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When God's People Begin to Think |
By Edward O. Bragwell, Sr.
The Reflector - April 2009
Ever since God has had a chosen people, they have sought out ways to
magnify themselves – their importance, their wisdom, their strength
– rather than magnifying the importance, wisdom, and strength of
their God.
The Israelites were God’s first chosen people, that is to say the
first people set apart from all others to be God’s own peculiar
people. "For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God, and the
LORD hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself, above
all the nations that are upon the earth." (Deut. 14:2). Almost from
the beginning they complained against God’s way and sought out their
own.
After entering the promised land, the Israelite tribes managed to
function for about 400 years without a strong central government.
God was their only king. During this period, God raised up judges to
deliver them from the oppression of their neighbors when and where
needed. In time, this arrangement became unsatisfactory to the
children of Israel. They began to think BIG. They petitioned God
through Samuel, the last of the judges, for an earthly king. They
had arrived! They wanted more than an invisible King to preside over
the nation. They wanted a highly visible central government (a king)
that could rival and compete with the other nations of the world. As
they put it, "That we also may be like all the nations; and that our
king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles." (1
Sam. 8:20). As God sometime does, he eventually granted them their
wish as a judgment against them. He warned of the heavy taxes that
would be imposed upon them and the loss of freedom for their sons
and daughters. Much of their property would be confiscated to
support the bureaucracy – the servants of the king (Read all of 1
Sam. ch. 8). They replied, "But we will have a king." Someone has
said that an unanswerable argument is: "We want it, we’re going to
have it, what are you going to do about it?" I must admit that this
is a hard argument with which to deal.
Even though God used the kings to facilitate his grand purpose, the
history of Israel under their rule was not good. After only three
kings, the nation divided into two kingdoms, never again to be
united. It is of little benefit to speculate what things would have
been like, had they not demanded a king. God gave them what they
asked for and they reaped the consequences. The basic problem was
that God’s way seemed too small and insignificant in the eyes of his
people, compared to the perceived strength of their neighbors. They
forgot one important factor in the equation – they had God on their
side.
God’s Other Chosen People
The Israelites are no longer God’s chosen people. Christians are.
Collectively they are called the church (Gr. ekklesia - called-out
assembly). Peter, in 1 Peter 2, refers to them as a "chosen nation"
and a "peculiar people" – terms similar to those used of Israel in
Deuteronomy.
This church, composed of all of God’s people, is not an
organization. It is not a physical assembly. It has reference to all
the redeemed of all time. This is indicated by the Hebrew writer,
"To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are
written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits
of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of a new
covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better
things than Abel. (Hebrews 12:23-24). "Firstborn" is plural, meaning
the firstborn ones. This refers to that great host whose names are
written in heaven. This church has no earthly headquarters, nor
earthly head. It never comes together in a physical assembly. It has
no place to assemble on the earth. It is a brotherhood made up of
the children of God. It is all the saved added together (Acts 2:47).
There are no nationwide, statewide, countywide, nor citywide
organizations for this people. Search the Scriptures to see if this
was not the case with the early Christians.
The only organizational structure for God’s people is the
congregation or church in the local sense. We read of the "church
at" such and such place. (Cf. 1 Cor. 1:2; 2 Cor. 1:1). Or we read of
churches (plural), referring to local groups of God’s people in
different locations (cf. Romans 16:16). These churches assembled for
public worship, contributed into a common treasury, supported gospel
preaching/teaching to sinners and saints, and cared for the needy
among the saints (Heb. 10:25; Acts 20:7; 1 Cor. 16:1-2; 2 Cor.
11:8). This arrangement is sufficient for those who trust in God’s
wisdom and power to accomplish what he wants us to do as his people
on the earth.
The sad history of God’s people in this dispensation is they have
not long been satisfied with God’s arrangement. Like his people of
the past dispensation, they have had a propensity to think BIG. In a
relative few years after the establishment of the church, they found
a way to organize themselves into units larger than local churches.
The spirit of apostasy, waiting for opportunity to manifest itself,
was already at work in the minds and attitudes of some in Paul’s
day. He called it "the mystery of iniquity (or lawlessness)" (2
Thess. 2:7). The apostasy began with activating God’s elect people
in arrangements larger than the local churches. My college world
history textbook, "Civilization Past and Present, third edition,"
under the heading "The Development of Church Offices," states: "At
the first the officials were called elders, or presbyters; they were
also referred to as bishops, or overseers. By the second century,
the office of bishop and presbyter had become distinct. The bishop
now had the right to enforce obedience from his presbyters and other
subordinates such as stewards and recorders. New churches organized
in the country adjacent to the mother church, which was usually
located in a city, were administered by presbyters responsible to
the bishop. Thus, administrative divisions evolved, called a
diocese, under the jurisdiction of a bishop." The trend toward
bigger organization continued on until there was a universal
(catholic) head, the pope, with universal headquarters in Rome.
