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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Panegyric" data-source="post: 1330422" data-attributes="member: 18040">I highly recommend "The Pilgrim Church" by E. H. Broadbent, 1931.  Broadbent was a missionary who travelled the world.  He was part of the Brethren movement.  This book is fascinating from both a historical and Christian perspective.   The content in this book is relevant for today even though it was published in 1931.  Broadbent addresses the issues facing the church that are still relevant for today: "The following period of nearly two hundred years shows that the union of the Church and the State, even when the powers of the mightiest Empire are put into the Church’s hands, do not enable her to save the State from destruction, for, in abandoning the position which her very name implies, of being “called out" of the world, and of separation to Christ, she loses the power that comes from subjection to her Lord, exchanging it for an earthly authority that is fatal to herself."   Broadbent traces the history of the church to the apostles.  I used to think that Christianity was Catholic until the reformation, then was split into two streams, Catholic and Protestant.  This couldn't be further from the truth.  The book is rich with examples if believers from time immemorial tracing the history not only of the Christian people, but heresies that cropped up in the church over the ages.  He gives a concise overview of each heresy.  For example:"Sacerdotalism would make salvation to be found only in the Church and by means of its sacraments administered by its priests."He talks about Christians who could trace their lineage to the earliest times in Church history: "When they came into contact with the Reformers in the sixteenth century they said: 'Our ancestors have often recounted to us that we have existed from the time of the Apostles. In all matters nevertheless we agree with you, and thinking as you think, from the very days of the Apostles themselves, we have ever been consistent respecting the faith.'"He talks about how these people were not caught up in the Catholic/Protestant/Reformation schisms:"The doctrines and practices of these brethren, known as Waldenses, and also by other names, were of such a character that it is evident they were not the fruits of an effort to reform the Roman and Greek churches and bring them back to more Scriptural ways. Bearing no traces of the influence of those churches, they indicate, on the contrary, the continuance of an old tradition, handed down from quite another source-the teaching of Scripture and the practice of the primitive Church. Their existence proves that there had always been men of faith, men of spiritual power and understanding, who had maintained in the churches a tradition close to that of apostolic days, and far removed from that which the dominant Churches had developed."And: "They spoke of themselves as the assembly of the true children of God, and kept themselves separate from the world, in which they included both the Reformed and the Roman Catholic Churches."Broadbent also addresses the issues of separation of church and state, and the links between infant baptism and the state:"The Baptists were looked upon as even worse, for they not only shared to the full time view of the Independents as to the church, but they denied that the state had any authority at all to interfere in matters of religion, and they also repudiated infant baptism altogether and went back to the primitive practice of baptizing believers only, thus cutting at the root of clerical power. Their spiritual relationships were with the Anabaptists, Waldenses, and others like them, and they naturally shared with them and with the independents the utmost wrath of those who were determined at all costs to force on the whole nation that form of religion which for the time being was ordained by the State. There were individual true members of the Church of Christ in all these circles, whether Roman, Anglican or Free Church, and there were also companies of believers corresponding to the churches of God of the New Testament among the despised and persecuted congregations, but their witness was maintained, as often before and since, in the midst of circumstances so confusing as to test faith and love to the utmost."He talks about the controversies between Calvin and Arminius, Wesley and Whitfield and other giants of the faith.  This book solidified for me the reason why I no longer buy into the false doctrines of Calvinism.  Since I became a born-again believes in Christ our Lord and Saviour at the age of 27, I was blessed that the Holy Spirit kept we away from things like the new reformation (NAR) and neo-Calvinism.  Those doctrines have done plenty of damage to the church and have opened the doors to ecumenicalism and have helped to usher things like social justice into the churches.  I have always preferred Mennonite Brethren, and Baptist churches that are no blinded by the false ideologies of Reformed Churches.Lastly, Broadbent comments on missions and missionary organizations:"In the New Testament there is no distinction between clergy and laity, all the saints are priests; so also there is no distinction between missionaries and non-missionaries, every believer is “sent", or has a “mission", to be a witness for Christ in the world. The formation of a separate missionary class, grouped in missionary societies, supported by special mission funds, working through mission stations, though it has accomplished so much, is dearly bought while it contents the vast bulk of Christians to be nonmissionaries and dims the vision of every saint as, in every circumstance, wholly the Lord’s, and devoted first and last to His service."If you want to be red-pilled or black-pilled or whatever-pilled in the church, this book, written long before popular and church culture got so politicized, gives a good overview of where we came from and hints at where we are headed.  One last word from Broadbent:"The history of the Church shows that revival comes through return to obedience to the Word of God."</blockquote>

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