Calvin warns, "it is always disastrous to leave the church" and criticizes those who in proud contempt of the means God has provided abandon the church:
"Many are led either by pride, dislike or rivalry to the conviction that they can profit enough from private reading and meditation; hence they despise public assemblies and deem preaching superfluous. But, since they do their utmost to sever or break the sacred bond of unity, no one escapes the just penalty of this unholy separation without bewitching himself with pestilent errors and foulest delusions".
The Scriptures assume that a person upon being converted will join the church, for the Bible does not speak to Christians except as members of the church. So it was in the very beginning of the New Testament era: "And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved" (Acts 2:47). White remarks, "it was to this organized, recognizable, identifiable body of believers that the Lord added daily those who were being saved." This needs emphasis. Some today disparage the church institute. Many evangelicals, and even Reformed believers, claim that membership in the institute is not necessary because they are part of the body of Christ and can worship God at home by reading their Bibles, listening to tapes or watching services on the internet. Nevertheless, being part of the church institute is necessary because the saints have need of one another. The church institute is the body of Christ (I Cor. 12:27) and the members of that body exist in co-dependence. One member (of the church institute) may not say to another "I have no need of thee" (I Cor. 12:21). Nor may members exist aloof outside of the body as if they have no need of any of the other members.
The church is important, not because all those who are not members of the institute are unavoidably on the way to hell. No Reformed theologian has ever maintained that position. Christ gives preachers to the church and the church sends them to preach (Eph. 4:11). The church supervises their preaching. All true preachers are accountable to an instituted church. Those who try to persuade individuals to leave the visible church are doing untold damage to the church for which one day he/she must give account to the Head of the church, Jesus Christ.
Without preaching there is ordinarily no salvation because "it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe" (I Cor. 1:21). Young pastor Timothy is enjoined to preach because in so doing he shall save his hearers and himself (I Tim. 4:16). Preaching is vital for spiritual health. Without true preaching the believer becomes weak and is tossed about by every wind of doctrine because he is not under the protection of the pastors and teachers whom Christ has given to His church (Eph. 4:14) and who watch for his soul (Heb. 13:17).
The sacraments also may only be administered by men lawfully ordained by the church. Without church membership a man cannot be baptized and he cannot receive the Lord’s Supper which God has given to strengthen our faith. One who willfully refuses to become a member of a true church spurns the gifts which God has given to the church for his edification. Such a "disobedient sheep" is "outside the sheepfold and … obliged to join it."
No comments:
Post a Comment