One of the things that first got my attention when being taught the doctrines of grace was that the explanations *started* with God -- specifically, His sovereignty. It had always seemed strange to me (before I became a Primitive Baptist) that in "theological" discussions with those of other groups that their emphasis was always primarily on man, his actions and understanding, his need to make a decision, etc. But in the PB church, discussions always began with God ... who He is--His attributes--what He does and has done, what He has promised to do, etc. Another thing that made sense to me in discussions with Primitive Baptists was that the next topic of discussion was to point to the inability of man to "work his way up to God", to "expose" man as the sinful, rebellious creature he is since Adam and Eve's (especially Adam's) choices in the garden of Eden.

This sequence provided a good basis for realistic discussion. The thing that confused me, however, in discussions with many/most PBs that I met in those early years, was that the next emphasis was on the church ... the church rather than Christ Jesus. In these discussions, I heard far more references to "the church" than I did to the Saviour. I witnessed far more willingness to discuss "the church" among PB members than to discuss the work and person of Jesus. And I heard so few references to personal experiences of the risen Christ's grace and love "here and now" in individual lives as to produce astonished surprise when it occurred. You just didn't talk about Jesus. There was never any doubt in my mind that PBs loved the church. The question that arose in my mind was the thought that quite possibly most loved the church more than they loved Christ. Most talked more in glowing terms about the church than about Christ. And there were times when, if it weren't for the hymns sung, Christ's name would barely be heard in a church service. This *didn't* make sense to me because He was the reason we were all gathered together in the first place.

The church is, primarily, a gathering of individuals who acknowledge who God is, and who he/she is before Christ's redeeming love paid the price to reconcile him/her to God, and a gathering of those who come together to worship the One who saved them and who has called them. The gathering is because of Christ Jesus. The emphasis of the church of the New Testament is not on some mass "clump" of people being elected and saved, but on individuals reclaimed from sin's dominion. The New Testament account of Christ's disciples isn't just a factual sentence that "twelve men were chosen to follow Christ". Rather, their names are given, their fields of work are given, certain personal traits and actions are revealed -- these twelve were "persons". And *we* are distinct "persons" in God's sight . . . individuals. Individuals who come together to praise and worship God together, to learn more of our Savior, to relate instances of Christ's faithfulness to us here on earth, with hope for a future with Christ in heaven, etc. . . individuals who first have a personal relationship with the risen Christ, and then with each other. The church is comprised of the "called out" redeemed individuals connected to God and to each other by God's love and grace. When any other dynamic is present, the focus is skewed. It is inconsistent to sing "My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness", or "Oh, how I love Jesus!", and then point to the church as "My comfort . . .", or "My joy . . . " as I have heard done. The church is a comfort, and it is a joy, but it's not the first cause of this comfort and joy. A low and flickering flame, not a shining light, is produced from this skewed focus.

Someone has expressed the thought that the anti-Christ is not someone who is "against Christ" as a first principle, boldly announcing that he/she is an enemy of Christ; but rather someone who desires to be a substitute for Christ ("against" Christ, rather, in the sense of being in competition with Christ, and attempting to usurp the place of Christ in individual lives). The "spirit of anti-Christ" then is putting something or someone in the place of honor that belongs to Christ alone. Even gatherings ostensibly in Christ's name can become "anti-Christ" if Christ isn't the focus in the hearts of those in the gathering, or the central purpose for the gathering.

In the book My Utmost for His Highest, Oswald Chambers poses the following question asked by Christ (as written in the book of John), then Chambers makes the following comments:

Christ asks: "Do you love Me?" (John 21:17)

"Peter’s response to this piercing question is considerably different from the bold defiance he exhibited only a few days before when he declared, "Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You!" ( Matthew 26:35 ; also see Matthew 26:33-34 ). Our natural individuality, or our natural self, boldly speaks out and declares its feelings. But the true love within our inner spiritual self can be discovered only by experiencing the hurt of this question of Jesus Christ. Peter loved Jesus in the way any natural man loves a good person. Yet that is nothing but emotional love. It may reach deeply into our natural self, but it never penetrates to the spirit of a person. True love never simply declares itself. Jesus said, "Whoever confesses Me before men (that is, confesses his love by everything he does, not merely by his words) [though words also are important], him the Son of Man also will confess before the angels of God" ( Luke 12:8 )."

