The Ekklesia of God: Not a Tool for Outreach

Seven-hundred years ago, all of Europe was held in spiritual captivity by Catholicism. Millions of people lived and died in spiritual darkness while the Papal Empire purposefully kept the truth of God from them. They made idols of dead saints and bowed down to worship them. It was a great sin, but the vast majority of people did it in ignorance while popes, bishops, and priests hid the scriptures from them. I hate to think how many Popes, Bishops, Priests, and Peasants went to their grave eternally separated from God in these truly dark ages.

Eventually, God began to raise up men like Wycliff, Tyndale, and Luther who put it all on the line to bring the truth of the Bible to the people.
Now, when people worship Mary and the Saints it is no longer a sin done in ignorance.

For a long time now we Christians have all, in our ignorance, committed the sin of thinking and speaking and turning the Ekklesia of God into the 'church'. He knows that we did it in ignorance, but it is time to come out of our ignorance and stop clinging to the darkness. His Body is not the 'church', it is the Ekklesia of Jesus Christ. And no, this is not a mere translational preference like whether you say 'Christ' or 'Messiah' (I use both). An ekklesia is what we are supposed to be. A 'church' is what we are not supposed to be.



What follows I write at the risk of hurting or alienating certain brothers and sisters whom I do not wish to hurt; but if I do not take that risk I will stand guilty before my Lord on the Day, and I have enough of that to sort through already. But I want all who read this to know that I do not mean it to be hurtful or personal, and that the purpose of writing this is not because of one small gathering of Christians, but because it is a very common and unbiblical view of the Body of Christ, and becoming more common as time goes by. I also wish to apologize in advance if I have somehow misunderstood the quote following, but even if I have there are vast sections of the Body today that need to hear these things.

Recently we found the following in a post about a small house gathering of believers, "Don't be alone; we want to love on you, hug you, feed you, encourage you, laugh and cry with you. This is our heart. Momma will give you hugs and rub on your back and call you "sweety" and dad will pray with you and make you laugh! It's our heart to see you full of warmth and love. No condemnation from us for your life or lifestyle. We are not hear to cram religion down your throat - we just want to love you on you and feed you :-) The Lord has placed on our hearts to simply be an encouragement to the masses, and to love on them. We do not get into doctrinal debate...or try to "push" 'anyone into believing every detail we do. We believe in Jesus and Him crucified and He is the only way to the Father - in everything else we have liberty."

Wow.

Q: Do we, as Christians, "have liberty" to devise our own forms and philosophies of 'church'? Seemingly, an increasing number of Christians today think so.
A: Rom 16:17 Now I urge you, brethren, note those who cause divisions and offenses, contrary to the doctrine which you learned, and avoid them. 1Cor 7:17 But as God has distributed to each one, as the Lord has called each one, so let him walk. And so I ordain in all the ekklesias. 1Cor 11:16 But if anyone seems to be contentious, we have no such custom, nor do the ekklesias of God. 1Cor 14:33 For God is not the author of confusion but of peace, as in all the ekklesias of the saints. 1Cor 16:1 Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given orders to the ekklesias of Galatia, so you must do also: 1Cor 11:2 Now I praise you, brethren, that you remember me in all things and keep the traditions just as I delivered them to you. 1Cor 14:33 For God is not the author of confusion but of peace, as in all the ekklesias of the saints. 1Cor 14:36,37 Or did the word of God come originally from you? Or was it you only that it reached? If anyone thinks himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things which I write to you are the commandments of the Lord. 2Thess 2:15 Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions which you were taught, whether by word or our epistle. 2Thess 3:6 But we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw from every brother who walks disorderly and not according to the tradition which he received from us. 2Thess 3:14 And if anyone does not obey our word in this epistle, note that person and do not keep company with him, that he may be ashamed.
And this list is probably not exhaustive.

The Ekklesia of God is NOT an outreach tool. It is NOT a place for sinners to come and hang out and "be accepted". And – surprisingly for many – it is ESPECIALLY NOT a place for believers to hang out and "be accepted". That does not mean that the unconverted who are genuinely interested should not be allowed in, but if they are allowed to stay unconverted in your midst something is wrong. Encouragement is indeed a vital part of body experience, but NOT EVER the encouragement of sinners in their unconverted state, and NOT the encouragement of believers in sin or doctrinal error. Encouragement, like a handgun, has no virtue or vice of itself: it depends completely on how you use it. With either one, pointing it at a home intruder and pointing it at your wife are two completely different things.

The Bible is so very very clear that we are to exhort AND to rebuke AND to contend earnestly! These things are part and parcel of what the ekklesia of God is. If you have an ekklesia that does not "get into doctrinal debate" and teaches that, "...we have liberty" in everything besides "Jesus and Him crucified and He is the only way to the Father", then you have an ekklesia that is not an ekklesia at all, just some believers hanging around; and we as believers do not have leave to just hang around. The Ekklesia of God is not some kind of party, not even a "Holy Ghost Party"; even the worldly ekklesia was more than that. The worldy ekklesia was all about deliberating and judging earthly matters, but The Ekklesia of God is a shining, gleaming, thundering, Judgment Machine! The Ekklesia of God judges earthly matters as a mere practice run for the day in which we shall judge angels!

The Ekklesia of God does indeed have liberty and great authority, but not concerning matters that are already settled in scripture. Likewise, the Congress of the United States has great liberty and authority, but not concerning matters that are already settled in the Constitution. The Bible is our Constitution and it delegates for us what our freedoms, authority, and responsibilities are. There are legitimate issues of freedom, which Paul described as "doubtful things," but the doubtful things are the things about which we do not have biblical instruction. There are biblical minimum standards of both doctrine AND behavior that a genuine ekklesia must adhere to or face judgment, and these go far beyond what is expressed in the statement above.

Just one (really needed) example is sexual immorality, or 'fornication'. When considering whether the Gentile Christians are bound by the Law of Moses, the entire Jerusalem ekklesia came together to weigh this matter and render judgment. The binding decision given by the Holy Spirit through the Apostles and Elders for all ekklesias for all time is that the Gentile Christians do not have to keep the Law, but they do have to keep themselves free from, "...these necessary things", one of which was sexual immorality. Note that it is not an issue of freedom for any Christian, or any ekklesia. It is a "necessary" thing. Necessary. Necessary. In other words, any Christian in unrepentant sexual immorality is not a Christian! The bare minimum understanding of this decision (which was repeated three times in the Acts) is that any believer who is in unrepentant immorality is to be removed from the ekklesia (Matt 18, 1Cor 5) and not associated with by other believers.

Yes, I know; that too hard, it's too mean, it's too religious, it's too hypocritical. The question is, who are you going to believe? Your own reasoning? An 'accepting' pastor? Some famous Christian book? Or Jesus?

Why do you think He said that whoever does not hate even his own life cannot follow Me...?