Taking the Right Action For the Right Time

1 Chronicles 12:32 And of the children of Issachar, which were men that had understanding of the times to know what Israel ought to do; the heads of them were two hundred; and all their brothers were at their commandment.

The Chronicler described the outstanding features of David’s supporters. They were ready for battle, brave, wise, prepared for battle, with undivided loyalty, experienced, and bearing shield and spear and every type of weapon.Included were representatives from all twelve tribes.

200 men from the tribe of Issachar were noted as men who understood the times and knew what the nation should do. Israel should recognize that God had appointed David in the place as the leader, to replace Saul as king.

How does this concept affect us, the Church, today?

The impact is the importance of the church understanding what the church can give up or change to reach our changing world, without compromising Biblical Truth.

What are the marks of a true Biblical church that we must understand clearly?

This question was paramount in the sixteenth century at the time of the Reformation, when the greatest example of the fragmentation of the visible church took place.

After the Protestant reformers broke with Rome, all kinds of divergent groups arose. They had different creeds, different confessions, different forms of government, and different liturgies. They all claimed to be Christian churches, and many of them claimed to be the only true church.

The people of that day asked: How can we tell?

What are the marks of an authentic church?

Rome did not recognize the Protestant churches as authentic. They said in the past that the church can be defined this way: where the bishop is, there is the church, and if there is no authorization by a Roman bishop, then whatever societies spring up are not valid churches.

The Protestant Reformers took a different view of the matter. They sought to isolate and delineate the marks of a valid church and they ultimately settled on three distinctive characteristics.

First, they said a church is a true church when the gospel is preached faithfully.
What the Reformers meant by this was not simply the announcement of the good news of Jesus’ death and the atonement, but rather the faithful proclamation of the essential truths of Christianity. If a church denied an essential aspect of the Christian faith, that institution would no longer be considered a church. For example, one of the reasons historic Protestantism does not recognize Mormonism as an authentic Christian church is because the Mormon faith has denied the eternal deity of Christ.

Second, the Reformers said a true church was a church where the sacraments, the Lord’s Supper and baptism were administered. That becomes significant today because we have parachurch groups that are engaged on a daily basis in various elements of Christian outreach and ministry. Their calling is to work alongside the church. They are not a church so they should never administer the sacraments.

Third, the Reformers saw church discipline as a true mark of a church. We have seen through church history that church discipline has been somewhat variable.

There have been times in the past where church discipline was exercised in ways that were very harsh.

During the sixteenth century people were subjected to torture and all manner of punishments as a means of church discipline. Perhaps the leaders of the church in the sixteenth century really believed in hell. They believed that there was no worse fate that could befall a human being than to be cast into hell. The church in that time really believed it was justifiable to use almost any means necessary to rebuke and discipline its members in order to keep them out of the jaws of hell.

The church today as a whole seems to have an attitude at the complete other end of the spectrum, just as Western society propagates that we should: that we don’t need to discipline people at all because it does not matter or is not our place. Apparently, the church does not believe in hell or the threat of divine judgment.

This raises a question. If a church fails in a significant way to discipline and lovingly correct its members with respect to gross sustained sins, is that institution still a church?

Formal apostasy occurs when the church clearly and unequivocally denies an essential truth of the Christian faith. Material apostasy happens when the church says it believes in historic Christianity, but there is no resemblance in its actions.

If the church we are apart of is in fact apostate, we are not allowed to be there. Remember the showdown between the prophets of Baal and Elijah at Mount Carmel? After God displayed His power and the truth concerning Baal, and the people then understood, can you imagine someone saying, “Well, I do see now that Yahweh is God, but I’m going to stay here in the house of Baal as salt and light and try to work for its reform?” No! 1000 times No!

As Christ followers, we must understand the truth and principles concerning the church and take the right action at the right time to uphold them.