{"id":2988,"date":"2013-07-15T09:50:46","date_gmt":"2013-07-15T14:50:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scquest.org\/?p=2988"},"modified":"2013-07-15T09:50:46","modified_gmt":"2013-07-15T14:50:46","slug":"paul-wasnt-writing-to-babies-bunnies-or-blasphemers-the-nt-church-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scquest.org\/?p=2988","title":{"rendered":"Paul wasn&#8217;t writing to babies, bunnies, or blasphemers: The NT Church.2"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Series Intro: <em>What is a New Testament church?\u00a0<\/em>It is not a building. It is not a social club. It is not something you &#8220;do.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-2991 alignright\" alt=\"NT Church.2\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.scquest.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/IMG_2083-225x300.jpg?resize=225%2C300\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scquest.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/IMG_2083.jpg?resize=225%2C300&amp;ssl=1 225w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scquest.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/IMG_2083.jpg?resize=768%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scquest.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/IMG_2083.jpg?w=1168 1168w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scquest.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/IMG_2083.jpg?w=1752 1752w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.scquest.org\/essential-components-of-a-new-testament-church\/\" target=\"_blank\">Overview<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p>I would suggest that there are certain components which must be part of any assembly which would call itself a biblical \u201cchurch.\u201d\u00a0Without these you cannot have a church:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Gospel believing individuals<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Baptized in demonstration of their conversion<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Recognizably covenanting together<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Regularly meeting around God\u2019s Word<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Under legitimate leadership<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Administering Baptism and the Lord\u2019s Table<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;<\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s take a look at the first essential component of a NT local church:\u00a0<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Gospel believing individuals<\/span><\/p>\n<p>A. <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Gospel<\/span>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The reason this is the first word of the first sentence of the description is deliberate. The church is centered on the Gospel. \u00a0Jesus Christ\u2019s death, burial, and resurrection on behalf of sinners is the foundation of faith. It is the bond which is deeper than race, thicker than blood, and stronger than any other tie.<\/li>\n<li>Galatians 1 is clear. Jesus Christ was raised from the dead by God the Father (1) after giving himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age (4). If any man or angel attempts to preach another gospel besides that of Jesus Christ, let him be accursed (6-9).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>B. <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Believing Individuals<\/span>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Not unbelievers<\/strong>.\u00a0It is true that we cannot tell the heart and therefore cannot judge the soul, but we are commanded to judge actions (1 Cor 5). They must profess Christ as Savior and practice obedience to Him.\u00a0Paul routinely called those in the church to whom he was writing, \u201cSaints\u201d and reiterated their partnership in the gospel (Eph 1; Phil 1:1-11; Col 1:1-8; etc.)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Not pre-believers<\/strong>.\u00a0It may be true that our children will grow up to be believers, but they have yet to believe. Saul (later Paul) was not accepted into the church until he had professed Christ. It was in God\u2019s foreordained plan to save him, however there had to be a point in time where he went from unbeliever to believer.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Not non-humans<\/strong>. This may seem ridiculous, but not in light of our definitions of other institutions. (Plus, at my grandfather\u2019s funeral someone showed up and tried to check their dog into the nursery. True story.) Christ came to redeem all things, but not all things are accepted into our church. I squish spiders and set traps for mice. They may be &#8220;in&#8221; the church building, but they are not allowed &#8220;in&#8221; the church.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>The church is the Body of Christ made up of those individuals who have been redeemed. Let&#8217;s not forget that.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>What other evidences of this would you add?<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Series Intro: What is a New Testament church?\u00a0It is not a building. It is not a social club. It is not something you &#8220;do.&#8221; Overview I would suggest that there are certain components which must be part of any assembly &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scquest.org\/?p=2988\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[56,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-church","category-ministry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p34kFn-Mc","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scquest.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scquest.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scquest.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scquest.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scquest.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2988"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.scquest.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2988\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2995,"href":"https:\/\/www.scquest.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2988\/revisions\/2995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scquest.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scquest.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scquest.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}