The deception of the church began from day one. People are “religious” by nature. Religion is something they “believe” in because it answers some of their basic questions about life. They do not view God in terms of “relationship”. They don’t want their “religion” to be too demanding. That’s why they like professionals to take care of it. For the religious, then, spirituality is reduced to doctrines, forms, teachings, do’s and don’ts, instead of being something that grips their life. And church becomes something to attend or go to, not something to BE. True spirituality, however, is about a vital personal relationship with Jesus Christ, about being born again, about having a divine nature planted like a seed within the human spirit and cooperating with God in nurturing that new life into maturity.
Christians have been deceived for 2,000 years about the true spiritual nature and simplicity of the church. The church became a creature of the world and absorbed the pagan religions it was proselytizing. The church eventually became a monster Jesus Christ Himself wouldn’t have recognized – so far from His original intention.
So, as we come into the “last days,” it would help if we could see the way the church has evolved and what God really wanted to begin with. If we are part of an organization that is already corrupted and deceived, it becomes problematic. Most Christians are like “sheep” who trust their “pastors” to lead them and this is a very dangerous position for them to be in.
The Early Church--What does the Scripture Say?
Our ideas of church are formed by our experience – what we were raised with and are accustomed to. We just assume that since that is the way it is, that is the way “church” should be. What really matters is not so much what you or I think, but what God thinks. What does His Word say? Brothers and sisters, we need to open our minds and hearts and "hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches." Just because we have always done things a certain way, does not necessarily make it right or mean it is God’s way. We had better follow the Lord rather than the traditions of men. There is inertia built into our religious traditions and it is natural to resist change. We are comfortable with the way things are. Most Christians see nothing wrong with their churches. Remember, these institutions tend to change and mold us--not the other way around. They have made us what we are today.
But could this church system be the very instrument of our deception? It should be clear to anyone reading the New Testament that the early Christians did not "go to church". They "were" the church. The Jewish temple was replaced because the church, that is, the people, are now the Temple of God--a corporate dwelling place, not a stone structure. The early church meeting was not something people attended but what they were--a life they shared with one another. It was not dominated by a sermon, or by a single person. Bible teaching was one aspect, but not the central purpose. The early church had nothing in common with the present institution. It was a big family, a dynamic body life, a sharing, loving community where everyone participated as equals:
· And let us consider ONE ANOTHER to provoke unto love and to good works: Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is; but EXHORTING ONE ANOTHER and so much the more as you see the day approaching (Hebrews 10:24-25)
· How is it then, brethren, when you assemble, EVERY ONE has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification. (I Corinthians 14:26)
· Speaking to ONE ANOTHER in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs and making melody in your heart to the Lord (Ephesians 5:19)
· Let the Word of Christ dwell richly within you, with all wisdom, teaching and admonishing ONE ANOTHER with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. (Colossians 3:16)
The key characteristic of the early church was mutuality--EVERY ONE participated in the building up of the other. Except for special occasions, the meeting was a corporate experience. It was not dominated by professional clergy, or a special music worship group and worship leader. Each believer brought something to the meeting and was given the freedom to share it with others through his own spiritual gift. The sermon was not the center of worship. There was no bulletin listing the "order of worship" telling you when to stand up, sit down, sing, pray or listen. Instead, the Spirit of God was in utter control moving freely through every member of the Body. The phrase "one another" is used 60 times in the New Testament. They were actively involved in building up one another. This is far different than the so-called lay ministries available today--ushering, singing in the Choir, cleaning the "sanctuary", or flipping transparencies. The early church was a living organism--the body of Christ--not an organization.
