The Shift from Community Life to Doctrine
After the first century, right doctrine became the litmus
test for faith instead of loving as Christ commanded.
Late in the first century, Jude urged the believers to contend
for the faith delivered once for all to the saints.
This word faith meant the persuasion to do what
Christ commanded, for this was the purpose for the faith
the 3000 
received
by hearing the gospel on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2:36-45.
Faith in Jude 1:3 meant persuasion from God to
do His will, which first came to the saints by hearing the
gospel. But today the word faith in Jude 1:3 is
taken to simply mean the knowledge and assent to religious
truths, without regard to good works, which is therefore
a false faith.
The only assurance of faith is Ephesians 2:10 and 4:16
— doing the good works one was saved to do in order
to build up the Body. Jude 1:3 has nothing whatsoever to
do with doctrinal correctness, as the context in verse 4
proves. It speaks of grace being turned into license to
do your own thing, doing what is right in one’s own
eyes, since there was no longer authority from God to be
adhered to. There was no restraint; each one did whatever
he wanted, but still maintained a form of godliness, although
denying its power.
Doctrine, or the right theology, requires no faith
to believe. Faith is for the purpose of doing the works
prepared for one to do in the Body of Christ, the Community.
Theology requires no faith, but John 13:34-35 does require
faith:
“A new commandment I give to you, that
you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also
love one another. By this all will know that you are My
disciples, if you have love for one another.”
1 John 3:16 and 23 also require faith, without which even
someone with the right doctrine won’t pass the litmus
test of 1 John 3:14 — regardless of whether he says
he believes. So, believing the right doctrine requires
no faith, no love, and no laying down of one’s life
for his brothers.
“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by
the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living
sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable
service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be
transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may
prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will
of God.” (Romans 12:1-2)
No one can do Romans 12:1 unless he obeys verse 2 by faith
as well. Otherwise, the faith of Jude 1:3 is considered
merely doctrine, the theology of theologians, learned men
who can quote many scripture verses, but laying down their
lives as 1 John 3:16 says is far from them. They can only
teach their flocks the same “faith” as they
have. A student, when fully trained, will be like his teacher.
So their empty “faith” has been passed down
ever since theological Bible schools have existed on earth.
They have no relationship with the true Messiah and can
only give mental assent to theological terms, concepts,
and decrees thought up by the apostates of the fourth century.
These apostate leaders valued doctrine higher than love
and ended up persecuting people, deposing bishops, and banishing
into exile those considered to have the wrong doctrine.
Ultimately, they started killing those they deemed heretics.
So why is it always those with the right doctrine who end
up killing those with the wrong doctrine? They obviously
didn’t understand 1 Cor 1:10 in the right spirit.
You can’t force unity. Forced unity is not the right
spirit. As 2 Cor 11:4,13-15 clearly states, only Satan’s
servants or ministers could ever do what the Christian theologians
did to dissenters. All this was in absolute violation of
the Master’s words to leave them alone, to let them
be.
The reason Jude so urgently said to contend for
the faith that was imparted in the beginning was because
of a change he saw coming in — away from the pattern
in Acts 2 & 4 and toward what would become the state
church of Constantine. We can see the change in the way
Christians thought, being persuaded and influenced by a
different spirit, propagated by a different gospel, and
ending up with a different Jesus from the one they accepted
in the beginning.
The
church turned from being the persecuted to being
the persecutor. By that time, the Holy Spirit had
long ago left the church. No longer could anyone truthfully
confess 1 John 4:2-3 or John 12:26 from his experience,
but only from his mind. As the church declined in its love
in every place, in spite of Paul’s exhortation
to them in Ephesians 6:24, none seemed to be able to pass
the litmus test of 1 John 5:13. This was because 1 John
3:16 and 23 were no longer the emphasis, but rather mental
assent to a list of doctrines now called “the faith.”
So this doctrinal “faith” replaced the works
true faith was meant to energize, as James later wrote in
the second century.
So as the church careened down its fatal decline, the
emphasis shifted to doctrine, which is now called or considered
“faith.” But Jude, who wrote by the end of the
first century, looking into the second, urged that they
contend or have a vigorous defense of the faith
delivered once and for all to God’s people. What he
meant by this was the faith that produced the expression
of the abundant life recorded in Acts 2 & 4. That was
“the faith once for all delivered to the saints.”
Faith came to those who had ears to hear.
