what is the State of covenantal evangelism in our contemporary local church of

today? Evangelism defined from the New Testament in which we also see what
evangelism is not.

Evangelism is the preaching of the Gospel to every creature. There is no limit. We are
to go into all the world. No kind of person is excepted, old or young, male or female,
rich or poor, weak or strong. There is a priority. The Gospel is to be preached to the
Jew first (Rom 1:16). Apart from the application to the Hebrew people there is
another lesson to be drawn from this priority. The Gospel must be preached and
applied to our own immediate family circle first. The Christian mother teaching the
Gospel to her children is a power that has worked to the salvation of multitudes. Some
of the best missionaries have emerged from Christian homes, men such as John C.
Paton and William Bums.

When we define evangelism we include comprehensiveness as well as contact. To

have a five minute chat about the Gospel with every creature in the world is not to
evangelize the world. That is contact alone. That is an introduction and such is
valuable indeed, but evangelism is much more than that. Evangelism is
comprehensive. Our Lord states this comprehensiveness as follows: "Go ye therefore,
and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of
the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded
you" (Matt 28:19). The teaching is to be such that those disciples or learners that are
made are prepared for baptism into the Trinity and such baptism presupposes a
thorough and detailed understanding of each of the three persons of the Trinity. Think
of the colossal ignorance, the woeful darkness, the terrible deception about Creation,
the Bible, God, Christ, and the Church prevalent today. The task of dispelling this
ignorance and deception by way of proclamation and teaching is enormous. Until the
end of the world we are to tackle this task with intelligence, courage, energy and
dependence upon the Lord who is with us to the end of the age.

Evangelism, then, is the preaching of the Gospel in detail and in a thorough manner to
every creature. If people will have nothing to do with it we do not give up but
persevere in the knowledge that this is what our Lord has commanded and therefore in
wholehearted obedience we will continue.

Having given this brief definition we can now observe what evangelism is not.

(i) Evangelism is not John 3:16 in isolation

We must not think that if we shout out a few texts on a street corner we have fulfilled
our evangelistic responsibilities. Favorable sites for open air preaching in this modern
world of heavy traffic noise are rare and should be utilized wherever there is
reasonable prospect of a listening audience. But if such is secured and used regularly
it forms only one means of evangelism. Likewise when literature is distributed we
must remember that our dropping a few printed tracts or leaflets through letter boxes,
while better than nothing, falls far short of the great commission to evangelize. Much
that is done today can be likened to a farmer who, instead of engaging in the
systematic labor of ploughing and planting ten acres of corn, goes out for five minutes
and throws a few handfuls of seed on the ground, the most of which is immediately
devoured by the birds of the air.
(ii) Evangelism is not revival

Recently I procured a cassette tape on the subject of evangelism by a well known

preacher. I played it several times and was edified by it but in actual fact he did not
say a word about evangelism! It was all about revival and the theology of revival. I
believe in revival with all my heart, but revival is not evangelism. Revival will lead to
better and more effective evangelism. If, however, we slip into thinking that we can
do nothing until revival comes—and it has not come now for well over a century—
then we slip into irresponsibility of the most diabolical kind. Our Lord commanded
evangelism. We are to obey as best we can. We may be weak and the churches may
be weak. Nevertheless we may never excuse ourselves. Evangelism is an abiding
obligation to the end of the age. Our Lord did not say that we ought only to evangelize
when he sends revival. The principle of Psalm 126 is apposite here. If we sow in tears
we shall reap in joy. We are not to excuse our sloth by saying to ourselves, "An well,
in revival hundreds will be saved, but all our efforts bear little fruit—but one here and
two there—so I am going to ease up and wait for revival!" Revival may never be seen
in this generation yet multitudes will continue to be saved one by one throughout all
nations, through the ordinary outreach and witness of local churches.

(iii) Evangelism is not the establishment of a preaching centre

Some dear brothers in the ministry that I know think that all they need do for
evangelism is preach in a pulpit three times a week. They pray for people to come in
but such prayer shows a lack of common sense for the people round about do not even
know of the existence of that pulpit. God uses means. He will not send angels to tell
the people. We must tell the people and if they are utterly opposed to going to a
church then we must resort to other means of teaching them. Our Lord did not lay it
down as a condition that the teaching must begin in ecclesiastical buildings. It
becomes clear to disciples that Christ and his people are one and that there are
decided obligations to make use of the means of grace and to gather where God's
people gather. Initially, however, we must be ready to teach people in homes, either
theirs or ours.

