The Final Court of Appeal is the Bible on the New Testament idea of a 'church'.

[Van]

What is the "general assembly?" Hebrews 12:23

 

[Alan Gross]

Between two Baplists that disagree on just one point, there are a minimum of 3 possiblities. Only one or the other Baptist is correct in understanding the Biblical text on that one matter or both are in error.

Yes, I am not a "we won't know until we get to Heaven" Baptist, and/ or Bible Believer ( on divorce and remarriage (also involving Preachers as Pastors of The Lord's Churches), babies dying and where they go, "gifts", "tounges", Revelation 20, Matthew 24, or Daniel 7 & 9, or "there are four views on the end times", Act 2:38, etc., etc., etc.)

I am a, "What does God Say?" in spite of how difficult it may be TO BE HONEST with THE BIBLE.

Anyway, we can look again at the process you want to follow, to take one subject matter at a time, BEFORE ADDING ADDITIONAL "AXIOMS" to the EQUATION (WHICH IS JUST FLAT OUT WISE), and yet with Brent W featuring this thread, why don't we kick it up a notch?

You may have seen me post these before.

THE CHURCHES of THE GODHEAD BODILY
were ORGANIZED by JESUS CHRIST,
WHO IS THE GODHEAD BODILY;

COLOSSIANS 2:8
“Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy
and vain deceit, after the tradition of men,
after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.

9 “Because in Him Dwells all the Fullness
of the Godhead bodily.”
…

THE CHURCHES, or ORGANISED ASSEMBLIES,
of THE GODHEAD BODILY were
ORGANIZED by JESUS CHRIST DURING
HIS EARTHLY MINISTRY, as ASSEMBLIES
of BAPTIZED BELIEVERS who had made
a Profession of Faith in Jesus Christ
and were then Baptised by THE AUTHORITY of GOD,
Given to

“a man Sent from God whose name was John,
…saying, I baptize with water.”
John 1:6; 26
*****

TEN BIBLE PROOFS OF BAPTIST PERPETUITY
by Rosco Brong, Late Dean
Lexington Baptist College
Lexington, KY

“The church of the Living God, the Pillar
and Ground of the Truth”
I Timothy 3:15

…

While, Recorded history often reveals more of historians’ prejudices than of actual events, and the history of Christianity has been written mostly by the enemies of Baptists.

Even so, there is historical evidence for the continued existence of
what would now be called Baptist churches from the days when
Jesus was on Earth in the flesh down to the present time.


This evidence is not beyond dispute but it is more than sufficient
if we are willing to believe The Promises of God’s Word.

…

My purpose here is to show from the Bible, ( as in the OP)
APART FROM ALL HISTORICAL EVIDENCE,

that we must believe in THE CHURCHES of THE GODHEAD BODILY
ORGANIZED by JESUS CHRIST DURING HIS EARTHLY MINISTRY
as ASSEMBLIES of BAPTIZED BELIEVERS by THE AUTHORITY of GOD.

And that THE CHURCHES of THE GODHEAD BODILY ORGANIZED by JESUS CHRIST are PROVEN TO HAVE EXISTED THROUGHOUT HISTORY,
as shown by Baptist churches Perpetuity, if we believe that
God’s Word is True.

This is the first example, even though it DOES introduce ANYOTHER 'AXIOM' and subject, but only because it is intracal to WHAT a True Church of Jesus Christ IS that Jesus Promised to BE WITH, until The End of The Age.

CHURCH DISCIPLINE

“If he will neglect to hear them tell it to the church:
but if he neglect to hear the church,
let him be to you as an heathen man
and a publican.”
***
“Truly, I say to you, Whatsoever,
you will join on earth will be Bound in Heaven;
and whatsoever you will loose on earth
will be Loosed in Heaven”
[Matthew 18:17-18].

***

This text suggests three simple questions that believers in an “invisible” church
might try to answer:

a. How can a wronged brother tell his grievance

to an “invisible” church?


b. How can an “invisible” church decide an issue,

make known its judgment to a trespassing brother,

or execute that judgment “if he neglected to hear?”


c. Is not the authority to “bind and loose,”

whatever this means, in verse 18

given to the same church that is in view in verse 17?]

…

Obviously the reference here is to an organized assembly;

and obviously such organized assemblies

must always have existed from that time

until our present time

in order that faithful followers of Jesus

might obey His instructions here Given.


Come let us reason, together.



8.0.5b TEN SCRIPTURAL PROOFS of ‘The Churches that JESUS BUILT’ AND PROMISED TO BE WITH, “ALWAYS”.

 

[Alan Gross]

What is the "general assembly?" Hebrews 12:23

Van,

If you will allow God to Say and Make a Distiction between,
"the general assembly" and "church of the firstborn", in Hebrews12:23,

"To the general assembly and church of the firstborn,
which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all,
and to the spirits of just men made perfect,..."

...then, "the general assembly" are The Family of God.

This verse says they are "written in heaven", as children of God who are Saved.

Were those individuals Faithful followers and Devote Worshippers of God, in The Old Testament, throughout the various economies, when "God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets",

Were they FAITHFUL followers and Worshippers of God that gave heed to The Prophets?

In the Times of the Temple, were they Faithful Worshippers?

