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Divine Life

This article is from Jon Zens and discusses how the early church survived and thrived without the New Testament. If you’ve been involved in house church, you’ve most likely experienced people wanting, almost demanding to be taught the Word. I call it the “need to feed” syndrome. Some people even refer to house church as Bible study; they clearly don’t understand the purpose of the gathering. Perhaps this article will help.

The Need to Feed

If people think of a group of believers gathered together, they picture folks sitting in chairs or pews with Bibles in their laps. We need to remember, however, that when the earliest Christ-followers assembled they had no Bibles. In AD 30-50 no one can deny the amazing and unprecedented power of the Lord that was manifested as the Gospel advanced from Jerusalem into the Gentile world. Yet all of this took place without any printed Bibles. In light of this, when we consider “disciplines” we must remember that the earliest church was driven by Life– divine life that led them to abide in/rest in Jesus, to pursue Him in daily life, and to express Him to unbelievers and in fellowship with other believers. “Those who believe in Me will have rivers of living water flowing out of their innermost being” (John 7:38). 

The writings the populace saw in the First Century were persons: “You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on your hearts, to be known and read by everyone; and you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts” (2 Cor. 3:2-3).  

Without question, many of the points I will make have been stated well by others. But it might be that the Lord has enabled me – especially in the past several years – to put some pieces together in a way that will be striking and gripping to your hearts. I pray that you will be impressed by the fact that when we speak of “renewal” in the Body of Christ, it is clearly not a question of uncovering something that has been missing, but rather a matter of unleashing Christ in us, who is already there!

I have a request to make of you. I know it is impossible for us to do this in actuality, but please try to use your imagination and transport yourself into a First Century gathering of saints. There you are, most likely in the home of a more well-to-do family or brother/sister. You are surrounded by people who have come out of the town synagogue and the pagan culture – Jews and Gentiles, now part of the New Humanity Jesus created by his death and resurrection. Back then there were no churchy accoutrements, and most notably for our purposes today – no Bible.

Let’s step back for a moment and think about what led up to Christ expressing himself in unbelievable ways through ekklesias all over the known-world during the period of AD 30-70. How did the Body of Christ function in this admittedly glorious blossoming of His presence on earth?

In John 14-16 Jesus revealed to his disciples that he would be exiting the earth and returning to the Father. But he promised that he would not leave them as orphans. After his leaving he would send the Holy Spirit to dwell in them. Jesus specifically noted that the sending of the Spirit would be a coming of himself – “I am coming to you” (John 14:18). This was fulfilled on the Day of Pentecost – “[Jesus] has poured out this which you see and hear” (Acts 2:33). Thus, the coming of the Spirit on the Day of Pentecost was in fact the coming of Christ to dwell in his Bride.

What was the social make-up of those coming into Messiah’s community? The gap between the few wealthy and many poor was very wide. Most people in the First Century would be considered “lower class.” For sure, there was a 94% illiteracy rate in Jesus’ day – even in Judaism. As James D.G. Dunn points out, “the probability is that the great majority of Galileans, including the great majority of those who followed Jesus, were technically illiterate” (Jesus, Paul & the Gospels, p. 9; cf. p.22). When Peter and John were hauled before the Jewish officials, isn’t it remarkable that these leaders were astonished because “these two are unlettered and without expertise,” and “they recognized that Peter and John had been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13).

Thus the society surrounding the early church was an oral culture. It is imperative for us to fully realize that the first believers carried out their new lives in Christ with no Bible. The brothers and sisters did not have American Bible Society New Testaments tucked in the pockets of their attire! “For five centuries,” Dunn notes, “we have been accustomed to the benefits of printing. Our minds are print-dominated. We have a literary mind-set. We think in terms of information typically conveyed in writing and by reading. We think more naturally of the reader reading as an individual than of the audience learning only by what it hears” (Jesus, Paul & the Gospels, p. 9).

Jon Zens

How, then, did the earliest brothers and sisters function without any written documents? Exactly as Christ did – by hearing from Father and following his leading. Listen to Jesus’ own words about how he lived each day:

There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; that very word which I spoke will condemn him on the last day.  For I did not speak of my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it.  I know that his command leads to eternal life.  So whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say (John 12:47-50)…Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me?  The words I say to you are not just my own.  Rather, it is the Father living in me who is doing his work…If you love me, you will do what I command (14:10,15)…Jesus replied, If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching.  My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.  He who does not love me will not obey my teaching.  These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me (14:23-24)…I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world.  They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word.  Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them (17:6-8).

We can see a basic pattern from these words as to how Christ lived out his short life on earth: listening to Father, hearing Father, seeing (perceiving) what Father is saying, speaking as he gives utterance, and doing his bidding. As the Father was to Christ, so Christ is now to us. We listen to and hear from Christ which results in revelation (seeing), and then we speak and do his pleasure.