It relied entirely on the spiritual life of the individual members. If they had a living, vibrant relationship with the Lord, the meetings were rich expressions of their experience. If not, the meetings would die. In contrast to the temple worship of both Jews and pagans, the early church met mainly in homes (Acts 2:46, 8:3; Romans 16:3,5; I Corinthians 16:19, Col 4:15, Philemon 1:2, II John 10, etc.). If there is a New Testament form, it is the house church. The Church is referred to as the "family" and "household of God". Talk about community, they lived it. The home is the natural setting for "one anothering", for fellowship, for communal meals. Galatians 6:10 refers to those of the "household of Faith". Ephesians 2:19 says we are "of God’s household". Hebrews 3:15 talks of "the household of God, which is the church of the living God."
If the Early Church followed tradition they would have met in temples as the Jews had done. There was a conflict with the Judaizers who would have patterned the church after the Jews, but Jesus and the apostles continually fought against them. Jesus was not establishing another religion, but a vertical and horizontal relationship between Himself, the individual Christian and the corporate body. The church is described in organic terms, and when it is described as a building, it is described as a "living building." It was distinguished because it was full of people who were in fellowship with Jesus. That was the only glue that held the church together--a common life. For nearly 300 hundred years, the Church met predominately in homes.
There were many forces at work to get the worshiper into "holy temples"--the Judaizers who would have made them a Jewish sect, worshiping in Synagogues and the modernists the Greeks and Romans who also worshiped in temples. It is man’s natural inclination to organize and institutionalize so the church began to move away from the “simplicity that is in Christ.” Finally, the Roman Emperor Constantine made “Christianity” the official religion of Rome. Can anything good come from such a church/state merger? From Constantine onward, the Church moved en masse into buildings and the professional clergy took over most of the meaningful "spiritual" function. This was the beginning of the end for the spontaneous "church life." The laity was shoved aside into the role of spectator and the church’s witness died.
Today, most view the church as the "sanctuary", the Building. The Jews had buildings for corporate worship (synagogues) and so did the pagans (shrines and temples). Both taught that they were sanctified places for Divine worship. Not so with Christianity. The Early Church met in the simplicity of the home. It may have been natural for them to have buildings, but they didn’t, and that isn’t just because of persecutions, because the major persecutions didn’t really get underway until the third century. God wanted his people for a dwelling place! He didn’t want them to worship in a "holy sanctuary" because the people were that temple, His dwelling place – not the building.
The Early Church knew nothing of 501c3 tax exempt organizations, of a paid professional staff, a special clergy caste elevated above the others in official positions. The leaders of the church were just one of the brethren. The gifts of ministry for the Body came from within--not recruited in national searches. The leadership and all of the functions were indigenous. Leadership was in terms of function, not position – a formal office. They were "servant leaders" who led by example and nurtured and protected out of love. New Testament pastors and elders did not operate like CEOs presiding over some religious enterprise. They did not brainstorm with consultants on how to raise money for building programs and develop growth strategies. Leadership was not to do the ministry but to empower the saints to do the work of the ministry (Ephesians 4:11-16) and protect the saints from deception and error (Titus 1:7-14)--not to "lord" it over them or create a passive dependence.
As Al Dager points out,
"The New Testament Church, devoid of a professional clergy class, dependent upon Scripture and the Holy Spirit to guide a plurality of leadership among godly men, is in the process of rebirth." (Media Spotlight, Vol. 17, no.2, pg. 8). He goes on to say, "This does not set well with religious people--especially religious leaders--who enjoy the preeminence among their flocks. Criticism will abound, based upon the "unscholarly" elements in eldership--men who bear no initials after their names, who do not go by the name "reverend," " bishop," or "most right reverend." (ibid., pg. 8)
He continues to observe that the religious establishment is not likely to acknowledge the spiritual leadership of "uncredentialed" men. "The name of the game for the religious establishment is control and self-glorification." (ibid., p. 8) There is little respect for the laity who must depend on the clergy to protect and feed them.
We will come back to this theme, but the question is, are we already deceived and don’t even know it? Is the very religious system that saved us going to lead us down the path of apostasy?
