AFFILIATION,
A STUDY IN CHURCH LIFE AND ORDER,
With special
reference to Denominational federating.*
[* References are to the Revised
Version.]
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The
As in
Nor is there need, nor can there be hope, of improving upon the Lords orderings. He knew perfectly the purposes which His
Church is to serve on earth, and knew fully the conditions of human affairs
amidst which the Church must work; and He instituted through His Apostles the
very best arrangements and methods for doing the intended work under the given
conditions. To assume otherwise is to
impute folly unto God.
It is a fallacy that the conditions
alter essentially, or indeed at all, in relation to the business of the
As, then, all the essential factors
abide as they were in the apostolic times, the apostolic plan of church life
and of Christian service will be, and has been, found to be as divinely suited
to this age as to that; indeed, Scripturally speaking, it is but one age.
Only when human purpose has been
pursued have other methods been found needful.
If the Church, in this period of her Lords absence from and rejection
by the world, is to uplift the masses, to
control and pacify the State, to reconstruct society
on the basis of brotherhood, and to transform
this modern world into a Christian society, then indeed new machinery,
and other power than that of the Spirit of God, must be used, these not being
purposes for which He is now on earth.
But as long as Christians address themselves only to the God-appointed
business of standing forth as witnesses to the claims of the Lord Whom the
world crucified (John 15: 26, 27; Acts 1: 8),
and of gathering out from the nations a people for His name (Acts 15: 14), in preparation for their serving Him
at His return and His Kingdom, so long the New Testament church organization
and the apostolic lines of service will be found entirely adequate.
For the ecclesiastical doctrine of development, by which it is held that the
Church has both duty and right to adapt her institutions and to alter her
methods to suit the times, there is neither spiritual necessity nor Scriptural
authority.
An acute writer, contrasting the
apostolic work with the more usual modern missionary methods, has said that we found missions, the Apostles founded churches. The
distinction is sound and pregnant. The Apostles founded churches, and they founded
nothing else, because for the
ends in view nothing else was required nor could have been so suitable. In each place where they laboured they formed
the converts into a local assembly, with elders always elders, never an elder
(Acts 14: 23; 15: 6, 23; 20: 17; Phil. 1: 1)
for each group, to guide, to rule, to shepherd, men qualified by the Lord and recognized by the saints (1 Cor. 16: 15, 16; 1 Thess. 5: 12, 13; 1 Tim. 5: 17-19); and with
deacons, appointed by the assembly (Acts 6: 1-6;
Phil. 1: 1) in this contrasted with the elders to attend firstly to
the few but very important affairs, and in particular the distribution of the
funds of the assembly. Apostles and
evangelists went hither and thither, acknowledged and supported but not
controlled by the assembly (Acts 13: 1-4; Phil. 4:
10; 3 John 5-8). It was required
that one about to give himself to the work of the Lord should have a good
report from the brethren in assemblies where he was well known (Acts 16: 2); but as they would know him
sufficiently, and as the Spirit of the
Lord was with them to guide as much as He could be with others, no district
or other companies were created to approve or disapprove of his going
forth. Such were sent out at the ordering of the Lord only, and
directed by the Holy Spirit (Acts 16: 10);
and all that these did in the way of organizing was to form the disciples
gathered into other such assemblies. No
other organization than the local assembly appears in the New Testament, nor do
we find even the germ of anything further.
All [regenerate] believers were to be witnesses, and could spread
the gospel message, as guided and used
of the Lord (Acts 8: 1; 11: 19), and
thus propagation was simple. And the
assembly was at once the nursery, home, school, training institute, and
hospital, where all in the Fathers family were developed, and in which each was to exercise his God-given
gift for the good of all. Nothing
more was requisite than the due working of each several part of this body (1 Cor. 12.;
Eph. 4; 1-16).
It is evident that each local assembly
was intended to be self-contained.* This was
essential, especially considering that under ancient conditions of travel and
life much and prolonged isolation was often inevitable. The
[* The theory upon which the public
worship of the primitive Churches proceeded, was that each community was
complete in itself. Every such community
seems to have had a complete organization, and there is no place for the dependence of any one community upon another. But there was no hindrance to their rendering
apostolic service. G.H.L]
Meeting in the street a godly and
beloved clergyman, a neighbour, he presently said, I
was passing your place on Sunday, and, by the bye, to what denomination do you belong? I replied, Did you
not look at the notice board as you went by? Yes, he
said, I did; but I could not see there anything about
it. That,
I answered, indicates to what denomination we belong. Smiling, he said, I
see! But are there no other folk who believe as you do? Yes, I
said, I thank God that there are many such, Well, he
inquired, why do you not affiliate with them? Can you, I
asked, give any Scripture which suggests that it is
the mind of God that we should do so?
Yes, he replied, the passage, give diligence
to keep the unity of the Spirit (Eph. 4: 3). But what is the
unity of the Spirit? I next asked.
Well, said he Yes, yes; hem! well, how would you
define it? And I said, First of all the unity of the Spirit is a spiritual unity, and not an external organization. You and I meet here in the street; we know
and love each other as brethren in Christ; we say a few words to cheer each
other on lifes way; and that is what I understand by keeping the unity of the
Spirit.
Of this holy and heavenly unity the
Church was to be full. It is its chief
present glory and distinction. By this shall all men know that ye are My
disciples, if ye have love one to another (John
13: 35). See how these Christians love one another.
Regeneration, upon repentance and
faith, accompanied or followed by baptism in the Holy Spirit, afforded entrance
to the Church spiritually considered (John 3: 3;
Gal. 3: 26, 27; 1 Cor. 12: 13; Acts 1L 5; 2: 4; 8:
14-17; 10: 44, 48; 19: 1-7; Eph. 1: 13, 14).
