The Exodus Pattern: When God Builds a Community Kenneth Sublett, Hohenwald, Tennessee
Woodmont Hills: Is The Old Testament book of Exodus a pattern for building a church and for worship? Dr. Rubel Shelly's and Woodmont Hills' views are in identified tables and our comments are in black. If you wish you can scan through the claim for Exodus as God's approved pattern and look at our comments, additional comments in blue and links to other resources.But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness? Heb. 3:17
Giving Heed to the Word was the principle "act" of worship in the Christian Synagogue. "Preaching" Narrative Theology of cut-N-paste sermons was never an act of worship. Thomas Campbell and most older scholars define how the Word is the "Truth" of worship "in spirit" or in the mind which is the only kind and place God even bothers to look for. Outrageious Biblical illiteracy "among the scholars" is explained by Paul's teaching that "fools love to be fooled." Read how two people had to abandon churches built around pagan entertainment in order to discover the Word. Click and go down to where The Devil is Laughing to see how he and the watching world is not laughing WITH the new for-hire Bible Repudiators but laughing AT them and their followers just as the Israelites became a LAUGHINGSTOCK with their musical idolatry at Mount Sinai (Now the SCHOLAR'S pattern for worship and community.)
You must understand that many institutions of higher education and their product--the flood of professional preachers who do not believe the Bible as the unique document of all Christian faiths--feel a HIGHER CALLING to lead everyone into a rejection of the Bible as source for faith and practice.
Rubel Shelly believes and teaches:Here is what God wants churches passionate about:
(1) "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,
(2) that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16).
(3) "Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ" (Acts 2:36).
(4) "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: (5) While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (6) Since we have now been justified by his blood, (7) how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him!" (Rom. 5:8-9).
These are the essentials of Christian faith. It is this core message about Jesus that we share
in common with other
Bible-believing, cross-proclaiming, resurrection-confessing, born-again persons that constitutes us a church.
Outside the essence of the gospel,
there are other features that reflect our history and consensus interpretations of the larger biblical message.
When the kingdom did not come as Christ promised those who wrote the Bible went their own ways. John, for instance, hooked up with a Greek philosopher and borrowed the LOGOS concept and used it to explain Jesus Christ. However, either unknown or ignored is the fact that the LOGOS concept begins where John places it: in Genesis. Too bad that scholars miss the fact that DABAR is the Hebrew word.
Rubel Shelly: They had to strain the story of Jesus through philosophical sieves. They had to create and clarify special terms. They made entrance into their circles a matter of "enlightenment" as reflected in peculiar vocabulary and interpretations.
In the meanwhile, the core gospel has survived two millennia now in its narrative form of telling the big story through collections of little ones about Jesus.
Notice that this is not different from the anecdotes John used.
The little stories were strained through the Shelly Sifter of philosophy and the Bible writer's personal agenda: these are not TRUTH as the Gospel is TRUTH.
The Big Story or the CORE GOSPEL has survived through these little stories.
Our conclusion: The CORE is no more reliable than the sum of its parts: why should we trust Rubel Shelly's CORE GOSPEL as the TRUTH?
Dr. Shelly defines the narrative form as writers taking the literature and constructing a narrative for their own time, place, theological agenda and by sifting in Greek philosophy.
Apparently the Exodus is the new "paradigm"LONGING FOR A HOMELAND: EXODUS (7/27/2001) Dr. Lynn Anderson will be speaking on Exodus - Longing for a Homeland, at The Cove - the Billy Graham Training Center. Registration available through the Cove.... [more]
Henry Blackaby, Experiencing God, is one of the Key Resources of Southern Baptists. His thesis is that just as Abraham, Moses and Christ got their assignment from God, you can also get your assignment if you know how to hear God speak to you. Thereafter, you might be the christ for your age.
Click for Dr. Shelly's agreement with Blackaby who claims apostolic power for today.
Agreement on Personal Indwelling This has links to other Blackaby's teachings.
Experience God by Henry Blackaby If Moses along with Jesus is one of the earlier examples then it seems logical to understand the Exodus event as an approved example rather than a warning of failure through music and self-seeking.
Exodus: When God Builds Community (Psalm 133)
It is not unusual that men would propose the Old Testament as having equal weight with the New Testament in defining faith and practice. While it is falsely claimed that Alexander and Thomas Campbell were unique and "peculiar" in using only the New Testament to define worship, it is a fact that almost every scholar of note had taught this along with the New Testament from the beginning of the church. We have collected a few examples here. Musical churches always have to resort to the Law of Moses for authority. This now includes musical worship teams which the Catholic Encyclopedia equates to Levitical musicians.
We submit this review as the Paul-ordained demand to dialog or to test the spirits. By looking beyond sermonizing we will be able to see that the "pattern" of Moses and the Law can never be a "paradigm" for Christian organization and worship.
Rather, we should not try to de-myth the story and restructure but to read the Exodus event "as it has been delivered to us." This will help us realize that the Temple worship was a "like the nations" worship by a people having forsaken God and on their way to captivity and death. We regret it if many are so soft that they see a challenge to any pattern as judgmentalism. However, the continual harping on "judgmentalism" can make the mind incapable of rationally evaluating human speech.
The thesis of this sermon seems to be:
--No one, especially churches of Christ, have found out how to be church.
--It is grossly inaccurate and horribly self-serving view of things to try to reconstruct a church according to a first century church.
But no one attempts to reconstruct Jerusalem or Corinth. The Word of Christ is the pattern.
--The Restoration Movement attempted to reconstruct the golden age of the church.
But this is not the fact.
