INDEX
INDEX
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Gods wisdom in a mystery! |
The "fellowship of the mystery", while it is important to the mystery, is not the mystery itself. To say otherwise is to corrupt the English language. A thing cannot be "of" a thing, and also be that thing. Nor is it the church, the body of Christ. The body of Christ is a spiritual, invisible organism into which believers of the gospel of Christ (Rom. 1:16) are "saved", through a spiritual baptism (1 Cor. 12:13). It is not a "fellowship." A fellowship is something that is visible and demonstrable. The fellowship of the mystery is the visible, demonstrable association of members of the body of Christ, created by the abolishing of the religious practices pertaining to Israel, which were adhered to by the church during Paul's (transitional) Acts ministry. These practices not only included those things listed by Paul in 1 Cor. 11 (which would include the "Lord's supper"), but also include all the other practices associated with Israel, e.g., water baptism, physical circumcision, etc. Drawing a distinction between "the mystery" and "the fellowship of the mystery" does not, create two "bodies." Both Acts believers and post-Acts believers were saved into the body of Christ by the gospel of Christ. But they could not enter into fellowship with each other because the former, the "we", were practicing "the ordinances", and the latter, the "ye" weren't. The declaration by Paul of the abolition of the ordinances in Eph. 2 and Col. 2, did not create any new spiritual entity, but rather made way for these two groups to become one... physical fellowship (association, community) in Christ, hence., "the fellowship of the mystery." While Paul was going to "the Jew first" (Rom. 1:16) and attempting to woo his "kinsman according to the flesh" (Rom. 9:3), the ordinances and practices particular to Israel were being practiced in the church. But when he ceased his ministry to them (I hence forth turn to the Gentiles) with the declaration in Acts 28:25-28, and the corresponding declaration of the abolition of their ordained practices in the church in Ephesians and Colossians, the new word was that the churches were to cease practicing them. Now for the reason for this post... I believe the primary reason there exists so many divisions in present Christendom is the failure (or refusal?) of Protestantism (and all their derivations) to recognize the truths of Ephesians 2 and 3 and Colossians 1 and 2, concerning the ordinances and "what is the fellowship of the mystery." Despite the fact that Paul commanded, around AD 60, that his gospel (i.e., his 13 epistles, rightly divided) was to now be the doctrinal blueprint for church practice, and that he clearly ordered the church to cease and desist from the practice of all those ordinances that were in order during the Acts transition period, Christendom has, by and large, ignored this commandment, and as a result is now fragmented into thousands of divisions. Considering Paul's commandment in 1 Corinthians 1:10, "that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you", how can anyone believe that this fragmentation of the body of Christ is in the divine will of God? Think about it! |