BUSTED MYTHS

God does nothing without purpose. Everything God designs is with purpose. If we do not first discover God's purpose for a thing, we always will subject it to abuse. Purpose dictates the correct usage of what God designs. If we want to correctly use something God has designed, we must first discover God's original intent and purpose behind the creation of His idea. Purpose dictates correct usage of what God designs. Myth # 1--The Church is right on mission as given by The Great Commissioner. The truth is that the "Church" has literally lost it's way. The commission: "God authorized and commanded me to commission you: Mat 28:19  Go out and train everyone you meet, far and near, in this way of life, marking them by baptism in the threefold name: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Then instruct them in the practice of all I have commanded you. I'll be with you as you do this, day after day after day, right up to the end of the age." 2Co 5:19  God put the world square with himself through the Messiah, giving the world a fresh start by offering forgiveness of sins. God has given us the task of telling everyone what he is doing.  We're Christ's representatives. God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God's work of making things right between them. We're speaking for Christ himself now: Become friends with God; he's already a friend with you.  How? you say. In Christ. God put the wrong on him who never did anything wrong, so we could be put right with God. Did you get that? " God put the world square with himself through the Messiah, giving the world a fresh start by offering forgiveness of sins. God has given us the task of telling everyone what he is doing. Then instruct them in the practice of all I have commanded you." Did you notice what was not mentioned? Jesus did not command men to organize under the umbrella of a Church. All He asked is to build up the Earthly Body Of Christ. Myth # 2:--The biblical "Church" is a Holy place to meet and worship. The truth is, the word "Church" is a misnomer--falsely used to designate a corporate body of selected people. The New Testament does not call for a designated place of worship. This only shows that there is a real failure in grasping God's New Covenant workings in assuming His Church to be an organized movement, a sect, a society wholly unified and organized is His goal. But in God's sight the Ekklesia, (in the New Testament the Greek word for the Earthly Body Of Christ is "Ekklesia," meaning a called out community of Believers), this Christian community is purely a spiritual thing, spontaneous in life, united only by the Holy Spirit in mutual love and reality. So the Ekklesia He is now building and the "Church" which so many visualize indeed are quite different. We would do well to first understand what the Ekklesia is not. The Ekklesia is not a continuation of the "Jewish dispensation" under a different name. Jesus said, "The law and the prophets are until John." If the Scriptures put Moses and the law in one period of time and Christ and grace in another let us respect the divine order and not try to join together what God has separated. Just as surely as "People" are divided into three distinct groups in I Corinthians 10:32; Jews, Gentiles, and the Ekklesia, the Scriptures divide time and the workings of God. (Hosea 2:23; Rom. 9:24-26). Matt.16:18-19 (NIV) Jesus intimated that there was to be something that He called the "Ekklesia" but he did not say when it should appear, or what it would be like. He did say to Peter: "I will build my "[Fellowship of Called out Believers,"] and the gates of Hades [all power of Satan] will not overcome it." That the Gentiles were to be saved was no mystery (Romans 9:24-30). The mystery was that God was going to form an entirely new thing, composed of both Jew and Gentile to be called the "Ekklesia" This Ekklesia is proclaimed by Scripture to be the "Earthly Body Of Christ:" Eph.1:22, ICorinthians12:12,13 (NIV) "And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the [Ekklesia], which is His Body." "The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. ….Now the body is not made up of one part but of many." This fact that the Earthly Body Of Christ is a body made up of living members shows that it is not an "Organization," but an "Organism" a body that is alive. What is commonly, or generically, called "the Church," should be referred to as the "Earthly Body Of Christ" returning the human element. This brings humanity back into Christ's Earthly Body, and should be known as such. Why should we insist on calling "people"-- a living organism--by the nomenclature of a building--"Church"? The early translators may have started