The early believers had no Bible, but they had that which was most important – Christ in them by the Holy Spirit. Can you contemplate living your daily life in Christ without a Bible? Yet that was the reality in the First Century when it cannot be denied that the most unprecedented growth and expression in the ekklesias occurred. The early church was not text-driven, but Life-driven – believers were living letters expressing the Christ in them by the Holy Spirit (2 Cor. 3).

Without any Bibles, what would a group of believers in the First Century share and talk about with each other? The answer is simple – Christ! Recall John’s amazing summary remarks about what our Lord did on while on earth: “And many other signs indeed did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book…And there are also many other things which Jesus did, which if every one of them was written down, I would imagine that even the world itself could not contain the books that would need to be written” (John 20:30; 21:25).

James Dunn comments on the development of how Jesus came to be the “talk of the town,” so to speak:

Jesus’ teaching was given orally; it began orally…We can safely assume that the news about Jesus was initially passed around orally. The stories about Jesus would no doubt have been the subject of many a conversation in bazaars and around campfires. The disciples of Jesus no doubt spoke about what they had seen Jesus do, and about his teaching. This would have been the beginning of the Jesus tradition. It would be celebrated and meditated on in groups of his followers in oral terms (Jesus, Paul & the Gospels, p. 23).

In light of the vast, infinite person of Christ unveiled in Colossians 1:13-20, and the inexhaustible life that he fulfilled on earth, how could the saints ever run out of praise, adoration – and any other type of content – concerning their dear Savior, Redeemer and Husband? Also, of course, there were believers who came from synagogue backgrounds who could talk about Jesus from what they had heard every Sabbath from Moses and the prophets.

Here is an important fact that few have pondered: The first letter from Paul to an ekklesia occurred around AD 50 – the book of Galatians. That’s about twenty years after the Day of Pentecost. Look at all the wondrous work the Lord did in building his ekklesias for about twenty years without any New Covenant writings! Of course, problems surfaced as time elapsed and letters were written to respond to the needs. These were read to an assembly, and perhaps passed on to other ekklesias.

Have you ever thought about the fact that there were very likely ekklesias that never received a letter from an apostle, and may have never, or rarely, heard epistles to other groups read to them?

How much of what we call the “New Testament” did believers living in AD 65 ever hear read aloud in a gathering, or hear about from other saints? Is it not highly probable that a majority of Christ-followers between the years AD 50 to AD 70 had never heard of or knew about many of the twenty-seven writings we designate as the “New Testament”?

Let’s consider one huge implication that flows out of the previous paragraph. 1 Timothy was written around AD 62-63. This letter was written to a specific person, not an assembly. Obviously, Timothy would then process Paul’s concerns with reference to the ekklesia in Ephesus. Now how many believers between AD 62 to AD 100 would have even known about the existence of 1 Timothy 2:11-12 – verses that in subsequent post-apostolic times were used to marginalize women? We perhaps assume that the entire early church was somewhat familiar with the “New Testament” writings, but that simply was not the case.

Where Were the Written Documents?

Until AD 50 the only written scriptures were the scrolls of the “Old Testament.” These scrolls were kept in the synagogues and controlled by the Jewish hierarchy. The Jewish rank-and-file knew of Moses, the Psalms and the Prophets orally. “Their knowledge of the Torah did not come from personal copies which each had, as would be the case today…For the great majority, Torah knowledge came from hearing it read to them by the minority who could read, Sabbath by Sabbath in the synagogue” (Dunn, Jesus, Paul & the Gospels, p. 23).

A rare exception can be seen in Acts 8:26-35. The Ethiopian eunuch was returning home from Jerusalem, and was reading out loud from some scrolls from Isaiah. He, as the treasurer for Kandake, was a wealthy man and was somehow able to purchase all or part of Isaiah. But such a luxury was far out of reach for the average person.

It is very possible that all of the New Testament was written before the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70 (cf. John A.T. Robinson, Redating the New Testament, Wipf & Stock, 2001, 384 pp.).

From roughly AD 250 onwards copies of the NT documents were in the hands of the bishops and the developing church hierarchy that became the Roman Catholic Church. Just as in First Century Judaism when the OT scrolls were controlled by the synagogue leaders, so in post-apostolic times the NT documents were controlled by the clergy. In both contexts the “laypeople” had virtually no access to the written documents.

Jerome translated the Bible into Latin in the late Fourth Century. This translation was “the Bible” until the 1500’s. Illiteracy was still very high, of course, from AD 400 to AD 1500, so the scriptures still were in the possession of the church hierarchy.

With the invention of the printing press, however, the Bible began to be translated into other languages. Luther did a German translation. Wycliffe and Tyndale did English translations. Some possibility emerged for the common people to read the Scriptures for themselves, but to “own” a Bible was still a luxury few could enjoy. (Cf., F.F. Bruce, History of the Bible in English).

