The "Church" - Making Scriptural Connections

Preamble

We can consider the calling of the “Christian life” by examining it in three particulars.

Doctrine, the foundational truths of the Christian life
Piety, our walk in Christ as individuals
The church, our walk in Christ as a community of brothers / sisters

Doctrine

As to doctrine, this entire website is in large part an attempt to exposit portions of the Bible as to its claims and teachings. More significantly the Bible itself is comprised of narrative (providing events as they occurred) and of teaching (i.e. doctrine), with the narrative texts themselves contributing in some way, even indirectly, to teaching. The Bible claims this authority of teaching (doctrine) in countless places. Here’s one hidden, beautiful example:

The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life,
To turn one away from the snares of death.
Prov. 14:27 (NKJV)

In the Septuagint (LXX) text of the OT the Greek (Koine) word translated above as “fear” is not the common word “Phobos,” but “Prostagma.” The root of this word is “Tasso” which means ordered, structured. It is related to our English word “taxonomy” or even “tagging” (as in identification into ordered groups). Other translations are better that use “the ordinance;” I think it could be well-translated by “structured-doctrine” because that is the root idea. But note the contrast of the above two lines of the verse, the one ends with “life” and the other “death,” both words in the possessive case (Koine: genitive) indicating possession of preceding nouns, namely “fountain” for line 1 and “snares” for line 2, themselves dramatic terms of contrast.

The point of Prov. 14:27, and many many other such passages, is that the Lord is God, the Creator and Judge to Whom we are all accountable, and under whose Gospel Salvation, and only by such provision, we rest. (The word “Lord” in the OT in the English translation is of the personal name of God, transliterated from Hebrew as Yahweh, or as some prefer, Jehovah).

So it was that The Fall of us all recorded in Genesis 3 began with The Serpent questioning both the words of the Lord God and then the truth of such words and ultimately the motive behind such words. Very very briefly, then, the matter of “Doctrine” (the organized, whole revelation of God to man) is a great blessing and comfort, but also a series matter for us to grasp and follow as faithful believers.

Piety

Piety is the transformation of doctrine into the life of a Christian believer as an individual. Again, the Bible has many texts on this issue. Calvin’s Golden Book, consisting of five chapters from his important systematic theology (1559), is all about piety, derived from some 50 passages of Scripture cited in his text. Here are two sentences from Calvin that exemplify what those passages teach:

…Right living has a Spiritual basis where the inner affection of the heart is sincerely devoted to God for the nurture of holiness and righteousness.
…we are consecrated and dedicated to God to the end that we might not think, speak, meditate, or act unless it be to His glory.
p. 16 and 22, respectively, of A Little Book on the Christian Life, John Calvin, translated and edited by Aaron Clay Denlinger and Burk Parson, published by Reformation Trust, 2017.

Church

Beyond the vast subjects of doctrine and piety, there are important matters having to do with the church. Much of what is called the “church” today is far far out of conformity to the NT’s teaching. This page, and its subsidiary pages, will focus on what seems to be those out-of-conformity matters, as the overall doctrine of the “church” is a vast topic of its own, and well expounded by many others far more qualified than me. Also, the discussions here will not be identifying specific groups or individuals who, in appears to me, to be clearly in error on such matters. Again, that’s someone else’s job.

We probably should remind ourselves of a few key observations on the church that we will take as a given.

The church is a NT creation. It is not the Tabernacle (tent) nor the Temple (the successor to the Tabernacle, the building in Jerusalem in the early NT period). Nor is it a synagogue gathering of the period between the the Testaments, during the NT time, and which continues to the present day.
The church is Jesus Christ’s creation, and is portrayed, metaphorically as His “body.” He is the Head of it, and the Defender of it. The gates of Hell (Matt. 16:18) itself will not stop its being, nor subsume it, though the Enemy appears to have this as his primary purpose.
Jesus is not only the head of the church but as in all things the church lifts Jesus Christ to preeminence above all else. Col. 1:18 And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence. (NKJV)
It is known by various terms in the NT canon (discussed below).
It is not a particular building or site, nor any specific location (as was the Temple).
It is not a denomination in the sense we use the word today.
It is not headed by any one man, as, for example, a vicar on earth. (I will return to the “Peter” and “church” connection in Matt. 16:18 at a later point).
It is not lead by “Apostles” as those by some form of “apostolic succession” stand in the very sandals of those chosen as such by Christ Himself.

James 4:1-12

In this foundational page of discussion, let us begin by considering a very unlikely passage as to its initial, apparent relevance to the subject of the church, namely James 4 (NKJV):

James 4:1 Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members?

2 You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.

4 Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5 Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously”? 6 But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: “God resists the proud / But gives grace to the humble.”
[ Psalm 138:6 Though the Lord is on high, Yet He regards the lowly; But the proud He knows from afar; Proverbs 3:34
Surely He scorns the scornful, But gives grace to the humble]

7 Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up. 11 Do not speak evil of one another, brethren. He who speaks evil of a brother and judges his brother, speaks evil of the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge.

12 There is one Lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy. Who are you to judge another?

I have divided this 12-verse passage into five paragraphs.

