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Glen B Smitm
To:Lou Newton
Jan 3 at 12:33 AM
New Testament Church
I regularly drive pass a strip center where a sign above one section reads, "New Testament Church." Every time I chuckle and wonder when there will be a building with a sign reading, "Old Testament Church?"
Some Christians are of the persuasion that the New Testament Church was somehow superior in practice, sanctity or holiness to contemporary congregations. Labeling their congregation as "New Testament Church" announces to outsiders that they are more biblical than other congregations. The use of "Bible Church" is making the same exclusive claim. Probably, these contemporary New Testament Church congregations have not read the New Testament epistles or either do not understand what these letters sent to New Testament congregations reveal.
Look at the Epistle of Jude to observe what a New Testament congregation could be like.
Jude
4 For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. . . .
8 Yet in like manner (of unfaithful Israel as summarized in Jude 5-7) these people (in Jude 4) also, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones. . . .
10 But these people blaspheme all that they do not understand, and they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively. 11 Woe to them! For they walked in the way of Cain and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam's error and perished in Korah's rebellion.
12 These are:
hidden reefs at your love feasts, as they feast with you without fear,
shepherds feeding themselves;
waterless clouds, swept along by winds;
fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted;
13 wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame;
wandering stars, for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever.
14 It was also about these that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones, 15 to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” 16 These are grumblers, malcontents, following their own sinful desires; they are loud-mouthed boasters, showing favoritism to gain advantage.
17 But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. 18 They said to you, “In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions.” 19 It is these who cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit.
Nearly all the New Testament epistles were written to address a troubling situation among the Christians in a city. Such epistles are categorized as "occasional" letters – written to address an occasion, in other words, a troubling situation.
A study of Church history will reveal there were no Golden Ages of the Church. The Church is always in crisis whether the period was the Early Church, the medieval Church, the Reformation Church, the period of the English Reformation, or the Oxford Movement, or the Great Awakening, or in contemporary times. There is always a threat to the holiness and unity of the Church because ungodly people associate with the fellowship of believers. Rebellion will always exist among the Church. What else should be expected considering the spiritual battle the Body of Christ is in against evil?
To think the Church is defeated or apostate because there is worldliness in Christian congregations, organizations, and leaders is severe blindness to seeing there have always been "tares" sown by the evil one among the wheat (Matthew 13:24-30, 35-43). Also, recall the prayer of the Lord Jesus In John 17 about the situation in which He leaves the very disciples who witnessed Him in the flesh. His prayer is also specifically said to be for all believers in the future.
"I’m not asking you to take them out of the world, but to keep them safe from Satan’s power.
"They are not part of this world any more than I am.
"Make them pure and holy through teaching them your words of truth.
"As you sent me into the world, I am sending them into the world,
and I consecrate myself to meet their need for growth in truth and holiness.
"I am not praying for these alone but also for the future believers who will come to me because of the testimony of these (John 17:20).
"My prayer for all of them is that they will be of one heart and mind, just as you and I are, Father
"—that just as you are in me and I am in you, so they will be in us,
"and the world will believe you sent me."
(John 17:15-21 TLB).
Christian congregations have never been free from wolves in sheep's clothing. The very first and only Church to be the pure Bride of Christ is the harvested and resurrected children of God at his coming.
Resolution:
The work the Lord Jesus accomplished upon the cross was filthy for it made Him who knew no sin to be sin. (2 Corinthians 5:21). Therefore, just as the Lord Jesus loved and ministered to the wretched of the world, His disciples must thrust their hands into the world into which the Lord Jesus sends His disciples – into the vulgar world, the perverted world, the criminal world, and the deceived world – so as to grasp the lost and dying for the LORD. His commission to disciples is to proclaim the Good News to the rebellious and filthy sinners of the world rather than clicking their tongues at the tares among the congregations. The problem of the tares is handled by the angels at the time of harvest (Matthew 13:30, 41-42). Disciples are not to pluck the tares from among the wheat – not their job.
No need for a New Testament Church because all the contemporary Christian churches of America are already very much like the New Testament congregations – too many tares!