Concluding Thoughts

One New Testament scholar, Carl Cosaert, makes the claim that “the early church was a ‘text’ driven religion and that fact should be noted” (“The Reliability of the New Testament Scriptures,” Part 2, Ministry, November, 2011, p. 23). In light of our survey of certain First Century realities in the early church period of AD 30-70, I do not understand how he can make that claim. As far as I can tell, the early church was Christ-driven. It was the indwelling life of Christ in believers that accounts for the vibrancy of the first generation saints. In 2 Corinthians 3, Paul affirms that believers are the living letters that are “known and read by all people…having been inscribed not with ink, but by the Spirit of the living God; not in stone tablets, but in fleshy tablets of beating hearts” (vv. 2-3).

It has long been the case that outward Christianity was identified as a “religion of the Book.” But that was certainly not the case in the First Century. Can we begin to grasp the fact that during the period of AD 30-70 when Christ’s ekklesias burst into life all over the Roman Empire, the only explanation for their unparalleled vitality was that Christ’s life-giving ministry was continuing through his Body on earth, not that they were glued to “the Bible” – which simply did not exist at that time. Lloyd Gardner notes in this regard:

With this explosive beginning to the church, one hears no mention of several things. There was no church building, no pastor, no organized meetings, no worship team, no sermons and no statements of doctrine, no evangelism programs, bulletins or order of worship…They were walking together in the glorious light of the resurrected Christ who was alive in them and in their midst (The Heresy of Diotrephes, Eleizer Call Ministries, 2007, pp. 168-169).

In the providence of God, Bibles are now plentiful for many people in the world. We are free to ask the Lord to reveal Jesus to us as we read and meditate in all the Scriptures. But we need to soberly remember that the vast majority of believers since the Day of Pentecost have been without personal Bibles. How did they make it through life? The only answer is that Christ was in them and the Holy Spirit took the things of Christ and disclosed them to His people all over the earth. 

I would encourage us to consciously focus on Christ in our use of the Bible and that our seeking of the Lord would result in relationships with unbelievers and fellow believers. One central thing our study of Scripture should reveal to us is that we need community – “exhort one another daily lest you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin” (Heb. 3:13). For example, when we reflect on Jesus’ teachings in Matthew 5-7, we all feel our inability to measure up. But the “difficulty” of His teachings are intended to show us that we need others in our lives. Stanley Hauerwas astutely pointed out:

To live in the manner described in [Matt. 5-7] requires learning to trust in others to help me so live. In other words, the object of [Matt. 5-7] is to create dependence; it is to force us to need one another. All the so-called hard sayings…are designed to remind us that we cannot live without depending on the support and trust of others…All of these [hard sayings] are surely impossible for isolated individuals (Unleashing the Scripture, Abington Press, 1993, pp. 64, 69, 70).

The Scriptures are meant to be contemplated and acted upon in the context of discipleship in the believing community.

Is it possible that we lean too much on methods and programs in hopes of seeing the Spirit’s power, when the early church experienced such power without all the religious resources at our disposal? Philip Yancey asked in 2004, “Why, with no apparent resources, do Chinese churches thrive?” He went on to say, “In the 1970’s an underground house church movement sprang up as if by spontaneous generation . . . . Before going to China I met with one of the missionaries who had been expelled in 1950. He said, ‘We felt so sorry for the church we left behind…They had no one to teach them, no printing presses, no seminaries, no one to run their clinics and orphanages. No resources, really, except the Holy Spirit.’ It appears the Holy Spirit is doing just fine” (“Discreet and Dynamic,” Christianity Today, July, 2004, 48:7, p. 72).

Jesus assured the precious lady at the well that it was not about special places, temples, days and times, but about genuine worship of the Lord in Spirit and Truth (John 4:20-24). Or, as Paul put it, “You have the Spirit, now walk in the Spirit…I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Gal. 5:25; 2:20).

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Measuring Success

This powerful message is the second excerpt from the book unchurching by Ricard Jacobson.

Maybe the reason we do not recognize the true cost of today’s church model is because when we turn the church into an organization, we start to think like an organization-we begin measuring success in worldly terms, not spiritual terms. The standard of success becomes the size of our church budget, the scale of our next building project, and the number of people in the pews. However, Jesus used a completely different standard for measuring his own success.

At the height of his popularity when he walked the earth, Jesus had a following that would make even today’s megachurch pastors
envious. But due to his controversial teaching, many disciples eventually deserted him (John 6:66).  However, as Jesus was praying to the Father right before his death, he made a couple of truly mind-blowing statements about his own ministry. In John 17:4 he said:

I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do (NIV).

This means Jesus knew he was successful in his mission, despite popular opinion. So, how did he measure his success? He told us plainly in John 17:12:

None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that scripture would be fulfilled (NIV).

Except for Judas who was destined to betray him, Jesus claimed, “none has been lost.”Think about this for a moment. Jesus lost many disciples, possibly thousands. In terms of profits and losses, Jesus was clearly in the red. So how could he claim, “none has been lost?” Apparently, he did not consider himself responsible for the crowds; he only considered himself responsible for the Twelve. Though he ministered to everyone, the Twelve were specifically given to him by God. He even said as much in John 17:6:

I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word (NIV).

Earlier, we discussed how Jesus made it his main priority to invest in his disciples. And now we see that he actually evaluated his entire success on how well he completed this single task.

