Well, since I was spoken to harshly (I'm not over it yet) in another thread concerning some fella starting his own 'church', I gotta be careful.
I have a simple question. How clueless must a christian be to walk into a building and really believe it's a 'house of God' or a 'church'?
Blame Pseudo-Dionysius!
Hebrews 9 teaches that the OLD COVENANT had a worldly sanctuary. Not the New. Our sanctuary is HEAVEN ITSELF, the true holiest of holies. And we enter there in the Spirit!
__________________ ...MY THOUGHTS, ANYWAY.
"Many Christians do not try to understand what was written in a verse in the Bible. Instead they approach the passage to prove what they already believe."
Hebrews 9 teaches that the OLD COVENANT had a worldly sanctuary. Not the New. Our sanctuary is HEAVEN ITSELF, the true holiest of holies. And we enter there in the Spirit!
Well, since I was spoken to harshly (I'm not over it yet) in another thread concerning some fella starting his own 'church', I gotta be careful.
I have a simple question. How clueless must a christian be to walk into a building and really believe it's a 'house of God' or a 'church'?
I don't know but it happens every day. (In the interest of fairness, I've seen some house church people want their home to be treated like sacred ground.)
Gives me the hibby jibbys! You know...there have always been house churches and there always be - but I don't have to go to one and I am not going to one because I have seen how they get off course and start prophesying and then the super spiritual ones try to dominate the younger ones in the faith with prophecy and super spirituality.
I along with my pastor Jentezen Franklin - rescued my youngest son from one that was fastly becoming very cultic. He is well balanced today and leads in a great mega-church with over 10,000 people on fire for Jesus Christ and I am thankful that GOD delivered him from a "house church."
You have a good point. What's to stop a house church from diverging into who-knows-what weird practices and doctrines? But, as others pointed out, it happens in "real" churches, too. In fact, it happens in entire denominations and entire religions, does it not?
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Hebrews 13:23 Know ye that our brother Timothy is set at liberty
One man said one of the worst things to happen in church history was caused by a one-man disaster team named Dionysius the Aeropagite. He is now known as Pseudo-Dionysius, a monk, since he was proved to be a sham and NOT what he claimed to be, a personal friend of Paul the Apostle. He lived in 500 and wrote letters as though they were in Paul's day!
His writings were rife with Neo-Platonic thought of how the physical can influence a person to reach further to the unreachable God. People thought his works were "gospel" since he was personally converted by Paul and wrote at that day. This made them think Paul was a Platonic philosopher!
Not until about one thousand years later did people realize Dionysius was a fraud, but his effect stuck! His thoughts are so embedded in general Christian thought today that they will likely never leave the majority of denominations.
Then Abbott Suger of France came along in the 800's and pushed Dionysius' fraudulent beliefs in the church world and built the world's first Gothic cathedral and Christian Architecture was born. The buildings pushed the sense of how little man is with these monstrous edifices, emphasizing the Platonic focus of LIGHT and space and color, and the bigness of God. Suger proved this was all the will of God by quoting Dionysius who said he was Paul's friend, when the real writer was the monk in 500.
Then Thomas Aquinas came into the scene in the 1200's and blended Platonic thought with Aristotle's philosophies and Neo-Platonism, and came up with his brand of NEW TESTAMENT THEOLOGY. This is Catholic doctrine to this day, as well as most Protestant doctrine.
And it all came from a fraudulent writing claimed to have been from Paul's day, from a student of Paul, when a monk made it all up in the 500's from Plato's concepts!
Hence, most of CHURCH GATHERINGS today are from that sort of thing.
I do not think one has to abandon a church building, but the open church concept where the saints are allowed to minister in some capacity is vitally needed. The five-fold ministry was to help the saints do the work of the ministry! We were not meant to see saints watch a show for an hour.
Amen and amen.
Sadly, the traditional form of church has produced generations of "spectator Christians" who attend the Sunday Show and return home feeling "spiritual". The body doesn't minister to itself or share one another's burdens other than a brief and often generalized prayer prior to the sermon. I think we've all been in churches where few people really knew the majority of the congregation. I had a person going through a very difficult time in their lives tell me, "I don't need to go to church to realize I'm in this alone." We often call church services "fellowship"... but no fellowship is taking place. Everyone simple observes the semon, they might get emotionally excited and dance, or "fall out". But where is the REAL fellowship? Where is the setting where someone can voice their pain, frustrations, loss, sins, weaknesses, and be ministered to by brothers and sisters who love them?
Pastors are always shouting about how they can't do all the ministry and how they need the body to "get with it".... well... today many are... but they don't like the way it's shaping up! It's almost as though if they can't control it in the four walls of a church building they don't really want it. We're loosing our nation and our culture. Bringing the church home is building Christian families that exist in a daily spiritual walk with the Lord Jesus. Yes, house churches have their challenges and issues, like any church gathering. But when done right it becomes a spiritual "family" as opposed to a religious corporation with a pastoral CEO.
I don't know but it happens every day. (In the interest of fairness, I've seen some house church people want their home to be treated like sacred ground.)
There is no sacred ground per se. However, where a Christian lives should be more holy than a meeting hall.
You have a good point. What's to stop a house church from diverging into who-knows-what weird practices and doctrines? But, as others pointed out, it happens in "real" churches, too. In fact, it happens in entire denominations and entire religions, does it not?
That's where participative meetings are important. If a leader teaches something weird... the entire group has a say and can freely walk away. The house churches I've visited were relatively "Baptist" with a charismatic flare. If one started teaching something weird... they'd be corrected, the group might laugh, and if continued... they'd be politely asked not to return.
That's where participative meetings are important. If a leader teaches something weird... the entire group has a say and can freely walk away. The house churches I've visited were relatively "Baptist" with a charismatic flare. If one started teaching something weird... they'd be corrected, the group might laugh, and if continued... they'd be politely asked not to return.
Right. Dictators and one man shows are the cause of most cults.
__________________ ...MY THOUGHTS, ANYWAY.
"Many Christians do not try to understand what was written in a verse in the Bible. Instead they approach the passage to prove what they already believe."
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