Read Galatians. Who has bewitched you? Answer: the church. The letter kills, the Spirit gives life. The flesh profits nothing. This means striving to obey NT commands and precepts will not profit you. You're getting the cart ahead of the horse. Paul expounded over and over that this life is to be lived by Christ in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure those works He established before the foundations of the world. The father had prepared a body, us, for His Son. We need to discern the body of Jesus.....it is His people, the ekklesia.
Ink on paper is not enough. That's right, I said it. The bible in and of itself is not enough. The first century believers had no KJV, authorized or otherwise, under their arm, yet they turned their little world upside down for the Master.
How in the world? Answer: Christ in them the hope of glory. Filled with the Holy Spirit with no need of man to teach them anything or say 'know the Lord' for they knew that they knew The Lord, He dwelled within them. Those that no longer be tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine were no longer children. They that be led of the Spirit are the sons of God.
Paul pounded this home all day long but few there be that find it. Broad is the way that leads to destruction ( a fruitless life) and the majority travel that dry dusty road. The traditions of men and doctrines of demons have made His word null and void.
The modern church does not turn its surrounding world upside down, but rather the other way around, the world has turned the church upside down.
Man controls what goes on in the 'gathering'. Christ has carved Ichabod on the front door 'the Lord has departed this place'. I mean why should He hang out where He is not wanted or needed. Pastor Onthetake has everything under control.
Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom for all members of His body to function according to 1Cor. 12 and 14 as God commanded. Where the flesh of man is in charge there is no such freedom. We are in bondage to laws and by-laws.
How is it that we have begun in the Spirit to end up trying to live this thing out by following ink on paper? What happened to the Spirit that leads and empowers?
The believers are the house of God, not brink and mortar. Not natural stones, but we are lively stones, built up a spiritual house, every member of His body functioning in the assembly.
I submit that what we call church today is not what the first century believers would recognize as scripturally legal. It has no biblical leg to stand on. No NT reference to draw from to support its existence.
The 'book' worshippers of today are no different than the law keepers of the old covenant, the Pharisees and Sadducees who twisted the scriptures so as to profit from them and keep the folks in religious chains. Then for 2000 years the wolves, false prophets, false teachers, and hirelings that Paul warned about all day long took the lead in exalting themselves over the sheep as 'Diotrephes who loveth to have the preeminence among them(above the folks).'
In a word, when man elevates himself above his fellows, this displaces Christ as Head. This, in turn, quenches the Holy Spirit, relegating Christ to the back of the bus, as it were. This, in turn, forces the flesh to 'carry on' without the Spirit, (think, endless programs to fill the void). This, in turn, causes the folks to die on the vine spiritually, and many don't even know they are dead. 'They have a name saying they are alive, yet they are dead.'
They feed on husks, scrolls of ink on parchment, the letter that killeth, absent the Spirit, absent liberty, absent life.
Please pray about this 1700 year travesty. Paul warned that this would happen after his death, 'after I depart wolves WILL rise up out of your midst and drag people into bondage with them into spiritual darkness'(mine).
Note: he did not say wolves might rise up and take over, he said they WILL take over. But even then, God has always had a remnant that could smell the coffee.
For further study check out
A Wilderness Voice in Search of a City and
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