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 PrintableVersion Biblical churchA challenge to unscriptural traditions and practiceEvery church should pull down its building immediately! BIBLICAL CHURCH Most sane (and humble) evangelicals acknowledge that the church they attend is far from perfect, but they do have a heartfelt desire to obey Scripture. The solemn charge of this book, by a member of the Chigwell Christian Fellowship, is that most of us are doing church ‘in a totally unbiblical way’. The early church fathers have taken us away from the teaching of the apostles and caused us to ‘go directly against what is taught in the pages of God’s Word’. This charge is not directed, as we might expect, just at ritualistic or way-out and wacky ‘churches’, but also at gospel-centred fellowships. In what ways are we acting in a ‘totally unbiblical manner’? (One almost trembles lest some of our evangelical churches are secretly worshipping Mary!) One great ‘sin’ is that we meet together in buildings other than believers’ homes. ‘Meeting in homes was … the prescribed way for churches in the New Testament.’ But was it? What about Acts 2.46 which clearly states that believers met together every day in the temple courts. Beresford Job tries to convince us that ‘every day’ does not include the Lord’s Day! 1 Corinthians 11.22 and 14.35 also indicate that the church in Corinth did not meet in a home. Another apparent failure of our churches is that we have ‘hierarchical’ or ‘executive elders’ who rule the flock. Sadly, there are elders and pastors who act as little dictators and the Bible condemns them (1 Peter 5.3), but the author seems not to have noticed that it also commends elders who direct the affairs of the church well (1 Timothy 5.17) and (in spite of his exegesis of Hebrews 13.17) urges us to submit to their leadership. Yet another way in which we are ‘unbiblical’ is that we have church services, led from the front. These, we are told, were ‘entirely alien to the early church’. We should have meetings as described in 1 Corinthians 14.26-40, where all present actively participate. There are serious flaws in this argument. It assumes that 1 Corinthians 14.26 is prescriptive for all churches and not just descriptive of what the Corinthians were doing. It entirely overlooks the Lord’s Day meeting described in Acts 20.7-12, where one man spoke for some time. It also gives the impression that those who sing heartily and listen avidly are not actively participating. The saddest section of the book tells believers how to leave their present church to start another. If a ‘church’ denies the message of salvation then it may well be right to leave, but to encourage believers to leave a gospel church for the reasons given in this book comes pretty close to the sin of schism. This was one of the books I took to read on holiday, but it was too depressing, not least the inference that although we have all got it wrong, the author’s church has got it right! Basil Howlett, © Evangelicals Now - April 2009 |
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