--All denominations make the same claim.
No. The high church view now espoused by Shelly sees no need to even consult the Bible.
--By assuming to have restored the Biblical church one is terribly judgmental and divisive to the body of Christ apparently consisting of all denominations.
"The church of Christ" was held by most groups to be the name of the New Testament church. However, a denomination collects all congregations into one group with central headquarters. The church of Christ is no bigger than a local congregation. A denomination denominates itself by naming itself the Catholic church of Christ or Methodist church of Christ.
--Some imperfections of the early churches are noted.
But the goal of the church of Christ is to restore the Bible as pattern and not the Corinthian pattern. The dominant pastor makes all groups imperfect.
--In the meantime the best that God can do is to make us an authentic community of non-judgmental family members.
But if a direct operation of the Holy Spirit person can do that then why cannot He restore the church as "assembly" and teacher of the word rather than a self-seeking and legalistic "worshiping" clan?
--This community (read: commune as defined by the Bible) has hallmarks which we can identify when we see it even though we do not have the power to restore it.
Most of the senior members of the exodus "commune" were allowed to die before the tribes could enter Canaan. Consistent with this modern worship forms are quite destructive of older people.
Just about everyone before the latter-day "post modern, post biblical" people understand that there was no redemption in the Exodus. The pattern Dr. Shelly is proposing is that of a nation whome "God turned over to worship the starry host." Nevertheless, the S.U.N. can be "colored" as the S.O.N. not knowing that the S.U.N. is one of the starry hosts.
Because there is no New Testament restorable pattern, Dr. Shelly proposes to use the Exodus as God's attempt at forming community. Rather than the five facts about Jesus as the minimal gospel, the themes of the Exodus which we must restore are:
A pattern consisting of five themes of grace, pilgrimage, covenant, worship, and glory are the central elements of community for God's people in any age or setting.
But: One of the most repeated "patterns" in the Old and New Testament is the Exodus event which is universally defined as repudiation of God's Word and oral covenant, musical idolatry as a consequence, the giving of the Law of Moses "because of transgression," Israel becoming "strangers" no longer able to come into the presence of God (as repeated in most pulpits), God's conditional sentence of Israel to captivity and death, a total of 40 years wandering, hungering and thirsting, and according to Amos and Stephen the worship of the stars (parabolic of human wanderers in Jude and the book of Enoch using music), and going into Canaan as the place where God's sentence would be carried out as Israel was almost totally consumed by Canaanite Baalism.
This led to the elder's firing of God and demanding "set a king over us." The resulting Monarchy was defined by God as the kings carrying out of the death sentence on all of Israel and all of Judah except a tiny remnant. When this happened God would not respond until seventy years of discipline had been completed.
Now, look at the five essentials of Old Testament "church" in red. We will add some missed steps in blue.
Grace: Looking backward the prophets always understood the facts. God removed Israel from Egypt to fulfill His promise and to have mercy even upon unbelievers. He removed them primarily because they were polluting the name of Yahweh where Israel often lived worse than the nations around them.
Baptism: The New Testament sees the Red Sea as a type of Baptism. See Augustine's comments on Psalm 106 which refutes Dr. Shelly's thesis.
Celebration: Moses spake the song of victory but Miriam led the women out with instrumental music and dancing. This is intimately connected to "they sang His praises" but "quickly fell." Music is the universal theme that says: "We will not listen to and obey your commands, examples or even hints."
Gift of the Holy Spirit: Christ as Spirit, Rock, Manna and etc., led Israel but they rejected Him as less pleasing than Egyptian idolatry.
Pilgrimage: God led Israel to the foot of Mount Sinai to perform a test of their loyalty and they failed. This did not come as a surprise but because He had removed them from Egypt to protect His own Name and they had rejected His Word at the Red Sea, these tests to follow would make the reason their future destruction clear. It should also preclude using the Exodus as a God-ordained model for community.
Nostalgia: Israel brought their idols and musical instruments with them as parts of Egyptian worship.
Covenant: This was The Book of the Covenant consisting of ten words or commandments along with 70 elements of enabling legislation. It was essentially the Covenant made with Abraham and fulfilled by Christ according to Paul in Galatians.
The FALL with Musical Idolatry: The creation, flood, crossing the Red Sea and future "void and empty" Israel were types. As soon as Moses returned to the Mount for the written Covenant, Israel fell back into the musical worship of Apis as the agent of Osiris. Rising up to Play was singing, dancing, playing instruments and giving credit to themselves rather than Yahweh. In most paganism this was a "dramatic reinactment."
This was the "because of transgression" which caused God to give the The Book of the Law or the Second Law which "was in addition to the Covenant" now broken.
As a result, the Tabernacle as symbol of God's presence was guarded by Levites to keep everyone but the clergy away from God's symbolic presence. Only in Christ can we come boldly before the throne of grace as a "kingdom of priests."
Separation: As a result of the musical idolatry the Levites were "hired" to keep Israel which was now a nation of "strangers" away from the Tabernacle as the symbol of God's presence. They could never, until Messiah, come boldly before the throne of grace. The now-restored priests and clergy-musicians are symbolic of another fall back into the Monarchy as a "pattern" of pagan worship.
Worship: It was predicted in the Song by Moses recited to be learned, that Israel was on the path to destruction. Amos and Stephen claim that Israel did not worship Yahweh for these forty years. Rather, their worship was like that of the fallen angels or stars condemned by Peter, Jude and Enoch.
