{"id":555,"date":"2021-05-21T06:00:31","date_gmt":"2021-05-21T11:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cybercondor.x10host.com\/wp\/?p=555"},"modified":"2021-05-21T06:00:31","modified_gmt":"2021-05-21T11:00:31","slug":"when-does-a-local-church-leave-christ-and-become-just-an-human-organization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/cybercondor.x10host.com\/wp\/?p=555","title":{"rendered":"WHEN DOES A LOCAL CHURCH LEAVE CHRIST AND BECOME JUST AN HUMAN ORGANIZATION?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction:<\/span><\/p>\n

The Lord’s church has been challenged by this danger during most of the centuries of its existence. It was only a few hundred years from the beginning of the church on the day of Pentecost with about three thousand people in Jerusalem, until the establishment of a religious organization that called itself the church, but persecuted all who would dare to follow Christ.<\/span><\/p>\n

Many times, people fail to recognize the changes until it is too late. A local congregation can begin with a dedication to New Testament teaching and practice, and with conviction, and commitment to Christ’s command to go and teach the word, but gradually become less and less a group dedicated to Christ that cares for people and more and more an organization that protects and promotes itself and its own interests.<\/span><\/p>\n

How and why does this occur, how can we detect such changes, and what must be done about them? <\/span><\/span>These are important questions that must be explored, and answers must be given. The first important lesson comes from what the Bible says about the nature of the church. Paul gave us this lesson by inspiration of the the Spirit of God in 1 Corinthians 12:12-27:<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body–Jews or Greeks, slaves or free–and all were made to drink of one Spirit. 14 For the body does not consist of one member but of many. 15 If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? 18 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. 19 If all were a single member, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, yet one body. 21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” 22 On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, 24 which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, 25 that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. 26 If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. 27 Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.<\/span><\/p>\n

God tells us that the nature of the church is that of a body, with one head and many members. Truly, this comparison teaches us many things, among them the following:<\/span><\/p>\n