May 2001 New Horizons

The Mother of God's Children

by Larry Wilson

If God is your father, then who is your mother? No one, you say? Well, God tells us something different in Galatians 4:26—"But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother." "The Jerusalem that is above," Paul tells us, is the "mother" of God's children. But what is "the Jerusalem that is above"? It can't be the physical city of Jerusalem, for Galatians 4:25-26 says: Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother. "The present city of Jerusalem," then, contrasts sharply with "the Jerusalem that is above." It also can't be some future Jerusalem. Note the present tense verbs: "The Jerusalem that is above... is our mother." This Jerusalem is a reality that exists right now. But if it's not physical Jerusalem, and if it's not some future Jerusalem, then what is it? Galatians 4:27 gives us a clue by citing Isaiah ... Read more

Sola Ecclesia: The Lost Reformation Doctrine

by Michael J. Glodo

With which of the following statements do you most agree? "Every day people are straying away from the church and going back to God." "Away from [the church] one cannot hope for any forgiveness of sins or any salvation." For the average evangelical Christian, the first statement may lack some balance, but the second sounds downright Romish. If this describes your reaction, then your ecclesiology is closer to the author of the first, Lenny Bruce, than to the author of the second, John Calvin ( Institutes , 4.1.4). Bruce, a satirist of organized religion and nemesis to hypocrisy, and a comedian notorious for his vulgarity and impiety, nevertheless expressed a common contemporary assessment of organized religion, while Calvin's statement seems to betray his role as one of the primary catalysts of the Protestant Reformation. While most of us will admit that the church is a vital aid in nurturing people in the faith, few of us might go as far as Calvin's statement. We've seen deadness and apostasy ... Read more

The Church and Her Ordinances

by R. Daniel Knox

The apostle Paul instructs husbands to love their wives as Christ loves the church: "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her; that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she should be holy and blameless" (Eph. 5:25-27). "This mystery," Scripture says, "is great" (Eph. 5:32). At the heart of that mystery is Christ's love for his bride. The outcome will be the church perfected in glory. We embrace this mystery by confessing that the invisible church "is the spouse, the body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all." This church "consists of the whole number of the elect, that have been, are, or shall be gathered into one, under Christ the head thereof" (Confession of Faith, 25.1). Such a confession emphasizes the church's organic union with Christ and with one another in him. While the church ... Read more

"I Don't Want to Join the Church!"

by Robert B. Strimple

I have frequently been asked, by someone who either sees no need to become a church member, or who even claims to have conscientious scruples against becoming a member of a particular Christian congregation, "What is the biblical basis for the idea that every Christian should be a member of a Christian church?" Below is a letter I once wrote in response to such a question. I have reproduced it here in case it might prove helpful to others. Dear ___________, A full answer to your question would require a long presentation of the biblical view of church government, because that is really what is at stake here. How there could be any meaningful church government without church members is beyond my comprehension! But to get into the whole question of church government is more than I can attempt here if I am to respond to your question promptly. What I shall try to do now is to "demystify" the concept of church membership. Sometimes, personal communication is more helpful than the one-way communication of ... Read more

Becoming an Israelite

by Noel Weeks

"These are the regulations for the Passover: No foreigner is to eat of it.... It must be eaten inside one house; take none of the meat outside the house.... An alien living among you who wants to celebrate the Lord's Passover must have all the males in his household circumcised; then he may take part like one born in the land.... The same law applies to the native-born and to the alien living among you" (Exodus 12:43-49). If you were asked how people under the Old Testament became Israelites, you would probably answer: "By being born an Israelite." Yet, this would not be completely right, for there was provision in the law for a foreigner to become an Israelite. It was not just a theoretical possibility, for we know of people who actually did become Israelites. One of these persons is a very well-known Old Testament character, Caleb, who was one of the two spies sent by Moses to spy out the land of Palestine, who trusted in the Lord and urged Israel to attack. The Bible consistently calls him a ... Read more

Zion's Progress

by Stuart R. Jones

Norman Rockwell produced a painting that brings back childhood memories. A mother in her Sunday best, with children in tow, sets out for church while Dad sits in pajamas, reading the Sunday paper. A tinge of judgmentalism is seen on the faces of Mom and her two daughters. The youngest child, a boy, looks slightly quizzical. Dad is slouched down, almost hiding from the rest. I still remember wishing I could stay home like Dad and not get all dressed up. This was particularly true on those Sundays when I was pressured to be in the children's choir and had to wear a sissy costume that made me look like a dwarf Episcopalian priest. I had ambivalent feelings about church in those days. Church was an indefinite thing, a vague culture that was roughly equivalent to "religion." I was not comfortable with it. I did not want to be told to be a good boy or to be in a society where fine manners were routinely expected. Yet the thought of learning about that mysterious entity called God was intriguing. Church seemed to ... Read more