Calvary Road Baptist Church
“THE CONGREGATION AS THE TEMPLE OF GOD REVISITED”
Ephesians 2.19-22
Life hurts. We live in a troubled world. We experience a great deal of pain, sometimes the result of foolish decisions and awful choices we have made, but at other times the result of being a living, breathing human being. God allows life to hurt to teach us the consequences of poor decisions. A second reason God allows life to hurt is to use hurt and other things to conform His children to the image of Christ. A third reason God allows life to hurt is to provide Him with opportunities to demonstrate that He is the God of all comfort, Second Corinthians 1.3-6:
3 Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort;
4 Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.
5 For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ.
6 And whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer: or whether we be comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation.
We discovered, or rediscovered, several things during our consideration of First Corinthians 3.16-17 last Sunday night. We observed that the Apostle Paul declared to the Corinthian congregation that they were a temple of God, indicated that as a temple they were indwelt by the Spirit of God, pronounced them as a temple to be holy, and warned them as a temple they were under God’s protection. I also pointed out the persistent Protestant tendency to confuse the temple of God, First Corinthians 3.16, with the temple of the Holy Spirit, First Corinthians 6.19. The two are not the same.
The temple of God is the congregation of saints (pay attention to the plural pronouns), a Church of Jesus Christ, while each individual believer, whether a Church member or not, is in Jesus Christ a temple of the Holy Spirit by virtue of the indwelling presence of the Spirit of God.[1] The question for us is, what do we do with that truth? How do we apply it? How should it affect our lives? The answer to that question is somewhat more challenging for the 21st century American Christian Church members than believers anywhere else in the world or at any other time in human history. Let me explain by pointing out two unique and peculiar things to us.
You may recall that on several occasions, I have noted that the greatest fear of a medieval European, say somewhere in France a thousand years ago, was the fear of being alone. “In the Middle Ages the solitary man was considered dangerous.” And the notion of going somewhere alone was considered reckless.[2] To be alone was to be vulnerable, and beyond help should help suddenly be needed.
Yet, in our Western American culture, being alone, isolated, and away from others has been elevated to a characteristic of manliness and virtue. I am not criticizing, only observing. Much of our nation’s history is built on the admiration of the frontiersman, the explorer, the mountain man, the loner, and (except for the cigarettes) the Marlboro man. The reaction by American men to the Anheuser Busch Bud Light advertising campaign featuring the transvestite Dylan Mulvaney suggests that ethic prevails to this day.[3] Somebody said, “You can mess with a lotta things with a lotta guys, but you cannot mess with their beer.” That seems to be the case.
Add to that the emphasis for the last fifty years on safety. Motorcycle helmets. Skateboard knee and elbow pads. Bicycle helmets. Baseball batting helmets. Seat belts. Airbags. Used to be, airbags were old women who wouldn’t stop talking. But it isn’t that way anymore. When I first began to ride my Harley Davidson in Florida, no one wore helmets. No one on a bicycle ever wore a helmet. No one on a skateboard wore elbow or knee pads or a helmet. I first saw a skateboard in a tunnel under the inter-coastal waterway around 1963. Cars had no seat belts in those days unless they were race cars, dragsters, or dune buggies.
What has been the primary motivation for compliance with the recent lockdown mandate that we lived through? Personal safety. The constant refrain over the airwaves and Internet from the media, Centers For Disease Control, Dr. Fauci, and others. What we’ve constantly heard from them has been the danger posed by close contact with other human beings. They made American citizens afraid of American citizens. People reacted by isolating and being vaccinated with relatively untested vaccines. Why? Fear. Fear is a powerful motivator.
All across the continent, pastors and congregations stopped gathering for worship, ignoring the Biblical mandate to gather for worship, Hebrews 10.25, for fear of being infected with Covid-19. “It is dangerous to go to Church,” they told us. And so many ignored Paul’s words to Timothy in Second Timothy 1.7:
“For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”
Pastors have vilified me, some of them former classmates, on social media in front of hundreds, for maintaining our policy of gathering for worship services. “How dare you endanger the flock you are supposed to protect!” I responded, at times, by wondering, “When has it not been dangerous to gather for worship in the Christian era?”
