The Nature of the Church - Series

[Soulfyre]

Among Christians (in the specific, that is--those who believe in the good news of the Kingdom of God, and have a personal and abiding faith in Jesus Christ as their personal Savior and Lord), there are few topics that engender as much disagreement as what the "Church" is. This should, in fact, disturb us more than it does. Jesus Christ, in what is often referred to as His High Priestly prayer in John 17 prayed that the Church might be one in the same manner in which He and the Father are One. This is difficult on the face of it if there is no agreement among factions as to the nature of the Church. Of course, if there is little agreement on what the Church is, there is even less agreement on what the Church does. Certainly we may all agree that the Great Commission of Matthew 28 establishes in a broad sense what the Church does, but the multitude of ways in which this process is defined and applied absolutely boggles the imagination. I STILL hear people speak of "fulfilling" the Great Commission, as though it were a prophecy rather than a command (one "obeys" a command). I do not say this to be demeaning to those whose desire for evangelism is fired by this command, and my goal here is not simply a scholastic accuracy. But we cannot in fact obey what we do not understand.

Since the schism between Orthodox Christianity and Roman Catholicism (which I believe was, in fact, the prelude to the Reformation), Christians have fragmented like Humpty Dumpty after his infamous fall. In this extended posting I wish to look at Holy Scripture and history to discuss this issue. I realize that we come from different traditions, and the inevitable difficulty of these discussions often has us straddling a difficult fence. On the one hand we desire to be gracious and truly open to modifiying our understandings if we can be persuaded that the Truth is other than what we believe; on the other, we desire to be true to what we believe is the Truth, while being graciously tolerant (no...tolerant is NOT a bad word, regardless of our politically correct culture) to those who differ from us, whom we believe to be sincerely mistaken. The challenge is to be able to argue and discuss with intensity, while not failing in the intensity of our courtesy and love. But I do not truly fear this process, because I am continually encouraged and blessed by the lively faith of all of you--your patient participation in even the most controversial of topics, an aptness to both teach and be taught, to love and be loved, to encourage, support and pray--and I cannot help but look forward to this topic with eager anticipation at to what I will learn.

There are several topics that are, in fact, inevitably related to this discussion. Because the Church is God's ordained vehicle for bringing His blessing of salvation and transformation to mankind, and through mankind, the world, there will be inevitable references to the nature of salvation and redemption, to the work of Jesus Christ, to the nature of the Fall, to the people of God in the Covenants of Initiation and Completion (I much prefer this rather than the less descriptive Old and New Covenants), and other areas of study. I will do my best to reference these areas accurately, but briefly, preferring to deal with them more definitively in other areas on our board.

My foundational text will be the Bible, which, with Jesus Christ is unique in terms of God's special revelation to mankind in general, and His people in particular. But we cannot ignore tradition as though it were unimportant. Even prior to the formal acceptance of the authoritative canon of Scripture, the Church was a living, worshiping Body, imbued and guided by the Holy Spirit. So early documents about Church practice are not to be easily dismissed as the mere fabrications of men or cultural adaptations that have no bearing on us today. While I will discuss authority, the Bible, and tradition (or Holy Tradition) elsewhere, it is important to understand that in this topic I will give great credence to the practice of the early Church.

I hope you will enjoy this topic as much as I, especially in this time of flux when many seem to believe it necessary to redefine the Church from ground up. So look in my next posting for "The Seed of the Church", in which I will relate the words of Jesus Christ to the establishment of the people of God in the books pertaining to the Covenant of Initiation (the Old Testament). May God bless our desire to know Him better, in give us wisdom through His Holy Spirit (for He gives wisdom with liberality to those who seek it with a pure and undivided heart, and does not despise our desires to know more of Him).

In Christ,

Matthew (soulfyre)

[Alejandro]

Ohhh, such good topics! I have not the time right now. But I will explain my views of this, and during the week I am very busy to do research, but I shall post as soon as possible (which will most likely be Saturday night, or early Sunday morning). I hope to discuss this in an uplifting environment, to edify one another, and to spur on one another as Family.

Peace be with you,
Alejandro

[Soulfyre]

Following the events of Biblical history, it is inconceivable that one might miss that God, beginning with Adam and Eve, desired to create a people for himself, that might share in the abundant love expressed between the Godhead, and be High Priest and King over His creation, which He deemed "very good". In this purpose, the family and the extended family become the unique bearers of the revelation of God, uniting God and His creation through their royal priesthood. Adam and Eve, however, turned to worship the created rather than the Creator, rejecting God's way in which they could grow in likeness to Him, and rather turning to the promise that if they ate of the Tree of Good and Evil, they themselves would be like gods, knowing Good and Evil. Yet in this choice, they separated themselves from God, experiencing evil no longer as a fact to be understood (as God knows evil), but taking it unto themselves to embrace (to know evil intimately), removing them from the life of union with God. Being separate from their source of life, they died spiritually. God, in His mercy, cast them from the garden and barred their way to the Tree of Life, preventing them from living eternally in a world now made subject to corruption and assuring their return to the ground from which they were made.

Yet God's purpose had not been thwarted, for now, in providing for the salvation of his fallen humanity, He would provide a way to vitally unite them with the Godhead, that humans might experience what the Triune God had known for eternity, that bond of mutual love and communion known only between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Where the angels had only known the worship and adoration of the Godhead as servants, humanity would have the opportunity to know the Father as "Abba", the Son as Savior, Lord, Friend, and Lover, and the Holy Spirit as Comforter and Advocate. And through such a salvation, God's visible creation would be restored in its purity through its new King and High Priest, Jesus Christ, Son of God and Son of Man, and His Kingdom of priests--his Holy Bride. It is the unfolding of this great mystery into which even the angels desired to look the we see laid out in its glory in God's Holy Scriptures.

The Holy Scriptures are like a symphony, having a single theme, blazing like the light of God's glory, which, when hitting a prism, breaks into fiery colors without losing the beauty of God's glory in its brilliant diversity. For in spite of the Fall, and Satan's attempt to destroy the promised Seed of the Woman when Cain murdered Abel, God provided Seth, and amidst the growth of evil and corruption in humanity, maintained a godly line. When God, moved by sorrow at the depravity of the human race decided to visit judgment of the flood upon the world, Noah and his family remained, finding favor in His sight. And Noah, his family, and animals, birds, and creeping things were sheltered in the Ark, to be preserved through the flood which came upon th earth. When God allowed the water to subside and the Ark to rest again on dry land, Noah and his family sacrificed to God, and God promised to Noah that he would never again destroy mankind by flood. And even when Noah's family succumbed to sin, God preserved Shem and his descendants, through whom God was to call Abram, the man of faith (for it would be to Abraham, nee Abram, and to his Seed, that God's blessing would come, and through his Seed would all the nations of the earth be blessed). (to be continued)

In Christ,

Matthew (soulfyre)