Magyar Egyház, 1977 (56. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1977-01-01 / 1. szám
8 MAGYAR EGYHÁZ performed for the Jewish nation, Christ performed for a new nation. Christ called His own disciples from whom He required daily devotion and to them He gave a new law. Knowing this background of the origin of the Church in the Bible, we can ask the next question: What is the Church? The English word “church” derives from the Greek word KURIAKOS (belonging to the Lord) but it stands for another Greek word EKKLESIA, which means an ASSEMBLY or CONGREGATION. In the New Testament we find this word used regularly to describe local groups of believers in Jesus Christ. At the same time the word is used for all believers in universal fellowship. A point to be emphasized is that there is no tension between the local and the universal sense. Each church or congregation is the Church in its own setting and each congregation is the manifestation of the whole Church. This means that there is scope for great flexibility in organization and structure according to the special and local needs. The church is not a human structure like a political, social or economic organism. It is basically the Church of Jesus Christ (“MY CHURCH Matt. 16:18) or of the living God (I. Tim. 3:15) It is a building of which Jesus Christ is the chief corner stone or foundation “an holy temple in the Lord”, “an habitation of God through the Spirit”. It is the fellowship of saints or people of God. It is the bride of Jesus Christ, saved and sanctified by Him for union with Himself. It is the body of Jesus Christ, He being ihe head and Christians are the members. The Church is a true reality, the company of those who believe in Jesus Christ and are thus dead, buried and raised in Him. The Church draws its life from Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit, but it does so through the Word of which it is begotten and by which it is nourished and sanctified. Receiving life by the Word, it also receives its function, namely to pass on the Word that others may also be quickened and cleansed. It is to preach the Gospel, to take up the ministry of reconciliation, to dispense the mysteries of God. To be able to do this job the members of the Church should receive the divine Word and sacraments and then they must pass on these divine gifts to others. The marks of the visible church are preaching of the Word of God and the administration of the Gospel sacraments, the Baptism and the Holy Communion. This is the service of the Church and only this service can justify its existence. The Church can and should do many other things, can and should broaden this service into every street of human life, but can never stop to do the God given purpose and Christ given mission of its existence. III. THE CHURCH’S PLACE IN TODAY’S MODERN COMMUNITY The message of the good news, the message of salvation lias at least as much importance for the modern man of our days, as had 2,000 years ago for the religious Jews, the deep thinking Greeks, the powerful Romans or the God denying or false God worshipping Pagans. Our technology is changing fast, our society is experimenting with new things, our moral values are different every year, but the basic human thoughts, and human needs are the same today as 2,000 years ago. Man cannot live without hope, man cannot live without God, man cannot live without the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The only hope for our world today is the word of God, the teaching of Christ and the Holy Spirit. The origin, the meaning and the goal of earthly life cannot be explained and understood without the biblican revelation of God and without the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Our age is the visible proof of the basic Biblican truth, that to live without God is sin, destruction and death. As the Bible is saying: “There is no hope for the wicked.” The Gospel of Christ is the yeast, the Church is the bread of eternal life and the two together are the hope of mankind. There is no life giving bread without the yeast. The church without Christ is a good for nothing, ugly, earthly skeleton, but the church with Christ is the most beautiful and useful heavenly body. The place of the church in modern community should be the same as in any community: in the center of life, thinking and activity alike. If the Church cannot fulfill its God given, life giving mission, there must be something wrong with the Church or there must be something wrong with the community. I would like to conclude my presentation with this short statement: The place of the Church in today’s modern community will be according to the place of God in the heart of today’s modern man. If our church service will place back the faith in God, the love of Jesus and the guidance of the Holy Spirit into the heart of modern men, the church will be the center of modern life — according to the will of God and the order of Jesus Christ. If we fail to do this, our church will suffer accordingly and can disappear in today’s modern community or will be impotent and not important for modern man. Therefore the commandment of Jesus is more important today than ever in the past: “Go to the whole world and preach the gospel to all mankind.” T. Domotor
