{"id":90355,"date":"2025-09-11T12:00:51","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T17:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=90355"},"modified":"2025-09-11T12:00:51","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T17:00:51","slug":"the-restrictive-nature-of-submission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-restrictive-nature-of-submission\/","title":{"rendered":"The Restrictive Nature of Submission"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t<p>by Zeke Flores<\/p>\n<p>Submitting to the authority of God&#8217;s will is not only serious business, it&#8217;s also very restrictive.\u00a0Because of its very nature, those who submit to authority can only operate within its bounds. What passes for Christianity in America, and across the world, really isn&#8217;t because it goes beyond the authority of Scripture.<\/p>\n<p>The practices of many religious groups are not only <strong>un<\/strong>scriptural but also <strong>anti<\/strong>scriptural.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The hierarchy of priests, bishops, cardinals, and the pope is not found in the New Testament.<\/li>\n<li>The fundraising methods of cafes, restaurants, and bookstores by the church are not found in the New Testament.<\/li>\n<li>Nor is instrumental music in worship and benevolent work to non-Christians from the church&#8217;s treasury found in the New Testament.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Yet all of these are practiced among the majority of churches that claim to be Bible-believing, Bible-teaching churches. These practices are not only without New Testament authorization, but they actually go against the will of God and the new covenant.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m sorry to burst a bubble, but it&#8217;s true. This is not meant to insult but to instigate investigation. Look to the Bible for your faith and practice, not your religion&#8217;s traditions or (worse) what&#8217;s acceptable in our culture.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;<em>Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus<\/em>&#8221; (Colossians 3:17).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Zeke Flores Submitting to the authority of God&#8217;s will is not only serious business, it&#8217;s also very restrictive.\u00a0Because of its very nature, those who submit to authority can only operate within its bounds. What passes for Christianity in America, and across the world, really isn&#8217;t because it goes beyond the authority of Scripture. The&hellip;<\/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":[27],"tags":[54,945,416],"class_list":["post-90355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-obedience","tag-strictness","tag-submission"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":50254,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-does-i-corinthians-113-teach-about-the-role-of-women\/","url_meta":{"origin":90355,"position":0},"title":"What Does I Corinthians 11:3 Teach About the Role of Women?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 30, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"by T. Doy Moyer Guardian of Truth\u00a0- February 2, 1995 I Corinthians 11 has been surrounded by controversy due to the teaching about the covering. It is not the purpose or scope of this article to try to expound a pro or con position on the covering today. Women do\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4181,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-only-reason-polygamy-is-condemned-is-because-the-church-condemns-it\/","url_meta":{"origin":90355,"position":1},"title":"The only reason polygamy is condemned is because the church condemns it.","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 18, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I believe that every word in Scripture is there for a reason. I don't think God plays around with the words in Scripture unless there's a good reason to do so. With that said, have you ever wondered why Matthew 19 is the only quotation of Jesus that includes\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":18857,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-should-business-meetings-be-conducted\/","url_meta":{"origin":90355,"position":2},"title":"How should business meetings be conducted?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 28, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: We have no elders at our small congregation. Do you have information available on the workings of these meetings and its rules? What authority its president has versus its preacher? This probably a funny question to ask, but we do need some advice. Answer: It is clear in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":90235,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-possible-to-identify-the-church-found-in-the-new-testament\/","url_meta":{"origin":90355,"position":3},"title":"Is It Possible to Identify the Church Found in the New Testament?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 8, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Todd Clippard With so many forms of \"Christianity\" today, one may ask, \"How can I know I've found the church of the New Testament?\" With recent estimates showing over 2000 individual religious groups all claiming to be a form of Christianity, this is a valid question, and we can\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":59745,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/sola-scriptura-or-sola-papa\/","url_meta":{"origin":90355,"position":4},"title":"Sola Scriptura or Sola Papa?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 7, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"by Chuck Durham via\u00a0Biblical Insights, Vol. 7, No. 9, Sept. 2007. Pope Benedict XVI released a Vatican document on July 10, 2007, that reasserted the primacy of the Roman Catholic Church as providing the only true path to salvation. The document claims that the Roman Catholic Church is the only\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Audio&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":53555,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-did-nehemiah-threaten-violence\/","url_meta":{"origin":90355,"position":5},"title":"Why did Nehemiah threaten violence?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 26, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have a question: I know Hebrews speaks about how the Old Testament was just a shadow of the New Testament. I was reading Nehemiah and noticed that when the people disobeyed (in chapters 12 and 13) he executed violence and threatened to lay hands on outsiders trying to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90355","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=90355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90355\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}