In the Times of The Tabernacle, were they Obediant to God Commands about HOW TO WORSHIP GOD??

Did they not forsake the ancient landmarks??

...

Next, in The New Testament, did the Faithfully follow the Lord's Command to be baptised, by The Authority of God and join a Scriptural church assembly, where they were Faithful followers, Worshippers, and WITNESSES, of The One and Only, True and Living God of The Bible?

...

I am saying this: 'the church of the first born' are Jesus FAITHFUL WORSHIPPERS who have assembled by His Commands, in The Old and New Testaments.

The "general assembly" are Saved individuals who did not participate during their life on Earth in Organized, Corporate Assemblies DEDICATED to THE WORSHIP of ALMIGHTY GOD.

( There is no 'universal church'. There are Scriptural church assemblies of Jesus Christ and those outside them, or the assemblies Worshipping God, in The Old Testamnet, etc., ARE SAVED CHILDREN of GOD, in THE KINGDOM of GOD the SON ( while they are alive on Earth & are a part of ALL SAVED, or The Family of God, when they are in Heaven).

May I show you "The Faithful" church of the first born, in PROPHECY?

When, the PRESUMED "literalist" INJECTS "LETTER-ISM"

or a "Letter-for-Letter", PHOTOGRAPHIC, Carbon Copy,
taken Only at "Face Value",

INTO THEIR UNDERSTANDING of "READING"

and comes to the 144,000 of all the tribes

of the children of Israel (7:4);

or
to the two witnesses who prophesy

and (briefly) perish on the streets

of the Great City (11:8);

or

to Christ’s admonition to the saints

against taking the mark of the Beast (13:16-18);

or

to the gathering of the kings of the whole world

at the Mountain of Megiddo (16:14);

. . .

Then:

the PRESUMED "literalist" that has INJECTED "LETTER-ISM",

INTO THEIR UNDERSTANDING of "READING",

suddenly abandons the symbolic hermeneutic,

AFTER THEY HAD conceded, for example,

that the sword coming from Christ’s mouth

is a symbol for the word of God (1:16), etc., etc.

while using the symbolic hermeneutic,

THEY SWITCH OFF FROM the symbolic hermeneutic

IN MID-STREAM

TO:

a Presumed "literal" hermeneutic ,

in which they have INJECTED "LETTER-ISM",

or a "Letter-for-Letter", PHOTOGRAPHIC, Carbon Copy,
taken Only at "Face Value",

INTO THEIR UNDERSTANDING of "READING",

and they look at "the 144,000 of all the tribes

of the children of Israel (7:4)" and say,

LET'S COUNT 'EM",

rather than maintaining the symbolic hermeneutic,

at which time they may come to understand

that the 12 Apostles

represent The New Testament SAINTS

Faithful to God in Service and Worship

and

The 12 Tribes of Israel

represent The Old Testament SAINTS

Faithful to God in Service and Worship.

THESE FAITHFUL SERVANTS of GOD are WHO I BELIEVE GOD is CALLING,
"THE CHURCH of THE FIRSTBORN", IN Hebrews 12:26.

...

12 x 12 = 144.

...

Then, MULTIPLY 144 TIMES

The Number for The COMPLETENESS
of ALMIGHTY GOD ( 10 )

in MAGNITUDE, or "1,000"

or 144 X 1,000 & we get: 144,000.
...

That's what "we get".

...

Do you get it ?

...

BY ENGAGING IN THIS PROCESS of

RANDOMLY SWITCHING OFF FROM

the symbolic hermeneutic

IN MID-STREAM

TO:

a Presumed "literal" hermeneutic ,

in which they have INJECTED "LETTER-ISM",

INTO THEIR UNDERSTANDING of "READING",

THE "LITERALIST / LETTER-ISM-ISTS"

or trying to forse a "Letter-for-Letter",

PHOTOGRAPHIC, Carbon Copy, "Interpretation",

taken at "Face Value" ONLY,

ARE

thereby abandoning:

a Consistent Method of Interpretation

for an Inconsistent Method of Interpretation.

...


Micah 2:7-8

“You who are named the house of Jacob:

“Is the Spirit of the LORD restricted?

Are these His doings?

Do not My words do good To him who walks uprightly?

“Lately My people have risen up as an enemy”

 

[Van]

Van,

If you will allow God to Say and Make a Distinction between,
"the general assembly" and "church of the firstborn", in Hebrews12:23,

"To the general assembly and church of the firstborn,
which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all,
and to the spirits of just men made perfect,..." SNIP

There is no distinction made by God, the general assembly is the church of the first born.

Therefore this whole thread is shown by a single verse (Hebrews 12:23) to be hogwash.

 

[Alan Gross]

There is no distinction made by God, the general assembly is the church of the first born.

Therefore this whole thread is shown by a single verse (Hebrews 12:23) to be hogwash.

Maybe, if you turn it around, you can see that you asked+*-

then, my cat added the "+*-".

That means, "therefore" you don't know.

 

[Van]

Maybe, if you turn it around, you can see that you asked+*-
then, my cat added the "+*-".
That means, "therefore" you don't know.

Folks just read Hebrews 23:13 and consider the members of the church of the first born. Everyone born anew and made perfect is on the membership roll, as they were enrolled in heaven when they became part of the spiritual body of Christ