Glory: When the smoke or darkness filled the Tabernacle and Temple it prevented Moses and later the priests from "ministering" in the temple. However, the people prayed from "outside the camp" and God "heard from heaven" thereby bypassing the clergy in all ages.
The cloud was symbolic of the soothsayers or Babylonian enchanters and was more prophetic of the Temple-state than of God's abiding presence.
Idolatry: Israel did not honor God in Egypt, at Mount Sinai or for any of the 40 years of wandering. When they went into Canaan it was no longer the promised land but the "killing fields" of the nation as they joined themselves to Baal.
The Old Testament as an alternative pattern for Christian worship is common in most groups but denounced by most scholars. It was the pattern which caused the Disciples of Christ to fracture off (sectarianize) from the Restoration Movement. For instance, in DEDICATION SERMON by John Winebrenner churches are dedicated like the temple.
Dr. Rubel Shelly begins his sermon:
Rubel Shelly: We haven't figured out yet how to be the church.
What do we have to figure out? if we "accept the counsel of God for our lives" and are baptized for the remission of sins Christ adds us to His Body. Maybe, our views of baptism have slipped so severely that we don't understand that church has headquarters in heaven, and on earth it is simply "assembly" for study of the Word and remembering Christ's sacrifice. The "social gospel" of this idealized church did not attempt to reshape the outside world or become a benevolent society to unbelievers. Rather, its goal was to prepare the body through teaching to be a leavening influence in their own arena of life and to be able to resist the winds of false doctrine. In this, most have not figured out how to be a church.
Rubel Shelly: I know that goes against the understanding some people have of the history of the Church of Christ.
Conclusion: churches of Christ claim to have figured out how to be the church. Well, perhaps too many individuals have, but the "church of Christ" is defined by Christ and not by mortal men whom, we hope, will be recipients of the grace extended so graciously to the denominational world whatever their beliefs.Why are churches of Christ singled out? Isn't it a fact that Calvinists have figured out how to be church--in their own eyes? Have Baptists not claimed to be the exclusive church: the internet is squirming alive with claims to uniqueness down to the unique one of the about 146 bodies of Baptists. If churches of Christ are identified by them as a "cult" how can they figure out what is not the church unless they have figured out how to be church? Are Catholics not recipients of the "one true church?" Certainly, by definition, anyone who subscribes to a religion believes that they have found the best one. This was not invented by churches of Christs.
Most models are wrong because the first tenet of the assembly (not church) is to "teach the word" and even the edification role is not "singing for excitement" or to pay God some owed praise; it is education through the Word without trying to single out a few key "acts of invented rituals" or cutting and pasting passages.
The solution is not to borrow a secular or denominational model but to return to the Bible as the teaching curriculum rather than as the grab-bag raw materials for constructing our own songs and sermons. Christ the Spirit was competent to deliver the Word which, if understood, will bring about spiritual revival without professional help. Christ sent the evangelists to the lost and not to build ministry-supporting and centerd "communities" or communes.
The Sabbath was not a day for worship in rituals but for rest. Jesus came to give us rest from the burden of rituals. God will still come with His ten thousands of saints unless:
And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in. Isaiah 58:12
If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour him,
not doing thine own ways,
nor finding thine own pleasure,
nor speaking thine own words: Is.58:13
Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. Isaiah 58:14
This sound's like Jesus' "worship in spirit" or in the mind or heart.
The rituals at the temple were the common rituals of all temple states and not a way to honor God.
"This latest philosophy of brethren Shelly and Harris demands that one abandon the "deep rut" error that the New Testament is a pattern for the church; they reject that pattern."They write that man seeks a "paradigm for imitation," which they will give in their book, they say (p. 5); yet, they write, "We reject a rigid 'pattern theology'" (p. 31). Anyone can see that this is double-talk. I take it that they feel that putting such self-contradictions far enough apart in their book will disguise these opposing, irreconcilable, and unbelievable statements from the readers; however, one recognizes that the word "paradigm" means pattern! Are they saying God will not/does not give a pattern but they will? How presumptuous! We are not fooled; we will not follow these blind leaders in rejecting the New Testament pattern to concoct a "paradigm" of their own." The Restoration: The Winds Of Change, Jim Laws, ed. (Pulaski, TN: Sain Publications, 1993), p. 509.
The views of men like the Campbells never looked for a human incarnation of the church or more properly Christian assembly. Their view was a common view that to enable unity of worship among people holding diverse views it was absolutely necessary to strip the church of everything which did not have a command from the Scripture. Christ and His Word was held to be the 'golden age' and certainly not the church in Corinth which was Rubel's "unity in diversity" paradigm. If the ideal church is not defined in the Word then we should all abandon the effort. See Campbell's Declaration and Address.
We are not aware that anyone in the Restoration Movement wants to restore the church to the Corinthian or Jerusalem model. Rather the goal was to speak where the Bible speaks and restore the church to the Christ-inspired model of Scripture. That model was not complete until the epistles had the Spirit of Christ defining what was wrong (judgmental?) and replacing it with the right.
We are aware of people who see the Corinthian church as a model for speaking in tongues which was speaking from their own spirit and therefore just speaking into the air. That is, they were inventing their own songs and sermons and the implications are clear that they still favored musical instruments. This is still the model for many, many churches but not for churches of Christ.
