CHURCH ORGANIZATION

CHURCH ORGANIZATION Jongimpi Papu

CHALLENGES • Dissatisfaction with the character of the members and leaders of the church • Dissatisfaction with the Teaching/Theology of the church. • Nature of Christ • Righteousness by faith • Dissatisfaction with the authority and structure of the church. • Church manual • GC as the final authority

Reaction • Church is viewed as Babylon and members are urged to come out and form reform movement. • Church in apostasy • Reform the church within • Church within a church/Remnant within the remnant. • House churches and not Establishment • Apostasy in the church

Spirit of criticism The devil’s strategy • "We must cause distraction and division. We must destroy their anxiety for their own souls, and lead them to criticize, to judge, and to accuse and condemn one another, and to cherish selfishness and enmity. For these sins, God banished us from his presence; and all who follow our example will meet a similar fate." {4SP 340.3}

Authority of the Church • God has ordained that the representatives of His church from all parts of the earth, when assembled in a General Conference, shall have authority. (9T, 260-261)

Spirit of Defiance/Rebellion • 1911: “God has invested His church with special authority and power which no one can be justified in disregarding and despising, for he who does this despises the voice of God.”—AA 164.

3. Spirit of Disunity • Jerusalem Council – Acts 15 • Not all were pleased with the decision; there was a faction of ambitious and self confident brethren who disagreed with it…They indulged in much murmuring and faultfinding, proposing new plans and seeking to pull down the work of the men whom God had ordained to teach the gospel message. From the first the church has had such obstacles to meet and ever will have till the close of time. AA 197

Even the disciples were not all prepared to accept willingly the decision of the council… • Notwithstanding the fact that Paul was personally taught by God, he had no strained ideas of personal responsibility. While looking to God for direct guidance, he was ever ready to recognize the authority vested in the body of believers united in church fellowship, and when matters of importance arose, he was glad to lay these before the church and to unite with his brethren in seeking God for wisdom to make right decisions. AA 200

Spirit of disunity/Rebellion • The great enemy of the church is determined to introduce among God's people that which will result in disunion and variance. Schism and division are not the fruit of righteousness; they are of the evil one. The great hindrance to our advancement is the selfishness that prevents believers from having true fellowship with one another. {RH, May 12, 1903 par. 8}

3. Spirit of Disunity • No such thing is countenanced as one man's starting out upon his own individual responsibility and advocating what views he chooses, irrespective of the judgment of the church. God has bestowed the highest power under heaven upon His church. It is the voice of God in His united people in church capacity which is to be respected. {3T 450.3}

Hypocritical Reformers • Men professing to have new light, claiming to be reformers, will have great influence over a certain class who are convinced of the heresies that exist in the present age and who are not satisfied with the spiritual condition of the churches. With true, honest hearts, these desire to see a change for the better, a coming up to a higher standard. If the faithful servants of Christ would present the truth, pure and unadulterated, to this class, they would

accept it and purify themselves by obeying it. But Satan, ever vigilant, sets upon the track of these inquiring souls. Someone making high profession as a reformer comes to them, as Satan came to Christ, disguised as an angel of light, and draws them still farther from the path of right. {CH 625.1} (5T. 144)

Submit New Light to Experienced Brethren • There are a thousand temptations in disguise prepared for those who have the light of truth; and the only safety for any of us is in receiving no new doctrine, no new interpretation of the Scriptures, without first submitting it to brethren of experience. Lay it before them in a humble, teachable spirit, with earnest prayer; and if they see no light in it, yield to their judgment; for "in the multitude of counselors there is safety."--Testimonies, Vol. 5, pp. 291-293. (1885.) {CW 47.1}

When a brother receives new light upon the Scriptures, he should frankly explain his position, and every minister should search the Scriptures with the spirit of candor to see if the points presented can be substantiated by the inspired word. (CET 204)

New Perception of truth needed • When we eat Christ's flesh and drink His blood, the element of eternal life will be found in the ministry. There will not be a fund of stale, oft-repeated ideas. The tame, dull sermonizing will cease. The old truths will be presented, but they will be seen in a new light. There will be a new perception of truth, a clearness and a power that all will discern. (COL 131)

We have many lessons to learn, and many, many to unlearn. God and Heaven alone are infallible. Those who think that they will never have to give up a cherished view, never have occasion to change an opinion, will be disappointed. As long as we hold to our own ideas and opinions with determined persistency, we cannot have the unity for which Christ prayed. {CET 203.2}

Is it Essential for Salvation? • We are to pray for divine enlightenment, but at the same time we should be careful how we receive everything termed new light. • We must beware lest, under cover of searching for new truth, Satan shall divert our minds from Christ and the special truths for this time. • I have been shown that it is the device of the enemy to lead minds to dwell upon some obscure or unimportant point, something that is not fully revealed

or is not essential to our salvation. • This is made the absorbing theme, the "present truth," when all their investigations and suppositions only serve to make matters more obscure than before, and to confuse the minds of some who ought to be seeking for oneness through sanctification of the truth.--Preach the Word, p. 4. (1891.) {CW 49.2}