Along with super organization came doctrinal corruption. The bigger
the organization, the greater the corruption. Much of recorded
history of the church has been that of the apostate church, and
efforts to reform it – a futile effort, indeed.
The "Restoration Movement" of the late 1700s and 1800's emphasized
restoration rather than reformation. It pointed people back of the
apostate church and the reformation efforts to the New Testament to
the original plan of salvation as it was before it was corrupted by
the apostasy. Many obeyed that simple gospel plan in many
communities. Local churches were formed in community after community
without any denominational affiliation. But it was not long until
the people began to think big again. Some of the prominent names of
this worthy movement did not think that local congregations were
capable of doing the great work of evangelizing the world without
additional organization. In the early 1800s brethren organized
"cooperation meetings" to more efficiently preach the gospel. These
meetings were convened to plan work beyond that which they believed
local churches were capable of doing. These meetings kind of evolved
into organized societies to support evangelistic work. In 1849, in
Cincinnati Ohio, the American Christian Missionary Society was
formed. The brotherhood in America had become more than a
relationship. It now had organized structure – an organizational
entity. Its advocates maintained that its purpose was not to
supplant local churches, but to complement their work by providing
the means for them to cooperate in order to carry out the great
commission. Membership in this new society was held by churches and
individual Christians.
Much like the Great Apostasy, doctrinal innovations came with the
efforts to organize beyond the congregational level. Within 10 years
of the organizing of the American Christian Missionary Society,
instrumental music was introduced into the worship of local
churches. In the years that followed all kinds of innovations were
introduced. The American Christian Missionary Society later merged
with other societies to form the United Christian Missionary
Society. This society became the titular head of the Christian
Church (Disciples of Christ). Any similarity between the churches
that follow the missionary society movement today and the churches
that were established during the early years of the Restoration
Movement is purely coincidental. The social gospel, denominational
originated practices, and rank modernism abounds. It all started
when brethren began to think BIG. They looked for ways to activate
the universal church, at least large segments of it. From the
beginning of this movement toward centralization there was
opposition. The end results was that, while a majority went with the
innovators, there was a goodly number that did not. These continued
to function as autonomous local congregations and as individual
Christians. Their numbers swelled during the first half of the 20th
century, while for the most part the membership rolls of the
congregations affiliated with the "Christian Church" dwindled.
After World War II, brethren began to think BIG again. The beast of
centralization raised its ugly head once again. The brethren found
ways to combine the work of local congregations into a central
agency. Benevolent institutions were formed that let the churches
combine much of their benevolent funds under a central board, or in
few cases, a central eldership. "Sponsoring churches" were formed to
allow churches to put their evangelistic funds under the oversight
of a central eldership. As the years passed, most of the churches
that went in that direction embraced other innovations into their
work and worship. While most of these churches still designate
themselves as "churches of Christ" they are a far cry from what the
churches were before they began to think BIG. They have added social
and recreational programs, facilities and "ministries" unknown to
the New Testament churches. In some cases the worship has been
corrupted by a lack of real gospel preaching, contemporary style
worship, and other innovations borrowed from the denominational
neighbors.
Winston Churchill is quoted as saying, "those that fail to learn
from history, are doomed to repeat it." This is as true of church
history as it is secular history. The road to Rome is paved with
small organizational steppingstones away from congregations and
individual Christians doing the Lord’s work toward greater
organization of the Lord’s people.
Given the New Testament pattern of early Christians’ being only
organized into local functioning units, called churches; and given
the terrible history of what has happened when brethren have set out
to activate the brotherhood, we would do well to be suspicious of
any moves that smack of centralization. Any effort to organize
individual Christians and/or congregations into a central
organization is a step in the wrong direction. Likewise, any effort
to convene the brotherhood, or a large portion of it, should also be
watched – no matter what the venue may be. It can easily take on the
form of a brotherhood convention. It does not matter who convenes
it. Nor does it matter if it is a gathering of brethren officially
representing local churches or one of brethren acting on their own,
it is a step toward activating the universal church. There is
neither authority for brotherhood-wide organizations nor
brotherhood-wide conventions. We would do well to be content to do
our spiritual work as individuals working alone, working
concurrently with other individuals, or working jointly with other
Christians in local churches. We know this to be authorized. This
generation may not take its small steps toward centralization to
their ultimate and logical end. But history has shown that each
generation builds on the work of the preceding generation. Any step
away from the New Testament pattern lays the groundwork for the next
generation to add its steps, so that in a relative short time an
apostasy is full grown.
There’s a time to think big. When local churches are planning the
amount of evangelism both at home and abroad they need to do, they
need to think big. When individual Christians go about doing their
"personal work" they need to think big. Both churches and
individuals need to desire to do as much as they can to work the
work of God in the world. But just as we are not to think more
highly of ourselves that we ought to think, we should not think any
bigger than we ought to think. When it comes to organizing the
Lord’s chosen people, bigger is not better. ~
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