This raises an interesting question: since Jesus is our example in all things, is this the same pattern we are supposed to follow? Is it possible God will judge the success of our ministries, not by impressive numbers, but by specific names? Does he entrust us with certain people and, even though we might minister to others, are those specific people our primary mission on this planet?

If so, what does it mean if we pursue the crowds at the expense of those with whom we were entrusted? We know the Good Shepherd is willing to leave the ninety-nine to go after the one (Matthew 18:12-14).  But what happens if we leave one behind in our quest to gain ninety-nine more? Is it possible we might stand before God one day, boasting about our big ministries, saying “Lord, look at all these people I brought you,” only to have him reply, “That’s great. But what happened to the ones I gave you?”

Richard Jacobson, unchurching

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Pastors – Let My People Go

Below is an excerpt from a chapter entitled A Church of Spectators. Reading this reminded me of Isaiah 1:18 where it says “Come now, let us reason together”. Enjoy!

For 1700 years the traditional church as a whole has become filled with spectator Christians, people who do nothing more than sit and watch, sing songs, listen to sermons and give in the offering and sit some more.

In other words, the Church as a whole has become passive, inert, ineffective and inept. That is what the one man rule within the Church has caused.

Satan has also for 1700 years paralyzed the church by making the believers watchers of ministry rather than doers of ministry. The result has been weak, selfish, baby Christians, who if they don’t get their way can run off to another church and sit there and watch.

I myself can’t just sit and watch someone else minister to people year after year and not get involved myself. I know I have been called and I know there is something for me to do and I know that daily there are many opportunities for me to be used by God.

I cannot be a spectator. If the opportunities are not in the big church setting or I am not approved by man in their system, I still have a job to do for God. Whether this book accomplishes what I hope or not, I still have been given the task of writing it and believing God for what He does with it.

I refuse to be a spectator on the sidelines, watching someone else, sitting idle and refusing to get involved. My goal is to be actively involved in ministry until someone carries me to my final resting place.

With all of the sermons that we hear and all of the lessons etc., what are we suppose to do with that? Is it all just for our own comfort? Is it there so we can stroke our own conscience and feel good about ourselves? Or are we supposed to actually do something with what we’ve learned? When I hear a message from the Word of God, I think of how I can apply it in my life. What is the life lesson and how can someone else benefit from this lesson?

Christianity is not a spectator event, Ephesians4:11-16. It is not only there for our comfort. It is who we are and what we are. Our Christian lives are to be lived out and shared with others. We, the body of Christ, are all ministers of the Gospel. Jesus commanded us to “Go and make disciples.”

I feel that spectator Christianity is a crime against the Kingdom of God because IF YOU’RE NOT TAKING GROUND FOR GOD YOU MUST BE HOLDING GROUND FOR THE DEVIL. Being a sitter in the Church is ultra boring to me. Why even go to church if there is nothing to contribute or share.

I am a part of the Body of Christ, a minister of the Word of God, not a piece of furniture. If I can’t contribute or if I am not allowed to, I go my way to where my gifts are celebrated and used. I know there are people who prefer to sit and do nothing, but I also know people who hunger for the day when their ministry will be recognized. God recognizes your ministry, He gave it to you.

Shame on the pastors who perpetuate the one man, professionals only type church. You are actually standing in the way of God’s plan and purposes.

You as pastor say you want more people to get involved in the church, then why don’t you recognize them for who they are, ministers of God and your spiritual equal.

The pastor actually creates the spectator problem, with the governmental system they operate in. There is no room for ministry, except for the professionals. It’s a contradictory and counterproductive system.

If you want to sit up here on the platform in these nice embroidered chairs, you go to college and seminary, get your degree, a license and ordination then we’ll give you permission to speak. No wonder people sit there and do nothing. Tell me what does a license or ordination and all that stuff have to do with receiving a revelation from God? What does it have to do with having a burden for lost souls or teaching?

Peter, James, and John didn’t get a certificate before they were qualified to preach the Gospel. Neither did Barnabas, or Silas or even Jesus for that matter. The Pharisees considered Jesus and the disciples as unlearned men and questioned them by what authority they did what they did. But they couldn’t question the power.

Only Paul comes closest to the scenario of possessing man-made qualifications. He was a Pharisee and highly educated in men’s traditions yet after finding the Lord in his life he considered those things to be of less value and nothing but dung compared to the spirit of God.

If God told you to start a Bible study in your home, then start it. If you get a blessing from the leadership, fine. If not, start it anyway. You must follow what God has told you to do over that of man. Also remember that the professionals don’t have all the answers and they are not perfect. Brother and sister; get out of your seats or pews and do what God has called you to do. Don’t wait for permission from men. You might be waiting a very long time.

One last thing, you recall that when Jesus was crucified that the veil was torn in two. That means God has given us all access to Him, not only concerning prayer but also ministry. Don’t allow a pastor, or staff member or anyone else to get between you and your ministry. In Jesus’ time it was the priesthood and the Pharisees. Today it’s pastors and other leadership in the church.

