In the New Testament, the church is an assembly of people and the Church of God is an assembly of the people of God (who are followers of Jesus Christ). In the New Testament, the church is not a destination. It is not a thing that can be gone to.
As Jesus says, the church is present when even two or three are gathered in his name. (Mt. 18:17-20)
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The New Testament Greek word is egkataleipo.
That word appears 10 times in the New Testament. Half of those appearances are New Testament quotations of the Old Testament: Mt. 27:46, Mk. 15:34, Acts 2:27, Rom. 9:29, Heb. 13:5.
Of the others, egkataleipo appears in Peter's address to the crowd on Pentecost, in Paul's accounting of hardships he had encountered in his ministry in 2 Corinthians 4, twice when Paul is relating ill treatment by coworkers during his imprisonment (see 2 Tim. 4) and it appears in Hebrews 10.
Egkataleipo is the Greek word used to translate Jesus' quotation of Psalm 22:1 from the cross when He cried out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" It's the word Peter uses on Pentecost to quote David saying, "...you will not abandon my soul..." It is Paul's word to the Corinthians when he said, "We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed."
Egkataleipo means to abandon, to leave, to desert, to forsake, to neglect.
And, it is the verb used, in the negative, (i.e., preceded by the word "not") to define the frequency with which disciples should be attending what we are now calling--without New Testament authority--a "worship service."
And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another. . .. (Heb. 10:24-25, ESV)The "not neglecting" part is the part with egkataleipo in it.
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The fact is that Jesus never commanded His disciples anything that even remotely resembles, "go to church." He never spoke of such a phenomenon as a "worship service." These concepts are foreign to Him, and to the lives of early followers of the Way.
While there are some references in the Book of Acts to the gathering together of believers, there isn't much mention of that activity among early believers. Acts 2 says that that they met every day in the temple courts and broke bread in their homes. Acts 20 contains the Book of Acts' only description of a gathering of disciples when "on the first day of the week...we gathered together to break bread." (This is the story where Paul drones on and on and the kid falls asleep and tumbles out the window.) But, in Acts, that's just about it for disciples "going to church" in any way.
Apart from the Gospels and Acts: In most of Paul's letters there is no discussion at all of the gathering together of saints. There is that important lengthy passage from 1 Cor. 11-14, where Paul discusses it in detail and chapter 5 in which he gives direction about what the Corinthians should do when they would gather to deal with an issue of immorality of one member of their gathering, when they would meet to, “Expel the wicked person from among you.”
Occasionally, Paul also mentions a church that meets at someone's house. But other than that? Nothing.
The letters of Peter and John are not concerned with what goes on when people gather as followers of Jesus. James 2:2-4 makes a passing reference but just that.
Considering the example and the teaching of the New Testament, what we today call "going to church" or attending a "worship service" was barely a blip on the radar among the important components of the lifestyle of early disciples of Jesus. It certainly was not central to the lifestyle of those followers of the Way.
Tragically, today, the community of Jesus-followers--especially in the West--are all about going to church and attending the worship service in a way that has no authority or precedent in the Word of God.
This is one of many instances in which the twenty-first century Western church defines righteousness in a way that is false and entirely disconnected from the teaching of the Lord of the church and the example of Jesus and his first disciples.
In fact, comparing the twenty-first century Western Christian community with the one presented in the New Testament, it seems very fair to say that today's community is guilty of a dangerous form of unrighteousness: The sin of ecclesiolatry--the veneration of church in place of the worship of God.
Today's Western Christians are unrighteously consumed with the church.
They think of obedience to the command of Jesus to go into the world making disciples as, essentially, a simple injunction to start new churches. Many denominations have been defining, as a key indicator of success on mission, the increase in the number of churches under their authority. Therefore, they plant churches and they adopt churches and they renew churches.
None of those activities are contained in the record of the early Christians in the New Testament.
Early Christians used several words the describe the manner is which they proclaimed the gospel. Their goal was never to start a new church or to expand the church. The goal always was to bring people to repentance and to belief in the good news that Jesus Christ "died for our sins according to the Scripture, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures and that He was seen by Peter (and others)."
Early Christians were focused on making disciples. Today's ecclesiolaters--worshippers of church, not the Lord of the church--are content to create churches.
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So, how often should followers of Jesus go to church? Attend a worship service?
Even using a definition of the gathering together consistent with the New Testament example, the Word's answer to the question is that they shouldn't neglect meeting together; they shouldn't abandon that activity or forsake it. That is the New Testament's strongest endorsement.
There are, according to the Word, aspects of being a disciple far more important than attending a gathering. These are the components of discipleship will be considered when people's lives are judged for eternity. According to Jesus and the apostles, the going, or not going, to church will not even be considered at that moment.
According to Jesus, living lives of justice and mercy and faithfulness (Mt. 23) and the care of individuals among the least of His brothers and sisters (Mt. 25) will be considered.
According to Paul, doing the good works that are the product of faith in Jesus (Eph. 2:8-10) is essential.
In fact, according to Heb. 10, the purpose of gathering seems to be that disciples would stir each other up to the love and good works that Jesus and Paul preached were the essence of the life of those who love Him.
The truth is that the 'How often' question is a question that is out of sync with what Jesus and early Christians taught and did. Dangerously, it is a vital question among today's Western Christians.
