CHURCHITIS & THE DUMPS

[donadams]

There are an estimated 45,000 denominations. Find a denomination and church that suits you, stop worrying about what doesn't matter and live your faith in Christ by following his two commandments: love God, love your neighbor.

Being in the new covenant is I suppose not a requirement?

Jn 3:5 must be born again
Jn 15:4-5 united to christ
1 cor 12:13 in the church
Gal 3:27 Put on Christ

Thanks

 

[Frank Robert]

Being in the new covenant is I suppose not a requirement?

Jn 3:5 must be born again
Jn 15:4-5 united to christ
1 cor 12:13 in the church
Gal 3:27 Put on Christ

Thanks

These are all manifestations of LIVING your faith in Christ.

For example: Gal 3:27 is like putting on a new identity. When we put on Christ, we put on His righteousness, His wisdom, and His compassion.

 

[donadams]

These are all manifestations of LIVING your faith in Christ.

For example: Gal 3:27 is like putting on a new identity. When we put on Christ, we put on His righteousness, His wisdom, and His compassion.

How?

 

[ChristB4us]

Churchitis And The Dumps​

Down on churches and their divisive structures? So am I. Disgusted with contemporary religion? Me, too. Sick to the stomach with those religious leaders whose only god is money? I’m still with you. Nauseated with the hypocrisy of the clergy? We’re on the same channel. You see no hope for institutional religion, and you have lost all confidence in Western “Christianity?” Don’t feel badly, others agree. Would you like to see it all go away? So would I. Do you place modern-day religion in the same vein as crooked politics? We’re still on track. Do you believe the professional clergy—Protestant, Roman Catholic, Jewish—assume “spiritual” virtue and act reverently while wallowing in cunning devises and immorality? Amen! Do you see as much good in the world as you do in churches and cults? You’re right again.

In reality, religion and churches and cults cannot take us to heaven. Although some pockets of good can be found in most of the above, overall, they’re a total mess. To reach heaven, we need to develop and cultivate a strong, healthy relationship with a man called Jesus. A religious, churchy relationship may offer a few temporary merits, but it will not take us where our Creator is. Only the man Jesus is the answer, the key, and the “lifejacket.” Without Him, all is lost. About two thousand years ago, this man announced, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).

This man Jesus either told the truth or He lied. If He lied, nothing He taught is trustworthy. If He told the truth, we had better cease placing our loyalty in churches, cults, tube evangelists, preachers, priests, and “elderships.” For when a man places his loyalty in any of the above, we have a “church member” on our hands, not a committed follower of Jesus.​

Is It Important, Then, That Believers Meet With Other Believers?​

Yes, for the purpose of mutually supporting and encouraging one another, whether in a living room or under the shade of the old apple tree. Believers are not compelled to meet in church structures. The early believers didn’t have them. God is everywhere! Worship for the committed believer is a 24-hour-a-day matter—not something we turn on and off like a water faucet.​

Are Church Structures And Edifices Our Idols?​

I have often said they are monuments that testify of our idolatry. A few readers—somehow—understood me as being opposed to meeting in any structure. The issue is not whether it’s right or wrong to meet somewhere. The issue is whether or not we have built church structures and edifices and set them apart—sanctified them—as holy articles or entities. I say we have. If I’m correct, we are as guilty of idolatry as were the children of Israel who erected Asherah poles as symbols of worship. God told Israel in no uncertain terms, “Do not make idols or set up an image or a sacred stone for yourselves, and do not place a carved [consecrated] stone in your land to bow down before it” (Lev. 26:1).

Protestants and Catholics have done just that! Catholics have not only set up “consecrated stones” in the form of church structures, but they have made idols and images and bow down to them. Protestants, on the other hand, have set up their elaborate edifices and crosses and view them as sanctuaries and revered designs. Oh, there may be a few exceptions, but the rule seems to be universal. There’s an old maxim, “Our heart is where our money is.” If we will but consider the hundreds of thousands of dollars—yea, even millions—that are spent on church structures, designs, religious inventions, and edifices, and compare that amount to the few dollars we spend on seeking and saving the lost and feeding the genuinely poor, we don’t need a professor to locate our hearts. If this isn’t idolatry, I’ve lost my ability to reason.

