There are many ideas we see around us at any given time that are not directly addressed by the scriptures. These grey areas are the terrain in which people frequently prove themselves, generally to their own destruction.
When the Lord speaks, it’s for a reason. When He doesn’t, it is also for a reason. When He sends a message to be proclaimed far and wide, He does it for a reason. When He speaks to an individual, without permission or obligation to publish a message widely, that is for a reason.
When the Lord voices an opinion, it’s important to take notice. When He voices no opinion, it is dangerous to formulate one for Him and impose it upon Him, and even more so to turn around and impose it upon others as though it came from Him.
He knows precisely what He is doing, we are still figuring it out.
As has been pointed out elsewhere, Adam was told by the Lord not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil (Moses 3:16-17). After this, Eve was created. When Satan approached her, her understanding was that she was not to eat of that tree, or touch it (Moses 4:8-9). Where did she get this additional instruction? Apparently when Adam related to her the instructions he learned from God prior to her creation, he added an additional cautionary layer of rules to God’s instructions, the idea being that telling her not to touch it would certainly prevent her from going further and eating it. But this created the opening for her deception, as the temple ceremony presents Satan holding the fruit forth to Eve. If he could touch it and did not die, then it seemed reasonable that she could as well. And if she could touch it without dying, which she believed God warned would happen, then could she not also eat of it and expect not to die?
Adding rules above and beyond what God gave was precisely the tool Satan exploited to bring forth the Fall. Observing present situations, one can see turmoil and destruction continue to be brought forth whenever man believes himself wiser than God, adding layers of additional preventive rules in hopes of keeping people from approaching the heaven-decreed sins.
If the scriptures do not place a requirement, it is not appropriate for us to impose it upon anyone else. If the scriptures give us no prohibition, it is not appropriate for us to impose it upon anyone else. If the scriptures do give us a requirement or prohibition, it is not our place to add to or take from or adjust it. If the scriptures say nothing at all, it is not our place to fill in the blanks for the Lord. We may receive personal prohibitions or requirements from the Lord, as individuals, but that is between us and Him. If it isn’t in scripture, it isn’t for everyone, and only He gets to determine where it does or doesn’t apply.