Immersion in water was the method
appointed by Christ by which one who professed to acknowledge Him as Lord was
to make this confession publicly. This
form of confession, meaning that one was dying out of a former circle of life
and entering a new and different sphere of associations, as well known in both
the Jewish and pagan world of New Testament times. The Gentile when professing to become a Jew,
religiously speaking, was immersed. So
when a candidate was initiated into one of the heathen religious orders, the mysteries, he was immersed. The meaning in either case was that he held
himself to have died to the former sphere in which he had moved, to have been
buried (in symbol) as one dead, and thereupon to have entered a new
association, to the Head of which he was thenceforth utterly surrendered, and
to the interests of which order he was to be devoted.
In any land and time where this is
understood as among Hindus of Moslems, for example immersion should be
insisted upon as a condition precedent to one being acknowledged as a Christian
and admitted to the privileges of the house of God. But there are spheres where, by reason of
false instruction, very many evidently regenerate persons, whose lives are
markedly consecrated to Christ, sincerely believe that they have been baptized
according to the Word of God, though they have not been immersed after
conversion. They honestly think this
latter act unnecessary because they were christened in earlier days. Directions as to how the Church should deal
with these devoted but unenlightened souls cannot be found in Acts 2: 37-47, and similar passages, for these
contemplate not this class but the former, those who do know the true nature of
baptism, and are opposers of Christ. The
needful instruction is given in Rom. 14: 1 to 15: 7:
Him that is weak in faith receive
ye, yet not for decisions of doubts, not even though that doubt be as
to the place and force of a divine ordinance (circumcision; Gal. 6: 15, 16; 1 Cor. 7: 18,
19). Wherefore
receive ye one another, even as Christ also received you, to the glory of God. Here are (1) the right angle of approach to
see how many may be received, not how many ought to be excluded. (2) Those who are of
the Fellowship ought to be received receive ye one another. The sole test is the persons attitude to
Christ as Lord, manifested by obedience to what is known of His will, even
baptism, if there is light on that command; but if there is not that light, but
there is other evidence of obedience to all the light yet gained, then we
should receive one another, and not penalize a true disciple for want of
light. Fellowship with God, and
therefore with one another is dependent upon walking in the light, that is, in
that measure of light one has more than this cannot in love be demanded; and
then the blood of Jesus is held to atone for involuntary ignorance (1 John 1: 7).
(3) The pattern of reception is, as Christ
received you; and this He graciously did as soon as ever our heart
truly bowed to Him as Lord, without waiting to remove all our ignorance upon
His perfect will. (4) The principle that
should guide is the securing the glory of God, which is not done by shutting
out of His house any whom He has already welcomed, but rather by our receiving
them and helping them to walk with Him in holy fellowship with His people.
Further, as above mentioned, every
company of saints was visibly organized, simply and almost loosely, after one
type: with elders and deacons; with immersion in water as the public acceptance
of the Christian standing and the public recognition of the same by others (Acts 2: 41); and with partaking of the one loaf
and cup as a symbol of communion with Christ and each other (1 Cor. 10: 16, 17). These features, together with adherence to
and teaching of the same body of divinely revealed truth, the faith once for all delivered to the saints (Jude 3; Phil. 1: 27) for which purpose the Holy
Spirit qualified some as pastors and teachers (Eph.
4: 11; 1 Tim. 3: 2; Acts 13: 1) sufficiently marked the Christian
communities as one circle, meeting locally, but universally one spiritual
body. And this oneness was further
exhibited by the fact that every member was recognized as already a member of
any local assembly to which he might come by reason of lifes changing
circumstances, no further formal reception being required (Rom. 14: 1; 15: 7; 16: 2; 1 Cor.
16: 10, 11; 3 John 5-8).
Of any scheme or form of interlocking
of assemblies we see no trace. Neither
racial, social, geographical or political groupings or divisions were to be
found; yea, any such thought was wholly alien to the mind of the Lord as
touching His Church.
There were the
saints in the whole of a province (2 Cor. 1: 1), the church in
a city (1 Cor.1: 2), the churches of Macedonia (2
Cor. 8: 1) and of
Galatia (Gal. 1: 2), that is,
situated in those territories, and we read of the
church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria (Acts 9: 31); but there was no church of Galatia or
Judea or Macedonia, no combination of churches in a given area into the Church
of that area, and thus by organization and locality a body corporate, distinct
from the Church universal, a part only thereof.
It is remarkable to what extent this
indefiniteness of outward ordering was carried.
It is specially conspicuous in the sphere of
public worship. Believers assembled when
and where they found suitable. The first
day of the week, as connected with the Lords resurrection, appears to have
been preferred (Acts 20: 7), but any hour
and any place were proper. Houses or
catacombs were equally sanctified. And
being gathered, no visible leader was in evidence, nor was a pre-arranged
programme followed. Two or even three
prophets might address the assembly; psalms, prayers and other exercises were
introduced spontaneously (1 Cor.
14.).
Great emphasis is laid on this as
being the divine intention by the fact that upon gross disorders arising, and
the gatherings becoming unseemly and unprofitable (1
Cor. 11., 14.), the Apostle by no means
suggests any other form of service, but only lays down general principles, the
application of which would prevent disorder and promote edification, the method
of worship continuing essentially as before.
There was indeed a duty to restrain vain and deceitful talking (1 Tim. 1: 3; Tit. 1: 10-16); but there was no
legislative or coercive power; the authority of the elders was purely moral;
how then was it to be maintained? Let
the question be pondered and the New Testament be scrutinized, and much will
then come to light as to the proper spirit and method and control of the
All this is highly noteworthy, because
unusual and unpromising. Surely so
inarticulate a society will suffer speedy disintegration. So flimsy a structure will scarcely support
its own weight, and still less will withstand the strain of outward
tempests. What else but disorders can be
expected in public assemblies in which apparently every man may do what is
right in his own eyes?