It was physically dangerous in Jerusalem. It was physically hazardous in Ephesus. It was physically dangerous in Philippi. It was physically dangerous in Damascus. But never is there a word in the New Testament warning of the threats to physical danger resulting from gathering for worship. Never. Not to suggest for a moment that physical safety is unimportant. You would have to be nuts to insist that physical safety is unimportant. Believers eventually left Jerusalem and returned to their homes because of the escalation of threats to their physical safety. Paul left Damascus for that reason. He later left Thessalonica for that reason. But the warnings he voiced to others in his letters were never warnings about physical dangers. The wolves in sheep’s clothing were not men who posed any threat to physical safety but people espousing doctrinal errors and working to persuade people to follow them rather than following their pastors.
Take a step back to consider the consequences of these two tendencies in our culture. First, there is the tendency of many Americans to prefer solitude away from others. When the Church service is over, some people get out as quickly as possible because they want to be alone. This is being overcome as more and more people move from the rural to the urban centers, but only grudgingly.
There are vast numbers of Churchgoing people who live in the suburbs or out in the country, and not only will they not live in cities; they hate cities. They hate cities. I have actually had pastors in California tell me, “The people in cities can go to Hell for all I care.” I understand. Cities are nasty. Yet first-century Christianity was primarily a religion of cities! The fisherman who wants to catch fish goes to where the fish are! And we have a higher concentration of fish in the cities than in the suburbs or out in the country.
Then there is the dramatically elevated cultural concern for physical safety. Again, just as there is nothing wrong with wanting to be alone, there is nothing wrong with lowering one’s exposure to risk. There is nothing wrong with that. The question is a risk of what? Personal safety. Personal physical safety? Personal financial safety? There are different kinds of safety, but the overwhelming concern addressed in the Bible is a concern for spiritual safety. Sometimes, acquiring spiritual safety comes only with an increased risk of physical safety. It would always be physically safer for the Jerusalem Christian to stay home. Same rue in other cities.
And the physical safety issues people consciously addressed during the lockdown to avoid the risk of Covid-19 infections had the counterintuitive effect of dramatically increasing the threats to their physical safety from other vectors. Threats from the vaccines. Threats from vitamin D deficiency due to being indoors. Threats to mental health and well-being from isolating from family and loved ones. Families have broken up because one member is outraged that others go to Church, claiming, “You don’t love me.” Threats resulting from diminished physical activity, affecting cardio and muscle tone. And on it goes.
Then there are the threats to spiritual health from abandoning the means of grace God has provided to protect and preserve His people spiritually for extended periods of time. I have already mentioned Hebrews 10.25:
“Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.”
Understand that the Greek verb, parakalέw, found in Hebrews 10.25, is used by Paul in Second Corinthians 1.3-6. Exhorting in Hebrews 10.25 is comforting in Second Corinthians 1.3-6. Same word. To the Corinthians, Paul describes what God does, while in Hebrews 10.25, we are shown the congregation God so often uses to do what He does, which is comfort and encourage believers ... if they show up to Church, that is. You can’t do that to someone who stays home.
What do these two tendencies, the tendency to isolate and the tendency to fear, what do these two tendencies cause as a consequence? Consider that they combine in our culture in a way not seen in most other cultures or at other times to restrict, inhibit, and discourage the best use of what God has provided for our comfort, our consolation, our growth, our instruction, our encouragement, and our cooperative efforts to live for, effectively serve, and bear fruit for God.