The pulpit, as we shall see, is the Church's most powerful instrument in the
conversion of souls but we must never imagine that the mandate to evangelize is
fulfilled merely by the establishment and maintenance of a preaching centre.

(iv) Evangelism is not a special crusade or campaign

The idea has long prevailed in evangelical churches that for the most part evangelism
consists of a special evangelistic effort once or twice a year, in which an evangelist is
employed for a week or two. At the end of every meeting a call is made for decisions
for Christ. At the end of the campaign the results are made known. Some souls may
have been drawn in and truly saved by this method and in some cases churches have
been quickened to recognize their responsibilities. Having come from this kind of
tradition and having observed this practice in various places I have noticed that very
little, if any, regular, consistent evangelism is carried on in these churches. The
tendency is to make a big effort for the special campaign and then to go back to doing
nothing until the next effort comes along. In addition to this, the system is fraudulent
and dishonest in the extreme—it is a big lie! Only a small fraction of those advertised
as though they were converts continue. When the truth is exposed the excuse is made:
"it was worth it for one or two!" It is disgraceful that dishonesty of this kind should be
practised by some platform evangelists who have to advertise their success in order to
continue in business. If all the decisions that have been reported in such a way as to
give the idea that they were converts were in fact true converts, we would be living in
the millennium by now! Lying at the root of it all is defective theology which brings
us to consider the question of doctrine upon which the apostles, particularly Paul, laid
such stress.

2. A dynamic theology is the foundation of evangelism

Our age is an age of power, an age in which people look for and admire the dynamic.
Men talk constantly about power: military power, political power, industrial power,
economic power. Our Lord in sending his disciples out to evangelize the world,
declared that all power belonged to him. He alone has the power to regenerate and
quicken sinners. He alone has the dynamic to create new life. A theology that does not
come to grips with the sovereign power of God is less than dynamic. "All power is
given to me—go ye therefore." Our knowledge of God (theology) and the fact that
Christ is now making application of the redemption he has secured for his people
forms the foundation of evangelism, the basis upon which we proceed to the work.
The knowledge that our Lord has power to quicken whom he wills invests our
persevering efforts with hope and expectancy. The doctrine of election, far from
shutting out sinners, is the reason for their being gathered in. As we evangelize we
soon discover that "there is none that seeketh after God" (Rom 3:11). But we are
encouraged by the sovereignty of God and such statements as, "All things are
delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither
knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal
him" (Matt 11:27).

Theology is a knowledge of God. We are to teach all truth, particularly those truths
which pertain to the knowledge of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost into whom
the converts are baptized. What makes theology dynamic? The Holy Spirit, for he
comes like the wind to regenerate and quicken. To us the proclamation belongs. To
the Spirit regeneration belongs. We are to command men to repent and to believe. We
are to exhort, urge, plead, expound and teach. We can do all this. But we cannot
regenerate. "Of his own will begot he us with the word of truth" (James 1:18).

Regeneration precedes faith and repentance. Repentance is God's gift (Acts 5:31 and
11:18). Likewise faith is God's gift to all his elect people. It is not man's faith which
causes election but election which causes man's faith. (If the reader is in doubt about
this a study of the following Scriptures will be helpful: Deut 7:7, 8 Hos 14:4; John
6:37, 39, 44; 12:32; 1 Cor 1:27, 28 Eph 2:8, 9 2 Pet 1:1; 1 John 4:10, 19). This is the
hinge upon which the whole issue turns. Modern evangelism is based on the notion
that the preacher must preach to obtain man's response in order that God might then
regenerate. Human response can be obtained by the exertion of pressure. By means of
a call for decisions a visible result can be obtained. Our interest is in regeneration.
When souls are quickened they soon make their presence felt as they did under Peter's
preaching: "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" (Acts 2:37). Those who follow in
the apostolic tradition preach for regeneration. They are not interested in a harvest of
hay, wood and stubble. They look for gold, silver and precious stones. 1 Preaching
which is vindicated by the living, dynamic, almighty regeneration of God in which
souls are brought to life is magnificent. In contrast to this, evangelism in which
teaching and doctrine are minimized, and man-centred religion predominates, with the
emphasis on entertainment, is weak and disappointing, because those who profess to
have made decisions soon fall away.

