Words: 869
Time to read: 5 minutes
The idea of Christian faith in a vacuum, independent of the local church and pastoral accountability, is altogether foreign to God’s designs for His church. The idea that we can accomplish the mandate that we have as a child of God apart from the fellowship of the local assembly is to clearly misunderstand Jesus’ heart for His children.
The local church has been under assault since her inception. Satan attempted to frustrate it with bickering about who would have what position in heaven. He continued his onslaught when the Holy Spirit imbued the local church with power on the day of Pentecost by attempting to disparage her leadership as drunk and uneducated. He called no quarter and made great inroads in the first century after the decease of the apostles through Gnosticism and legalism. He made greater gains when the influence of the local church was diminished through a consolidated, universal, state church. Error, heresy, and apostasy were given free course. The spirit of the antichrist was already at work in the first century. Paul warned that it would only degenerate even further.
Today, there exist so many ideas of what church is and her purpose that Satan needs to hardly even attempt to sow confusion. Biblical illiteracy does the dirty work for him. What a church is, why she exists, and what her principal purpose is are so obfuscated by men’s aims that Satan hardly has much of a formidable adversary anymore.
Certainly, the purity and veracity of pure doctrine have never been extinguished, regardless of how dim the outlook may have been or be. God still has His people and those who have not bowed their knees to Satan’s cunning devices. Because of the ubiquity of churches today, Satan does not need to convince you to believe a false doctrine; rather, if he can get you to simply accept that you are saved and you are good, then he has achieved his designs. If he can persuade you that you can exist as a child of God outside of the fellowship of His people then he has been as successful with you as he can be. You have become a victim of the erroneous assumption that God’s only concern is your salvation. While it is true that God would save everyone, He has so much more for each one of His children. I do not mean that there is further knowledge that is unattainable in a secret society sort of speaking (that is the grave danger of Gnosticism). Nor do I propose that we can do anything beyond His grace and mercy for salvation (that is the grave danger of legalism). I simply mean that there is life more abundant that far too many Christians are missing, and even neglecting, as a result of the abstinence from regular communion with God’s children in the context of the local church.
It is sad to see the wholesale rejection of the very body that Christ died to save, redeem, and purify to Himself. The priority that Christ put on the local church is all but overt as you begin to examine the Scriptures with careful attention. The congruity of the local church and marriage is the fact that Christ emphasizes both with the word “as”. The same measure that Christ loved the church is our standard for one’s love for his wife. This was not accidental in this analogy. Paul uses the word church as the peculiar treasure that we are to be as his body, building, and bride. For now, it’s local, visible assemblies all over the world. There is no mystical body that unites us aside from the Holy Spirit which baptizes each believer into His family. One day, at the Rapture, we will be assembled as His bride. Even in that moment, we will still be a church that is local and visible with Christ finally as our Chief Shepherd. The semantics that we play to justify our absence in our local church will not matter. We will all be finally set straight on our ecclesiology. I would hate to be guilty of presupposing that the church is unimportant or is what I make it to be when God has given us clear guidance on what His church is and ought to be.
Paul exhorted the Hebrews to provoke one another to good works. He admonished them to not leave the assembling of themselves together as some had willingly done already in the first century. He encouraged them ever more into communion and fellowship one with another as they saw the imminent rapture of His church and His eventual return. The spirit of the antichrist will only come to exert greater and greater influence. The local church is key in combating the apostasy—falling away from the truth—that was already evident in the nascent churches and only continues to worsen.
You are not saved for yourself. You cannot hope to fulfill Christ’s heart for His church when you do not associate with others who have a common objective: knowing Christ and making Him known.
That can only happen to His satisfaction when we follow His directive for His people. Do not forsake the assembling together.