In a more intimate and cohesive cultural setting than is typical for Americans, families, neighborhoods, tribes, village awareness, and interaction is more common in other cultures than it is in the USA. As a consequence, when people from those cultures come to Christ and are incorporated into a Church congregation, they are far more likely to make use of and receive benefits from the congregation and the members they are a part of. Because they have much less emphasis than we do on individuality, people in other regions face many significant challenges when turning to Christ and being disconnected from family, friends, and neighbors. But having come to Christ, because of their more developed cultural intimacy, they are more likely to greatly benefit from their new Church congregation family in a way that some Americans never discover because they are so committed to privacy, isolation, and individuality even as Christians.
How is this played out? In Europe, Africa, South America, Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, anywhere in the Mediterranean, there are no secrets in communities. None. One person’s business is known by everyone, without them needing to stick their nose in. Be it marital dynamics, offspring concerns, career troubles, issues with aged parents, you name it. Everybody knows. This is the normal case in each of the lost communities of these various regions around the world.
Therefore, when people come to Christ elsewhere, there is some transference of the cultural norms of those people groups from outside the congregation and the Christian life to inside the congregation and the Christian life. Their already existing cultural intimacy is brought into their congregational life as a Christian. Go to Romania, Ukraine, Mali, Egypt, Israel, Nepal, India, Greece, or wherever.
In those places, everyone in the community knows if you have trouble with your daughter. So, when a Christian couple has trouble with their daughter, everyone in the congregation not only knows but participates in both the immediate family's suffering and the remedy that is applied to the situation. They look at everything holistically. The same is true with a wayward spouse or a rebellious son. Paul wrote about this dynamic reflected in congregational life in First Corinthians 12.25-26:
25 That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another.
26 And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it.
Excuse me. If you are suffering and keep that from me, you deprive me. You do me harm by depriving me of the opportunity to comfort you. Allow me to be personal. Who in our Church was not aware of my concerns for my wife? Everybody knew. Did I make an effort to hide or conceal? No. Every member was aware, and my concerns about her were not taken by me or anyone else to be a reflection on me. Thank you for that. Did I talk about it with some members? Yes, I did! Just not publicly.
But there was no attempt to conceal. Why not? Because this Church is a temple, a place of ministry, where the means of grace is abundant. What would be the point of hiding, concealing, cloaking, covering, or being embarrassed about someone else’s spiritual challenges? Why would someone do that? It is not an informed response. It is not a spiritual response. It is not a wise response.
So, keeping in mind our culture’s tendency to isolate from each other and our increasing concerns about safety in all its forms at all costs, turn in your Bible to Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. In Ephesians 2.14-18, we see that the Lord Jesus Christ is our peace, that He has reconciled us to each other and to God the Father, and that He has provided the means whereby we have access to the Father, by the Holy Spirit.
The issues that Paul deals with in Ephesians 2.19-22 are very much modern for you and me, so let’s ask ourselves, “Where does this leave us now?”
19 Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God;
20 And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;
21 In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord:
22 In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.
Remembering that there very much is a distinction in the mind of God between a Jewish person and a Gentile person, notice what the situation was in the life of a Gentile who had trusted Christ and who became a member of the Ephesian congregation. Verse 19 begins,
“Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners....”
If this truth applies to Gentile Christians concerning Jewish believers in a Church congregation, should it not be even more applicable to our situation, when we are all Gentile Christians? Less separates us, after all, than what separated the Jewish and Gentile members in Ephesus. There are a number of wonderful applications for us. And this truth should impact how we interact with each other.
First, each of us used to be “strangers.” An unsaved Gentile is a “stranger” from the covenants of promise. We learn that in Ephesians 2.12. Just as true today for unsaved Gentiles as it was back then. How should we treat each other if the Bible shows that we used to be strangers, the implication being that we are no longer strangers? If we are not strangers, should we not interact with each other as if we were not strangers? You would think.