Go ahead and step through that invisible barrier into your own priesthood with boldness, knowing you are highly favored of the Lord and have His approval, regardless of what man says.

Glen Newman, Pastors – Let My People Go

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unchurching

The excerpt below is entitled Raising Veal from unchurching by Richard Jacobson. Richard’s website is no longer active but you can still access his podcasts by going here. This book has some great points but the overall flow seemed a bit disjointed.

It was the Romans who eventually institutionalized the church, starting in the early 300’s. Previously, believers had only known church gatherings where each person participated in the meetings, where everyone was encouraged to bring a hymn, or a teaching, or a personal revelation, and so on. Clearly, the Romans had a very different vision for the church. And the moment Rome embraced Christianity as its national religion, they began implementing that vision.

The Romans had a great respect for oratory, the art of public speaking. This is why the layout of the new Roman church buildings made it clear the congregation was now an audience, expected to listen to lectures. One of the first things the Romans did to institutionalize the church was hire eloquent orators to serve as church priests. Employing such skilled, professional speakers helped elevate the role of priests far above their fellow church members.

Further levels of separation between these professional priests and their congregations were introduced through the addition of official robes and rituals. Over time, unbiblical words like “clergy” and “laity” entered the vocabulary of the church and solidified the divide. Likewise, special requirements for ordination were introduced and seminaries were formed. Eventually, any vision for church gatherings where every member exercised his or her calling as a fellow priest was lost and forgotten.

Many of today’s churches have maintained this trajectory and fully embraced a model in which church members get spiritually fed without ever exercising their calling as fellow priests. But how long can church members be spiritually spoon-fed before they develop a dependency? Developing this kind of dependency is known as becoming institutionalized. In the movie The Shawshank Redemption, an inmate named Red explains how, over time, prisoners become institutionalized:

“These walls are funny. First you hate ’em, then you get used to ’em. Enough time passes, you get so you depend on them. That’s institutionalized.”

Today’s churchgoers enjoy sermons with PowerPoint slides, Sunday School lessons on whiteboards, Children’s Church, Bible studies, book studies, podcasts, and more. But what good is all this spiritual education unless it results in genuine spiritual formation? The Body of Christ doesn’t simply need to eat; it needs to exercise.

1 Corinthians 14:26 tells us we build up the Body of Christ whenever we allow each member to participate in the meetings by instructing others or by bringing hymns or sharing personal revelations, etc..’ ‘This is a completely different picture of church from passively listening to lectures from a handful of professional Christians.

So, what happens to a church when most of its members get spiritually fed without having the opportunity to exercise their true calling? Rather than shepherding sheep, this sounds more like raising veal.

If you are unfamiliar with the process, it looks something like this: a young calf is placed in a box. The purpose of the box is to keep the calf immobile, never allowing it to build up muscle. This ensures the calf will eventually make for tender, tasty veal. From then on, the calf is constantly fed but never allowed to exercise. Over time, it grows fat and weak. Eventually, it won’t even be able to survive outside its box.

Much like the veal calf, many of today’s churchgoers spend their entire spiritual lives inside of church boxes, both literally and
figuratively. This might be the best way to develop strong institutions, but is it the best way to develop strong individuals? In our pursuit of numerical growth, are we sacrificing spiritual growth? In such a consumer-focused culture, maybe we need to be reminded of how Jesus measured the success of his own ministry.

Richard Jacobson, unchurching

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A Natural New Testament

A friend sent me a link to A Natural New Testament translated by Frank Daniels and originally released in 1995. I have included some of his commentary and some comparative scripture. As far as I can tell, this is not in print form but is only available on-line. If there is a print version please contact me. You can go to this link and scroll down on the page to A Natural New Testament.

The present translation intends to discover the authors’ intent in writing their narratives, letters, and expositions – and to make these more apparent in English. Consequently, certain terms that are normally left untranslated (or translated into Latin) appear translated in this edition. “Christ” is rendered “Anointed One,” and whenever the reader passes over the term, it ought to convey the full force of the Messiah that had been promised to the Jews. There are no apostles, angels, deacons or ministers, bishops, devils, demons, or preachers in this edition; rather, the reader will find envoys (people who are sent out as representatives), messengers, servants, overseers, accusers, spirit beings, and heralds. The term “church” has also been dropped in favor of “assembly,” which is the meaning of the Greek word. Here, this translator has followed certain former translators who refused to retain the “old ecclesiastical words.”

It is this translator’s effort to provide a translation as free of tradition as possible, in the hopes that this will bring the reader closer to the paradigm of the original followers of Jesus. And while every translator or group of translators believes that their own translation is most accurate, one thing must be noted:


This is a translation into English of a set of documents that were written over 1900 years ago in Greek. In many cases, Greek was a second language to the authors, who existed under entirely different conditions than we do today. While they saw clearly what were their own customs and patterns of thought, we today often have trouble distinguishing between the intent of the author and our own preconceived notions. Therefore, we must carefully distinguish between our own opinions and the facts. Every translation follows the opinions of the translators and is therefore an opinion. This is a translation, an opinion, a mere human viewpoint of an ordinary human being. The value of this translation rests not in its authoritative nature but in the examination of the different paradigm which it may be found to contain.

