This is the third and final lesson of the series. We started with the question of what denominationalism does to Christ. It certainly does not honour Him and it is the elephant in the room since everybody knows that it is so inconsistent. Then we went to the question of the Restoration plea which is essentially a return to the Bible only. Now we want to deal with the question of the church of Christ.
It is obvious that what is known as Christendom today is a far cry from what the church was 2000 years ago. There is not a Protestant church that is over 500 years old. The Greek Orthodox goes back 1000 years, and the Catholic church goes back 1400 years to their first Pope. But what we want to know about is the Church as Christ envisioned it and His apostles set it up 2000 years ago. This was before there were denominations and we want to be this church. What we don’t want to do is simply create another denominational organization, though some might suggest there is no other alternative.
The question might be phrased like this: If you are a group separate from denominationalism (ie. non-denominational or pre-denominational), aren’t you just another group that is adding to religious division rather than trying to solve it? Aren’t you, in reality, just another denomination?
Various approaches have and are being made: There is the ecumenical movement – what I call the smorgasbord movement whereby a sort of horse-trading goes on where “we’ll adopt this tenet of yours if you’ll adopt this practice of ours”. This is obviously a compromise movement and results in the Word of God, which is the truth, taking a back seat to the doctrines and preferences of man.
Then there is the inter-denominational approach which says we’ll all agree to disagree, pretend that the differences don’t matter, slap one another on the back and call one another “brother”, but maintain our distinctive denominations. Again, the desire to be true to God’s word takes a back seat and error remains and is tolerated.
As in all things, it is easy to be negative without putting forth something constructive – like being in Opposition. So then, what is it? I think the first thing we need to realize is that not everybody cares about this question. Some are quite content with the way things are, for it is perceived to be part of egalitarian democratic freedom to have a supermarket of churches so that I can simply choose one that suits my likings and is on a convenient corner. However the truth was not made to suit us, it was to save us, and in that it suits us! God didn’t run the truth by us to get our approval before He invoked it as truth. As Jesus taught in the parable of the wheat and tares, the true and the false will all stand together in the field till harvest time when the wheat will be gathered into the barn and the tares will be burned up. So truth and error will be with us for the duration. But for those who do care, let me lay down some principles that I believe to be helpful to this problem.
First, there is a pattern to New Testament Christianity. In Deut. 12:8 God prescribed that Israel would be a united nation under law and men would not do that which was right in their own eyes. But by Judges 21:25 we see they are doing exactly what God didn’t want! Many see Christianity in the same light – a hodge-podge wherein every man does his own thing (whatever seems right to you is right, even if it is wrong for someone else). Christianity didn’t begin that way and was never intended to be that way. It is not a subjective hodge-podge, but an objective planned thing. (Eph. 3:10,11,12)
Christianity is a planned entity, and it is distinctive according to God’s design, not what I prefer it to be or what you prefer it to be. It is not doing that which is right in your own eyes. How I feel about something might not be how God feels about it. This is why people disagree with the Bible – because it disagrees with them! Note the following scriptures:
Jer. 17:9: The heart is desperately wicked; who can know it?
Jer. 10:23: The way of man is not in himself…
Prov. 14:12 ; There is a way which seems right unto a man but the end thereof is the way of death.
Prov. 28:26: He that trusts in his own heart is a fool
The Bible is utterly opposed to what we may feel or think! Therefore, the religion of the Bible is an objective one, not subjective, whereby one accepts and obeys plain statements of facts, not feelings! Now, if we dispense with all the creeds, catechisms and pronouncements of popes and religious councils, and submit to the N.T. pattern of stated facts, we will restore New testament Christianity. Some have wondered (perhaps mischievously) which N.T. church we want to restore since there were many and they were different: eg. Jerusalem, Antioch, Corinth, Rome, Galatia, Laodicea etc.. That question reveals a misunderstanding of the concept. All the congregations in the N.T. were different because they all had problems and that is why the letters were written unto them. They had differences, but here’s the rub, THEY WERE ALL TAUGHT TO BE THE SAME! They were all taught to work toward the ideal by rectifying those areas in which they were deficient or out of the way. Note the following statements of Scripture:
John 17:20,21 – faith through the words of the apostles ending in unity
1 Cor. 4:17: I sent you Timothy……to bring to your remembrance of my ways in Christ….as I teach everywhere in every church.
1 Cor. 7:17: …so let him walk…and so I ordain in all churches.
! Cor. 14:33,37: God is not the author of confusion……..if any man be a prophet…let him acknowledge that the things I write are the commandments of the Lord.
1 Cor. 16:1: …as I gave order to the churches of Galatia…so do you.
1 Tim. 1:3: ….charge some that they teach no other doctrine ( how could this be possible if the N.T. religion had no doctrinal identity?)
