Why Response

— An Answer To The Why Questions — 

 

And, now, at last, here are the “why” questions (as proposed by the Bylaws & Charter Review Committee):

 

(A) If you could capture in one sentence, “What is the purpose of the Church of God Movement?” what would it be?

 

(B) What is the unique contribution that the Movement makes to the Kingdom in the world today?

 

(C) Upon what should the Movement focus going forward?

 

            We are sure that all who may read this document have received or read the initial “WHY?” document circulated by Jim Lyon, our current National Director.  It was released in the same time frame as his statement of focus for the Reformation Movement of the Church of God for the immediate future, which is “Jesus Is The Subject.” While we are in total agreement that Jesus is the nucleus of all that we know as the Gospel in the New Testament, yet we are constrained to hear the words of Jesus on the matter.  We find no Scripture where Jesus placed Himself in the center of focus, but rather placed it upon the One who sent Him (Luke 4:18; John 4:34; 5:30; 5:36-37; 6:38-40; 6:44; 6:57; 7:16; 7:28-29; 7:33; 8:16; 8:29; 8:42; 9:4;12:44-45; 12:49; 14:24; 17:18;20:21)Time and time again He refused to allow Himself to be the center of focus.

 

          When Moses was on the mountain with God, we know that Yahweh gave to him the tablets of stone wherein He had written His commandments to His people, who were camped in the valley below, with His very own finger.

 

Exodus 31:18

 

And he gave unto Moses, when he had made an end

 of communing with him upon mount Sinai,

two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God.

 

Deuteronomy 9:10

 

And the Lord delivered unto me two tables of stone

 written with the finger of God;

and on them was written according to all the words,

which the Lord spake with you in the mount out

 of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly. KJV

 

These tablets were dashed to pieces when Moses descended the mountain and found sin in the camp (Exodus 32:7) KJV.   Moses then fasted and prayed forty days before the Lord when God instructed him to hew out two more tablets like the first and come back up into the mount and God would again write as He did the first time.  Moses had to furnish the labor and the stone tablets which God had hewn with His finger the first time (Deuternonomy 9:15— 10:5) KJV.  However, this time when Moses came down he had something more than the two tablets of stone, he had the pattern for the tabernacle, which was a dim shadow picture of God’s pattern for His church which would be born out of Christ’s side at Calvary.

 

Hebrews 9:

 

16 For where a testament is, there must also

 of necessity be the death of the testator.

17 For a testament is of force after men are dead:

otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth.  

KJV

 

                     Just as the first man, Adam, gave birth to his bride out of his side (a rib) through a divine operation of God, so the second man, the Last Adam, who is Christ, through a divine operation (blood and water) gave birth to His bride out of His side at Calvary (1 Corinthians 15:44-35) KJV.  By definition the word “pattern” speaks of:

        

An ideal worthy of imitation, a plan, diagram, or model to be followed in making things.  To make, mold, or design by following a pattern.

 

Hebrews 8:5

 

........Moses was admonished of God when he was about

to make the tabernacle: for,

See, saith he, that thou make all things according

to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount.

 

         Exodus 26:

 

30 And thou shalt rear up the tabernacle according to

the fashion thereof which was shewed  thee in the mount

(Exodus 25:40; Exodus 27:8)

KJV.

 

          God’s Church has never been a free lance people left to themselves to settle out by chance or circumstance.  In every dispensation of time God has a pattern whereby His people are to live and build.

 

         Ezekiel 43:

 

10 Thou son of man, shew the house to the house of Israel,

that they may be ashamed of their iniquities:

and let them measure the pattern.

11 And if they be ashamed of all that they have done, shew

them the form of the house, and the fashion thereof,

and the goings out thereof, and the comings in thereof,

and all the forms thereof, and all the ordinances thereof,

and all the forms thereof, and all the laws thereof:

and write it in their sight, that they may keep the whole form thereof,

and all the ordinances thereof, and do them.

12 This is the law of the house; upon the top of the mountain

the whole limit thereof round about shall be most holy.

Behold, this is the law of the house. 

KJV

 

         Hebrews 8:5

 

Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things,

as Moses was admonished of God when he was

about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he,

that thou make all things according to the pattern

shewed to thee in the mount. 

KJV

 

          The New Testament contains the pattern for the true Church, and since all things are to be built according to the divine pattern, the Church must be built according to that same pattern. Many things are being built by motivated men today.  But are they being built according to the pattern ?  To build wilfully, or ignorantly and contrary to the pattern will result in an entity that is contrary to divine specifications.  What man or group of men, knowing this fact,  would want to continue to build that which is destined to fall short of God’s pattern?  The facts are, that everything pertaining to the building and sustaining of God’s Church is found in the New Testament pattern. To build according to that pattern is to preach, teach, accept and stand for the ONE TRUE CHURCH as set forth in the eternal Word of God.   Just as we stand for anything else patterned for our benefit in the New Testament, i.e., salvation, sanctification, communion, baptism, feet washing, tithing, and divine physical healing — so ought we to stand for the Church of the Bible.

