Articles
09 Back to the Bible - The Lord’s Church
09 Back to the Bible - The Lord’s Church
Mike Willis
We have written about going back to the Bible to restore one’s faith in God, confidence in the Bible as the revelation of the word of God, to define what it means to have faith in Jesus, and what moral principles are revealed in the Bible. We move forward in our study to learn what Jesus personally taught about the church He intended to build and what the New Testament teaches about the church.
Over the next few weeks, we will study what the New Testament teaches us about the church with the intention of defining for the 21st century (and other succeeding periods) what the church should be. There are but two options with reference to the church: (1) man can make any changes he prefers to make in the doctrine, worship, organization, and moral standards of the church, adjusting the church to contemporary world standards; (2) the Lord has revealed in His word the doctrine, worship, organization and moral standards that must be practiced by the church. The New Testament warnings about the danger of false teachers is undeniable proof that option (1) is invalid (see Gal. 1:8-9).
We have a perfect example from the Old Testament to illustrate for us what has happened to the 21st century church. In 1 Kings 12, the northern tribes of Israel rebelled against Rehoboam, dividing the once united nation of Israel. The rebellious ten tribes called themselves Israel, leaving Rehoboam to govern the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin. Jeroboam, who became king of the northern tribes, was worried that the northern tribes would eventually forsake him because the Temple in Jerusalem was the central place of Israel’s worship. The biblical text records what he did:
“So the king took counsel and made two calves of gold. And he said to the people, ‘You have gone up to Jerusalem long enough. Behold your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.’ And he set one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan. THEN THIS THING BECAME A SIN, for the people went as far as Dan to be before one. He also made temples on high places and appointed priests from among all the people, who were not of the Levites. And Jeroboam appointed a feast on the fifteenth day of the eighth month like the feast that was in Judah, and he offered sacrifices on the altar. So he did in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves that he made. And he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places that he had made. He went up to the altar that he had made in Bethel on the fifteenth day in the eighth month, in the month that he had devised from his own heart. And he instituted a feast for the people of Israel and went up to the altar to make offerings” (1 Kings 12:28-33).
Jeroboam changed (a) the place of worship (from Jerusalem to Dan and Bethel); (2) made graven calves (images) in violation of the second of the Ten Commandments; (c) he made priests from all tribes rather than only the Levitical priesthood; (d) he created a new feast on a different day than God had designated. God’s assessment of what Jeroboam did is revealed: “Then this thing became a sin” (1 Kings 12:30). The modern church has done the same as Jeroboam did. Men have changed and altered the modern church so that it has little resemblance to the first century church.
God instituted the church, the Christian’s religion, the way He wanted it to be. Man has no more right to change the Christian religion than Jeroboam had to change the pattern of worship God revealed to Israel. Had Jeroboam wanted to be restored to the Lord, what he would have been required to do would was to destroy the places of worship he created and the golden calves, remove the priests he had no right to appoint, and discontinue the unauthorized feast day he had created. He would have gone to Jerusalem to worship God in the Temple Solomon had built. No less is expected from 21st century Americans who want to worship the Lord. We must restore the church to what it was when Jesus built it!
