We are warned many times in the Scripture that attacks on the body of believers, the Faith, and the Person and Work of Jesus Christ occurs internally, from it’s (professing) midst. In military terms, this is known as a “false flag” operation, meaning: the enemies array themselves as the allies.
The Scriptures are so numerous, they are given here:
The modes of attack are likewise many but they can be grouped into main categories, the most subtle of which is deception by means of (apparently) proclaiming God’s Word, the Bible. How can this be? One common technique is avoiding the teaching of entire passages / books of the Bible so that selected verses or phrases, often picked here and there, can be woven together by the speakers inclinations to appear as a coherent teaching of God. This of course can be well-meaning, and to some extent it is normal to do; it is what knotting together / connecting Scripture-with-Scripture is about. But, it’s dangerous because by doing so every verse is taken out of its natural context. So it is easily possible, though possibly inadvertently, to cite multiple points of Scripture and distort the teaching of Scripture. And for someone of hidden, personal motives, such an approach is a powerful tool especially when shouting, bouncing around, sprinkling in anecdotes, personal ‘testimonies’ and stories, and humor.
For that reason, here we will look at “church” through the lens of a complete NT book, the Epistle to the Philippians. Philippians is an excellent exemplar of a NT church / body of believers.
- It is short of enough to be accessible in one read-through.
- It was the break-through site of the NT church in Europe, during Paul’s Second Missionary Journey
- The Philippians were active supporters, financially and otherwise, of Paul’s continuing missionary work
- Philippi was an official Roman city–the citizens of the city had the special privilege of being citizens of Rome–so they melded together the cultures of Greek (Philippi is in Greece), Rome (the governing political entity that would last another 400 years), and had a population of Jewish believers as well.
- There was a close association of Philippi with Paul, Timothy, and another prominent NT person, Epaphroditus.
Our church study of Philippians is here:
The contrast of The Church at Philippi (and elsewhere in the NT) with The Religion Industry is summarized here: