{"id":1786,"date":"2021-06-29T13:44:18","date_gmt":"2021-06-29T13:44:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/?p=1786"},"modified":"2021-06-29T13:44:18","modified_gmt":"2021-06-29T13:44:18","slug":"buttressoftruth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/buttressoftruth\/","title":{"rendered":"Christ’s Church: the Pillar and Buttress of Truth"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Empowering Action exists to equip the global church for greater biblical fidelity and ministry effectiveness. A logical question then is, \u201cWhat is the measure of a church?\u201d Is it love, community engagement, cultural relevance, or unity? Sadly, there are many who, this very day, will be enticed to unbiblical cults for those very reasons.<\/p>

No, it is a church\u2019s doctrine that determines its faithfulness for, as Dr. Steve Lawson notes, \u201cin the Christian life, precept comes before practice and doctrine before duty.\u201d<\/p>

A lifetime ago in college a last minute schedule change necessitated my enrolling in a Sacred Architecture course. Truthfully, I don\u2019t recall much from the experience other than some basics (and my liberal professor\u2019s displeasure for my project on the Old Testament tabernacle.) However, I did glean that pillars support the roof and walls of a structure, and a buttress supports a pillar, enabling it to stand stronger and higher.<\/p>

I mention this because Paul makes clear in the passage below that the mission of the Church is to support and uphold the truth of God revealed in Scripture,<\/p>

I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these things to you so that, if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth. (1 Timothy 3:14-15)<\/em><\/p>

Writing to an Ephesian church that, after his departure, had begun to implode as a result of abandoning sound doctrine and embracing false teaching, Paul wisely uses an architectural image to inhabitants of a city that contained the pagan Temple of Diana, an architectural wonder of bulwarking foundations supporting a massive roof with 127 pillars.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWhereas Diana\u2019s temple, and its foundation and pillars, were a testimony to the error and deception of Rome\u2019s false religion, Christ\u2019s Church throughout the ages is called to be the living support of the inerrant, all-sufficient, authoritative revelation of Scripture.\n

We at Empowering Action labor to that end, and greatly appreciate your ongoing prayer and financial support of our efforts in \u201cholding fast the word of life.\u201d (Phil. 2:16)<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Empowering Action exists to equip the global church for greater biblical fidelity and ministry effectiveness. A logical question then is, \u201cWhat is the measure of a church?\u201d Is it love, community engagement, cultural relevance, or unity? Sadly, there are many who, this very day, will be enticed to unbiblical cults for those very reasons. No, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1787,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-theology"],"acf":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/mailchimp-600x300.png","featured_image_src_square":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/mailchimp-600x300.png","author_info":{"display_name":"Kent Husted","author_link":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/author\/khusted\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1786"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1786\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}