IT Shouldn't Be in the Church: The Saga Continues

By Thomas E. Walker

IT Shouldn't Be in the Church offers the reader an alternative approach to understanding the true value of what a church should look and feel like.The church is a community of called-out believers that believe in the same principles of faith and understand why the church is important to everyday life.Many dynamics of the church are discussed in the chapters as it invites thought-provoking reflection if the church is ready for the next progression or if there is more work to be done.The author provides a case for the importance of believers gathering together in fellowship, but does fellowship create an atmosphere of unity and peace? Many factors play an invaluable role in the methodology of the church, one of which is the teaching. However, are we learning all that we should know about the church, her history, and her purpose?IT Shouldn't Be in the Church is not a book of what if or why it isn't something; this book primarily focuses on finding ways to value and appreciate everything that is personal and true about the church so other believers can see Christ every time the doors open.This book asks the following questions:What is the church? What shouldn't be in the church? Why are there churches? And what controls the church?The author takes a revelatory response to the intelligence of what the Church is while providing a practical way to finding the answers.A Great Teacher said, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in, to him and dine with him, and he with Me." (Revelation 3:20)Thomas E. Walker is a graduate of Liberty University Theological Seminary with a Master of Art in Christian Ministries; and a Master of Divinity in Pastoral Counseling from Liberty University Rawlings School of Divinity, and founder of two Christian organizations.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Mar 11, 2021
• ISBN: 9781098064754

Book preview

cover.jpg

IT Shouldn’t 

Be in the Church

The Saga Continues

Thomas E. Walker

ISBN 978-1-0980-6474-7 (paperback)

ISBN 978-1-0980-6475-4 (digital)

Copyright © 2020 by Thomas E. Walker

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

IT: The thing, act, or matter about which these words are spoken or written.

—Merriam-Webster

Acknowledgments

To God and his Son, Jesus, for providing me with the understanding and strength to write this project. I understand that it was your grace and mercy that allowed me to finish it, and I pray for your blessings on every page and chapter. May each chapter bring a reader closer to your love and grace. I want to thank you for the Holy Spirit and his willingness to lead me into all truth while writing.

I want to thank my wife, Denise Ford-Walker, for being my encourager, prayer partner, proofreader, and greatest supporter. You encouraged me through every struggle that I endured while writing this book. You have been my nurse, caregiver, and minister along this journey. I could not have completed seminary and this book without your love and understanding.

May the grace of God continue to bless you and love you just as much as I do.

To my family, I love you all deeply, and I pray that this book finds itself in your home and in your hearts one day.

A special thank you to my mother, Elaine Walker, for loving me when I could not love myself. Thank you for taking me to church and helping me understand the meaning of faith and grace. I love you, Mother.

To Celora Beeler, thank you for your prayers and words of encouragement when we were in our storms. Your prayers and words were lights in dark places. Your conversations when we needed them most gave us strength to fight and endure through the sicknesses and pains we both felt physically and emotionally.

More importantly, I thank you, God, for sending the Holy Spirit to help me to write this book. I truly understand the scripture where it says, So he answered and said to me: ‘This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit, Says the Lord of hosts’ (Zachariah 4:6).

God bless, and may this book touch someone’s heart and bless them.

Introduction

The Church

When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am? So they said, Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.

He said to them, But who do you say that I am? Simon Peter answered and said, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Jesus answered and said to him, Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock, I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Then He commanded His disciples that they should tell no one that He was Jesus the Christ.

From that time Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day. Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You!

But He turned and said to Peter, Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men. (Matthew 16:13–28 NKJV)

What do we think about when we hear the word church?

The word church (ekklesia, Greek) is used in two ways in the New Testament. First, the word church used in the New Testament was considered a local congregation of believers who met on a regular basis to praise and worship. Second, the word church refers to the body of Christ consisting of repentant and redeemed believers regardless of their age or where they come from.

The Oxford Universal English Dictionary defines the word ecclesia (ekklesia) as this:

Ecclesia [mediaeval Latin, and Greek—from: summoned]—A regularly convoked assembly, especially the general assembly of Athenians. Later, the regular word for church.

Church is a term used to identify groups of individuals assembling together in allegiance to Jesus. The derivation of ekklesia means ek (out of) and kaleo (to call)—those called out.

Paul Enns tells us that in the middle ages concept of the church developed the following elements. (1) The visible nature of the church was emphasized; since Christ is visible in the incarnation, the church now continues Christ’s incarnation. The popes as visible successors of Peter, possess absolute authority. (2) There is a distinction between the teaching church (all the clergy with the pope at the head) and the hearing church (the faithful who honor the clergy). (3) The Church is made up of body (those professing the true faith) and soul (those united to Christ by supernatural gifts and graces). (4) The church distributes the graces of Christ through the agency of the clergy. (5) The church is an institution of salvation, a saving ark. It teaches the true faith, effects sanctification through the sacraments, and governs believers in accordance with ecclesiastical law (Enns 2008, 25).

