The Recovery of Purity

Romans 5:12-21
12  Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
13 (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.
14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.
15 But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.
16 And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification.
17 For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.)
18 Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.
19 For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.
20 Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:
21 That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.

 

In the beginning God made Man perfect and complete in His image and after His likeness (Gen. 1:26).

 

Man (Adam & Eve) was absolute in his spirit, soul, & body.

 

ABSOLUTE = “Perfect in quality or nature; complete. Not mixed; pure. Something regarded as the ultimate basis of all thought and being.” [1]

 

Synonyms include “unadulterated, undiluted, uncontaminated, total, unconditional, unquestionable finality, unequivocal, definite, sure.”[2]

 

There are absolutes of truth, which are held by all true orthodox Christians (Christians who follow the teachings of Jesus, first century Apostles, and the prophets), and these truths include:

1. The eternality of the Word of God: “For Ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven” (Ps. 119:89).
2. One God
3. The Bible standard of salvation: “…Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost” (Acts 2:38).
4. The necessity of the “born again” experience: “Jesus answered…Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (Jn. 3:3).

 

With the existence of these (and other) absolutes, there is also another truth. The devil wishes to pervert the beauty of Man’s original design and separate him completely from his Maker.

 

The spirit of perversion is at work today and began with Lucifer and his rebellion against God, moved to the Garden of Eden and the serpent’s tactic of questioning and corrupting the relationship between Man and God.

 

PERVERSION in 1388 was defined as “action of turning aside from truth, corruption, distortion (originally of religious beliefs).”[3]

 

This is the devil’s tactic; to subvert, corrupt, bend, misshape, and distort what God calls “good” into something perverse. Perversion is not, of necessity sexual in connotation, but it is the turning of something pure into a wrong use.

 

The Fall of Man resulted in the perversion of our original state into a nature - - the Adamic nature. Because Man has fallen so far from his original state we find examples in the bible of many types of perverseness (one such illustration is the Jezebel spirit found in 1 Kings 16:31-21:25; 2 Kings 9:7-37; & Rev. 2:20-23). Trinitarianism, cessationism, & the Jezebel spirit are all perversions, but Jesus has given the Church the power and authority to help bring those stuck in error back to completeness in God and in truth.

 

Sin is the state of perversion from the original design and purpose of Man. The account of the Good Samaritan can be viewed as Jesus’ attempt to warn the Apostles and Church of the dangers of perversion.

Jesus came to return what was once perverted back to its original state, by His love: “For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Ro. 5:6-8).

 

Because of Jesus Christ we now have the opportunity to walk in right relationship with Him. You’ve never met a man like Jesus. He never withdrew Himself from the lost sinners of the world (as many in the church do once they are “saves”). Instead, He went to the perverted (in spirit, soul, and body) who were looking for a change and a return to purity. He did not condemn the world, but He saved it through the work of redemption and reconciliation. He did not revile the perverse, but He removed the crookedness in them and returned them to a state of completeness. He, as the Potter, took the misshapen clay and created vessels of honor. Jesus heals, delivers, sets the captive free, restores broken homes, and places His love into right relationships.

 

Although tempted in all things, Jesus is our perfect example of a sinless life, and His obedience is what has reconciled Man to God. This ministry of reconciliation is the recovery of purity in our relationship with God.

 

“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Cor. 5:17-21).

____________
SOURCES:
[1] Absolute. (n.d.). The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Retrieved October 26, 2007, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/absolute
[2] Absolute. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Retrieved October 26, 2007, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/absolute
[3] Perversion. (n.d.). Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved October 26, 2007, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/perversion

Stephen Kuntzman - The Fundamentals of New Testament Faith

The Fundamentals of New Testament Faith:

and the so-called post-apostolic fathers

By: Stephen Kuntzman

Some time back I interviewed a Roman Catholic priest from an Evansville, IN, parish for some research I was involved in. When I asked him what the Roman Catholic Church followed as a "plan of salvation" he quickly replied that the RCC follows "the apostolic tradition of the 3rd century." Since I know that the Church began in the 1st century and was firmly established on the foundation of the Apostles and prophets with Jesus Christ as the Chief cornerstone, this puzzled me.

