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unity

Aug 18 2017
0

About Denominationalism

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“Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ. Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul” (I Corinthians 1:12-13)?

 

Before I even get started on this article, I want to respectfully say that this article is not meant to bash ministers or churches who are members of denominations. Just as Jesus spoke of His disciples being in the world but not of it, in like manner, you can be in a denomination just not of it. You are of Christ. My hope, through this article, is to convey that the Bible is sufficient, through the ministry of the Holy Spirit, to order a body of believers to come together and have all the accountability, leadership, unity and order to function in a true New Testament fashion. I even asked myself, “Is it necessary to put out such an article? Won’t this just alienate me from ministers and saints who belong to a denomination?” Then I realized as I have done so often, if I can’t talk open and honestly about such things amongst the body of Christ, when and where can I? Should I go instead and complain to the world?

I want to note that when I refer to denominationalism, I am also referring to all groups who organize like a denomination, but prefer to use a different term to describe themselves. For the sake of convenience, I will use the word denomination throughout the remainder of this article.

Now as I get started you saw in our text, that Paul asked, “Is Christ divided?” The answer to that is, of course not. However, the church sure is. Some years back, in one of my articles, I stated that there are over 900 denominations in America. As I think about that statement, I have to yield to the fact that we can’t really know how many there are. A few websites say there are over 30,000 Christian denominations in this world. In America, the Baptist Church is the largest protestant denomination. Wikipedia gave a list of all the different Baptist denominations there are in America. I counted seventy nine of them. So we just don’t have differing denominations, but also differing factions inside one denomination. Hold back your criticism, you members of the Pentecostal / Charismatic churches. I counted thirty two different denominations in your ranks. One question looms large in my mind; “How can a people, who all say they read and believe the same book (the Bible), be so divided?”

Have you saint of God, grown so accustomed to denominationalism that you never bother to consider if it is even biblical? I know it seems the norm for the church. Have you ever asked, “Where in the Bible does it teach or promote denominationalism?” If we are honest, which we believers have no choice but to be, you will have to agree that you cannot find a scripture that teaches that we should create such organizations. In fact the opposite is true. Paul rebuked the Corinthians for picking favorites and identifying with a specific group (“I am of Paul; I of Apollos…”). Are you of Wesley, are you of Luther? Do you follow the ways of the Anabaptists or the Puritans? Is your religion Grandma and Grandpa’s style? Or are you of Christ? Are you a follower of Christ? Is the Bible your rule of Authority?

I am sure you surmised by now that I and the church I shepherd, do not belong to any denomination. Churches of the sort that I pastor are usually called non-denominational or independent. (I like to refer to my church as “dependent,” dependent on the Holy Spirit.) Even using these terms can take on a denominational feel as well. Why do we have to have labels anyway? Why do we look for another way to identify ourselves other than to have our identity in Christ and have the word of God as our authority? I ask you, why is it that the churches who incorporate seem to be the norm and those churches who don’t are considered illegitimate? I get it that there are a lot of troublemakers in the church who have rebelled against denominational authority and started their own little “us four and no more” non-denominational church. When I was a young believer, I used to think that those who were in non-denominational churches were all rebels. I have learned there are plenty of rebels to go around. They aren’t just in the non-denominational churches, but the denominational ones as well. In fact, there is very powerful politics in some, if not many, denominational churches. I have even heard a story from several people, of a high official in a denomination who openly lied to a church body. He did it for the sake of the denomination’s interests. That is what politicians do. Politicians lie, men of God promote truth, no matter the cost. Ministers do not have to lie to keep the saints faithful, but church politicians often lie to keep their denominational agenda on course. I am not saying that ministers who are good strong leaders in their church are a part of church politics, for I assume many are not. However, it is heart breaking to see the church operate like a political machine.

So what is the solution? Can we the church, really come together in love and unity, with true leadership in place and let the word of God truly be our final authority? Can we exist together without having to draft bylaws and corporation papers? Can we all really be members of a church body without having to take several classes and then sign a membership card? Absolutely, positively we can and we must. It starts with believing that it is God’s expectation for His church to be united as one body and then determining in your heart to see it happen in our generation. Again, all Christians will say they agree that there is only ONE body, but our hundreds of denominations tattle on us. They testify that we don’t believe what we say.

 

“Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; One Lord, one faith, one baptism, One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all” (Ephesians 4:3-6).

 

Seven times you see the word “one” in this verse. What don’t we get about that? What we all need to do is quit saying that we believe the word of God to be our final authority and simply let it be. That means that every Christian who belongs to a denomination, as I said earlier, must refuse to be of it.

I have asked some people if they are a Christian. It is not unusual to get an answer like, I’m Catholic, I’m Baptist or I belong to such and such a church. Let me ask you. Do you really believe the word of God? Are you, saint of God, willing to believe the whole truth as the Spirit reveals it to you, even at the expense of being cut off by your church or denomination? How about you, ministers of God? Are you willing to face losing your credentials, if that is what would come about if you were to preach a truth that is contrary to what your denomination believes? I know of some ministers who left their denomination and lost their retirement all for the sake of preaching the truth. What do you love more, your denomination or the truth of God? If we would dare believe the truth, our denominations would be considered irrelevant overnight.

