Roots by the River

I have mentioned several kinds of closed Christians. Some of them are hard to recognize because they have been around so long we think they are normal. This kind is in denominations. Even if we accept differences we can still be closed. The differences may be in church government in systematic theology in holiness in eschatology in baptism in form of worship in ethnicity in language in communion and any combination of the above. Even if the differences are okay, the way we hold to our distinctives is not ok! The way we hold on to them makes us closed Christians. Read and meditate on all of Romans 14 and I Corinthians 1:10-12, I Corinthians 3:1-4, and I Corinthians 11:18-19. The last three are posted below. “I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought. My brothers and sisters, some from Chloe...

This group can be small churches or mega churches. Because of this they do not seem to be closed. Their superiority is not in doctrine but in personality. They are Christians who follow one man. He may be right in his teaching. The followers may also hold to the truth, not because Jesus is the Truth but because the teacher said it was the truth. This is very dangerous. The teacher could add something false and the followers would buy it because he said it. Many years ago I was visiting a new Presbyterian Church in Omaha. The congregation, not big, was sitting on folding chairs. The pastor, a young man, had previously been a campus pastor in Iowa. His text, I think, was Matthew 18:6, “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea.” He was liberal in his theology so I wondered what he was going to say about the text. He preached for a while and finally ...

Small groups can be a wonderful means of fellowship. They can be a great means of building each other up in the faith, increasing unity. They can be a better means of studying and understanding the scriptures. They can be one with other small groups. However, they can also be a “closed” group of “us four and no more.” They are superior and exclusive. This is sin.

The extreme “closed” Christian is the one who does not go to church of any kind because the churches are all “wrong.” The second extreme “closed” Christian does not go to church because most of them are “wrong.” The third extreme “closed” Christian does not go to church because the people in the church are not Godly. They are gossips, etc. The fourth does not go to church because it is judgmental. The fifth does not go to church because it is held on Sunday Morning. All of these Christians are, in themselves, extremely judgmental and proud. They are isolated Christians. They are part of the body but acting like they are not part of the body. They are unbiblical. “A man who isolates himself seeks his own desire; he rages against all wise judgment.” (Proverbs 18:1 NKJV) The isolated Christian is an anomaly. “Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many. Now if the foot should say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,’ it would not for that rea...