The Remnant Church

By David L. Hunt

An Open Church = The Future Church

The Early Church

The gospel flourished during the first century AD because the Church of the New Testament was an "open church". The Church met from "house to house with gladness and singleness of heart". There were no special church buildings, and the Jewish temple in Jerusalem was destroyed by fire in 70 AD. Christian church meetings were fellowships (floating celebrations) of eating, worshiping, sharing, and ministering. The Church was composed of many small groups of Christians who gathered to minister to the Lord and to one another. All members of the New Testament Church were involved in open worship, open sharing, and open ministry. The New Testament Church began with Jesus, His Apostles, and the "remnant" of believers from within Israel, with new believers being added to the Church daily. The environment of the Church was one of love, peace, and joy. The Church was the expression of the Kingdom of God in earth. Sure, there were problems between some believers, but as a whole, the Church was filled with the Holy Spirit of Christ; which was described as "righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost"; and it basically continued that way for two or three centuries.

The Constantine Disaster in Rome

But something happened in the fourth century that brought apostasy to the "Church". First, Constantine, the Roman emperor, became a believer in Christ, and in 313 AD, through Constantine's "Edict of Milan", the persecuted Church began to be "protected from persecution" by the government of the Roman Empire. Then many church leaders began to integrate with the government, and some became "professional" ministers (clergy). Church buildings were built where the "clergy" controlled the worship, the sharing, and the ministry of the church, and most of it's members became "spectators" instead of "participants" in the large church services, which replaced the small, warm, intimate, and precious "love feasts" which were typical of the earlier "open church" gatherings. The professional clergy, using the government sponsored sanctuaries, put limits on the congregations, and the Holy Spirit was quenched. Free and open expression became stifled as the clergy gained more and more power over the "church". The word of God no longer had free course among the people attending the clergy dominated meetings. The "church" grew in numbers, but not in the Spirit. The services caused "church" members to become more and more "religious", and less and less related to the Lord. The people began to look to the "clergy" to do the worshiping, sharing, and ministering for them. It was no longer an open church. Therefore, unbelievers felt comfortable in the services, but true believers felt uncomfortable and unfulfilled. Many faithful followers of Christ continued to meet in homes, yet there's not much written about them.

"Church" Growth Without Conversions

By AD 400 the "church" in the Roman Empire had grown from 4% of the population to 87%, without any conversions; a gigantic increase in membership, with no increase in spirituality. But the faithful remnant, the true Church, continued to worship and serve the Lord in spirit and in truth. The Remnant Church was not recognized by the general population, nor by most historians, who were not true Christians; and it seems that there were many of them. As the apostasy increased, non-priests in the organized church were called "laymen". The biblical doctrine of "the priesthood of the believer" was lost in the new organized church order, as well as the teaching of "justification by faith". The clergy of the organized church invented all kinds of other doctrines, which kept the general membership of the church in the dark spiritually; imprisoned to the clergy.

The "Dark Ages" Began

The organized church had dug a pit for itself. It became so big that open worship, open sharing, and open ministry was no longer possible. Only the small Remnant Church, which met from house to house, could truly offer open worship, open sharing, and open ministry through it's members. As soon as a house church fellowship got too big for the living room where it met, it would split into two groups. In that way, new leadership was constantly being raised up by the Lord from within the body of the open Remnant Church. You see, intimate sharing and ministry is extremely difficult in large groups of people, and as more and more church buildings were built, and the priests became more and more eloquent in their preaching, the "lay" members of the organized church withdrew more and more into their shells. The "lay" members of the organized church became an audience for the clergy, instead of participants in the ministry. This continued for 1,000 years, until the Protestant Reformation.