Second, each of us used to be “foreigners.” What is a “foreigner”? This is an interesting word. “Foreigner” translates the Greek word for household that also has a preposition added to it that means beside the household, or alongside the household, pάroikos. This refers to someone who lived in a country but had none of the rights and privileges afforded to the citizens of that country.[4]
In other words, if you liken God’s people to a country, unsaved Gentiles are like those who are aliens, who are outsiders, and who never enjoy the full benefits. But when that same Gentile comes to Christ by faith, he becomes a fellow citizen with the saints and the household of God. What does this mean? It means you belong. If you belong, should you not act as if you belong, and should we not treat you like you belong?
Two different pictures of some of the benefits of salvation are used in this one verse. When the Gentile is saved, he becomes a citizen of God’s country. But if you compare salvation to a family, being saved is like becoming a part of the household of God. Remember, however, Paul is not writing to Gentiles who have trusted Christ, period. He is writing to Gentiles who have trusted Christ and followed the Lord Jesus Christ in believer baptism and are now members of a Church. That is more of a big deal than Protestants recognize because of their twisted view of the Church.
Thus, verses 20-22 represent more than a conversion experience. A portion of the blessings the Ephesian congregation enjoyed directly resulted from those individuals’ obedience after conversion. After trusting Christ, they were baptized and functioned faithfully as members of the Ephesian congregation, with rights, privileges, responsibilities, and fulfilling the role of encouragers and comforters, if you will, of other members.
But what happens when believers who have become Church members culturally trend toward isolation and privacy, being Americans? Additionally, breathing American air with everything that is now in our culture, there is more concern for physical safety than has been the norm throughout Christian history.
With due regard for physical safety, let me read a portion of Dr. Dan R. Nelson’s most recent book, Baptist Revival 2.0: Baptist Faith and Practice Analyzed and Explained Scripturally and Historically. You may remember that Dr. Nelson was our guest in December 2018. Although his book does not directly address the issue of fear, you will see that his remarks apply to our topic. He writes,
Baptists have many examples of courage and bravery in defense of our beliefs. Some Anabaptists were martyred in the Reformation time. The English Baptists were imprisoned and forbidden to meet at times. Even in America. Pastors have been jailed, and individuals were beaten for the cause of Christ.
... You don’t see a group of people that have been persecuted throughout history, like the Baptists. Look at the Reformation and see who was first in burnings at the stake, being drowned and jailed: It was the Baptists. Baptists were oppressed and martyred by Catholics and Protestants. They refused to be a part of both groups: Catholicism’s history is rife with their mixing of paganism with Christianity, teaching salvation by works, the corruption of the papacy and state church, killing people in the name of the Lord and church, as well as keeping people away from eternal life.
Protestantism still retained infant baptism, hid behind the state church using governmental leaders to persecute the Baptists, retained a Catholic system of church government, and did not practice the New Testament idea of the local church as the biblical church.
One may say we agree with so much more of what the Protestants believe. But if you study history, you will find that most Protestants in the Reformation did not think Baptists had a right to exist and persecuted them accordingly.
Historically, being a Baptist has cost people much more than it does today because we run from our identity in more moderate circles.
- Why was Felix Manz drowned in the Limmat River in Zurich after being threatened not to preach or baptize believers? Because he was a Baptist.
- Why was George Blaurock chased out of town, beaten in prison, and banished from three cities? He finally tried to pastor a church in Austria where the former pastor had been martyred. Why was he eventually burned at the stake after all these trials? Because he was a Baptist.
- Why was Balthasar Hubmaier imprisoned, racked, and chased out of one town to be captured by another government and burned at the stake? Because he was a Baptist.
- Why was Thomas Helwys jailed after starting a Baptist church in England and writing against the King for the suppression of religious liberty where he died? Because He was a Baptist.
- Why did Baptist leaders in England like Kiffin, Grantham, Knollys, and other leaders spend time in prison and, at times, had their services disrupted and forbidden? Because they were Baptists.
- Why did people like John Bunyan spend over a decade in and out of prison because of the hideous acts the King passed through Parliament to not only silence them but also totally abolish them? Because they were Baptists.
