|
Return to Table of Contents Return to Landmark Baptist Church Homepage
Landmarkism Under Fire
A Study of Landmark Baptist
by Elder J.C. Settlemoir Chapter 14 - The Assembly Of Scripture An assembly of Christ is an εκκλησια[468] not merely a collection or gathering of people.[469] And because it is a duly summoned [470] assembly someone must authorize this summons and thus be responsible for calling it into existence, for one cannot think of a called out assembly without a calling and a caller. This was what put the Ephesians in jeopardy in Acts 19. There was no authority for their action. Their assembly was an unauthorized gathering together. No one had called them to gather together. The law directed when, where and how such assemblies were to meet. In the The assembly of Christ is composed of those who have been effectually called unto Christ, first in salvation and who have made that good confession[479] before many witnesses and which also includes Scriptural baptism, by an assembly so called and so authorized, and who, have, in agreement with a sufficient number of others, obeyed Christ’s command to form an assembly in gospel order in accordance with His plain direction in Mt. 18:20. They covenant together by giving themselves to the Lord and to one another, II Cor 5:8. They are glued[480] together, Acts 5:13; 9:26 and other places.[481] This joining is not accomplished by another church but by the power of Christ Himself.[482] The Lord Himself sets up His churches[483] and he adds to them, Acts 2:47,[484] and He disciplines them.[485] If we view this process from the Divine side, it is Christ who places them together, glues them or welds them together, forms them, sets them, into a church. If we view it from the human side, it is the disciples who join together and in accordance with His Word and with the leading of His Holy Spirit, form themselves into a new church by a covenant. They gather together and do so under His immediate authority, in my name. The church is formed by Christ and He gives it all of its authority directly. The church follows His will and receives the blessing from Him alone. The authority which summons an ecclesia can also dissolve it[486] as well as set it up. Only the authority which can annul constitution can grant constitution! But as no church has power to annul another assembly’s constitution, consequently no church has power to grant or authorize another assembly’s constitution! Such power belongs exclusively to the Lord Himself![487] He never transferred or delegated such authority to any office, officer, person, society, or entity.[488] Dan. 2:44 expressly states this kingdom: “shall not be left to other people....” That is, the authority of this Kingdom will never be put in the hands of men, churches, associations, conventions, popes, nor any other such thing but will ever remain in the domain of the Lord Himself and thus its perpetuity is insured. Therefore it is Christ and He alone who walks among the candlesticks! Only He can place them in that prominent position before the throne of His Father and only He can remove them. Both the igniter and the snuffer are in his hand.[489] It is Christ only who takes a church into his mouth, as a drink of water, and He only can spit it out if it should become lukewarm![490] He needs no elder, bishop, presbytery, no plurality of elders or no church to authorize Him to indwell a church. He needs no one or no church to authorize Him to leave a church.[491] He is not the servant of the churches but the Head! He sets up and He takes down. No church can enter into that sacred domain, though many have tried. The candlestick-Keeper allows no one or no society to enter into His province. He promises to indwell any two or three who gather together in His name. And when they do, He himself places a new candlestick in its place. When any church attempts to enter into this domain, whether by pretending to have the keys of Peter, by episcopacy, by EMDA, or some other method, makes no matter. A mother church is as incongruous and unscriptural as Uzziah and his smoking censor in the Holy place![492] More than good intentions are required for acceptable worship! The keeping of the candlesticks belongs to the Lord alone. He who attempts this attempts to “stay His hand”, or say unto Him, “What doest thou?”![493] Those churches who attempt to put a candlestick in place via EMDA are doing the same thing Uzza did when he tried to prevent the ark from falling off the cart! This improper handling of Divine things brought about his death. EMDA is a man-devised cart and clashes with God’s revealed plan for church constitution! Christ appointed no vicegerent on this earth. No church has the fire to light a church candlestick anymore that Nadab and Abihu had fire to light God’s altar. This is strange fire all around. No church has the power to bestow the Holy Spirit on an assembly.[494] One can only wince when Roman Catholics teach this but when Baptists take up the same error we are thunderstruck! Christ alone has the key. He opens and no man shuts; and shuts and no man opens.