And yet we say that the Church is a
divinely ordered institution, and that very plainly these are methods and
features that marked it in its earliest and palmist days. Then upon what principles did the Head of the
Church proceed? and why did He ordain such conditions?
The answer is not difficult to
discover, and is found in four main considerations.
1 UNIVERSALITY.
The Church is a society to be gathered
out from all the world, and is to include men
of every tribe and tongue and people and nation (Mark 16: 15; Rev. 5: 9, 10). Therefore its construction and methods must
be easily capable of universal application.
Methods and forms which have only local or racial or class suitability
are contrary to the genius and the need of the Church. The simple apostolic instructions have been
found entirely workable to-day as in the first century, amongst converted
savages and cultured Europeans, by every race and in every country. Of no other form of organization can this be
said unreservedly.
Degenerate Christendom, upon becoming
the State religion, modelled its institutions in the elaborate and rigid iron
mould of the
The principle of universality applies
to many questions, for example, to that of Church discipline. Believers
have often been excommunicated on the ground of divergence of doctrine. How far does the Word of God justify this
course? It is clear that if one deny the
truth of the person of Christ, that He is truly God come in flesh (2 John 9, 10), or the necessity for the
sufficiency of His death for reconciling men to God (Gal.
1: 6, 9), he is not on Christian ground at all, has no place in the
Church of God, and should not be received, not even to social fellowship if he
is one who professes to be a brother. Also, one practising moral evil is to be put
away (1 Cor. 5: 9-13),
and those who defy the united judgment of the whole assembly in a manner of
wrong-doing, are to be treated as non-Christians (Matt.
18: 17). Further, no company is to be kept with a brother
whilst he refuses the authority in the house of God of the Apostles and their
writings (2 Thess. 3:
14, 15), though in the two last instances discipline need not
necessarily proceed as far as formal excommunication.
But what Scriptural warrant is there
for excommunicating a true disciple for error in doctrine? The shutting of the door of the house against
a member of the family, thus forcing him out from the one sphere on earth in
which God is known into the outer world-realm of darkness and danger over which
Satan rules, is so solemn an act, fraught with such serious consequences in
this age and the next, and is withal so sorrowful a reproach upon the whole
family, that we ought to have the same clear mandate from the Head of the house
for taking this course on the ground of doctrinal error as is given in the case
of evil living. In the latter case 1 Corinthians 5: 13 is explicit: put away the wicked man from among yourselves: where
is the equally plain command for the former case? The instances (Rev.
2.) of the Nicolaitans, Balaamites, and Jezebel will not suffice, for in
each of these not only teachings but hateful works, as fornication and
idolatries, are in question, bring them under 1
Corinthians 5: 13. It is thus
also in the cases mentioned in 1 Timothy 1: 19, 20. For those persons had definitely thrust from
them (1) faith, as the principle of holy living; (2) a good conscience, so that
their works would not be good: and (3) they had gone on to blaspheming. They had ceased from any Christian profession
as entirely as a sailor ends his voyage by shipwreck. Indeed, they seem to have gone out, and did
not need to be put away.
Let now the rule of universality be
applied. Converts from paganism or Islam
constantly bring over into their converted life many wholly erroneous notions,
and it is ofttimes long ere these are banished from their minds. If discipline were exercised until those only
were left who were presumed not to differ from any orthodox dogma the most
alarming and cruel havoc would be made in the assemblies in mission spheres.
The New Testament exhibits this
feature, and shows how the Holy Spirit through the Apostle Paul dealt with the
situation. In the Corinthian assembly
were both moral vices and false doctrine.
Believers were retaining and
spreading the general pagan denial of a resurrection of the dead (1 Cor. 15.), involving,
of course, their annihilation, with, by implication, that of Christ
Himself. That Paul taught the
everlasting [age-lasting] punishment of them that obey not the Gospel we hold as beyond
question, which makes his attitude on this occasion the more noticeable. He gives positive command that the evil liver
shall be excommunicated, but does not so much as hint at this course in the
other case, though the doctrine was a fundamental error, fatal to the Christian
faith. He argues the question fully,
demonstrates the truth, and ends by including the errorists amongst his beloved brethren and exhorting them, as the others,
to persevere in the work of the Lord!
And so far was the Apostle from refusing to visit the assembly because
of such teaching being allowed, and such evils being tolerated, that he was the
rather fully proposing to go (1 Cor.
11: 34; 2 Cor. 13: 1). They were a
Thus there are measures suited to the
case, such as firm but loving remonstrance (1 Cor. 15: 12); a full, public exposure of the error (1 Cor. 15: 12-19), as to
its nature, and its evil connections and consequences (1
Cor. 15: 33, 34); plain setting forth of the
counteracting truth, for the recovery of the misled and the safeguarding of
all; together with a definite restraint upon the teaching of the false
doctrine. These measures, by the grace
of the Holy Spirit, will result either in the happy deliverance of the
errorist, or in the creating of an atmosphere and situation so intolerable that
he will be likely to withdraw. They went out not, were cast out is said of even
antichrists (1
John 2: 19). Casting out was the method of such as loved the pre-eminence (3 John 10; John 9: 34). The long exercise of love and patience will
be very good for the assembly, and particularly for the elders; the
investigation and exposition required will conduce to general confirmation in
the faith; and the risk of friction and disruption will be generally reduced.
But these measures require much
spiritual vigour for their successful application, whereas excommunication is too often but the resort to force by those who are
officially powerful but morally impotent, and this not by any means in the
Church of Rome alone.
The bitterness, strife and chaos which
have been the direct outcome of mutual excommunications challenge the method as
being not of the Lord. The misguided
brother is seldom recovered; most frequently the evil is aggravated rather than
cured, and so other conditions are induced worse than the error itself.
