mother’s funeral?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 9, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I am having difficulties getting along with my sister, especially regarding our mom and her care. We just recently lost our father. My sister has been difficult in the past and is more controlling now. I now realize that it is best for my sanity if I take breaks\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":25431,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/when-is-a-baptism-valid\/","url_meta":{"origin":43035,"position":5},"title":"When Is a Baptism Valid?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 28, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"by Matthew Bassford Seven or eight years ago, I got a call from a brother in St. Louis who asked me to study with his mother.\u00a0 I set up the study and began, as I usually do, by asking her questions about her religious background.\u00a0 She explained that she had\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Baptism5.gif?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43035\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Response:<\/h2>\n