New Testament Journey Part 2

Acts 17:10-11

          As soon as it was night, the brothers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. On arriving at Berea, they went to the Jewish synagogue. Now, the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians for they received the word with great eagerness and (Pay close attention to these words) “examined the scriptures” every day to see if what Paul said was true.

Phillipians 1:9-11

 And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in “knowledge (accurate) and depth of insight”, ¹⁰ so that you may be able discern what is best. (Underscore this in your Bibles), and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ-to the glory and praise of God.

“We ought to look for opportunities to respectfully or tactfully demonstrate that there is a better way. One which is more conducive to the spiritual growth of God’s people for the function of the New Testament church is best carried out by the New Testament form of the church.”

                                                                                                                     Darryl Erkel

What does it mean to examine the Scriptures?

For us, the reality is a majority of us as believers have become fat, lazy, and comfortable when it comes to the scriptures and their application in our lives. It should mean more than “just reading the Bible”. In my opinion, It involves knowing the context of the books of the Bible, understanding Greek language word meanings, and church history.

The Importance of a Solid Foundation: Greek Word Meanings of Discernment, Knowledge, Understanding, and Wisdom.

Discernment – Aisthesis – to apprehend by the senses, to perceive. In the New Testament Context, it speaks primarily of spiritual perception of the believer and the necessity of it being fine-tuned. ( not judgemental, but also not gullible.) (My opinion) I sincerely believe that a majority of Christians are discerning in some ways, however, many do not know “how” to be discerning and need someone to teach them.

Here’s a little story that I came across while doing my research and it might give you a picture of what discernment should be.
Years ago a man came to a church looking for a place to stay. They told him that they supported the Union Mission and that they would be glad to take him down to the mission. He responded by telling them that he couldn't stay at the mission because he needed a private room. They told him that they would take him to the mission but that was the best they could do. He said to me, "I thought that Christians were supposed to love?" One of the men said, "We are, but we're not supposed to be suckers." That, my friends, is an excellent paraphrase for discernment.

·       Everything that we read, hear from other Christians and pastors, think, believe, see on T.V., papers, movies, internet, etc., etc., needs to be discerned through the question, “does it line up with what’s in the word of God?”

Greek Language Word Meanings:

Knowledge – Epignosis – refers to exact, complete, thorough, accurate, experiential knowledge. In the New Testament, knowledge is always described as full/comprehensive, moral/religious knowledge (accurate) in God’s word.
Understand – Epiginosko – To perceive with the mind, to come to know well, reflective thought. It means to be fully acquainted in a discerning, recognizing manner. To recognize a thing to be what it really is.
Godly Wisdom - involves knowledge (accurate) and understanding coming from what’s revealed in God’s word. It’s using this Godly wisdom in choosing the best course of action in living one’s life.
Hosea 4:6
My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge (accurate).
Destroy – Apollumi – as it relates to men/women/things. It means to ruin so that the person or thing ruined can no longer serve the use for which it was designed, or “rendered useless for his or her intended purpose.”

Example:
Jesus used Apollumi to describe to his apostles what happened when men “put new wine into old wineskins. They knew that this would make the wineskins burst and then they would be ruined and rendered useless. The point that Jesus was making was that his teachings could not fit into the old wineskins of the Pharisees. Grace could not be brought under the law. Also, Jesus teaching’s do not fit into the old wineskin of the Institutional Church traditions/organizational system.

1^st John 4:1

Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but  “test the spirits” to see whether they are from God, because “many false prophets” have gone out into the world.

My friends, my firmest desire is to set a door of truth and freedom open before all of you that has been closed for many centuries. I want to help you discover the Father’s best so you can enter in and be blessed. It is my hope that you will be like the Bereans, and,I thoroughly expect that you will examine what I bring to you from the scriptures and other church history resource material. I truly hold on to the hope that you as well as other believers will come to see that the leadership pattern and meeting in the home was the original intent of the Apostles and others throughout history. I believe that if Paul were alive today, he would agree and encourage every believer to be like a Berean, “identifying”, “examining”, and “exposing” the current false basis of leadership as it is structured today as well as believer’s meetings in church buildings even though God’s work is being done through them.

