Bulletin Articles
Restoring New Testament Christianity: Part 3
Note: this is part 3 of a series of articles on “Restoring New Testament Christianity”
While thus far in this series we have highlighted the continual need for restoration, there are some guardrails we need to pay attention to when it comes to spiritual renovation. First, we need to ensure we are measuring against the right standard. If we’re measuring ourselves against a previous generation and how they operated, we have the wrong standard- unless it’s the 1st century Christians we read about in the N.T. How things used to work or be done is not our measuring rod; the Bible is. On the other side, it’s just as dangerous to measure ourselves by what is trending in society or contemporary. Acts 17 illustrates well both sides of this coin. At the beginning of Acts 17, we find the Jews in Thessalonica longing for the ways of old (keeping Jewish traditions). Then at the end of the chapter you have the Athenians longing for any novel idea or new way of thinking. In the middle, you have the Bereans searching for the truth. It’s not what’s old nor what’s new, but what’s true that should be our standard.
Another caution when it comes to restoration is failing to see our own need for personal repentance. It’s much easier to see where other’s might be degrading versus seeing it in ourselves. How often do we look at someone else’s home thinking it could use some restorative work while failing to address the deficiencies in our own home. 2 Corinthians 13:5 says, “test and…examine yourselves,” not examine others.
We also must be cautious that in restorative work, we don’t go to extremes. We can be prone to either going too far (start fixing things that aren’t broken) or not going far enough where the restoration fizzles out before it’s completed. The Pharisees are an example of the former where in their attempts to restore and drive spirituality among the Jewish people, they created additional rules and laws that went beyond what God required. Additionally, they became so focused on their rules that they lost sight of God and what He really desired along the way. Restorationists of today can easily become the hypocrites of tomorrow unless you continuously and honestly return to God’s word and keep the focus on Him. On the other hand, many of Judah’s kings (for example Asa in 1 Kings 15:11-14) are an example of not taking restoration far enough. Good kings like Asa and Joash would often implement a number of reforms to drive out evil and idol worship from the land but would not complete the restoration process by getting rid of the high places wherein these idols were worshipped. As a result, the people would go right back to idolatry at those high places within a short period of time.
Related, another temptation can be to limit the restoration to what can be seen on the outside while failing to address the “bones”- the inside. The Pharisees were also guilty of this as Jesus called them white washed tombs (Matthew 23:27-28). They kept the outside scrubbed and polished with an appearance of holiness but inwardly were full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. Polishing the external (i.e. adjusting traditional practices; incremental modifications to assembling/worship; attending and participating in public worship) does not equate to real restoration of the spirit of Christianity. With these guardrails in mind, we will turn our attention to what Biblical restoration looks like.
