Christianity has evolved. It began as a sect of Judaism called The Way, then if became a separate religion in the world of Rome, became the state faith under Constantine The Great, and became an imperial religion with a priestly caste that was paid, when Scripture declares the priesthood of all Christians, “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” (1 Peter 2:9). Then came The Reformation to restore the gospel and Scriptural access and subsequent movements to get closer to The New Testament Church. There have been many movements to try and return to that golden age of Christianity from 33-100 A.D. One stream was the discipleship movement, which claimed that people weren’t being truly discipled as Jesus said, “Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.” (Matthew 28:19). Unfortunately, it developed into a cult where the leadership “lorded over the flock: leadsrship controlling people to the point they even forbade white collar people from marrying blue collar people,” in what became The Shepherding Movement and Covenant Church. Another stream was The Pentecostal and Charismatic movements that aimed to return the Gifts pf the Holy Spirit such as miracles, words of knowledge and healing (1 Corinthians 12:7-11). It too had cultic offshoots such as Healing Streams, Slayings in the Spirit, bizarre exorcisms, and false prophets posing as men of God. There are IHOP churches that attenpt to do the Acts meeting in homes and be that house of prayer Jesus mentioned, “It is written,” he said to them, “’My house will be called a house of prayer..,” (Matthew 21:13). They have been mostly successful, though I have witnessed some chaos and people taking the watch of prayer who are elitist or chaotic.
There is an obsession to get back to those principles, methods, and models of the Early Church. That if we just do as the apostles did, the perfect church will return. This is romanticism, the church was never perfect. Jesus is perfect, we are imperfect. We are sinners made saints by Christ, but we do not stop sinning, “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. [20] Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.” (Romans 7:19-20). We need God’s Grace, His unmerited favor and His forgiveness for all our sins, “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness,” (1 John 1:7-9) and “My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.” (1 John 2:1-2).
Our quest to become that Church of Antiquity that is the gold standard is another search for paradise. We want to restore paradise lost, and so are convinced that if we can institute the model of the Early Church, we shall have Eden on Earth. The truth is we will not. To quote Jesus, “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” (Matthew 26:40). As aforementioned, many movements seeking a revival of the New Testament Church have turned into cults of abuse, control, and chaos.
So what is the answer? Are we to ignore The New Testament models and texts? God forbid! No! They should be followed. However, we have to disavowed ourselves of the notion that its a formula to create Paradise Regained. As long is there are fallible humans involved who have selfish desires, lusts, control, insecurity, and etc, there will be abuses. Its not implementing these examples in Scripture such as home churches, gifts of the Spirit, and etc that is the issue, its our expectations. If you go wanting to encounter God The Trinity and move in His Ways, then you will be satisfied, but if you believe The Book of Acts is your answer to creating a perfect church that will restore some lost glory of the apostles, and create an Eden here & now, you will be disappointed. Because you are building an Eden with sinners and Jesus promises He is the One who will bring Eden (Revelation 21:1-53), and that He will wipe away all our pain, “And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away,” (Revelation 21:4); not some church creating heaven on earth.
Yes we are Saints and all our sins are forgiven by Christ. However, we do keep sinning and need that Grace to ooze on us by Jesus’ once for all time sacrifice and eternal grace (Hebrews Chapters 8, 9, and 10). The result is we are saved by grace through faith in Jesus alone, and we all are still capable of making mistakes, hurting people, and sinning. Jesus paid it all for those sins, but He did not constrain us and control us, we still have free will, which means when Jesus died and rose from the dead He did not take away our ability to sin, but He paid for every sin. God does not control us, and so if He won’t bind us, how can we expect some church we form will constrain people from making errors and committing sins? Its a pipe dream, churches aren’t little heavens, they are hospitals with sinners who love Jesus who paid for their sins. Our hope is in The Perfect Christ who was perfect for us so we may have eternal life, our hope is not in a perfect church. Amen.
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