Saturday, February 17, 2007

A Covenant with Each Other and the Lord

I still remember the summer evening my wife and I found Valley. We really loved this church, and we love her still, but He led us to other service. When we returned, not too long ago, so much had changed. The blessed hope of His glorious appearing, was rarely if ever mentioned! And how sad to learn that the multitude of messages that once embodied our corporate witness to a lost and dying world was gone and the master reels set out for the garbage. And today other things regarding our common salvation appear to have been forgotten. The following are Valley’s words, not my own:
We believe the Bible to be literally true. … We also believe that God is immutable. He makes no promise that He will not literally fulfill. … We believe that the interpretation of prophecy should be a literal interpretation. We believe that when God said something, He meant just what He said. He meant it in clear and unmistakable terms. ... Some peopled toy with it and say it really doesn’t mean what it says; for instance, when the words earth, church or Israel are used, they say these terms aren’t really meant to be taken literally, but are symbols of something else. That is very confusing.

And one more thing appears to have been forgotten: our doctrinal statement1 determined by our pastors and elders and brothers and sisters in the Lord. This statement of faith was not revealed by flesh and blood but through obedient submission to His Spirit and His Word. And even today this covenant with each other and the Lord is not something that can be rescinded or amended in any way: “Though it be but a man’s covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man disannulleth, or addeth thereto” (Galatians 3:15). And it has been confirmed. It is the Last Will and Testament of our brothers and sisters who served and gave and prayed and are now with the Lord. This covenant is our heritage and their reward. It is a signpost to the literal truth of Scripture, a marker that must never be removed (cf. Deuteronomy 27:17). Valley is not an ordinary church. Many prayers have ascended for her, many yet to be answered. And though we may have forgotten, He has not forgotten!
Why do we have a doctrinal statement? That all may know what we, as a church, believe. … Error, false doctrine and compromise abound on every hand. False teachers deliberately and aggressively deceive, seeking to make the Word of God of no effect. Never, in the nearly 2,000 years history of the church, has there been such a proliferation of ‘isms,’ cults, and religions as exist today which distort or even deny the truth of God’s Holy Word (ON THESE TRUTHS WE STAND: The Doctrinal Statement of THE VALLEY CHURCH).1
1 Paul E. Steele, ON THESE TRUTHS WE STAND: The Doctrinal Statement of THE VALLEY CHURCH, (Published by The Valley Church, Cupertino, California, 1978).

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