Upon this question we have dwelt
somewhat at length, both because it is germane to this branch of our subject,
and because, if we mistake not, it will become increasingly urgent in the near
future. For the affiliation of
denominations to which reference will be made later, will be wholly not of God,
and it will result that the enlightened
and faithful children of God now in the bodies in question will be forced out
of the same in loyalty to Christ. At
that time, when Satan will have united thus his own religious forces, he will
work untiringly to divide further the people of God by hindering the unity of
those who are really Christs; and one of his old and trusted weapons will be
mightily employed, even the persuading saints that agreement in creed is more
important than brotherly love, that seeing eye to eye must take precedence over
the possession of a common family life, that orthodoxy is of greater moment
than devotion to Christ and His interests.
It deserves to be most widely known, as a fact not open to question,
that the requiring acceptance of doctrinal propositions as a test for Christian
fellowship did not obtain until several generations later than the
Apostles. Dr. Hatch has indicated that the practice was derived from the
Greek schools of philosophy.*
[* Hibbert Lectures The Influence of Greek Ideas and Usages
upon the Christian Church (399, et seq.)]
For ourselves we hope that we are wholly
and strenuously orthodox on all fundamental doctrines; it is our desire to contend earnestly for the faith, nor would we
countenance the teaching of error in the assemblies; it is here only a question
of what is the Scriptural attitude toward those who do differ in belief, whilst
true to the Lord Jesus as the Son of God and the only Redeemer. And it seems to us that any rule which was
not applied in apostolic times and assemblies, and which could not be applied
profitably in all assemblies, is not warranted in any assembly.
To this rule of universality the
Apostle refers in 1 Corinthians 7: 17 and 11: 16, applying it to aid the settlement of two
vexed questions; and again in chapter 14: 33,
where the Nestle Greek text puts the period after peace:
God is not the author of confusion, but of peace.,
and then commences a new sentence: As in all the
assemblies of the saints, let your women keep silence in the assemblies,
etc.
2. EXPANSION.
A second reason for the primitive type
of church life was that the Lord and the Apostles contemplated the rapid
dissemination of the gospel and expansion of the Church; and this was
seen. Diffusion, not concentration, is
the law of the Churchs activities. GO is our Masters key word as to method (Matt. 10: 5, 6, 7; 28: 19). The Church was to be a mobile force, like the
Greek phalanx, not an unwieldy mass like the Persian hosts. Such a force dispenses with all possible impedimenta. Now complex machinery takes much time to
construct and erect; it is long it can be in running order. This forbids rapid extension, and speedy
removal. The work in hand needed a form
of instruction which could be quickly planted, would rapidly take root, and
form the first flourish in every soil and clime. The simplicity of the apostolic assembly met
this necessity. Forms of church life
which converts can only slowly and dimly comprehend, which take long to
institute, and remain to the end cumbersome and complicated, and neither suitable
nor Scriptural.
3. PERSECUTION.
Statesmen have ever to bear in mind
the possibility of war, and to order the state accordingly, even in times of
peace. In the delimiting of frontiers,
in setting routes of railways and roads, and in many other matters, this dread
eventuality must be a determining factor.
Similarly, the Lord knew that His Church must be so constructed as best
to endure the severe strain of extended periods of persecution.
An interesting hint of this is the
very small place that is given in the epistles to singing, which is in very
marked contrast to the general modern western practice. In the worship of
The extreme simplicity of assembly
organization was admirably suited to periods of oppression. Fearless elders could persevere in tending
the sheep, and devoted deacons in caring for the poor, though the storm
raged. Assembly worship could proceed,
and the holy ordinances be observed, wherever two or three could meet in His
name. This machine could keep running
when an elaborate mechanism would collapse.
The rubber ball yields to the blow and survives, when the stone would
smash. The forest dweller hides till the
cruel raider has passed, and then easily replaces his simple tools and returns
to his simple life, whereas the strong complex and artificial affairs of
civilization are long in recovering from war.
The more imposing the edifice the more easily it is found by the gunner. The more obvious and obtrusive an
organization the more readily it is attacked and ruined, and all shattered that
depended upon it as a structure. This
the proud and painted
This consideration never will be
obsolete in the experience of the people of God in this age (Luke 21: 12; 1 Pet. 4: 12-19), and least of all as
its end approaches. Satan will then become
the more wrathful as his time of liberty nears its close (Rev. 12: 12; 17: 6). The wise lay plans today, and adopt methods,
which will bear the strain of to-morrow.
He is the worst prepared who is least prepared for the worst.
4. SPIRITUALITY.
By this is meant a state of heart
dominated by the realities of heaven, the spirit world. Such a heart therefore is characterized by a
supreme regard to things immaterial and invisible. It serves the Creator rather than the
creature, and counts upon Him for energy and order; it is more concerned with
moral quality than material circumstances; it lives in the present in the light
of eternity.
In the sphere of the Assembly of God
the spiritual man has regard first and always to a momentous but physically undiscoverable
fact, even that the Lord the Spirit is personally present (1 Cor. 3: 16), and, as
reverence requires, is to be habitually owned, deferred to, and depended
upon. His will concerning the House of
God is set forth in His writings (1 Cor. 2: 13); behaviour in that House is to be as
befits His presence (1 Tim. 3: 14, 15); the
exercises of public worship are to be directly controlled by Himself, He moving
each heart (1 Cor. 12:
7-11); offences in the House are
committed against Him (Acts 5: 1-11);
and He it is Who orders and makes effective the labours of the Lords servants
who go forth from the House to constrain others to come in.
Here is a primary clue to Gods
methods. As is the power so is the
machinery. The
But when the Holy Spirit is grieved,
when failure appears and edification is ceasing, it is the changeless tendency
of the human heart to resort to visible, material and mechanical measures in
order to maintain a semblance of the real.
