We Cannot Be A First Century Church...

WHAT MUST THE CHURCH OF CHRIST
DO TO BE SAVED? (11)

Hanging about the neck of the Church of Christ like an albatross all these years has been the fiction that we are the first century church duly restored in name, organization, worship, doctrine, and practice. It is a fiction grounded on false assumptions, such as the church of the apostles having a particular name, which it did not, and that it had a uniform organization and clearly-defined “acts” of worship, which it did not.

But the first thing we must come to terms with if we are to rid ourselves of the weighty albatross is a proposition that can hardly be questioned: We can’t be a ftrst century church! There is no ground for supposing that God ever intended for His church in each succeeding century for the past 2,000 years to be a first century church, even if it were possible, which it isn’t. That one simple fact, duly accepted and acted upon, would go far in saving the Church of Christ, to wit, that it is impossible to be a first century church in the 21st century.

The evidence rather suggests that God calls us to do for our generation what the primitive church did for its generation. Nothing in Scripture indicates that the earliest congregations were intended to be models for all time to come or even in their own time for that matter. The facts of history, culture, and civilization demand that the Church of Christ of the second century would be a second century church and that the church of the sixteenth century would be a sixteenth century church. Each generation of Christians is to serve its own time, drawing upon both holy Scripture and the experience of the church through the ages (tradition) for its direction. We have to recognize that time makes a difference in the way Scripture is to be interpreted.

All these years we have suffered from the illusion of a golden age of the church in the past. Historical study has exploded this illusion, for we now know there was never a golden age, not even in the case of the earliest churches which had problems as serious as those of most any other period. We have what one of our pioneer preachers, Walter Scott, called “the golden oracle,” which referred to the grand truth that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, but we have had no golden age. The fact that the primitive church had many diverse elements, both Jewish and Gentile, and only gradually emerged from its Jewish context to have a character of its own makes any golden age interpretation impossible. The church has always in every generation been far less than perfect.

We have erred in our claim that there is a uniform pattern of organization and worship in the New Testament churches and that we have duly “restored” that pattern. This is evident in the fact that we can’t even agree among ourselves as to what that pattern requires. We have not only differed but divided over almost every aspect of the life of the church, whether it has to do with using instruments of music, missionary and benevolent societies, Sunday schools, the manner of serving Communion, cooperative efforts, work of elders and preachers, etc., etc. Are we to conclude that God has given us a prescribed norm or pattern that is so obscure that we ourselves cannot make head or tail of it? Or is it that we have erred in making the New Testament something that it never has been and was never intended to be?

There are three fallacies that we have succumbed to as a result of presuming that we are to be a first century church in the 20th and 21st centuries. A close look at them may help us to free ourselves from them.

1. That the silence of Scripture on any proposed new method is equivalent to a denial of its legitimacy.

It is interesting that Alexander Campbell in his earlier years was misled by this fallacy. When a new method of doing the church’s work was proposed to him, he retorted with, “It is not commanded.” Experience taught him that the “silence” argument confines the church to centuries past and makes useful innovations impossible. By 1849 Campbell was ready for his congregations to pool their efforts in an organized missionary society and he served as its first president. He was by now asking different questions about a proposed innovation, such as whether it is in harmony with the plain teaching of Scripture, whether it is in keeping with the Spirit of Christ?,” and whether it will promote the cause of Christ in our age?”

Today we live in a telstar, computerized age, and we can hardly imagine what the next century will bring. But we know that human nature will not change and that because of humankind’s fallenness people will always be in need of redemption. That is why we have an unchanging gospel that transcends all time. But means and methods will change, as will traditions and marginal and secondary matters. With the passing of centuries we have learned that many things are legitimate that are not specifically prescribed in Scripture, such as buildings and baptistries. It should not be a question of whether a helpful innovation is prescribed but whether it is proscribed.

2. That the true church must be an exact copy of the original church in all its details.

In this proposition, which has had great influence upon Churches of Christ, there is more than one fallacy. The first is the fiction that there is such a thing as “the true church,” if one means by that a church that is right about everything. There has never been such a church, including the ones set up by the apostles. One only needs to read about the congregations in the New Testament to see how imperfect they were.

