Sabbath School Today
With the 1888 Message Dynamic
Oneness in Christ
Lesson 12: Church Organization and Unity
The only times we read that Jesus mentioned His "church" were twice--Matthew 16:18 and 18:17. He used the word ecclesia, which means "called out," a people designated and separated from the world, defined and denominated in a form that the world could recognize as an entity.
The apostles called ancient Israel a "church in the wilderness" (Acts 7:38), and we read that Israel was a visible organization that the world could see as God's denominated people.
Paul thought of a beautiful illustration of what the church is--it's a "body." "Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular ... in the church" (1 Cor. 12:12-28). In his brilliant depiction of the relationship of the church and its members to Christ, Paul considers the church to be the "body of Christ" which "is not one member, but many" (vss. 27, 14). "As the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ" (vs. 12). "By one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, ... The body is not one member, but many" (vss. 13, 14). Paul describes the corporate unityof the church.
There is no English adjective that can be used to describe this relationship of the body to the head, or of the various members of the body to each other. Hence it is necessary to employ a Latin derivative as an adjective to describe this "body" relationship: corporate. (The word comes from the Latin corpus, meaning "body.") For example, "all the members of that one body, being many, are one body" (vs. 12). They bear a corporate relationshipone to another.
In Revelation 12 we see the history of the true church and the identification of the "remnant" church. Through the ages she is symbolized as a "woman." After the horrors of 1260 years of papal persecution, she emerges as from a tunnel, now identified as "the remnant": "And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ" (vs. 17).
With the end of the Dark Ages, inventions began pouring out of fertile minds. The horror of slavery began to be abolished; the little nation of ex-British colonies began to prosper in the New World; Christian people awakened as from a long sleep--the second coming of Christ was near. The world had embarked on what the Bible describes as "the time of the end." A preparation for the return of Jesus Christ became to intelligent people a reasonable "blessed hope." Through unmistakably divine leading, the message began to go worldwide.
Hearts responded and capable people did things. Clearly blessed by the Holy Spirit, a message joining together the gospel of Jesus with the ideals of healthful living worked wonders in tired, sickly people; the world's finest health institution (for then) was established in Battle Creek, Michigan, where even European royalty crossed the Atlantic to come. There the "West's" finest Christian publishing house was established. What the apostles after Pentecost longed for seemed to be on the verge. A solemn but joyous sense that the world had entered into the cosmic Day of Atonement gripped hearts worldwide. The "blessed hope" of the imminent return of Christ made life here below a taste of heaven.
For a century and a half that church has been identified by divine inspiration as the Seventh-day Adventist denomination, which had its roots in the Great Disappointment of 1844 and the reformations that followed in succeeding decades until its formal organization in 1863. Throughout the years of Ellen White's long lifetime, she constantly identified the Seventh-day Adventist Church as that "remnant." Yet even in her day there were unfaithful leaders and pastors who taught error and even apostasy, whom she rebuked, corrected, and sometimes even denounced.
Then it was discovered that Christ's message to the seventh church of history had become applicable: the church was "Laodicea," the one whose worldly lukewarmness made the Lord so nauseous that He felt like throwing up (Rev. 3:14-21). Now a battle rages in people's minds and hearts: is that last organization into a "body of Christ" doomed to eventual failure? Or is a corporate repentance possible (and sure)? Can the dream be recovered?
The 1888 General Conference brings us to our modern times; we learn that our own brethren virtually "rejected Christ" and "insulted" [1] the Holy Spirit in negative reactions against the message that was the "beginning" of the latter rain. This also occurred before any of us were born; but it is not enough to write off this history as past and not realize how we would do the same if we had the "opportunity" unless we specifically repent of that sin.
The Lord Himself, not an official committee nor an independent ministry, will "shake" this church, cleanse and purify it. But He has to have human agents with whom to work. The reason why the final events have not yet taken place may well be that those who do "sigh and cry" are doing so negatively instead of positively. To "sigh and cry" does not mean to wring one's hands in despair; it means to do something to help. Of ourselves we are powerless to stem the rising tide of evil, but we can seek to save every soul that our sphere of influence may touch.
All believers in Christ need the discipline of fellowship with a larger number of brethren and sisters whose association can be used by the Holy Spirit for the maturing of their Christian experience. (The Lord sees that one way we must learn to "gather warmth" is from "the coldness of others." [2]).
May we plead with the Lord, in this time of the cleansing of the sanctuary, to grant us the precious gift of corporate repentance--the discernment to see how the sins of others would be our sins but for the grace of a Saviour, to discern how they could be our sins if we were subjected to the same pressures and temptations they have had to meet. We need Christ's righteousness 100 percent, not less. When He has a people who can so humble their hearts before heaven, He can begin to work.
The bottom-line issue is denominational repentance. The "bride" of Christ is repeatedly declared to be His church. She has indeed been unfaithful to her true Lover, but she can repent. Many in leadership have maintained for decades that "we" do not need such repentance; other despairing people have maintained that denominational repentance is needed but is impossible. But Christ calls for it; His vindication requiresit; our history demonstrates the need for it; and prophecyassuresit.
Does it seem impossible that a spirit of contrition shall be poured out on a leadership congested by organizational complexity? The more involved the church becomes with its multitudinous entities, the greater is the danger of its huge collective self choking the simple, direct promptings of the Holy Spirit. Each individual catching a vision is tempted to feel that his hands are tied--what can he do? The great organizational monolith, permeated with formalism and lukewarmness, seems to move only at a snail's pace. Aside from this "Spirit of grace and supplication," the nearer we come to the end of time and the bigger the church becomes, the more complex and congested is its movement, and the more remote appears the prospect of repentance.
But let us not overlook what the Bible says. We need to remember that long before we developed our intricate systems of church organization, the Lord created infinitely more complex systems of organization, and yet "the spirit ... was in the wheels" (Ezek. 1:20). Our problem is not the complexity of organization; it is the collective love of self. And the message of the cross can take care of that!
--From the Writings of Robert J. Wieland
Endnotes:
[1] Examples of Ellen White's use of these expressions are: Counsels to Writers and Editors, p. 30; Through Crisis to Victory, pp. 279, 280, 290, 301; Special Testimonies to the Review and Herald Office, pp. 16, 17; Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers, pp. 96, 97, 294; Fundamentals of Christian Education, p. 472; MS 24, 1890.
[2] Ellen G. White, Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, p. 136.
Notes:
Pastor Paul Penno's video of this lesson is on the Internet at: https://youtu.be/HDHtBxc4VkY
"Sabbath School Today" is on the Internet at: http://1888message.org/sst.htm
| RR |