The Church – a “Mixed Bag” at Best
What is the church? Is the church a building, a place to go to worship? Is it a non-profit corporation that you can give tax-free dollars to? Is a "para-church" organization a church? How many people does it take to make up a church? Is it a church if it meets in a school? in the woods? in a home? Is it a church if there is no pastor? Is it a church if it doesn’t have a name? So what is a church? I don’t want to insult your intelligence with this, but many people are confused on this issue.
The answer may seem obvious to many, but it is an extremely important question for two reasons: 1) most Christians will not understand criticism of their church and 2) as some move away from the institution, they will be attacked--not so much because the concept of the "house church" is unbiblical, but because such a concept is a threat to today’s compromised church--the very idolatrous institution which the Bible says we must "come out of." One self-serving pastor said there could be no such thing as a "house church" unless it had the five fold ministries. So what of the churches meeting in homes in the New Testament? What of the hundreds of thousands of house churches in China? Does every one have a complete set of the five fold ministries? How absurd! Some say a church can only be ordained by an apostle. So where are the apostles? Again, not only how absurd, but how dangerous for those self-appointed apostles that wield their power!
Biblically speaking, we know the church is not a building or an organization. The church is a "called out" people who are born of the Spirit and make up the Body of Christ. The universal church includes all saints all over the world over the past nearly 2,000 years. It is easy to define the universal church, but what about the local church?
The church has always, in good times and bad, consisted of the "called out ones" but it also has picked up a lot of baggage along the way. Given the sinful nature of man, I would say that the church has not only evolved through time but it has gotten further and further away from what God really intended the Church to be. Some “forms” and “traditions” may have begun for very good reasons--to meet specific needs at a specific time; then, in that culture became institutionalized and often even rationalized as if given by God and His Word. The fact is these are purely cultural practices, but elevated by man as if God-given canon.
Two thousand years ago God abolished priests and buildings. The Bible tells us we are all kings and priests and we are His temple, His dwelling place. But man has a natural tendency to twist what God has given and turn it into a form that is devoid of substance and divine life. Man is inherently religious--wanting to please and worship a far-off, awesome God. Just as the nation of Israel demanded a king instead of accepting God Himself as their authority, the church brought back the full-time priest and the “houses of worship.”
Although the institution has had many forms, the Lord has always had his true church--that golden thread that goes down through history--which is so eloquently chronicled in classics such as Miller’s Church History. But the real church, those washed in the blood of the Lamb, who really knew the Lord, often existed in spite of, rather than because of, the institution of the "Church." We are told in Revelation 17 that the Harlot Church sitting on the "seven hills" (of Rome) and her daughters are responsible for the blood of more martyred saints than anything else. (Revelation 17:3-9) So let’s look briefly at the church’s history.
The Early Church--The Jewish Problem
The earliest church consisted almost exclusively of Jews who continued to meet in their synagogues. As we examine the Book of Acts and the Epistles, we see that the Jewish branch was culture and tradition bound. It was even forbidden for a Jewish Christian to meet a gentile Christian. The gospel was exclusively a Jewish effort up to Acts 11. Then Peter saw a vision and went to Cornelius’ house in Caesaria to preach the gospel for the first time to the gentiles--and they received the Spirit just as the Jews had at Pentecost.
Acts is full of strife between those who would go to the gentiles (Paul, Barnabus and company) and the original apostles and Jewish Christians. The book of Galatians is about the effort of Jewish Christians to impose their traditions on gentile Christians. Galatian Christians were being enslaved by Jewish traditions. Paul pointed out that Jewish traditions were just as bad as pagan traditions. Their disputes were not over doctrine but culture and tradition. Above all, Paul urged the Christians to find their freedom in Christ. In Colossians, Paul warns against following rules and regulations.
"See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ" (Col.2:8).
In the end, the apostles wisely decided to let the Jewish Christians go one way and the gentile Christians another--better to keep them separate than contaminate the gentile church with Jewish tradition. In Galatians 2, Paul describes a meeting with Peter, James, John, Titus and himself in Jerusalem dealing with the growing tension between the two groups of believers. (Gal 2:1-11) They decided that one group should go to the Jews and the other to the uncircumcised non-Jews (verse 10).