It is in sub-apostolic literature that we first read of a person unknown
to the New Testament, a presiding officer at public worship. That Paul as an evangelist should have a
preaching station (Acts 19: 9) where he
habitually taught truth that he alone in that place knew is one thing, and it
may be held to justify gatherings specially for the ministry of the Word by acknowledged
teachers and preachers; that on the occasion of a rare and farewell visit (Acts 20: 7, 11) the Apostle, in assembly, might
occupy almost the whole time with priceless exposition is fully
comprehensible;* but never did even an apostle regularly conduct and monopolize the exercises of the assembly
of saints as if the Lord were absent and His Spirit not there to lead as He saw
fit. This was a device resorted to as
the Spirits power was withheld on account of tolerated evil and waning faith.
[* It is to be noted that on that
occasion ministry of the Word both preceded and followed the breaking of
bread. Both are in order, as the Spirit
leads. To lay down rules is to restrain Him.]
But the Spirit of holiness being
resisted, rules of conduct will not conserve spirituality, nor even morality
for long; the Spirit of truth being rejected, creeds will not preserve the
faith inviolate; the Spirit of God being restrained, forms of service will not
compensate; the body without the S[s]pirit is dead; the
organism is now but an organization. If
the coherent power of life is gone, the frame may be bound and moved by wires,
but it is but a skeleton, however finely dressed.
By this process the Church steadily
ceased to be a testimony to the existence, presence and working of the living
and true God. Less and less often did
unbelievers coming into the assembly, and beholding in the spirit and unity and
conscience-searching power of the worship, the evidences of His presence and
control, exclaim: God is among you indeed (1 Cor. 14: 24, 25). God was worshiped, but was absent: and
presently the beauteous divine simplicity of the first days had been
materialized into the lifeless magnificence of Roman ritual.
The true remedy for decline is
repentance for sin, shown by humiliation and fasting before the Lord, with
steadfast and expectant trust in His mercy; beseeching that He will again take
His own place in the assembly, and again reveal His own sufficiency along the
line of His own appointed methods. To resort to non-apostolic organization is
but to sin more deeply against Him, to depart more thoroughly from His ways, and so more surely to confirm the un-spirituality and
ineffectiveness of the Church. For the
more subtle the force operating the more it is retarded by apparatus; as
witness, in successive contrast, the steam engine, the telephone, and wireless
telegraphy.
But if the due recognition of the
invisible Lord as present to control His Church is a first mark of the
spiritual man, very surely is it a second sign that the impotency, the
nothingness, of man in himself is acknowledged (John
15: 4, 5). Spirituality implies
humility; humility involves dependence. Elihu truly
remarked that one clue to Gods ways with men is that He wishes to withdraw man
from his own self-chosen purpose, and hide pride from man, that He may keep
back his soul from the pit, toward which all mans progress takes him (Job 33: 17, 18).
Because distrust of God is the very
root of sin, therefore salvation must of necessity be by faith in God; because
pride is the very climax of wickedness, therefore all Gods methods must tend
to humble man. Lest man should be
confirmed in conceit of intellect God will not suffer the world by the wisdom
of its own philosophising to discover Himself (1 Cor. 1: 21).
Lest there should be boasting in birth or wealth or power, and so we be
hardened in the pride that ruins, God has commonly chosen for His purposes
persons that are accounted poor and base and weak (1
Cor. 1: 26-29). So that man shall of necessity be delivered
from self-esteem, salvation reaches him through One Whom men crucified as a
Malefactor (1 Cor. 2: 2):
and so that no credit for the work should attach to the servant, but all glory
ascend to the Lord, the mighty miracle of changing and cleansing the foul heart
of man is wrought by so unlikely a means as a mere human testimony concerning
that Saviour Who was crucified through weakness.
This principle is equally as needful
in the life and work of the assembly as in evangelistic labours. It is fatally easy for Christians to depend
upon and boast in the carefully planned and splendidly equipped organization of
their own devising. In the executive
officers of a great society there easily arises the spirit that says, Is not this great
In apostolic times the entire absence
of inter-assembly organization effectually delivered from this danger. The mustard plant, had it remained that, had
not been tempted to wave its lordly branches over the other trees, nor to
thrust in its mighty trunk to defy the winter tempests. Conscious weakness both saves from the deadly
peril of self-confidence and makes room for the mighty power of God. My strength, said Christ to Paul, reaches
perfect display in your weakness:
then, declares the true servant, Most gladly I glory in weaknesses, for when I
am weak, then am I truly strong, and thus is served the whole end of my life,
the full and final desire of my heart, even that Christ be magnified (2 Cor. 12: 9, 10).
Christ! I am
Christs! and let the name suffice you:
Ay, for me too He greatly
hath sufficed.
He that
glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.
2.
With these principles in mind it is easy
to see why the Apostles, being in their Lords secret, founded local assemblies
of so simple a type. The Head of the
Church contemplated and prepared for universality, expansion, persecution, and
spirituality, as essential, abiding conditions.
The evils that have resulted from
departure from the apostolic pattern cannot be exaggerated.
A Welsh itinerant used to say that, as
he traversed the countryside preaching, sometimes he was lodged like an apostle
and sometimes like a bishop: as the former when a goatherd gave him a litter of
straw at night the black bread and water for breakfast; as the latter when at
the squires he fared sumptuously and reposed on a feather bed. It shall be freely conceded that not all
bishops have incurred this humorous reproach.
Some, for Christs sake, have endured the hardships of the pioneer
missionary; some have lain in cold prison cells, and some have sustained the
fiery ordeal of death at the stake. But
taking the long centuries through, and viewing all countries, it cannot be
denied that the satire is too well deserved.
