Devoted to the Propagation and Defense of New Testament Christianity
VOLUME 10
December 18, 1958
NUMBER 33, PAGE 2-3b

Conference Of Orphan Home Superintendents

James A. Allen, Nashville, Tennessee

A Nashville newspaper, under the headline, "Orphan Home Problems Discussed," publishes a picture of four of the sixteen superintendents of orphan homes, with the following notation:

Superintendents of Church of Christ orphan homes discuss their problems in a conference at David Lipscomb College. From left are Gayle Oler, Quinlan, Texas; John B. White, Lubbock, Texas; Bryan Fullerton, Tipton, Oklahoma; and W. B. Richter, Spring Hill, Tennessee. Superintendents and their wives from 16 homes in seven states share experiences and solutions to problems in yesterday's conferences.

Thus the disciples have on their hands a "Conference" of Superintendents of sixteen Orphan Homes, held at David Lipscomb College. It is a most significant manifestation of the forces of apostasy inwardly at work in the churches. The President of the College, where the "Conference" assembled, is the one who wrote the restrictive clause that he and others are trying to get churches to put in the deeds to their meeting-houses, to prevent all who believe that orphan homes are without precept or example in the New Testament from continuing to use the meeting-houses that they themselves built.

A "conference" of the heads of orphan homes is indeed, something to cause anxiety and trepidation among all who realize that the only hope of the world is in faithful adherence to the apostolic order of things. There is nothing in the New Testament about any executive officials religiously other than the elders and deacons of the local church. Nor is there any thing in the New Testament about any meeting larger than the assembling of the local church. The local church is the only operative religious body on earth that is of divine origin and for which there is precept and example in the New Testament.

Such a "conference" of superintendents is a horrible reminder of the early steps of the Great Apostasy that has so long permeated the religious world with its deadly antagonism to "the faith once for all delivered unto the saints" by the apostles. When the eldership of the local church was overthrown in favor of "the bishop", it was not long until a "conference" of the bishops, so well known in church history as a "general council," was at times convened to discuss religious matters. They made no pretention to being guided by the Word of-God, just as the promoters who are forcing orphan homes on the churches make no pretention that there is either precept or precedent for them from the apostles. Instead the leaders of today's apostasy do so only on the claim that the Word of God is inadequate and insufficient, and "that God has commanded us to do something but has not told us how to do it, and therefore, we may please ourselves by doing as our own wisdom suggests."

It is inexcusable to ignore the fact that the New Testament Christians, as they were guided by the apostles, won the admiration of the pagan world by the simplicity and efficiency with which they did this thing that the orphan home promoters say God has not told us how to do. If they were not so blinded by fleshly ambition for their hobby, they could easily perceive that God commands us to follow the precedent set by these early Christians under the leadership of inspired men and do it like they did it. But all know that this would forever stop the orphan home movement, because the New Testament Christians operated only through the local churches. They had no general institutions of any kind to take over the work of thousands of local churches, but each local church operated autonomously under its own elders and deacons.

The local church is God's way and God's institution in which all his people are to personally and individually abound in every good work. It is the only operative divine institution. When its elders cultivate the prescribed qualifications, for having which they were appointed, and put their whole heart into their work; and when its deacons cultivate the prescribed qualifications, for having which they were appointed, and personally supervise the benevolent work of the church; and when its every member lets the Word of Christ dwell in him, or her, richly, and personally and individually labors to abound in every good work, the local church in every community becomes an operative body, for the glory of God and the good of humanity, that is infinitely above any human institution. The power of God is in it. There are possibilities of accomplishment in every local church that the human mind cannot estimate.

There can be no centralization of either the management, the resources, or the work of two or more local churches. God has ordained, and gives both precept and precedent from the apostles and the New Testament churches, that each church, under its own elders and deacons, function autonomously and independently. For local churches to merge would be to commit sin and lose their power.

We humbly and kindly call attention to the fact that this "Christian College, that the angels at sinned" left its own habitation and stepped out of its place, in aiding or abetting, if not actually calling this "conference" of the heads of orphan homes. Any college steps out of its place when it intrudes into any of the affairs of the church. Just as the church is not in the business of giving a secular education to any one, which is to say; that it is not in the college business, just so the college has no call whatever to intrude into the business of the church. There can be no marriage, and no connection whatever, between the college and the church. If the college becomes a theological school, it becomes a sinful thing. The church is not, and has never been, in any way whatever dependent on any college for any thing. The college has always been, and, if not completely divorced, will always be a dead weight on the church. I certainly am not opposed to a college. I am opposed to a college getting into the business of the church. Cannot the colleges understand that? If not, why not?

The church of Christ is the only body of people built on "the Bible, and the Bible alone." If it cuts loose from the Bible as its Guide, it has no reason or ground on which to justify its existence. The only way to be guided by the Bible is to teach and practice the things for which the apostles either gave the precept or set the precedent. The most aggressive promoters of orphan homes concede that there is neither precept nor precedent for them from the apostles. For the local church to turn any of its work over to them is to cut loose from the Bible as its Guide. When any one cuts loose from the Bible as his Guide, there is no stopping place this side of atheism and perdition. When he promotes some thing for which there is neither command nor example from the apostles, he has cut loose from the Bible as his Guide. He cannot do otherwise than make shipwreck of the faith. Only by adhering to that for which he can give book, chapter and verse can he stand on the rock and be assured of heaven when he dies.