The two general questions I wish to pose are :
1. Why do churches not fulfill their great mission?
Mark 16:15 Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. In stead we find that Sunday for Sunday they preach it to the same creatures - poor souls. (Not all churches are guilty of this - I talk generally having visited many.)
2. Why do churches let their congregations live in bondage ?
John 10:10 I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
There are so many types of Churches today.
There are those where the people are not allowed to believe anything except what the Pope or Priest prescribes. There have been almost no schisms in this church as they have killed the groups that rebel against this teaching - particularly the Cathars, Huguenots and Waldensians and today many more albeit more subtly though their militant wing - the Jesuits.
Another group allows anybody to believe anything and their schisms are as many as the pebbles on the beach - not that they do not also persecute their congregations.
You get the Money chasers, the Prosperity teachers, the ultra strict Rule enforcers, you name it, you will get it!
I do not consider the next group, which says that the different religious groups, being Christian, Jew, Moslem, Buddhist or Satanic worshippers are just different ways to God. That is scripturally wrong in terms of the Bible and I am only prepared to use the Bible and the full Bible at that, as a basis for my argument..
I wish to argue and pursue the case further in this blog and see whether there is a better solution to fulfilling our mission as stated in the first two scriptures above and how to not fall into the traps of other preachings.
What are your thoughts?
Maybe I shall start with a few quotes to set the table.
ReplyDelete1. Man is born free, but everywhere he is in chains. The Social Contract J.J Rousseau
2. Human rights originate in Nature, thus, rights cannot be granted via political charter, because that implies that rights are legally revocable, hence, would be privileges:
It is a perversion of terms to say that a charter gives rights. It operates by a contrary effect — that of taking rights away. Rights are inherently in all the inhabitants; but charters, by annulling those rights, in the majority, leave the right, by exclusion, in the hands of a few . . . They . . . consequently are instruments of injustice.
The fact, therefore, must be that the individuals, themselves, each, in his own personal and sovereign right, entered into a compact with each other to produce a government: and this is the only mode in which governments have a right to arise, and the only principle on which they have a right to exist.
Can we apply this to Churches ?
I think I have come to the root of the cause of the demise of the Church by Inspiration.
ReplyDeleteWe have heard of the Authority of the Church, the Rules of the Church, the Officials of the Church, the Teaching of the Church, the Church Councils and the Censure of the Church.
How can a Church have any of these?
By what Scripture do they wield these powers?
Why can't they just serve ?
Where have we as congregation given them this Charter to usurp our free will and our power?
Why do they think they have the Authority to act on behalf of God or Christ?
Who told them that God only speaks to their Officials and not to the Congregation?
I do not think they have any of these !!
And I think that that is the reason of their demise -people have gotten fed up with the authority and power they wield.
Still they need to exist. What can be done to bring them back to earth, to their duties and their function?
I wish to pursue this argument further today, firstly with regard to the instructions to the Church as to their missionary work.
ReplyDeleteB.F.Hunt (1957) made three propositions namely :
1. The work of the church is missions.
2. Missions is the work of the church.
3. The work of missions is the church.
His argument goes like this :
In his own words : What has been called "the Great Commission," the task of evangelizing the world, was given to the church and thus became its great work.
When the risen Lord, having been given all authority in heaven and on earth, spoke the words of Matthew 28:19 and 20 to the eleven disciples, he did not address them as some separate little group, but as a part of the church he was establishing. And therefore the work given to them is a work committed to the whole Christian church, ....
Matt 10:32 Every one therefore who shall confess me before men, him will I confess before my Father who is in heaven.
I have studied this and found the argument to be flawed - so I cannot accept it.
How can the Church then confess before men and how can Christ confess the Church before His Father ? How can those early disciples in any way be seen as the Church ?
It was just another attempt of the Church to usurp the responsibility and power of the individual.
Next time I will pursue the actual missionary work of the Church being done today.
What is being done by the Church to spread the Gospel?
ReplyDeleteThere are 2,2 billion Christians in the world - or 33% of the world.
The largest church is that of the Roman Catholics with 1,1 billion members or 50% of Christians with 120 000 missionaries or 0.01%.
There are only 380 million Protestants (in 38 000 denominations) or 6% of the world and 17% of Christians - and it is not even known how many missionaries they have in the field.
It is also not even known how many of the so called missionaries are actively engaged in spreading the Gospel.
And it is further not even known whether the spreading of the Word is according to scripture, as it is known that the Roman Catholics and Latter Day Saints, which have the largest number of missionaries, spreads a word that in not based on the Scripture, but one based on the teaching of their own dogma and their self interest.
It is indeed a very bleak picture.