It is not truth to say that it was "grossly inaccurate and horribly self-serving" to suggest that the church rapidly fell into the pit. If it had not then Scriptural prophecy would have lied. One of the first grossly inaccurate and horribly self-serving falls into the pit was the notion of "clergy-laity" and dividing the church into territories. Later writings, such as the Didache, tried to restore the view of the self-proclaimed apostles or prophets by giving them a hearing and judging their honesty by whether they went on to the next area within a few days. The "golden age" is held by the Restoration Movement to be the visible presence of Christ and not the outward institutions:
"As a Church it is founded on Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone--it is the Body of Christ and He is the Head that in all things He may have the preeminence--He is the vine and we are the branches, and therefore we cannot afford to cut ourselves off from that golden age--those early days when He was manifested in the flesh; nor from all the days of His manifestation in the history of His Church. When the Church refuses to take note of what is behind, it is in danger of becoming something other than the Church of Christ. But the Church is called to live in the present and she must always be alive to this fact, or she is in danger of failing to show to the world the Christ whom she worships--in fact, of becoming an organisation rather than an organism. William Robinson
Rubel Shelly: At a point in time roughly equivalent to the work of Alexander Campbell, Barton W. Stone, and others in the history of the Church of Christ, the church returned to its "golden age" of unity, doctrinal purity, and successful evangelism.
We believe that this is fabricated. At least we know of no evidence. As with most of these writings there is a total lack of understanding of the views of the Restoration Movement. No one ever suggested that it was the "golden age" of doctrinal purity in any ancient congregation. That only happened when the views of "successful evangelism" were corrupted, primarily in the 20th century when evangelists reverted to their old denominational views that they should be paid pastors (pappas) under the "High Church" or Disciples of Christ path returning to their roots in Catholicism, Church of England, Anglican, Methodist views. This essentially cut off support to the true ministers of the gospel.We are not aware of any early defender of returning to the Bible who suggested that they were perfect or that they had restored doctrinal purity. However, that has been the quest of honest men since the time of Christ. Contrary to defining churches of Christ as legalistic for demanding Commands, examples or inferences for those things which will allow community among diverse people, the Bible and all of the historical figures held that restoration was possible and that it must be based upon stated Biblical doctrine. See our list from history.
The Restoration Movement did claim unique perfection for seeing a distinction between the "pattern" of Moses and the non-worship in the wilderness and the Christian church. Or between the Monarchy under human rulers as a paradigm for modern Worship. This, too, was a universal view held by earlier theologians.
The theory of the RM was that by stripping the denominations of these views which had been imposed without Biblical authority it would be possible for all groups to meet together to worship. It never held that all groups could be united in an organization. Organizational efforts was the sowing of discord or sectarianizing by those who introduced instruments into a generally non-musical religious world and by trying to build an organization to encompass "Christendom." That was NOT churches of Christ.
As with all of the revival of a soft theology, to debate ones views of Scripture suddenly becomes judgmental. Of course, this is a violent use of human psychology to bully-boy others into silence. This helps support the "one man ministry" where the preacher fills the priestly role of being the dispenser of truth and it helps silence those who might become "judgmental" by, in Dr. Shelly's example, questioning one of our programs.
This can be defended only by restoring the pattern under the Law of Moses.
Rubel Shelly: One problem with this view (church of Christ) of church history is that practically every denomination has its own version of it -- with only the names and dates for the return (i.e., reformation, restoration, rediscovery) of the "golden age."
The "living church paradigm" of Catholicism and all of its decendants down to the Disciples is that a church outgrows the first century patterns of the Bible and conforms to culture by inventing and improvizing in order to attract attendees -- whatever the cost. Many denominations see conforming to Paul's pattern against external melody as legalistic.The church of Christ, by definition, is not just another denomination. A denomination is a group with headquarters, a nominal head (the disciples head is much like the pope), dues from every congregation, control of church property, the right to assign "pastors," the right to publish universal bible study materials including a creed. The church of Christ has never given up congregational autonomy and to call it a denomination is to pervert Webster and the Britannica.
Churches of Christ are congregational with no organization larger than the local congregation governed and taught by elders as the only, unpaid, pastor-teachers of the flock.
However, the theme coined by this group is that the church of Christ is a big, ugly denomination. False and a lie but it has become the mantra of the "little flock" attempting to make a denomination with world-wide meetings and dispensing the latest paradigm of music and drama sold as "worship."
Rubel Shelly: Another problem is that it is terribly judgmental and divisive to the body of Christ, allowing each group with this view of history to judge all other denominations as(minimally) inferior attempts to recapture the church of the New Testament or
(maximally) false human systems in which people can only delude themselves into thinking they are Christian.
But how are we going to not allow others to judge denominations as unscriptural when Dr. Shelly takes the liberty of allowing himself to do the same to churches of Christ? Part of the growing ecumenical world heralded by the Catholic Jubilee and the United Nations is to construct a pattern of ethics which will prohibit one group from criticizing another. Perhaps when this comes, Dr. Shelly can be on the team to not allow each group to have their view of history.It may be psychological manipulation to harp on the non-judgmental mantra. While this article is harshly judgmental of churches of Christ, the 'audience' will not hear that part of the message. What they hear is that they should not be judgmental of our Sunday School program or whatever I, the dominant pastor with the consent of my elders as board of directors decide to do.
Perhaps if we can restore the Mosaic golden-age pattern we can not allow each person to have their own opinion. Until then, all people have their opinions and being a member of the church of Christ dose not give one a dose of terminal judgmentalism. Several in history have noted that there are two ways for unity and certainly Machiavelli and Hitler would concur:
Have everyone convert to my views
Or kill them.
Why would it be judgmental for me to believe that the church can be restored and not judgmental for Dr. Shelly to accuse those who attempt it as being terribly judgmental and divisive? In our little mind the only way not to be divisive would be for everyone to subscribe to one universal, world-wide creed. If one cannot decide then why should Dr. Shelly's paradigm be better than other's pattern?
