Comes from Mike Ratliff and is a review of an e-book by Jack Fortenberry. I have Jack's book Corinthian Elders saved on my computer and plan to read it soon as well but it has quite an impact of Mike. From his review titled A New Reformation:
I know that some of you reading this are asking yourself if I am suddenly turning on all my Pastor and Elder and Bible teacher friends across the world, throwing them under the bus and moving into a strict house church mode with simply a few Elders who only assist the Body in worship and Bible study. Well, no I am not advocating that. I am asking questions. I am praying. I am asking God what He has been showing me since He has driven me from the visible Church and what I am to do in response to that. I am convinced that the visible church is consuming itself in apostasy. There are still some good churches and good church leaders out there. There are still some churches that have not apostatized. However, when I visit these churches as an outsider, and that is what I am anymore, I see the compromises. I see the world creeping in. I see things going on that would never have been tolerated not that long ago. This is only my theory, but I am convinced that we are in for a new Reformation of the Invisible Church. That is the genuine Church, the elect, not the professing, non-elect that make up a large part of the visible church. Could this new Reformation be a turn back to the model implemented by the Apostles in the 1st Century? That would be a model of small local bodies of believers lead by a few elders very well documented by Jack Fortenberry in this book. Of course, in these last dark days before the light, we could be driven underground anyway and I cannot think of better place for the church to go than into this model. What do you think?
Those are strong words but I appreciate where he is coming from and what he is saying. I especially relate to the idea of being an outsider. I find myself uncomfortable in a traditional church setting these days, it seems so loud, so ritualistic and contrary to the picture of the church in Scripture. I love that the internet allows us to read and interact with others who think in a similar fashion so we know we are not alone.
4 comments:
"I am asking God what He has been showing me since He has driven me from the visible Church and what I am to do in response to that. I am convinced that the visible church is consuming itself in apostasy."
Driven you out of the visible church? I don't think so. Don't blame God for this.
Don't know what churches you are attending that are "so loud, so ritualistic and contrary to the picture of the church in Scripture" but this is a sad commentary, and I'm not so sure it is a sad commentary on the church.
The church with all her wrinkles continues to be the bride of Christ.
Jeff,
I certainly would affirm that the church is the blood bought Bride of Christ. That isn’t in dispute at all. What I would suggest is that the traditional, visible manifestation of the local church is not a faithful representation of the church we see in Scripture. Just naming a group “church” doesn’t place it above inspection. If we truly hold to Sola Scriptura and Semper Reformanda, we cannot draw lines around our church traditions and declare them off limits. These Reformation principles apply to everything or they mean nothing.
I'm certainly not saying the church is off limits to criticism. But the fact of the matter is, God is not going to "drive" someone from (a total abandonment of) of the public assembly of his people. This is simply contrary to his word.
By the way, there is nothing wrong with being ritualistic, since anything you do will become this way. It seems that it is ritualistic of you to continue to blog on these issue (BTW: I don't get to read all of them). A call to worship, the singing of hymn, etc. should be things done week after week in the public assembly of God's people. There are particular elements of public worship that should always be there.
Jeff,
I think it is an enormous leap to equate me being preoccupied with a particular topic in my own online musings and a repetitive gathering of the church that has dominated (and I would argue stifled) the ministry of Christians for centuries.
The bigger problem is that the elements that we often require are absent from Scripture, especially the monologue sermon as the centerpiece of the gathering, something that doesn't appear anywhere in Scripture and yet is consistently claimed as a definitive mark of any "true" church.
The point I am making is that many people can and do look at the traditional church, compare it to Scripture and find it curiously disjointed. I don't commend anyone leaving the traditional church and failing to find fellowship among the community of saints. I likewise don't condemn those who leave the traditional church to try to find a more faithful representation of what we see in Scripture. No gathering of redeemed sinners is going to be perfect but that is no excuse to chalk it up to some sort of fatalistic mandate to keep attending. Consistent theology tells us that the Bride of Christ is not a local organization with a "church" designation. Jesus didn't die for the unredeemed no matter how often they show up in a local church. He died for the church and the church by definition is made up only of the redeemed elect of Christ. It is patently false to describe traditional local churches as "the Bride of Christ" when virtually every one is mixed with the unregenerate.
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