• Churchwork

    by Published on 12-15-2009 07:56 AM     Number of Views: 1970 
    1. Categories:
    2. Boundary of Local Assembly


    We will now deal with the subject of the boundary of the local assembly—that is to say, how far-reaching is the sphere of a local assembly?

    The authority of the elders, which we have mentioned before, is to be exercised within the local assembly, because elders are established for the local assembly. Their position and function are all related to the local assembly. Elders in Shanghai are not elders in Nanking or Peking. Whereas the gifts of God are for the whole Church, the offices are for the local assembly. There are no super elders who can control assemblies other than their local one. Elders can only govern a local assembly.

    How extensive is the border of a local assembly? How large a place is required to form a local assembly? Please note that the Bible never divides the Church according to region, nor does it even place several churches under a regional church. Although there are seven churches in Asia being mentioned in Revelation, we do not find in God’s word that Ephesus or Philadelphia had been chosen to control the other six churches. We only see seven churches represented by seven golden lampstands. In the Old Testament record there is mentioned the one lampstand with seven branches; but here in Revelation are seven lampstands—not one with seven branches but seven lampstands representing seven separate churches, each emitting light and each bearing responsibility directly to Christ. Whichever church it may be, it accepts the rule of Christ and not the control of other churches. Each lampstand is independent in government, without it being managed by other lampstands. Each is responsible to its high priest, the Son of man who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands. None of them is subject to any of the other churches. Though they are seven churches, they do not join to form a united church and make themselves answerable to a regional or annual conference. We may say that each is a “congregation” which takes a locality as its limit.

    The Bible usually takes a city, the smallest executive governmental area, as the boundary of a local assembly. A local assembly is the unit of the Church in God’s word. It does not join with other assemblies and make the resulting larger church a central church. In other words, in the eyes of God, He has not made Rome as the central church. He never makes any local assembly the center of the churches to be in control of other assemblies. There is no center on earth in God’s government. Even Jerusalem was not a center to the early churches.

    This did not rule out the existence of regions in the biblical record. Some places were so similar in conditions and needs that they would receive the same treatment in the record. For instance, it is said of Paul that he “passed through the upper country” (Acts 19.1); again, “from Jerusalem, and round about even unto Illyricum” (Rom. 15.19). ...
    by Published on 12-15-2009 07:56 AM     Number of Views: 1612 
    1. Categories:
    2. LDS/Mormons

    The Bible says:

    FACT #1: God is alone from everlasting.

    So whatever God is, He is alone from everlasting. Nothing comes before Him. And He was there before time by Himself alone.

    FACT #2: Jesus is uncreated not just God the Father was uncreated.

    Logically, if two things or entities are uncreated, alone from everlasting, then they are either two separate beings or one being. Salvation hinges on this fact. If you worship multiple beings (by even claiming the existence of 2 or 3 or more uncreated beings), you go to Hell if God is monotheistic and personally One Being instead of a corporation of beings.

    FACT #3: Mathematically, there can be one uncreated being, but there is no room for other uncreated beings, because then you would have to ask yourself where these others come from.

    Hence, we can be confident that the Father, Son and Spirit are one being and Mormons are going to Hell. Since we are told our God is one God, to assume more than that is the devil's playground.

    Ramifications: Let's say you were to assume there were 2 uncreated beings, what's to say the person next door couldn't start up his own cult and say there were 3 uncreated beings. Or another person chose 4 uncreated beings and still another person claims 330 million uncreated beings. You could have virtually an infinite number of cults. What is the true test of who is right: 1, 2, 3, 4, 100, 1000, million, 100 million, a billion uncreated beings!? Where does it end?

    It ends with the One. The Singe One Being who is God of the Bible in 3 Persons. Now you may want to argue you believe in God who is 4 Persons or 2 Persons or 10 Persons yet still One Being. It's within your rights to start up a cult like that, but it would no longer be the Mormon cult. We need evidence for such things. We see the Father, the Son and the Spirit, these 3 Persons at work, so we only have grounds for 3 Persons. The Son never claims to be the Father. The Spirit never claims to be the Son or the Father. This is how we come to the realization God is 3 Persons in the Trinity. Amen. ...
    by Published on 12-15-2009 07:56 AM     Number of Views: 5739 
    1. Categories:
    2. Apostles Set up Churches

    The Church will return to "thy first love" (Rev. 2.4) in this final church period before Christ, the Son of Man, appears with His overcomer believers who receive the reward of reigning for 1000 years over the nations as kings and priests (20.2-7). Apostles and Elders though first need to be in agreement about deeper truths in the Word of God such as Biblocality. Apostles directly commissioned by God have asked 37 questions (and the first 19 questions for Elders) as a statement of faith so the Church can be confident in those who say they are Apostles. See the questions at registration.

