Laws Publishing
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THE NATURE OF THE CHURCH: |
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UNDENOMINATIONAL AND
NON-SECTARIAN |
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JIM
LAWS |
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To say that there is a great deal of confusion
about the nature of the church is certainly an understatement. By reading the
material which comes from "religious" pens today, one can see that
many have never come to grips with just what the church of the Lord is. It
should come as no surprise that denominational people have problems
understanding what the true nature of the church is. They have not been
accustomed to seeking biblical authority for what they believe, say, and do.
So many times they simply involve themselves in religious activity thinking
that they are serving the Lord yet never stopping to ask the all important
question, "Can such be found as being authorized by God in His
word?" This problem seems to be compounded by what is
happening in churches of Christ today. It was but a few years ago
that gospel preachers were calling for the end of modern day
denominationalism; they were preaching sermons about the distinctive nature
of the Lord's New Testament church; they were challenging denominational
preachers with the facts found in the pages of the Bible with what they as
denominational people were doing. When the two were compared, it was obvious
that they were far apart from each other. The climate has changed, though.
Now, there are certain congregations among us who deliberately fashion
themselves after denominationalism. They are no longer concerned about
biblical authority. It is common today to hear people advocate new ideas for
the work of the church which are not authorized in the New Testament, causing
the church to look like some new type of denomination--something not found in
the New Testament. It is a common experience to hear a segment of the church
refer to itself as a denomination, and if you do not accept this fact, they
say, then you are simply uninformed. |
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It is certainly not the purpose of this article
to add to the present confusion. The purpose of this article will be to focus
attention on certain misconceptions about the church. By analyzing them
carefully, one will be able to draw the proper conclusions, that being that
the church you read about in the New Testament is undenominational and
non-sectarian in its nature. One will, also, be able to see that this is
indeed what God would have all men to be religiously in order to be pleasing
in his sight. |
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It is important to remember that the only way
to settle any matter religiously speaking is to go to the standard of
authority which God has given, the Bible, the Word of God. It is clear that
one can come to know and understand the revelation which God has given to
man, and by reasoning about it properly, one can come to know what the will
of God is in the matter. |
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The word "church" is used in the New
Testament in two different ways. There are times when it refers to the entire
body of believers (Matt. 16:18; Eph. 5:23-26; Col. 1:18,24;
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Some Think Of The Church As A
Human Denomination |
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The word "denomination" simply refers
to the idea of naming a segment or a designated division. In a religious
context it has to do with the idea that a particular group has so clustered
themselves together. By the usage of the term "denominationalism"
one sees that such is not a New Testament concept but a man-made one. In
Ephesians 4:3-6 Paul states: |
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"Giving all diligence to
keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. |
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There is one body, and one
spirit, even as also ye are called in |
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One hope of your calling; one
Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and |
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Father of all, who is over all,
and through all, and in all." |
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The confusion of modern day denominationalism
is a deplorable state of affairs, causing the sincere individual even greater
difficulty in finding the way of the Lord for his life. Denominationalism
sets itself in competition with the church of the Lord for the souls of men.
Is God pleased with such? No! Just compare denominational teaching and
practices with the Bible. To the denominational perspective there are to be many
different churches; in fact, you may choose the church of your choice while
the Bible teaches that there is one church which God has established for man
(I Cor. 12:13; Eph. 1:22). Each denomination has had its foundation and
beginning with some human founder while the Bible teaches that the church of
the New Testament is founded by Christ (Matt. |
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One can easily see the difference between what
the Bible teaches and what religious denominations are doing. The Lord does
not want his disciples divided into denominations, sects, or parties (John
17:20-22; Eph. 4:4; |
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Some Think That The Restoration
of Undenominational Christianity in Modern Times Is Impossible |
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A further misconception, which is popular
today, is the one that contends that undenominational Christianity in reality
is an impossibility to attain, because the best one can do is to work toward
it. This view, of course, says that the work of restoration is an ongoing
process; one never really finishes the work of restoring. In effect, they are
saying that it is impossible to reach a point where one can say, "we
have restored the New Testament church in our day." If such is actually
the case, then one could not reach the completed condition of having restored
the New Testament church in our day or in any day. However, it is false to
say that undenominational Christianity cannot be restored in our day. It is
clear that a restoration took place in the days of Josiah, Ezra and Nehemiah,
as well as Hezekiah. These Old Testament men realized that the old Mosaic
system with its laws and commandments could be restored, even though this old
law was hundreds of years removed from their own time |
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Notice a distinction that needs to be made at
this point. Restoration is an ongoing process, in the sense, that it will
always be needed, so long as there are those who continue to add to or take
away from God's word. Indeed, it would be dangerous to think that restoration
was only needed in |
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As one reads Acts chapter 2, one will see that
the Lord added to the church those who had received the word (vs. 41, 47). It
is clear that he did not add them to a denomination, something which did not
come upon scene until many hundreds of years after the church was established on Pentecost. It is as easy to become a
member of that church today as it was then--by believing the same gospel and
obeying it, apart from all the additions that men have created through the
centuries (Mark 16:15,16; Acts 8:5, 12; 18:8; Heb. 5:8-9). By studying these
references carefully, one will see that the same process that makes one a
Christian also makes one a member of the New Testament church. |
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The Church Was Established
During The Restoration Movement |
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Another common misconception is the idea that
the restoration movement as such was responsible for the church. We are what
we are as a people, they say, because of the writing, which came out of the
restoration movement, or the emphasis that was being made at the time.
However, a restoration is not the beginning of something new, but, rather,
the restoring of something, which has fallen away. This is an important
distinction to keep in mind. Take, for instance, the institution of marriage.
It is clear that there are those whose marriages need restoring, though,
marriage as an institution remains the same as it did when God first gave it
to man. In a similar fashion, the church which one reads about in the Bible,
as a soul saving institution, remains just the same as God gave it in the New
Testament; however, people need to be taught to be content with the church
revealed in God's word. When one genuinely follows God's instruction, he
becomes a saint who makes up the church of his day. This is all that Campbell
and the restorers of the early part of the last century did. He, along with
others, brought the religious focus and intention of the people back to where
it belonged, the New Testament as the sole source of religious authority.
Through the years of digression and apostasy, men had forgotten the important
plea which preachers of righteousness had made for centuries, "let us do
things as God has taught." The Bible writers warned that there would be
a falling away and that children of God should be prepared for such (II Thess. 2:12; I Tim. 4:1-3; Acts 20:28-30; II Tim. 4:2,3). There were certain men who saw the devastating effect
of the religious world. They saw that the only way to restore order to such
confusion was a return to the Bible as the authority in matters religiously.
As they went to the word of God, the Bible, they saw that the Bible itself
teaches that God expects his people to follow His word rather than their own.
In fact, this is such a serious matter that God has told man that he is not
to accept one article as an element of his faith unless there is divine
authority for doing so; to do otherwise is sin (Col. 3:17; Gal. 1:6-8; Rev.
22:18,19). The Campbells and others simply sought
to reproduce congregations like the "churches of Christ" in the New
Testament, which had since fallen away. This was done by properly studying
and applying the New Testament to their lives. |
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Jesus, to help us understand the important role
and function of the Bible told us that the seed is the word of God (Lk. |
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This brief article has addressed itself to the
issue of the church of the New Testament and certain misconceptions, which
are prevalent in our time about it. It presents the view that the church you
read about in the Bible is non-denominational and non-sectarian. Each
generation must carefully consider and defend this important issue of the
church's true nature, that being, the non-denominational church of the Bible. |
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