The Church, the Falling Away, and the RestorationShepherd, J. W. (James Walton)
Religion
The Church, the Falling Away, and the Restoration
Shepherd, J. W. (James Walton)
Churches of Christ -- Doctrines; Disciples of Christ -- Controversial literature; Disciples of Christ -- Doctrines
Shall we, then, look for still greater material splendor and wealth in
temples, vestments, altars and instruments of music? If not, why not?
And still, if not, why did the like exist under the former and inferior
economy? We should look for nothing of the sort, nor suffer its
intrusion upon the Church of Christ, and that for one reason, sufficient
without others equally good—the former economy, in all its ceremonials,
was typical of spiritual blessings then to come. There was a perfect
typical system most expressive and opposite, but rendered useless when
its antitypes appeared. The cross took the place of the altar; the High
Priest of our confession came in the room of the Aaronic priesthood,
“the sacrifice of praise,” “that is the fruit of our lips,” set aside
the praise by trumpets, psaltery and cymbal. These were good and
expressive in their day and place. “A shadow of things to come; but the
body is Christ” (Col. 2:17). “For the law having a shadow of good things
to come, not the very image of the things, can never with the same
sacrifices year by year, which they offer continually, make perfect them
that draw nigh. Else would they not have ceased to be offered?” (Heb.
10:1). So we see that the Holy Spirit very aptly informs us that “the
body” or substance, is Christ’s, and when he came and filled to the full
the types and shadows of the law, they passed away in their entirety,
giving place to higher institutions, by means of which the worshipers
could be made perfect. “And not only so,” as a ripe Bible student very
forcefully says, “but just in proportion as these abandoned shadows are
intruded into the church and worship of God they become injurious and
more or less substitutes for the realities of which, in their day and
place, they were the proper types and symbols. Consequently, in setting
in order, by the apostles, of the Church of Christ, the temple and its
worship were in no degree taken as models, and this is highly
reasonable, inasmuch as the existence together of the type and the
antitype would be completely inadmissible. Nothing could have been
easier than for the apostles to have adopted priestly, or modified
priestly vestments. There could have been no manner of difficulty in
burning incense as an act of praise of worship. It can not be supposed
but that, long before the close of the apostolic ministry, they could
have used and enjoined the use of instrumental music. But no! Nothing of
the kind; no trace even of a leaning, or of a desire, in that direction.
The things of the shadows were done with, and those of the substance
took their place.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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