    "As they traveled from town to town, they delivered the decisions reached by the apostles and elders...for the people to obey. So the churches were strengthened...[they] traveled throughout the region...having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in [another] province. And when they had appointed for them elders in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they had believed. But we will not glory beyond our measure, but according to the measure of the province which God apportioned to us as a measure, to reach even unto you. For this reason I left you in a region of churches, that you should set in order the things which remain, and appoint elders for every city as I directed you...without taking sides or showing special favor to anyone. Never be in a hurry about appointing an elder" (Acts 16.4-6; 14.23; 2 Cor. 10.13; Titus 1.5; 1 Tim. 5.22).
    by Published on 12-15-2009 07:56 AM     Number of Views: 2422 
    1. Categories:
    2. Regeneration

    The Regeneration of Man

    Why must a sinner be born anew? Why must he be born from above? Why must there be a regeneration of the spirit? Because man is a fallen spirit. A fallen spirit needs to be reborn that it may become a new one. Just as Satan is a fallen spirit, so is man; only he has a body. Satan’s fall came before man’s; we therefore can learn about our fallen state from Satan’s plunge. Satan was created as a spirit that he might have direct communion with God. But he fell away and became the head of the powers of darkness. He now is separated from God and from every godly virtue. This, however, does not signify that Satan is non-existent. His fall only took away his right relationship with God. Similarly, man in his fall also sank into darkness and separation from God. Man’s spirit still exists but is separated from God, powerless to commune with Him and incapable of ruling. Spiritually speaking, man’s spirit is dead. Nonetheless, as the spirit of the sinful archangel exists forever so the spirit of sinful man continues too. Because he has a body his fall rendered him a man of the flesh (Gen. 6.3). No religion of this world, no ethics, culture or law can improve this fallen human spirit. Man has degenerated into a fleshly position; nothing from himself can return him to a spiritual state. Wherefore regeneration or regeneration of the spirit is absolutely necessary. The Son of God alone can restore us to God, for He shed His blood to cleanse our sins and give us a new life.

    Immediately the sinner believes in the Lord Jesus he is born anew. God grants him His uncreated life that the sinner’s spirit may be made alive. The regeneration of a sinner occurs in his spirit. God’s work begins without exception within the man, from the center to the circumference. How unlike Satan’s pattern of work! He operates from the outer to the inner. God aims first to renew man’s darkened spirit by imparting life to it, because it is this spirit which God originally designed to receive His life and to commune with Him. God’s intent after that is to work out from the spirit to permeate man’s soul and body.

    This regeneration gives man a new spirit as well as quickens his old one. “A new spirit I will put within you”—“That which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (Ezek. 36.26; John 3.6). The “spirit” in these passages has God’s life in view, for it is not what we originally possessed; it is accorded us by God at our regeneration. This new life or spirit belongs to God (2 Peter 1.4) and “cannot sin” (1 John 3.9) ; but our spirit, though quickened, may yet be defiled (2 Cor. 7.1) and in need of being sanctified (1 Thess. 5.23).

    When God’s life (which can equally be called His Spirit) enters our human spirit, the latter is quickened out of its coma. What was “alienated from the life of God” (Eph. 4.18) is now made alive again. Hence “although your bodies are ...
    by Published on 12-15-2009 07:56 AM     Number of Views: 2243 
    1. Categories:
    2. Regeneration

    The Holy Spirit and Regeneration

    When regenerated, man’s spirit is made alive through the incoming of God’s life. The Holy Spirit is the prime mover in this task. He convinces the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment (John 16.8). He prepares human hearts to believe in the Lord Jesus as Savior. The work of the cross has been fulfilled by the Lord Jesus, but it is left to the Holy Spirit to apply this finished work to the sinner’s heart. We ought to know the relationship between the cross of Christ and its application by the Spirit. The cross accomplishes all, but the Holy Spirit administers to man what it has accomplished. The cross grants us position; the Holy Spirit gives us experience. The cross brings in the fact of God; the Holy Spirit brings about the demonstration of that fact. The work of the cross creates a position and achieves a salvation by which sinners can be saved; the task of the Holy Spirit is to reveal to sinners what the cross has created and achieved so that they may in fact receive it and be saved. The Holy Spirit never functions independently of the cross: without the cross the Holy Spirit has no proper ground from which to operate: without the Holy Spirit the work of the cross is dead, that is, it produces no effect upon men even though it is already effective before God.