Jun 24 2016
1

Eyesalve: Revelation First

By | Eyesalve

“And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. 17And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. 18And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.  19And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” Mt. 16:16-19

 

 

First came the revelation of Christ to Peter, then came the establishing of the church. The church would have an unbelievable demonstration of unity and power, that would give the utmost glory to God, if all those who call themselves a Christians would really have a revelation of Christ and not just be a card carrying member.

Sep 18 2015
1

The Lord’s Burden

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“Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:29-30)

For anyone to be told, that if they become a Christian, they will no longer have any burdens, they would be told a great lie. There is no doubt that after we become a Christian God helps is in our troubles and cares of life, for Peter said:

“Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.” (I Peter 5:7)

However, in this life we will have much tribulation. God will comfort us in it, but mark it down, you will have it. Trials, tribulations and temptations come to every true born again believer. Then add to that, “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution” (II Timothy 3:12), you can see the Christian is under a lot of pressure. However, as hard as it may all seem to be to walk after the Lord at times, Jesus did say, “My burden is light.”
When we think of burdens we tend to think of the pressures that come from the devil, this world and just life in general; But according to our opening text, there is a yoke and burden that comes from God Himself. He has a burden for each of us to carry. His burden is different than the burdens we face. His burden doesn’t come from the pressure of being overwhelmed with something, His burden comes from the love He has for his fallen creation. He has such a great desire to see them restored to Himself that he sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to die and purchase men’s souls. This desire that God has for restoration is what I call the Lord’s burden. For example, when God calls someone to go to the mission field in another country, the person who is called will feel and share the burden the Lord has for the lost souls in that country. They will share in the burden to such a point that they will give up their life back home to go and labor amongst the people. They will labor with the hope of seeing them come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.
As I mentioned before, God has a burden for each of us to bear. Some burdens may be heavier than others, but we all share in the Lord’s burden in some way. I want to share a burden the Lord has put on my heart. This burden is real and I especially feel it the most when I am in my morning prayer time, though that is not the only time. Most days when I get into serious prayer, I feel that burden. As the months go by, I feel the burden grow even stronger. What is that burden? It is a burden that God has for His church here in Wisconsin. God doesn’t just have a burden for the lost, but He also has a great burden for His church. I tell my church often that there are two main works of God toward mankind. The first is to see fallen man restored to Him. The second is for his born again children be conformed to the image of Christ. Much of what God does is working toward these ends. When souls are lost, the Lord has a burden toward them for repentance. When souls get saved, the Lord has a burden toward them for conformity to Christ.
The burden that is so ever pressing on me from the Lord has to do with His church. So many Christians are willing to settle for a church lacking life and having a low impact on society. Many Christians would just as soon get in and get out of a church meeting as quickly as possible, so they can get on with other things they feel are more important. You can hardly blame some of them that attend a dead church, for if the Lord is not present when the church meets then it will be a very boring religious meeting.
The burden the Lord has put on my heart is for his church to once again have the life that she had back when she was first established. It is important that you understand that the Lord holds us accountable for the condition of His church. The ministers that He has called are the ones that are the most responsible for the condition of the church. If the pastor of a church is not spiritual, for the most part the church won’t be either. Yet no believer can stand before the Lord and blame their spiritual shortcomings on the pastor. Here in Wisconsin, I am sure every believer has a Bible and they can have access to the Holy Spirit who will teach them all truth.
Every one of you believers have the ability to rise above the prevailing attitude of the church today. This is what the Lord desires to see. He wants to see his church be totally devoted to Him, to repent of unbelief and rise up and be the church that God has intended for His church to be.
Do you believe the church can be like the church we read about in the book of Acts? I do. We can never be that if we don’t believe this is God’s will for us. God ordained His church to go forth with unity and power. So many believers have given up on unity. They figure there are so many denominations as well as many independent churches, all having their special doctrinal beliefs, that they don’t see how the church could possibly be like-minded again. Well I want to tell you, I am sincere as can be when I say this, I am convinced that the Lord is going to bring many of us believers together that will be like-minded. It will because we have allowed the Holy Spirit to correct or strengthen everything we believe. If we believe wrong then the Holy Spirit will correct what’s wrong, and the humble saint will receive that and make that correction in his heart. The proud stubborn believers will go on to believe what they want to believe.
For the church to be like the church in the book of Acts, we need to have the power and authority of God like they had. The early church had brought fear on their society.

“And great fear came upon all the church, and upon as many as heard these things” (Acts 5:11).

