There are no American Christians

[Israel]

There may be Christians in America, however.


No worker may exercise control over a church or attach to it his name or the name of the society he represents. The divine disapproval will always rest on “the church of Paul,” or “the church of Apollos,” or “the church of Cephas.” In the history of the Church it has frequently happened that when God has given special light or experience to any individual, that individual has stressed the particular truth revealed or experienced, and gathered round him people who appreciated his teaching, with the result that the leader, or the truth he emphasized, has become the ground of fellowship. Thus sects have multiplied. If God’s people could only see that the object of all ministry is the founding of local churches and not the grouping of Christians around any particular individual, or truth, or experience, or under any particular organization, then the forming of sects would be avoided. We who serve the Lord must be willing to let go our hold upon all those to whom we have ministered, and let all the fruits of our ministry pass into local churches governed entirely by local men. We must be scrupulously careful not to let the coloring of our personality destroy the local character of the church, and we must always serve the church, never control it. An apostle is servant of all and master of none. No church belongs to the worker; it belongs to the locality. Had it been clearly seen by the men who have been used of God throughout the history of the Church that all the churches of God belong to their respective localities, and not to any worker or organization used in their founding, then we should not have so many different denominations today.
A believer is sectarian when he belongs to anyone or anything apart from the Lord and the locality.

Nee To Sheng

 

[RegularJoe]

...A believer is sectarian when he belongs to anyone or anything apart from the Lord....

Got it. Makes sense. Good to keep in mind. Thanks.

 

[gordon 2]

Ah Israel, you mark me. You are begging the question "what is the Church?" with a world view, maybe? I think Ne To Sheng has a point, to a point, but would Paul agree?

I can see that Sheng's idea would attract a Christian immersed in the Baptist culture of the southern US for example,--where the independence of the local church has been a significant feature. But by the same denomination's insistence of teaching what is especially and exclusively biblical -- is Sheng's opinion biblical?

I would agree that biblically the evidence is that the local church is husbanded by Paul and Paul is checked by the council of the elders. And also, through John's Revelations Jesus points out what is good and not so good regards local churches-- which from my Catholic bias perhaps is that it seems to indicate that the local church is checked by some overseeing authority... to which it is good practice to get under.

I would suggest that there is such a thing as American Christianity, that it does exists and that it is synonymous with fragmentated christianity. Its source is the fragmentation of European Christianity, whereby settlers to the new colonies were mostly of Dissenter sects, some persecuted, some in power. Historians, clergy and travellers ( visiting historians and journalists) have noticed the hyper nature of this fragmentation in the USA especially and in most centuries since its founding. It is a Christianity requiring periodic revivals. It can be self serving and intertwined in american politics as far a nationalism and patriotism is concerned-- despite emphasis on separation of Church and State. It is a Christianity that can teach on the inner man shaped by God's grace and it fitted union to the spirit of the American political experiment in the same paragraph -- as a normal feature of faith.

Because of its exuberance American Christianity is known, (for American history tells us so) for its use of scripture to validate war and peace, equality of persons -the individual--with systemic views that not all persons are equal, slavery and abolition, the value of law and lawlessness ( individual and social) at the same times!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It could be argued that Russian Christianity still cleaves to the old bug bear that the founders of American Christianity rebelled against. The Russian church today still has elements of nationalistic-patriotic favor towards the Czar-- or The Presidency as the traditional and biblically legitimate caretaker-protector of the people and to the extent of being critical of the person holding the office is the offence of being anti-russian...unpatriotic etc.


I would be hard pressed to not see that American Christians know to be under authority. That the authority rests from the individual's personal relationship with his maker, the bible and the local church with notions of A City on the Hill. These are features of the American Church.

Also the echo's of Thomas Pain's letters and Benjamin Franklin's ideas on politics and liberty were influenced by the pamphleteers, and local ( English) independent church ministers who were very vocal dissenters back in England and dissenters due also to their understanding of Christian values vs inequality in their political society ( in England and all of Europe). They were at odds with the political oligarchy of their times. They lived social and political injustice ---where the church was not always separated from the economic and social life ( politics and justice) of the people . They searched and studied scripture for a remedy--- and instilled into politics and society their remedies.

So what has come of the City on the Hill? Is authority within? So yes it still is. And that is the feature of the American Church.



So a church hopping question is a valid question in the context of American style Christianity. Since authority is within, why the need to hop? Why spawn off more "Christian" sects? And trying to find what the bible says about it all is typically American Christianity-- at the expense of mistrusting anything or anyone foreign--even other Christians.

 

[gordon 2]

 

[Israel]

"American Christianity" is simply one of the influences a Christian who happens to be in America will find himself/herself contending with.

All things common to the world are no less common in the USA, whether it be a nationalistic pride, some measure of xenophobia, temptations to the excesses of consumerism and consumption, and a self fortifying maintenance born of the false conviction that their own continuance as a discrete entity is "God's gift" to the world.

But, these are matters every believer faces no matter his physical location. The easy confusion of earthen vessel with the treasure is not something only Christians in America must navigate. Influences may seek to make themselves subtle by conflating the Lord's name with some form of politics or nationalism, but seeing them as peculiarly American is no less a succumbing to that subtlety than embracing them as a vitality added to the Lord.

We would be foolish to deny the influence and influences, but more so to willfully remain ignorant that they are indeed "common to all men".