From the TeachingtheWord Bible Knowledgebase Scripture and the Church God Deals In Remnants: Truth Is Not a Majority Opinion By Dr. Paul M. Elliott Part one of a series Today a majority vote often decides that a church will tolerate heresy alongside orthodoxy. But Christ builds His true Church on truth, not majority opinion. How Christ Builds His Church God's Word tells us how Christ builds His true Church. He builds it, not by the will of the flesh, but by His own will: But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. (John 1:12-13) He builds it, not upon human foundations, but as one body of both Jew and Gentile upon Himself and upon His Word through the apostles and prophets. The members of the true Church individually are the true dwelling place of God on earth: Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. (Ephesians 2:19-22) How Christ Does Not Build His Church But just as importantly, Scripture tells us how Christ does not build His true Church. In our time, two particular examples stand out. The "anything to draw a crowd" methods of the postmodern church-growth movement are not Christ's methods. The "compromise the Gospel to maintain peace" methods employed by a growing crosssection of purportedly conservative churches are not Christ's methods. 1
These methods, which which Scripture calls "the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting" (Ephesians 4:14), focus on numbers. Postmodern church-growth philosophy focuses on gaining numbers. Postmodern doctrinal compromise focuses on retaining them. However, Scripture tells us clearly that God is not at all interested in numbers in the way that much of contemporary church leadership is obsessed with them. In fact, we find just the opposite. We find that God deals in what are, to human calculations, small and insignificant things. God deals in remnants. As Jesus said: Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult [literally, confined or compressed] is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it. (Matthew 7:13-14) Not Numbers, But Truth You see, the thing that is of the utmost importance to our Lord Jesus Christ is not numbers, but truth. John speaks of the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ in terms of truth: "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth" (John 1:14). Jesus Himself said that salvation means knowing the truth: "And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:32). Jesus declared that He Himself is the Truth, and that there is no other way to the Father than the way of the truth: "Jesus said to him, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me" (John 14:6). Jesus told Pilate that the reason He came into the world was to bear witness to the truth, and that it is those who are of the truth who hear Him and believe: "Pilate therefore said to Him, 'Are You a king then?' Jesus answered, 'You say rightly that I am a king. For this 2
cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice'" (John 18:37). In His great high priestly prayer to the Father, Jesus declared that it is truth - the Word of God - that would set the members of His true Church apart from the world: "Sanctify them by Your truth. Your Word is truth" (John 17:17). The Holy Spirit declares through the Apostle Paul that apostasy is departure from the truth: "O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified?" (Galatians 3:1). "Have I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth?" (4:16). "You ran well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth?" (5:7). The Holy Spirit declares through the Apostle John that the truth is at home within the genuine believer: "The Elder, to the elect lady and her children, whom I love in truth, and not only I, but also all those who have known the truth, because of the truth which abides in us [literally, is at home within us] and will be with us forever" (2 John 1-2). The Holy Spirit also declares through John that truth is that which distinguishes the mindset of the genuine believer from that of the unbeliever, whose words and thoughts are in accord with the fallen world: "They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them. We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error" (1 John 4:5-6). Truth Is Not a Majority Opinion Today, many in the church operate as though truth were not what John describes, but rather a majority opinion. Far too often in our postmodern age, local churches, denominations, seminaries, and Bible colleges permit false teachers to remain among them and spread their soul-damning influence. A majority vote decides that their 3
heresies are not a spiritual cancer that must be removed without delay, but something that can be tolerated. One of the most egregious recent examples comes from the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA). In recent months (late 2011 and early 2012), three presbyteries of that denomination have voted to acquit men who clearly teach the damnable heresies of Federal Vision theology - salvation by water baptism, justification by faith plus works, and denial of the imputation of the perfect righteousness of Christ to redeemed sinners, among others. The PCA General Assembly opened the floodgates for this several years ago, when it declared that each of its over seventy presbyteries could erect its own definition of "the vitals of doctrine." And so just a few years later, side-by-side within the PCA there are presbyteries that embrace different and even diametrically opposite versions of "truth" - in each case decided by majority opinion. Some are true to the Word of God, but many are not. God Deals in Remnants While this should grieve God's people, it should not surprise us. It is a fact of Scripture and of church history that God deals in remnants - a few, relatively speaking, who remain faithful to Him. In nearly every era over a span of six thousand years we find vast majorities forsaking the truth, and small minorities clinging to it. In this series of articles we are going to examine some of those remnants, both in Scripture and in times closer to our own. Sometimes we may be surprised to see who is, and is not, in God's faithful remnant. But as we shall see, God often does mighty things for eternity through prepared and faithful remnants that are small, weak, and even ridiculous in the eyes of sinful man - but strong in the power of God. For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. 4
But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen [in the original, the small, or lowly, or insignificant things], and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence. But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God - and righteousness and sanctification and redemption - that, as it is written, "He who glories, let him glory in the Lord." (1 Corinthians 1:26-31) Next: Power In The Upper Room - A Minority Within a Minority sac0080 Copyright 1998-2012 TeachingtheWord Ministries www.teachingtheword.org All rights reserved. This article may be reproduced in its entirety only, for non-commercial purposes, provided that this copyright notice is included. We also suggest that you include a direct hyperlink to this article for the convenience of your readers. 5