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Special Note 6 .
---The Reformation De-Formation .
¶ In "Part 1" of "Pastors and the Church" a mixture and comparison of protestant misconceptions and the Word of God has been presented.
The 'reformation' and the emergence of the protestant movements, though firmly rooted in the Gospel and "Justification by Faith", lacked a thorough 'reformation' in conformity to the Word of God concerning, Christians being utterly Christ's disciple and under his authority and not under the self appointed hierarchical authority of Church bishops and the differential pastoral systems of clergy/laity. Unfortunately the latter has been the case since then and is identical to the serious developments of apostasy in the early Church to which The Lord Jesus Christ addressed his call and warnings given to John on the Isle of Patmos AD 96.
This fresh life that came out of the reformation was a Church 'reformed' spiritually but 'deformed' in practice which eventually led, and continually leads to the 'spoiling' and 'deformity' of spiritual experience. If 'new wine' is not put into new bottles, then the wine is spilled and the bottles perish. [Luke' 5:37 .]
The 'reformation' new wine was poured into the old bottle of the ecclesiastical hierarchy control of men instead of Christ. This 'reformed' movement being held in the same apostate scaffolding of the early Church, emerges now in the 21 Century in the grossly 'deformed' spiritual darkness of churches that legitimize the practice of 'sodomy' and ordain such under the classification of Christian ministers in a so called Christian Church!
--- Christendom Under the Domination of Man .
¶ Given the stark reality of the evidence of the Church of today being the grandchild of the apostasy of AD 110 illustrated in ..."Pastors and the Church - Part 1", The question could be asked - "Well, where does that leave us all today"?
Answer: Whoever of us are involved in the protestant denominational 'clergy' - laity based Church order, have our feet dipped in the tentacles of serious apostasy that originated at the dawn of the Church around AD 110. This apostasy displaced the Church in matters of assembly fellowship from being under Christ's authority to being under the domination and authority of man.
Truly we can be thankful for the Grace of God evident among God's people down through the centuries and as Paul said ... "acknowledge every good thing which is in you in Jesus Christ" [Philemon' 1:6 .] Praise the Lord for all the saints that have this treasure of the Lord Jesus Christ in earthen vessels, but with the stacks of evidence that the "treasure" is sealed up under the man made ecclesiastical hierarchy and carefulness makes one want to cry out like Josiah " ..... our fathers have NOT hearkened unto the words of this book, to DO according unto all that which is written concerning us". [2 Kings' 22:13.]
The Lord help the Church in these days, with a fresh vision to get back to the Word of God, of His will in the assembly of the saints and take a lesson from the early Church fathers that to follow the traditions of man (as Jesus said) is to make void the Word of God. The Spirit and the Word combine for great blessing. Where the religious refinements of men and human wisdom make void the Word of God, a local Church travels in a lifeless carriage destined to become a valley of dry bones that can neither hear nor speak or show the glory of Christ.
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Pastors and The Church. Part 2.
