“Let’s go back through 2000 years of Christian history. If the men and women who loved and cherished the Scriptures, and had a high view of Scriptures, are all in agreement with regard to a certain doctrine, and they don’t agree with you, then who’s probably wrong?” —Paul Washer
Once again, as godly as Paul Washer may be, and as much as I may respect him, this is a logical fallacy. Especially when you start to exegete the modern church and understand her pagan roots. 500 years ago, the Reformers attempted to recover biblical doctrine (while creating unbiblical doctrines of their own), but they failed to recover the priesthood of all believers and the gathering of the saints as was practiced during the first century.
What you and I experience today (and has been experienced for the past 1700 years) as “church” is what Emperor Constantine introduced to the church. Our “temples,” our “clergy,” our “services,” none of that existed for the first 300 years of the church’s existence. Yet Mr. Washer wants to attempt to argue because some belief or practice was held to for so long that that automatically makes you wrong and them right? Sorry, Mr. Washer, but you could not be more wrong.
Add to that the fact that whenever the early church gathered, they did so around a communal meal. The Lord’s Supper (or Communion) never consisted of a tiny shot glass of wine or grape juice and a wafer, cracker, or crumb of bread. Read 1 Corinthians 11 and you can see the problem with this practice. Moreover, in the early church the only requirement for membership was the indwelling Holy Spirit, and you were baptized immediately upon your profession of Jesus. Today, membership resembles joining country clubs, and they employ lengthy waiting periods before you can be baptized. What was that Mr. Washer was saying about the length of time the church believed or practiced a certain thing?
The modern church, and much of her forced exegesis, including that done by Mr. John MacArthur, could not be more wrong. The modern church has eisegeitically tried to force her practices into the Bible by imposing them on particular texts. However, if you bother to pay close attention to your New Testament when you read it, these errors could not be more plain. The New Testament says nothing in defence of our modern temples, our paid clergy, our “worship” services, or even of “tithing.” The New Testament is opposed to all of these.
When you try to share this with those in unbiblical positions they should not hold, they turn on you rather quickly and attack you with deflection, projection, censorship, smearing, framing, ad hominem, name calling, character assassination, and the use of fallacious arguments that have no basis in reality, because they are afraid of giving up or losing the control they have over the people (or their lazy laidback lifestyle of mooching off and fleecing the saints). This exposes them as hirelings as much as the events of the past two years does, dividing their flocks over the lies of this scamdemic (to say nothing of those hirelings who failed to celebrate the overturning of Roe).
Mr. Washer seriously needs to rethink his words. However, that is likely never to happen (as with 90% of professing Christians) because he has been programmed to believe what he believes and he is too proud and stubborn to “search the Scriptures” and see it any other way. Is this true of you as well, reader, or are you like the Bereans with a heart that desires to know and conform to biblical truth? I pray it is the latter.