Paul's Passing Thoughts

A recent article in Christianity Today will have to be addressed even though I am really too busy to address it. Regardless of my schedule which includes returning to school in February, some deceptions are too outrageous to ignore. Also, I have decided to split up the various and sundry deceptions of the article into a series of short posts beginning with this one.

Church leaders are like Democrats; never underestimate their ability to assume people in general cannot think. In this article, CT, via some Churchian scholar, makes an argument that the church is not an institution, but a family, but not really; the article makes the distinction between “family” and “event.”

The real issue at hand is institution versus family. When the Bible speaks of the assembly of Christ being a family, how literal is that? As proponents of justification by new birth as opposed to the church gospel of justification by faith, we believe it is totally literal. Christians should function as a literal family. This is why we meet in private homes; it is a statement of our gospel and justification by new birth. When families assemble together, they don’t go to a purpose build facility. That’s an institutional concept…period.

In the usual church metaphysical slight of hand, the author even calls the biblical concept of church as family a “metaphor.”  What’s a metaphor?

a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable.

So, exactly, if you do church, things go better with Coke if you treat everyone LIKE they are family, but it’s not literal. When you are here, you are [like] family as the Olive Garden commercial goes. The author is advocating for the use of a supposed metaphor to make church more like family which will make church family-like but not a real family. Par for the course.

Point: this is why the justification by faith gospel denies the new birth as literal. If God’s people as literal family is a metaphor, so is the new birth. And justification by faith does treat the new birth as a metaphor in no uncertain terms. In Protestant orthodoxy, the “new birth” only illumines the individual to see a greater need for salvation as dispensed by the church institution and NOT a literal new state of being. It’s merely illumination, not change in a person’s actual state of being.

Protestant scholars are really good at using the justification/sanctification word shell game and the whole “ground of justification” verbiage until you pose the question to them this way: “Is the Christian only declared righteous, or are they righteous as a state of being?” As in my debate with Dr. James White on a UK radio program, it’s about the only question that keeps them from running their mouths non-stop. Actually, he was ambushed by the debate as I was invited to the show as a “wildcard participant” and White was unaware of who it was going to be. He had rejected a previous offer of debate by me because, according to him, I am “low hanging fruit” and don’t possess a degree in Hebrew or Greek. However, neither did the big three of Protestantism: Augustine, Luther, and Calvin, although I think Luther might have been educated in Hebrew.

Point: in the article, the author even promotes adding family likeness to the church “sacraments.” What’s a sacrament?

(in the Christian Church) a religious ceremony or ritual regarded as imparting divine grace, such as baptism, the Eucharist and (in the Roman Catholic and many Orthodox Churches) penance and the anointing of the sick.

“Grace” is a soft term for “salvation” and indicative of church word-swapping for purposes of nuance and deception. Church sacraments are all about the continued impartation of salvation and hence, there is really NO difference in Protestantism and Catholicism. BOTH are progressive justification and the fact is irrefutable. Therefore, the continued impartation of salvation necessarily requires an institution ruled and overseen by professional “God appointed” priests.

I ran across some interesting points in the book of Hebrews yesterday. When God did use human mediators, they were always validated with outward testimonies from heaven. In these last days, God only speaks through Christ. That’s why the supposed authority of church pastors in our day has never been outwardly validated from heaven. EVERY believer is their own holy priest in their own temple which is their own bodies. Actually, not just a temple, but the Holy of Holies. Sanctification is about offering “living sacrifices” to God with the members of our body, and we only answer to Christ and no one else.

Purpose build institutional facilities deny this biblical truth wholesale. It denies the individual believer as priest and their bodies as the temple of God. Again, meeting in private homes is a gospel statement, not a preferred mode of operation. There are NO MORE offerings for sin, only “living sacrifices” for sanctification purposes; justification is a onetime finished work IN the believer priest.

In essence, church scholars are doing what they always do; they hijack the meaning of words and redefine them because if you control the definition of words, you control the perception of reality by those you seek to control.

Institutions cannot love anyone, and they cannot be a family. Nor can the use of metaphors that aren’t metaphors change that reality.

paul