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Discussion Forum : Scriptures and Doctrine : Time to return to primitive Christianity?

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 Time to return to primitive Christianity?

James 3:1 (ASV)
1 Be not many of you teachers, my brethren, knowing that we shall receive heavier judgment.


There is a great pride that comes along with teaching. This is the reason for the above Scripture. Vanity and pride and ego have separated the Church since the Reformation. One corrupt Catholic church was replaced by thousands of corrupt Protestant churches. The time is at hand to return to primitive, Apostolic Christianity. Listen to what Jon Amos Comenius(1592-1670) wrote.............


The great number of teachers is the reason of the multitude of sects, for which we shall soon have no names left. Each church reckons itself as the true one, or at least the purest, truest part of it, while amongst themselves they persecute each other with the bitterest of hatred. No reconciliation is to be hoped for between them ; they meet enmity with irreconcilable enmity. Out of the Bible they forge their different creeds; these are their fortresses and bulwarks behind which they entrench themselves and resist all attacks. I will not say that these confessions of faith-for that they are so we can admit in most cases-are bad in themselves. They become so, however, in that they feed the fire of enmity;only by putting them away altogether would it be possible to set to work on healing the wounds of the Church.......To this labyrinth of sects and various confessions another belongs; the love of disputation.

What is attained by it" Has a single learned strife ever been settled? Never. Their number has only ever increased. Satan is the greatest sophist; he has never been overcome in a strife of words....In Divine service the words of men are usually heard more than the Word of God. Each one chatters as he pleases, or kills time by learned disquisitions and disproving the case of the others. Of the new birth and how a man must be changed into the likeness of Christ to become a partaker of the divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4) scarcely anything is said. Of the power of the keys of the Church has almost lost the power of binding, only the power of loosing remains.

In short, Christendom has become a labyrinth. The faith has been split into a thousand little parts and you are made a heretic if there is one of them you do not accept....What can help? Only the one thing needful; return to Christ, looking to Christ as the only Leader, and walking in His footsteps, setting aside all other ways until we reach that goal, and have come to the unity of the faith (Eph. 4:13). As the Heavenly Master built everything on the grounds of the Scriptures, so should we leave all particularities of our special confessions and be satisfied with the revealed Word of God which belongs to us all. With the Bible in our hand we should cry ; I believe what God has revealed in this Book ; I will obediently keep His commands ; I hope for that which He has promised . Christians, give ear! There is only one Life, but Death comes to us in a thousand forms. There is only one Truth, but Error has a thousand forms. There is only one Christ, but a thousand Anti-Christs.....So thou knowest, O Christendom, what is the one thing needful. Either thou turnest back to Christ or thou goest to destruction like the Anti-Christ. If thou art wise and wilt live, follow the Leader of Life. But you, Christians, rejoice in your being caught up...hear the Words of your Heavenly leader , "Come unto me,'.....Answer with one voice, " We come! (The Voice of the Morning , 1660)

"Jan Amos Comenius, known later the world over for his reform of education, is a heroic figure in this time of distress. He did not approve of the way in which the Brethren had engaged in politics and war. at the time of the great disaster, he had only been three years settled as minister of the congregation of brethren at Fulneck Moravia, and this place was sacked and destroyed by Spanish soldiers, compelling him to fly. He took refuge in the castle of Charles of Zerotin, where he became leader of the band of refugees that gathered there. While there, he wrote a book, "The Labyrinth of the World and the paradise of the Heart," in which, in allegorical form, he taught that peace is not to be found in the world, but in the indwelling of Christ in the heart. Driven from Zerotin, Comenius led the last band of fugitives from Moravia. He had lost everything. His wife and child died of privations on the way. As they said farewell to their native land, he encouraged their faith to believe that God would preserve there a "hidden seed," which would afterwards grow and bear fruit. (The Pilgrim Church, E.H Broadbent)

 2010/3/9 17:48
sojourner7
Member



Joined: 2007/6/27
Posts: 1573
Omaha, NE

 Re: Time to return to primitive Christianity?

