What Would a New Church Look Like?

     What would a new church look like if all they had to go on was the Bible? Sounds interesting doesn't it? I think a question like this could even put a little panic into some denominational leaders of today, whose organization looks nothing like the descriptions in the Bible. I was recently told by someone lately who is a member of a major denomination that the church of the first century no longer exists, things change, and hey, change is good right? If so, why didn't God foresee these changes? He gave no instructions, examples, references or even inferences to what to do in the future, except to do His will which He already gave to us. In Mal. 3:6 He says He does not change, and in the next verse He begs us to return to His ordinances. His ordinances, not those of men who think the rules need to be rewritten to keep up with the times. How arrogant can anyone be to think they can help God better explain things than He can? So, what am I talking about? How has man changed the church of our Lord, and is it for the better?
     There are something in the neighborhood of 2,000 different Christian beliefs in society today. Each one is at least a little different than the next, and many if not all denominations have many separate sects within their own organizations that do something a little different, thus the reason for their split at sometime in their history. It may be due to financial, types of worship, times of worship, days of worship, the way they sing, don't sing, pray, don't pray, or a million other nuances that make them different. Some churches have their ministers wearing suits and ties, while others make them wear long flowing robes with crown-like hats that reach the ceiling, while some prefer a more relaxed style of shorts and flip-flops. Some prefer wine with their communion, grape juice, maybe even grape soda, (yes, I have even seen that), and recently I saw on the news of one drinking beer, which was okay because God told them so. But here's the kicker, even after all their different and separate beliefs, they all believe that the other groups are okay as well as long as they believe God. In reality, I think they are afraid to offend anyone, forgetting that God has already given us instructions and we could be offending Him. But what if all we knew was erased, all churches of every belief closed down and our memories vanished. What would happen then? What would a new church look like if all we had to go by was a single surviving Bible? Guess what? This has happened, and the results might shock you.
     In the 1950's, Communism was spreading rapidly in Southeast Asia, gobbling up countries like Korea, China, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. When the communists took over, usually what they would do is outlaw any type of religion and religious materials. If there were any missionaries in the area, they had to flee quickly, usually with nothing more than their clothes on their backs. Many items were left to be destroyed, but in some cases, small villages would be able to hide certain items from their enemies. This is exactly what happened in a small village in Laos where a Presbyterian mission group left a case of Bibles behind in their rush to escape. The villagers found the Bibles and hid them to use later. After a few years, these Bibles were brought out and a few people began reading them and spreading the truth that they were reading. It was kept as a closely guarded secret to protect any believers.
     In the 1990's, word spread to the U.S. of a number of villages in Laos and Northern Vietnam were practicing Christianity when no group had been there to teach them. When a mission group finally got permission to go there, what they found shocked them entirely. The Christians there were following a pattern that had been set up strictly by the Bible standards. They were meeting on the first day of the week as the Bible stated, believed that you can only be saved by hearing, believing, confessing Christ as their savior, repenting for their sins and being baptized by full immersion. Why would they do these things? Because the Bible told them so. There surprisingly wasn't any prayer's bench, choir, men blessing people, Holy water or people being saved by grace only or by sprinkling water over their heads. The name of the churches were simply the church at whatever village they were from, just as in the Bible, and the together they called themselves the churches of Christ, just as in the Bible. It appeared the church of the first century has not died, and is in fact alive and well just as God has said His church will never die, and His Word shall abide forever.