Better questions, from a New Testament perspective, are:
- Why gather together with other disciples at all, and,
- What is the goal of the gathering together of disciples?
Is this a true statement?
Today, attending church is the central act of righteousness for someone who has "accepted" Christ.In my opinion, it is true.
Because of that, attending church is, today, an end unto itself.
This is why, today, church leaders find it important to count "worship attendance" and why our New Testament brothers and sisters never once counted the number of people who gathered together.
Among early Christians, gathering together with other believers was a means to the end of possessing a genuine faith that produced acts of righteousness. These days, attending church is, itself, an act of righteousness.
It is, unbiblically, a measure of a church's success.
Luke 4:16 indicates the "custom" of Jesus was to be in the synagogue. When Paul went to various cities Acts would indicate he would locate the same. He looked for the Jewish believers gathering together at Phillipi. To what extent did the O.T. Jewish tradition of worship on the Sabbeth then influance or translate to the New Testament church. Why shouldn't it be so. If the O.T. feast and festivals foreshaddow their completetion on the New and I believe they do, why shouldn't the regular structured worship. I would suggest reading Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger's study of the Liturgy. Particularly Chapter one.
ReplyDeleteps, my friend,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comments and questions.
Certainly Jesus regularly attended a synagogue and also Paul made that his practice.
However, in the case of Jesus, Jesus often intentionally disrupted the tradition of the gathering.
In Paul's case, it seems that he did so in the expectation that he'd be invited to present the good news that the Christ had come and had "died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures and that he was seen by Peter" and others, even himself.
Let me be clear: I, at the moment, gather with two "congregations" and hope, by the grace of God, to initiate the existence of at least several more (or, as the planting movement dubs it, to "plant" at least several more). One of the gatherings I participate in is the traditional "legacy" ERC "church" known as Faith Community Church of God. The second is a growing gathering that meets in a home using the 1 Corinthians 14:26 model.
I, of all people, do not oppose gathering regularly or--as you might say--"customarily" with other disciples.
What I oppose is what I believe to be the heretical view that I consider to be widespread in the Western Church that to "go to church" is an end in itself and that Jesus, on the Day, will consider that act an act of righteousness.
I believe that many in the West have been (falsely) led to the belief that going to church stamps their ticket for eternal life in the presence of the Son of Man.
My heart goes out to everyone whose righteousness extends only that far.
Oh, and my friend, YOU quoting the Pope?
DeleteI don't know if I should praise you or condemn you!
Nah! I praise you. Good for you!
I have read a large amount of historical Catholic theology recently. When Luther expressed "the just shall live by faith!" I am convinced he was affirming the early church fathers "Catholic Theology" not condemming it. Benedict writing then as a Cardnal clearly takes a position that the purpose of the Liturgy, in his view, acontinuation of the Sinai covenent was to incorporation the secular into the sacred and make worship a continuing life experience. By Luthers time that concept had been lost and the church had seperated the two. Thus, luther was calling for a restoration of that principle of unity between faith and life itself. For Benedict every day, every moment is to be a moment of coming into unity with God for the purpose of glory to him through our lives and his creation. I see no problem with that theology. History then becomes a series of grat and mighty acts intended to facilitate that relationship. As simplitic as that may seems and there is i confess volumns of details in the fine print seems the Western church has fallen into the same status and Luther's recogntion of the seperation between doctrine and life is that same again. What is worship ? What is its purpose? Is it possible to seperate it from life and living ? When fully understood these answers will indead I think clarify the answer to why the church of acts met daily and give illumination to the initital question raised in this blog. I am suprised that you are surprised that you are surprise by my reading the then Cardnial later Pope. Poor dumb country boys must read to be able to talk with scholars such as yourself. I appreciate your invitation to be part though I find myself out of my league.
ReplyDeleteMy friend,
ReplyDeleteSince the day I submitted myself to the newly stated and radical mission of the body in which we both participate--a mission which takes an oath in the name of "the Lord Jesus Christ" as his "witnesses," and which promises the Lord and the world that we establish "churches on the New Testament plan," I have been studying what you are calling "worship" and "liturgy" among followers of the Way in the New Testament.
Here are two conclusions I have reached that touch on your comments.
1. There was nothing like what Christendom now calls a liturgy among early followers. Those people came together to take what Paul calls the Lord's Supper as an actual meal and to participate in a time of mutual edification in which everyone came to lead a hymn or to speak a word of teaching or a word of revelation or a word in tongues of an interpretation of tongues. Early gatherings were times in which both men and women prophesied. And, the purpose behind the gatherings was always so saints could (literally) "provoke" each other to love and good deeds.
2. When early disciples talked about worship they were not talking about liturgy or any thing remotely resembling today's evangelical "worship service." Paul says true and proper worship is to offer ones body as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. (Rom 12:1 NIV)
This is why I argue that it is a grave error to suggest, as most westerners do today, that 'going to church' is a form of righteousness. Nothing in the teaching nor in the example set by Jesus and early saints supports that idea. In fact, New Testament authority denounces that way of thinking and living.
So, I agree with you that the gatherings of disciples are about integrating faith and life. However, I deplore the notion that there is such a thing as liturgy, even blandly defined, in biblical gatherings of saints.
Thanks for the prophetic conversation.
I love you.