But after love left, the Holy Spirit left. Eventually
those who were as John 9:41 describes took the word
contend in Jude 1:3 to mean taking up arms to force
their “right doctrine” upon those with “wrong
doctrine” under pain of death. This was contrary to
the words of the true Messiah, “My kingdom is not
of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants
would fight.”
Jude wrote to the few who were not yet disqualified:
To those who are called, sanctified (set apart)
in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ: May mercy,
peace, and love be multiplied to you. (Jude 1:1-2)
It was addressed to those who were still set
apart by God the Father, and kept, preserved for Messiah.
May mercy and peace and love be multiplied to you, who are
sanctified as in 1 Corinthians 1:2 — those
separated from the world in the Body of Messiah, the Community,
as in Acts 2:42-47 and 4:32-37. They are set apart in a
place where the refining process can take place in each
one’s life, which cannot be accomplished unless one
is separated from fellowship with the world in that place
where Messiah actually is in His Body.
In 1 Corinthians 1:2, “in every place” means
in every township, just as the letters from Paul were addressed
to each community according to its particular town or locality.
Starting from Jerusalem, the first community swarmed to
surrounding towns in Judea, after which Paul patterned
his communities. Of course, it was “with persecutions,”
as Mark 10:29-30 promises. This is the mark of those who
have separated themselves in a place in which they can be
made pure as 1 John 3:1-3, “that they may see Him
as He is, and everyone who has this hope in them purifies
himself as He is pure.”
Mark 10:29-30 was Christ’s answer to His disciples’
question, “Who then can be saved?” So verse
27 explains how one is saved by obedience to His gospel.
Someone has to receive the faith to not only believe in
Him, but to do what He required of all whom He would save
from this present evil world and put into a place where
they could be purified — where He is. There, and
only there, can anyone serve Him. As 1 Corinthians 1:2 implies,
it must be a set-apart place that is in the world, but not
of it.
The word sanctify in John 17:17 is the same as
in 1 Corinthians 1:2 set apart from the evil world system
to be made ready (prepared) to rule with Messiah; and John
17:18 is their mission.
As John 17:19 says, Christ had to sanctify Himself, not
that He had
to be made pure, but He meant to set Himself apart from
all other things in order to purify His disciples through
the truth of His word — to be made pure as 1 John
3:1-3. The sanctification process cannot be accomplished
without someone being set apart in a particular place where
the work of sanctification can be accomplished in his life.
Sanctification, as in 1 Thessalonians 4:3 and 7,
is the resultant state befitting those who are sanctified
as in 1 Corinthians 1:2.
So for someone to walk down the aisle in the Billy Graham
Crusade and be “saved” is impossible, for he
goes back home and does the very same things as before,
except now supposedly he’s going to heaven when he
dies. But has he simply believed in vain, as those in John
2:23-25? Was it only make believe? Might as well make believe
you love Him, as to say you do, but not obey Him. But
this is not what Christ told His disciples they had to do
to be saved in Mark 10:17-30.
“Who then can be saved?” Only those who hear
and obey the gospel, including the “many other words”
(the “hard sayings” of Christ) as in Acts 2:36-41
and Mark 10:17-30. The “rich young ruler” wanted
to know what he had to do to be saved. The answer is the
same now as it was for the 3000 on the day of Pentecost,
who gave up everything in response to the first message
of salvation to be preached after the Messiah ascended,
in obedience to His commission. Ask yourself why the
preaching of the gospel doesn’t produce the same results
today. Could it be a different gospel?
John 13:34-35; 1 John 3:14,16,23; 5:12-13
Romans 10:17
James 2:14-26
Judges 17:6; 21:25
2 Timothy 3:1-5
James 2:19
John 5:24
2 Corinthians 11:4,15
See
http://www.theblackboxspeaks.org/church-councils.html
John 12:47-48; Luke 9:54-55, NKJ; Acts 5:34-39
Galatians 1:6-7
Revelation 2:4-5
1 Corinthians 1:2
James 1:26-27; 2:14-26
Acts 2:44-45
Acts 2:40; John 18:37; 10:27
John 18:36
John 12:26
1 Thessalonians 2:14
Romans 5:3-5; 2 Peter 1:4-11; 1 Peter 5:4
Mark 10:26
John 12:25-26
John 17:14-17
Revelation 19:7-8
Colossians 1:28,23
John 14:15,21; 1 John 2:4; See also “Only
Make Believe”
Matthew 28:19-20
2 Corinthians 11:4
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