We fail to see that God no longer “lives in temples build by [human] hands” (Acts 17:24). His only sanctuary today is the believer’s heart (1 Cor. 3:16). But try telling the average pew-warmer this. He views his church edifice and its “sanctuary” as holy places, and feels that he must go there in order to worship and make contact with his God. However, his “sanctuary” is no holier than the building’s restrooms.​

John 10:11 I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. 12 But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep. 13 The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep.

These days the pastors nor church members like the elders, goes after the ones that stop coming to the church. They wait for people to come to them. My former church did not care if I ended my membership with the church and the pastor was all too eager to end it for me.

The same kind of pastor that insists that people get counseling before they can marry, putting up all those roadblocks since the pastor has them at a disadvantage if they wanted that pastor to marry them, but no stressing counseling before they get a divorce since they do not have to go to that pastor to get that divorce. And yet, you would think that pastor would go after them, but no. They have to go to him.

One time they had a new pastor that extended an invitation that his door was always open for talking and so I took him up on that and became an anti-KJVer for the topics of faith I wanted to touch on. The hostility was there by the time our time had ended.

And then when I came to see him for the second time, he did not want to continue in the word and complained that he had thought we were done.

His schedule was wide open.

Later, he had to resign to deal with legal problems from another church for the issue of embezzlement. I do not know the result of the issue, but I cannot judge one way or another even though it gave the appearance of evil as one that loves money more than God.

I do wonder when people take that kind of test of likes and dislikes to determine their career choices, that being a pastor was one of those options and they just chose it for that reasoning; a what appears to be an easy money career rather than God calling them to serve Him.

God knows that pastor's state and relationship with Him as we can only judge as in correct others when caught in a trespass, but the way the American churches are set up, and the Presbytery overseeing them, which is not Biblical because a Presbytery is to be located locally as in that city to hold them accountable to the Word of God just as the Presbytery supposed to do in respect to the assemblies of believers in that city.

Nobody knows how or who the Presbytery are personally for them to rule over a denomination like that in USA, and so when a Presbytery make compromises with social values, how can anyone correct them, being so far away?

And to be a member of that Presbytery allows them ownership of that church building and the continual employment of that pastor. The solution was to switch to another Presbytery but I believe that allowed the enemy to win when they should have been excommunicated from the Presbytery by the local churches they are ruling over & replaced.

It is a mystery how any get into that Presbytery and so one has to wonder if the Jesuits had created that kind of Presbytery to scatter the sheep.

The Lord Jesus Christ is coming at the pre great tribulation rapture event to judge His House first and I believe He will gather all the sheep that follows His voice that has been scattered by the false prophets of our times.

 

[3 Resurrections]

Not so! Matt 28:19 and acts 1:8 and Jn 20:21 require a continuous apostolic succession until Christ returns

None of those texts you submitted require the "continuous apostolic succession until Christ returns". What Paul did teach was that the gospel was to be committed unto faithful ones who would be able to teach others also (2 Tim. 2:2). Peter among the other eleven disciples provided the twelve foundations of the walls of the New Jerusalem in Revelation 21:14, with Christ as "the chief cornerstone", but everyone is to be building on top of those foundations - hopefully not "wood, hay, and stubble", but "gold, silver, or precious stones".

 

[Frank Robert]

How?

The phrase "put on Christ" is a metaphor of what it means to be a Christian. It is our call to embrace our identity in Christ and to live our lives in accordance with His teachings, i.e, LIVING our faith in Christ.

