Invitation to a messianic lifestyle Moltmann, Jurgen Additional Author mixed material bibliography London SCM Press 1978 monographic id Indonesia

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The "Church" with its structures, organizations, and powers exists exclusively for the sake of the congregation. There is in the "Church" nothing higher than the congregation. All ministries of the "Church" are related to the congregation and are put to the test by the mature congregation. From its side, the congregation is mature to the degree that it no longer experiences itself as being taken care of ecclesiastically and tended to by ordained officials but rather becomes the independent, responsible subject of its own history with God. Only then can Christian freedom be experienced in the congregation. For only then will the congregation be experienced as the free zone of the Spirit of God. In the hierarchical church with its splendid buildings and its wise authorities, religious power was and is experienced as a reflection of the fatherly sovereignty of God in heaven. But God as love can only be experienced and represented in the comprehensible congregation in which one sees and recognizes and accepts the other as he or she is accepted in Christ. The Gospel of the Christ crucified "for us" puts an end to religion as power and opens up the congregation's experience of God, the experience of love. Justifying faith thus puts an end to religions belonging and creates freedom in community. 255 Transformatio Library Bandung Theological Seminary 255 Mol o E96021780 Non Fiction 255 Mol o Open_Church.jpg 24293 2014-06-17 10:26:45 2026-01-17 09:11:27 machine generated