The question of the centrality of theology was avoided at the World Congress on
Evangelism at Berlin in 1966. The outcome was summarized as follows:

"In contrast with the results of other historic assemblies the Congress papers will
reflect the theological weakness and uncertainty which characterizes twentieth
century evangelicalism. Blessings and curses are mingled together. The atmosphere is
grey. The pure air of the Gospel is there, but so is the smog. The sun does shine, but
dimly through the smoke and fumes of compromise and doctrinal confusion.

"The Christian Church today faces one of the greatest crises of all time. In past
centuries some truths have been assailed. Now the very foundations of the faith are
being rejected. The World Congress on Evangelism revealed how ill-equipped
evangelicals are to face this crisis. Inarticulate in doctrine and man-centred in outlook,
many evangelical leaders are unable even to define what the historic faith is, let alone
teach it. The result is that a diluted theology within the churches has produced a
shallow and ignorant generation of Christians." 2
The World Congress on Evangelization at Lausanne in 1974 proceeded on the basis
that theological issues had been clarified at Berlin. Lausanne was even more confused
theologically than Berlin.

It is commonly understood that a heresy is something which destroys the Gospel

whereas an error is that which is wrong and misleading but which is not serious
enough to destroy the Gospel. Two heresies in particular destroy the Gospel as far as
its evangelistic thrust is concerned. One is hyper-Calvinism in which the free offers of
the Gospel are denied and in which an excuse is made of the fact that men are dead in
sin and therefore there is no point in evangelizing.

Total human responsibility (men know that they ought to repent and believe the
Gospel) must be maintained together with faith in the sovereignty of God. These
matters cannot be reconciled to human logic. The hyper-Calvinist in his desire to be
logical comes to the wrong conclusion that it is inconsistent to command sinners to
repent and believe when they are unable to do so, which is entirely an unbiblical and
false conclusion!

The other heresy which destroys true evangelism is decisionism. This system also
follows human logic. If God commands sinners to repent and believe, then obviously,
reason the decisionists, they must be able to do so. Therefore, without any further ado,
we employ every device at our disposal to get men to make a decision. Clive Tyler of
Cape Town, in his enlightening article, demonstrates the harmful practices which
Finney's logic has led to in the churches. 3 That which stops short of God's
regeneration deceives souls into a false assurance and creates havoc in the churches
because of the addition of false converts. Paul preached repentance toward God and
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 20:21). God commands all men everywhere to
repent (Acts 17:30). To us belongs the proclamation to every creature. To God
belongs the increase.

3. A dynamic Church is the agent of evangelism

The Nature of the Church

That the Church is the agent of evangelism can be seen, firstly, by observing the
nature of the Church and, secondly, by examining the example of the Church in the
New Testament. Our Lord commissioned his disciples to go and, "teach all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost"
(Matt 28:19). Those so baptized are joined to the body of Christ which is the Church.
The Church is described by different analogies. The predominant analogy is that of
the human body. Each member of the Church has a function. (Rom 12:4, the word
"office" is better translated function from the Greek word prazin; I Cor 12:12-27; Eph
4:16.) Union with Christ by faith is essential in order to be a member of Christ's
Church. To be joined to Christ is to live or to have spiritual life. The living union is
illustrated by the analogy of the vine and the branches (John 15:1-1 1). Christ's body,
or Church, is like the vine. To abide in it is to have life but to be severed from it is to
be severed from the means of grace given by Christ to his Church which leads to
drying up and ultimately to spiritual death. A further analogy is that used by Paul in
Ephesians where he likens the Church to a living building. It is organic, for it is
growing. The Holy Spirit dwells in this building in which all the members are like
living stones, fitly framed together in harmony, union and common purpose. (See also
1 Pet 2:5.)

Essential to the Church is the purity of her membership. The stones must be living for
they are to offer up spiritual sacrifices. That they must be living is further seen in that
they are to grow and increase in love (Eph 4:16). It is self-evident that nothing will
contribute more quickly to the destruction of the Church than the entrance Evangelism
defined from the New Testament in which we also see what evangelism is not.