 

[donadams]

None of those texts you submitted require the "continuous apostolic succession until Christ returns". What Paul did teach was that the gospel was to be committed unto faithful ones who would be able to teach others also (2 Tim. 2:2). Peter among the other eleven disciples provided the twelve foundations of the walls of the New Jerusalem in Revelation 21:14, with Christ as "the chief cornerstone", but everyone is to be building on top of those foundations - hopefully not "wood, hay, and stubble", but "gold, silver, or precious stones".

The kingdom was given to Peter and the apostles!

Lk 22:29

 

[3 Resurrections]

The kingdom was given to Peter and the apostles!

Lk 22:29

The twelve disciples were granted to sit on those twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel (Luke 22:30), which was going to be after Christ's final ascension in Acts 1. This was speaking of the days of the early church which was established in Jerusalem when the twelve tribes still existed. These 12 tribes are not present in the world anymore. The Apostles along with Christ the chief cornerstone provided the original foundation of the New Jerusalem, but all believers are part of the kingdom of God. The Apostles established the doctrine which Christ had given them, and decided matters of practice for the early church (care of widows, laying hands on those sent out for evangelism, making decrees about circumcision, taking up charitable collections, approving evangelism to the Gentiles, etc.)

But a dead Apostle performed no practical matters of authority after their death. Which is why their teaching was passed on to other faithful ones who could teach others also. All believers are members of that kingdom which Christ has given to us also. We should all be "able to admonish one another", just as Paul taught.

 

[donadams]

How must it be done right?

Thks

 

[donadams]

Scripture has no denominations only the one true church / new covenant for all men! Lk 2:10
Jn 1:29 Jn 3:16 Jn 10:16 Matt 16:18

 

[donadams]

There is and can only be one true:

One God
One Christ
One Savior
One Spirit
One king
One Mediator
One Christian Religion
One New Covenant
One Church / body of Christ
One teaching Authority of apostles
One Gospel
OneVineyard
One Kingdom
One House of God
One Household of faith
One Lord, one faith, One Baptism
One Redemption
One Justification
One Sanctification
One Salvation

Only Jesus Christ had authority to found the holy church on Peter and the apostles and their successors all others are heretical sects of the tradition of men!

 

[donadams]

The Ark of Salvation!

The church is founded by Christ and the sacraments are instituted by Christ for the salvation of all men!

The church and Jesus are one: acts 9:4 Jn 15:1-5 eph 5:32

The church and the sacraments are necessary for and the means of salvation and the life of grace!

Redemption: Eph 2
Justification: Mk 16:16 Jn 3:5 Acts 2:38
Sanctification: Jn 1:16 Jn 10:10 Jn 15:5
Salvation: Matt 24:13 Rom 13:11

The body of Christ:
1 Corinthians 12:27

The one true church:
Matt 16:18 Jn 10:16

The household of faith:
Gal 6:10

The house of God:
1 Tim 3:15

The church of the living God:
1 Tim 3:15

The kingdom of God on earth:
Dan 2:44 Matt 6:33 Matt 16:18 Matt 12:28 Mk 1:15 Jn 3:3-5 Acts 8:12 1 Cor 4:20 Col 4:11 1 Thes 2:12 Rev 1:9 12:10

The new and eternal covenant:
The one fold of Christ:

The new covenant body of Christ church is an ark, the ark of Peter, the ark of Noah was a type, all those outside the ark died, and all those outside the church die spiritually, there is no life outside of Noah’s ark and there is no spiritual life or salvation outside of the church founded by Christ on Peter and the apostles!

1 Pet 3:20
Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.

21 The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us!
(Ark of Noah a type of the church, member of Christ and his church and salvation by baptism!)
(Outside the ark all died and outside the church there is no salvation!)

God breathed life into Adam, gen 2:7 and we received this life from our fathers!