One accepts some new and original idea which does not seem to conflict with the truth. He talks of it and dwells upon it until it seems to him to be clothed with beauty and importance, for Satan has power to give this false appearance. • At last it becomes the all-absorbing theme, the one great point around which everything centers; and the truth is uprooted from the heart. {CW 46.1}

If a brother differ with you on some points of truth, do not stoop to ridicule, do not place him in a false light, or misconstrue his words, making sport of them; do not misinterpret his words and wrest them of their true meaning. This is not conscientious argument. Do not present him before others as a heretic, when you have not with him investigated his positions,

taking the Scriptures text by text in the spirit of Christ to show him what is truth. • You do not yourself really know the evidence he has for his faith, and you cannot really clearly define your own position. Take your Bible, and in a kindly spirit weigh every argument that he presents and show him by the Scriptures if he is in error. (CW 51)

We are all under obligation to God to know what He sends us. He has given directions by which we may test every doctrine,--"To the law and to the testimony…" If the light presented meets this test, we are not to refuse to accept it because it does not agree with our ideas.--Gospel Workers, pp. 300, 301. {CW 43.3}

God’s Truth not entrusted to one man • God has not passed His people by, and chosen one solitary man here and another there as the only ones worthy to be entrusted with His truth. He does not give one man new light contrary to the established faith of the body. • In every reform men have arisen making this claim. Paul warned the church in his day, "Of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them." {CW 45.2}

Let none be self confident, as though God had given them special light above their brethren. Christ is represented as dwelling in His people; and believers, as "built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone; in whom all the building, fitly framed together, groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord; in whom ye also are builded together for a habitation of God through the Spirit."

Spirit of Independence… • The spirit of pulling away from fellow laborers, the spirit of disorganization, is in the very air we breathe…. These deceived souls regard it a virtue to boast of their freedom to think and act independently.

They declare that they will not take any man's say-so, that they are amenable to no man. I have been instructed that it is Satan's special effort to lead men to feel that God is pleased to have them choose their own course independent of the counsel of their brethren. {9T 257.2}

It is the desire and plan of Satan to bring in among us those who will go to great extremes--people of narrow minds, who are critical and sharp, and very tenacious in holding their own conceptions of what the truth means. God has a special work for the men of experience to do. They are to guard the cause of God.

They are to see that the work of God is not committed to men who feel it their privilege to move out on their own independent judgment, to preach whatever they please, and to be responsible to no one for their instructions or work. Let this spirit of self-sufficiency once rule in our midst, and there will be no harmony of action, no unity of spirit, no safety for the work, and no healthful growth in the cause.

There will be false teachers, evil workers who will, by insinuating error, draw away souls from the truth. Christ prayed that His followers might be one as He and the Father were one. Those who desire to see this prayer answered, should seek to discourage the slightest tendency to division, and try to keep the spirit of unity and love among brethren.--Review and Herald, May 29, 1888. {Ev 212.3}

God works through the church • I saw that your views concerning swine's flesh [THIS REMARKABLE TESTIMONY WAS WRITTEN OCTOBER 21, 1858, NEARLY FIVE YEARS BEFORE THE GREAT VISION OF 1863, IN WHICH THE LIGHT UPON HEALTH REFORM WAS GIVEN… J.W., NOTE TO SECOND EDITION.] would prove no injury if you have them to yourselves; but in your judgment and opinion you have made this question a test, and your actions have plainly shown your faith in this matter.

God works through the church • If God requires His people to abstain from swine's flesh, He will convict them on the matter. He is just as willing to show His honest children their duty, as to show their duty to individuals upon whom He has not laid the burden of His work. If it is the duty of the church to abstain from swine's flesh, God will discover it to more than two or three. He will teach His church their duty. {1T 206.3}

My husband had some ideas on some points differing from the views taken by his brethren. I was shown that however true his views were, God did not call for him to put them in front before his brethren and create differences of ideas… {Counsel to Writers and Editors 76.4}

Voice of God to be respected • No such thing is countenanced as one man's starting out upon his own individual responsibility and advocating what views he chooses, irrespective of the judgment of the church. God has bestowed the highest power under heaven upon His church. It is the voice of God in His united people in church capacity which is to be respected. {3T 450.3}

1911: “God has invested His church with special authority and power which no one can be justified in disregarding and despising, for he who does this despises the voice of God.”—AA 164.

United Church • We are coming to a time when, more than ever before, we shall need to press together, to labor unitedly. In union there is strength. In discord and disunion there is only weakness. God never designed that one man, or four, or twenty, should take an important work into their own hands, and carry it forward independently of other workers in the cause. God wants His people to counsel together, to be a united church, in Christ a perfect whole.

God’s Church will Triumph… • In 1913 she wrote the following:- • “I am encouraged and blessed as I realize that the God of Israel is still guiding His people, and that He will continue to be with them, even to the end.” Life Sketches, 437, 438.

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