I Am Not The Church. I Am To Be Part Of It.

"We are the church." 

Somebody whom I preached with before said this to me. I realize now it is nothing but an excuse to remain unchallenged in one's thinking and doctrine. It leads to all sorts of erroneous ideas and heresies mainly because one move about freely and say anything without restraint, impervious to correction, accountability, discipline, or rebuke.

Since moving out of our previous "mega" congregation and with pure intentions, I simply gathered my family at home, and we became a house church. Recognizing the errors of the "church" in mishandling of scriptural truths, I feared for my family's sake, understanding somehow that the word of God alone must be the singular basis of our faith, and so we went into the study of scripture for ourselves. I assumed my rightful role as head and "priest" of my wife and children, feeding them from what I know little, about what is plainly revealed in scripture. We gathered every weekend faithfully for about a year, slowly slacking off after for one reason or another, until I was eventually introduced to the public proclamation of the word, or street preaching. It was in one of the events we went to that we met brethren who were into the Lord, and we found out that they too, like us, weren't under any church or leadership. I continued with them for some time in the same frame of mind, that since it was hard to find a church that is faithful to what we assumed to be what is biblical, like Elijah who thought he was the only remaining prophet, we would rather continue being the church on our own.

During this time, uninfluenced by any man or realization, I was led into a deeper study of God's Sovereignty. I asked people who I deemed to be authorities on the subject, and more experienced than I, but it only opened me to even bigger questions, to which they themselves had no answer. One book in particular told of how God had a wonderful plan for Judas, just as he had for everyone, but that God did not expect Judas to deviate from His plan by making his own wrong choices, all by himself. This presented a huge dilemma, if God did not ordain Judas to betray Jesus, then its safe to assume, Jesus could have been betrayed by someone else, and more remotely, died by some other means. Would it be safe to say if God did not design things to run the way they did, could Jesus have lived on to be an old man and die peacefully? If he did not deliberately choose Judas himself, Jesus had a lapse of sound judgement, even though He knew what was in man, and He knew the thoughts of man. He would not be reliable in any way, since the book presents a Jesus who does not know what manner of woman was washing his feet. Was God responsible for Judas' actions? Or did God merely choose an already rotten fruit, one that is already rotten in his heart of hearts who by nature conceives mischief and is selfish in every way? Every page of the book, I had a question mark, and in such a case as mine, asking the right questions is more crucial than in finding fruitless answers.

By God's providence, this same book I bought with the intention of sealing my understanding in the ways of God actually pulled me away from the lies I held on to and drove me straight into the central truths of God's ways as found only in scripture. Without any influence of external  resource or books, other than those that focused on prayer, I arrived at this same truth from studying the Bible alone: that God is truly Sovereign, and that he died only for those whom He chose to save. He caused these called out ones to believe on him and to walk in His ways, according to the Lamb's Book of Life, written from before the foundation of the world. That it is the Shepherd who searches for his sheep, and to believe the contrary is scriptural error. That when he finds me, I am not forced to love him against my will, but like a child who loves his adopting father, or a man who is united in marraige to his wife, I am given the heart as a new creature to obey, believe, and love God's laws and statutes. He is the One who wrote His own laws on the tablets of my heart. His chosen saints will only be able to persevere till the end solely by the power of God, regardless of their frailty. If a righteous man's prayer attains much how much more the Lord's prayer for his own sheep? What immeasurable joy it was for me to find out, this was what the Puritans held on to all along, and that it had a name: the Doctrines of Grace, whereas I did not even know what to call it. God has been nothing but good and merciful to me.

Along the way the Lord was impressing upon my heart little by little to pray for a church that is truly His, where His word alone is authority, and no one but Jesus is lifted up. My reasons in asking for a church being, first and foremost, one, to guard my heart from pride. I do not know everything. And not everything I know is perfectly true. I wish to be corrected of any errors I might have both in understanding and in my walk. It is the wise thing to do. Two, to submit myself under church authority, and present my life open for godly rebuke, and for accountability's sake. Three, to share in the persecutions, needs, encouragements, exhortations, and joy of the bride of Christ. We kept asking, and three years later, our prayers were answered.

I would understand situations where external restrictions or severe persecution will separate people into groups, or even isolate an individual, but this is not the case with us who live under freedom of religion, for we come and go as we please. Without brethren, we have no one to stimulate one another with to love and good deeds. Without brethren we have no one to assemble with, and therefore forsake an integral part of our calling as a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. Without brethren we have no one to pray and intercede for us in unity. Without brethren, we cannot love one another, we can only love ourself - the very crux of pride and selfishness. A lone Christian will eventually find himself weakened and in drought, failing and abandoned, all on his own. Until eventually he ceases to be fruitful. But with brethren, a threefold cord is not easily broken.

It is rightfully said, that "Church hitchhikers, ecclesiastical wanderers, and spiritual Lone Rangers, Christians who disdain membership, are abnormalities in the history of the Christian Church and are in grievous error."