Apostasy is Both Gradual and Progressive, Part 2

In the study of the Restoration Movement that began to unfold in our country near the beginning of the 19th century, it appears that those individuals, in their study of the Holy Scriptures, were leaving the doctrines of the denominational world as they learned truths found in the Bible. Their aim was to bring the many into the one body of Jesus Christ. This was indeed a noble desire. Often these men and women had to grapple with what they had been taught and practiced upon learning the right way and making decisions as to what they would do. If it was infant baptism, they made the decision in their integrity to abandon that practice and to immerse only believers. That was indeed a momentous step in the right direction. However, it appears presently the opposite has been occurring in the teaching and practice of numerous brethren among us. The emphasis is more like having many churches out of the one and that the diversity of doctrines and practices by each religious entity does not hinder the unity of believers. We have not always understood matters in this manner. Many of our well-known leaders among us have changed their directions over the years. Brother Rubel Shelly wrote a book in 1984 that caused some disturbances in the church. He made various statements that were not supported by the Holy Scriptures. However, if you will read again the book I Just Want to Be A Christian, you will see that he had much good to say about the nature of New Testament Christianity. In fact, he was still very conservative in many of his views. Latter, he and John York co-authored the book, The Jesus Proposal in 2003 that really shows how far Rubel has traveled along the path of apostasy. Please observe some of the changes that took place in the thinking, preaching and writing of our brother over a period of some nineteen years.

Here are a few excerpts from the book I Just Want to Be A Christian:

RESTORATION: “If the original followers of Christ were unified and nondenominational, surely that is the ideal for us” (Page 28.)

“Over the centuries, the New Testament vision of a united church has been replaced by the present situation of denominationalism.” “The motive behind all restoration movements is to tear down walls of separation by a return to the practice of the original, essential, and universal features of the Christian religion. To be Christians only, it is necessary to work apart from denominations – or else we perpetuate the very divisions we seek to overcome. In the context of such a movement for Christian unity, separation from all partisan efforts within so-called Christendom must be maintained”
(Page 29).

“All the apostles belonged to the church of God and to no denomination; some today belong to the church of God and to a denomination as well. They have no need of the latter and have the spiritual obligation of abandoning it for the sake of the former. The plea for restoration seeks to return all of us to the original situation where Christians belong to the church and to nothing of human origin” (Page 47).

Now move ahead to the year 2003 when we can learn how much this brother has changed in his understanding of important biblical doctrines and practices as found in the book The Jesus Proposal.

“The local church for which the two of us preach is consciously trying to continue to sink into union with the body of Christ at large. Yes, the body of Christ at large is always concretely expressed in local fellowships, in units of believers we call assemblies or local church. But within particular communities of faith we can live again with a larger vision of ourselves beyond the boundaries that have dominated American Protestant Christianity.” (Page 47).

“In much of the literature and thought characteristic of writers from Churches of Christ, no distinction is made between denominationalism and sectarianism. But denominations are not sinful per se. More than that, they are surely inevitable and potentially valuable” (Page 63).

“Can there be unity only when there is uniformity? Or is there evidence that the Holy Spirit not only honors but creates diversity in the body? Is it possible that the Spirit of God can work with denominations today very much as he did with local churches or city churches in the first century? In a world so densely populated and gathered in cities of multiple millions, is the structural simplicity of the Mediterranean world of the first century a possibility? Was the unity of the one church ever really structural so much as relational? If the latter, can we not envision relational unity among Christian denominations so long as we avoid sectarianism. And could such relational unity not be healthy rather than detrimental to the life of the body of Christ?” (Page 7).

As you can readily discern, brother Shelley has truly had a change of conviction from his earlier writings. Instead of ‘out of many, one’; he is now advocating ‘out of one, many.’ This is in conflict with and opposed to the desire and prayer of our Lord as recorded in John 17:20, 21: “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one is Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me” (NKJV). The ultra liberal branch of the Restoration Movement, The Disciples of Christ, expressed many years ago that it wanted to simply be a part of the entire denominational world and thus it has fulfilled that desire. Presently there is a rather large segment of our brotherhood that is traveling the same road. The body of Christ is the church of our Lord (Ephesians 1:22, 23; Colossians 1:18) and the body (church) is one (Ephesians 4:4). While the body (church) is one, it has many members (I Corinthians 12:12). The members spoken of in this context of I Corinthians 12 are individual members of the one body (church) and not various religious institutions. (To be continued)

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