The Lord said it would be this way

If it is a house church then there is usually a leader or 'pastor' whos authority is recognized. If, on the other hand, it is a home Bible study, it may contain elements related to worship such as prayer, singing hymns, and sharing testimonies..... and its construct may be less formal regarding leadership.... but usually there is leader.

 

You're absolutely right. :thumbs:

 

YOu have a couple problems here.. you are imposing 21 century culture upon the 1st century church.. for instance... What church in the first century had a "sanctuary'?

Second problem: You are adding your imposition from your first problem to this passage and then trying to apply it... YOu are trying to say that in the end time people will not want to have preaching, but only teaching... that is NOT what that passage says...
NO where does it say people will not have preaching, but what it does say is that people will give to themselves and abundance of teachers (Heap)... and those teachers will lead them astray. And by leading them astray, it is understood that those teachers are false teachers.

There are many good, godly small group teachers that are not false teachers.

2 Timothy 4:2-4
V.2 Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.
V.3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
V.4 And they shall turn away [their] ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.

Proper application: the problem in this verse is people wanting to only hear what they want to hear.. therefore they will seek out teachers that tells them this... and this can be applied in many many ways...

For instance...on one extreme, we have people seeking out prosperity preaching.. like Hinn, Osteen, Robertson, Joyce Meyer, and all the other heretics... they want to hear junk like that so they refuse to listen to anyone that tells them different...

But on the other extreme, people only listen to KJVO, women wearing pants, Anti-CCM preaching because those people want to ONLY hear that.

The problem isn't with an abundance of teachers.. The problem is with people being so selfish and prideful that they think ONLY they have the answer, and if anyone tells them different, they don't want to hear it, so they simply find someone that will tickle their ears....

BTW, I like your screenname, if I hadn't told you so before... we all should be "Stilllearning"... because a person that thinks they have alll the answers is on the path to heresy... NO one has all the interpretations right... that is why it is important to even listen tp people who disagree with you.

 

The official house church movement eg the folks that insist that church should only be held in homes because that is the 1st century model and and churches that have church buildings are sinful and disobedient.

They further reject any type of hierarchy or headship in the church as they see the pastor as holding himself up above everyone else. (Quite reminiscent of Numbers 16)

They also reject all preaching using pejoratives like " pulpiteering" or "monologueing" as they see that no one person should stand before all others declaring truth for them. All scriptural truth can only be determined by a group consensus.


This is the official house church movement. This does not speak of all churches in homes.

 

Thank you for clarifying this.

 

There's nothing inherently wrong with a church meeting in a home. In China and North Korea, that is how (outside of the official state controlled churches,) people worship. With that said, in general, in the United States I don't see much need for house churches and I think it is better for a church to have a sanctuary, etc.

 

Maybe the OP had an experience like I did in that the small groups at my old church mostly took over the bible study aspects of the members. The worship service became a Joel Osteen type positive only instruction on marriage, finances, self esteem etc. Then the small groups evolved into many separate groups where some began drinking beer and the bible studies became short quick readings of seeker friendly materials. When I left many were not getting solid preaching or teaching from the worship or the small groups.

Any church can take a good thing and ruin it. maybe this is what the OP is alluding to? I hope you don't mind me speculating. :wavey:

 

How do you know this?

Is there some organization they all belong to that imposes these rules?

I would think that there is a lot of latitude in what these groups believe and how they worship and function. I know I used to attend an moderately sized baptist church that had something to do with some of these house churches. I never attended any but had the impression they were under the eye of the pastor.

 

If this is the case, I would have to agree with Revmitchell in saying I suspect these types of meetings would not qualify as the church in my mind.

Any time one "Christian" group calls another "Christian" group apostates, I have serious doubts as to their being a legitimate church themselves.

 

Silly me - I always thought God intended teaching to be part of what church is.

Ephesians 4v11

I didn't realise God was opposed to teaching.

Ya learn something every day.

 

Here is the official web site http://www.hccentral.com/index.html

I have spoke with quite a few of these folks. All of the people I spoke with were quite militant.