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
Every dispensation has had its peculiar worship. That of the Jewish
dispensation differed from the patriarchal. The worship under the
Christian dispensation is radically different from both. The worship
which was acceptable under the patriarchal would condemn a Jew; and that
which would justify a Jew would condemn a Christian. During the
patriarchal dispensation religion was confined to the family. Every one
was his own priest, and he could build his own altar and offer his own
sacrifices for himself and for his family. (Gen. 4:4; 8:20; Job. 1:5.)
But when the priesthood was changed, and confined to the family of Levi
(Ex. 28:1; Num. 25:11-13), this worship was no longer permitted by those
included in the Sinaitic covenant; hence no longer acceptable. It is
likewise true that the sacrifices offered by the Levitical priesthood
ceased to be acceptable after the death of Christ and the establishment
of the Church. When Christ ascended to the Father the priesthood was
changed. The high priesthood then passed into the hands of one belonging
“to another tribe, from which no man hath given attendance at the altar.
For it is evident that our Lord hath sprung out of Judah; as to which
tribe Moses spake nothing concerning priests” (Heb. 7:13, 14). The
priesthood being changed, a change of the Worship follows as a
necessity. “For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity
a change also of the law” (Heb. 7:12). While the worship of the three
dispensations had some things in common, each had its distinctive
peculiarities. Since Christianity is distinguished from every other
religion by its institutions and worship, it of necessity follows that,
in order to its preservation, these must be strictly observed. Nothing
short of this can preserve the Church from degeneracy and final
extinction. As we have already learned, a fundamental feature of the
worship in the Church of God is the _Universal Priesthood_ of its
membership. All the members of God’s family have became “a royal
priesthood,” who no longer offer bloody sacrifices of the law of Moses,
but they offer their “bodies a living sacrifice” (Rom. 12:1), and the
“sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of lips
which make confession to his name” (Heb. 13:15). Since all were priests,
all worshiped God without any mediatorship other than that of the Lord
Jesus Christ. They could all come with equal boldness to the throne of
grace. Such clerical distinction and arrogance as we have at the present
time had no place then.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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