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The Living Body II
Lewis
Goldberg
07/21/2003
[Click
here for Part I, published 16 September, 2002]
We
observe in the OT that the church had its beginnings in dirt and stone. Men
worshipped by building an altar from the materials available. At the proper
point, the Lord had His people construct a more ornate, though portable,
place for men to worship and sacrifice. At an even later date, He ordained
a permanent dwelling place - the Temple built by Solomon at the Lord's
direction.
When
Jesus came to offer the ultimate sacrifice for sin, he also obliterated the
venue for further sacrifice [the rending of the veil and later destruction
of the Temple itself by Rome,] thus preventing further profanation of His
holy deed. Notably not destroyed were the synagogues, which functioned as
valid meeting places for Hebrew Christians. Paul brought his message to the
synagogues, and never once indicated that such places were to be shunned
for the meeting of the Saints.
Looking
to the future, we see in the Revelation once again the glory and ornateness
of worshipping the True God, which takes place in a distinct place in
heaven - an Holy gathering [against the wishes of home-churchers, who tend
to shun large centralized gatherings.] This is what we anticipate in the
growing of His Church body on earth. The modern home church movement is a
devolving force, which seems to fight against the clear tide displayed in
His Word - serving more as a place where heretics and other misfits can be
big fish in small ponds rather than one of the quiet multitude, humbly
worshipping the Lord with no one noticing.
Is
home church an invalid worship setting? No, for we see such churches
springing up under desperate conditions similar to those experienced by the
persecuted first century church [China comes to mind first.] The Lord is
able to glorify Himself in the most arduous of settings. However, at some
point in attempting to emulate the "first century church," we end
up simply sitting in our living rooms hiding from the Romans, rather than
building His kingdom [such as we are able.] I submit that this is not the
vision presented in Scripture.
Let
us not look to the bad that the institutional churches have committed over
the years and use that as a reason to head 180-degrees in the wrong
direction, rather we should all be little Pauls in our respective church
settings - large or small - making sure that the way we are collectively
heading is the straight and narrow.
Your comments and questions are encouraged. [editor@patriotist.com]
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