The second false premise is that the “the original church” can be identified with such detail that an exact copy can be produced in succeeding centuries. Not all that many details are known and they differ from church to church. And even if the exact details could be ascertained, are we sure we should follow all of them? Do we want to be an exact copy of the Church of Christ in Jerusalem where each member sold his and her possessions and resorted to communal living? Or the church in Corinth where some believed in “lords many and gods many,” where there were factions, and where they even practiced pagan rites in being baptized for the dead? If we sought to be like the church at Pergamus we could probably do without the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, whatever that was. And we wouldn’t want to be “wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked” like the congregation at Laodicea.

When theologian Karl Barth was asked about how to identify a true church, he said that a true church is where the power of Christ is present in the lives of the people. That is a better answer than the illusion that we are “an exact copy” of some “original pattern” that never existed to begin with.

3. The demand for book, chapter and verse for what is only improvements in modern culture.

The church should be the first to make use of the modem technology that has given us a world of instant communication. Fax machines and computers now do what would have appeared miraculous only a few years back, and we travel about the world at incredible speed. The church is to capture such a world for Christ rather than to isolate itself into a first century (or even a 1940’s) mentality. We must not allow ourselves to be held back by those who demand book, chapter and verse for the use of an overhead projector or any other means, great or small, that furthers the cause of Christ.

I belong to a Church of Christ that not only has duplicating machines and computers but a workroom with all sorts of gadgets and teaching aids, spacious offices and reception rooms, a family activity center (with kitchen, stage, basketball court, etc.), a gazebo out in the garden, a prayer room, etc. Committees oversee mission projects at home and abroad, Meals on Wheels, campus ministry, youth ministry, and many more. Imagine a Church of Christ with a prayer room and a prayer ministry, with call-in recorders and all the rest! One thing is sure, we are not a first century church! The paved parking lot with hundreds of high-powered automobiles makes that evident.

Our response to the demand for a changing church in a changing world should be a blend of common sense and vital piety, which does not call for a Bible verse for every modem innovation. The question ought to be whether all such things are in keeping with the Spirit of Christ, whether they are a proper use of financial resources, and whether they are used to the glory of God. The rule should be to use things and love people, not the other way around. That means we will use such things in order to be a servant church rather than a self-serving church. So, the church of every age since apostolic times should say to the world around it, “We are your servants for Jesus’ sake,” but ways of doing this will change.

What then is “the pattern” for the church of the 21st century. Ever since the light shined in the darkness and the darkness could not apprehend it the pattern for God’s community on earth has been the same, Jesus Christ our Lord. According to 2 Cor. 3:18 it is his image that we behold as in a mirror, and it is his likeness that we, his church, are being conformed to, from one level of glory to another, and this by the Holy Spirit within us. Jesus Christ is the church’s pattern, and to the extent that the Bible shows us how to take on his likeness it may be referred to as our pattern. The Bible is our guide in that it reveals Jesus Christ.

We are thus to take the Scriptures in hand in order to see Jesus, for “they testify of me,” as Jesus himself put it in Jn. 5:39. That verse teaches us that we are not to be like the Pharisees who supposed that in the Scriptures themselves they had eternal life. If we liken the Bible to a telescope we are not to be like a monkey that looks at the telescope, but we are to look through the telescope in order to see the Person who is our pattern.

No one congregation in the New Testament therefore can be viewed as our pattern, nor all of them together, but out of their experiences, their strengths and weaknesses, we learn how to be his church. Out of the documents that we call the New Testament “the essentials” of the faith emerge and they become our norm for all generations, for it is the essentials that point us to Christ.

The gospel of the grace of God is forever, as are the ordinances of that gospel. Means, methods, and secondary matters, which are effected by cultural change, will vary with the generations. This calls for a responsible handling of Scripture by the church of every age lest we cling to the Book itself and lose sight of the Person.—the Editor

The unexamined life is not worth living.—Socrates