The Congregation
Free Church Report Table of Contents and Free Church Report Call Schedule
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| Comments |
| "This Bible is for the Government of the People, by the People, and for the People."[1] But the when the people are first seen by the prophets they are scattered dry bones. |
| The “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together" of Hebrews 10:25 was exemplified when the disciples were "commanded" by Jesus to make[2] the people sit down in "ranks, by hundreds, and by fifties." |
| Mark 6:38 "He saith unto them, How many loaves have ye? go and see. And when they knew, they say, Five, and two fishes.[39] And he commanded[3] them to make all sit down by companies[4] upon the green grass.[40] And they sat down in ranks[5], by hundreds, and by fifties.[41] And when he had taken the five loaves and the two fishes, he looked up to heaven, and blessed, and brake the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before them; and the two fishes divided he among them all." |
| In the Gospel of the kingdom we can see Jesus "commanding" the people to form a network of congregations, not like the modern Church but like the early Church or they may not be fed by God according to The Way. |
| We see this same pattern of Tens when the disciples were told to make the people sit down by fifties in a company. [6] |
| But this pattern of Tens was essential at Pentecost when thousands upon thousands of Jewish citizens accepted Jesus as the Christ and king. |
| This organized gathering in Tens was to implement a Corban through the hands of Jesus' disciples that would make the word of God to effect again. |
| The Bible and history consistently warns the people that covetous practices and applying for benefits of authoritarian benefactors or eating at tables of rulers will snare the people into a yoke of bondage and make them merchandise and curse children making them a surety for debt. |
| Once the people are entangled[7] in the elements of the world, no prince or potentate, president or parliament will make a nation great again. Only thinking a different way and seeking the Kingdom of God and His righteousness will save the people. |
| Certainly to loose the bands of Rome we must fast from the fist of wickedness but also must meet the proviso[8] of Christ and be a doer of the word, forgiving and giving in His Name. |
| To create those invisible and unbreakable bonds of faith, hope and charity the practice of love must be consistent through the service of elder and minister alike in accordance with Christ. |
| Judges 17:6 "In those days [there was] no king in Israel, [but] every man did [that which was] right in his own eyes." which is a good thing as long as men keep their eye upon the righteousness of God. |
| Questions |
| What must you do to set yourself down in Tens, fifties and hundreds? |
| What are the primary Two Commandments? |
| If you love those in your congregation who does the congregations love? |
| What does fellowship mean in the Kingdom of God? |
| Who shall be God's living altars of Stones? |
| Who shall gather as His Altars of Clay and Stone? |
| Why Congregate? |
| Links for Study |
| Free Assemblies | Congregations Congregants | Elders Fractal Network | Why we gather Congregations of Rebuke Tips on forming a CORE | CORE Solution CORE Off Track | Polybius Christian conflict | Burnt_Offerings |
The Congregation of, for, and by the People of God
In order to present the whole body of the Church to the world it is essential that the believers not forsake the coming together.196 According to ancient and early church customs the people and the ministers of God gathered by tens, hundreds and thousands to form a national network of freewill social welfare based on choice.197 How do we care for the needy of our own society?
Much of what we see as the modern Church no longer provides for the welfare of the people. They have relinquished that duty to the central governments that act as the authoritarian benefactor of the people. The power of such government is often created by the offer of and application for social benefits through civil or constructive contracts just as they did in the days of Egypt.198
These systems, the result of our own covetousness, are maintained by authority exercised upon the people, often eating out their own substance, rather than strengthening the people by virtuous service.
The kingdom of God is expressed in the precepts of both Old and New Testaments. We may see this system clearly in early Israel, in the first century Church, and throughout Europe before the rise of an authoritarian Church, who looked to the power of other governments to promote or sustain them.
In God’s government the public servants and the people are bound in a union of mutual hope, love, and service, not authority, power, or control. The list of duties and practical services to the congregation by an uncorrupted Church are far greater than what is presented in many Churches. These services may be similar to those of the governments of the world in provision, but not in their manner or means of the proviso of Christ and God, that we should not covet.199
By the nature of God’s design we should see the pattern of the best servant of tens and hundreds and thousands becoming the minister or public servant of the body with the freewill choice of an emancipated people. People must be fused together by the virtue of their loyalty, charity and love, not by social compacts, common purses, or central exercising authorities. This godly bond of hope and faith keeps them together in good times and bad. This charitable system fulfilled an essential role in the earthly and spiritual salvation of the people as the world of Rome decayed into disorder, decadence, and depravity. The kingdom was the way of Christ that led to a natural redemption of body and soul.
In the natural network of this union there is little room for voter fraud or hidden corruption if the people take up their responsibilities and mingle them with the virtue found in the Name of their Father in heaven. There must be intense, individual, and intimate local control with ample liberty, mercy and justice exercised by the people, for the people to strengthen the fellowship of free dominion under God.