[495] No one or no church has this key. No man or church tells Him when, where or how to shut. No man or church tells Him when He may constitute a church. No man or church tells Him if He is to be in the midst of an assembly. No church admits or prevents the Holy Spirit from dwelling in an assembly. No man or church tells Christ when to fight against a church. No man tells him when to remove or set up a church candlestick. All of these things belong to the exalted Lord of glory exclusively and it is striking at His Headship and kicking at His sovereignty when any man or any society attempts to enter into that domain! This is what EMDA attempts to do. It is Christ who is the Great lawgiver and the supreme head of His churches. He alone is able to originate or to dissolve a church. This is power that he never has, and never shall, delegate. And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth; Rev 3:7. This key belongs to Him. The keys given to Peter and then to the other apostles, do not include the key of this text.[496] Those keys pertained to preaching the gospel and were used on the day of Pentecost, and at the house of Cornelius, and at other times and places. Those keys once used opened the gospel to the whole world and are no longer needed, the door being now open. But the key of authority to open or shut a church was never given to anyone at any time any more than were the keys of death and Hades given unto men. This key belongs to Christ and never has been in the hands of any officer or society. The churches which belong to Him are bound to obey His laws and to reject all others. For this reason no church should submit to the laws of EMDA for these laws have no “thus saith the Lord.” But his disciples have His promise that He will Himself meet with those who gather together in His name and they believe His word. Thus, when they gather together in His name, they become a NT assembly and are to govern themselves by the NT. They are to carry out the great commission, to administer the ordinances as the only religious entities on earth which He has called to do this work and they have this commission directly from the Lord! Christ alone can plant, root or fix firmly[497] a church, giving it its base or foundation[498] and only He can root out[499] a church or remove it from that foundation. No church can do either of these essential acts. It is a domain which belongs strictly to the Great Head of the Church and He never has and He never shall, relinquish this authority! The claim that He has delegated such authority to another is the foundation of Romanism! Grant it in one thing, and you can deny it in none! The foundation which is Christ, was laid by preaching the gospel to the Corinthians, not by bringing a mother church’s authority according to I Cor. 3:11. To the Ephesians Paul says: Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God; and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: in whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.[500] In this passage the figure is changed somewhat from the passage in
I Corinthians 3. The foundation is here said to be the apostles and prophets,
Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone. This means that the doctrine
of the apostles is the doctrine of Christ. The building of Christ and the
building of the apostles is of the same kind. But how significant vs. 22
becomes in this discussion is evident when we consider the apostle does not
say: “On which mother church you are also builded together” which is what
EMDA claims! For, if EMDA were the correct idea of church constitution then
every church would be founded by and upon another church–that is,
on its mother! While most EMDA advocates will deny this proposition, they
constantly prove it by what they do when they find some “irregularity” in their
church lineage. They immediately begin to tear down and start all over,
baptizing, seeking mother church authority, re-baptizing, re-ordaining, re-constituting
and re-doing everything! And why do they do this? Because they learn that some
church which they thought to be in their organic succession did not have
mother church authority! If that church was deficient relative to any law of
EMDA, in their thinking, they lose their church status! Thus they are founded
on some other church notwithstanding all their protestations! Whether or not
they are a true This passage in Ephesians[504] also precludes the idea of the Holy Spirit only coming upon a church through EMDA. “In Whom,” that is, in Christ, “you also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.” How does the Holy Spirit take up His place in a church? Is it through EMDA? This is what EMDA teaches, albeit without any Scripture! But here the Holy Spirit tells us how this is done. “You also are builded together for an habitation of God” is the same thing as “gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” The habitation of God[505] means that God dwells in them; Christ is in the midst of them; the Holy Spirit is in them. This triune presence of our God is not obtained by bowing to traditions (This is what EMDA demands!) but by submitting to the clear command of Christ in Mt. 18:20. The founding, this placing, this establishing, this rooting, this setting up is the work of Christ. When we fail to found a church on Christ the Rock, we build on the sand of tradition! Our Lord said: Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it. Matt 7:24‑27. We will in the next chapter consider how our fathers understood these matters in church constitution. Footnotes [468] εκκλησια is formed from the two words: εκ and κλησις. Trench explains the connection in reference to the original meaning of the word: “That they were summoned is expressed in the latter part of the word; that they were summoned out of the whole population, a select portion of it, including neither the populace, nor strangers, nor yet those who had forfeited their civic rights, this is expressed in the first.” Trench. Synonyms of The New Testament. #1, p. 2.
