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THE NATURE OF THE CHURCH: UNDENOMINATIONAL AND NON-SECTARIAN JIM LAWS
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. 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. 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. 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;
Some Think Of The Church As A Human Denomination 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:
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. 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; Some Think That The Restoration of Undenominational Christianity in Modern Times Is Impossible 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 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 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. Some Think The Church Was Established During The Restoration Movement 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. Jesus, to help us understand the important role
and function of the Bible told us that the seed is the word of God (Lk. 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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