A confessional family moves into an area where most churches are not confessional. They make friends with the people and in home bible study they make use of the biblical confession, commentary, or sermons....people who are believers respond positively to the sheep food....others in the church find out, and resist...not for biblical reasons but rather ignorance, and emotional defects......now what?
Theological Differences in the Local Church
Discussion in 'Baptist Theology & Bible Study' started by Reformed, May 4, 2018.
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Iconoclast Well-Known MemberSite Supporter
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Iconoclast Well-Known MemberSite Supporter
now suppose....the confessional persons find out if they travel an hour or more...they could find a group that is closer to their beliefs, however..the distance would present difficulties.
Do they continue in the local assembly and be used to bring biblical reformation? Or do they abandon the local assembly?
If the local church needs help ....should they throw in the towel drive the extra hour or two, to sit in a church that does not need help, so they would just sit and rubber stamp things? -
Iconoclast Well-Known MemberSite Supporter
:Which do you see as worst situation[humanly speaking],and why?
Which do you see as most promising?
1 ]Covenant theology.....finds himself in a dispensational church...
2]A 1689 person in an Arminian church
3] An Arminian wanders into a 1689 church
4] A dispensational person wanders into Ken Gentry's local assembly
5] An Amillienial person in a dispensational church...
6] antinomian in a confessional church... -
Iconoclast Well-Known MemberSite Supporter
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The onus really is on the couple that moved into the new area. If they select a church that is not in agreement with their theology they cannot readily expect that they will be able to change things. Even requesting a hearing with the pastors and elders may raise red flags. Perhaps time will become their ally and they will earn the trust of church leadership. After much prayer and preparation, perhaps the opportunity will present itself to discuss theological differences. So long as the church is not teaching rank heresy, my counsel to the new couple is to either a) embrace their new church home and serve God there as far as their conscience will allow ~or~ b) Make the long trek to a church of like faith. -
Iconoclast Well-Known MemberSite Supporter
Yes...Reformed.....it can get dicey.....you do not want to harm a true assembly on one hand....but ;
9 I wrote unto the church: but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not.
10 Wherefore, if I come, I will remember his deeds which he doeth, prating against us with malicious words: and not content therewith, neither doth he himself receive the brethren, and forbiddeth them that would, and casteth them out of the church.
even the apostles came across some hard to call situations...much prayer indeed... -
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Iconoclast Well-Known MemberSite Supporter
We cannot see the heart...but their actions and words sometimes give them away.
It is quite a relief when you find an assembly following the scriptural model of a NT. Assembly.
I am still traveling often....sometimes it is shock and awe when you get inside..
:Cautious:Notworthy:Unsure -
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Covenanter Well-Known MemberSite Supporter
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Covenanter Well-Known MemberSite Supporter
From a post soon after we moved -
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Iconoclast said: ↑two people meeting in Jesus name...is not a Church. It is two Kingdom members meeting.Click to expand...
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Earth Wind and Fire Well-Known MemberSite Supporter
You know, if we are seeing any Christian assembly as different, then we are not paying attention to the myriad commandments to love... to love our God, to love our neighbor as ourselves, to love our enemies yada yada. I mean, have we become so jaded that we cannot live without negative energy, who cannot live in the realm of peace that Jesus announces, because the price of peace is non domination.
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1689Dave said: ↑If the kingdom of God is with you, how can two or more gathering in Jesus' name for prayer at McDonald's not be a church?Click to expand...
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Earth Wind and Fire Well-Known MemberSite SupporterReformed said: ↑Because a local church or assembly has the offices of a church (pastor/elder/deacons); the ordinances of the church (baptism and Lord's Supper); and church discipline. Two believers are part of the universal church but they are not a manifestation of the local church (c.f. 1689 LBC 22.8).Click to expand...
Going to have to look up what John Owen of the Puritan Divines said about it. ;) -
Reformed said: ↑Because a local church or assembly has the offices of a church (pastor/elder/deacons); the ordinances of the church (baptism and Lord's Supper); and church discipline. Two believers are part of the universal church but they are not a manifestation of the local church (c.f. 1689 LBC 22.8).Click to expand...
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1689Dave said: ↑What if both meeting at McDonald's for prayer in Jesus' name are pastors? Doesn't a pastor, or teacher emerge no matter how small the church?Click to expand...
Matthew 18:15-20 is one of the most misunderstood passages in the entire New Testament. It is not about God being present when two or three are gathered in His name, as though God is not there if one or eleven are present. It is about church discipline and only church discipline:
Matthew 18:15-20 15 “If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother. 16 But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that BY THE MOUTH OF TWO OR THREE WITNESSES EVERY FACT MAY BE CONFIRMED. 17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. 18 Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.
19 “Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven. 20 For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.”
So, it is not about just gathering together, it is about gathering for the purpose of agreement in church discipline. -
Reformed said: ↑No. The markings of a church are not there. Local assemblies are meant for the visible corporate body of believers to meet for worship. Local assemblies have the markings I listed in post #35.
Matthew 18:15-20 is one of the most misunderstood passages in the entire New Testament. It is not about God being present when two or three are gathered in His name, as though God is not there if one or eleven are present. It is about church discipline and only church discipline:
Matthew 18:15-20 15 “If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother. 16 But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that BY THE MOUTH OF TWO OR THREE WITNESSES EVERY FACT MAY BE CONFIRMED. 17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. 18 Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.
19 “Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven. 20 For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.”
So, it is not about just gathering together, it is about gathering for the purpose of agreement in church discipline.Click to expand... -
1689Dave said: ↑Jesus abolished the visible institutional church when he replaced the Old Covenant with the new. The visible institutional church came about with the rise of the monarchical bishops AD 100+. And remains responsible for the innocent bloodshed of non conformist Christians. Since that time continuing through the Reformation era.Click to expand...
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