Some ask, “Why is The UMC breaking up.”
It’s being cleaved….. in my observation and my sincere opinion is that it is an act by none other than the hand of God.
“Cleave- split or sever (something), especially along a natural line or grain; divide, split”
Why? This right here….
The Son is the gleaming brightness of God’s glory. He is the exact likeness of God’s being. He uses his powerful word to hold all things together.
Hebrews 1:3a
17 He was there before anything came into existence and holds it all together right up to this moment. Colossians1:17
When The UMC’s liberal seminaries, leaders, congregations, publications, etc. began impugning, questioning, and dismissing the divine, eternal nature of Jesus Christ, undermining the power and authority of the Word of God, and advancing alternate means of salvation other than Christ, it chose a path contrary to the Christian faith as I and many for centuries have known it. It has nothing to do with sexuality or gender, as far as I am concerned, though for many that is all it is about. That’s their issue, not mine.
I have watched it since the 1980’s. I have grieved it and been on my face before the Lord over it on multiple occasions –notably with the UMW’s debacle of Sophia worship in 1994, Karen Oliveto’s diatribe on Jesus’ bigotry and our making an “idol” of him, the farcical General Conference antics through the last decade, the insistence by liberals and the bureaucratic agencies and the budgets they control that a pro-life stance was unacceptable, and the disregard for Discipline, accountability, and doctrine– I tried to be a balance against such things, in line with the Word, to quell the flushing of The UMC that was gaining momentum.
Now, as far as I am concerned, The UMC is done. I and others did not not become “done” with it. Rather, it has became “done” with Jesus Christ. For that reason , it has cleaved itself by its failures of integrity and lack of fealty. Jesus Himself said that only the Holy Spirit can reveal the true identity of the Christ to a person. That suggests to me that, in dismissing Jesus Christ, The UMC is choosing also to dismiss the Holy Spirit that points to and illuminates Christ, and also Almighty God, of whom Jesus Christ is the exact replica of His glory. It is with the Triune God that I must go. Without Him I cannot stay. The Triune God is abased and mocked in The United Methodist Church, not exalted, not praised, not worshipped. God is, at best, condescended to, given lip service, and excused.
I await the decision of my home congregation to see its choice. That will determine my place of worship and religious practice for the balance of my earthly life.
Even now God is separating the sheep from the goats. Each has its place. The sheep will follow the Shepherd’s voice. The goats will require a different means of herd management. God will still be just as sovereign over the goats, but their way will be harder, more fraught with butting and bruising and bleating….
In the end, each will die. One will have been fed by the Good Shepherd in green pastures, will have given its wool season after season from its coat to clothe and warm the families of the Master’s household, and will die when its time has come. The other will have sought and eaten whatever it could grab from whatever source, and will have its milk taken from it and cheese made to feed the appetites of babies and those elders or ill who have lost their teeth and can’t eat meat.
Jesus told His followers to feed His sheep, not to be fed by His goats, satisfying themselves through their produce. Clearly, it seems the sheep had more value to the Shepherd and are in more need of a better diet that requires a Shepherd’s care. The goats can be, and often are, given whatever is leftover or whatever they can scrap for. The goats lack discriminating taste about what’s palatable and will eat anything put before them.
So it will be among men. some will discern and judge what’s best. Others will take what they get or can scrap for.
It is said that in the last days this will be the work of the Shepherd, separating the sheep from the goats. There is the reason that an unblemished sheep was ceremonially sacrificed and why a goat was set out in the wilderness by the priests to the fate ascribed by God ….. the scapegoat. God alone would decide its fate in the end….. that was the default sacrifice, entrusting the salvation of God’s people to whatever God would will to do. The scapegoat is not the sacrifice offerred by one who knows the Lord, the Good Shepherd, intimately and trusts Him completely with one’s care and safety.
Why would one not choose to have the Father’s Son, to whom has been given all authority over heaven and earth as her Advocate and Defender, seeing as how He has already paid the price of my redemption and I may go free. The prison doors are open, the shackles fallen away. Why would I push that invitation to freedom back at Him and, in effect, say, “No, I am not worthy of such love and freedom” or, “No, you are not who i want rescuing me.. I’m a good person. No one would dare lie or suspect me of impure motives. How dare you suggest that I even need your salvation!”
I will choose to be a sheep. I will rest in the Good Shepherd’s care and know that He will be with me when my time to die is at hand, for He is also the Perfect and Great High Priest and even in my death, He will take my place, the Perfect, Unblemished Lamb of God Who Dies for Me. He, in fact, already has. In life He alone shall be my King. In Eternity He shall be my Omnipresent, Omniscient, Omnipotent Almighty God and I shall join all the saints at His banquet table and be fed by Him even there at the Feast of the Lamb when Christ is forever wed to His Bride, The Church Triumphant, all those whom He has called and who hear, know, and follow His Voice. .
I will continue to trust the Good Shepherd.
https://a-z-animals.com/blog/goat-vs-sheep-6-key-differences-explained/
Another note
Sheep and goats have slightly different breeding cycles and pregnancy progression schedules — goats have cycles a bit longer and embryos that implant slower — but both animals have their babies after the same length of time. Most ewes, female sheep, and does, female goats, are mature enough to start breeding when they are less than a year old, usually around 7 or 8 months.
While both have pregnancies about the same length, goats have longer cycles and therefore deliver a bit less frequently than sheep.