ChristopherPaul
Puritan Board Senior
My pastor and I were discussing this topic on Saturday, and I found it very interesting.
*To avoid beating dead horses, I must preface this post by saying this discussion is geared towards Presbyterians. Please do not turn this into a Baptism or church government debate.*
Consider this:
It appears many of the areas where the churches err is over the “now and not yet” dichotomy. My pastor and I looked briefly at some of the disagreements among Protestant denominations as well as Non-protestant denominations and interesting enough those churches in error are indeed right (per se) IF the Church were functioning at the time of consummation. So in a way, the church errs when she tries to “jump the gun” in implementing the eternal state before Christ returns.
One example and what brought this topic up was the teaching my pastor gave to the men in our church on the existing form of leadership in the church in comparison to the eternal form of leadership at the consummation. Christ left us with leaders; those who will be qualified to teach and shepherd His flock. In the eternal state, all God’s people will meet the qualifications for leaders and we will all be governed under an Episcopalian type rule or in other words a Benevolent Monarchy. That is, God is our King and as far as leaders go, “no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord (Jeremiah 31:34). With this said, it can be seen how Rome errs with their Pope. Rome jumps the gun in a way by creating a head of the church now instead of waiting for the “not yet” when God shall be our lone king and leader.
Another example would be the ever-so-controversial baptism issue. God commands His church to teach and baptize the visible church, thus believers and their households. In the consummation we will all be credo-only Baptists (again – per se) for only the true elect will be present with God in His kingdom. With this said, it can be seen how the credo-only Baptists errs by attempting to baptize only the invisible church which they cannot see.
Any thoughts? Can you think of any other errors within the church that are a result of “jumping the gun” by making the ‘not yet’ now?
A way of looking at this is to list the doctrinal positions that the Church should hold to now and then (or first which may be easier) list the doctrinal positions of the Church as if the Church were in her final state in glory.
Soon and very soon, we shall all be Episcopalian Credo-Only Baptists speaking in spiritual tongues while Christ is at His table drinking the fruit of the vine directly with His people and only His people.
*To avoid beating dead horses, I must preface this post by saying this discussion is geared towards Presbyterians. Please do not turn this into a Baptism or church government debate.*
Consider this:
It appears many of the areas where the churches err is over the “now and not yet” dichotomy. My pastor and I looked briefly at some of the disagreements among Protestant denominations as well as Non-protestant denominations and interesting enough those churches in error are indeed right (per se) IF the Church were functioning at the time of consummation. So in a way, the church errs when she tries to “jump the gun” in implementing the eternal state before Christ returns.
One example and what brought this topic up was the teaching my pastor gave to the men in our church on the existing form of leadership in the church in comparison to the eternal form of leadership at the consummation. Christ left us with leaders; those who will be qualified to teach and shepherd His flock. In the eternal state, all God’s people will meet the qualifications for leaders and we will all be governed under an Episcopalian type rule or in other words a Benevolent Monarchy. That is, God is our King and as far as leaders go, “no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord (Jeremiah 31:34). With this said, it can be seen how Rome errs with their Pope. Rome jumps the gun in a way by creating a head of the church now instead of waiting for the “not yet” when God shall be our lone king and leader.
Another example would be the ever-so-controversial baptism issue. God commands His church to teach and baptize the visible church, thus believers and their households. In the consummation we will all be credo-only Baptists (again – per se) for only the true elect will be present with God in His kingdom. With this said, it can be seen how the credo-only Baptists errs by attempting to baptize only the invisible church which they cannot see.
Any thoughts? Can you think of any other errors within the church that are a result of “jumping the gun” by making the ‘not yet’ now?
A way of looking at this is to list the doctrinal positions that the Church should hold to now and then (or first which may be easier) list the doctrinal positions of the Church as if the Church were in her final state in glory.
Soon and very soon, we shall all be Episcopalian Credo-Only Baptists speaking in spiritual tongues while Christ is at His table drinking the fruit of the vine directly with His people and only His people.