Re: [Church_of_Christ] Re: Are we misunderstanding the scriptures?
heb12347 wrote:
Beth: As many have stated on this topic we are no longer under the law. There is no cut and dried rules. The "ONLY" thing we are "COMMANDED" to do in scripture is to meet to exhort one another.
ED: You have been led to believe this and it is simply false. The church is translated "assembly" and it is elsewhere identified as "the house of God", an allusion to the OT temple and what went on in the temple, worship. Elsewhere, we are all stones making up the temple of God, in shich we lift reverent praise to God. I can worship God alone, just as I am churched alone. But only when my stone takes its place together with all of the other stones making up the temple of God am I the temple of God in the fullest sense. I am a part of the assembly because I belong to it, but I am only assembled when we are gathered together. The first takes its meaning from the second and divorced from the second it loses its meaning!
Not meaning to be disagreeable, but Ed has made an error here.
Beth says that the only thing we're commanded to do is to meet to exhort each other. Ed then, in order to demonstrate that we've been commanded to meet together for worship, uses human logic to come to a logical conclusion. Using logic to come to a logical conclusion is fine, but it's not a command.
It simply isn't.
Beth: . . . We have become so :"ritualistic" in what we call worship that it doesn't even resemble the early church.
ED: I would like to know what you have found in our worship that the NT assemblies did not do.
Beth: The early church loved one another enough to sell all they had and give to those who had none. We sit in a pew between 2 people and when we leave we haven't got a clue about what the needs of those 2 people are. Are they comtemplating suicide...having marital problems ...financial problems....
physical or mental problems? NO! we come in.... sit down...go through our usual rituals of singing X amount of songs (BTW I wonder how many actually are singing praise to God or how many are just singing and trying to get their harmony right)...prayer. ...more songs...bible reading which few listens to....more songs ....preaching. ...invitation song...Lord' s Supper...song. ...dismissal prayer. We visit with usually our little clic for a few minutes after services and most of us don't see the members till we meet again to do the same rituals over and over again...none of which are "BOUND" on us by scripture but by our traditons that have been passed down to us ED: I am sorry that has been your experience. It is not mine. We love one another. We help one another. We are there when needed. Our worship is a joyful expression of the salvation within. I honestly am sorry for your bitter experiences.
As one who has pretty much had an identical experience to Beth's in most every church of Christ of which I've been a part (with a few rare exceptions that sometimes would not be accepted as "true churches" by many in the non-exceptions group), I can state that my experiences have not been "bitter". They've just been empty. As Beth says, they've been "ritualistic"
I, too, doubt that this kind of "worship" is what was known by the assemblies in the first century. I suspect that if the apostle Paul were to walk into the meeting house with me tomorrow morning, he'd scarce recognize what was going on.
-- Kent West <")))>< Westing Peacefully - http://kentwest.blogspot. com
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