Untitled Document

Football Rules, OK?
How About Football WITHOUT Rules? OK?
Gerald Cowan

About the turn of the twentieth century there was a new game called football being played on American college campuses. A lot of it was what we would recognize today: four downs to make ten yards by passing the ball or carrying it until one crossed the other team's goal line. We would also recognize the points scoring system. But beyond that we might not recognize the game at all. There was no protective padding and no rules to protect the players from each other. What today would be called a foul was then just part of the game. If one person was having a really good game and making a lot of progress for his team the other team would "take him out," any way they could. Their coach might instruct them to do it. It was a violent game in which bones were often broken, fingers and toes crushed, eyes gouged out and ears ripped off. Some players were blinded or deafened or crippled for life. Some actually died on the field, or from injuries suffered in the game. Finally some major colleges, including Harvard and Yale, decided to ban football. The pleasure the game gave to spectators did not justify the risks taken by the players. Football might never have become the major sport it is today in schools, colleges, universities — to say nothing of the prominent position it holds in professional sports — had the decision of Harvard and Yale been the end of the matter.

But there was a certain influential man whose son played football at Harvard. This man saw great potential in the game and wanted it to continue. So he suggested that all the schools get together and formulate strict rules that would enhance the game, and would also protect players and not pose such a risk to life and limb. They took him up on the suggestion and formulated a comprehensive rule system. The rest, as we sometimes say, is history. Do you wonder who the influential man was who was so interested in sports that he made such a wise recommendation, a man so influential that colleges and universities were willing to listen to him? It was Theodore Roosevelt, then president of the United States. Some may not have been aware that the "rough riding Teddy" of military fame had another side, a side that loved sports and education, a side that valued an nurtured the young people of the country, that valued rules above everything and thought everybody should obey the laws governing everything. He did some other things while he was president to establish law and make sure others obeyed it, especially in business and politics.

That is a really good thing, isn't it? I mean, that there are rules and laws that everybody has to obey. Can you imagine what it would be like if there were no laws, no rules, no standards? Anyone could do anything he wanted to, without restriction or punishment. That may sound OK if you're thinking about no restrictions on what you ear or how you spend your time, no curfews, no chores to do, no traffic laws and no restriction on who could drive a car, no school unless you wanted to go, and no job unless you wanted to work. But it would also mean that anybody who wanted to could bring a gun to school or to the work place and just start shooting everybody, including you. Anybody who wanted to could beat you up, take your money, take your car — do just about anything else you can think of and not worry about being caught or punished. I'm really glad there are laws to restrict others, even though the same laws restrict me too.

It works the same way in religion. There are rules, laws, restrictions and commandments. You have to do it God's way or it will not be accepted. Jeremiah 10:23 is still valid: "The way of man is not in himself. It is not in man who walks to direct his own steps." But Judges 17:6, 18:1, 19:1, 21:25 where it says, "There was no king in Israel; every man did whatever seemed right in his own eyes" is not valid. Notice these New Testament references: "Make disciples...teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded" (Mt. 28:18-20). It is when "you obeyed from the heart the doctrine delivered to you" that you became "free from sin and servants of righteousness" (Romans 6:17). "Be doers of the word and not hearers only" (James 1:22 and Rom. 2:13). We learn from 2 Tim. 2:5 and 1 Cor. 9:24-27 that we must contend lawfully and exercise self-control in everything, sports and everything else. Those who are righteous are "scarcely saved" " they have no more than is needed for their own salvation. So where will the disobedient sinful person appear" (1 Peter 4:17-19).

Football without rules, the family without rules, the school, the nation and the world without rules, or religion without rules — it will not work in anything. So let's admit that God rules. OK?