Dr. Shelly is delusional if he does not think that this judgmentalism flows from the denominations toward the church of Christ even as it flows in this sermon. No group other than Catholicism and Jehovah's Witnesses gets blasted on the Web more than the "cult" church of Christ. Baptists love Dr. Shelly for blasting churches of Christs as a denomination. As far as I know Jubilee has been the only movement in modern history to try to collectivize churches of Christ by having Jubilee dispense the latest fad such as "lifting holy hands" or "laying on of hands" or the use of instrumental music in worship. This is followed up by teaching methods and even the ancient Gnostic revival of Zoeism to teach the churches how to lead worship with music and drama. We have even noted what would have been called Asherah poles at Jubilee.
By an equal-but-opposite judgmentalism, Dr. Shelly defines all other denominations as "the body of Christ." No difference: it is the same judgmentalism for which Dr. Shelly has no authority. If churches of Christ hold the Biblical view that baptism is Christ's operative means of Saving, and Dr. Shelly holds the Baptist view that baptism is a sign of salvation by faith then both views cannot be right.
Dr. Shelly never misses an opportunity to be judgmental against churches of Christ when the Bible and all of church history supports our view against "performing" music of any kind. Therefore, it seems to most churches of Christ that it is Woodmont Hills judgmentally clearly defining churches of Christ as:
(minimally) inferior attempts to recapture the church of the New Testament or
(maximally) false human systems in which people can only delude themselves into thinking they are Christian.
Dr. Shelly has already judged as "grossly inaccurate and horribly self-serving view of things" that the church fell into a pit from which everyone should try to restore it. The view of the Restoration Movement is that the golden age as held by the Spirit of Christ which is His Word and was not that Jerusalem was the ideal. Jerusalem in equated to Sodom (Rev 11:8; Isaiah 1:10) and part of God's mission was to have the temple destroyed for the third and final time.
Rubel Shelly: But the fundamental problem with the Golden Age-Great Pit Theory is simply that it is historical fiction.
This is certainly a fact. However, this theory came out of the head of Rubel Shelly and not from the Bible or any church history we are aware of. It is a view which can never arise from churches organized Biblically with elders overseeing and teaching the flock and the "evangelists" without an office but on the go to preach to those who have never heard the Word. This view arises in most groups organized around the "pastor" who has to eternally fight for his turf.These views were all hatched by book writers (paper popes) and "pastors" bundling together in world-wide meetings for "spiritual revival." Those hated "rurals" never hatch such cockatrice eggs.
Rubel Shelly: For one thing, the church in its concrete existence has never fully embodied the ideal of God.
But how can one tell with such judgmental certainty?Jesus warned us not to go looking for the kingdom of God with our eyes and ears because the "kingdom of God is within you." So it is unclear that 2000 years of history has been examined to make such a claim. Maybe the church is fully embodied when 30 people meet to learn and honor Christ Who can be seen without trying to look through performing speakers and musicians. Maybe the church is fully concrete when the elders as pastor-teachers equip each member to do their own worship and be able to resist rather than "navigate" the "winds of change." Perhaps, the eunuch embodied the body of Christ when he returned to Ethiopia.
Spiritual maturity is not the "fruit of the local embodiment" but of Christ the Spirit who lives in the human heart or spirit and not in buildings made by human hands.
And, too, Jesus defined "worship" as in spirit which means in the mind. He proved this both by His direct commands and his examples. It might be that the church was fully embodied when John worshiped "in spirit" on the Lord's Day as Jesus commanded him. Perhaps it was only the solitude of "in spirit" worship which allowed John to hear the voice of Jesus. It is manifestly a fact that one cannot spiritually observe the Lord's Supper when we sing some sentimental and at times unscriptural song to "prepare our minds."
When Jesus stood up to read the Word He had the common decency to sit down so the focus was upon the Word. Dr. Shelly's problem is that he is looking for love in all the wrong places and cannot grasp the fact that the Christian religion freed us from institutions which, contrary to the rest of this sermon, is the temple of ultimate selfishness because we can hire some trained people practicing "the idolatry of talent" to perform our worship so that it leaves no energy or motivation for individual acts of worship out in the marketplace. And the "ministries" relieves us of individual responsibility as a restoration of the Midianite structure which God predicted would destroy Israel when they demanded a king.
Rubel Shelly: The church of the apostolic age was beset by every type of sin still current among believers. Social, moral, doctrinal, and familial failures were all there.
Perhaps it was individuals and not "the church" who failed. Even if the correct church is reincarnated won't it still have "tares" and "suckers" to disturb the wheat and catfish? No one ever suggested that any first century assembly was Christ's perfect model. In fact most people can grasp that they were negative models so that Christ could add His remedial. Didn't Paul write to correct problems which, if successful, would have met with his approval?
Rubel Shelly: Leaders were sometimes beset by greed or lust for power, and a lamentable lack of commitment to Christ marked any number of those early congregations.
It is hard for this reviewer to believe that the church is still not beset by greed and lust for power. Vocational ministry was the norm even for the priests and Levites under the Law. It was the norm for Paul and all clergy roles were required to have a secular job. Not even the priests and Levites were fed, clothed and housed when not on duty in the temple. If they needed a new "chariot" they made shoes or tents. How can we stand as theatrical performers speaking our own words and claim that we are committed to Christ? We have noted that some shout and wave their hands and plead: "Don't look at me, look at Christ." Really?