However, we are such a self-sufficient and creative people that we have come up with our own soul winning techniques. We rarely see miracles today because so much of the church doesn’t even believe in them anymore.
Today the church at best is a nuisance to our society, and often times a laughing stock as the lost of this world see ministers fall into immorality or be nothing but money grubbers. I ask you to share this burden for the church here in Wisconsin with me, and diligently and fervently pray that we would all yield to the Holy Spirit and give Him complete control of Christ’s church again? I ask you to believe with me that we really can have true spiritual unity. Believe with me for a return of power and authority that the church can do more than preach, THAT WE CAN DEMONSTRATE WITH SPIRIT AND POWER THAT OUR GOD LIVES AND REIGNS.

Terry Fischer

Jan 30 2015
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Speak The Same Thing

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“Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.” I Cor. 1:10

“Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus: 6That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. 7Wherefore receive ye one another, as Christ also received us to the glory of God.” Rom. 15:5-7

The testimony of the early church, taken right from the bible, is they were in “one accord” in the upper room. Even after about a ten day span, they were still in “one accord” on the day of Pentecost. I wonder how united my church would be, if we spent ten days together. Anyway, the early church had a unity that is not seen today, not because we can’t have it, but because we don’t believe it can be. Often our idea of unity, is for us all to share the same cause or all belong to the same denomination or all agree to the same creed written by authors other than those who penned our bible. These things can bring some degree of unity for some people, but then another group forms that has their own cause and creed. That is why we have so much division today in the church. Add to that, the lack of love and concern for one another, and it is easy to see why the church doesn’t get along with each other.

The reason the early church had such a unity is because they were fully surrendered to Christ. He told them to wait in Jerusalem for the promised Holy Spirit. So, they all waited together. While in that room, there were no saints determined to carry out their own agenda. They were not jockeying for position, but willingly came under Peter’s leadership. They were praying together and were holding to the Old Testament scriptures, so much so, that they were literally fulfilling scripture by appointing someone to take Judas’ place. You can’t believe the word of God much better than that. We see this true unity in the early church, but true Christian unity has escaped our generation.

How is it, that millions of Christians, can all read the same book called the bible, declare that it is the unadulterated word of God, insist that it holds the highest authority over their life, and yet there be so many disagreements amongst us? I know there are many saints that really want unity. If you don’t want unity there is something desperately wrong with your spiritual man. God created us because He wants to share His kingdom with us, He created us because He wants to have a love relationship with us. When Christ entered us upon salvation, the desire of God came with Him. The desire for love and unity came with Him. As we mature in the Lord, so does our love for God increase, and as our love for God increases, so does our love for mankind, especially our brothers and sisters in Christ.

When I met my wife Joy, I thought she was pretty. She was willing to let me date her, and I did. I found out she was a nice girl too, but I just liked her in those first several months of seeing her. One day I realized I loved her and wanted to be with her more, so much more that I asked her to marry me. We got married and 6 years later we got saved. Joy gave birth to 3 sons who all married and gave us 9 grandchildren. You know what? I still want to be with Joy, even more. I want to be around my sons, daughters-in-law and grandchildren too. This is the nature of families. Even more, it is the nature of God. Adam didn’t even finish his first assignment, of naming the animals in the garden, before he was asking where his companion is.

It is only natural for Christians to want unity, and because of that desire for unity, many prayer meetings, conferences, workshops and such have been held for the main purpose of uniting the body of Christ. Who can hold it against those that try such things? I commend them for their effort to bring unity to the body. However, they are going about it the difficult way. Unity is much easier to achieve than one might think.

First you have to believe that we really can have true unity. Paul would never had told us to speak the same thing if we couldn’t; he would have never told us that there should be no divisions amongst us, if it weren’t possible for it to be so. I Corinthians 1:10 is one of those verses in the bible that it seems many Christians really don’t believe. They have shrugged off the possibility that we could have true spiritual unity in the church, years ago.

As I said, to have unity is a very simple thing. Romans 15:5 holds the answer. It says, “Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus:” It is right there as plain as can be; our unity must be “according to Christ Jesus.” It is not according to Terry Fischer, it isn’t according to The Church In Wisconsin, it isn’t according to you, or your church or your creed or your denomination. I am not asking you all to think like me, or for us all to think like one of you. I am asking us all to get the mind of Christ. However, for this to happen, we all have to be teachable. You and I cannot be stubborn in our hearts and say, “this is the way I always believed and I am not changing.” Let’s be honest church, with all the different doctrines we have, someone has to be wrong. Are you willing to change the way you think if the scriptures and the Spirit of truth prove you wrong? My mentor told me, “You don’t look to the bible to prove yourself right, you look to the bible to prove what’s right.” If you and I have a contrary interpretation of a verse in the bible, either I am wrong, or you are wrong, or we are both wrong. We can’t both be right. The Spirit of truth would never teach opposing views and leave us confused and divided. So with that said, it is up to us to be teachable, no matter how long and how well trained we may be. Let’s not agree to disagree, let’s agree to get the mind of Christ and have unity according to Christ Jesus. I am one that believes we will have it. I plead with you to determine in your heart that we can have unity, and that you will cooperate toward that end.