Beresford Job's Biblical Church - 8

In chapter 8, Job tackles some common objections. Most of these are summarized below.

Objection: God blesses these so-called unbiblical churches. (105)

Reply: "Yes of course he does! [I'm]... grateful to him that he does." (105) God is so gracious, he blesses even the half-obedient.

Objection: "But the Holy Spirit leads believers to do these practices and to form together into these types of churches." (107)

Reply: Not if I'm right about what the Bible says. God wouldn't act contrary to his expressed will. (107-8)

Objection: "We must renew the churches from the inside and remain in them and be the influence for change." (109)

Reply: This is logically impossible. A New Testament style assembly and a traditional, institutional church have several contrary properties (e.g. no hierarchical leadership vs. hierarchical leadership). It is nonsense to suppose that you could reform the latter into the former, as no group of people could be both. (109-11) Really, "This [objection] is usually just a cover for maintaining the status quo and leading a quiet life." (109)

Objection: "Going on about all this just upsets people. You're just causing trouble and being divisive and unloving!" (110)

Reply: Sorry, but how could it be somehow wrong to test Christian practices by the Scriptures? I'm not going to go with the normal ways if I think I'm thereby disobeying God. Just as the ancient Jews preferred the "oral law" to God's actual law, so present day Christians prefer common Christian habits to the pattern set out by Jesus' apostles. But that makes no sense. (110-1)

In short, and this is the point of the brief 9th chapter, the work of the Reformation isn't yet done. Autonomy from Rome, salvation through grace, believers baptism, the gifts of the Spirit - all these have been recovered by a succession of reforming, world-wide movements. But biblical church practice hasn't been recovered. After searching the scriptures, Job is convinced that Jesus is saying, "Give Me back My church!" (114)

...I want to live according to what I read in scripture... I need to know that I am in conformity to his revealed Word, for only then can I know that I am in conformity to him. Only then, and this is what matters to me more than anything else, can I know that I am safe from doing my will, and free to be doing his. (115)

That, ladies and gentlemen, is the heart of an actual disciple of Jesus, and a servant of God is Jesus' mold. Not my will, but yours.