Is the Church Irrelevant?

[Ben1445]

You are really off your rocker if you concluded that setting someone else's picture as an avatar makes them an idol.

I have my own doubts about you. I have yet to find anyone who idolizes a roof over their head in the rain.
Have a seat in the red chair and tell me… are they with you now??

Seriously though, I don’t know anyone who thinks the church is a building that Jesus died to save.

 

[th1bill]

Sir, I don't have any beef with you, nor do I wish to have any.

I have none with you but you are like a bull in a china closet and if you stop, read and think objectively about your post before you hit the button I believe all here will respond better to what you offer.

 

[th1bill]

You are really off your rocker if you concluded that setting someone else's picture as an avatar makes them an idol.

My dad taught me, quite correctly, that in the eyes of the observer we become who we are observed to be with. Hint: I will never be seen flying an avatar of Hitler even though I love and endear my German grandfather.

 

[Aaron]

Jesus went into the synagogues. Even preached from their pulpits. So the point is moot. The churches can have their buildings. And where the Lord's Table was being abused, Paul said, Don't you have your own houses to eat and drink in? Meaning, they were meeting somewhere as a church other than their own houses.

Here endeth the lesson.

 

[Stopgap]

I have my own doubts about you.

Get in line, buddy boy.

I have yet to find anyone who idolizes a roof over their head in the rain.

A roof can be as simple as a metal sheet placed over some wooden posts.

The problem lies with raising hundreds of thousands of dollars and putting it into the cost of a roof, as well as the tens of thousands of dollars of annual maintenance that could otherwise be given to a Haitian refugee camp, for instance.

 

[Stopgap]

I have none with you but you are like a bull in a china closet and if you stop, read and think objectively about your post before you hit the button I believe all here will respond better to what you offer.

I've studied this issue for a long time. Nobody has yet presented a meaningful argument, other than throwing out verses that are ambiguous in meaning. They are vain attempts meant to justify holding onto a tradition.

 

[Stopgap]

Jesus went into the synagogues. Even preached from their pulpits. So the point is moot.

The Levitical laws of the Old Covenant were still in effect before His death, which meant the physical structures called synagogues still had relevance. We are under the New Covenant now, so the point is moot.

Meaning, they were meeting somewhere as a church other than their own houses.

For all we know, it could very well have been at the public park over by 8th Street.

 

[Aaron]

The Levitical laws of the Old Covenant were still in effect before His death, which meant the physical structures called synagogues still had relevance. We are under the New Covenant now, so the point is moot.

Nothing about synagogue in the law. In fact, it wasn't what the early Israelites practiced at all.

 

[Stopgap]

Nothing about synagogue in the law.

Building physical structures was clearly the pattern of the OT. That's why there was the tabernacle. That's why there was Solomon's Temple. We've done away with those things.

 

[Aaron]

There was nothing about a temple either. In a vast array of aspects, Solomon added to and embellished on the divine pattern delivered to Moses.

But when the cloud of God’s glory filled the temple on its dedication, then it was known that it was acceptable.

The building of synagogues was a custom born of the Jews in exile. It is where they gathered as a community to hear the teaching of the law and hold their courts. It was a practice that was maintained when they were regathered and the Temple was rebuilt.

And the fact that Jesus entered and practiced in community with them, it was a hallowed and natural outgrowth of their religion.

It's the same with the Church, which is Israel now.

 

[Aaron]

Building physical structures was clearly the pattern of the OT. That's why there was the tabernacle. That's why there was Solomon's Temple. We've done away with those things.

Where were you baptized?