Para.s 1 and 5 bookmark the passage with a question.
Para. 2 answers the question of Para. 1.
Para. 3 establishes the underlying principle that has been violated (in the context of the question of Para. 1 and explanation of Para. 2).
Para. 4 is a series of sweeping commands to bring the reader, and us, to step back from the violations of God’s principle (Para. 3), into conformity with God’s purpose.
And finally, Para. 5 establishes another aspect of the underlying principle and ends with a question that should serve as a reminder and warning.

All of this passage could be a worthy study in its own right, but we must focus here on the three verses of Para. 3 which establishes a key underlying principle of the church.

Friendship with the World

God says, and He says it twice in this brief passage, that “friendship with the world” is to be the enemy of God Himself. It is worth pausing a long-while on just that thought. It’s no mis-translation. There is no textual variant that says something different. It’s not an exaggeration. It’s not the Apostle James’s own personal slant on things, as though he was just some angry guy venting, or responding to a tough week in the life of Jerusalem.

So we must begin with the really important idea that “friendship,” which in our time and place is a universal term taken to mean something good, admirable, but here, and in our culture too, it is only good and admirable if connected to something or someone worthy of such friendship. Further, our text makes clear that there’s no halfway station whereby one can be in good relationship with both the “the world” and God.

The World? (Koine: kosmos)

The Koine (NT Greek) word translated “world” here and in many other places in the NT is actually a familiar one in English. It is cosmos (or, more properly, kosmos). Cosmos has come to be a poetic term for the universe. Kosmos in Koine means the beauty of order, organization, system, ideally designed into a connected whole that is worthy of admiration. As with many such Koine words it has a polar opposite, another word which we know in English: chaos.

In metaphorical terms, kosmos is what a home would look like that has been carefully designed and furnished (“staged” is a term used) in readiness for a photographic spread in Home and Garden or some such publication. Chaos is what it would look like after 20 third graders, or a college fraternity, had a giant party in it. And, so, we get our English words of cosmetics and chaotic from these Koine roots.

What’s relevant to our issue is what does kosmos mean, or using the typical English translation, world, in this context of James 4 and the NT in general. At the time and place of the writing of this Epistle, there were two highly-ordered systems, that of the (claimed) service of God in accordance with the Mosaic Law, and that of the service of government (empire) with accordance with Roman Law. (It should be noted that conformance to a sophisticated, established “law,” meets an essential element of being a kosmos). Further, these two systems had a beauty to them, though certainly in the eye of the respective beholders as each despised the other. But looking at each one distinctly, there were magnificent buildings and other structures, ornate trappings, important and elaborate festivals and holidays, and important cultural norms. One could very reasonably stand in awe and wonder looking at within each of these ordered systems. Yet a third manifestation of kosmos was the ordered Greek system of wisdom pursuits–Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Stoics, Epicureans, Sophists, Gnosticism, and many other forms.

So to which of such systems is James 4:4 referencing? If we harmonize this context in James with, say, the Epistle to the Hebrews and the one to the Galatians, and to the incident in the Gospels of “the great buildings” (discussed below), it seems clear that the kosmos is referencing the very customs and practice of the Mosaic Law then continuing in Jerusalem and throughout the Jewish world even as, and after, the true and final fulfillment of the Mosaic Law had been completed a generation previous with the crucifixion and resurrection of the promised Messiah, namely the Lord Jesus Christ.

How is it then, that the ‘religious’ system whose one primary mission was to foretell the need for and significance of the true Lamb of God continued then unabated and unfazed by the very fulfillment of that which they purported to honor? The answer is a painful one: there exists “The Religion Industry” (TRI), a category and topic that will be discussed further elsewhere.

The Great Buildings (of The Religion Industry, TRI)

There is a brief episode, easily missed, that is recorded in each of the three synoptic Gospels, in which Jesus’s disciples are bringing to the Lord’s attention, something apparently that He did not properly appreciate in their eyes, namely of the absolute magnificence of the buildings at that time on the Temple Mount. We know from yet other passages that certain of these buildings required 46 years of construction.

Matt 24:1 Then Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and His disciples came up to show Him the buildings of the temple. ²And Jesus said to them, “Do you not see all these things? Assuredly, I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down.”
Mark 13:1 Then as He went out of the temple, one of His disciples said to Him, “Teacher, see what manner of stones and what buildings are here!” ²And Jesus answered and said to him, “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone shall be left upon another, that shall not be thrown down.”
Luke 21:5 Then, as some spoke of the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and donations, He said, ⁶“These things which you see—the days will come in which not one stone shall be left upon another that shall not be thrown down.” (all NKJV)

These structures were magnificent in beauty and extent. They were a great source of pride for the Jewish people. And they provided the centralized focus of all the Jews because in the Temple area was the Holy of Holies where the Ark of the Covenant, and the Glory of God Himself, was present.

At the time of the NT, the site of the Temple and certain of its very stones, dated back 1000 years to King David and his son Solomon (the First Temple). And the furnishings of the Temple, at least certain of them, dated back even 500 years earlier to the Tabernacle constructed at the time of Moses. Yet, the custodians of the Temple and its festivals and sacrificial system, the Chief Priests, the Scribes, the Sanhedrin itself, formally rejected and condemned the very One for whom all such had been prepared. After the crucifixion, some decades prior to the writing of the James Epistle, the ‘religious’ life of the Jewish people continued as though nothing had happened and, even, worse, actively persecuted Believers in Messiah Jesus.

Other Aspects of “The Church”

Below are links to other sections of this website for further commentary of matters of “The Church.”