The Last Reformation | Page 3

divine element. This company was the host of redeemed
ones whom Christ had saved, in whom he dwelt, and through whom he
revealed God and accomplished his work on earth. It was his body--the
organism to which he gave spiritual life and through which he
manifested the fulness of his power and glory.
[Sidenote: Church relationship vs. individualism]
Any reformation that has not for its object the full restoration of the
New Testament church, can not be a complete reformation, but must be
succeeded by another. In this respect the church subject is fundamental
and all-inclusive. To emphasize a mere "personal-union-with-Christ"
theory to the disparagement of the divine ekklesia, is to evade the real
issue. Jesus declared, "I will build my church," and that church was an
objective reality, which was not intended to be concealed under
high-sounding theological verbiage nor dissipated in glittering
generalities. It is true that Christ himself must be presented as the
ground of our hope and salvation and as the object of our personal faith,
love, and devotion; as "the way, the truth, and the life"; but we must not
forget that there is also a revelation of the way, the truth, and the life in
the church of Christ. The apostles preached Christ as the divine "way";
but when men believed on him, he straightway "set the members every
one of them _in the body_"--the church (1 Cor. 12:18). "And the Lord
added to the church daily such as should be saved" (Acts 2:47). They
preached Christ as the personification of "truth." But they also taught
that the gospel was a special "treasure" committed to the church for
dispensing to the nations. Paul said that God hath "committed unto us
the word of reconciliation" (2 Cor. 5:19). Therefore he could represent
the church of God "as the pillar and ground of the truth." They
preached him as "life," but he was also the life of the collective body of
believers as well as of individuals. He dwelt in his church. He was its
life, and through it he manifested himself in the only form in which,
since the incarnation, he can be fully exhibited to men.

[Sidenote: Avoiding extremes]
The fact that Romanism has stressed the "church" idea, parading before
the world as the church an organic body devoid of true spiritual life, a
mere corpse, is no reason justifying a view which, ignoring the
practical church relationship taught in the New Testament, talks glibly
of an ethereal, intangible, ghostly something which, without a body,
lacks all practical contact with men. The Bible standard is the proper
union of soul and body. It is certain that, as in apostolic days, such
union is necessary to the proper exhibition of the divine life and
absolutely essential to the full accomplishment of the divine purposes
in Christ's great redemptive plan.
Christ, the life of his spiritual body, and the life-giver, remains the
same in all ages. Hence the church body is the part that has been
disrupted and corrupted by apostasy and sectarianism, and is therefore
the sphere of reformatory effort. And while reformation pertains to
historical Christianity, it implies, as we have already shown, a return to
the primitive standard. Therefore, before proceeding to describe
particularly the present reformation, we must give attention to the
constitution of the apostolic church, the divine original.


PART I
The Church in Apostolic Days

=The Last Reformation=


CHAPTER I

THE CHURCH DEFINED
[Sidenote: The term "church"]
The word "church" as used in the New Testament is, in most cases,
derived from the Greek word ekklesia. The component parts of this
word literally mean to summon or call together in public convocation.
It was, therefore, used to designate any popular assembly which met for
the transaction of public business. As an example of the secular use of
the term, see Acts 19: 32, 39. This particular application of the word,
however, does not here concern us.
Since the word ekklesia conveys the idea of an assembly of "called
ones," it expresses beautifully the Christian's call to churchly
association. The divine call of believers is frequently expressed in the
New Testament: they are "called with an holy calling" (2 Tim. 1:9);
"called in one body" (Col. 3:15); "called unto his kingdom and glory"
(1 Thess. 2:12); or, as Peter expresses it, "Ye are a chosen generation, a
royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show
forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his
marvelous light" (1 Pet. 2:9). While these texts and many others
describe the exalted rights and privileges accorded the "called ones,"
there is distinctly implied the idea of their organic association, and it
was this association that constituted them the Christian church.
[Sidenote: Its two