Antipodean59's Blog

Emerging Church or Emerged Church?

I thought I would Google the world’s most popular church blogs the other day and what do you know, all I could find was fancy story tellers, some of whom would fit well in and around the wacky backy sniffing hippies of the 60’s and others sound like they are trying to sell you life insurance that behind the scenes contains more fish hooks than Captain Phil Harris’ fishing boat on Deadliest Catch.

Most all talk of this “emerging church” waffle which is strange, for when you define “emerging” one denotes that which is up and coming, rising, budding, promising etc. That is why I say strange because nothing could be further from the truth at least as far as the objective truth of the Bible is concerned. Rather than emerging, the true church has already emerged and has been around for nigh on 2000 years.

Now I am talking about the church; not some church conjured up in the minds of theologians or kings of the 16^th Century onward such as Calvin’s reformed Roman Catholic, King Henry VIII’s Church of England, John and Charles Wesley’s Methodist, John Smyth’s Baptist, John Booth’s Salvation Army or the myriad of cults and holiness movements such as Assembly of God, New Life etc. No, I am talking of the church of Christ, you know, the church Jesus said He would build and die for (Matthew 16:18; Acts 20:28). The church of singular nature that the apostles spoke of; that is, the church Jesus is head of and where one must be added if one is saved (Colossians 1:18; Acts 2:41, 47).

Now this does make the manner of this so-called emerging church which these thousands of bloggers speak of seem somewhat bewildering which really begs the question as to what and where be the real church of the Bible. So the question ought to be asked: Where is that church and can I find this church written in the Bible? After all, when Jesus severely rebuked the “father of lies” regarding his erroneous thoughts about Christ and His ministry, He said, each time, “It is written” (Matthew 4:1-11) which means the source of our inquiry must be written down.

So, unless it is written or bears:

• The name given in the New Testament such as “churches of Christ” (Romans 16:16), “church of God” (I Corinthians 1:2), “the church” (Philemon 1:2), then it clearly is not the church belonging to Christ.
• The worship protocol that the 1st Century church practiced such as worship each Lord’s Day i.e. Sunday (Revelation 1:10), preaching the word of God and partaking of the Lord’s Supper (Acts 20:7), freewill giving as one has prospered (II Corinthians 9:7) [not Law of Moses derived “tithing”], acapella singing i.e. without musical instruments (Ephesians 5:19), prayer by holy men (I Corinthians 14:15, I Timothy 2:8), then it is not the church of the Saviour.
• The organised leadership such as biblically qualified elders, deacons (I Timothy 3; Titus 1), preachers to proclaim the word of God (Romans 10:13-15; II Timothy 3:8-13), then it is not the church of Christ.
• The salvation obligations clearly enunciated from Matthew to Revelation; namely hear God’s word so that you may believe (Romans 10:17), believe that word of God (Hebrews 11:6), repent of your sins which you are surely guilty of (Romans 3:23; Acts 17:30-31), confess Jesus as Lord before witnesses (Matthew 10:32), be baptised for the remission of sins (John 3:3, 5; Acts 2:38; Titus 3:5; I Peter 3:21)[not pagan origin sprinkling, pouring of water commonly called christening], then it is not the church of the saved.

Don’t be fooled by the popular bloggosphere mob who waffle on like some new age hippie wannabes, or those smooth of speech out of some seminary for they do not lend authenticity to their claims of practicing Christians in the true sense of the noun. In fact you could call them emerging all right; emerging as another form of lie.

Check out the true church at www.timarucofc.org.nz but beware your sensitiveness may very well be wounded. Just remember, before you get all hot under the collar over what I have written here and rush to print, cascading me with subjective vitriol with phrases such as “how dare you judge me like that” or “where is the love and forbearance” –  fools despise wisdom and pride goes before destruction (Proverbs1:7; 16:18).

Graham