THE CHURCH ACCORDING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT. Dr. Josimar Salum

THE CHURCH ACCORDING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT

Dr. Josimar Salum 

Unfortunately, what they call the church is not the Church. What the vast majority calls "churches" is nothing but houses of religion, poorly made drafts, models that have not left the design phase and structures created to please men and reflect the cultures and preferences of the people they serve.

It is within, in the context and within the limits of these plastered structures that the Word of God is preached and taught, lives are converted to the Lord, "shepherded” and live in communion as a Church.

It is not how the brothers lived in Jerusalem, Antioch and other cities, at the time when the apostles of Christ also lived, persevering in the apostles' doctrine, in communion, in the breaking of bread and in prayers.

When someone is born again in Western countries and even in many other countries, he is integrated or integrates himself in any of these structures and systems in such a way that he never experiences the dynamic life and communion of Jesus and His disciples. In these contexts, they never experience life in Jesus like the brothers in the first century and in the hundreds of non-denominational communities throughout history.

The Church is clearly revealed in the Scriptures. When it becomes an empirical structure it is no longer the Church revealed in the New Testament.

As soon as a group of brothers institutionalizes it, the Church ceases to be a Church. Institutions and structures did not exist in the first century, because the apostles knew very well that the Eternal Church of God cannot be institutionalized and structured.

What has been called a need for the "Church" to play its part is a deviation from the Truth, it is apostasy.

In the midst of this reality of fragmented churches - structures and systems - it is possible to hear preachers, teachers, pastors, some drastically different than others with ever-increasing contradictions because they need to differentiate themselves from one another.

It is in this context that the Truth is often proclaimed, being, however, surrounded within the limits of the structures and improperly applied, causing an erroneous understanding of the Gospel. The Unity of Faith is dissociated from the Unity of the Spirit when the Truth instead of being applied to Unity is applied to the denomination or the church itself (called the local church).

Each one teaches as he understands, following his confession of faith or the creed of his group, denomination, community or the network that have, equally uniformed, their own lifestyles, teachings and practices.

The individual ceases to be an individual to be integrated into the mass, in which everyone is or must be identical. He becomes a member of the institution, while the Bible teaches that individually we are members of each other.

Children of God are not members of the visible church, because the visible church is a denomination invented by men.

In these ecclesiastical structures no one can and does not have the right to be different. Every member has to commit all his loyalty to the organization and can never question the status quo. And in doing so, he is summarily excluded, because the freedom of the individual is just freedom to be what everyone else is. And any practices and any teachings of these religious segments that are contrary to the Word of God, although “based” on the Scriptures will be disseminated through its publications, manuals, books, magazines and “websites”, everywhere, even where churches, congregations, schools and seminars themselves are open.

However, more people receive Christ, are saved, due to the preaching of the Cross of Jesus, in fact, the only preaching they know, the preaching of salvation, and converts are also integrated into these structures, inserted in the same context, becoming parts of the same machine. 

And all the practices and doctrines of each of these segments become “biblical” (when they really are not), sacralized, becoming immutable and unquestionable.

When the Truth, the person of Jesus is announced by someone, it constitutes a threat. Immediately, it is rejected by the collective conscience and whoever teaches it is abhorred by their peers as an irretrievable heretic.

Since everyone is talking and teaching, the same heresy becomes true, and who can question what leaders say, or what most leaders believe? Who can or can question what popular and respected leaders advertise on television?

The Truth, much more when it becomes a threat that can destroy the foundations of these structures and ministries and, especially, if it combats its source of financial resources, is severely opposed by the leaders who have a power of control and convincing over all their followers proportional to the exact extent to which they admire and believe them.

Not infrequently, leaders of large uniform structures, who are generally endowed with great communicative power, end up announcing their inexact final word and the crowds accept and continue to follow them blindly without ever personally consulting the Scriptures to make sure the teaching is really true/false as they claim. The teaching of these leaders and propagated in these structures does not support a minimum comparison with Jesus Christ, His Life, Message, Example and Spirit.

The people's lack of knowledge not simply about the Scriptures, but about the Word, Jesus Christ, in the Scriptures and the result of the lack of relationship with God and of communion with the Holy Spirit, is the easy road where all heresy and the sorcerous control of religious leaders move.

The Church is not these churches. The Church is a born-again people, who can be found anywhere, even in temples, in the Name of Jesus. And those who feed the Flock of God are mature men, truly constituted by the Holy Spirit.

The Church, when it is "denominationalized", ceases to be the Church to become fragments of the human preferences and whims of leaders who may even be sincere in what they believe and do, but are gravely mistaken.

The Church definitely ceases to be what God says it is when it is subject to the most different types of leaders with their purely personal ministries. So, it is reduced in several tribes - one for each chieftain - and more and more weird news becomes part of their daily lives.

Every effort to fit these structures into New Testament teaching is extremely futile.

In the first century, houses and cenacles were the places - but not exclusively where the disciples met to have fellowship, for the meetings in which they were given the Word, where they sang together and broke bread. Understand well! They didn't get together to have fellowship, they got together and had fellowship. There weren't schedules and events, it was the lifestyle, as they lived. They met naturally. There weren't meetings held in function of leaders, because all the saints were ministers of God.

The Church is not subject to the time or cultures of each age. It does not adapt to the taste of men nor does it transform into a restaurant with menus from which each one can choose his dish.

The Eternal Message of the Cross does not change. The Gospel of the Kingdom proclaimed by Jesus is the same for all peoples. The Message is not contextualized, possibly the way of communicating it. And it is far beyond the salvation of the soul alone.

The Eternal Church is not based on experiences, but on the Eternal and Immutable Word of God.

Being based on the Word, the Church is also immutable, even because it is the Body of Christ and Christ does not change.

Translated by: Filipe S.S. Gouvea 

#ASONE