The Logos Papers #61 The Present and Future State of the Church – To and For the Church

PAPER NO. 61

THE PRESENT AND FUTURE STATE OF THE CHURCH

To and For the Church

Logos Papers No. 61 & 62 (along with others) are written to and for the Church. They concern the present and future state of the Church. They presuppose the clarity of general revelation, addressed throughout The Logos Papers.

The Church is divided in its current inability and resistance to dealing with its doctrinal differences. As a result, it is in apostasy, in varying degrees, by its departing from the Historic Christian Faith found in its creeds and confessions.

These papers call the Church to repentance and to the reformation of the Church. A process of much discussion is needed to deal with its divisions.

To those who affirm the clarity of general revelation and Historic Christianity, these papers are a call to lay the Church’s foundation on solid rock, and to rebuild the walls and gates of the City of God.

The call to repent and to rebuild comes with the call to be thoughtful: “He that has an ear to hear, let him hear . . .”

The Church is the body of Christ, the Word of God (The Logos) incarnate. The Logos is the Word of God in its fullness, who makes God fully known.
As the body of Christ, the Church is the pillar and ground of the Truth. Only the foundation of general revelation knowable always to all men, and special revelation given in Scripture, makes knowing the fullness of Truth possible.
The Church, therefore, is called to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world. Without salt and light the culture is now in moral decay, nearing collapse.
The Church is for the worship of God and discipleship of its members. The Church is to worship God in spirit and in truth—not in zeal without knowledge, or in ritual without understanding. Only in true worship can the Church disciple its members.
The doors of the Church are always open to repentant sinners, who repent of root sin (of not seeking and understanding what is clear about God), as well as fruit sins. The Church’s doors are closed to unrepentant sinners. Unless you are born again, and repent, you cannot enter the kingdom of God.
The Church is to make disciples of all nations, teaching them to observe all that Christ has commanded. The Church prays, continually: “Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.”
The Church must be one, as the Father and Son are one, that the world might believe. The Church is now badly divided, and is therefore mostly disregarded, if not scorned.
The Church must have its foundation laid on the solid rock of clarity and inexcusability, to withstand the current storms of unbelief in the form of skepticism and secularism. The Church is now in captivity to fideism (belief without understanding), and to an otherworldly focus on heaven and hell.
The Church was once the head in Western Civilization. It is now the tail of the culture, due to its unbelief. The Church has not taken unbelief captive; it has not demolished pretensions raised up against the knowledge of God.
From its beginning, the Church (as those called out of the world) was to engage in a spiritual war with unbelief. Evil, like the good, has been corporate, cumulative and communal. Four cycles of world history now converge for a perfect storm: post-Babel, post-Pentecost, post-Reformation and post-Modern. War with unbelief has been age-long and agonizing, but the promise stands: good will overcome evil, even if we must go through judgment, again. The Church must repent, or all but a remnant will perish.