Frank Daniels, A Natural New Testament

The following comparison is from Ephesians 4.

And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ—from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.

New King James Version

And indeed, he gave the envoys, and the prophets, and the good messengers, and the shepherds and teachers, for the restoration of the holy ones to the point of work of service, for the construction of the Anointed One’s body, until all of us should reach the point of the unity of the faith and the recognition of God’s son – until we should reach a measure of stature of the fullness of the Anointed One, so that we would no longer be babies, being carried about by every wind of teaching (in the trickery of human beings, in craftiness) to the system of deceit. But, being truthful in love, we should grow up into him in all things. He is the head, the Anointed One, from whom all the body is made to grow to the point of its construction in love – being firmly joined and knit together through every supplying ligament, according to the working (in measure) of every single part.


A Natural New Testament
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Conforming to His Image

This is the third excerpt from Milt Rodriguez’s book The Community Life of God. You can find the links to the other excerpts here. I have done some slight editing to this excerpt.

“Because those whom He foreknew, He also predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the Firstborn among many brothers.” Rom. 8:29

Today, we hear a lot about being like Jesus. Preachers, and consequently believers, talk about Christ-likeness. As individual believers we are told that this is our goal: to be like Christ.

Actually, this is what most “discipleship” programs are all about. We are here to “make disciples,” whatever that means. After all, it’s part of the “great commission” (Matt. 28: 19, 20) to make disciples. We have interpreted this to mean that we are supposed to take individual believers and help them to be like Christ. Usually we do this by teaching them doctrine, how to study the Bible, how to “pray,” how to serve God on the mission field, and basically how to be a good Christian.

But where in the scripture does it talk about becoming like Christ? Where did we get this idea? The only thing that I can see is the passages that deal with being conformed to His image. Perhaps we have paraphrased that to be “becoming like Christ.” If that is so, and I believe it is, then we must look at the context of each of those passages. In what context are we to be conformed to His image?

If you read the passages that have to do with being conformed to His image, you will quickly see that the context is always corporate (Rom. 8:28-20; Rom. 12: 1-5; II Cor. 3:18; Col. 3:10, 11). It is we who are being conformed to His image. It is us together, the Body, that is to look like Him. You can never be like Jesus. But She can! I am referring to that beautiful woman, the bride of Christ, who is destined to be His wife (Rev. 21:9).

If you will read the scriptures carefully, especially the New Testament, from this perspective, it will become a new book to you. You will begin to see the proper perspective for the testimony. Things will make more sense when you read it with the “corporate view.” That’s because God’s image is community. So, naturally, the process of being conformed to that image must be communal.

The fact is that we are already one. We are in Christ and He is in us. This makes us one (John 17:22, 23). How could we all be “in Christ” and yet not be one? The problem is not our oneness, the problem is the practical expression of that oneness. That comes through us walking it out together day by day. That comes through us developing a “body consciousness.”

It comes through a revelation of the corporate nature of the church. It comes through developing a lifestyle of community and not one of individualism and independence. And it comes by us sharing our lives with one another and taking care of one another. In a word, this is family, but family in the true sense of the word. Not family as we have seen it in this world, but family as a genuine expression of the community life of God.

Being conformed to His image (or becoming like Christ) is a corporate matter. We are transformed together by the renewing of our minds (Rom. 12:1-5). This renewal happens because we are learning to think as a body instead of just a bunch of individuals. We are “learning” Christ. We are learning and experiencing the oneness of the Head and Body. We are learning to think and function as the One New Man (see Col. 3:9-11).

This is true discipleship. It’s not a matter of being placed into a program of individual training of Bible study, prayer evangelism, and character development. Rather, it is the life transformation process of being practically conformed into His image. This is the outflowing of His community life. It is the fleshing out of the fellowship of the Godhead.

Therefore, I can only conclude from this that all true “discipleship” happens in a corporate context. We learn together how to live by Christ. This is something that we all learn in the daily fires of organic church life.

Milt Rodriguez, The Community Life of God
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What Does God Eat?

This is the second excerpt from Milt Rodriguez’s book The Community Life of God. You can find the links to the other excerpts here.

The main activity of the tabernacle is the bringing of offerings to God. The offering is a “present” or gift to God. The Bible tells us that the offerings are food for God (Numbers 28:2). Have we ever thought of it in this way? We come to God to get fed. We know that He is our life supply and the Bread of Life (John 6). But have we ever had the thought that God is hungry as well? Of course, I am speaking spiritually here. But God does want to eat! This is the deeper meaning behind the offerings. The offerings are to provide food for God. But what does God like to eat? Actually there is only one thing. His tastes are very specific.

There is a principle that is well known among Bible teachers and theologians. It’s called the principle of “first mention.” What it means is that the first time something is mentioned in the Bible, that incident will give you the purest meaning behind the whole subject throughout the rest of the scriptures. If we want to understand offerings, we need to look at the first offering.