So, here are a few of my thoughts on the the so-called post-apostolic fathers and the fundamentals of our faith. I know it may be odd to begin my first post on this topic, but it is what I've been working on today.

There were a number of men listed in books who are registered as having been a part of the post-apostolic era, but for this exercise I'll take a synoptic view of only five of these men and their doctrine in comparison to the true orthodox practices of the early church in the New Testament. The "post-apostolic fathers" I'm referring to are Ignatius, Polycarp, Clement, Justin (Martyr), and Hermas.

The fundamentals of our faith are based solely on the teachings of Jesus Christ and the twelve Apostles (referred to as the "

Apostles' Doctrine"), which includes total adherence to Acts 2:38 as the only plan of salvation and a biblical understanding of the oneness of God (monotheism). The Apostles' Doctrine then must be followed to be a true Biblical Christian, which is:

1. Repentance.
2. Baptism by immersion in the name of Jesus Christ.
3. Receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost evidenced initially by speaking in tongues as the Holy Spirit gives the ability to do so.
4. The Oneness of God.

Any deviation from the original teachings and practices of the Church at Jerusalem is an obvious rejection of the true message of Christ and not in accordance with the true orthodox Christian Church of the New Testament.

Repentance as practiced by these men was largely based on works since they do not appear to have any real understanding of the true spiritual significance of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. They did not understand the concept of justification by faith and were constantly looking towards martyrdom as a way to assure their place in heaven. These men also began to buy into the idea that repentance could involve confession to a priest. This is in direct contradiction to the scriptural teaching on repentance. We need only go to Jesus Christ in prayer to find forgiveness of sins.

The doctrine of water baptism was also perverted at this time. The writings of Clement would cause one to believe that these men taught baptism in name of Jesus Christ, but further studies show this to be incorrect because Justin began the formation of what became the trinitarian formula. Prior to this, the early Church baptized only in the name of Jesus Christ (as they had been taught by Jesus and the Apostles). Besides using the wrong formula for baptism, it also appears that at this time immersion began to be replaced by pouring water on the head, sprinkling, and even infant baptism. Such disregard for the teaching of Jesus and the Apostles should reveal something about the true nature and feeling these men had for Jesus Christ.

As far as the speaking in tongues is concerned, it is evidenced by different books and writers that none of the so called post-apostolic fathers wrote about or stressed the importance of receiving the Holy Ghost with the initial evidence of speaking in tongues. This leads us to believe that in this area they had thrown away the doctrine of the Apostles and most importantly the teaching of Christ. These men covered many different subjects in relation to the Church (like eschatology, responsibilities of the bishops, and so on), but never spoke of the gift of the Holy Ghost or speaking in tongues, as far as I have found. Without this experience in their lives they could not truly say that they were adherents to Christ or even Apostolic in doctrine.

From the many quotations taken from the writings of these men, we understand that they did not have a true understanding of the oneness of God and thus were not strict biblical monotheists, but rather tri-theists, or dualistic, in their understanding of God. Although it is highly improbable that these men used the word “trinity”, their thinking on the matter was evidently a primitive form of what came to be known as trinitarianism.

Because of their total disregard for the scriptural mandates of the Word of God as to salvation, we must deduce that the post-apostolic fathers did not truly believe that the Word of God is the final authority. They were already at ease with changing what God had established as the plan of salvation for all mankind.

I think it is safe to say the post-apostolic fathers are not extensions of the true Church, but rather they broke off with the teachings of the Apostles almost from the moment that the last Apostle died. These men did not follow any of the fundamentals of faith and because of their lack of obedience to the Word of God, their personal faith in Christ is suspect and without any real credibility. I find it quite sad that many believe that these men were in some way a part of the heritage of the Apostolic doctrine. These men are a stain on the pages of Church history and helped to bring many to apostasy and heresy by their doctrine, not the Apostles' Doctrine.