{"id":117,"date":"2011-12-04T22:14:21","date_gmt":"2011-12-04T21:14:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/?p=117"},"modified":"2011-12-04T22:14:21","modified_gmt":"2011-12-04T21:14:21","slug":"one-church-the-church-of-believers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/?p=117","title":{"rendered":"One Church – the Church of Believers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Discussion at minister\u2019s fraternal \u2013
\nif Jesus came to earth today, which denomination would He join?
\nRoman Catholics \u2013 maintained continuity with Apostles
\nAnglicans \u2013 combined that continuity with Reformation \u201cjustification by faith\u201d
\nURC \u2013 combined Reformed theology with Congregational government
\nPentecostals \u2013 Responded to leading of Holy Spirit in every age
\nNew churches \u2013 retained balance of evangelical truth and charismatic openness.
\nBaptist \u2013 \u201cI don\u2019t understand the question\u201d
\nYou mean you don\u2019t understand what is the distinctive Baptist contribution to the churches?
\n\u201cNo \u2013 its this business of \u201cjoining a denomination\u201d \u2013 I don\u2019t understand why Jesus would want to stop being a Baptist in the first place!<\/p>\n

Nicene Creed: I believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.<\/p>\n

One church \u2013 and so it was for the first 1000 years \u2013 until Eastern Orthodox churches split from Rome. Two holy catholic and apostlic churches. And so it was for another 500 years until the Reformation and the Protestants split off from the Roman Catholics. And then 100 years ago the Pentecostals split off from the protestants. And 40 years ago the charismatics started splitting off from everybody. So now we have thousands and thousands of different churches \u2013 all claiming to be the one true holy catholic and apostolic church. All convinced they are right and everybody else is wrong. Or at least, they are more right and less wrong than everybody else. So many groups of Christians ignoring Paul\u2019s commands to the Corinthians and falling into the sin of looking down on others and excluding others.
\n20 As it is, there are many parts, but one body. 21 The eye cannot say to the hand, \u201cI don\u2019t need you!\u201d And the head cannot say to the feet, \u201cI don\u2019t need you!\u201d 22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and the parts that we think are less honourable we treat with special honour.<\/p>\n

Churches have split and stayed split over all kinds of issues and for all kinds of reasons, some good, some bad, some ugly. . The most obvious differences between denominations today are these.<\/p>\n

Differences in forms of worship
\n\tLiturgy or sponteneity
\n\tStrengths of each,
\nWeaknesses of each
\n\tALL ACCEPTABLE
\nWorship leaders workshop \u2013 worship is heart attitude, not externals\t<\/p>\n

Differences in attitudes to leadership and \u201cpriesthood\u201d
\n\tPriests set apart, or priesthood of all believers
\n\tStrengths of each
\n\tWeaknesses
\n\tALL ACCEPTABLE<\/p>\n

Differences in organisation \u2013 hierarchy or congregational independence
\nBishops and oversight \tor government by church meeting
\nStrengths of each
\n\tWeaknesses of each
\n \tALL ACCEPTABLE to God<\/p>\n

Ruth said, \u201cDon\u2019t take the bishop out of your brother\u2019s eye until you have first taken the church meeting out of your own eye!\u201d<\/p>\n

Underlying differences in approach to authority
\nRoman Catholics = Scripture interpreted by tradition
\nProtestants = Scripture alone
\nPentecostals and charismatics = Scripture interpreted by experience<\/p>\n

Some people would suggest that Christians disagree and fall out and part ways for good doctrinal reasons. In fact, church history tells us that churches have split because of empire building. The key issue has not usually been truth, or the glory of God, or effective mission. Most often the issue has been \u201cwho\u2019s in charge.\u201d
\nFor 1500 yrs church was in control of elite \u2013 priesthood and theologians, who used to be one and the same individuals.
\nThen Bibles for everybody came along, ordinary believers could study scripture for themselves. Reaction against priestly dominance, and hierarchy of church as an institution \u2013 protestant reformation and self-governing congregations.
\nPentecostals and Charismatics and New Churches \u2013 power passed not the traditional pastors and elders and leaders but to the individuals blessed with particular spiritual experiences, prophecy, speaking in tongues etc.
\nThe key question has often been \u201cwho\u2019s in charge?\u201d Us or them? If we don\u2019t like who\u2019s in charge we\u2019ll go off and form a new church for us where we can be in charge!<\/p>\n

Once Christians stop caring about who\u2019s in charge \u2013 once we stop empire building \u2013 then we can see the wood for the trees when it comes to issues like styles of worship, priesthood, church government, even charismatic vs non-charismatic issues. And we see that in God\u2019s eyes there IS only one church.<\/p>\n

And I believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.<\/p>\n

The one holy catholic and apostolic church is that community in every place in every age who are united by the fact that they all agree and proclaim the same creed, the Nicene Creed, or even the earliest and simplest Creed \u2013 Jesus is Lord.
\n12 The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptised by one Spirit into one body\u2014whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free\u2014and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 14 Now the body is not made up of one part but of many.
\nThe Body of Christ is that community united by the fact that they are believers, they are saved, they are born again, they are God\u2019s children, His forever family, the church
\nHoly = set apart, belonging to God, different from the world around
\nCatholic = all inclusive, all embracing \u2013 not Roman Catholic
\nApostolic = built on the foundations of the apostles \u2013 not \u201capostolic succession\u201d<\/p>\n