(Pay close attention to these words)  DO YOUR HOMEWORK! DO NOT TAKE MY WORDS AS THE GOSPEL TRUTH! MY FRIENDS, INVESTIGATE FOR YOURSELF!

I’d like to share some quotes with you that I believe are very relevant to our discussion. As I read them, listen closely and think about them while I am speaking. I think that most of you have heard a couple of these quotes many, many, times.

·       “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” George Santayana.

·       How many of you remember the movie the Matrix. In one of the opening scenes Morpheus says to Neo, “You take the blue pill, the story ends and you wake up and continue to believe a lie. In other words, you can keep on going the way of the traditional church like you always do. You can let one man lead you, meeting in a “Sacred Building” or House of the Lord (as some say), and attending a “formal service” and keep on believing that this is the truth and everything will be fine, or You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes. In other words, I can show you the original way in which you can break free from the traditions of men and enjoy meeting where every member participates and is historically and biblically accurate.     

         

There is another quote by Morpheus to Neo. I’m going to take a little poetic license and paraphrase this one. I’m inserting some words that I feel are appropriate for our understanding of the truth about the deception that has infiltrated the body of believers up to the present day.

·       Morpheus says to Neo:

“The traditional Bible-Based churches/Denominations, whether large, medium, or small, are a system, Neo. “The system is our problem”, not the believers. But when you’re inside, you look around, what do you see? Pastors, Businessmen, Teachers, Lawyers, Carpenters, etc. They are the minds that you are trying to set free from the deception of “other believers” and the “Early Church Fathers”. But until we do, these people are still part of that system, and that continues to make the traditional system our problem. You have to understand, most of these people have been fed “the error of human tradition” over their lifetimes and are not ready to leave. They are “hopelessly dependent” on the “current system.” They are “ignorant” of the facts” from the Bible and church history, so they will go to the “extreme” to “fight to protect” the “very system” that deceives them.” (Think closely about this last sentence in relation to your traditional church experience)

Have you ever found yourself defending yourself about your traditional church experience?

Many believers (myself in the past and sometimes today) argue, debate, or try to reason out these issues solely on their opinions or their favorite scriptures. In reality, they lack a foundational understanding of what they are speaking about.

          Take the time when you are alone to think about these quotes. Then, reflect on your Christian experience in the traditional body of believers in relationship to leadership structure, believer’s meetings, and church buildings. MY FRIENDS, DO SOME RESEARCH, PLEASE!

The New Testament Journey research

The New Testament Journey:

The Priesthood of All Believers;

The Original Way

“What is called Christianity today, and what has come to be called “the church”- has become a tradition, institution, and a system quite fixed, rooted, and established as ever Judaism was, and it will be no less costly to change it fundamentally than was the case with Judaism…a “very heavy price” is attached to the change which is necessary to really solve the great problem.”

                                                                                                    T. Austin Sparks

For the most part, the churches that are in the world at present know not how they came so to be, continuing only in that state which they have received by tradition from their fathers (The True Nature of a Gospel Church, edited and abridged by John Huxtable [London, 1947], p.35).

"God's house" must not be identified with any building, for this clouds the fact that Christ's people are a "spiritual house." The old covenant emphasis on places has passed away because the fulfillment of these types has come in a spiritual people (John 4:20-24).

Introduction:

          Hello, Let me introduce myself and tell you a little of my life history. My name is Pete Horvatin. I’ve been married to my sweet wife Bernie for many years. We have two, grown children, Dan and Kim, and seven grandchildren. Bernie and I have been believers all of our married life and Bernie has been a believer before me. In fact, she is the one who was instrumental in me coming to faith. We have been members of a variety of denominations throughout our many years of marriage, i.e., Wisconsin Synod Lutherans, Southern Baptist, Assembly of God, and a few other non-denominational, Bible-Based churches. Bernie attends Faith Baptist church.

Please, before you even ask, “Well, were does he attend church? Let me tell you that, I have not forsaken the assembling together of other believers with myself, I do worship my heavenly Father, I do believe in Jesus as my Savior, and I do not neglect the reading and studying of the word.