The first offering was with Cain and Abel. Cain had a garden and he brought an offering to the Lord from his produce. Abel tended sheep and brought one of the young lambs to the Lord. Why did God accept Abel’s offering and not Cain’s? It’s because Cain brought the “fruit” of his own labors. Abel brought a pure, innocent lamb. Cain brought his own works; Abel brought a picture of Christ. Do you see what kind of offering satisfies God? There is only one kind of food He likes …….Christ!

The Church has two main purposes: to express Christ visibly to the world, and to bring food to God. The tent of meeting is the gathering of believers. When we come together what kind of offering do we bring to God? The only food He is satisfied with is His only Son. Is that the food that we are bringing? Most of you may say that you never really bring anything to the meetings. If that is the case, then you are missing the purpose of the gatherings. However, just bringing anything to the meeting is not enough. God wants to be fed Christ.

If we are experiencing Christ on a daily basis, if we are fellowshipping with Him in our spirits and touching Him in the other realm, if we are seeking Him in the scriptures and expecting Him to give us revelation, then we will have a sweet smelling offering (present) to give to Him. We will bring an acceptable offering, the only acceptable offering which is Christ.

Milt Rodriguez, The Community Life of God
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Books / Videos

The Community Life of God

This enlightening book by Milt Rodriguez will change your life; it has become one of my favorites. This is a great resource for group study, being only 200 pages with short chapters. I hope you enjoy this book as much as I did. I plan on posting 2 or 3 excerpts…yes, it’s that good! Unfortunately, the website in the book isn’t linked anymore and his email isn’t active. There is one website still active and it’s a useful tool for those interested in Organic Church. See here.

You do not realize how deep this individualistic mindset really goes. You still have no idea how firmly rooted this is in your mind. It effects the way that you view God, yourself, your friends and family, and the world. And it also effects the way that you view and interpret the holy scriptures, the Bible.

When you open your Bible and begin to read, you immediately begin to interpret everything through the filter of your individualistic mind. You automatically assume that the scriptures were written to you as an individual so you apply them that way. But that is not reality. The truth is that most of the scriptures were not written to the individual.

Most of the New Testament was written to corporate entities. These were communal expressions of the Body of Christ in different localities or cities. I’m trying not to use the word “church” here because of the horrendous abuse of that term. For example, the letter to the Colossians was not written to you as an individual. It was written to the community of believers in the city of Colossae. The context for this letter is the community life. You cannot superimpose your individualistic mindset and lifestyle upon this letter. It just won’t fit.

It’s very difficult to really understand this letter unless you are experiencing the community life with a group of believers. You will have a tendency to always bring back the meaning of this letter and relate it to your own individual walk with God. But this letter is not about that. This letter is about the centrality, supremacy, and preeminence of Christ. That is, “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Now, please pay attention very carefully.

When you just read my quotation of that verse in Colossians you immediately took that verse and applied it to you as an individual. “Christ in me, the hope of glory.” But that’s not what that verse says! It says, “Christ in you…” but that word “you” is plural, not singular! Paul is speaking to the church in Colossae and is telling them about a secret, a mystery which has been hidden for ages. But this mystery has now been made known to His saints. This mystery is Christ in all of you. In other words, Christ lives in His Body! Christ lives in you all.

Of course, it’s also true that Christ lives in you as an individual. But that is not what Paul is talking about here. He is talking about God’s mysterious purpose being fulfilled by a communal body that contains and expresses the life of His Son. This is just one example of how we take the scriptures and interpret and apply them to us as individuals. We are constantly doing this without even being aware of it. This is what I call the individualistic mind. We very rarely think in terms of the community. Yet that is exactly how we need to think in order to understand the scriptures. The scriptures, after all, were written by a God who is community. Only a renewing of our minds brought about by a constant contact with our indwelling Lord can bring about a change.

We do this with everything. We see everything through our “filters” of individualism. We desperately need to ask God to open our eyes to see the way He sees. We need to see from His perspective. We need to see from His viewpoint. That viewpoint is community. We need to have a revelation of God’s eternal purpose, and then see and understand everything according to that purpose. That purpose is the motivation behind everything God says and does. He is always working to fulfill this purpose in and through us (see Rom. 8:28-30).

When we see the scriptures only from an individual viewpoint, something very damaging happens. We place ourselves under the law, and the resulting condemnation and guilt. When we apply the scriptures to ourselves individually, then we simply can’t measure up to what God wants and we come under condemnation. Let me give you an example from the direct words of our Lord.

Matthew, chapters 5, 6, and 7 are normally referred to as the Sermon on the Mount. But after reading this section of Matthew, who would not feel totally inadequate? Why? Because as an individual, you are totally inadequate to live the kind of life described in these chapters. But we miss the point. In these chapters, and in many other places in the gospels, Jesus is describing a people. He is giving the description of a kingdom of people, of a new race, one new man. This passage can only be understood from the communal perspective. When you take it individually, it becomes law and results in condemnation. But this is a description of a corporate man who contains the life of Christ, the only one who can fulfill the law! The law is fulfilled by God’s eternal, divine, community life, not by an individual.