And how came it that the lowly
despised elder of the apostolic days, a man set forth as a spectacle of
reproach, accounted the offscouring of all things, degenerated into the proud
domineering hierarch? Merely as a
psychological phenomenon the matter is of interest.
A learned church historian has offered
this explanation. He remarks that the
aforementioned presiding elder was already, in sub-apostolic times, the almoner
of the gifts of the faithful for the poor.
He thus became the centre round whom the vast
system of Christian charity revolved.
Of this vast system of ecclesiastical
administration the
[overseer,
bishop] was the pivot and the centre. His functions in reference to it were of primary
importance.*
How wide a circle of the believers was involved may be gauged by
the fact that alms were distributed not only to the general poor, itself a
large class in those disordered times, but to orphans, widows, travellers, and the
ever increasing army of ecclesiastical officials and servants. Thus the needy were a considerable section of
the Christian community, and they became dependant upon the goodwill of the
president; and the power of the purse
being a most ready instrument by which a Diotrephes
could gain the pre-eminence he coveted, more and more the financial and
administrative influence was gathered into the hands of the bishop; and thus it
was from so seemingly innocent a beginning that the upas
tree started to grow, to be aided later by other influences that further
centered authority in the bishop.
[* Dr. Hatch The
Organization of the Early
In many an English parish the same
process is at work, and the resulting spiritual bondage is in force, by church
funds and local charities being controlled by the vicar.
But how startling is this as evidence
that every departure from apostolic details is pregnant with calamities. That one either should become the presiding
official was one change; that an elder should handle assembly funds was
another.
This latter was what the Apostles
themselves had expressly refused to do (Acts 6: 2,
3). Final power was advisedly
relegated to those who had no spiritual rule over the assembly. What divine wisdom was here; for thus the
authority of the spiritual guides remained purely moral and morally pure.
And yet how easily could such
alterations be justified. Was it not
seemly that one whom God had been pleased to endow with special administrative
ability should be the acknowledged leader? and
particularly as thereby unqualified men were hindered from obtruding themselves
in public. Then perhaps the deacon was a
very busy person, and why should not the elder do the work quite as well? Indeed, was not the latter the more likely to
be visiting from house to house? and is not economy of
time and labour a virtue? Yet the sequel
has shown that the foolishness of God is wiser than men.
Similarly, if in the observance of the
Lords Supper there is preserved the essential features of an eastern social
meal, the guests gathered around the board, and the bread and the cup passing
familiarily from hand to hand, it is all but impossible that the office of the
Mass, with its dogma of transubstantiation, should be attached to the
ordinance. For in such simple, artless,
yet withal solemn, observance there is obviously no room for an elevated altar
with worshippers kneeling before it, and a consecrating celebrant with gorgeous
and symbolic vestments. The external
simplicity protects the internal essence.
In like manner evils manifold and
great would have been avoided had the unaffiliated intercourse of apostolic
assemblies been retained.
A few of these evils it will be well
to consider carefully.
1. Some have been
mentioned, such as the danger of humility and God-dependence being lost in
pride of organization and confidence therein.
Again, dependence upon the visible and material diminishes spirituality
of heart. Of this we have before
spoken. It is a process which begins
very subtly, almost imperceptibly.
Merely as an example of the small details through which danger may
enter, and over which therefore a spiritual watch should be kept, we mention
this case. At a conference of a certain
movement it pleased God to give marked blessing. In consequence, gatherings were held in other
centres, it being explained that the desire was that the conference message should be spread. Such a brief term is certainly convenient;
yet lurks there not in it a danger of
drawing too much attention to the Conference, to the channel of the truth
rather than the Author thereof. If
we mistake not, it is the never absent
peril of an organization obtruding itself, and drawing the hearer to itself. It is a very fine edged rail that sidetracks
the train.
2. Organization
begets in man a sense of power eminently perilous to the work of God. Uzziah waxed exceeding strong
he built towers and fortified them
he had an
army
mighty men of valour
that made war with mighty power
And his name spread far abroad; for he
was marvellously helped, till he was strong. But when he was strong, his heart was lifted
up, so that he did corruptly (2 Chron. 26.).
By contrast, Paul, when being most mightily used of God in pagan
Corinth, is there, in weakness and in fear and in much
trembling; and thus Hudson
Taylor said that when God decided to open inland China to the Gospel He
looked round to find a man who was weak enough for the purpose.
When in each early church a presiding
bishop had usurped authority, it naturally followed that these should meet
together to further common interests. It
further followed naturally enough that the bishop who was head of the largest
and richest congregation in a district should have most influence in such a
council, especially as usually only a powerful personality would reach such a
chief position. And because the church
in a chief district city or the capital of a province was pretty certain to be
the largest and richest, it inevitably followed, from this amongst other causes, that the city bishop became in time the Metropolitan
of the province. And by that time
Christianity had become the state religion and unregenerate members had
multiplied exceedingly; and with such a backing and with such resources how
powerful was the public influence the Metropolitan could exert, and how
destructive of spirituality was the possession of such power!
Let there be remembered the all too
faithful picture that Kingsley gives
in Hypatia of Cyril of Alexandria early in the fifth
century, a picture painfully true of what Christendom in general had then and
thus become. Cyril can marshal his
hordes of baptized heathen and let them loose to loot the Jewish quarter, and
the Prefect dare not interfere. Cyrils subordinates shall barbarously and
indecently murder Hypatia in the crowded basilica
itself, and the Bishop will haughtily refuse the Prefects demand that he shall
surrender the chief criminal for due punishment. Such
lawless doings and such ungodly resistance of civil authority had been wholly
impossible had not affiliation of churches superceded the Lords instruction.
But further, as local bishops came
together under their metropolitan, so in turn these chief bishops would
presently confer upon universal matters; and as the capital of each province
gave prestige to its bishop, so the bishop of the imperial city first claimed,
and presently received, primacy over all bishops. The
Papacy had never ruled in the House of God had affiliation of churches not
prepared the way.