Today, I want you to understand that I don’t have an axe to grind against the leadership of today or the traditional body of believers, but it is my intent to inform and impart the full knowledge to you of what I believe to be the original intent of the Apostles from the scriptures.   If you are willing, I’d like to start by reading a couple of quotes for you to think on while we are together.

·       Change is nearly always difficult especially when it involves (Focus on these words) “long-standing, deeply-seated traditions” that we have become accustomed to. Anonymous 

·       Just because people have believed something and handed it down through the years, does not make it true! Anonymous  ( Pay close attention to these quotes)

Food for Thought Questions:

·       Do you feel guilty when you don’t attend “Church” or miss a couple of Sundays in a row? Ask yourself, “Why?” Tradition!

·       Do you feel uncomfortable when the “Church Service Format” is changed? “Why?”

Tradition!

·       Do you feel that the Church building is the “sacred space of God or house of the Lord” “Why?” Tradition!

Two Key Questions:

·       Why would believer’s meetings that were held in the home during the first three centuries of the New Testament where everyone participated be good for the New Testament believers, but somehow unworkable for those throughout the centuries as well as us today?

·       Ask yourself, “How can close relationships develop with other Christians if you only meet for two hours on a Sunday and those two hours are taken up with singing, sermon, announcements, etc.” Relationships that develop in the Institutional body of believers are the exception, not the rule.

My Purpose Is Threefold:

·       To study about Christian Church history and the influence of some of the early believers during Paul’s time, and the Early Church Fathers in discerning the truth about leadership, believer’s meetings, and church buildings.

·       To truly see how The Traditions of Men have been accepted by many believers as concrete truth.

·       To encourage you to return to The Simplicity of First-Century Christianity and meeting in the home.

First, I don’t claim to have all the answers, but for me, when I discovered and examined the truths based on research from the scriptures, church history, and Greek Language Word Meanings, I felt as if a door of freedom had been opened to me.

Note:

A friend, of my wife and I, was talking with our former pastor and asked him, “how do you address the needs of seniors in your congregation?” He told her, “we really don’t, they kind of fall through the cracks. When she told us that, it really started me thinking that in the body of believers something is drastically wrong. It’s about relationships right?

This little story started me on a course of research and discovery of and for the truth about the traditional body of believers and the system that they have become a part of. I have to say that I am very confident about the information I am presenting to you, but overwhelmed by the task set before me. I feel that this is just the tip of the iceberg because there is so much to “unlearn and re-learn” for all of us.

          You may be curious or for whatever reason you have come, but I can just about guarantee that if you come from a traditional believers background and mindset, as you listen or you read, you will experience a variety of emotions. You may not believe me at all, feel shocked, offended, angry, feel attacked, feel defensive, feel I’m being divisive, you may even walk out. However, I seriously believe some of you will be pleasantly surprised and feel that “someone finally understands how I’ve felt all these years about the reality of “going” to church and meeting with other believers”. It is my prayer that I will not cause division among brothers and sisters in Christ (even though some of you may see it that way), but as the Apostle Paul said in Ephesians 4:25 we are to “put off falsehood” and “speak truthfully” to his neighbor for “we are all one body”.

Let me say, If I use an unusually strong tone (or what some might perceive as a strong tone), I want you to understand that I’m not angry. We, as the body of believers, are to be like the Bereans and thoroughly examine biblical teachings in search for the truth. I cannot stress enough “the importance of spiritual discernment.” However, much of what I will be discussing with you about leadership and believer’s meetings is very unpopular, and, dare I say, considered to be spiritually incorrect. It’s not this way to all, but to the majority of mainstream Christian Churches around the United States today. In fact, if you believe something other than what many traditional Institutional body of believers are set on to be true (excluding foundational Christian Doctrine) then most likely you will be argued with, attacked personally, or quite possibly shunned or put out of your fellowship.

(SO BE PREPARED!)