We are not allowed to look down on brothers and sisters for whom Christ died. There is only one Church. And we are theologically and morally obliged to love and worship with and work with all true believers. Styles of worship, role of priests, church government, attitudes to charismatic experience. These things don\u2019t matter. If they are saved and we are saved \u2013 then we are ALL ONE IN CHRIST JESUS. <\/p>\n

But there is the most important point. One church \u2013 but which church? The answer is, the church which is the fellowship of believers, the community of the saints. The believers\u2019 church. Is there any other church, you might ask?<\/p>\n

Well yes. There are people who say that we can never know who is truly saved this side of heaven, so the church will always be mixed \u2013 believers and unbelievers all jumbled up. They point to the parable of the sower and the different kinds of seeds, or the parable of the weeds growing amongst the wheat in the field. The church will always contain a mixture of believers and unbelievers and we should always be charitable, and never judge others, so people say.<\/p>\n

So on the one hand this \u201cmixed view\u201d of the church can lead to some denominations with people in positions of responsibility who actually don\u2019t believe even in the Nicene creed \u2013 who don\u2019t believe Jesus is God or who don\u2019t believe Jesus was raised from the dead. People who don\u2019t believe Jesus died on the cross to save us because they don\u2019t believe we need to be saved. Some believe everybody will get to heaven, and some would say heaven doesn\u2019t exist anyway. A mixed church.<\/p>\n

Then on the other hand there are those in some of the very new churches, emerging churches, fresh expressions of church, who similarly say that we mustn\u2019t put barriers to people who are on the way to faith by demanding that they express that faith in ways such as baptism or church membership. For some \u201cemerging churches\u201d the church is anybody who wants to come along \u2013 whether they believe anything or not. A mixed church.<\/p>\n

And here I want to say that the one thing we must insist on is the Bible definition that the church is the community of believers. There is only one church \u2013 we are all one in Christ Jesus \u2013 but those who make up that church are those who are truly saved.<\/p>\n

My thinking on these things was very much helped by visiting Canada on Sabbatical back in 2008. For four days I took part in a conference at the Canadian Mennonite University in Winnipeg on \u201cCongregationalism, Denominationalism and the Believers’ Church\u201d. This brought together mostly academics but also pastors from the Baptist, Mennonite and other Brethren traditions from Canada and the Northern USA. The whole time there reminded me most helpfully that my theological understanding is not merely broadly \u201cevangelical\u201d but specifically Baptist. And there are at least three beliefs at the core of Baptist identity which I want to defend and affirm: the central authority of Scripture, what it means to be a Christian, and what it means to be the true church, \u201cthe Believers’ Church\u201d.<\/p>\n

The supreme authority for faith and practice in the Christian life is the Bible, God’s inspired Word as received by the Churches and correctly interpreted. Christians are \u201cthe people of the Book\u201d. Whatever the relativising Post-Modern world around may say, we Baptists are committed to the authority, reliability and sufficiency of Scripture. And on two further matters, Scripture is very clear.<\/p>\n

Firstly, every person either is a Christian or they are not. A Christian is somebody who has been born again to a living hope, they have passed from death to life and from darkness into light. They are in Christ and there has been a new creation, the old has gone, the new has come. Either a person is a Christian or they are not. Just as either they are in England or they are not in England, but they cannot be in some strange place in between. They are either alive or dead. They cannot be \u201con the way to being alive.\u201d Either they are saved or they are not saved. Either Christ is in them and their destiny is to spend eternity with Christ in glory, or it is not. <\/p>\n

Secondly, the Bible makes clear that the true church is the gathered community of all true believers, those who are \u201ccalled out\u201d of the world to be the Body of Christ which is made up of all who are truly saved. The church is the Living Temple, the Family of God and the Household of faith. The true church is the fellowship of true Christians. It is \u201cthe Believers’ Church.\u201d <\/p>\n

In this life, we may not be able to tell who actually is saved and who is not, who is a true believer and who is not. I agree that the Parable of the Wheat and the Weeds tells us that we will not know for certain who is saved until the final judgment. The Parable of the Sower tells us that some who initially seem to be strong Christians actually will prove not to be so. Nevertheless, the true Church is defined and delimited by the company of true believers. <\/p>\n

So are religious organisations which allow unbelievers to occupy positions of power and influence really truly churches? Are Emerging Churches actually churches? Most instances of Emerging Church deliberately consist of a mixture of those who are already saved and those who are not. Indeed the blurring of boundaries, so that folk \u201cbelong before they believe\u201d is a major feature and strength of Emerging Churches. But according to the Biblical definition embraced by \u201cBelievers\u2019 Church\u201d traditions like the Baptists, such mixed groups are not \u201cchurches\u201d. They are most valuable \u201coutreach communities\u201d or \u201cmissionary congregations\u201d but they are not \u201cchurches\u201d. <\/p>\n

So we believe in one church \u2013 but which church? The most important issue is not forms of worship, or the existence or absence of a set-aside priesthood. The most important issue is not forms of government, hierarchy or church meeting. The most important thing is to recognize that the true church is not a human organization but the community of the saved, the fellowship of believers. I believe in the one church \u2013 the believers\u2019 church.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Discussion at minister\u2019s fraternal \u2013 if Jesus came to earth today, which denomination would He join? Roman Catholics \u2013 maintained continuity with Apostles Anglicans…<\/span><\/p>\n

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