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[Note: <\/strong>This MS is available in larger font on our Brief Articles 1<\/strong> page.]<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cChurch Undergoes Renovation,\u201d the newspaper headline read. The words were positioned above a photo of a church building surrounded by scaffolding, with workmen on its roof. The article described the modernization of a church building<\/strong>, which the article referred to in common\u2014albeit mistaken\u2014parlance as a \u201cchurch.\u201d A church, however, is a group of people<\/strong> drawn together by distinct doctrines and practices that meets in a building<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n From reading the New Testament and even a smattering of post-Biblical church history, it is clear that \u201cthe church\u201d most people know today is not the church as Jesus built it (Mat. 16:16\u201319). His church underwent\u2014and continues to undergo\u2014major \u201crenovations.\u201d The simple beauty of the original church has been lost in endless complex, corrupt, and unauthorized changes.<\/span><\/p>\n The first century had its change agents, whom the apostles and other faithful saints kept in check (Rom. 16:17\u201318; Gal. 1:6\u20139; 2 Tim 4:2\u20134; 2 John 9\u201311; et al.). The inspired men left behind the inspired Word both to instruct in salvation and to keep the church pure, but some were not long content to honor the Divine will after the last apostle died. Innovations, leading to renovations, began arising as early as the second century.<\/span><\/p>\n Scripture indicates that a plurality of men called \u201celders,\u201d \u201cbishops,\u201d and\/or \u201cpastors were to oversee each congregation of universal church (Acts 20:17, 28\u201331). These men met strict qualifications before appointment (1 Tim. 3:1\u20137; Tit. 1:5\u201311). By mid-second century, one of these men came to be exalted above his fellows, which, in the course of five centuries, led all the way to the papacy and all of its attendant monolithic understructure.<\/span><\/p>\n The millennium of the Middle Ages brought countless additional alterations in doctrine and practice in Roman Catholicism\u00a0 (e.g., a separate and celibate priesthood, Mariolatry, the Mass, transubstantiation, sprinkling for \u201cbaptism,\u201d instrumental music, et al.).<\/span><\/p>\n These corruptions provoked the grand attempt to renovate the many Roman Catholic renovations. Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, and others led the Protestant Reformation of the 16th<\/sup> century. Their efforts, while nobly reforming some of Rome\u2019s most egregious renovations, resulted in additional renovations, some of which were as anti-scriptural as those of popery.<\/span><\/p>\n The Protestant concept of the church is \u201cunity in diversity\u201d on a grand scale. That is, all the divergent non-Catholic churches compose The Church. This concept may be the greatest renovation of all, when compared with the consistency of doctrine and practice required of the congregations (not separate denominations) that composed\/compose the Lord\u2019s church (Eph. 4:1\u20136).<\/span><\/p>\n To love Jesus and His Word involves rejecting the innovations and renovations of men and following the pattern for His church (John 14:15; Eph. 5:25\u201327; Heb. 8:5). The duty of the Lord\u2019s people regarding the church is to guard its purity in doctrine and practice at all costs.<\/span><\/p>\n [Note:<\/strong> I wrote this article for and it appeared in the Denton Record-Chronicle, <\/em>Denton, TX, July 20, 2012.]<\/span><\/p>\n Attribution: <\/strong>From TheScripturecache.com<\/em>, owned and administered by Dub McClish.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Views: 1[Note: This MS is available in larger font on our Brief Articles 1 page.] \u201cChurch Undergoes Renovation,\u201d the newspaper headline read. The words were positioned above a photo of a church building surrounded by scaffolding, with workmen on its roof. The article described the…<\/p>\n