Pray For Our Enemies

I totally see the beliefs of obama and hillary as only evil from the get go, buy we Christians must remember that God is calling for all men to come to repentance and the knowledge of the truth. We are called to pray for our enemies and it is my hope that they would repent and come to the knowledge of the truth. Another reminder is that when someone spews hate towards a Christian, even the immediate dead, we can be reminded that they hated Jesus as well, so they will hate us as well.

A Better Way

    My road of faith and it's hills and valleys have been many through the years of my Christian walk. Since  I left the institutional congregation of believers, I feel as if I have been wandering in a desolate wilderness while stumbling over rocks and boulders strewn along the landscape. My connections with like minded-believers, who have found the same path, have been few and far between. Sometimes, I feel like a man without a country, but I know that there are others of you out there who are in similar situations on your journey.
    My journey has been filled with research, reading, and reflection on numerous authors who have been on similar and more extensive travels through the home church wilderness. I have concluded in my mind after all this time and research that the way that the early New Testament believers met is the "better way."
     A few weeks ago or maybe months, I came across a listing of what one home fellowship sees as a thread weaved through the fabric of their meeting together as a body of New Testament believers. I believe that as I have read through this listing that it fleshes out what I see could be foundational to a body of believers meeting in the home so let me share it with you:

• Jesus is the head of the body of believers
• Understand that Jesus' desire for believers is that together they will conform to his image and be prepared for mutual ministries to each other and outreach to the lost world,
• Believe in the "priesthood of all believers" for the work of the ministry, not a professional pastor.
• Enjoy prayer, praise, worship, bible teaching, the Lord's supper, testimonies of the Lord working in the believer's lives as a common practice in the home environment.
• Encourage teaching, learning, and sharing times that are open to questions and discussion
• Include children as part of the gathering and ministry time.
• Enjoy practicing all the one another's listed in the scriptures
• Let elders have a functional mindset and emerge naturally over time.
• Make decisions for the body by consensus (Acts 15:22,25) looking to Jesus, the head, allowing the Holy Spirit the opportunity to bring the whole body of believers into one mind.

If you can think of more let me know.

Mixed Feelings

    I wonder if your having a wealth of mixed feelings as I am. I have been out of the institutional church for quite a number of years. Could it be at least ten? Truth be told, I just don't remember. Well, that's beside the point.
     I feel like I've been in the wilderness forever. Don't get me wrong, I haven't given up my faith in God and my Savior Jesus Christ and all that that entails. All I've given up is the ceremonial rituals and the sermonizing.
     I still, at times, meet with other believers for Bible study and enjoy that fellowship even though they are from, mainly, institutional churches. I do care about those who attend, but there is this feeling of not really being connected. If I were to bring up the notion of not going to the church building and meeting in our home as New Testament believers did, I think that they would look at me like I was an alien from another planet. Actually, I am confident in saying that it would not even get this far.
     So, what I'm asking is that I can make connections with other believers who are feeling like they are in the same boat. It's my desire to develop a spiritual community that is centered on the truth of the Bible.
     Please, let me assure you from the onset that I do not have an ax to grind with those in the institutional body of believers, I just see a better way after reading numerous books and research about meeting in the home

Courage for Today

     Solutions, Solutions, Solutions! The whole world is racing around looking for an answer to it's problems. There is a powerful delusion that blinds the eyes of the majority. They believe that Donald Trump is the next best answer to sliced bread and he'll make this nation "great again!"  Little do they realize that the only answer to this festering wound in the body of the United States is to fall on our knees as a nation in repentance to the God of the Bible, not buddha, not the catholic church, nor allah.
     Today, this is a time like no other. I truly believe that our nation has been judged by God a long time ago. Some people think that this judgement is just about to happen. However, I believe it began well over fifty years ago when we began to remove God from the whole of our society. As I see it, I must confess and am ashamed that I didn't see the slippery slope coming. I neglected to be concerned with our nation's problems. I went along with the agenda of the times.
      Now, the only change that is the most important for the future is the change that must come to the hearts of America's people. That can only happen if we believe in Jesus as our Savior for our sins. For now, Christians, we must as Paul says in Phillipians 2:15-16, to shine like stars in a crooked and depraved generation holding onto the truth of the word.

Grandpa
     

I'm Alive and Kicking