Chapter 17

The case is simple: the Church of Jesus Christ is the one in whom He lives, which reveres His word, seeks His good pleasure, adds nothing to His directives in the scripture to bind upon the people in His name, and is the abiding one which, seeing even He did not produce His OWN doctrine (John 12:48-50), and what became of those who added or differed (Matthew 16:21ff.), obeys and prays (cf. Acts 4, 13), as if it all depended on Christ: which it does. It knows that he who would add is warned in Proverbs 30:6 about becoming a LIAR for his trouble. It does not scurry after men, nor give false reverence to mere man, knowing that even elders, like Peter are anything but Lords! (cf. Matthew 23:8-10, I Peter 5).

Efforts to import some other and alien things into the realm of Christ's body, as if they were churches are vain; this is mere illusion and cancer. When humility also does not stalk with its head raised, but a humble and a contrite heart may be found, resting only in Christ for pardon, strength and peace, in His promises for assurance, on Him by His Spirit (Romans 8:9, Ephesians 3:16), then the church is to be found. It does not assert itself, since Christ is its purpose (cf. Colossians 3:16-17).

It is NOT the extreme which is sacramentalist, either with literal sacraments as saving functions, or its own wisdom as a shrine (cf. Questions and Answers 2 . It is not a church founded on a church!

Nor is it the extreme which is lax, being so sure of itself that it does not really need to trouble itself too much about what is written, for its 5 points or its church stability or its procedure here or there are all that is REALLY needed: so it goes where it is going.

The Church loves, because God is love and He is in them; it lives because Christ lives, and as He declared, Because I live, you will live also (John 14). It knows its destiny, since He is it (Romans 5:1-11, Genesis 15:1ff., Ephesians 1:11), and it goes towards it with fear and trembling: not in craven shrinking (I John 4:17-18, 5:11-12), but in holy alliance with the living God, seeking in love to conform, in power to perform, in grace to be kindly.

The effort to FORCE UNITY where such things are not found is mere misuse, like having prostitutes with much affection, since the affection part is good. It must be one wife, however, in godly alliance; so here, as you see so well in Hosea's massive message, one Christ, the Lord's Christ (Luke 2:26), who is coming again (Acts 1:7ff.), after being reserved in heaven until the time comes for the restoration of all things (Acts 3:19-21).

The failure to SEEK unity where it may be found, however, is also to be deplored. Unity comes naturally to what is unified in Christ, and what is not concerned at its absence is as deplorable as what is impassioned to get it by hook or by crook, which is a crooked unity.

Prepared for this Chapter are two major contributions,
with some revision.

These are:

1) Ch. 10a Divine Agenda Ch. 3

2) Ch. 10b Tender Times for Timely Truth Ch. 8

In addition to these, and for special reference, there are also:

Light ... Ch. 2,

Things Old and New Epilogue,

Joyful Jottings 1,

Gracious Goodness Ch. 4 (ref. Middle East),

Red Alert Ch. 16 (Statism and neo-evangelicalism);

News 100 (lust for many natural unities, love of actual unity,
State efforts to promote disunity in Christian bodies)

On the Militant Assault on Biblical Fidelity,
Belief, as the word of the living God, and the harmony which is to be found by repentance towards Him, not in the repugnance of unrealism:

see -

More Marvels ... Ch. 4, *6

The Biblical Workman, Appendix 3,

Light of Dawn Ch. 2,

Impossible for Men, Open to God Chs. 2, 3;

Lord of Life Chs. 3, 8, 9