Saturday, May 13, 2017

Are you a member of a spiritually dead church?

Update: I no longer agree with the texts now highlighted in yellow. For an explanation, please see my Translator's Preface to The Christ Family Bible.

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Christ Jesus warns a disobedient church that it can lose the Holy Spirit (Revelation 2). Are there tests, to know whether a church has lost the Holy Spirit? 


One test would be whether its long-standing statement of beliefs is contradicted by the Holy Spirit (who wrote the Old Testament and New Testament). Teachers can stumble and be contradicted by the Holy Spirit. But a church standing in contradiction to the Holy Bible is very likely not to have the Holy Spirit.

Another test would be whether the church is characterized by the fruit of the Holy Spirit: Love, Joy, Peace, Patience (Long-Suffering), Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self-Control, (among others possibly).

How about a test of performing miracles, deeds of power? The problem with that test, used alone, is that it can be completely misleading. The New Testament warns that non-Christians, even the wicked, can perform miracles.

A different approach to solving the problem of identifying when churches have fallen into grievous disrepair is provided by Paul's description in 2 Corinthians of how people could tell that he (and his co-ministers) were really from God:

(1) These ministers were Christ-like: they suffered greatly for God but were shown victorious.

(2) Their converts manifested the Holy Spirit, becoming more and more like the glorious image of Christ.

(3) The ministers had been set free from sin slavery and did not lead lives characterized by things that one would hide out of shame.





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