October 1996 New Horizons

No Rolling Stones!

by Richard B. Gaffin

What is the church? What is the purpose of the church? What does it mean for me to belong to the church? These are perennial questions, and each generation of Christians needs to be ready with informed answers. That readiness is so essential not only because such answers are basic to our identity as believers in Jesus Christ, but also because in every generation wrong answers crop up—answers that in varying ways mislead the church and blur its identity. A key New Testament passage about the church is 1 Peter 2:4-5. One way we may usefully reflect on its teaching is to note, in contrast, what the church is not. This passage, we may say, shows us that the church is not made of rolling stones (believers are not rolling stones!). That's true in two senses. Built on Christ One of the favorite New Testament pictures or models for the church is a building; the church is God's house. The church is the great construction job that God, the master architect and builder, has going in the period between ... Read more

Church Membership: Option or Command?

by Mark R. Brown

Can you sing this hymn [" I Love Thy Kingdom, Lord ," by Timothy Dwight, from Trinity Hymnal ] from your heart? It speaks warmly of Christ's love for his church—and of your love for it. From God's perspective, the church involves all the saints of all ages (2 Tim. 2:19). From man's perspective, it involves visible, local assemblies of believers (and their children) who confess that Jesus Christ is Lord and submit to his Word. The New Testament church was visible and local (Matt. 18:20; Acts 11:26; 14:23; 20:17; 1 Cor. 1:2; Gal. 1:2; 1 Thess. 1:2) and it is in this sense that we use the word church here. Consider with me ten reasons why I believe every Christian should join a local church: 1. The first and most important reason is that Christ in his Word commands church membership. In Matt. 16:18, Jesus tells his disciples, "I will build my church." People who confess "Jesus is Lord" are the building blocks of the new covenant temple (Matt. 16:16; 1 Pet. 2:5; Eph. 2:19-22; 2 Cor. 6:16). ... Read more

The Fourth Membership Vow

by Lawrence R. Eyres

"You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain" (Ex. 20:7). "Do not be rash with your mouth, and let not your heart utter anything hastily before God. For God is in heaven, and you on earth; therefore let your words be few.... When you make a vow to God, do not delay to pay it; for He has no pleasure in fools. Pay what you have vowed" (Eccl. 5:2, 4). "A vow is of the like nature with a promissory oath, and ought to be made with the like religious care, and to be performed with the like faithfulness. It is not to be made to any creature, but to God alone: and, that it may be accepted, it is to be made voluntarily, out of faith, and conscience of duty" (Westminster Confession of Faith, XXII.5-6). The OPC Membership Vows Do you believe the Bible, consisting of the Old and New Testaments, to be the Word of God, and its doctrine of salvation to be the perfect and only true doctrine of salvation? Do you confess that ... Read more

My Testimony

by Karen Harris Keating

I was raised in a loving Christian home and brought up in an Orthodox Presbyterian church. At age fifteen, I began to rebel against my parents, and for many years I continued down that path. I became involved in drugs and immorality, and even ended up in jail. Eight years ago, I began attending church again, and was even accepted as a member, but I had never truly had a change of heart. I just went through the motions—church attendance, Bible reading, prayer—but only because I felt these things were expected of me. I did not understand God's grace or salvation through Jesus Christ. A few months after my marriage, I gave up church and returned to my rebellious ways. This time things got much worse. I became more heavily involved in drugs, and, as a result, I became a drug addict. As a result of my drug addiction and immoral behavior, I was separated from my husband and children. My parents spoke to me about the consequences of my sin every chance they got, but I foolishly had no desire to ... Read more