with the error but we need not perpetuate it. Let us give credit to our Lord for who He really is and who He says we are. We are the "Ekklesia." We are not generic anything. Let's represent who we really  and truly are. We are a community of people, we take the name of Christ and call ourselves Christians--being of Christ, a person, yet we refer to ourselves as a building. Go figure! Myth # 3:--The "Church" today is the equivalent of the Old Testament Temple. The truth is that the Gospel of the New Testament does not call for a designated place to worship corporately or individually. John 4:20-24 (MSG)  "Well, tell me this:" [asked the Samaritan woman,] "Our ancestors worshiped God at this mountain, but you Jews insist that Jerusalem is the only place for worship, right?" "Believe me," [Jesus told the] "woman, the time is coming when you Samaritans will worship the Father neither here at this mountain nor there in Jerusalem. You worship guessing in the dark; we Jews worship in the clear light of day. God's way of salvation is made available through the Jews. But the time is coming--it has, in fact, come--when what you're called will not matter and where you go to worship will not matter. "It's who you are and the way you live that count before God. Your worship must engage your spirit in the pursuit of truth. That's the kind of people the Father is out looking for: those who are simply and honestly themselves before him in their worship. God is sheer being itself--Spirit. Those who worship him must do it out of their very being, their spirits, their true selves, in adoration." The New Testament does not call for a place of worship that can biblically be called "The House Of The Lord," Or a holy place of worship to be supported in His name, as was the Old Testament Temple. The sacrificial system no longer exists. Myth # 4--The "Church" pastor or minister is the equivalent to the Priest and Levites of the Old Testament Levitical Priesthood. The truth is that there is no longer a priesthood of any nature that is to mediate between man and God, which is the duty of a priest. Priesthood In Israel, in Old Testament times, priesthood was a monopoly granted by divine decree to the family of Aaron (Nub. 25:12-13, 18:1, Ex.28:1). The Mosaic Law laid down elaborate rituals governing the consecration, behavior, and function of the priests. The rules and rituals related to the Old Covenant priests are full of rich symbolic teaching. What is a Priest? Priests know God and they know people and they reconcile the two together. They go into God on behalf of the people and they go to the people on behalf of God. We must note that in the New Covenant Scripture no elder or pastor or deacon, leader or evangelist are ever called a priest, nor commissioned to the function of a priest. Heb. 5:4 (NIV) Not everyone could decide to be a priest in Biblical times, it was not a profession open to all. The writer of Hebrews faces this issue squarely. "No one takes this honor upon himself; He must be called by God, just as Aaron was". At this point three separate and distinct callings of God in relation to priesthood must be recognized: God's call of Aaron (Ex. 40:12-15; Nub. 18:1-7), God's call of Jesus to be the ideal High Priest (Heb. 5:1-6), and the calling of the Body of Christ as the Royal Priesthood (I Peter 2:9). Here the issue can be raised whether those gifted for ministry as described in Ephesians 4:11 can compare their calling to serve Christ and the Earthly Body Of Christ, if they can compare it to the Levitical priesthood as represented by Aaron, thus demanding support as such. In the New Testament, priesthood is centered in Christ. This is a revolutionary departure from the Old Testament Law, thus calling for the special, careful, and detailed handling by the writer of the book of Hebrews. His readers, steeped in the Mosaic Law concerning priesthood, would wonder on what legal ground Christ could possible be a priest. But a priest He is, and such a real and sufficient Priest that all the Aaronic privileges and responsibilities are completely abolished and swept away by Him. They are now completely obsolete and redundant (Heb. 10:1-14). This is why we have the lengthy letter of Hebrews and why the writer devotes such a lengthy letter explaining the correctness, the cause and the consequence of the change! Only members of Aaron's family could be a priest and from them came the High Priest; the Lord Jesus was not of that family. He was born into the tribe of Judah. Despite that fact, His exaltation to the priesthood was authoritative, because the same One who put Aaron in that office has now put Christ there instead. Even Jesus did not take the priesthood authority