"UNTIL WE ALL COME..." (Eph. 4:13)

The following was first posted in this endeavor some years ago. We believe it bears repeating.

The apostle Paul did not view the early Church as having experienced ultimate attainment. Indeed, given the problems and difficulties with which he was regularly confronted in serving its constituency, he would likely have wondered concerning the present ambitions of some to recreate "the New Testament Church."

As exemplified in the Corinthian church, for example, one of the issues with which the early community struggled involved the matter of sectarian strife and division. This, despite the fact that in his last recorded prayer, our Lord had specifically requested that the believing Body "be one, even as You [Father] and I are one" (John 17:21,22). That we continue to experience a notable shortfall in this area requires little elaboration.

Nor is profound insight required to recognize that resolving the problem does not lie in a further splintering of the Body by means of newly minted organizations accompanied by "super spiritual" identities of a self-focused nature. We recall, for example, a pastor who, having previously served in a major denomination, now led a congregation that had experienced "deliverance from sectarian bondage." In fact, he enthused, their fellowship now consisted of five such churches - seeming oblivious to the fact of having exchanged a multi-church denomination for a five church denomination. As any student of Church history is well aware, endeavors of this nature are far from unique.

We would here propose three catalysts that will almost certainly prove conducive, not only to fulfilling our Lord's petition, but Paul's vision of a united, matured Bride "without spot or wrinkle...holy and blameless" as well (Eph. 4:11-13; 5:27).

1. A coming move of the Spirit wherein Christ's "High Priestly Prayer" of John 17 finds fulfillment among the truly committed;

2. A coming time of persecution in which, of necessity, believers will become dependent upon one another (Matt. 24:9);

3. A requisite sense of oneness in opposing the culminating apostasy of a deviant and rebellious world - including those spheres of compromised faith allied with the world and its corrupted values (Rev. 18:4).

Does the preceding imply a requisite renunciation of present biblically based associations and identity in the interets of a self-contradictory "non-sectarian sectarianism?" The answer is "No." As demonstrated by simple observation itself, quests of this nature, in and of themselves, can become self-defeating. What is rather called for is an ultimate, transcendent sense of identity inclusive of:

a. "All who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours" I Cor. 1:2);

b. "All who love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity" (Eph. 7:24);

c. "All who love [Christ's] appearing" (II Tim. 4:8).

To the degree that the foregoing become the determinant factors in faith, fellowship, and identity, the rest - including the "unity of faith" enjoined in John 17:21,22 and subsequently foreseen in Ephesians 4:13 - will increasingly come into place.

Burl Ratzsch

"NEW TESTAMENT" CHURCH

In observing their promotional efforts, it is sometimes interesting to note the images various churches seek to project. Church A, for example, is a "caring church" where love is extended, while Church B is strongly committed to scriptural integrity. Church C, on the other hand, wishes it known that theirs is a place of God's presence and power, etc. One is not always sure as to what extent "truth in advertising" may apply, or whether such tends rather to represent that which the pastor desires his charge to become. Anyway...

Our attention is frequently drawn the more out-of-the-ordinary claims sometimes advanced, as in the ad for one church that declared itself a "fun place," while another declared itself "a rational church" - whatever that may have been intended to convey.

One self-billing that particularly gains our attention, however, is that of a "New Testament Church." While not impugning the congregation's basic intention, one is nonetheless prone to sometimes wonder if such self identification has been thought completely through.

The Corinthian church, for example, was so engulfed in sectarian wrangling, moral scandal, court actions against one another, abuse of the Lord's Table, doctrinal controversy and misunderstanding of spiritual gifts that the apostle Paul wrote them "with many tears" (II Cor. 2:4). Such, one would logically assume, is not the desired objective. Again, the Galatian churches were so into legalism that the apostle expressed his fears of their having become a lost cause (Gal. 4:11). The Colossian church was into gnostically-oriented pursuits to the point of worshipping angels at the expense of Christ's primacy (Col. 2:18) - and who would desire a replication of the Pergamum (Pergamos, KJV) or Thyratira heresies as noted in the second chapter of the Revelation?

Thankfully, of course, there was the Philippian church whose only mentioned difficulty was that of two ladies in need of resolving a personal antagonism. (It might also be noted that Paul's Ephesian epistle was a general letter sent out to the churches - our having retained the copy sent to Ephesus. Hence its lack of reference to any particular problem of a local nature.)

The apostle Paul viewed the New Testament Church, not in terms of ultimate attainment, but rather initiation of that which God wills it to become - a state of being yet to be fully realized (note Eph. 4:11-13: "until we all come to...the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ" etc.)

Given such, "let us press on to [not back to] maturity" (Heb. 6:1).

Burl Ratzsch