Our LORD'S earnest prayer was for unity among
His disciples and followers. I know it must
grieve His heart deeply to see the strife
within His Body. When are we going to return
to the simple truth that is the heart of the
gospel ??


_________________
Martin G. Smith

 2010/3/9 18:11Profile









 Re:

Sojourner writes...

"Our LORD'S earnest prayer was for unity among
His disciples and followers. I know it must
grieve His heart deeply to see the strife
within His Body. When are we going to return
to the simple truth that is the heart of the
gospel ??"

Amen!...........Frank

 2010/3/9 20:39
Christinyou
Member



Joined: 2005/11/2
Posts: 3710
Ca.

 Re:

1 Corinthians 11:19 For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you.

John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible
1 Corinthians 11:19

For there must be also heresies among you… This is a reason why he was ready to believe there might be something of truth in the report he had received of the divisions among them; for if there were heresies, false doctrines, and bad principles, among them, such as were subversive of the fundamentals of Christianity, as the denial of the resurrection of the dead, etc. it was no wonder that there were schisms and factions among them, since heresies generally issue in them. These, the apostle says, "must be"; because God has decreed they shall, whose counsel is immutable, and his purpose unalterable; and since this always was the case, that there were false prophets under the former dispensation, it must be expected that false teachers will arise in the churches now, bringing in damnable heresies; and since Satan is always busy to sow the tares of false doctrine; and human nature, being both weak and wicked, is so susceptible thereof, and so easily imposed upon and deceived, it cannot be thought that it should be otherwise; which, by the goodness and wisdom of God, are overruled to a very good purpose:

that they which are approved: who sincerely believe in Christ, are sound in the faith, and have a well grounded experience of it; who have themselves tried things that differ, and approve of them that are excellent, and have been tried by others, and found to be sincere, upright, and faithful, and are approved of God and good men:

may be made manifest among you; by their steadfastness in the faith, their zealous attachment to it, earnest contention for it, and warm and honest vindication of it; and by the departure of those from them who oppose it, and go on the side of error and heresy; by which means it is known who are the sincere followers of the Lamb, in doctrine, discipline, and conversation, and who not.

If we had nothing except Paul's final completion of the fulness of time, the dispensation of Grace and the Christ in the believer, this is all we would know. That is in Christ and Christ and the Holy Spirit and God the Father in the believer by the rebirth of, "Christ in you the Hope of Glory".

Colossians 1:25-29 Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God; Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus: Whereunto I also labour, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily.

As in all Paul's epistles, in the Spirit we are now born again and our father is no longer Satan, but God is now our Father.

To God we are dead:

Galatians 2:16-21 Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid. For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.

Christ is now the life God has chosen for the Believer Whom God the Father has rebirthed in us; Christ, "It is no longer I who live".

In Christ: Phillip


_________________
Phillip

 2010/3/10 17:21Profile









 Re:

HI Phillip, I am not really sure what you are trying to say, perhaps you could clarify..........brother Frank

 2010/3/10 17:31
Christinyou
Member



Joined: 2005/11/2
Posts: 3710
Ca.

 Re:

If Pastors and Teachers were teaching Paul's Christ in you for all believers and we see the Christ in each other, how could we forsake the assembling of ourselves, it should be a great wonderful time of fellowship with each other and the Christ in each other. That is how Paul says we present all that are perfect in Christ and how we see each other, not the flesh but the Spirit.

Colossians 1:27-29 To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus: Whereunto I also labour, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily.

I see Jesus in you, because I see Jesus in me. Never forsaking Him, each other, or the assembling together, we are all one in the Body of Christ.

In Christ: Phillip


_________________
Phillip

 2010/3/10 21:39Profile









 Re:

HI Phillip, I agree with most of what you are saying. I would point out that the original post did not argue for the forsaking of assembling ourselves together.The quote was taken from "The Pilgrim Church," which traces the genuine church all the way down through the centuries. They did gather together and fromed communities, this is what made them a target, first by the Catholic church and then by the reformed church.........Frank

 2010/3/10 21:53





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