[469]
συλλεγω. “at
[470]Liddell & Scott. Greek-English Lexicon, εκκλησια. [471] This is expressly stated in the 1689 Confession, Chapter XXVI, par. 5. [472]Cf. Acts 19. [473] οχλος. “If we want the exact opposite to δημος, it is οχλος, the disorganized, or rather the unorganized, multitude, (Lk. 9:38; Mt. 21:8; Acts 14:4)....” Trench. Synonyms of the New Testament, # 98, p. 344. [474] συνοδια, Lk 2:44. [475] πληθος. “A large company, a multitude.” Vines Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words. P. 421. [476] πανηγυρις, He. 12:23. “The πανηγυρις differs from the εκκλησια in this, that in the εκκλησια... there lay ever the sense of an assembly coming together for the transaction of business. The πανηγυρις, on the other hand, was a solemn assembly for purposes of festal rejoicing.”–Trench. Synonyms of The New Testament. #1, p. 6. Cf. also George Ricker Berry. Greek English Lexicon, p. 125. # 20. [477] L. Coenen says: “Coming together (synago as in the LXX) must be reckoned an essential element in ekklesia (Cf. 1 Cor. 11:18). Hence the ekklesia can be thought of in purely concrete terms, and any spiritualizing in the dogmatic sense of an invisible church (ecclesia invisibilis) is still unthinkable for Paul.” This causes Editor Colin Brown to give a lengthy defense of the invisible church. DNTT, vol. 1, p. 299. [478] Trench, Synonyms of the New Testament, p. 6. [479] I Tim 6:12, 13. [480]κολλαω. Glued or welded. Cf. Liddell& Scott. Let the reader keep in mind the welding known in ancient times was forge welding, which unlike modern welding, did not produce a coalescence of the two metals but was actually an adhesive process in which the two pieces were joined by hammering together at white-hot temperature. An ultrasound of a forge weld shows up as a straight line–that is, a lack of fusion. [481] κολλαω is found ten times in the Greek NT. [482] Mt. 18:20. [483] Mt. 5:1ff. with Mt. 16:18. [484] προστιθημι is used 18 times in the NT. In this discussion it means add. [485] Re 1:5,16; 2:23; 3:3,16-22.
[486]
Liddell & Scott. Art.
εκκλησια; “ε.
διαλυειν,
αναστησαι, dissolve it.”
[487] Mt 28:18-20. [488] Steve Flinchum. Fully After the Lord, p. 320. [489] Re 2:5; Cf. Ex. 37:23. The source of the fire for God’s altar always came from heaven. [490] Re 3:15. [491] Re 2:5. [492] II Chron 26:18. [493] Dan 4:35. [494] Cf. 7 Questions. p. 35, par. 2; and Milburn Cockrell. SCO, p. 81. [495] Re. 3:8. [496] Mt. 16:18; 18:18; Jn. 20:23. [497] ρηιζοω. Col. 2:7. “To cause to take root.”–Vine. [498] Liddell &Scott. ρηιζα. [499] εκριζοω. Mt. 13:29. “To root out or up.” –Vine. [500] Eph. 2:19-21.
[501]
“The total authority of organizing the church, lies with the sponsoring church
or as some call it the mother church. They have a business meeting and vote to
charter a membership of baptized believers, (the number of names vary) for the
purpose of establishing a new church.”–Raford Bethel Herrin. A manuscript. “How
To Start a
[502] The number keeps changing as the tradition develops. Cf. Chapter 4. And as long as essentials can be added without a positive command, there is no end. Anyone can add to the number whenever he pleases! [503] 2 Tim 3:7. [504] Eph 2:22.
[505]
Κατοικητηριον
του θεου, the dwelling place of God, is the
same thing as “the holy temple” in vs. 21. This refers to the church at
|