Nearly everyone is amazed when they see an old car, or an old piece of furniture restored to its original look. What can happen in the physical realm can also happen in the spiritual realm. From time to time, churches need to compare where they are and what they look like as compared to what the New Testament church looked like. We have had two thousand years pass since Christ established His church. During those years traditions have been bound, man-made doctrines have been enforced and human, fleshly desires have replaced God’s pattern. This has happened because churches have gotten away from the Bible, the standard that should have guided them. Therefore, churches look different, worship different, and take on different works than the church Jesus established.
To be able to restore anything one must know what the original looked like. It might be pictures of old cars or furniture or maybe there is a description of what the original looked like. That same principle is true when one restores the New Testament church. Fortunately, we have the inspired Word of God which tells us about the original church (2 Timothy 3:16-17).
Traits Which Need to Be Restored
First, churches must restore their authority. All “Christian Churches” claim that the Bible is their authority, but nearly all denominational churches have a creed book or some source to guide them in addition to the Bible. Someone has said, “If a creed book says more than the Bible it says too much; if a creed book says less than the Bible, it doesn’t say enough; if a creed book says the same thing as the Bible, it is not needed.” If churches are going to be the New Testament church they must get rid of all other authorities and let the Bible be their only authority. “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17). With this authority churches can determine how they are to worship, how they are to be organized, what they are supposed to do, and how the members should live.
The greatest principle for biblical restoration is found in Colossians 3:17. “Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.” “In the name of” means that we must have authority from Christ to do whatever we plan to do in and through the church. In other words, God must tell us what He wants us to do. We do not have the right to do whatever we want to do. Just because we like something does not mean that God accepts it. We only know what God wants in all aspects of the church, by finding a verse that commands us to do something. Lacking God’s authority for what churches do has been the major reason churches have drifted away from the New Testament pattern.
Second, churches must restore the kind of government they have. Nearly all denominational churches have a “Pastor” who is in charge of the church. Modern-day churches call their preachers “pastor.” In the Bible, just because one preached, did not make him a pastor. In the Bible those who preached were called “ministers,” “evangelists,” and “preachers.” The New Testament churches were overseen by a group of men, not one man. That group was called “elders,” “shepherds,” “pastors,” “bishops.” God never intended for His people to be governed by one man who was called a “Pastor.”
According to the New Testament, when a church was established, it was the Lord’s church (His spiritual body) in that community. That group of Christians was the body of Christ. They were autonomous which means that they were their own “boss” to determine, according to the Bible, how they were to carry out the work God assigned the church to accomplish. They did not answer to any authority except God and the Bible. Today, most churches have some earthly headquarters that govern the local congregation. That is an unauthorized form of government!
Third, churches must restore the kind of worship that is to be offered in the assembly. Most people have come to believe that anything one wants to offer to God is acceptable in His sight and He is pleased that we do it. No, that is not what the Bible teaches. God only accepts worship through the avenues He has authorized. We see the seriousness of doing only what God commands from an Old Testament event. When God began His authorized worship with the activities of the tabernacles, two priests were to take a certain fire and put it on the altar. They decided to get fire from another source. What difference would that make – fire is fire. But it did make a difference. One was authorized by God, the other was not authorized by Him. “Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took their respective firepans, and after putting fire in them placed incense on it and offered strange fire before the LORD, which He had not commanded them. And fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed them, and they died before the LORD” (Leviticus 10:1-2). The word “strange” simply meant that it was unauthorized by God. God then explained why He killed those two men. “By those who come near Me I will be treated as holy, and before all the people I will be honored” (Leviticus 10:3). When we offer worship which God has not authorized, we do not recognize His holiness and do not honor Him!
New Testament churches, offered worship, only through what God authorized! They sang without the use of mechanical instruments of worship (Colossians 3:16; Ephesians 5:19). They remembered Christ’s death by partaking of communion (The Lord’s Supper) each Sunday (Acts 20:7; Luke 22:19; Acts 2:42). They studied God’s word (Acts 2:42; 20:7). They prayed together (I Corinthians 14:15). They also gave free-will offerings to support the work that the church is to accomplish (I Corinthians 16:1-2; 2 Corinthians 8-9). Many churches today have become business organizations and raise their funds through businesses rather than free-will offerings.
Through the years, man-made churches have added more and more musical instruments until many of them have full-blown bands. Rather than worship coming from the hearts and mouths of individuals to honor God, worship has become a place of entertainment. Man has become the focus rather than God being the one to be honored.
Our Purpose
As most of you know, Weezie and I, along with Mac Graham and C Jay Martin, have come to Littleton, New Hampshire to restore the New Testament church. There are many different kinds of man-made churches in the area, but they have departed from that New Testament pattern. We are here to call men and woman, who are truth-seekers, back to the Bible and to be the church that Jesus established (Matthew 16:13-19; Acts 2). We are calling on man-made Christians, to become New Testament Christians and to become part of Christ’s church. We ask for your prayer in our effort of sowing the seed of the kingdom among the 90,000 people who live in Grafton County.
Wayne Burger