31 December 2019 the old scribe
To:Lou Newton
Jan 3 at 12:33 AM
New Testament Church
I regularly drive pass a strip center where a sign above one section reads, "New Testament Church." Every time I chuckle and wonder when there will be a building with a sign reading, "Old Testament Church?"
Some Christians are of the persuasion that the New Testament Church was somehow superior in practice, sanctity or holiness to contemporary congregations. Labeling their congregation as "New Testament Church" announces to outsiders that they are more biblical than other congregations. The use of "Bible Church" is making the same exclusive claim. Probably, these contemporary New Testament Church congregations have not read the New Testament epistles or either do not understand what these letters sent to New Testament congregations reveal.
Look at the Epistle of Jude to observe what a New Testament congregation could be like.
Jude
4 For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. . . .
8 Yet in like manner (of unfaithful Israel as summarized in Jude 5-7) these people (in Jude 4) also, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones. . . .
10 But these people blaspheme all that they do not understand, and they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively. 11 Woe to them! For they walked in the way of Cain and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam's error and perished in Korah's rebellion.
12 These are:
hidden reefs at your love feasts, as they feast with you without fear,
shepherds feeding themselves;
waterless clouds, swept along by winds;
fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted;
13 wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame;
wandering stars, for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever.
14 It was also about these that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones, 15 to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” 16 These are grumblers, malcontents, following their own sinful desires; they are loud-mouthed boasters, showing favoritism to gain advantage.
17 But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. 18 They said to you, “In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions.” 19 It is these who cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit.
Nearly all the New Testament epistles were written to address a troubling situation among the Christians in a city. Such epistles are categorized as "occasional" letters – written to address an occasion, in other words, a troubling situation.
A study of Church history will reveal there were no Golden Ages of the Church. The Church is always in crisis whether the period was the Early Church, the medieval Church, the Reformation Church, the period of the English Reformation, or the Oxford Movement, or the Great Awakening, or in contemporary times. There is always a threat to the holiness and unity of the Church because ungodly people associate with the fellowship of believers. Rebellion will always exist among the Church. What else should be expected considering the spiritual battle the Body of Christ is in against evil?
To think the Church is defeated or apostate because there is worldliness in Christian congregations, organizations, and leaders is severe blindness to seeing there have always been "tares" sown by the evil one among the wheat (Matthew 13:24-30, 35-43). Also, recall the prayer of the Lord Jesus In John 17 about the situation in which He leaves the very disciples who witnessed Him in the flesh. His prayer is also specifically said to be for all believers in the future.
"I’m not asking you to take them out of the world, but to keep them safe from Satan’s power.
"They are not part of this world any more than I am.
"Make them pure and holy through teaching them your words of truth.
"As you sent me into the world, I am sending them into the world,
and I consecrate myself to meet their need for growth in truth and holiness.
"I am not praying for these alone but also for the future believers who will come to me because of the testimony of these (John 17:20).
"My prayer for all of them is that they will be of one heart and mind, just as you and I are, Father
"—that just as you are in me and I am in you, so they will be in us,
"and the world will believe you sent me."
(John 17:15-21 TLB).
Christian congregations have never been free from wolves in sheep's clothing. The very first and only Church to be the pure Bride of Christ is the harvested and resurrected children of God at his coming.
Resolution:
The work the Lord Jesus accomplished upon the cross was filthy for it made Him who knew no sin to be sin. (2 Corinthians 5:21). Therefore, just as the Lord Jesus loved and ministered to the wretched of the world, His disciples must thrust their hands into the world into which the Lord Jesus sends His disciples – into the vulgar world, the perverted world, the criminal world, and the deceived world – so as to grasp the lost and dying for the LORD. His commission to disciples is to proclaim the Good News to the rebellious and filthy sinners of the world rather than clicking their tongues at the tares among the congregations. The problem of the tares is handled by the angels at the time of harvest (Matthew 13:30, 41-42). Disciples are not to pluck the tares from among the wheat – not their job.
No need for a New Testament Church because all the contemporary Christian churches of America are already very much like the New Testament congregations – too many tares!
31 December 2019 the old scribe