The "early church" was not building bound. Nor was it a one-man show. It was alive. It was a living corporate entity. Everyone experienced the living Christ and everyone participated. Apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers were gifts to the church for the building up of the saints (Eph 4:11-12). They came from within the church. They weren’t specially trained or recruited. They were gifts to the church to function for the building up of the Body. They were not offices or positions but functions. They were not for their own self-edification and power but for building up the body of Christ. The "early church" grew spontaneously. Although some early Jewish Christians met in synagogues for a while (and that was a problem in terms of getting them free from Judaism), for the most part they met in homes (Matt. 8:14-16, 26:8, 5:42, 8:3, 10:24-27, 16:40, Romans 16:3, I Cor. 16:40, Col 4:5, and Phil 1-2 to name just a few). They ate together, broke bread together and lived together. The church grew like wildfire without the benefit of seminary trained leaders, Bible Schools, building programs or formal mission programs.
Imagine the chaos of the early church meeting. It may have not been that spectacular, people not all that eloquent, the music not all that great, but it worked. There were no spectators, only participants. Everyone shared, encouraged, wept, prayed, fellowshipped and ate together. Eph. 5:19 tells us they were
"speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and
spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord"
and 1 Cor. 14:26 says,
"When you assemble, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification."
The early church was a participatory church. It was energetic, dynamic and everyone in it had laid their life on the line just to belong.
The early church was also persecuted--first, Jews persecuting Christians and later Romans persecuting both. The Romans in the earliest history considered the Christians to be a Jewish sect and pretty much left them alone. The first major persecutions broke out in 64 AD by Nero. Christians were considered dangerous, politically disloyal and seditious. To join them meant certain death. The real persecutions did not get seriously underway until the third century as the state attempted to bring it under its control.
The Book of Acts and other Epistles tell us the early church was struggling to keep out Jewish tradition, Greek thinking and pagan religion. As the first century drew to a close, the church was concerned with error, preserving the gospel and keeping the unity. Once the life and spontaneity were gone, organization was the only way to hold it together. History teaches that forms often follow function, and that once the forms are created, they become like concrete and live on, acquiring a life of their own even when the original functions are gone. The professionals began to take "power." The precedent came from both the Jewish and the gentile sides. Both were accustomed to a professional caste of priests.
The Post New Testament Church
Very early in the second century, church hierarchy appeared within the local body, bishops (elders) and deacons. The word "hierarchy" means "rule by priests." Ignatius was concerned with order and that the laity be subject to the deacons, the deacons to the presbyters and the presbyters to the bishop (elder) and the bishop to Christ (Ignatius, The Epistle of Ignatius to the Smyraneans as quoted by Earl Radmacher in What the Church Is All About , Chicago: Moody Press, l972, p 36) The bishop appointed deacons and presbyter as officers of the church. Only a bishop could administer sacraments. It wasn’t long before there was a hierarchy of bishops--from the local body, to the city, and region and finally to Rome. To their credit, it should be pointed out that a lot of this was done because they were trying to protect the church from heresies. But in practice, it separated the average saint from a personal relationship with the Lord or any meaningful opportunity to minister. The dynamic "body life" of the early church gave way to the organization.
By the end of the second century, the clergy was recognized as having exclusive rights to the ministry. The laity was conquered. Revelation 2 records the letters to the four churches in Asia. These are generally considered to represent historical periods. The first church at Ephesus is contending for the faith against false teachers but they have already "lost their first love" but "hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans". Scholars believe the Nicolaitans were a group that among other things, promoted church hierarchy. The word, Nicoliatian in Greek means subdue or conquer the laity.