To maintain the health of a free community there are only two rules: the people must love the Name or Character of God including His righteous Nature of justice and mercy, and they must love their neighbor’s God given right to choose as much as they loved their own right to choose.200
This form of grass roots networking self government of liberty of the people, by the people and for the people is the union bound in charity and faith preached by John the Baptist. It ushered Christ into Jerusalem as king. It is the same precepts taught by Moses for a nation of God, called Israel, where there was no king and each man did what was right in his own eyes.201 This was also the precepts of Abraham’s altars of stone, which consisted of good men who accepted the sacrifices of the people for the care of society. Those sacrifices were not burned up by fire, but consumed for the benefit of the community. Their sacrifice was the Eucharist, or thanksgiving, that allowed a society to remain free under God the Father.
In such a government rights remain with the people because responsibility remains with the people. Rights and responsibility are as inseparable as the flesh and blood of a man. To separate the spirit of Christ’s kingdom from the truth of His kingship in our daily life is like separating the body from the soul. That separation is death for the Church.
Footnotes
196Hebrews 10:25 “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some [is]; but exhorting [one another]: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.”
197See the book Thy Kingdom Comes for a history and example of this system of self government and where it strayed.
198See The Covenants of the gods. Exodus 23:32 Thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor with their gods.
199Exodus 20:17 “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet ... any thing that [is] thy neighbour’s.” Psalms 78:7 , 89:31, 103:18, 119:4-60-115, Proverbs 3:1, 4:4, 6:20, 7:1, 2, Ecclesiastes 12:13, Daniel 9:4,Matthew 19:17 “... but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.” Mark 7:9 “... Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.” John 14:15 “If ye love me, keep my commandments. John 15:10 If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love.” Romans 7:7 “...Thou shalt not covet.” Romans 13:9, 1 Timothy 6:14, 1 John 2:3 “And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.”1 John 3:22 “And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments...”1 John 5:2-3 “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments...” Rev. 12:17, 14:12 “Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.”
200“Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” Matthew 22:37-40
201Judges 17:6 “In those days [there was] no king in Israel, [but] every man did [that which was] right in his own eyes.”
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The Free Church Report
The Free Church Report presents a unique path for the modern Church according to the nature of the first century Church by explaining the duty and purposes of that institution appointed by Christ. While Rome declined under runaway inflation, corrupt government, martial law, and endless threats of war, the Christians found an alternative to the men who “called themselves benefactors but exercised authority one over the other.”
The early Christian knew rights and responsibilities were indivisible. They sought the right to be ruled by God by taking back their responsibility, through the service of “called out” ministers who lived in the world, but were not of it. Their government benefits came through a divine network instituted in their hearts and minds by faith, hope, and charity under the perfect law of liberty as their Qorban of the unrighteous mammon failed the Roman society. Order
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Footnotes
- ↑ is attributed to the General Prologue to the John Wycliffe Bible translation of 1384, as quoted in Lincoln at Gettysburg.
- ↑ John 6:10 And Jesus said, Make the men sit down. Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand.
- Luke 9:15 And they did so, and made them all sit down.
- ↑ Matthew 15:35 And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground.
- ↑ The word companies is repeated twice in original text.
- 4849 ~συμπόσιον~ sumposion \@soom-pos’-ee-on\@ from a derivative of the alternate of 4844; ; n n AV-company 1, not tr. 1; Repeated twice in Mark 6:39
- 1) a drinking party, entertainment
- 1a) of the party itself, the guests
- 1b) rows of guests
- "The symposium (or symposion) was an important part of ancient Greek culture from the 7th century BCE and was a party held in a private home where Greek males gathered to drink, eat and sing together. Various topics were also discussed such as philosophy, politics, poetry and the issues of the day."
- " The equivalent of a Greek symposium in Roman society is the Latin convivium."
- A Roman convivium according to Marcus Tullius Cicero for the republican period and Seneca suggest that ten to twelve was the maximum number.
- Plato in his "Laws" endorses the benefits of the symposium as a means to test and promote virtue in citizens.
- This word sumposion is derived in part from the word pino which means "figuratively, to receive into the soul what serves to refresh strengthen, nourish it unto life eternal"
- ↑ ranks is also repeated twice in original text and is from the word prasia which as a Hebrew idiom i.e. they reclined in ranks or divisions, so that several ranks formed, as it were separate plots.
- ↑ Luke 9:14 For they were about five thousand men. And he said to his disciples, Make them sit down by fifties in a company.
- ↑ Galatians 5:1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.
- 2 Peter 2:20 For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.
- ↑ "a condition attached to an agreement."