Rubel Shelly: I repeat for emphasis: There has never been a single perfect congregation nor has there ever been a period during which the collective church of that time accomplished God's will with absolute fidelity. There is no such church today. There will be no such church ever until Jesus returns and consummates his redemptive work by presenting his bride to God for her glorification in his presence.
We got it! Failure and "grace" is almost always used to validate our "doing wrong but God will forgive us." However, the failures of the initial, forming churches will not excuse us. Furthermore, grace is the power of God to be conformed to the Mind of Christ. That comes through "giving heed" to the Words of Christ and not a 2,000 year removed pattern extractor from "the flawed Bible."Christ as "the Spirit says" spoke to some of these congregations and corrected some errors. With these corrected they would be a fully embodied church of Christ even though not everyone was perfect. If perfection is the desired pattern then Dr. Shelly should give up. Does he suggest that while churches of Christ have not made it (under his preaching) Woodmont Hills can do it (under his preaching)?
A mechanic broke my daughter's automobile air conditioner. He said that he would fix it for $300.00. Hm!
Again, Dr. Shelly misunderstands the epistles which he writes off as the divided view of the apostles. This is the reason for writing off all things as authority but the five facts about Jesus. The fact is that the New Testament shows the churches making mistakes and then having an Apostle guided directly by "Jesus of Nazareth" as pure or Holy Spirit to write out the problems and define a cure. Peter said that he was "providing the memory" of what had been revealed rather than holding some first century church up as an ideal.
If we cut pieces of wood from pieces of wood or judge ourselves by our ourselves perhaps it would be better to "return to the pattern" rather than give up because we cannot find a stick which meets our perfect standards.
One problem was super apostles or theatrically trained speakers demanding wages of the church without fulfilling their missions. Paul corrected that and put evangelists on the par with the oxen who gets fed while it is threshing. Others he defines as robbers unless they were evangelizing.
In our youth agents were "evangelists" of terracing land and growing cover crops. When the "family" understood the skills, the evangelist went on to his next job. The threshing mules didn't try to find a stall in the barn.
Another problem was the mistaken view of Jewish worship which he corrects by clear reference in the Corinthians and Romans to the musical idolatry at Mount Sinai and the women's role in revealing in paganism. He silenced women in the assembly and preaching with a tune does not abrogate Paul's absolute prohibition.
Dr. Shelly is beginning a discussion of Exodus by defining certain chapters as a pattern for "worship." He does not grasp that the prescribed worship was for the "clergy" while the people were now defined as "strangers" not able to come into God's presence because of their musical idolatry.
Rubel Shelly: In the meanwhile, the most God can do with us and the best we can have with one another is an authentic experience of community as the body of Christ in the world. And that is no small thing.
I just wish God had more power!The goal of the Greeks, like that of Willow Creek and Woodmont Hills, was achieved by the same process:
"Tribal groups (congregations?) had been brought together in a political community (denomination?)
giving legal rights to individuals,
and the authority of the dike, established custom,
had been transformed into diakaiosyne,
the ideal justice that must be interpreted and implemented by human intelligence.
By a parallel process, the worship of Dionysus ceased to consist merely of the traditional group songs and dances,
developing into dramatic performances portraying specific individuals and
presenting new interpretations of the meaning of life." (Parkes, Henry Bamford, Gods and Men The Origins of Western Culture, p. 207, Knopf)
I just love that word "authentic" it seems about as popular these days as "exactly." By his definition I clearly hear him saying that the view of the church of Christ is not authentic but defending a grossly inaccurate and horribly self-serving view.
Those are not Biblical words. Community was already established in the local communities. The "assembly" was designed to be, like the synagogue, a school of the Bible and not a makes work project of the social gospel. Again, Paul corrected certain things like wine-drinking in the assembly while Dr. Shelly defines the Lord supper as "bread and wine." Corinth was not even eating the Lord's supper because people were destroying the existing community through the "cult of personalities." If you look at most "ministries" systems and examine the Monarchy where the elders demanded "set a king over us" you will see that it will "burn out" the faithful and fail because it attempts, like Nimrod, to "create spiritual regeneration through external means."
All of the Restoration Movement leaders knew as well as Dr. Shelly that the church is filled with false prophets. Our solution is not to look for a direct operation of the Spirit to build up what we are so good at destroying. To understand Peter's warning against looking at external affairs we need to understand that Jesus is the Spirit and therefore we need to restore a "spiritual" understanding by looking at the correctives taught by Christ as Spirit. The "golden age" could be restored by putting Christ at the "o-center" rather than being a performer-o-centric assembly.
Peter states that:
For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. 2 Peter 1:21
Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow. 1 Peter 1:11
Paul always equates the "Holy Spirit" to Christ or the Spirit of Christ. For instance those moved by the Holy Ghost were moved by Christ as the Word:
Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you: 1 Cor 1:6
So that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ 1 Cor 1:7
And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. Rev 19:10
Again, Paul identifies the primary gift as the Words or Mind of Christ:
But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. 1 Cor 2:10
For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. 1 Cor 2:11
Our spirit is not "another person" operating without our body and God's Spirit is God's mind or the Mind of Christ.
Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. 1 Cor 2: 12
Which things also we speak, not in the words which mans wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. 1 Cor 2: 13
Christ ordained and trained these men to accomplish that very purpose. Therefore, it is not possible to claim such spiritual power that what the Holy Spirit has already taught can be modified to make it more usable to the paying audience.
If Christ the Spirit is incompetent to put His will in writing then how much more powerful would He have to be to "infuse" spiritual life into us today?
But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they (words) are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 1 Cor 2: 14
But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. 1 Cor 2: 15
For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him?
