Do Not Forsake the Assembling of Yourselves Together

[Mexdeaf]

So far, the entire conversation has missed a large biblical point -- that we are created by God for relationship, both horizontal -- with each other -- and vertical -- with God.

In that we fail to come together as the church gathered, we also fail to fully realize the relational aspects of the gospel, i.e., that we "together" are the bride of Christ, not we "individually," and further, that we "together" are the flock of the Lord, and He is the Shepherd of that flock.

It should be no mystery that God uses illustrations, types, allusions, etc., as a means to get us to see that He intends for us to be gathered in love.

However, we have taken that great biblical concept and turned it into but another legalism akin to the practice of the 1st century Jews (and adopted by Islam, et al) whereby we MUST gather at the temple in order to be right with God, and even more, that we MUST gather on Sunday mornings at some particular time in order to be most pleasing to God and to fulfill our responsibility toward God. Such is neither biblically accurate nor even conducive to growing in our walk with Christ or reaching others for Christ.

Of course, the fact that we are all part of something larger than that local congregation that gathers in "this building" at "this time" is contained in the biblical premise that we are both the bride and flock of the Lord, and indeed, as we ARE the church, we can gather together with fellow believers at any time or place. That we do gather together on Sunday mornings stems from Resurrection Day, where Christ was discovered alive and His church glorified God in worship, which became the norm for all future congregations. Nothing at all wrong with that idea unless we codify it into some law that Christ never issued. I fully expect that He would see us BE the church wherever and whenever we are together, and especially as we go into the world with the saving message of the gospel.

:applause: :thumbsup: :thumbs:

 

[JesusFan]

So far, the entire conversation has missed a large biblical point -- that we are created by God for relationship, both horizontal -- with each other -- and vertical -- with God.

In that we fail to come together as the church gathered, we also fail to fully realize the relational aspects of the gospel, i.e., that we "together" are the bride of Christ, not we "individually," and further, that we "together" are the flock of the Lord, and He is the Shepherd of that flock.

It should be no mystery that God uses illustrations, types, allusions, etc., as a means to get us to see that He intends for us to be gathered in love.

However, we have taken that great biblical concept and turned it into but another legalism akin to the practice of the 1st century Jews (and adopted by Islam, et al) whereby we MUST gather at the temple in order to be right with God, and even more, that we MUST gather on Sunday mornings at some particular time in order to be most pleasing to God and to fulfill our responsibility toward God. Such is neither biblically accurate nor even conducive to growing in our walk with Christ or reaching others for Christ.

Of course, the fact that we are all part of something larger than that local congregation that gathers in "this building" at "this time" is contained in the biblical premise that we are both the bride and flock of the Lord, and indeed, as we ARE the church, we can gather together with fellow believers at any time or place. That we do gather together on Sunday mornings stems from Resurrection Day, where Christ was discovered alive and His church glorified God in worship, which became the norm for all future congregations. Nothing at all wrong with that idea unless we codify it into some law that Christ never issued. I fully expect that He would see us BE the church wherever and whenever we are together, and especially as we go into the world with the saving message of the gospel.

Think that what can come into this equation would be just "how" we view the biblical definition of the "Church"...

is it JUST local assemblies, or is there a "Universal" church in play also here?

 

[freeatlast]

Think that what can come into this equation would be just "how" we view the biblical definition of the "Church"...

is it JUST local assemblies, or is there a "Universal" church in play also here?

:tear: :BangHead:

 

[glfredrick]

Think that what can come into this equation would be just "how" we view the biblical definition of the "Church"...

is it JUST local assemblies, or is there a "Universal" church in play also here?

It would seem (contra those who live and die with their skewed version of local church only) that a universal church would have to exist to meet the various mandates and examples in Scripture. I would also say that we've been down this road in debate on the board before and no level of biblical exegesis will convince those who hold to a local only form of church will ever agree that the Scriptures have something much grander in mind, or that they are doing great damage to the overall doctrine of the kingdom of God and rather centering their efforts on a very anthropocentric point of view.