A Holy Kiss?

Holy Handshakes Batman, David Pack is Wrong Again! Copyright © 2011, Gun Lap

A Holy Handshake?

Here is the Restored Church of God's "answer" to the question, "What is a holy kiss?" taken from their web site on Dec 28, 2011 (in the "Questions and Answers" section found here).

What is a “holy kiss”?

This term appears several times throughout the New Testament. One such example is I Thessalonians 5:26: “Greet all the brethren with a holy kiss.” What is a “holy kiss”?

Upon examining the article entitled “Kiss” in Smith’s Bible Dictionary, we see that it was customary to greet one another with a kiss during the apostles’ time. It still is in many countries today. But this kiss was not something God commanded the apostles or anyone to do. It was merely a custom; a salutation.

Today, one may view the modern tradition of shaking hands as being equivalent with a “holy kiss.” This is a more acceptable greeting in our society. (Restored Church of God website)

David Pack (or whoever wrote this) does not answer the question at all. There are two parts to the question, and he answers neither of them. He has to properly explain what makes a greeting "holy" as well as why his church members don't greet each other with a kiss. He replaces, apparently on his own authority, kissing with shaking hands, and ignores the word "holy." Even if we replace kissing with shaking hands, what makes the handshake holy? Does Pack believe in holy handshakes? Pack has not answered the "holy" part of the question until he explains what makes a handshake holy.

But this kiss was not something God commanded the apostles or anyone to do. It was merely a custom; a salutation. (Restored Church of God, ibid.)

Say what? Not commanded? Can't this guy read? Of course it was commanded. What gives Pack the audacity to say it was not commanded? Does he outrank Paul? The Churches of God (COGs) claim the Bible is without error. If so, no error was made when this was written. It means what it says and it says what it means. "Kiss" means kiss. "Holy" means holy. Do it means do it, and they were told to do it. Where is the verse that says otherwise? Pack provides no such verse.

If we are going to ignore the clear meaning of scripture just to fit in with society, why not jettison the Sabbath also? Can't we just call it a Jewish custom? What's the difference between rejecting the Sabbath by reducing it to a custom and rejecting the holy kiss by reducing it to a custom? Wasn't footwashing also a custom of the times? Is someone going to tell me the Sabbath and footwashing were commanded? Sure, but so was greeting the brethren with a holy kiss.

Even if kissing was just a custom, who says we can just throw away customs? The KJV calls hair length a "custom" of the church (1 Cor 11:16, "But if any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the churches of God."). Luke called keeping the feast a custom (Luke 2:42, "And when he was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem after the custom of the feast."). The custom of Jesus was to go to the synagogue on the Sabbath and read (Luke 4:16). So on what authority can David Pack just throw away Bible customs?

It is also misleading to quote a Bible dictionary, as if referring to an authority, while at the same time side-stepping the authority of the Bible. The RCG uses the Bible dictionary to tell us that greeting people by kissing was a custom of the times. Well, most people probably already deduced that for themselves. Did we really need a reference book to tell us that? The misleading part of it is that, by referring to a referernce book, the writer (either Pack or someone under his authority) gives the impression he is answering the question authoratatively, when in fact he his just pointing out the obvious—that it was a custom—while ignoring the substance of the issue, which is the Bible command to keep the kissing custom today.

David Pack seems to be rather sneaky that way, quoting supposedly authoratative sources, then slipping things in without any real authority. Thus he gives he impression that he has proven his positions when he has not.

Having been in more than one Church of God, I noticed that this replacement custom of handshaking is not even practiced by everyone. Most women don't seem to pratice it with each other or the men. It is generally only practiced between men. So even a simple handshake is often not practiced in the church, which seems to defeat the entire point of the command. Why would God allow women to ignore his command while expecting the men to keep it? Are we not told by Church of God ministers that God does not play favorites? So there is no actual enforcement of the clear Bible teaching, even after watering it down from a kiss to a handshake to make it more palatable.

People come up with reasons for not kissing (don't spread germs, don't look "gay", don't make people feel uncomfortable, etc) but this is just reasoning around the words of the Bible. Didn't God know about germs? Didn't he know about "gays"? Didn't he think of all these issues 2000 years ago? Yet it still says kiss.

Am I saying people should kiss each other at church services? No. I'm saying that they should face the Bible squarely, and either do what it says or admit it does not carry divine authority. If the Bible were meant for our time it easily could have said "greet the brethren with a customary greeting" or simply "greet the brethren". If God inspired it, he would have forseen that customs might change and would have worded his command accordingly. So if God wrote it, he must have meant kiss, because that's what it says.

If this seems like a picky point, I'm just getting it from the Bible. Is God picky? The Churches of God put people out for violating the hair length custom, which might also seem like a picky point.