- Why was Obadiah Holmes imprisoned and then beaten on the Boston Common in 1651 after he was in jail with John Clarke and John Crandall and fined for having an illegal religious service in the home of an infirmed older Baptist pastor? Because he was Baptist.
- Why did Thomas Gould and his congregation meet secretly on Noodles Island and other places and were caught and imprisoned temporarily? They refused to have their babies baptized in Boston while starting a Baptist congregation because he was a Baptist.
- Why were William Screven and his congregation driven out of Kittery, Maine, when they started a Baptist church? Because they were Baptists. They refused to have their babies baptized and were threatened with hanging if they came back: leading them to create the First Baptist Church in the South at Charleston, South Carolina: Because they were Baptists.
- Why were John Weatherford and over 40 other Baptist preachers jailed in Virginia through the 1760s and 70s with him preaching from jail to those who came to hear him, and people were saved listening to his prison sermons? Because they were Baptists.
- Why did John Leland lobby James Madison to put the religious liberty clause in the Constitution’s Bill of Rights after the congregation and others had their services disrupted constantly in Virginia and their lives threatened? Because they were Baptists.
These examples have not even scratched the surface. There are many others whose history has not been recorded, but the Lord knows them because of their faithfulness to the end. Compare all these examples to the Baptist churches today, which say we are dropping the name in our church because it’s a turnoff, and people will not come if they see Baptists and what is associated with the name. They say It’s not important what we call our church as long as we are Christians and believe the Bible. Isn’t our allegiance to Christ and the Bible?
All these individuals were persecuted, and many were killed because of what they believed in the Bible. We must acknowledge that it costs something to believe the Bible and have a New Testament church.[5]
With this attempt to historically contextualize the matter of physical safety, let us return to the Apostle Paul. Recall the illustration he used with the Corinthians, likening their Church membership to a building. In First Corinthians 3.9-16, we saw Paul comparing the Corinthian congregation to a building, a temple of God. Notice the use of the word “ye,” indicating that he is addressing the group as a whole:
9 For we are labourers together with God: ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building.
10 According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.
11 For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
12 Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;
13 Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.
14 If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
15 If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.
16 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
The Corinthian congregation, as a Church, was the temple of God.
Returning to Ephesians 2.20-22, we see that the Ephesian congregation, as well, is likened to a building, a temple:
20 And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;
21 In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord:
22 In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.
Compare what we read with how unimportant in the eyes of so many Christians the Church is seen to be in our era. Even Baptists, who claim to have cornered the truth on Church doctrine, trample under foot the Churches that they are members of.
Look at verse 20:
“And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone.”
Paul told the Ephesians that they were built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with the Lord Jesus Christ occupying the most prominent position of the chief cornerstone. But how many Churches today hold the Lord Jesus Christ in the position of greatest prominence? And how many Churches establish their position and their stance on apostolic teachings?
Look at verse 21:
“In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord.”
“In whom,” showing the building materials that are used to build this building, this temple, are in Christ. What astonishing, but unrealized, potential. It is incredible! The members of a Church are presumed to be saved people. But how many Churches are really concerned that their members are genuinely converted? Seeing that each person in the Church is genuinely converted is an important endeavor. Otherwise how is the building fitly framed together unto a holy temple in the Lord?
Look at verse 22:
“In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.”
Again, “in whom.” Church members are supposed to be saved. And those saved people “are builded together for a habitation of God.” There is a single word for a habitation of God. It is called a temple. Think about it for a second. How are bricks fitted together to build a building when one brick decides to isolate? How are we to imagine bricks fitted together when the bricks are running around and jumping first into this pile of bricks and then into that pile of bricks, going first to this Church and then to that Church?
Verse 22 shows us that this building, the Church, this construction of the habitation of God, is supposed to occur “through the Spirit.” Think about what is always present when the Holy Spirit of God is involved in something. Turn to Galatians 5.22-24:
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
24 And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
When the Holy Spirit is involved in your life, you will exhibit love, joy, and peace, etc. No more fussing with everyone all the time. There will be long suffering. You won’t blow your stack or pout when someone doesn’t treat you just right. There will be temperance. There’s faith. This refers to faithfulness. You will be where you’re supposed to be, doing what you’re supposed to be doing.
