Do Not Forsake the Assembling of Yourselves Together

:thumbsup::thumbsup::applause:

 

You are correct it is not the place, but it is why, and how. The church is set down in the scriptures with polity. Any assembly that rejects the polity that the Lord has designed for the church is not meeting in accord to His will.
The Lord has set the church with structure, pastors, teachers, deacons. Then He sets how giving is to be done within the church. We are to come under the authority of the structure the Lord has designed or we are not assembling as He has commanded and we are in rebellion. We do not get the luxury as to decide how we will build the Lord’s church. He is the builder and we are to obey. No obedience no church.

 

While I agree to a point, I'm reminded of Matthew 18:20, "For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of them." (KJV) Seems to me that that would qualify as assembling together.

 

If you notice I never mentioned a number. I simply laid out what the bible teaches. Some will seek ways around what the Lord set up for the church. Also the passage you gave is a teaching on how many of the saints it takes to do church discipline, it is not setting the polity or standard for the church. The "in the mist" phrase is saying I agree you need to use church discipline in accord with the standards He set up and what ever the decision that is made Christ will honor.
Keep in mind that Jesus is always in pour mist even if we are alone, but it takes tow or three to do church discipline

 

And if we all believed that we would still be cowtowing to the Roman Catholics.

 

Again....good post:thumbs:

 

No. if we believe that we believe the bible and if we obey it we show we love the Lord.

 

Post deleted. I do not wish to henpeck each other to death. It's the wrong spirit so I retracted my last statement. I believe it is very important to gather together in His name for several reasons, all biblical in my opinion. I do not however think it is sin if you do not. Have a happy Thanksgiving freeatlast and everyone else here. God bless you all.

 

Thank you and have a blessed day.

 

"consider one another in order to stir up love and good works" There is the fellowship that we are to gain as well.

This is the context, we are not to forsake so we gain these things, however if you cannot gain these things from the assembling are you to keep assembling? If you are shunned, if you have no fellowship and you see no love ....

 

For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. Matt 18:20

The "Church" is within you. Get together with another Christian and you have a "church".

 

I think that if we are shunned, we should at least try to go to the brother who has offended us (it may be the pastor) and attempt peace. If you discover that you have sinned against him, appologize. If you discover that you were simply engaged with a pastor or church that is shunning you for non-biblical reasons, you should seek out a more biblical fellowship of believers.

I know of several people who have been hurt or disappointed by churches, and spent quite some time looking for a real community that taught real truth...but dispite the difficulty, they did eventually find a good church, and would tell you that they are glad they did not give up.

 

Are you saying that every such meeting with 2 believers is a new church? are there churches forming and dissolving thousands of times a day?

I would argue that This verse is not seeking to define what a church is.

Historically (and yes, I know history can be wrong), the protestant church has defined a church by right preaching of the word and right administration of the ordinances. The NT also seems to think there should be some leadership and orginization. It is true that many churches start with 2-3 people in a home, but most of those recognize that at some point that group transistions form being a "small group" or "bible-study" to being an actual church.

THe church in Acts had 4 distincives: fellowship, teaching, breaking bread, & prayer. The regular teaching and learning of the Word is an important part of "being" a church... not just gathering with a few to encourage each other, as important as that is.

 

The passage you are pointing to is about church discipline, not what constitutes a church. It is saying from any church that it only takes two or three to carry out the discipline, not that two or three constitutes the church itself.
A church consists of a Pastor, deacon/s and members. Just because people gather in the name of the Lord it does not constitute a church. God wants accountability and the sheep are to be under the authority of a Pastor/Elder in a place where we can grow and fellowship and help finance the work of the Lord through free will giving from the heart, not the tithe.

 

A gross misunderstanding of the local church and it's purpose.

Sometimes I wonder if people ever read their bibles or just use them as coasters.

 

I hope you're not using your Allan as a coaster! :saint:

 

Bite your tongue!

I sure would like to have another in the NKJV. Maybe in a few years when I save up. :tongue3:

 

Yes. The opening statement misses the mark in my estimation.

Rather than being labeled a "sin" it should be considered as an indication of a spiritual need.

If someone is not present in the assembling for a while it should be dealt with in a different way than a rush to judgement and condemnation.

The thinking should be - so and so has been missing for a time, lets call him or go see him, that all is well with him.

HankD

 

These hebrew Christians were in danger of apostasy. Christianity was an illegal religion....judaism was legal......some were forsaking the assembly of christian believers...going back .......this they were warned was apostasy.

 

So far, the entire conversation has missed a large biblical point -- that we are created by God for relationship, both horizontal -- with each other -- and vertical -- with God.

In that we fail to come together as the church gathered, we also fail to fully realize the relational aspects of the gospel, i.e., that we "together" are the bride of Christ, not we "individually," and further, that we "together" are the flock of the Lord, and He is the Shepherd of that flock.

It should be no mystery that God uses illustrations, types, allusions, etc., as a means to get us to see that He intends for us to be gathered in love.

However, we have taken that great biblical concept and turned it into but another legalism akin to the practice of the 1st century Jews (and adopted by Islam, et al) whereby we MUST gather at the temple in order to be right with God, and even more, that we MUST gather on Sunday mornings at some particular time in order to be most pleasing to God and to fulfill our responsibility toward God. Such is neither biblically accurate nor even conducive to growing in our walk with Christ or reaching others for Christ.

Of course, the fact that we are all part of something larger than that local congregation that gathers in "this building" at "this time" is contained in the biblical premise that we are both the bride and flock of the Lord, and indeed, as we ARE the church, we can gather together with fellow believers at any time or place. That we do gather together on Sunday mornings stems from Resurrection Day, where Christ was discovered alive and His church glorified God in worship, which became the norm for all future congregations. Nothing at all wrong with that idea unless we codify it into some law that Christ never issued. I fully expect that He would see us BE the church wherever and whenever we are together, and especially as we go into the world with the saving message of the gospel.