Keep Your Own Inheritance

Numbers 36:9 KJV

Neither shall the inheritance remove from one tribe to another tribe; but every one of the tribes of the children of Israel shall keep himself to his own inheritance.

Since Deuteronomy is essentially a repetition of the wilderness wandering, one could say that the record of those wanderings is completed in Numbers. That being said, the last thing Numbers records is that the tribes of Israel was to continually respect the inheritance of each tribe. 

• They were not to intermingle with the other nations around them
• They were also not to intermingle with the other tribes

The inheritance of each tribe was to remain separate, distinctive and inviolate. 

The Jews, of course, have completely abandoned that practice today. We hear talk of Israel; of the Jew, but never of the individual tribes. I understand in fact, that the record of those tribes has been lost so that a Jew does not know today which tribe he is from. The last thing God commanded has been completely disobeyed. 

I believe something very similar happens in Christendom. The name Christian has become so indistinct that almost anything counts as a Christian, and so long as one says he is a Christian, he is accepted into Christian fellowship with no further examination. 

• Most denominations accept a person of any Christian background into fellowship
• Many churches accept any mode and any sort of baptism as sufficient for fellowship
• Many denominational churches cross denominational and doctrinal lines in their searches for pastors
• Organizations such as Mormons and Seventh Day Adventists are now accepted as being Christian

They make no distinctions anymore. 

But the same trouble happens among independent Baptists. It is impossible to miss that we are not all the same. 

• There are doctrinal differences among independent Baptists
• There are philosophical differences among independent Baptists
• There are practical differences among independent Baptists

I am not suggesting we should attack those who are different any more than God sought war between the tribes of Israel. But I do suggest that the differences are real and that they are important. If we fail to acknowledge those differences and continue to intermingle we will destroy those differences. We will become a blend of doctrinal philosophical and practical positions that are flavorless, distasteful and ineffective in our world. 

Purity of the faith demands that we acknowledge that we are not the same and that we do not intermingle.