Which Church did Jesus establish?
Christ established but one Church and for some 200 years after Christ there was but one Church. To belong to that one body was only possible if you were a believer. There were geographical separations and in that sense local churches existed, but always as expressions of one UNDIVIDED BODY!
In this era we live in it is so different that people are unable to see the Church, and the view of most believers regarding the Church are grotesquely distorted by the present conception of what or who Church is. Today we are bombarded with a multitude of organizations with builds bearing the name of churches, divided from one another by various lines of demarcation, doctrines, organizational, and governmental. In any one locality there are any number of such organizations and the Church as was in the New Testament times has been replaced by the divided, denominational churches.
To understand the reality of churches today is to know that you cannot take the New Testament terms concerning the Church or leadership in the Church and transfer them as equivalents to what is known as church today. There is little common ground between the unified early Church and the multiplied denominational churches of today. That is not to deny that members of the Church are not found in denominational churches. They do, but no longer visible because of the denominational scaffolding that was used to establish the different segregated units never did come down to reveal Jesus and His true Church in unity. What the people see is a confused conglomeration of religious identities, with name tags over the doors of segregated buildings to keep the people of God separated into different groups.
The Church as we see it in the New Testament the creation, not of man, but of God through His Holy Spirit. It is inexplicable in any other terms. Not only was the Church created by the Spirit, but it was also sustained and directed by the same Holy Spirit. The Church was not and is not the brain child of man like religious denominations are. It was and is a living organism infused by the supernatural life of God, not an organization conceived and maintained by human ingenuity and administrative ability.
In the early Church there was order, as there is in any living thing. It was not anarchic. Part of that life-rooted order was in the realm of leadership, but never was leadership confused with headship. The sole Head was the risen, exalted Lord Jesus Christ exercising direction and authority through the Holy Spirit and humbly obedient people.
There were no denominations with their pyramidal hierarchies, no Founder, no Pope, no Archbishops, Right Reverends, Presidents, Superintendents, or super-star Pastors. No para-church organizations existed. There were Apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers, elders, deacons. 1 Corinthians 12:28 says," God has appointed in the Church" these various functions. They were all exercised by men gifted through the life of the Holy Spirit within them, functioning under the direction of the Head, and raised up by Him. They did not appoint themselves, or be qualified by some seminary and validated by some denomination to work in some denomination. The life of the Holy Spirit flowing freely within the new-born Church produced its structure. It is most important to recognize this order of things, the Church is, life producing structure, and not structure trying to produce life as religion is doing, but can’t do.
In this era we live in it is so different that people are unable to see the Church, and the view of most believers regarding the Church are grotesquely distorted by the present conception of what or who Church is. Today we are bombarded with a multitude of organizations with builds bearing the name of churches, divided from one another by various lines of demarcation, doctrines, organizational, and governmental. In any one locality there are any number of such organizations and the Church as was in the New Testament times has been replaced by the divided, denominational churches.
To understand the reality of churches today is to know that you cannot take the New Testament terms concerning the Church or leadership in the Church and transfer them as equivalents to what is known as church today. There is little common ground between the unified early Church and the multiplied denominational churches of today. That is not to deny that members of the Church are not found in denominational churches. They do, but no longer visible because of the denominational scaffolding that was used to establish the different segregated units never did come down to reveal Jesus and His true Church in unity. What the people see is a confused conglomeration of religious identities, with name tags over the doors of segregated buildings to keep the people of God separated into different groups.
The Church as we see it in the New Testament the creation, not of man, but of God through His Holy Spirit. It is inexplicable in any other terms. Not only was the Church created by the Spirit, but it was also sustained and directed by the same Holy Spirit. The Church was not and is not the brain child of man like religious denominations are. It was and is a living organism infused by the supernatural life of God, not an organization conceived and maintained by human ingenuity and administrative ability.
In the early Church there was order, as there is in any living thing. It was not anarchic. Part of that life-rooted order was in the realm of leadership, but never was leadership confused with headship. The sole Head was the risen, exalted Lord Jesus Christ exercising direction and authority through the Holy Spirit and humbly obedient people.
There were no denominations with their pyramidal hierarchies, no Founder, no Pope, no Archbishops, Right Reverends, Presidents, Superintendents, or super-star Pastors. No para-church organizations existed. There were Apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers, elders, deacons. 1 Corinthians 12:28 says," God has appointed in the Church" these various functions. They were all exercised by men gifted through the life of the Holy Spirit within them, functioning under the direction of the Head, and raised up by Him. They did not appoint themselves, or be qualified by some seminary and validated by some denomination to work in some denomination. The life of the Holy Spirit flowing freely within the new-born Church produced its structure. It is most important to recognize this order of things, the Church is, life producing structure, and not structure trying to produce life as religion is doing, but can’t do.
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