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All the powers of hell shall never overthrow the Church. It shall continue, and stand, in spite of every assault. It shall never be overcome. All other created things perish and pass away, but not the Church of Christ. The hand of outward violence, or the moth of inward decay, prevail over everything else, but not over the temple that Christ builds. Empires have risen and fallen in rapid succession. Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Tyre, Carthage, Rome, Greece, Venice - where are all these now? They were all the creations of man's hand, and have passed away. But the Church of Christ lives on. The mightiest cities have become heaps of ruins. The broad walls of Babylon are sunk to the ground. The palaces of Nineveh are mounds of dust. The hundred gates of Thebes are only matters of history. Tyre is a place where fishermen hang their nets. Carthage is a desolation. Yet all this time the true Church stands. The gates of hell do not prevail against it….Has the true Church been oppressed...

Whenever and wherever the doctrines of free grace and justification by faith have prevailed in the Christian Church; and according to the degree of clearness with which they have been enforced, the practical duties of Christianity have flourished in the same proportion. Wherever they have declined, or been tempered with the reasonings and expedients of men, either from a well meant, though mistaken fear, lest they should be abused, or from a desire to accommodate the Gospel, and render it more palatable to the depraved taste of the world, the consequence has always  been, an equal declension in practice. So long as the Gospel of Christ is maintained without adulteration, it is found sufficient for every valuable purpose; but when the wisdom of man is permitted to add to the perfect work of God, a wide door is opened for innumerable mischiefs. JOHN NEWTON ( Source : A Review of Ecclesiastical History)

Ronald L Giese has written an  excellent lengthy piece  in Themelios addressing the theology of the “online church”. Here is his conclusion: Online church is not church. This is a contradiction, not an oxymoron. Some of the things a church does can certainly be taken online. Perhaps some parts can be done better online, in certain contexts, than in person. Perhaps others are best done in a hybrid model. The reason that online church is not church is at least two-fold.  First, all the indicators, both historical (the past and future temples), and in imagery (the ramifications of the church as temple now), are that God’s dwelling in the church is in a  place . And the indicators are that this place is in  one  place, the local church. So yes, this third level of God’s presence could exist in thousands of places at one given time, since there are thousands of (physical) churches that meet in a given time zone on a given Sunday. But the third level of God’s pre...

Just finished reading Paul E Brown's   Church life . The strap line says, "its nature, privileges, demands and blessings". I think this book was sent to me. I do not remember buying it, but I may be wrong! I also could not find a link to it on Amazon.  The book was helpful, but the problem is that it attempts to cover all the relevant ground of church life. After reading, I was wondering who  this book is aimed at. For church leaders it says nothing new and lacks sufficient depth. For church members it includes material not relevant to them, and says one or two incorrect things. It is still worth the read. I am just not sure who I would recommend it to! Memorable Quote: In the [local] church people do not pick and choose what they are going to hear; they do not simply listen to well known or favorite preachers via the modern media. It is their pastor who brings the Word to them, someone who knows them, who meets with them, who is growing in his knowledge and un...

Before all things, the Teacher of peace and Master of unity did not wish prayer to be offered individually and privately as one would pray only for himself when he prays. We do not say: “My Father, who art in heaven,” nor “Give me this day my bread,” nor does each one ask that only his debt be forgiven him and that he be led not into temptation and that he be delivered from evil for himself alone. Our prayer is public and common, and when we pray we pray not for one but for the whole people, because we, the whole people, are one. CYPRIAN OF CARTHAGE  (North Africa, AD 250)