Debating the "House Church"
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Dear Rev Ray, whom I count as a friend,

Nothing could be more "public" than a group of people who meet in a home in front of neighbors, who can often hear the singing in their neighbor's home and wonder, "What  kind of crazy fanatics are they?"

Sometimes the public nature of a home church is accentuated by a Secular Humanist in the city government who decides that a residential building is not "zoned" for "worship" (as though suburbanites never worship together as a family during the week in their home). This can be very reminiscent of the early church:

As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering every house, and dragging off men and women, committing them to prison.
Acts 8:3

A church building separated from neighbors can sometimes allow a family to leave their own neighborhood and keep their religion "private." Sometimes "public" can actually mean "anonymous."

I find no evidence whatsoever that New Testament Christians met anywhere but in homes (although they also attended synagogue [cf. Acts 15:21]). Have I missed it? I understand the church building came later and was financed by the Empire (and came with strings attached).

Food for thought.

Christ's blessings,


Kevin C.
http://members.aol.com./Patriarchy/book4.htm
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And they shall beat their swords into plowshares
and sit under their Vine & Fig Tree.
Micah 4:1-7

Other than those duties which were unique to the apostles and those they appointed (e.g., Timothy) to labor in the "last days" of the Old Covenant, there are no duties of an "elder" which are not also duties of a head of a household. *Every* man is called to be an overseer to those who are weaker and less mature. Any family head who refuses to accept these pastoral responsibilities is an insolent rebel against God's Commands.

http://members.aol.com./Patriarchy/book4.htm

The greatest impediment to the extension of the Crown Rights of King Jesus has been the idea that the institutions of "church" and "state" have a monopoly on Godly Responsibility and the rest
of the people are allowed (if not commanded) to function as mere tax/tithe-paying spectators.

Other than that, I know the ideals we share exceed our differences. :-)

Christ's blessings,


Kevin C.
http://members.aol.com/VF95Theses/paradigm.htm
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And they shall beat their swords into plowshares
and sit under their Vine & Fig Tree.
Micah 4:1-7

 

Rom 16:5 Likewise greet the church that is in their house.
1 Cor 16:19 Aquila and Priscilla salute you much in the Lord, with the church that is in their house.
Col 4:15 Salute Nymphas, and the church which is in his house.
Phile 1:2 And to Archippus our fellowsoldier, and to the church in thy house:

The house is the foundational metaphor for the church, not the church for the home.

1 Tim 3:15 I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.

Psalm 68:6; Jer 31:1

The Greeks were reminded of this centrality in a way English readers are not:

Mat 16:18 And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will house-build My church; [oiko-domeo] and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

Free Market Economics is *family* economics, as the word "economy" (oiko-nomos) means, "Primarily, the management, regulation, and government of a family, or the concerns of a household" (Webster's, 1828).

Abraham, our father in the faith, was clearly a home-churcher:

Gen 17:13 He that is born in thy house, and he that is bought with thy money, must needs be circumcised: and My covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. {23} So Abraham took Ishmael his son, all who were born in his house and all who were bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham's house, and circumcised the flesh of their foreskins that very same day, as God had said to him.
Gen 18:19 For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the LORD, to do justice and judgment; that the LORD may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him.
Gen 14:14 And when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his trained servants, born in his own house, three hundred and eighteen, and pursued them unto Dan.

Nowhere in Biblical Law does God command these functions to be taken from the Family and given to a "State" or "Church."

Mark 10:42-45 But Jesus called them to Himself and said to them, "You know that those who are considered rulers [Gk: "archists"] over the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and their great ones exercise authority upon them. {43} "Yet it shall *not* be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant. {44} "And whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of all. {45} "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many."

We are to be servants, not archists, not socialists, not liberals, not Clintonistas.

http://members.aol.com/Patriarchy/definitions/archist.htm

Wouldn't Arkansas be a better place if all the citizens were committed to exercising theonomic dominion, practiced hospitality in their homes, did not trust the Clinton regime to provide needed social services and public order, but rather formed a network of voluntary associations, and exhorted one another to Godly obedience "daily" (Heb 3:13)  rather than simply going to Bill Clinton's church once a week?

Yet I am not permitted to respond to your post on the Theonomy list in part because I refuse to be a member of Bill Clinton's church and Bill Clinton's state, advocating.personal responsibility instead.

Is not your post unwittingly perpetuating the slave mentality of the New World Order?

He sounds like an "archist," which Jesus forbad him to be. You're not saying that it is *impossible* for a non-house church to "hijack the binding energies of the family" are you?

Pardon me? :-)


Thanks for your provocative comments.
I'm sure the ideals we share exceed our differences.


Kevin C.
http://members.aol.com/VF95Theses/paradigm.htm
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And they shall beat their swords into plowshares
and sit under their Vine & Fig Tree.
Micah 4:1-7