 

          That is where Jesus, the Head of the Church, said for us to stand and that is where I am standing. It was He that said, “Upon this rock I will build my church....” (Matthew 16:18) – KJV.   It was to His early disciples that He taught them Occupy till I come” (Luke 19:13) – KJV.  It was He that instructs us to continue His mission.  Jesus said “I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness” (John 12:46) – KJV.; “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10) – KJV. ;   “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do” (John 17:3-4) – KJV.  Clearly Jesus did not focus the emphasis upon Himself, He glorified Him who had sent Him.  The disciples of the early morning church clearly understood   Jesus’ priority, “And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world” (1 John 4:14) – KJV.

 

           Each piece of that ancient tabernacle, which prefigured Christ as Saviour, was designed with loops into which staves or poles could be inserted to carry those pieces to their next location.  It was completely transportable.  So it is still, with the eternal truths of the Church.  They are designed to be carried to the next location, the next generation.  Faithful servants of God bore the furniture of the tabernacle in days of old and that is typical of the myriad of faithful servants that have borne the truths of Christ and His bride, the Church across the years and centuries that you and I might bask in the sunlight of those eternal truths.  It was Dr. Boyce Blackwelder who said, “The man who says he loves the God of Truth, should automatically love the truths of God.”  We want to focus on what Jesus focused, we want to as Peter put it, “For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps:” (1 Peter 2:21) – KJV.  We want to stay with the “pattern” the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched.  God builds His Church.

            

             Matthew 16:18

 

.........., and upon this rock I will build my church;

and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. 

KJV

 

I want to be a part of that body of believers referred to as the bride;

            

           Revelation 21:9

 

And there came unto me one of the seven angels

 which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues,

 and talked with me, saying, Come hither,

I will shew thee the bride , the Lamb's wife.

KJV

 

Jesus has only ONE BRIDE, ONE WIFE!

 

          The plurality of “churches” is not found in the New Testament except when used concerning congregations of the one church in different geographical locations.  The “pattern” says there is one body!  That is who and what we are and we cannot understand WHY we would want to be anything else.  Faithful servants, men and women, have gone before us bearing these eternal truths upon their shoulders and carrying the “torch of truth” in their hands and passing it on to the faithful of the next generation.  Their faces we have seen across the years, these lovers of truth.  Their faces are myriad, Blackwelder, McCutcheon, Johnson, Conley, Shepherd, Reynolds, Reed, Sovine, Neece, Goodpastor, Oesch, Boyer, Morgan, and the list goes on and on.  Their trust was that we would faithfully hold to and carry this truth safely with honor and pride and faithfully deliver them into the hands and onto the shoulders of the next order of bearers to carry before their generation.  We can see the priests of old going before the people of God with the Ark and the tabernacle in the lead.  It is our turn, it is our responsibility to stand up and stand in those eternal truths.  In our hearts the “fire” is still burning, and the “light” is still shining.  It is “Forward” not “Backward”, it is “Upward” and “Onward”, not back down the mountain.  No lure of “leeks, onions, and garlics” — no call of Babylon,  but a faithful climb to “.....the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it” (Isaiah 2:2) – KJV.

 

          That which Jesus built was not an organization, but rather an organism.  The set-up of an organization can be changed and made to operate in various ways.  An organization, if formed by organizing, can be re-organized repeatedly, but an organism is complete in its form from its beginning!   This living organism was born from Jesus’ side and it needs no “RE-organizing” for it is like the human body, it is complete. From its beginning all it needs is faithful care for its growth and development.  So it is with the body of Christ of which we are a part.  We know “Who” we are., We know “Whose” we are.  We know “What” our mission is. We know “Where” we are going.  We know “How” to get there. Why do we have to ask “WHY”? “WHY” do we need to call into question all the things that have made and make us a part of His glorious Church?

 

RMB

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          The names of those who comprise the Prophetic Voice Committee of Pastors’ Fellowship are Darryl Allen drbear78@gmail.com, Bill Konstantopoulos billckonsto@gmail.com, Anthony Molihan anthony.molihan@gmail.com,  Gary Brown gary.brown@wfcog.com,  Frank A Curtis frankacurtis@usa.net,  David Hall msmin@att.net, and Ralph C. Shupe rcs48@frontier.com , and myself as chairman of the committee Richard M. Bradley skypilotwo@msn.com.