Yet there is more. Circle back with me to a verse I brought to your attention earlier. Writing shortly before his martyrdom, Paul wrote these words in Second Timothy 1.7:
“For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”
Upon reflection, our involvement in our Church should be accomplished through the Spirit, with consistency, cooperation, unity, and single-mindedness. I cannot imagine this occurring where there is a commitment to isolation from other brothers and sisters in Christ, or where a prominent consideration in the minds of God’s people is a fear for physical safety.
Remember, God has brought together into one congregation people of such diversity. Of ourselves, we have no realistic chance of success in growing and serving God. But with the Spirit of the living God indwelling us individually, directing us corporately, producing in our lives a personal intimacy and cooperative attitude that reflects humility without fear or dread, we not only can, we will.
How sad it is, then, when the divisive tendencies in our personal Christianity are unopposed. How Christ must be grieved to have broken down the middle wall of partition only to look around a congregation to take note when they insist on isolating from each other, when they are determined to withhold vulnerability from one another, and when they grieve the Spirit of God with inappropriate fear.
We must not allow our cultural comfort zone to rob us of the means of grace our great and comforting God has provided for us in our Church. In First Corinthians chapter 3, Paul taught the Corinthians that the Christian’s future rewards in heaven are inextricably linked to our life and ministry through our Church congregation. But in the passage before us we see that Paul is addressing the composition of the Church.
If the blood of Christ has broken down the wall separating Jews from Gentiles so that combined worship and service are both desired and possible, how can we, in good conscience, deprive ourselves and our fellow members of the blessings associated with interpersonal communion instead of isolation, and the boldness that is produced by the Spirit’s fullness rather than fear?
Recognize that each of us is a free moral agent. No one has any right to force or coercion any Church member. But from where you are, reflect on two things that might be the case if you are a Christian who reflects in some ways American culture.
First, do you incline to isolation more than integration? Are you more comfortable alone than with other believers? And if you are, how useful can you be to comfort and exhort people you are isolated from? How can people you isolate from comfort and exhort you in ways you cannot imagine?
Second, how susceptible are you to the spirit of fear? It would be irresponsible for you not to take appropriate steps to address threats to your safety. But which threats to your safety are more pressing, your physical safety or your spiritual safety? In a world more immediately dangerous to physical health and well-being, what warnings were issued in the first century for believers in Jesus Christ?
Paul warned against spiritual threats, not physical ones, though he had repeatedly suffered from physical attacks. And in other parts of the world, like central Africa, Afghanistan, India, China, and North Korea, where would the cause of Christ be if physical safety concerns were paramount?
These are serious concerns that require godly wisdom and the study of God’s Word. We are called upon to exercise personal discretion about such matters of isolation and safety. In doing so, keep two things in mind: First, be careful not to so isolate yourself that you make the exhorting and comforting ministry of this congregation ineffective in your life. Second, be careful not to so exercise your discretion that you take away from others their discretion.
__________
[1] Anthony C. Thiselton, First Corinthians: A Shorter Exegetical And Pastoral Commentary, (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2006), page 97.
[2] Philippe Aries and Georges Duby, general editors, A History Of Private Life I, Paul Veyne, editor, (Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1987), page 318.
[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYcrj7Hwr4k
[4] Rogers, Jr., Cleon L. and Rogers III, Cleon L., The New Linguistic and Exegetical Key To The Greek New Testament, (Grand Rapids, MI: ZondervanPublishingHouse, 1998), page 438.
[5] Dan R. Nelson, Baptist Revival 2.0: Baptist Faith and Practice Analyzed and Explained Scripturally and Historically, (Cleveland, GA: The Old Paths Publications, Inc., 2023), pages 49-53.
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