Josimar Salum & Jim Fontaine
Churches
like we know today are not according to the Scriptures. Scriptures teaches that
there is just ONE CHURCH. A separated church from each other, denominational is
sin.
The Body of Christ is not divided. Anyone who
divides the Body of Christ God will destroy him.
A hybrid is a fruit that can’t produce seeds
therefore it does not bear fruit. In the Scriptures church doesn’t generate
other church; the disciples of Jesus make other disciples.
Jesus said
to Peter along with others to shepherd or to feed the flock of God which is among
you. To shepherd is a task, work, function. There is just one Flock and one
Shepherd.
Today we
use to say that someone shepherd a flock, other shepherd his own flock. We say
that the sheep are mine; those out there are of other pastor’s and so on. We
also say these sheep are my responsibility and those sheep are someone else responsibility.
The Protestant Reformation perpetuated the
figure of the priest (father) of a church, or the figure of the Bishop if he is
shepherding several churches. The Father was called then Pastor; the Bishop is
called Superintendent or even the same title. The Pope is called President, Apostle,
and so on.
In the New
Testament “pastors” are always used in plural and those are who minister or
serve, never by themselves, never alone. Each Church in the City had several
pastors. In the singular only Jesus is called Pastor.
Each of us knows and studies these words with
the glasses of our own denominations, traditions, etc.
If we are honest and able to let Luther,
Calvin, etc. sleep in Peace and stop to consulting them, but only the
Scriptures, we will understand what the Holy Spirit want to say by these terms
in the Scriptures.
When we are born in an evangelical home or later
in a church, Pentecostal, Protestant, neo-Pentecostal, etc. we learn what they
teach us without questioning and comparing the learning with the Scriptures.
The time has come that each believer should
study the Scriptures with the Holy Spirit and should recycle (confirm, check it
out) everything that has heard and learnt from others without questioning.
Of course, any of us can honestly talk to
each other, but we should not be fearful to come up with different conclusions
to what we see all around.
Josimar, I very rare make
comments but I really felt I needed to say something in regards to your
comments against those of us who serve in the local church.
I have always
appreciated your passion for Jesus and for the Gospel; your passion for seeing
people come to faith in Jesus and saved.
But sometimes, your
passion blinds you to the fact that your words can be very discouraging to
those of us who do the work of Lord in the local church.
Our church may belong
to a denomination but I am not bound to it… I am bound to Jesus and Him alone.
You accuse those in a
denomination of being loyal only to the denomination when that is true of only
some. You basically say that those serving in a local church that belongs to a
denomination are not the real church. You say it is sin.
You seem to say that
anyone who is an American evangelical or Protestant got their knowledge from
books and tradition rather than from the Holy Spirit.
My friend, if I
misunderstand what you have said, I am sorry. If I did not misunderstand, then
those statements are arrogant indeed.
I make no apologies
for who I am. I am a Christ-follower. I accepted Jesus as my Lord and as my
Savior and am saved. I was called to ministry by God.
I went to seminary but
the conclusions I came to were not drilled into me by teachers; those
conclusions came about because the Holy Spirit opened my eyes and God gave me
understanding.
I preach the Word in
grace and in truth and in love. I love God and I love the people under my care.
I love anyone who
comes to me for help from outside the congregation.
I reach out to others
and bring them the Good News. Many of my colleagues around the city of
Worcester do the exact same thing with the exact same passion.
They love the Lord and
they love people while serving in a local church that belongs to a
denomination. God and the Gospel are first for them; the denomination is not
the highest thing for them.
I know you have had
bad relationships with denominational stuff.
I understand that more
than most because I saw what you went through with ABC.
But not every American
Protestant and Evangelical is wrong just because they are not doing what you
are doing.
When you say the
things you do in the way that you do, it feels like an attack on those of us
who are doing the work of the Kingdom faithfully.
An attack like that
hardly feels encouraging. Ministry is hard enough without feeling like I am
being attacked by a friend.
I am sure that was not
your intention.
But when you make
sweeping statements like you do, sometimes it hurts even if you did not mean it
to be a personal attack. I just thought you should know how your statements
come across… sometimes they hurt your friends even if that is not what you
intended.
Dear Jim, it is really
unfair your affirmation that my comments are “against those of us who serve in
the local church.”
And on the other hand
it would be very contradictory for my own self due to the fact that I serve my
brothers and sisters exactly in the context of what you call “local church”.
All my life, precisely 50 years I have been among those who serve the Lord in
this environment even as it is the only one 99% of us have known.
I have been ordained
for 30 years and most of those years I have been serving thousands of pastors
and very close hundreds of others, so it is unimaginable that I would be
against them, much less against you, whom I love and have dearly to my heart.
I feel very sad with
me just to think that I could be discouraging you in the work of our Lord
Jesus, but very conscious that some of the teachings I share can be very
uncomfortable for any of us in the midst of these structures we are accustomed
to call church.
I have tested with my
own eyes that from your best understanding in the Lord what you have said it is
true: “Our church may belong to a denomination, but I am not bound to it. I am
bound to Jesus and Him alone.”
Here is a little
difficulty present in our communication. When you say “our church” you are not
based in the New Testament teaching, because in the NT there is not “our church”
for anyone. There is a Church. When we gather at 475 Burncoat St Worcester MA
in the parlor, or at the big room and are together we are the Church, not ours,
no theirs, but the Church. At the same time in the city where many are
gathering in different places, even two or three at Dunkin Donuts we are all the
Church.
There is no Church in
the New Testament affiliated to anybody, much less to a denomination.
Denomination means
according to Merriam-Webster: an
act of denominating.
A value or size of a series of values or sizes (as of money) name, designation; especially: a general name for a category. A religious organization
whose congregations are united in their adherence to its beliefs and practices
Denomination is
related to denominator: the term of a fraction, usu. written under or
after the line, that indicates the number of equal parts into
which the unit is divided; divisor.
Yes, Denomination is
not the Church. Denomination is sin, all of them.
Dear Jim, “is Christ
divided”? (I Corinthians 1:13) From merízō (from méros, "a single part, member") – properly, to divide, distribute into parts (portions), i.e. separate
(distinguish) one part from another.
I Corinthians 3 is the text I based upon my
affirmation that God will destroy those who defile the temple of God.
“And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but
as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk,
and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now
are ye able. For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you
envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men? Know
ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in
you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the
temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.”
I may be wrong, of
course, but based on my own experience of life and from relating to so many
brothers and sisters, including me and you, I mean, all of us, American,
Brazilian, Aruba, Dominican, Puerto Rican, Mexican, Dutch, etc., Evangelical or
Protestant and all other Christians got more than 80% of our knowledge from
books, from people and tradition rather than from the Holy Spirit. Most of
what we have learnt we have never checked by ourselves and by the Holy Spirit.
I could say more about this, but I did rather not saying, at least, for now.
My dear brother,
everything you have said about yourself and your work are true. Your
dedication, passion, love for the people, sincerity and most important, your character.
I am behind you 100%.
But you really
misunderstood my “sweeping statement” because I am for you and not against you.
I am trembling as I use the words of Paul to ask you: “Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the
truth?”
My dear brother, I do believe in every word of
those statements and I promise to ask God more and more wisdom and Love to say
those things in the best way possible so that brothers like you, whom I love
and admire, get not into any sadness or get wounded.
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