Do You Really Want To Be A Part Of A First Century Church?

Normally when a question like this is asked, the person asking is trying to make a point about the heart of the audience.  Like, "Do you want this, or are you just saying you do?"  Not me, not today.  I've asked it like that before.  I've questioned people's motives before.  I've asked people if they want to follow the Bible or just their desires.  We are familiar with that.  But I'm going to put a new spin on this one today.  Let me ask it this way, "Is the church we see in the first century really what we should be using as our template for the church?"

Now that you all think I'm crazy, let me add to chaos.  I think the first century church is put on an undue pedestal.  For instance, we were in worship the other day and a word was being said before taking up the collection.  The man said, "We do this because we see that the church in the first century did it, in Corinth."

So???

The church in Corinth did a lot of things.  Most of which Paul came down on them pretty hard for.  So why are we suddenly using the most liberal church in scripture as our standard?

You wanna see the church of the first century?  Liberal [and I don't just mean financially, I mean morally] (Corinth), Bigoted (Rome), Back sliding/giving up (Hebrews), adopting other creeds and traditions (Galatia), self-centered (Ephesus), proud (Laodicea), etc.  This is a pretty bleak picture.  These churches are just as bad off, or worse, than many today.

Here is my point.  The church, while established by God, is made up of human beings, fallible and weak.  We should never, ever, ever use any group of people as our authority.  Do I think the church in Corinth was right in giving money?  Absolutely.  Do I think that their doing it makes it the reason we give money?  Nope. 

Instead of saying we want to be like the first century church, or even "The churches we see in the New Testament, I believe we should be in churches that follow the New Testament, the Word of God.  Our authority comes from word of God, not people that came before us that got close.

As a side note, this should especially be our point of view when studying "Restoration History".  Campbell, Stone, Lipscomb, etc were good men, but they were not apostles, or prophets or the second coming.  They were men.  They did a lot of good.  Follow their spirit.  Be inspired by their mission.  But don't look to the 1850's like Jesus came back and set the church up right again and use them as authority.  The word of God and it alone is our authority.