Evangelism is the preaching of the Gospel to every creature. There is no limit. We are
to go into all the world. No kind of person is excepted, old or young, male or female,
rich or poor, weak or strong. There is a priority. The Gospel is to be preached to the
Jew first (Rom 1:16). Apart from the application to the Hebrew people there is
another lesson to be drawn from this priority. The Gospel must be preached and
applied to our own immediate family circle first. The Christian mother teaching the
Gospel to her children is a power that has worked to the salvation of multitudes. Some
of the best missionaries have emerged from Christian homes, men such as John C.
Paton and William Bums.

When we define evangelism we include comprehensiveness as well as contact. To

have a five minute chat about the Gospel with every creature in the world is not to
evangelize the world. That is contact alone. That is an introduction and such is
valuable indeed, but evangelism is much more than that. Evangelism is
comprehensive. Our Lord states this comprehensiveness as follows: "Go ye therefore,
and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of
the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded
you" (Matt 28:19). The teaching is to be such that those disciples or learners that are
made are prepared for baptism into the Trinity and such baptism presupposes a
thorough and detailed understanding of each of the three persons of the Trinity. Think
of the colossal ignorance, the woeful darkness, the terrible deception about Creation,
the Bible, God, Christ, and the Church prevalent today. The task of dispelling this
ignorance and deception by way of proclamation and teaching is enormous. Until the
end of the world we are to tackle this task with intelligence, courage, energy and
dependence upon the Lord who is with us to the end of the age.

Evangelism, then, is the preaching of the Gospel in detail and in a thorough manner to
every creature. If people will have nothing to do with it we do not give up but
persevere in the knowledge that this is what our Lord has commanded and therefore in
wholehearted obedience we will continue.

Having given this brief definition we can now observe what evangelism is not.

(i) Evangelism is not John 3:16 in isolation

We must not think that if we shout out a few texts on a street corner we have fulfilled
our evangelistic responsibilities. Favorable sites for open air preaching in this modern
world of heavy traffic noise are rare and should be utilized wherever there is
reasonable prospect of a listening audience. But if such is secured and used regularly
it forms only one means of evangelism. Likewise when literature is distributed we
must remember that our dropping a few printed tracts or leaflets through letter boxes,
while better than nothing, falls far short of the great commission to evangelize. Much
that is done today can be likened to a farmer who, instead of engaging in the
systematic labor of ploughing and planting ten acres of corn, goes out for five minutes
and throws a few handfuls of seed on the ground, the most of which is immediately
devoured by the birds of the air.

(ii) Evangelism is not revival

Recently I procured a cassette tape on the subject of evangelism by a well known

preacher. I played it several times and was edified by it but in actual fact he did not
say a word about evangelism! It was all about revival and the theology of revival. I
believe in revival with all my heart, but revival is not evangelism. Revival will lead to
better and more effective evangelism. If, however, we slip into thinking that we can
do nothing until revival comes—and it has not come now for well over a century—
then we slip into irresponsibility of the most diabolical kind. Our Lord commanded
evangelism. We are to obey as best we can. We may be weak and the churches may
be weak. Nevertheless we may never excuse ourselves. Evangelism is an abiding
obligation to the end of the age. Our Lord did not say that we ought only to evangelize
when he sends revival. The principle of Psalm 126 is apposite here. If we sow in tears
we shall reap in joy. We are not to excuse our sloth by saying to ourselves, "An well,
in revival hundreds will be saved, but all our efforts bear little fruit—but one here and
two there—so I am going to ease up and wait for revival!" Revival may never be seen
in this generation yet multitudes will continue to be saved one by one throughout all
nations, through the ordinary outreach and witness of local churches.

(iii) Evangelism is not the establishment of a preaching centre

Some dear brothers in the ministry that I know think that all they need do for
evangelism is preach in a pulpit three times a week. They pray for people to come in
but such prayer shows a lack of common sense for the people round about do not even
know of the existence of that pulpit. God uses means. He will not send angels to tell
the people. We must tell the people and if they are utterly opposed to going to a
church then we must resort to other means of teaching them. Our Lord did not lay it
down as a condition that the teaching must begin in ecclesiastical buildings. It
becomes clear to disciples that Christ and his people are one and that there are
decided obligations to make use of the means of grace and to gather where God's
people gather. Initially, however, we must be ready to teach people in homes, either
theirs or ours.