Christ breathed on the apostles our spiritual fathers, we receive the new covenant life of God’s grace from them thru faith & baptism! Jn 20:21-23 Mk 16:16 acts 8:36-38







Christian ritual of baptism:
Immersion, sprinkling, pour pure water over the forehead three time with the words, I baptize thee in the name of the father, and of the son, and of the Holy Spirit! Ez 36:25-27 Mk 16:16 Matt 28:19 Acts 2:38-39 Acts 8:36-38 Acts 22:16
1 Pet 3:21

Proper intention: to make a new creature in Christ, to put on Christ, initiation into the new covenant of grace
Matter: pure water
Form: the words

Born again! Born from above!

'The Father has set his seal' on Christ (John 6:27) and also seals us in him (cf. 2 Corinthians 1:22; Ephesians 1:23, 4:30). Because this seal indicates the indelible effect of the anointing with the Holy Spirit in the sacrament of Baptism,

Baptism indeed is the seal of eternal life." 87 The faithful Christian who has "kept the seal" until the end, remaining faithful to the demands of his Baptism, will be able to depart this life "marked with the sign of faith," 88 with his baptismal faith, in expectation of the blessed vision of God - the consummation of faith - and in the hope of resurrection.

St. Paul tells the faithful at Ephesus that they have been “sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.” This is in terms of an indelible character imprinted on the soul in the sacraments of baptism and confirmation. It is not as if this invisible mark is simply decorative. Rather, through it, we are enabled to participate in Christ’s mission and in his offices of priest, prophet, and king. Eph 1:13

Sealed by God eph 1:13 sealed by God (ez 36:25-27) in the ark of salvation by baptism just as Noah was sealed by God in the ark of the flood gen 7:16

1 Pet 3:20 Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.

21 The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us!
(Ark of Noah a type of the church, member of Christ and his church and salvation by baptism!)
(Outside the ark of Noah none were saved, outside the church (the ark of salvation) none are saved!)


Sealed in the ark, sealed in the church the ark of salvation by baptism!

Ez 36:25 I (God) shall sprinkle you with pure water, and you shall be white as snow!




Jn 1:5-5 abide in Him, apart from Him you can do nothing.

God provides for everything:
John 14:6
Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

He is the way we must follow!
He is the truth we must believe!
He is the life, life of grace thru the sacraments of the church in which we must live!

Abide in Christ and His church with grace and life provided by God thru the sacraments!

Sacramental life: Jn 1:16 And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace. Jn 10:10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

Baptism: (initiation into the covenant)
Mk 16:16 Jn 3:5
1 Corinthians 12:13
For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.

The Eucharist: (holy communion)
Mt 26:26-39 Jn 6:51-58 1 Cor 11:23-25

Confession of sins:
Jn 20:23

Confirmation
Mt 17:27 Lk 22:32 acts 8:14-17
acts 14:22

Marriage:
Matt 19:4-6

Holy orders: (priesthood)
Jesus Christ continues HIS ministry in His new covenant church thru His priesthood in Peter, the apostles, and their successors with the same mission, power, and authority!
Mt 10:1-8 Mt 16:18 Mt 28:19 Lk 10:16 Jn 8:32 Jn 13:20 Jn 15:5 Jn 16:13
Jn 20:21-22 acts 1:17 acts 6:4 acts 8:26
2 Cor 5:18 1 Tim 4:14 Eph 2:20

Extreme unction: (anointing with oil)
1 Tim 4:14 James 5:14

The one, holy, catholic, (universal) and apostolic church founded by Jesus Christ on Peter and the apostles!

The promise (sacred oath or sacrament) of the father acts 2:38-39 with reference to ez 36:25-27

Acts 2:38 Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

39 For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.

Ez 36:25 Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.

26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.

27 And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.

Hebrews 8:6
But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises. Based on Jer 31:31 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:

A promise is a sacred oath or sacrament!
Baptismal regeneration is the promise of the Father for union in the new covenant!

The church and the seven sacraments are necessary for salvation

Better covenant on better promises or an oath of sacramental life of grace!

Jn 1:16 And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace.

Jn 10:10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.