All Articles For Church Membership In His Fear

The Proper Viewpoint Thus far we have discussed rather negatively various attitudes which may be and often are assumed toward the question, ‘‘Where must I join myself as a church member?” We found that the attitude of the undenominationalist is to be rejected, that the attitude of those who place implicit trust in a certain institute is essentially idolatry, that those who simply go along with a certain movement of churches for various carnal reasons are carelessly indifferent traditionalists, and that those who view the whole matter from the standpoint of the possibility of avoiding hell-fire are utilitarian in their...

Worshipping the Institute In regard to the question under discussion, “Where must I join myself as church member?” there are others who assume an attitude of implicit trust in the particular church of which they are members. They take the position that the particular church to which they belong cannot make a mistake, and they simply take their stand without question on whatever happens to be the position of that church. They trust in a certain institution. They were born in that church; their parents and grandparents before them were members of the same church. They could not possibly think...

The question implied in our title, which we began to discuss in the last issue, namely, “To what church must I belong?” is an important one. It is important and pressing, as we noted last time, first of all, because of the vast multiplication of church denominations which has come into existence since the time of the Reformation especially. In the face of this situation the believer, who confesses one holy, catholic church, must make a decision and maintain a decision as to where he must have his church membership, where his “papers” should be. Doctrinally, too, the question involved,...

Introduction In this article we begin our discussion of a new question under our main theme of “Church Membership in His Fear”. Thus far we have discussed the implications of church membership as such, emphasizing the calling of the believer with regard to the church to which he belongs. We have not mentioned directly the matter of to what church he belongs. We might, perhaps, have discussed this latter question first quite properly, although for various reasons we have left it until now. For underlying all our previous discussions has been the supposition that we did belong to some certain...

Not Forsaking the Assemblies of the Saints, (continued) Once again let us remind ourselves of our aim in this discussion. It is not to formulate some merely external rules and regulations for church attendance, and thus to add line upon line and precept upon precept. Rather is our intention to discuss “in His fear” what our attitude as members of Christ’s church should be toward the assemblies of the saints, and in our discussion to examine ourselves. Hence, we must also beware in our self-examination in this matter that we do not conclude by boasting in the flesh instead of...

We do well to remind ourselves once again of our purpose in this discussion. We are busy with the practical implications of our church membership, or with the activity of our membership. And it stands to reason, that when we discuss this matter we must needs call attention to various errors and weaknesses which creep into our lives as church members. It is thus that we find ourselves discussing the deviation which we have called oncerism. And it is necessary that we receive these remarks in the proper attitude first of all. That means that we do not read them...

Last time we told the sad, sad story of the oncer, depicting the historical and logical end of himself and of the church which is the victim of him and his kind. And we tried to bring the story closer home by emphasizing that the story whose end is so pathetic has its beginning in the sometimes apparently innocent and oft unheeded error of oncerism, which is a manifestation not absent in our own circles. This time let us investigate oncerism a little more closely, that we may know what it really is and what is the attitude behind it,...

With the present issue we turn, once again to the subject which last had our attention in the December 1 Standard Bearer. The reader may recall that in that article we concluded that “there can be no doubt about it that the church is actually and concretely manifest in gatherings of specific congregations at certain places and at stated times/’ Hence, we drew the conclusion that “the believer will not think lightly of his membership in the church in the world,” and that “he knows. . . . that it is therefore his obligation before God to belong to that...

My title in this case is not my subject. I am not going to write about “an interlude”, but rather my article is an interlude in the series with which I was busy. I want to interrupt my series on “Church Membership” to write about the controversial discussion which is being carried on between our churches and the Liberated, and which has also been transferred into our own circles and is becoming an intra-church controversy. But I want to write about it from the viewpoint of “In His Fear”. The occasion of this writing is a matter of personal experience...

We have begun to call attention to the practical import of the truth that the Son of God gathers His church by His Word and Spirit from the beginning to the end of the world out of the whole human race. And last time we mentioned specifically the practical significance of the truth that this gathering takes place in the line of continued generations. It still remains, therefore, to call attention to the importance for church membership in the fear of the Lord of the truth that the church is a gathering out of the whole human race, and that...