However, the middle ages church incorrectly interpreted the prophetic word that Jesus gave to Peter when they proposed that the popes are visible successors of Peter, and that the popes possess absolute authority as they interpreted what Jesus said in Matthew 16:18. In order to provide more pertaining to the conversation, we must read verses 17–18 as it shows Jesus’s response to Peter’s confession that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus excitedly blessed Peter’s, then Simon Bar-Jonah, revelation of his deity and proclaimed that flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.

We must conclude the fact that there was only one Simon Bar-Jonah whom Jesus ordained as Peter Petros/Petra the rock and foundation of the called out ones. Therefore, other incarnations or offices of Petra cannot be founded biblically because Matthew 16 has been fulfilled and Peter’s consecration cannot be usurped by man’s desire to be a messiah or god on earth.

Jesus spoke into Simon Bar-Jonah’s existence when he said I say to you, meaning he affirmed that Simon was the vessel of truth and faith chosen by God to reveal that he was the Messiah. Also, Jesus, now being proclaimed Messiah for the Jews and the Anointed One for mankind, clearly brings John the Baptist’s message of repentance unto salvation into clear focus for the disciples.

Meaning, the spiritual stage has been established that the Anointed One (Christ) has come to redeem man from the original sin of disobedience and rebellion from Adam and Eve.¹ Consequently, each believer in Christ must have confidence in knowing that it is God’s will that no one should remain attached to the original sin and forced to live outside of his presence. That is why Jesus (the Messiah) provides the pathway for mankind to once again be reconciled back to God.

Jesus continued to speak into Simon’s life by revealing that he has been subdued by the atonement of the Christ, and he has been reborn into a spiritual-minded person whom God, through the Holy Spirit, can use to establish a renewed path to eternity. Jesus told Simon that flesh and blood did not reveal this, but My Father who is in heaven (Matthew 16:19). At that moment, the redemptive power of the Messiah of Simon was revealed in the heavenlies that an atonement for his sins was complete. A remnant would be established to carry on the work of offering salvation and proclaiming salvation and reconciliation in Christ would continue through the born-again believer. Jesus said to Simon, "I say to you that you are

Peter

; which translates in Greek to mean Petros or

Petra

meaning

rock

, and, I will build my church ‘ecclesia’ [ekklesia] and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it."

Jesus understood that since God revealed to Simon that Jesus is Messiah, God literally renewed Simon’s birthname to Peter, his spiritual name, which represents a spiritual mind shift to establish a foundation of being justified by faith in order to speak God’s purpose and plan for the other disciples in order for them to understand Jesus Christ’s position in earth. As a result, Jesus was able to move forward in obedience because the foundation for the called out ones would be established through commissioning and appointing Peter to be the foundational of truth when no one else was worthy to receive such a divine revelation.

Matthew 16:13–28 articulates the sequence of events that involved Jesus and his disciples after their encounter with the Pharisee and the Sadducees. The Pharisee tried to discredit Jesus by testing him with a question: Show us a sign from heaven (Matthew 16:1), although they were collectively trying to reveal to others that Jesus was not the Messiah nor was he the Son of God. Jesus told them that even if they saw a sign, they would not know it. Even if the Messiah came, died, and was resurrected, they still would not believe. To believe or know that something is real or has a reality is to fully accept something as being true. The Pharisees and Sadducees did not believe that Jesus was Christ and the Messiah. Others believed that he was a great teacher and rabbi or a prophet sent by God to reveal that God is still with them.

To understand the succinctness that the Pharisees and Sadducees revealed can be concluded into one complete sentence: God stopped talking to the Israelites or Pharisees and Sadducees for four hundred years, therefore, how could they know the messiah was walking among them? Jesus precluded to this fact when he stated, My sheep hear my voice (John 10:27–30).

Primarily, while going to the synagogue Jesus witnessed the spiritual depravity that the Jewish people of that time effortlessly incorporated in their worship. The Son of God, the Messiah for the Jewish people, saw the incorporation of pagan practices, such as selling and buying in the synagogues, non-sanctity worship in assemblies, and the establishment of exclusivity, ritualism, mysticism,² and Kabbalah practices among the leaders. Amos 5:26 tells how God was angry about their worship places, as he told them, "But ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun your images, the star of your god, which ye made to yourselves." The minor prophet expressed this as he pronounced his oracle against Israel in Amos 2:6–16, which outlines the depravity and willingness to disobey the commandments of God and how they incorporated pagan lifestyles such as promiscuity, immoral sexual behavior, greed, pride, and sinful worship of the pagan god’s Moloch and Chiun, as well as idols of gods.