    While it is the cross which achieves the whole work of salvation it is the Holy Spirit Who operates directly upon men for their salvation. Hence the Bible characterizes our regeneration as a work of the Holy Spirit: “that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3.6). The Lord Jesus explains further on that regenerated man is “every one who is born of the Spirit” (v.8). Believers are born anew because the Holy Spirit brings to bear the work of the cross upon them and communicates God’s life to their spirit. He is none other than the Executor of God’s life. “We live by the Spirit” (Gal. 5.25). If whatever men know comes through their brain without the Holy Spirit regenerating their spirit, then their knowledge will help them not one whit. If their belief rests in man’s wisdom and not in God’s power, they are merely excited in their soul. They will not last long, for they are not yet newly born. Regeneration comes just to those who believe in their heart (Rom.10.10) .

    Besides bestowing life to believers at new birth, the Holy Spirit executes a further work of abiding in them. How regrettable for us if we forget this! “A new heart I will give you and a new spirit I will put within you ... and I will put my Spirit within you” (Ezek. 36.26-27). Note that immediately after the clause “a new spirit I will put within you” there follows this one of “I will put my Spirit within you.” The first statement signifies that believers shall receive a new spirit through the renewal of their deadened spirit by the incoming of life. The second has reference to the indwelling or the ...
    by Published on 12-15-2009 07:56 AM     Number of Views: 9118 
    1. Categories:
    2. Regeneration

    The Aim of Spiritual Work

    Spiritual work aims to give life to man’s spirit or to build up the life in the spirit. Our labor will be nil in worth or effectiveness if it is not directed towards the spirit lying in the very depths of man. What a sinner needs is life, not some sublime thought. A believer needs whatever can nourish his spiritual life, not mere Bible knowledge. If all we communicate are excellent sermonic divisions, wonderful parables, transcendent abstractions, clever words, or logical arguments, we are but supplying additional thoughts to people’s minds, arousing their emotions once again, or activating their will to make one more decision. With a moribund spirit do they come and with just as moribund a spirit do they depart despite our heavy labors on their behalf. A sinner needs to have his spirit resurrected, not to be able to argue better, shed profuse tears, or make a firmer resolve. Likewise a believer does not require outward edification, since his real lack is inward life more abundant—how he can grow spiritually. Should we focus our attention on the outward man and neglect the inward man, our work will be utterly vain and superficial. Such work equals no work at all, and perhaps it is even worse than no work, for a lot of precious time is undeniably wasted!

    Man can be moved to tears, can confess his sins, can consider redemption reasonable, can profess his interest in religion, can sign a decision card, can read the Bible and pray, can even testify with joy; but still his spirit has not received God’s life and therefore remains as dead as before. Why? Because man’s soul is capable of performing all these things. To be sure, we do not despise these motions; nevertheless we recognize that except the spirit is quickened these pious acts are but rootless blades which will be totally withered beneath the scorching sun. When a spirit is born anew it may display these same manifestations in the outward soul: in the depth of its being, however, it receives a new life which enables the person to know God and to know Jesus Christ Whom God has sent. No work possesses any spiritual effectiveness save that which quickens the spirit into an intuitive knowledge of God.

    We ought to perceive that it is quite possible to exercise “false faith” and experience “false regeneration.” Many confuse understanding with believing. The former simply means the mind understands the reason of the truth and reckons it believable. The latter, according to the spiritual sense, involves being united; that is, by believing that the Lord Jesus died for us we unite ourselves with His death. People can understand doctrine without necessarily believing in the Lord Jesus. What we stress is that men are not saved by their good deed, rather do they obtain eternal life through believing the Son of God. Men must believe in God’s Son. Many believe the doctrine of atonement but fail to believe in the Savior ...
    by Published on 12-15-2009 07:56 AM     Number of Views: 2294 
    1. Categories:
    2. Judaism

    The Jews killed Jesus, and this is a perfect example of the unrepentant Jew. What horrible misreading of Romans 3.7 and other verses by Rabbi Shmuley Boteach.



    The Jews killed Jesus and after two millennia, I see little repentance in the nation of Israel for what they did to Jesus on the cross prodding at the hands of the Romans to put Him to death.
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