A more clear picture

Avoiding the pitfalls of instituionlism,

As for the size of the assembly, other than Matthew 18:20, the Bible doesn't give any indication as to how many believers have to be assembled for the group to be considered a "church" or better yet the congragation real word is assembly (we like to leave circe back at the isle she came from).

 But if we take Mt 18:20 as the standard, Jesus says, "For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them." Well, there you go. And just to consider the context, the verse starts with "for" indicating it to be an explanation of what was previously said where ver inthe Nc age is nto going back tothe Ot cov when Christ has fullfileld allthe obligations without us adding the previous cov back in..

 And what preceded this? Mt 18:17 speaks of "tell it to the congragation", so the context of Mt 18:20 is referring to a legitimate assembly of believers being composed of at least two or three people where they can meet and edifiy and express the out workings of their God in the form of Spirit inside in them one to another. Or the whole the body in any location or time.


Furthermore the Bible indicates that the assembly does not need leaders before they are reckoned a "congregation" see the early history of the ecclesia covers the avoidance of the bothe legal forms and pagan mergance. For it says in Acts 14:23 that Paul and Barnabas went around appointing elders for each congregation. So before they had elders they were reckoned his body.
This is in great contrast to the post-Biblical megalomaniac view of the religious elite that institutional leadership is largely what constitutes the so called"the church". Elders were older men who acted as servants not a career religion given to love and care and able to discernthe truth from false hoods..

Please keep in mind their is no need for any other medium thanChrist alone, no human buildings or go betweens, extras are all added latter on as means of wealth state power and control which in the later first century step by step it migrated into state run relgion to where the very fonders of it denied it bore any resembalance the early body apostalic body. By 300AD a mere philsopshical relgion with it;s legalist tenents of control. Sophistry and seradolism  replaced the spirit led functions to legal tennets. (FairBaire1910)

The organization  was deemed as largely dead, by Ireaous and  in any way but other than mere word, his quote  they had the book,e forms, and were completely abscent of the spirit and power there of. They were largely unconcious to the dead like condtion, and gonisis repalced revealtion with greek logic. Became wide spread which was first stated sardis like. They fallen completely inoccous to their condition.

I guess one has to wonder in all the denominal stripes and terminoloy as paul called the divded product of infacy though it;s become the normof today as a great industry,  perhaps God will after 1700 years shake it down back to what his way really was?


It largely became a humanistic instution for poltical and wealth gain the truly spirit led body fell into suppression as does the preisthood of the beleivers. it needs to get back to living a dynamic union withe creator and escape out of the  mnany questionable ideas it adopted out of the non scRiptural practices and forms which were used to sustain the past post aposatlic forms. Relaitonship  with all the invisible influences and allow the Spirit back in his throne.Would be the best thing it ever happend here and in the west at large.

Institutionalism tends towards reducing openness to self-evaluation, testing what we are seeing or hearing. In institutionalism "self-evaluation" comes down to the leadership judging the ordinary members, but not the institutional leadership themselves being subject to judgment. Yet the Bible teaches, "Beloved, don’t believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world."

1John 4:1 By "spirit" he is referring to those who teach and preach. The Lord commands the ordinary Christian to be skeptical about all teachings and to compare them to what the Bible says. Indeed Paul commended the Bereans who exercised skepticism towards his own teachings. "Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true."Acts 17:11 It's less honorable to gullibly accept whatever is taught, even if such teachings happen to be correct.

Even Jesus himself said, "If I don’t do the works of my Father, don’t believe me." John 10:37 He doesn't want gullible type of followers. Those he describes in the parable of the sower, "those who are sown on the rocky places, who, when they have heard the word, immediately receive it with joy. They have no root in themselves, but are short-lived." Mark 4:16,17

Thus we could say institutionalism tends towards producing unrooted Christians where grow this often reduced to copy cat forms.

Not that they may  have a deeply rooted faith in the institution which many do, the faith needs to be placed in Jessu Christ's reality in order to sustain life given over. But having a deeply rooted faith in Christ is quite a different thing. Which is a life seperated unto  response and awareness. Faith materializes into knowablea living connection, is able to know the mind of Jesus Christ, 1 Corinhians 1-3. It;s completely  invested in a peronal dynamic  relationship best I can say is what he has desired from all his people.The change here was derived out of connection and faith which comes when the task is directly before us.



NW