The pagan gods Moloch and Chiun, according to the Britannica online encyclopedia, In the Hebrew Bible, Moloch is presented as a foreign deity who was at times illegitimately given a place in Israel’s worship as a result of the syncretistic policies of certain apostate kings. The laws given to Moses by God expressly forbade the Jews to do what was done in Egypt or in Canaan. You shall not give any of your children to devote them by fire to Moloch, and so profane the name of your God (Leviticus 18:21).³ Additionally, Merkava worship was practiced, and later Kabala worship by the Jewish people shows that the chosen people of Israel still had not returned to God in the current year 2019.

As a result of the concurrent disobedience to God’s plan for humanity—which was to bless his people for their obedience, draw close to Him, and to Love Him with all of your heart, soul, and mind—God inevitably judged the chosen people Israelites, which fulfilled the commands and prophecies delivered by the prophets of the Old Testament. God always provides a means of showing that he still loves us and cares that we are reconciled to him. Just as the prophet Isaiah of the Old Testament book in Isaiah 40:3 provided them with a sign when John the Baptist began preaching repentance and baptism in preparation for the messiah, "The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the

Lord

, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. The Jewish leaders of that time failed to understand that the prophecy in Isaiah 40:3 was being fulfilled. Additionally, another prophetic word that was given by God to the Jewish leaders could be found in Isaiah 9:6–7; it announced the birth of their Messiah as it stated, For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this."

Prophecies of the book of Isaiah were written prior to the intertestamental period, which is known as four hundred years of silence. God wanted to show mankind that he is just and loving; he predestined all events of the Old Testament to bring glory to his plan and purpose so that anyone who calls upon the name of the Lord can be saved. God revealed himself as a provider, a keeper, a protector, and a no-nonsense God capable of delivering his people from their oppression and pain. The sovereign God delivered them from the pagan empire that enslaved them. If this were the beginning of the saga, then we can believe that the Old Testament story in Exodus about the Israelites could be the first called out believers.

God told Moses that he saw the affliction of his people.⁴ Also, if we take a moment to fully think about God’s words to Moses relating to God seeing their affliction and he is coming to their deliverance, we can internalize the fundamental truth that God hears our cries and our anguish when we are crying out to him for help and deliverance. As believers of the Old and New Testament scriptures, Psalm 34:19 provides a greater perspective of God’s mercy and grace during rough times as it says, "Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the

Lord

delivereth him out of them all." God’s deliverance is succinct and concise to what we need and how our blessings will be assigned to it after our walk of obedience to God’s plan.

Moreover, a case can be presented that the first assembly of called out ones were the children of Israel because they were assembled and being led by God through his instrument, Moses, from the bondage and oppression of Egypt. Other nationalities, in addition to the Israelites, also included many Egyptians and multitudes of nations and races that walked by faith and sometimes fear from their present circumstance. This walk of faith consisted of them wandering in the wilderness forty years. But they trusted in the God of Moses to have a better life until times started to get harder than expected.

Just like the called-out ones today, we must not be afraid to cry out to God for our deliverance and salvation. The children of Israel’s bondage and enslavement parallels to the trials and warfare that Christians today face. We are constantly faced with defending our position on so many social and political disobediences until believers are now being persecuted and oppressed for their beliefs outlined in the Old and New Testament scriptures.

Consequently, we see the biblical scriptures come to life and prophecies about this world come to pass right before our eyes and through the media as it were being revealed right before the leaders’ eyes, and they still did not believe. Additionally, it was also mentioned in Matthew 2:1–12 that wisemen from the east came to the king and told him and the Jewish leaders of a child to be born who will be King of the Jews. Finally, it is recorded in Luke 4:15–30 that Jesus revealed to the Jewish leaders that he is Messiah.⁵ Consequently, from that point forward, the leaders of the day could not exclude the fact that Jesus grew up among them and the additional fact that they knew Joseph and Mary to be his parents. Yet they read the preparation and announcement that he would be arriving. Jesus performed many miracles and healings directly in front of the leaders, revealing his divinity to have power and rule over divination, sickness, and death; still, they did not believe. So when they asked for a sign, Jesus understood that they were totally blinded by jealousy or disobedience of who he is.

Therefore, Jesus proposed a question to his inner circle, his disciples, whom he had been around since he began his ministry. He asked them, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? His direct followers said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets. Jesus continued to ask a very critical question, But whom say ye that I am? This is a critical question because Jesus invited them into his life to see who he was as part man and part divine. Jesus revealed that he is loving and just when he taught with parables and how he wept for Lazarus. Jesus, the Son of man, the Messiah, the Prince of Peace, revealed everything to the disciples without hesitation. He was transparent and yet very obedient to his Father’s will, so it was imperative that Jesus knew the hearts and minds of his followers.

You can feel the murmuring and feelings of insecurity among his disciples; this was partly due to the fact that they were too busy discussing which of them were closest to Jesus and which of them did Jesus love most. Additionally, they were still trying to figure out if they were doing the right