Spiritual Food - Where's the Beef?
The Apostle Paul could not address the saints at Corinth, even after he had been among them for two years, as spiritual people (3:1) … if Paul could not address the saints at Corinth as spiritual people, and if the writer of Hebrews could not address these Jewish converts as spiritual people (Heb 5:11-14), and if all who were in Asia had left Paul while he was in Rome (2 Tim 1:15), where are spiritual people addressed in Scripture? About this answer, [quoting the writer of Hebrews] “we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you [Israelites] have become dull of hearing” (5:11). And what we would say first is that endtime Christians, even after Christ as been among them for two millennia, cannot be addressed as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ.
Paul fed the saints at Corinth spiritual milk, not solid food. The epistles of Paul are spiritual milk, not solid food. The person who argues for sola scriptura argues for a milk diet, not for spiritual meat. And after two millennia of not being weaned, endtime Christians are still not ready for solid food as evidenced by the identifying names of denominations: Mennonites (i.e., followers of Menno Simon); Amish (i.e., followers of Jacob Amen); Lutherans (i.e., followers of Martin Luther). If the name of an individual is not used, an aspect of the practice of the faith is: Methodists; Baptists; Friends. Some will claim to be of God: Assembly of God; Church of God; Church of Christ; Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Days Saints. But of all that claim to be of God, there is not agreement about how God should be worshipped, or even when He should be worshipped.
All that the many names of the thousands of denominations establish is that Christendom is an extremely divided and divisive house, with disagreements about which teachers to follow, disagreements about what practices to follow, disagreements about how to identity the Body of Christ, disagreements about whether the commandments should or should not be kept and why they should or should not be, disagreements about what day God should be worshiped, disagreements about whether God is one, two, or three, disagreements about what it means to be born of Spirit. The situation Paul addresses at Corinth was child’s play compared to the present situation where tens of thousands of schisms have developed within fractured Christendom, with additional thousands emerging almost daily. Thus, if ever a situation existed when restoration of the faith once delivered was absolutely necessary—when a people was not ready for solid food—that situation exists today among endtime disciples.
The concept that underpinned the Protestant Reformation and the Radical Reformers [Anabaptists] was that of restoration … their contention was that at some point in history, the Church had taken a wrong turn that needed to be corrected by reformers. There was, however, no agreement about when this wrong turn was taken. Most of protesting Christendom only wanted to undo the excesses of the preceding few decades or centuries; they wanted to return “the old Church” to the path it left when salvation became a matter of works, of laps around a rosary, of pilgrimages, of purchasing relics. The Radical Reformers wanted to step around “the old Church” and return to the period when Church and State were not co-joined, but the Church in 311 CE was not substantially different than it was in 312 CE when Emperor Constantine allegedly saw the chi-rho sign in the sky. Returning, then, to any period earlier than the apostolic era would be only a partial restoration. But Paul wrote that everyone in Asia had left him (again, 1 Tim 1:15), and Jewish converts were trying to kill him (Acts 21:20-24); so where was even a normative church in this mid 1St-Century period when the first disciples were still in Jerusalem? And we have returned to that initial question asked: where in Scripture are spiritual people addressed? Where is the beef, as the Cattlemen’s television commercials of a few decades ago asked? Where is the meat, the real substance of what it means to be spiritual and spiritually minded?
The more enlightened of the Radical Reformers, such as Andreas Fischer, did not look far enough back into history to find when the Church made a wrong turn: Fischer wanted to return to the time when the Church ceased keeping the “moral law,” the Decalogue. But was the wrong turn made when the “Church” ceased keeping the Sabbath? Or better, was a wrong turn ever made?
Paul wrote to the Philippians, “Brother, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things” (3:17-19) … minds set on earthly things—here is an address to the spiritually minded. All who have minds set on earthly things, including looking for a visible wrong turn made by the Church, do not walk as Paul walked; do not walk as Jesus walked (1 John 2:6); do not walk as Peter or John walked. The mind that is set on earthly things looks to prophecy to see what happens to physical nations. The mind set on earthly things looks to physical Jerusalem and reconstruction of a physical temple. The mind set on earthly things looks for a physical king of the North in a European Union controlled by the Roman Church and for a physical king of the South coming from Islamic nations. The mind set on earthly things utters spiritual drivel about an endtime revival of the Roman or Holy Roman Empire. Yes, the mind set on earthly things sees only earthly or physical things, and does not see that biblical prophecy is about what happens in the heavenly realm where humankind cannot go to make observations or measurements. The mind set on earthly things sees a Christendom that is divided, but alive and more loudly and effectively than ever delivering a message about a man that they neither know nor believe.
The restoration of all things will again have the kingdom of God among men.