It doesn't make sense to have Jesus confessing us before the angels of God while we confess "the church" before men. It is Jesus who saved us -- who saves us, and who will save us. The vision of a church presented to the watching world pales into bland insignificance beside the vision of Christ's loving sacrifice for us. It is not the church that is to be the focus of our lives -- the church makes sense and has purpose and significance only as Jesus Christ is its focus and center.

I have personal experience with a church that once had many members and well-attended meetings; I was present at many of the meetings, some of them quite lively. That church was *very* proud of the name "primitive baptist". The membership exhibited a passionate devotion to their able pastor that should have been exhibited toward Christ only. When the pastor died, the church began to wither. Today the pastor is gone, the quite large auditorium of the church building has a few members scattered throughout it on Sunday mornings, and the elderly congregation continues to dwindle as death takes the faithful few that are left. But this church, for all of her qualities of faithfulness to the doctrines of grace, was never known as a church whose members--fine folks though they were-- were devoted to Christ. It was known as a "good primitive baptist church" where the true doctrines were correctly taught and learned. But devotion to Christ, love for Him first, was never the hallmark of that church. The term "Christian" was considered suspect, and the phrase "followers of Christ" not used nor the concept accepted. Although the "Doctrines of Grace" was the foundation of the group, the One who made those doctrines a reality was given short shrift.

Francis Schaeffer's little booklet, "The Mark of the Christian", proposes the key as to what should be the hallmark of believers. The mark of the Christian, Schaeffer reminds us, is love. Many in the church demonstrate love for each other, but will not name the name of Jesus Christ, and yet without Christ the love demonstrated would not be possible. Concerning love for others we read In the book of John these words of Jesus:

"A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another." (John 13:34,35) In John 15:12 we read the words of Jesus: "This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you." These statements are not optional to discipleship -- they are essential. The Apostle Paul reminds us in the letter to the Thessalonicans: "But as touching brotherly love ye need not that I write unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another. And indeed ye do it toward all the brethren which are in all Macedonia: but we beseech you, brethren, that ye increase more and more; And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you; . . . (I Th 4:9-11)

Using the Bible as our "straightedge", when the present-day scene--and our own actions--are held up to the straightedge of God's Word, we can see that the line has grown wobbly and indistinct in our own lives, and in the church. Love is not the word that immediately comes to mind. Although everyone is usually cordial, courteous, and kind, the love of Christ and love for Christ isn't always the shining reality that one might expect in a church where truth is taught.

There are no rewards promised in Scripture for pointing out the perceived shortcomings of others. Let us turn our efforts and attention to our own sins and shortcomings; to rooting them out and bringing them in humble repentance and confession before God, asking for grace and strength to be His true and fervent disciples who bear the mark of His love in our lives. Thanks to God's redeeming grace, and the privileges bought for us by Christ, and the faithful ministering by the Holy Ghost, we can repent and hope in Christ for needed change in the church at this time, in this place. We can confess, repent, pray for guidance and strength for ourselves and for others in the church, as we bow before the Saviour and ask to be a "light set on a hill" for this darkened time ... at this time and in this place. There isn't another time, another place when and where we can do this ... we must do it now, if at all.

That Christ's name be honored "in this present generation" at the place where we each have been "assigned", please join me in the prayer that we may each and all "increase more and more" in love to Christ, and to others--as Christ has loved us. May we not be as Diotrephes ("I wrote unto the church: but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not. 3 John 1:9), but may Christ have pre-eminence in everything, in all we do and say and in *how* we do and say it. "And He is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things He might have the preeminence." (Colossians 1:18)