The earliest church despised the idea of hierarchy, of having a priestly class because the believers were all to be priests. The second church in Smyrna suffered tremendous persecution and is encouraged to just hang in to death. By the time we get to the third, the church in Pergamus, mixture is starting to get into the church. "Some among you who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans" (verse 2:15). The Church of Thyatira is the full blown expression of the Roman Catholic Church, a master at absorbing pagan religions which were continually integrated into "Christian" tradition. By this time, the clergy has total control of a mixed religion with people "who hold the deep things of Satan" (Rev. 2:24)
By the beginning of the third century, power was completely consolidated in the clergy. The concept of "the church", which is "Catholic and one", is not cut or divided, but is indeed connected and bound together by the cement of priests who cohere with one another." (Radmacher, ibid., p. 42) The average believer was completely stripped of power and became subject to the church structure and institution. The believer was not allowed to read, let alone interpret the Word. True evangelism and growth ceased. In AD 313, Constantine issued the Edict of Milan, allowing Christianity to surface. Persecution ended. The church was legalized and brought out of the home, the catacomb and the forest glen, and into church buildings. In fact, people were required to meet in buildings. This brought the church out of the informal atmosphere of the small meeting into the formal setting of the big meeting. The laity became dutiful spectators. The church leaders, committed to building an earthly kingdom, also got involved in government. Thus began the Dark Ages. The church became a world wide political and religious institution. The great councils met and forged doctrinal unity (e.g. the Nicene Creed) and forced organizational unity through the hierarchy of the church.
The Reformation
Up to the time of the reformation, the church consolidated its power until there was hardly any dividing line between the church and state. The church hierarchy ruled with an iron fist. When the Protestant Reformation began, there were four primary movements: Lutheran, Calvinism, Anabaptist and Anglican. Each recovered some lost truth, but three of the four became state churches, and all continued to define the church in terms of people meeting in a building, having to receive sacraments and instruction from clergy. The reformers recovered the "priesthood of the believer" in the sense that salvation was a personal matter and the Bible was accessible to the individual believer. But the Protestant churches continued to reserve the most important activity for the clergy. The laity was still relegated to the role of passive participant. The believer has been bound by the clergy class to this day, with only a few exceptions such as the Brethren and even that is a mixed bag.
While the Reformation recovered the "priesthood of believers", in the sense of having a relationship with Him, it failed to restore the corporate body life of the church that allows all believers to actually function as priests. "Every year on ‘Reformation Sunday’ it is urgently proclaimed that the Reformation won the battle for the priesthood of the believer. The wish is certainly the father of the thought, but we are still talking wishes, not facts. The very congregations who hear the proclamation deny by their polity, their congregational life, and even by their architecture the truth they claim to embody...Our words betray our Reformation Sunday victory celebrations. The battle is not won; we do not yet occupy the ground where the priesthood of believers is fact" (Joseph Higginbotham and Paul Patton, Searching Together, Vol. 13:2). And if people like Bill McCartney, founder of the Promise Keepers has his way, the laity should again abdicate completely to the professional clergy. Bill McCartney, the founder, shouts to applause: "Here me: Promise Keepers doesn't care if you're Catholic." He also encourages the "laity" to go back to their pastors and priests because, "We cannot rightly divide the word of truth. We need you to teach us." (Bill McCartney, Promise Keepers ‘94 Seize the Moment Men’s Conference, Portland, June 18, 1994 as reported by Dager, op.cit., p.12)
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So we see the early church institutionalized, and corrupted by the introduction of all kinds of questionable doctrines, forms and traditions such as meeting on Sunday, and holidays such as Christmas, Easter and All Saints Day or Day of the Dead known as Halloween. The modern church has become a house of merchandising – whether the indulgences of the Roman Catholic Church or the pandering of the “seeker-friendly” mega church. Are we following the narrow path of truth and self-denial of the cross or the broad road of self-actualization, prosperity and compromise? Is the very institution that gave us the new birth, leading us into the great apostasy?
Continue to Chapter 14
Laodicea - The
American Church?
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