The Last Reformation | Page 3

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 Christian phases]
"The church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood" (Acts 20: 28), is Clearly set forth in the New Testament. And the term "church" in its religious usage is given two significations. In its largest and primary signification, the church of God is the entire body of regenerated persons in all times and places, and is in this respect identical with