Paul fed the saints at Corinth spiritual milk, not solid food. The epistles of Paul are spiritual milk, not solid food. The person who argues for sola scriptura argues for a milk diet, not for spiritual meat. And after two millennia of not being weaned, endtime Christians are still not ready for solid food as evidenced by the identifying names of denominations: Mennonites (i.e., followers of Menno Simon); Amish (i.e., followers of Jacob Amen); Lutherans (i.e., followers of Martin Luther). If the name of an individual is not used, an aspect of the practice of the faith is: Methodists; Baptists; Friends. Some will claim to be of God: Assembly of God; Church of God; Church of Christ; Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Days Saints. But of all that claim to be of God, there is not agreement about how God should be worshipped, or even when He should be worshipped.
All that the many names of the thousands of denominations establish is that Christendom is an extremely divided and divisive house, with disagreements about which teachers to follow, disagreements about what practices to follow, disagreements about how to identity the Body of Christ, disagreements about whether the commandments should or should not be kept and why they should or should not be, disagreements about what day God should be worshiped, disagreements about whether God is one, two, or three, disagreements about what it means to be born of Spirit. The situation Paul addresses at Corinth was child’s play compared to the present situation where tens of thousands of schisms have developed within fractured Christendom, with additional thousands emerging almost daily. Thus, if ever a situation existed when restoration of the faith once delivered was absolutely necessary—when a people was not ready for solid food—that situation exists today among endtime disciples.
The concept that underpinned the Protestant Reformation and the Radical Reformers [Anabaptists] was that of restoration … their contention was that at some point in history, the Church had taken a wrong turn that needed to be corrected by reformers. There was, however, no agreement about when this wrong turn was taken. Most of protesting Christendom only wanted to undo the excesses of the preceding few decades or centuries; they wanted to return “the old Church” to the path it left when salvation became a matter of works, of laps around a rosary, of pilgrimages, of purchasing relics. The Radical Reformers wanted to step around “the old Church” and return to the period when Church and State were not co-joined, but the Church in 311 CE was not substantially different than it was in 312 CE when Emperor Constantine allegedly saw the chi-rho sign in the sky. Returning, then, to any period earlier than the apostolic era would be only a partial restoration. But Paul wrote that everyone in Asia had left him (again, 1 Tim 1:15), and Jewish converts were trying to kill him (Acts 21:20-24); so where was even a normative church in this mid 1St-Century period when the first disciples were still in Jerusalem? And we have returned to that initial question asked: where in Scripture are spiritual people addressed? Where is the beef, as the Cattlemen’s television commercials of a few decades ago asked? Where is the meat, the real substance of what it means to be spiritual and spiritually minded?
The more enlightened of the Radical Reformers, such as Andreas Fischer, did not look far enough back into history to find when the Church made a wrong turn: Fischer wanted to return to the time when the Church ceased keeping the “moral law,” the Decalogue. But was the wrong turn made when the “Church” ceased keeping the Sabbath? Or better, was a wrong turn ever made?
Paul wrote to the Philippians, “Brother, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things” (3:17-19) … minds set on earthly things—here is an address to the spiritually minded. All who have minds set on earthly things, including looking for a visible wrong turn made by the Church, do not walk as Paul walked; do not walk as Jesus walked (1 John 2:6); do not walk as Peter or John walked. The mind that is set on earthly things looks to prophecy to see what happens to physical nations. The mind set on earthly things looks to physical Jerusalem and reconstruction of a physical temple. The mind set on earthly things looks for a physical king of the North in a European Union controlled by the Roman Church and for a physical king of the South coming from Islamic nations. The mind set on earthly things utters spiritual drivel about an endtime revival of the Roman or Holy Roman Empire. Yes, the mind set on earthly things sees only earthly or physical things, and does not see that biblical prophecy is about what happens in the heavenly realm where humankind cannot go to make observations or measurements. The mind set on earthly things sees a Christendom that is divided, but alive and more loudly and effectively than ever delivering a message about a man that they neither know nor believe.
The restoration of all things will again have the kingdom of God among men.
Labels: Amish, Baptists, beef, Friends, Jacob Amen, Kingdom of God, Lutherans, Martin Luther, Menno Simon, Mennonites, Methodists, milk, restorationism
posted by T, L & F … at
8:32 AM
2 Comments:
as a backsliden cristian myself, all i can sense from the church is condemnation.istill have a place in my haert for christ ,but see redemption as an immpossibility.Not because of God but because of mans own perception of him.Should we not recieve christ as a child?I don't know of any children that are christian theologians.lets stop picking and poking at facts and figuires and learn to accept Gods word as a child. Its simple really
Dear Anonymous,
A person who would identify themselves as a backslider has already acknowledged the goodness of the law and is actually ahead the person who thinks they stand before God, but transgresses the commandments. You might want to read the piece referenced below:
http://thephiladelphiachurch.org/03-31-07R.html
Der Sar
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