The Roman Catholic Church

The organized "church" became defined as "catholic", which means "universal". Rome was it's headquarters, and even though the Roman Empire fell in the 5th century, the "Roman Catholic Church" became well established. Roman Catholic missionaries were sent out to expand the "church" into all the world. Anyone, anywhere could join the Roman Catholic Church, as long as they pledged their allegiance to its leadership in Rome. Being born-again by the Spirit of God was not a requirement for "church" membership. So the organized "church" grew dramatically, without conversions. Only members of the Remnant Church were truly born-again, and only God and His remnant knew who they were.

Protestant Reformation

In the early 16th century Martin Luther, a Catholic monk in Germany, rediscovered the biblical truths of "justification by faith" and "the priesthood of the believer", and he challenged the Roman church to return to the teachings of Christ and His Apostles; but his challenge was rejected by the hierarchy of the "church" and he was excommunicated from the Roman dominated church. That's when the "Protestant Reformation" began. John Calvin and others joined in and tried to pick up the pieces of true biblical teaching, but they only partially succeeded. The King James Version of the Bible was translated and published in 1611, and a little later God called on the Puritans to bring some additional correction to the teachings of the "church".

The Evangelicals and Pentecostals

In the 18th century the Wesleys picked up some more of the pieces, and in the 19th century the revivalists and certain missionaries picked up some more. Starting in 1901 the Pentecostal movement did a whole lot more to bring the Church back to reality, and the person who started your denomination probably outdid them all. …. Well ….not really! The truth is the organized church, both Catholic and Protestant is still, to a great degree, coming far short of the New Testament Church pattern of open worship, open sharing, and open ministry. The gap between the professional clergy and the general membership is still very great in most churches. Most members of the organized church are spectators, and the clergy are still doing most of the praying, worshipping, sharing, and ministering. The clergy approach God for the members, and do most of the sharing from behind a pulpit. For the most part, they do the ministering, the counseling, and the praying for the sick, etc., and the members seem satisfied to have it that way. ...But not all of us!

The Faithful Remnant

There's still a remnant of faithful followers of Christ. The Remnant Church is an Open Church. The Church of the remnant is not satisfied in trying to fellowship with the back of another member's head. We want closer fellowship than that. So we gather in circles or squares, usually in a member's home, so that we can see one another's face and worship openly, share freely, and minister powerfully to one another by the Spirit of God, like the Church of the Bible did. The Remnant Church has the calling and power of God to heal the sick, cast out devils, raise the dead, and preach the gospel of the Kingdom of God to the poor. The only real power that has ever existed in any church fellowship is the power of God, which rests on God's remnant, the faithful ones, who have lovingly tolerated the ignorance of those who haven't yet known or sought the fullness of God's Word and Spirit. The Evangelical and Pentecostal movements of the 20th century have been God's tools in the Remnant Church to bring the organized "church" back to being more like the Church of the Bible, which was established by Jesus Christ, our Lord. But there is still a gigantic spiritual void in the organized "church", and it's up to us members of the eternal Remnant Church to lead the way into the Kingdom of God. It can be done. It must be done. It will be done!

The Remnant Church is a Missionary Church

The Church of the remnant will never be satisfied to simply meet. We are interested in being what God has called us to be; Worshipers, Sharers, and Ministers; a fruitful and multiplying fellowship of believers bringing glory to God in all the earth. God is a missionary God. His Son, Jesus is the primary missionary of all time. Jesus told His disciples to be missionaries, and He expects us to be missionaries today. Jesus crossed the greatest culture barrier in the Universe; from Heaven to earth. His mission is to all people groups in earth. He personally ministered to many Jews and many gentiles while on earth, and He commanded His Remnant Church to "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature". That means everyone, Jews and gentiles, bond and free, male and female. Jesus wants all people to come to the knowledge of the truth. He wants everyone on earth to hear the gospel of God's kingdom. His remnant of today is expected to do all that we can to finish the task of world evangelization; and Jesus didn't leave us to tackle the job by ourselves. He sent the Holy Ghost to empower us for the task. So, you see, the Remnant Church is obedient to Christ's commands, and is therefore a missionary Church. Blessings to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity.

In Jesus' love ....David

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