On the other hand there is hope in the emerging ministries of servants of God like Billy Graham, Joyce Meyer, Benny Hinn, Reinhard Bonke and many others, who on their own and through television is bringing the Word to hundreds of millions or people.
Will the growth of Islam (now at 1,3 billion) outgrow the 'fledgeling' Protestant Church in years to come as it has in the past ? Statistics says YES.
Can the Christians count on the support of the Roman Catholics as 'Christians' in the end times. History and Scripture says NO.
What are you and I going to do about it ?
I end this blog with a final thought.
ReplyDeleteWill the Church be judged ? No - only people will be judged.
Will the Church help me when I stand in judgement ? No - only people will be allowed to testify on my behalf.
Will the Church be persecuted ? No - the Church persecutes.but only persons are being persecuted and killed.
Will the Church receive an award or punishment for its worthwhile efforts or its atrocities ? No - only people will receive awards.
Will the Church be held responsible for the things its members did ? No - only those members will be held responsible.
So how can the Church rule when it has no obligation or responsibility and can never stand in judgement? It should not be allowed to rule.
What should the Church do then - five things.
1. It should facilitate our participation in the Communion of the Blood of Christ (1 Cor.10:16)
2. It should facilitate our participation in the Communion of the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 10:16)- Holy Communion and His Church.
3. It should facilitate our Communion with the Holy Spirit (2 Cor.13:14)
4. It should facilitate our ministry in terms of our obligation to spread the Gospel and to bring in the Harvest.
5. It should facilitate our spiritual growth through bible studies, teachings and sharing testimonies with other Christian Believers. (The cummunion with the Saved Ones.)
I hope this gives us a clearer understanding of our own responsibilities and inspires us to reach out towards that for which we have been created - The Glory of God through His Son Jesus Christ - Amen.
I am not sure if I am interpreting the discussion correctly, but believe that the majority of churches choose not to offend their congregation and the world. This is evidence by the 'feel good' churches that spring up everywhere nowadays.
ReplyDeleteI am in 2 minds about these types of churches as I feel that they fulfil an immediate gap in bringing the lost to Christ, but that there is no progression from baby Christian to true follower.
The great commission is in a sense being fulfilled by the huge advertising campaigns of some of today's churches, and also the various newsletters that one can subscribe to. The problem however comes in where there is no follow through on the part of the person introduced to Christ. Many people get stuck at the beginning and have not had the chance to take root yet and grow.
The second part of the discussion deals with the bondage that followers find themselves in. This is a struggle for us all and is not helped by churches who declare 'God is good', 'I am blessed', 'I am righteous', 'I am free'. All of these are true, but I AM A SINNER is the most important one to acknowledge. It is only by God's grace that I have been saved...I will continue to sin, but I must strive to live a life Holy to God. I am Holy because He is holy.
The majority of Christians are disillusioned by these 'Feel Good' churches. Life is hard...why must church services be candy coated?!!?
Muslims are devout, staunch followers of their religion. The worst part is that their religion runs parallel to ours...Why is it then than Christians are so weak and prone to influence from the outside world? It's the 'Feel Good' phenomenon that has us all trapped!
(My opinion only!)
Hi Haydn
ReplyDeleteThanks for the contribution, which I appreciate and which is acceptable, if not in coherence, then in content and subject.
The subject I am dealing with here is the authority, laws and regulations which the church wields and implements and which brings Christians into Bondage, whereas I have, in the previous comment, dwelt on the church as facilitator.
You have now however opened up a new can of worms, which covers exactly the opposite spectrum - those churches which have neither authority nor rules, but also no responsibility and facilitation of the sort I enumerated.
Your whole argument goes about the new easy faith - also called the Prosperity teaching - all is well and God is good and I am the King's child and no bad will ever happen to me.
I have however never found my spiritual career and life consisting of that type of prosperity - neither has the apostle Paul who says ... 2 Co 11:23 Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more; in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. v.24 Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. v.25 Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; v:26 In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; v.27 In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. v.28 Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches.
This is not prosperity !
I understand our part as warriors in this Holy War - and war never was easy and without scratches or wounds.
Neither was the life of Christ while on earth such a feast, and I would rather follow the example of Christ and share in his reproach ... Heb 13:13 Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach. ...
than to follow this false Properity teaching.
Annemie says:
ReplyDeleteNow you've got me going too! I think Prosperity teaching is so popular, because it generates a lot of money. The moment money comes into play, you suddendly have clients and now you better keep these clients happy, if you want the money to keep coming - This means that you now have to preach what the people would like to hear to feel good, and not what the Holy Spirit tells you to talk about. By undermining the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the churches become shallow and far from God, but at least everybody is happy... ;-)