And what is the Free Church Council in
How utterly all this is at variance with the apostolic spirit
and practice needs not to be demonstrated to the spiritually minded student of
the New Testament.
Probably four chief elements entered
into the resort to organization. First, Satans set purpose to paganized the
Church, in which scheme he was ably served by certain of the church Fathers;
second, lust of power by the ambitious
and worldly-minded, like to that Pope who regarded Christianity as a
profitable farce; third, the false,
non-apostolic conception that it is the business of the Church to Christianize
the nations, leading to the obliterating of that rigid line of demarcation
between those regenerate by personal faith in Christ and those not so; and
fourth, the desire to frustrate
persecution, and so to avoid suffering for Christs sake. None of these ends could have been so well
and easily served without inter-church organization.
3. Another chief
peril to be pondered is the undue
influence that church affiliation puts into the hands of a few masterful men.
The domination by the Jesuits of the
hundreds of millions of Romanists is the chief modern example. But all the established churches illustrate
the point. For the chief officers of these organizations being appointed by the heads of
state an effective state control is easily maintained.
The nonconformist bodies reveal the
same dangerous feature. At the first,
truth loving disciples formed into congregations for the godly end of upholding
and spreading the faith of the gospel, and then it was well indeed. Persecuted and reproached they flourished
spiritually, and the work of God prospered.
Presently delegates from such churches met for conference and business;
inter-church organization resulted, and now, as in earlier times, was the great
Enemys opportunity. For stealthily and steadily there have been
introduced into chief places men of capacity and learning, but not devoted to
the Lord and His truth; and do-day few are the Nonconformist bodies that as
such are faithful to God and His Word, save perhaps in the formal retention of
a disregarded or misexplained creed!
Under the apostolic arrangement a
designing leader or a false teacher must be visited, either personally or by
delegates, each assembly separately, so as to gain its adherence to his course
or doctrines. Even under these hampering
conditions danger was not wholly avoidable (Gal.; 2
Tim. 1: 15); but at least landslides so rapid
and extensive as have been seen to-day were all but impossible. The
fatal instrument has been church affiliation, with the resulting central
organization, from which streams of thought, suggestion, and personal influence
flow out at once to all parts of the affiliated body.
In even so seemingly unorganized a
community as the Exclusive Brethren the same principle has worked
disaster. For an
organization exists in mens mind before and independently of a written
constitution, and indeed its principles may be quite effectively worked without
ever being reduced to formal propositions.
The apostolic conception was that each
regenerate person, indwelt by the Spirit of life, was a member of a living,
universal, invisible society, having no universal, visible, organized
exhibition, but was also a member of such local, visible assembly as existed
where he might be. Consequently a local
assembly could shut out the individual from its fellowship; and if it did so on
divinely warranted grounds that decision would be ratified in heaven (Matt. 18: 18), and should, of course, be accepted
by all other assemblies fully aware of the facts. But the responsibility of such
excommunication was with the local assembly only, and the endorsement thereof was
by each other local assembly separately, if and when the one excommunicate
presented himself for fellowship.
But the Exclusive Brethren developed
discipline a stage further, even that if assembly B did not ratify the
excommunicatory sentence of assembly A, the latter assembly must excommunicate
the former assembly as such; and thus arose the cutting off by assemblies not
only of the individual, which is Scriptural, but of an assembly as a whole, for
which practice no example or warrant is found in Scripture.
Now whilst the individual, being in
fact a member of the local assembly, could be cut off from that body, out of
what body could an assembly as a whole be excised? Something cannot be cut off from nothing; the
part implies a whole; and it is obvious that corporate excommunication of this
sort involves the conception of all the assemblies being in their aggregate a
body corporate, or there would be nothing out of which to remove an
assembly. So that the non-Biblical notion of an affiliated, universal, visible church
underlies, as a working conception, the unhappy world-wide divisions of these
devoted Christians.
This conception being generally
adopted, amongst them also it resulted that a few powerful personalities and
writers dominated the whole circle of their assemblies.
4. But there is
another, though kindred, type of affiliation which needs consideration.
This is not the affiliating of local
assemblies as a whole, but a group of persons in an assembly with similar
groups in other assemblies. For example,
in a certain local church there was formed an organization for assisting to
retain and develop young Christians. The
plan adopted approved itself, and presently was copied by another and another
church; and shortly these local groups were affiliated into a society, with
various agencies of inter-communication.
The result is a society within a
society. Within the
Clearly this circle is exposed to all
the dangers before noted, even pride of greatness and influence; dependence
upon numbers and organization; a consciousness of power, with risk of abuse
thereof; a few gaining a dangerous influence; and the consequent peril of early
and rapid decline of spirituality.
But there are other and special
perils. Of these one is that the presence of a great visible society
tends to hinder, or at least dim the perception of the majesty of the true
invisible
Then, as such a society becomes
greater its claims upon the interest, time and funds of its members
increase. Special literature must be
read, and paid for; Society conferences must be attended, and paid for; the Societys social gatherings and its
religious and philanthropic efforts receive precedence, or one is deemed
negligent of the Societys advancement.
An honest endeavour to negative this
peril may be made. Members may be exhorted
to remember that the Society is strictly subordinate to the local church, and
some older persons may perhaps succeed in maintaining this attitude. But the many, and especially the youthful,
will find this difficult. It might have
been otherwise if the local church had remained the only connection of the
Society, but the affiliation of all the branches into one organization will
result in practice, and for the many, in the Society having the preference, in
it tending to become for such virtually their church.
We are not theorizing, but testify
that which we have seen in years of close observation.
Nor are we condemning special
attention being given to the young. Let
each assembly, if it find it profitable, have a gathering for helping the youthful
in their special problems, or for fostering missionary enthusiasm, or for
furthering evangelistic labours at its doors.
