by Tom Wacaster
A search of your ancestral tree will reveal that you may have had ancestors that hung by the neck, but never by the tail. Multitudes are feverishly involved in searching their “roots”; for exactly what reason depends upon the one doing the searching. Mormons search genealogies in hopes that they might find someone for whom they can be baptized; unfortunately proxy baptism is not taught in the Bible, and it is futile to search your family tree in such vain hope. No doubt some (perhaps most) spend an amazing amount of time for no other purpose than satisfying the curiosity to know where we came from. There is much to learn from history, and therein might lay the value of searching one’s roots.
To some, historical “roots” are very important in selecting a religious organization with which to be identified. Identification and participation are based upon how far back one can “trace” the beginning of that church. Is the church a “late comer,” or does it have a long standing reputation of honesty, integrity and spiritual benefit?
Permit me to be a little bold right here and declare that the “tracing” of some denomination's history is of no value whatsoever. For one thing, even if you COULD find some sort of line back several hundred years, it would in no way guarantee the purity of that group's religious practice. The past does not secure the future. The apostle Paul foretold of a “falling away” (1 Tim. 4:1-4). One living in the time of the “apostate” church might easily trace his roots to the time of the apostles, but so what? The question is not “roots,” but “reliability.”
Second, undue emphasis upon historical roots is really caused by a failure to understand the lesson of the parable of the sower. In Luke 8:4-8 Jesus told of the sower who went forth to sow. In the explanation of that parable our Lord pointed out that the seed is the word of God. If one plants a seed, any seed, he will get a crop exactly like that from which the seed was extracted. The “history” of that seed will have no bearing upon what comes forth. The application? If we plant the “seed of God's word” the crop will be exactly like that from which it came! Nothing more; nothing less. Plant the word in an honest heart and the result will be a Christian. My faith is the product of being born of the incorruptible seed. I repeat, it is not a matter of “roots” but “reliability.”