The pulpit, as we shall see, is the Church's most powerful instrument in the
conversion of souls but we must never imagine that the mandate to evangelize is
fulfilled merely by the establishment and maintenance of a preaching centre.

(iv) Evangelism is not a special crusade or campaign

The idea has long prevailed in evangelical churches that for the most part evangelism
consists of a special evangelistic effort once or twice a year, in which an evangelist is
employed for a week or two. At the end of every meeting a call is made for decisions
for Christ. At the end of the campaign the results are made known. Some souls may
have been drawn in and truly saved by this method and in some cases churches have
been quickened to recognize their responsibilities. Having come from this kind of
tradition and having observed this practice in various places I have noticed that very
little, if any, regular, consistent evangelism is carried on in these churches. The
tendency is to make a big effort for the special campaign and then to go back to doing
nothing until the next effort comes along. In addition to this, the system is fraudulent
and dishonest in the extreme—it is a big lie! Only a small fraction of those advertised
as though they were converts continue. When the truth is exposed the excuse is made:
"it was worth it for one or two!" It is disgraceful that dishonesty of this kind should be
practised by some platform evangelists who have to advertise their success in order to
continue in business. If all the decisions that have been reported in such a way as to
give the idea that they were converts were in fact true converts, we would be living in
the millennium by now! Lying at the root of it all is defective theology which brings
us to consider the question of doctrine upon which the apostles, particularly Paul, laid
such stress.

2. A dynamic theology is the foundation of evangelism

Our age is an age of power, an age in which people look for and admire the dynamic.
Men talk constantly about power: military power, political power, industrial power,
economic power. Our Lord in sending his disciples out to evangelize the world,
declared that all power belonged to him. He alone has the power to regenerate and
quicken sinners. He alone has the dynamic to create new life. A theology that does not
come to grips with the sovereign power of God is less than dynamic. "All power is
given to me—go ye therefore." Our knowledge of God (theology) and the fact that
Christ is now making application of the redemption he has secured for his people
forms the foundation of evangelism, the basis upon which we proceed to the work.
The knowledge that our Lord has power to quicken whom he wills invests our
persevering efforts with hope and expectancy. The doctrine of election, far from
shutting out sinners, is the reason for their being gathered in. As we evangelize we
soon discover that "there is none that seeketh after God" (Rom 3:11). But we are
encouraged by the sovereignty of God and such statements as, "All things are
delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither
knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal
him" (Matt 11:27).

Theology is a knowledge of God. We are to teach all truth, particularly those truths
which pertain to the knowledge of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost into whom
the converts are baptized. What makes theology dynamic? The Holy Spirit, for he
comes like the wind to regenerate and quicken. To us the proclamation belongs. To
the Spirit regeneration belongs. We are to command men to repent and to believe. We
are to exhort, urge, plead, expound and teach. We can do all this. But we cannot
regenerate. "Of his own will begot he us with the word of truth" (James 1:18).

Regeneration precedes faith and repentance. Repentance is God's gift (Acts 5:31 and
11:18). Likewise faith is God's gift to all his elect people. It is not man's faith which
causes election but election which causes man's faith. (If the reader is in doubt about
this a study of the following Scriptures will be helpful: Deut 7:7, 8 Hos 14:4; John
6:37, 39, 44; 12:32; 1 Cor 1:27, 28 Eph 2:8, 9 2 Pet 1:1; 1 John 4:10, 19). This is the
hinge upon which the whole issue turns. Modern evangelism is based on the notion
that the preacher must preach to obtain man's response in order that God might then
regenerate. Human response can be obtained by the exertion of pressure. By means of
a call for decisions a visible result can be obtained. Our interest is in regeneration.
When souls are quickened they soon make their presence felt as they did under Peter's
preaching: "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" (Acts 2:37). Those who follow in
the apostolic tradition preach for regeneration. They are not interested in a harvest of
hay, wood and stubble. They look for gold, silver and precious stones. 1 Preaching
which is vindicated by the living, dynamic, almighty regeneration of God in which
souls are brought to life is magnificent. In contrast to this, evangelism in which
teaching and doctrine are minimized, and man-centred religion predominates, with the
emphasis on entertainment, is weak and disappointing, because those who profess to
have made decisions soon fall away.

