What Things Christian Churches Get Wrong In Our Day
And Have Major Disagreements About
While there certainly is a lot of biblical leeway regarding what local churches can do during their weekly meetings, there are also some important biblical patterns described in the New Testament. Using those patterns as a guide, we can see that the local churches of our day and age seem to have gone astray from those patterns. Here are five major areas of concern in that regard:
1. The Gospel (the true Biblical plan of salvation)
2. Ecclesiology (church purpose, meeting format & structure, leadership)
3. (study of end-time events)
4. Evangelism (who, how and when should Christians share the gospel with others)
5. Membership (biblical qualifications & scriptural criteria)
1. The Gospel: Is it ENTIRELY a work of God? OR is it a work of God PLUS Man? Does the sinner just recite a salvation prayer to get saved or does God first send out the gospel messengers who preach the word of God, which the Holy Spirit then uses to convict and convert sinners? And is that preaching to be about sin, repentance, judgment, hell, God’s law, God’s holiness and God’s wrath? Or is that preaching supposed to focus only on heaven and God’s love? Is salvation all about the “good news” without much – if any – mention of the “bad news” (i.e. Hell and eternal damnation)?
2. Ecclesiology: Does it matter what we as Christians do when we gather together as a local church? Is the church a one-man show when Christians assemble together just to listen to some orator up front, or is it supposed to be an interactive event where all members are encouraged to participate and use their God-given gifts, while the elders primarily oversee and advise the meetings rather than teach everything and control everything? Did Christians in the early church fellowship over a meal every time they gathered together or did they just run out the church door after some speaker gave his closing remarks? Were megachurches the norm or were house churches the norm? Which format of the two do you think allows local Christians to get to know each other better?
3. Eschatology: Will there be a Pre-Tribulation rapture of the believers or is living in this world as a faithful Christian a guarantee that the faithful will suffer tribulation and persecution. Does the rapture theory encourage sinners to repent or does it give them a false assurance that they still have time to repent once all the Christians “disappear”? Should this issue even be as heavily focused on as we see today or should sharing the Gospel be taking the limelight in the life of all Christians?
4. Evangelism: Is evangelism a job that Christians pay a select few missionaries to accomplish or is it the duty of all Christians, to witness to everyone around them?
5. Membership: Does official church membership in a local church serve any valuable purpose? Is faithfulness to the local body of Christ created by having someone sign a document agreeing with everything the local church lists in their statement of beliefs? Isn’t faithfulness created by involvement in one another’s lives as mentioned in Galatians 6:2? -> “Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.”? What about Christians who may either disagree with or be on the fence about some doctrine in the local church’s statement of beliefs? Are they to be treated like second class citizens because they don’t wish to lie about being in total agreement with every point of doctrine in the church’s membership agreement?
While there are many Christians who don’t seriously study the Bible but rely primarily on their local church leaders or favorite TV evangelist to instruct them, there are many in leadership who disagree with each other and with the Bible on many important subjects. Many of THOSE church leaders don’t realize that they may have been misinformed by the Bible schools they attended. Each major Christian denomination has its own views on Scripture – and their own prejudices – pertaining to all sorts of subjects such as those mentioned above. Each and every Christian is responsible for what they believe about the Bible. Just like in the medical profession where doctors may have been given poor training or even given misinformation about many different health matters, Christian teachers cannot be blindly trusted to have a correct view of every Bible doctrine. Do you really want to avoid being misled by your church leaders and others? The solution is simple. Be like the Bereans of Acts 7:11:
“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.”
— RM Kane
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