But we have the mind of Christ. 1 Cor 2: 16
A false prophet ignores the inspired words of the epistles and the cause of error then and now is explained:
BUT there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. 2 Peter 2:1
And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. 2 Peter 2:2
And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not. 2 Peter 2:3
For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; 2 Peter 2:4
And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; 2 Peter 2:5
Therefore, if we are going to get a picture of the "authentic community" we should not wait for a latter-day direct operation of the Holy Spirit as a "person." To do so denies that Christ is the Spirit and has already defined the assembly and defined-away the outward flaws so earnestly restored by those who deny the finished work of Christ.
When you do find "the church" you will find that it is a very simple, quiet meeting of a group to learn the Word, honor Christ in the supper and care for one another. It if has a gifted student it can also send him out into the world to preach.
The Quest for Community
Rubel Shelly:The concern of modern man has been self-discovery, individuation, and -- to use the term of Robert Bellah -- "radical individualism." I will allow no infringements on my personal goals and desires. Nobody will tell me what to do. I've gotta be me! Frank, Elvis, and I are each gonna do it "my way" --even if it destroys us, our families, and takes all of us straight to hell!
And the most scandalous thing about all this is that it describes not just the plight of the world but also the broken, fragmented, and divided state of the church.
The communist or community mind just hates for the "human material" to have their own ideas. Some views from the ZOE movement and Look to the Hills:"It is Noll's thesis that Carl Jung created a select, elite group of spiritual initiates that would lead the rest of society to redemption [Jubilee was always connected to redemption and atonement]. Jung was influenced by Eugen Diederichs who "called for just such a spiritual aristocracy to lead" post-war Germany. (p. 87)
Diederichs also, believed that "being truly religious means being irrational" and that his calling as a publisher was to "push the irrationalist character of religion into the foreground" and assist in creating "a new mythos" or "mystique" (paradigm) for the spiritual reawakening of the Germanic peoples."
"Jung was also influenced by Count Hermann Keyserling and was a prominent lecturer at Keyserling's Schule der Weisheit (School of Wisdom) which taught yoga and other esoteric doctrines.
"Keyserling trained his metaphysically superior elite to
lead the spiritual reawakening of the world.
His goal was
"to develop sages from fragments of men" and to develop "the true leader of the future"...the metaphysically "chosen" agents of cultural change in the modern world. (Noll. p. 94)
"Was Jung a utopian? According to Noll, Jung hoped that through his methods of psychoanalysis that his
"patients would not only heroically suffer psychological crucifixions and heal themselves,
but afterwards they could redeem society as well by becoming initiates of this new secret wisdom of the ages...
In a section on "Individuation and Collectivity"... Jung proposes linking individual spiritual development with the fate of humankind, using such statements as,
"The individual is obliged by the collective demands to purchase his individuation at the cost of equivalent work for the benefit of society." (p. 232)
"Through the techniques Jung taught his patients, which he expected them to practice well after therapy was over,
they could access the religious wisdom of the ages. If they survived the initial ordeal without permanent damage,
they could announce these insights from the ancestors and apply them to the rest of society,
thereby redeeming humanity by leading it to a spiritual awakening.
As these initiates, the elite corps of the individuated, can receive information directly from the collective unconscious (the land of the ancestors or the dead),
they have the advantage and, indeed, the obligation, to proselytize this new doctrine for the benefit of society. (The Jung Cult: Origins of a Charismatic Movement by Richard Noll (Princeton University Press, 1994, p. 232-233)
Shelly - Harris quote Hans Kung's view of the "now but not yet" kingdom. It is significant that others feel the need for Christ when He said that He would return as the "another Comforter" (John 14:16-18) as head of His Church, His Kingdom which is spiritual and not discerned by human seekers. Others agree and say:
"The Second Coming of Christ, therefore, is through the Church, not Jesus returning in the flesh; we should not wait for Him to return in order to set the world in order,
but we are to take His authority over the world and the spiritual realm now. This concept reduces Jesus to just one part of a greater whole. (Dager, p. 148)
A "Spirit of Jesus" view would be to decide to try to live like Him and not try to worship in ways which He not only did not teach but repudiated. For instance? Instrumental music, for instance. It was prophesied that the clergy would try to 'triumph' over Him even as Lucifer tried to triumph over God. How? By playing their music and trying to get Him to sing and dance.
The sacrificial view is to forego instruments so that we can hear Jesus even if the world's religion ridicules us even as Dr. Shelly does. We could cut out all of the persecution and attract the seekers just by adding musical worship teams and instruments. That would be the easy "I gotta be me" approach.
To claim that not using instruments is a me-focused view is truly strange!
Divisive and judgmental? Let all be aware that it was the addition of choirs and instruments into an otherwise united church (Baptists, Presbyterians, churches of Christ: all) which divided it in order to please me. The process was the creation of a sect which adopted music in "making a choice" to reject the universal view that music is destructive to spiritual worship. Yes, even the Catholic Encyclopedia.
That view can just as easily be embodied in a "church" or para-religious organization. We say, "I don't care what momma don't low, I'll play my music any how." Others are "decadent and deleterious" and we will, spite of hell, sow discord among brethren by teaching and modeling instrumental music in worship, "raising holy hands" or "laying on of hands" or any number of efforts at prayerful brinkmanship in an attempt to restructure the whole group in my image.
What follows will seem to contradict this statement by demanding that no member of the "community" has a right to question any other member. It must endorse or affirm them. Isn't this "radical individualism." Does it perhaps not mean that no one will tell the pastor what to do while the pastor tells others what to do and what not to do? Not critiquing another seems almost like a law.