Another example of our mistaken viewpoint is in Ephesians 6:10-18 concerning the armor of God. Remember that this letter was written to a church; actually, it was written to several churches in Asia Minor. Paul was not asking individuals to put on the armor of God, He was asking the Church. The bride, the body of Christ puts on this armor. Not you as an individual. You could never measure up to this as an individual. And what is this armor? Truth, righteousness, peace, faith, salvation, and the word of God. Who is all of those things, dear reader? That’s right, it’s Christ Himself! The Church is to put on Christ as her only armor and protection.

We desperately need to see everything from His viewpoint. We need to see as He sees; we need to think as He thinks. And we need to see all of the scriptures in relationship to His eternal purpose to have a corporate image (or man) who will express the life of His Son. This is the central thought of God throughout the whole Bible. If we miss this, we miss the main point of everything.

Milt Rodriguez, The Community Life of God
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The Vast New Covenant Transition

Authors George Davis and Michael Clark have a chapter in this book called Not Forsaking the Assembly, a phrase from Hebrews 10 which has been used disparagingly toward those who remove themselves from corporate church. I have posted a segment from that chapter below and it’s well worth the read. You can get a free download here.

What is new and living about people meeting in earthly sanctuaries, all facing a speaker’s platform in total passivity until a dominate leader looks down upon them from his pulpit and directs them to move, pray, sing or pay? Is this what Jesus consecrated for us to walk in? What is new and living about churches with earthly structures with their presiding priests and pastors? Even the pagans order their temples after this pattern. Is this what Jesus died for–to put a new patch on an old, worn out religious garment? Are we to enter through the veil of His torn flesh so we can sit passively on a pew for seventy years and then die? Is this what it means to assemble in that new and living way? Will our tombstone in the church yard read, “Here lies Joe. He was faithful to assemble in the old covenant way for seventy years and his pastor was proud of him”?

If it is not new and living it is not a New Covenant assembly, regardless of how many people are gathered under one roof. The epistle to the Hebrews is a warning and an exhortation. Its author repeatedly warns that those who draw back from this heavenly way to return to the old religious traditions risk failing to enter into the fullness of God’s intention. The question is, do we have ears to hear this warning?

It’s clear from this epistle that the early Jewish believers were dividing into two camps. Some were forsaking assembling in this new and heavenly way and were turning back to the earthly forms of the old religious order, refusing to heed the high calling of the sons of God. They were forsaking the assembling together as His living body, just as surely as unbelieving Israel at Kadesh Barnea grieved God and did not go in and inherit the land of promise.

Those who refuse the new and living way by turning back to dead religious forms are forsaking the general assembly and church of the firstborn. Those who refuse to go on in this heavenly way and return to sitting mutely on a pew are the ones who are forsaking the proper assembly. The author of Hebrews later tells us of our heavenly calling and assembly, which should not be forsaken.

George Davis and Michael Clark, The Vast New Covenant Transition
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One Body in Christ

This is a beautiful and concise work from Kokichi Kurosaki (1886-1970). It’s interesting to hear his perspective of western religion’s departure from one loving community to the sectarian institution it has become. You can read this, and other works free, from the website awildernessvoice.com. Here is an excerpt below.

This koinonia–living in fellowship with God and Christ, having access to God and meeting Him in love and faith–is the real Ekklesia. In such experience of life, Christians will meet together, worship God together, help one another and do various good works in cooperation. As is natural in human society so in the Ekklesia, there will be division of labor according to the varieties of gifts (I Cor. 12:27-28). Everything will be controlled by the Head, Christ and each member will do his own part in obedience to the will of the Head. No human institutions, rituals or ceremonies are necessary to realize this. The Ekklesia cannot be formed by human knowledge and human activities. Indeed, it was of these products that the tower of Babel was built. The institutional church may have some outward likeness to the Ekklesia, but spiritual fellowship with God and Christ is more stifled than helped by the formalities of the church.

The legal unity of human organization, which is so often governed by men appointed by human methods is substitute for spiritual unity. By its very nature–being an institution–the organized church is prone to become fleshly rather than spiritual. Also, the existing sectarianism is itself a proof of fleshly-mindedness. “For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving like ordinary men?” (I Cor. 3:3). The Ekklesia, on the other hand, is a product of the Spirit. It is, therefore, absolutely necessary that spiritual means be employed in its government and edification.

If we do not give the rightful preeminence to koinonia with God through Christ as the center of Christian faith we cannot but fail, for there are only two courses before us. Aside from secular atheism and the materialistic concept, if we do not find satisfaction through communion with God–for which we were created–then, invariably, we will try to find reality and satisfaction in the “Churchianity” of institution, forms and doctrines. Lacking spiritual “life,” we turn to “religion”–the lifeless corpse.

Kokichi Kurosaki, One Body of Christ