Only let such special efforts remain local, no matter in how many
assemblies they may exist, and let there be no attempt to affiliate these local
meetings or classes into an inter-assembly federation.
That affiliation affords impetus and
momentum is certainly true; but what if the direction be wrong? Of course the pioneer must by necessity be an
enthusiast; and each such will fondly believe that he will sail safely where
all before him made shipwreck. There
seems no inherent reason why the perils indicated should not be avoided, so let
another attempt be made! But the uniform
experience of long centuries and colossal experiments is a lighthouse not to be
disregarded. There must be some reason
why, in the affairs of the
3.
It will now be easy to determine what
should be the attitude of the godly to the gigantic movement for federation
to-day fermenting and heaving in the western religious world.
The amalgamating of divided sections
of originally united bodies has long proceeded.
The federating in
For the parties concerned there is
urgent enough need of such amalgamation, there being dread danger ahead. Democracy in all
But if affiliating
of assemblies into denominations is unscriptural, how much more an amalgamation
of sects, seeing that sectarianism itself is not of God.
An amalgam of base metals will never produce the pure gold of the New
Jerusalem. For be it well noted that not
in the slightest degree is this an attempt to return
to God and His Word, so as to readopt His thoughts and methods for His house.
Again Bishop Welldon may be cited, noting
especially the words we have put in italics:
The Church of England indeed stands at the
parting of the ways. There are two
conceptions of her character and therefore of her destiny. The Bishop then refers to the Roman
conception, and continues: According to the other she is properly wide, generous,
sympathetic, comprehensive; the Church of the nation
in its largest and truest sense, as embracing the greatest possible number of
spiritually minded English men and English women, from sacerdotalists on
the one hand, to modernists on the other (Ibid). Thus the coming
anti-Biblical, soul destroying Church, it is desired, should embrace every
variety of opinion and practice, from extreme priest craft to extreme
theological infidelity: so that the birds of the
heaven come and lodge in the branches thereof (Matt.
13: 32; cf. verses 4 and 19).
Yet again leading nonconformists and
evangelical Churchmen, met expressly to further reunion, have publically
accepted the doctrine of salvation by sacraments,* and some prominent
nonconformists seem ready to submit to episcopacy itself, thus returning to the
soul ruining dogmas and sacerdotal bondage in resisting which their forebears
freely forfeited treasure, liberty, and even life. Nay, so little of the Lord is there in this
project that a prominent religious journal long since wrote of this proposed
Federation that not even an opinion as to the
historicity of Jesus can be made into a test of membership.**
[* Report of World
Conference on Faith and Order. Times, Feb. 23,
1916.
**
With such a shameless abandonment of
the Son of God openly urged, and with so low a motive as the struggle for life
a controlling impulse, what can be expected but that such a Federation shall
duly exhibit in acme all the worst features of which church affiliation is the
natural begetter? Pride of place; lust of power; dread of persecution, with a ready
resort to force against nonconformers; reliance upon externalism and meretricious
attractiveness; employment of the occult and superstitious, as in baptismal
regeneration, transubstantiation, talking images, and the like; the few
controlling, the many enslaved; civil authority dominated, or resisted on
non-apostolic grounds; the divine Head of the Church ousted from control by a
self-styled Vicar; these have been, are, and will be as revealed in the
prescient Word of God among the characteristics of the religious combine now
it would seem preparing for its final phase.
Instead of the lowly herb, lo, the towering tree; in place of a little
flock, behold, a vast corporation; instead of sheep ready to be slaughtered,
there are hireling shepherds enough eager to fleece their flocks and fatten
upon them.
But let us not mistake the situation
that will thus arise. This gigantic
conglomerate of sects is Christless in all but name; it does not by any right
or means really present the Church of the living God of which the rejected Son
of God is at once Founder and Foundation.
In obscure spots the lowly herb still flourishes, though amidst storms;
the little flock still waits upon the Great Shepherd; the House of God has not
been razed; the gates of Hades have not prevailed. Weak and insignificant, the faithful
followers of the Lamb are nevertheless triumphant, more
than conquerors through Him that loved them. As God reckons victory, aye, and as the Devil
reckons victory, if he hold the truth, they, and not
he, are victors; for he has aimed to drive them from trusting in Christ and
from witnessing to Christ, and he has failed and they have won. They overcame him
(as the Accused before God) because of the blood of the
Lamb, which they trusted and pleaded; and they defeated him before men
because of the word of their testimony, in
maintaining which they loved not their lives,
but surrendered them even unto death rather
than cease that testimony (Rev. 12: 10, 11).
Security and true success are assured
to the disciple if he but hold
fast the Head (Col. 2: 19). Let
Christ be given His rightful place as the Lord of the individual and the Head
of the body, the Church, and all shall be well. But this demands faith faith in Him as
sufficient and in His methods as perfect.
As faith is only genuine and saving
as far as it constrains to ready obedience regardless of cost. Let
disciples obey as children and love as brethren, pray as believers and serve as
slaves, toil as warriors and suffer as witnesses, and they shall know of a
surety that the risen Lord is indeed with them all the
days even unto the consummation of the age, a
help in distress, very readily found (Darby, New Translation, Psa. 46: 1).
And in relation to the special topic here discussed obedience means that
the child of God shall sedulously cultivate the fellowship and seek the soul
prosperity of every individual member of the whole Church, shall earnestly
promote the welfare of the local assembly, and
shall reject, as being without divine warrant, every form of church
affiliation.
Pure religion
and undefiled before our God and Father is this, to visit the fatherless and
widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world
(Jas. 1: 27).
Thou hast a
few names in
He that hath an ear let him hear what the Spirit saith to the
churches (Rev. 3: 4-6).
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