Perhaps this mind control explains why Woodmont members get so upset when the authorities are questioned.
Rubel Shelly: Yet there is something deep inside us that cries out for community. We created the League of Nations and later the United Nations to pursue political community among nations. We lament the need for someone to show us how to create social community among people divided by race, culture, and geography. We are so lonely for community that we try to find meaningful relationships through bridge, football, or literature.
No, we created these institutions as police agencies to help control men like Hitler, Stalin and beyond. One might suggest that we are so lonely for mass meetings or playing inane games because we are hungering and thirsting for the Word and cannot, as Amos warned, find it because the leadership has turned to wine, women, instrumental music and too-frequent tithing and control over the people.Most people I know are still working and long for a day of rest on Saturday in order to build up strength for Sunday as the most stressful day of the week. They long to get into the country and walk with Jesus beside the gently flowing Piney creek and just hate it when the phone rings. Perhaps, after all, Jesus was correct in putting down ritualism and mass meetings as mind control over the superstitious.
Rubel Shelly: What the world needs and what the church is supposed to offer as counter-culture to the world is community. Call it fellowship or simply a place to belong. But it is a place where the walls get torn down and people are permitted to embrace one another as kindred in the family of God.
All of the congregations I have attended living around the country seemed like home and family the first day I attended. I suggest that what Dr. is longing for is to a world-wide religious community so that whatever one's views they can be embraced as kindred in the family of God. Well, if Scripture makes any sense, the overwhelming majority are not God's family. However, it is quite easy for individuals to be totally in fellowship with all kinds of people for 168 hours a week. What is lusted after is a 'one hour' assembly where no statement of right or wrong is permitted.True, the church is supposed to be counter-cultural but then how can we do that and try to become more like the world in order to attract those who are seeking nothing spiritual? The religious world of the time of Christ and Paul was heavily involved with women prophetesses, wine, instrumental music and other mind-control devices to "move the worshiper into the presence of God." To be counter-cultural, the church could just sit down, remove the pressure of anxiety-merchants, and just listen to Christ speak through His Word. After all, the sermons have already been preached and the songs composed. No person from any group would be offended by that. However, when you begin to add rituals dedicated to the senses you have decided beforehand that you will alienate and divide the family members who cannot tolerate the anxiety.
People love diversion but they do not need to have their waking moments organized and monitored.
Rubel Shelly: Long before the church was created, this longing was already being expressed by a writer in Israel. He wanted the nation to be a genuine community. He longed for the benefits that would come from such a fellowship among the children of Israel.How very good and pleasant it is
when kindred live together in unity!
It is like the precious oil on the head,
running down upon the beard,
on the beard of Aaron,
running down over the collar of his robes.
It is like the dew of Hermon,
which falls on the mountains of Zion.
For there the Lord ordained his blessing,
life forevermore (Psalm 133).
Dwell means to sit down quietly as if in ambush or "at home." The word is not "praise the Lord but whisper.Kindred are family related.
Families don't do rituals: they come together, kick off their shoes, argue politics with "father" and find sanctuary from the world. Historically, the "assembly" and especially the Lord's Supper was a "family" affair where the world was excluded.
It is not possible to have a Family of God and have to organize it to the last jot and tittle.
However, David wrote:
Surely I will not come into the tabernacle of my house, nor go up into my bed; Psalm 132:3
I will not give sleep to mine eyes, or slumber to mine eyelids, Psalm 132:4
Until I find out a place for the Lord, an habitation (residence) for the mighty God of Jacob. Psalm 132:5
God doesn't fit in houses or boxes (arks).
The Hallmarks of Community
Rubel Shelly: Such a community is safe for everyone in it. That is, nobody has to be defensive with the others there. Nobody tries to fix you or change you. You are allowed to become your free and redeemed self by the power of the Holy Spirit living in you. Any change in you is his doing -- not yours to please the rest nor theirs as manipulation of you.
Church is not "community" but as ekklesia is "community meeting." See the difference? The neighborhood meetings at the local church just down the valley is the community assemblying as an ekklesia. However, the monthly meetings do not take up collections to hire staff to plan the INDIVUATED lives of individual families.The church is more often a form of the word for "synagogue." Now, synagogue is not "pagan worship center" or communistic commune but it is school When we attend "school" we do not have to give up our INDIVUATED personal lives: when class is over, we leave and the teacher does not get adopted as the "ruler" of the individual families.
Jesus came to save people one by one.
If the claim of Holy Spirit Only correction or "education" was believed then the preacher would step down, the teachers would remain at home, the singers would be silent and the building would become a dance hall. Advertizers and commercial seeker forms of religion live to attempt to change the world. If you don't need a praise team to mediate between you and God then you must be changed through 'praxis' until the walls are broken down and you accept that which once repulsed. The entire Jubilee movement is an attempt to change you. The Zoe Group and Look to the Hills wants to mold you into a spectator while the "idolatry of talent" in song, drama and dance is performed for you.
If one is steeped in the "Navigating the Winds of Change" paradigm then you have to be defensive because you know that someone is always trying to change you without you knowing that you are being changed or the preacher doesn't get fired.
The church was for working people. They met perhaps once a week to learn the Word, pray and take the Lord's Supper. In addition, they looked out for one another's need. However, people were not "slaves of the watch tower" but the assembly prepared them to run their own affairs.
Go back up to the Quest for Community and begin again and learn about individuation which is condemned. Now, everyone must demand to "let me be me."
The Holy Spirit does not live in you as a separated "perso