2 Tim. 1:13: …hold fast the pattern of sound words which you heard from me (to deny there is a pattern makes it impossible for us to hold to it).
So distinctive is N.T. Christianity it is called “the” way 8 times in the book of Acts (9:2; 18:24,26; 19:9,23; 22:4; 24:14,22). In Acts 18:24-26 we have an encounter between a preacher and a Christian couple. The way is an accurate way, so much so that this couple’s ears took in an uncertain sound. Not only that, they could take the preacher aside and expound unto him the way of God more accurately by their mouth. So, it can be spoken, it can be heard, and it can be discerned as to whether it is accurate or not.
Another term used throughout the New Testament in relation to the pattern of N.T. Christianity is the faith. The term is not only used of personal faith but of Christianity itself. Note the following:
Acts 6:7: …many priests were obedient to the faith.
Acts 14:22: …..Christians were exhorted to continue in the faith
Gal. 1:23: Paul said that he preached the faith:- not yours or mine, or one is as good as another, but THE FAITH.
Phil. 1:27: Christians were exhorted to strive for the faith of the gospel
Jude 3. Christians were exhorted to contend for the faith once and for all delivered
Eph. 4:4-6, 11-13: Christians were told to grow to attain the unity of the faith
Note that the term is always singular – THE faith (quite in contrast to modern expressions such as “members of the various faiths”). It can be obeyed, continued in, preached, striven for, contended for and attained. Is there a pattern to Christianity? No doubt about it! This being so, the model of the church presented in Scripture is of an identifiable, unified body, not a hodge-podge of loosely related religious groups each doing what is right in their own eyes. In Deut. 4:2; Prov. 30:5,6; and Rev. 22:18,19 we have the same message:- do not add to God’s word nor take away from it. As soon as we make additions or subtractions we do injury to the truth. We need to speak where the Bible speaks and be silent where the Bible is silent. We need to have book, chapter, and verse for the things we declare.
So what is the non-denominational (or pre-denominational) church of Christ? What is it trying to do about religious division and confusion in the community today? Let me present a scenario before you that hopefully will be helpful.
Acts 2 records the first Gospel sermon ever preached. After proving Jesus to be the Son of God risen from the dead, the people respond (v.37 – ..what shall we do? ). Peter’s answer is found in v.38 (repent and be baptised). What sort of response was there? V.41 tells us that some three thousand people obeyed the command. This created great community interest and it continued day after day (v.47 ..the Lord added to the church daily those that were being saved). Did you note that? They were saved and added to the church by the Lord. This is the original pattern. You cannot join the church of Christ as you would, say, join a club or a fellowship. You have to be added by the Lord and He does that when you obey what is essential to salvation.
Now, let us suppose a similar meeting is held today. The same truths are taught and after the preacher got through telling the people what to do to be saved, fifty people want to obey. They believe Jesus to be the Christ, repent of their sins, confess HIm, and are baptised for the remission of sins. Are they Christians? Yes. Are they saved? Yes. Are they members of the church? Yes. Now for the question crucial to the thrust of all this. What denomination do they belong to? Hold that thought.
Now let me present another scenario to you. Suppose all the denominations in an area got together to try and promote unity and they held a series of meetings on the basis that only the Bible was to be preached, and nothing peculiar to each denomination was to be introduced to the proceedings. Suppose all the denominational preachers were loyal to their agreement and they preached it just like Peter in Acts 2. Now let us suppose that fifty people obey the gospel.
Now we come to the last night of the meeting and a preacher gets up and says “We’ve had a wonderful meeting in the spirit of unity, and fifty people have been saved. Now you should join a church, and I open the doors of my church and all those who wish to join my denomination stand over here with me.” No one responds. Now, suppose every preacher makes the same appeal but no one elects to join any of the denominations. Somewhat flummoxed and dismayed, a preacher stands and says, “We don’t understand – we’ve preached our hearts out for the duration of the meeting and fifty of you responded and now you should join a denomination but you won’t – we want an explanation.”
Now suppose one of the fifty stands and replies, “If we are saved then we are members of the Lord’s church: we are children of God. We don’t know which denomination to join because we have read our Bibles and can’t find where anyone in the first century joined a denomination. So we have decided not to join a denomination, but to meet together to worship according to the New testament pattern, and encourage and support one another to live for Him.”
So, who are these people? Does that statement change their status? No. What is their creed? The Word of God. Who is their Head? Jesus Christ. What binds them together since they have no ecclesiastical or denominational authority over them? Simply their common desire to be obedient to God and His word. They’re neither Catholic, Protestant or Calathumpian – they’re simply Christians. So, were they contributing to Christian unity, or to Christian division?