| Chapter 18 Which Church III Which church? Even before we saw so many denominations ( read that divisions ) within the family of God, we see in Revelation 2 & 3 that there were differences. Looking at the epistles, we see that the apostles also noted differences, and were constantly attempting to steer everybody into the same operating mode. They weren't attempting to brain wash them into a robotic crowd following Jesus Christ, but rather, they were attempting to show them that only through continuing surrender could they grow more Christ-like ( Christian ) each day. But that continuing surrender was discretionary, by their own free will. It was totally their choice. No military orders were given. No imperial edicts were issued, the apostles only used loving words, which were attempting to teach and correct. Is it possible that Satan's hand can, again, be seen in this. I think yes. As I indicated in the section on which bible, I encountered a period in my life when, due to career requirements and personal conviction, we were involved in different churches. Due to career residence requirements and the local real estate markets, we found ourselves in the position of having real estate in two different communities. When we could, we lived in the one that wasn't rented, and at one point, because we had renters for those two, we rented a house in the third community where my position was at the time. At times it was quite a balancing act. This balancing act created an appearance of church hopping. But it, also, gave us an opportunity to visit churches of other denominations. When we visited, we went long enough to begin to get a feel for where they stood. In essence we were shopping. We have observed all the way from Quaker to Community Bible churches, by way of, Baptist, Lutheran, Methodist, Episcopalian, Four Square, Christian, and even Berean congregations, to name a few. From personal experience we can attest to the differences between churches. We have seen churches where the pastor smoked and the congregation 141 _______________________________________________________________________________ saw no problem with smoking in the church anywhere outside of the sanctuary. We have seen churches that primarily used the Old Testament, and churches that believed only the New Testament applied to them. The Berean church we attended for a while seemed friendly and compatible at first, but as we participated and volunteered input in Sunday school, we noticed people withdrawing from us and becoming more distant. I am a firm believer that without the entire Bible we can not truly understand parts of it, and I was freely citing the Old Testament to support the Gospel. The last Sunday we were there, I was talking with the pastor about the fact that I appeared to be the only one concerned about the correlation between the Old and New Testaments. He told me that their Berean church was more liberal than most Berean churches, in that they felt only the New testament applied to them in this dispensation. But, he stated that most Berean churches believed that only three books of the New Testament applied to them. To them it was a waste of time, even spurious, looking outside of those limits. The differences are so varied and numerous, that, I have mentioned a few, to steer thinking towards those differences. Before going on, I would like to park momentarily at the Berean church. In Acts 17:10-11 we find that it says, "And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night to Berea: who coming thither went into the synagogue of the Jews. These were more noble than those in Thessalonica in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so." . My King James version places this circa AD 53. This being the case, the church at Berea was searching in the law and the prophets, as the New Testament, as such, had not been compiled, even though, some of the letters may have been in existence by then. How different the modern Berean church from their scriptural model. I can't help but believe that had the church at Berea had our modern Bible they would have studied it cover to cover. I believe each church has strayed, in their ways, just as much as the Berean church. 142 _______________________________________________________________________________ |
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