The question of the centrality of theology was avoided at the World Congress on
Evangelism at Berlin in 1966. The outcome was summarized as follows:

"In contrast with the results of other historic assemblies the Congress papers will
reflect the theological weakness and uncertainty which characterizes twentieth
century evangelicalism. Blessings and curses are mingled together. The atmosphere is
grey. The pure air of the Gospel is there, but so is the smog. The sun does shine, but
dimly through the smoke and fumes of compromise and doctrinal confusion.

"The Christian Church today faces one of the greatest crises of all time. In past
centuries some truths have been assailed. Now the very foundations of the faith are
being rejected. The World Congress on Evangelism revealed how ill-equipped
evangelicals are to face this crisis. Inarticulate in doctrine and man-centred in outlook,
many evangelical leaders are unable even to define what the historic faith is, let alone
teach it. The result is that a diluted theology within the churches has produced a
shallow and ignorant generation of Christians." 2
The World Congress on Evangelization at Lausanne in 1974 proceeded on the basis
that theological issues had been clarified at Berlin. Lausanne was even more confused
theologically than Berlin.

It is commonly understood that a heresy is something which destroys the Gospel

whereas an error is that which is wrong and misleading but which is not serious
enough to destroy the Gospel. Two heresies in particular destroy the Gospel as far as
its evangelistic thrust is concerned. One is hyper-Calvinism in which the free offers of
the Gospel are denied and in which an excuse is made of the fact that men are dead in
sin and therefore there is no point in evangelizing.

Total human responsibility (men know that they ought to repent and believe the
Gospel) must be maintained together with faith in the sovereignty of God. These
matters cannot be reconciled to human logic. The hyper-Calvinist in his desire to be
logical comes to the wrong conclusion that it is inconsistent to command sinners to
repent and believe when they are unable to do so, which is entirely an unbiblical and
false conclusion!

The other heresy which destroys true evangelism is decisionism. This system also
follows human logic. If God commands sinners to repent and believe, then obviously,
reason the decisionists, they must be able to do so. Therefore, without any further ado,
we employ every device at our disposal to get men to make a decision. Clive Tyler of
Cape Town, in his enlightening article, demonstrates the harmful practices which
Finney's logic has led to in the churches. 3 That which stops short of God's
regeneration deceives souls into a false assurance and creates havoc in the churches
because of the addition of false converts. Paul preached repentance toward God and
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 20:21). God commands all men everywhere to
repent (Acts 17:30). To us belongs the proclamation to every creature. To God
belongs the increase.

3. A dynamic Church is the agent of evangelism

The Nature of the Church

That the Church is the agent of evangelism can be seen, firstly, by observing the
nature of the Church and, secondly, by examining the example of the Church in the
New Testament. Our Lord commissioned his disciples to go and, "teach all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost"
(Matt 28:19). Those so baptized are joined to the body of Christ which is the Church.
The Church is described by different analogies. The predominant analogy is that of
the human body. Each member of the Church has a function. (Rom 12:4, the word
"office" is better translated function from the Greek word prazin; I Cor 12:12-27; Eph
4:16.) Union with Christ by faith is essential in order to be a member of Christ's
Church. To be joined to Christ is to live or to have spiritual life. The living union is
illustrated by the analogy of the vine and the branches (John 15:1-1 1). Christ's body,
or Church, is like the vine. To abide in it is to have life but to be severed from it is to
be severed from the means of grace given by Christ to his Church which leads to
drying up and ultimately to spiritual death. A further analogy is that used by Paul in
Ephesians where he likens the Church to a living building. It is organic, for it is
growing. The Holy Spirit dwells in this building in which all the members are like
living stones, fitly framed together in harmony, union and common purpose. (See also
1 Pet 2:5.)

Essential to the Church is the purity of her membership. The stones must be living for
they are to offer up spiritual sacrifices. That they must be living is further seen in that
they are to grow and increase in love (Eph 4:16). It is self-evident that nothing will
contribute more quickly to the destruction of the Church than the entrance