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Satan’s
Assault via the Church (Part 1) By
Bob Myhan The
word "church" is used in the New Testament in at least two senses:
the universal sense—all Christians (Matt. 16:18; Acts 2:47) and
local sense—Christians who meet, worship and work together as a collective
unit, ideally under the oversight of elders (Matt. 18:17; Phil. 1:1). Thus, a
local church is not a meetinghouse or a mere plurality of Christians but a
collectivity of Christians. By “collectivity” is meant “a number of
persons taken or acting together." This can be illustrated by the words,
link, links and chain. A chain is neither a link nor a mere plurality of links;
it is a collectivity of links. That is, a plurality of links must be “linked
together” in order to constitute a chain. Likewise, there is a difference
between an individual Christian, a plurality of Christians and a church. The
universal church never acts collectively because it has no organizational
framework through which to function as a collective unit. Therefore, the action
of the universal church is always distributive; that is, the action is
distributed among the individual members. It acts only as Christians act
individually. A
local church, on the other hand, not only acts distributively as its
members act, but also collectively, through its organizational framework. In
Matt. 18:15-17, Jesus makes an obvious distinction between the action of one
Christian, the action of a plurality of Christians,
and the action of a local congregation. Further,
a Still
further, a Self-edification
is the prime responsibility of the local church. Jesus “gave
some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and
teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the
edifying of the body of Christ … from whom the whole body … according to the
effective working by which every part does its share, causes the growth of the
body for the edifying of itself in love” (Eph. 4:11-16). The
evangelists, pastors and teachers follow the instructions of the apostles and
prophets, providing opportunities for the mutual and reciprocal edification of
saints by appointing times and places for edification to take place, via
singing, studying God’s word, eating the Lord’s Supper, praying and laying
by in store. Each
member of the local church can and should be involved in the edification process
(Eph. 4:16). He does so by attending every service he can, and being active in
every aspect of the work. He does so by singing heartily, allowing himself to be
admonished by the words of the songs. He does so by praying fervently for the
success of every effort and every work of the local body. And he gives
generously so the church can fulfill the work God has given it (2 Cor. 8:7-12).
He thus promotes constancy, diligence, endurance, and an interest in and by
others. The
church is also authorized to act in the area of benevolence, but it is not
authorized to finance the benevolent work of human institutions. Human
benevolent institutions are not a “how;”
they are a “who.” The
local church may provide and utilize adequate facilities for any aspect of its
work, including benevolence. If someone for whom the church is responsible is in
need of shelter, the church may provide it. It
is conceivable that a local church might, from time to time, require the
services of a benevolent institution; and if so, it could purchase those
services just as it can purchase the services of a hospital. But this does not
justify making contributions to a benevolent institution or a hospital any more
than purchasing electricity for the building would justify making a contribution
to Georgia Power. How
the church does its benevolent work is largely a matter of judgment. But it
cannot scripturally delegate its benevolent work to a human benevolent
institution. Inasmuch
as
the gospel “is the power of God to
salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek”
(Rom. 1:16), gospel preaching is the only means of evangelism (see also 1 Cor.
1:21). And
all are to be evangelists (Acts 8:1-4). There
are those, however, who have dedicated
their lives to preaching the gospel, men like Timothy, Titus and James, the
Lord’s brother. Do these men “have no
right to refrain from working” (1 Cor. 9:6) and to be supported by
local
churches? Paul
asked, “Who ever goes to war at his own
expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its fruit? Or who tends a
flock and does not drink of the milk of the flock? Do I say these things as a
mere man? Or does not the law say the same also? For it is written in the law of
Moses, ‘You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain.’ Is it
oxen God is concerned about? Or does He say it altogether for our sakes? For our
sakes, no doubt, this is written, that he who plows should plow in hope, and he
who threshes in hope should be partaker of his hope. If we have sown spiritual
things for you, is it a great thing if we reap your material things?” “Even
so the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should live from the
gospel” (1 Cor. 9:7-10,14). Paul himself “robbed
other churches, taking wages from them to minister” to the brethren
at When
the Christian lays by in store he enables the local church to do its collective
work in edification, benevolence and evangelism. Of course, saints have
individual obligations in these three areas as well which cannot be executed by
proxy but must be done personally.
&
Flee
the Scene The
idea of someone "fleeing the scene" indicates
to us that perhaps a crime has been committed. Or, perhaps someone is doing the
cowardly
thing by fleeing. It is not necessarily a sign of
cowardice to flee. Webster defines "flee" as; "to
run away from danger or evil." The
apostle Paul spoke frequently on this subject.
He encouraged young Timothy in 1 Timothy
6:11; "But as for you, 0 man of God, flee
these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness,
faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness." Again
in 2 Timothy 2:22; "So flee youthful
passions
and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace
along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart." The
apostle also warned the Christians at Joseph,
Jacob's young son who was sold into slavery
by his brethren, is perhaps our greatest example
of fleeing from the dangers which God warns
us about. Genesis 39 records the incident of
Potiphar's wife when she attempts to seduce Joseph
and play on his "youthful passions." She persistently
pursued Joseph; "And as she spoke to
Joseph day after day, he would not listen to her, to lie beside her or to be
with her. But one day, when he went into the house to do his work and
none of the men of the house was there in the house, she caught him by
his garment, saying, 'Lie with me.' But he
left his garment in her hand and fled
and got out of the house." (Genesis
39:10-12) It
is obvious that Jacob and Rachel had trained
young Joseph well. He was only 17 years old when sold by his brothers. Yet, he
knew what James
would later write in inspiration; "Submit
yourselves therefore to God. Resist the
devil, and he will flee from you." (James 4:7)
& BULLETIN
DIGEST
Terry
Ellison |