Devoted to the Propagation and Defense of New Testament Christianity
VOLUME 10
May 1, 1958
NUMBER 1, PAGE 9

Miscellanea

James A. Allen, Nashville, Tennessee

There were no unbaptized Christians in New Testament times. Every member of every New Testament congregation was an immersed person.

There were no Christians in New Testament times who did not belong to the church. The same thing that makes a man a Christian makes him a member of the church.

Jesus said: "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved." (Mark 16:16.) Can any one who acknowledges Jesus as his Lord say that a man can be saved without being baptized?

We do not see much chance for the churches that support men preaching the gospel, and assisting those in need, as long as "our institutions" keep them bled white.

When a man reaches the point of no-return in leading the churches into apostasy, his friends, who love him, feel almost despondent over his ever being able to make a change.

Building up multi-million dollar "Christian Colleges" is a satire on the teaching of Him who had not where to lay His head. He said: "Wheresoever the carcass is, thither will the vultures be gathered together."

The great apostasy that is now sweeping the churches into financing human institutions to do their work is supported largely by money that comes from building up the Sunday School Literature racket. If the "filthy lucre" could be taken out of the "literature" racket, it might bring the innovators back down to earth. Opposed to literature? Certainly not! Just opposed to the "racket" and to what it supports.

The Holy Spirit, on the day of Pentecost, speaking through the apostle Peter, said: "Repent ye, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins; and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." (Acts 2:38.) Any voice, feeling, "experience," sight or sound that gives a man to "know" that his sins have been forgiven and that he is saved without his so doing is not the work of the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit does not contradict Himself, and because he speaks to the world only through the inspired men of the Bible. Such an experience is a mental hallucination, brought on by belief in a false doctrine.

If all the time, money and effort that has gone into establishing "Christian Colleges," which, from a practical standpoint, means theological schools, had gone Into preaching the gospel and establishing congregations, each one of which would have been a true Christian College, inestimably more good would have been accomplished. The apostles established congregations. They did not establish colleges. The gospel is spread by establishing congregations, not colleges. The huge sums of money that are given to colleges are not for the spread of the gospel. The man, or woman, making the huge gift may think it is to help the work of the church, but they are sadly mistaken. More often, their huge gifts eventually turn out to be a curse instead of a blessing. We look with question on any one doing any thing religiously that the apostles did not do. They were guided by the Holy Spirit.

The human institutions that seek to supplant the church in its work have the brotherhood by the throat.

The question is, Will they finally choke all but a faithful remnant? Churches that support them black-ball every preacher that shows their sinfulness. Such preachers have had meetings cancelled by such churches, because they show that there is neither precept nor precedent for human institutions to take over any part of the work of the church. But the "filthy lucre" is on the side of the human institutions. And all sycophants', who are without convictions or courage, naturally gravitate toward the "filthy lucre." The faithful remnant rejoice that they are counted worthy to be black-balled.

Every one should be alert to the tremendous importance of telling their friends and neighbors in the community in which they live what to do to be saved. The people next door, those up and down the street, who are out of Christ and in their sins should be of deep concern to every one. If your neighbor's house was on fire, you would rush over, crying the alarm. If he is unsaved, and rapidly approaching the eternal world in a lost and undone condition, you appear unconscious of it. It will be a terrible awakening for you in the judgment. If you were selling insurance, you would go over and talk to him. How infinitely more important to go over and talk to him about being saved! The more intelligent he is, the more he will deeply appreciate it. If every member of the congregation would so do, it would be a revolution in the community.

If some of the brethren just must have a general organization to collect money from thousands of churches, on the assumption that they have a general organization to take over the work of the same said thousands of churches, they should go all the way and get up something like a Baptist Convention or a Methodist Conference, to control it. Such a general organization cannot be put under the elders of any congregation, because the Word of God limits the work of the elders to the congregation that made them elders, and because it would change the elders into a Board to manage some thing other than the work for which they were appointed. Such a general institution, running loose, without being responsible to a convention, composed of delegates from the churches from whom it collects money, is not only sinful and anti-Christian, but is also anti-American and is taxation without; representation. When people introduce anything that does not have a precept or a precedent from the apostles, there is no stopping place this side of atheism.