Christianity Is Against Individualism

This quote is good prep for this coming Tuesday at The Well as we will look at the community that came from Acts 2.

From A Brick In The Valley

Cornelius Plantinga:

Christianity is against individualism. In the Old Testament God made his covenant with Abraham and his descendents, with a whole people. We now baptize persons not because they are individual believers or even because they belong to a family of believers, but because they belong to the extended family of believers – - the people of God. We are all baptized into this community, into a body that existed long before we did. We did not join this body. We are called into it.

When God’s people are called out of the world, they called into fellowship, into what the New Testament calls koinonia. Good words are associated with koinonia: “common,” “commune,” “commonwealth,” “community,” and “communion. We were called into koinonia, which means we have something in common with other believers.

Rather we have someone in common. . . . But, always it is Jesus Christ who is the fount of blessing, the broken bread, the life-giving vine, the head of the body. We belong to him – - and thus to each other. (Beyond Doubt, pages 116-117, emphasis his).