It is regrettable that so many seem to view salvation as nothing more than being saved from their past sins. In reality, however, it is also being saved from the person we used to be. Outgrowing that old person is a process — and it takes time.
An apostasy from the faith was predicted. It was a matter of great concern to the apostles. The fact that there would occur a departure from the foundational teachings of the gospel was not something they could think about except with a broken heart.
Both individually and congregationally, restoration requires constant vigilance. We must reassess and return. Reassess and return. If our forebears did this, we are blessed to have their example. But like them, we need to REASSESS AND RETURN.
Local assemblies of Christians must commit themselves to a restoration of the apostolic order. If not, they will descend into greater “entropy” with each passing year — and there is no congregation where this tendency is not present.
Paul wrote to the Thessalonians: “stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us.” Return must be the church’s watchword, now as it was back then. Return to Christ Jesus. Return to the apostolic traditions. Return to the Scriptures.
As John, one of the apostles, wrote toward the end of the apostolic age, “Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father” (1 John 2:24).
Today, if we go back to the teaching of the apostles and use that as our template, the congregations that you and I worship with will resemble congregations in the New Testament in the very same ways that those congregations resembled one another.
God can’t be other than what He is. He couldn’t reconcile Himself to us in simply any way that “felt good” to Him; it would have to be in a way consistent with His divine attributes, which are fixed and very definite: hence, “the Way” (Acts 9:1,2).