upon himself, for we read: Heb. 5:5-6 (NIV) "God said to him, 'you are my son; today I have become your Father.' And he says in another place, 'you are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.'" The office of the high priest in Jesus' day was filled by evil and politically ambitious men. Ananaias and Caiaphas, for example, were a scandal and a disgrace. Their chief purpose was to uphold their own vested interests and their power. That spirit is not dead today. Aaron was chosen by God to be a priest; Christ was chosen as God to become the permanent Ideal Priest for all of mankind (Heb. 4:14; 7:24; 8:6; 9;14). Since He is the Son of God, He has every right to fill that office and is called to it by God for that very reason. It has been 2,000 years now since God tore apart the Temple veil, signifying the end of an era which had lasted 1,500 years. It is difficult for us today to imagine the difficulty of a Hebrew adjusting to the thought that God had written "Finished" over all his religious observances, associations, and concepts. A new day had dawned, abruptly and completely. The Jew had to face the revolutionary fact that Christ had eclipsed all others and that Calvary spelled the end of the first covenant and thus the Law. Jesus had become the New Covenant (Isaiah 42:1-7). In the epistle to the Hebrews the writer delves deeply into Old Testament typology to prove that the era closed was merely  one of shadows, whereas substance was in Christ and His cross. He mentions Moses and Joshua, Aaron and Melchizedek. He looks at the sacrifices and the sanctuary and examines the covenant. And again and again he makes his point that Christ is a better savior and priest, who provides better security than anything offered under the law. He begins by contrasting Christ with Moses and then goes into the typology of the priest Melchizedek. The author of the letter to the Hebrews uses Melchizedek (Heb.5:10; 7:1-7) in his great argument showing Jesus Christ as the final perfect revelation of God, because in His person He is the Son and in His work he is Priest. The author cites Psalm 110:4, indicating that Jesus' priesthood is of a different order from the Levitical; it is "in the order of Melchizedek." Hebrews portrays Melchizedek as a king-priest personality as does the Genesis account. His mysterious nature--the lack of genealogy typed him as "Without Father or mother, without genealogy, without beginning of days or end of life, like Jesus the Son of God who remains a priest forever' (Heb. 7:3). Chapter seven declares that the law based human and finite Levitical priesthood is declared imperfect. The finite human priesthood as represented by Aaron must give way to the infinite heavenly priesthood of Christ. Heb.7:15-18, 8:1(MSG) "But the Melchizedek story provides a perfect analogy: Jesus, a priest like Melchizedek, not by genealogical descent but by the sheer force of resurrection life--he lives!-- "priest forever in the royal order of Melchizedek." The former way of doing things, a system of commandments that never worked out the way it was supposed to, was set aside;  the law brought nothing to maturity. Another way--Jesus!--a way that does work, that brings us right into the presence of God, is put in its place. In essence, we have just such a high priest: authoritative right alongside God, conducting worship in the one true sanctuary built by God." Now, we have a new High Priest and with Christ we have a new priesthood according to the Order of Melchizedek, not according to the Order of Aaron. The Law of Moses provided the basis for the Levitical priesthood. Thus, a new priesthood required a new law under which it could operate. The point made in Hebrews 7:11-12 is that under the law, only one type of priesthood was permitted and that was the Levitical priesthood. For the Levitical priesthood to be done away with and to be replaced by a new priesthood; the priesthood of Melchizedek, it also required a change of the law. As long as  the law of Moses was in effect no other priesthood was valid except the Aaronic or Levitical priesthood. Was there a change of the law? Hebrews 7:18 states that the Mosaic Law was "set aside" or disannulled. Because it is no longer in effect, there is now a new priesthood after the Order of Melchizedek. Consequently, the Law of Moses has been  in favor of a new law which is now the basis for the priesthood according to the Order of Melchizedek. This new law is known as the Law of Christ. (Gal. 6:2, Rom. 8:2) With Jesus as our permanent High priest we need no other. For further detail on this subject I suggest that you go to: http://www.truthforfree.com and check out David Yeubanks' excellent article: "WHO ARE THE CLERGY."