Devoted to the Propagation and Defense of New Testament Christianity
VOLUME 11
January 7, 1960
NUMBER 34, PAGE 8-9b

Is The College Behind It?

James A. Allen, Nashville, Tennessee

If the college is not actually behind the movement to put the orphan homes into the budget of the churches, it at least is aiding and abetting it. For many years the college has tried to plaster itself on the back of the churches, and, while it has drained away much of the resources of the churches from their own work, it has never been able to overcome the reluctances of the churches to assume its support.

But there is, and very properly ought to be, great public sympathy for the little orphans. Who does not feel, to the depth of his soul, a great desire to make any kind of sacrifice to visit them, and to minister to them? Breathes there a man with a soul so dead that the plight of a little orphan does not wring his heart?

Christians are devoted to the care and welfare of orphans. "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world." (James 1:27. Deacons are appointed in every local church to oversee and direct the labors and the resources of the church, not only to visiting and ministering to the fatherless and widows in their affliction who are the church's charge, but to visiting and ministering to the poor, the sick and those in distress and trouble. The local church, with its elders and deacons, is the one and only perfect organization to do this work. There is nothing else like it on earth.

And yet ambitious, aspiring and presumptuous promoters, who by implication brand God's local church as incompetent and incapable of doing what God created it to do, and what he ordained it to do, and, without precept or precedent from the apostles, seek to organize a general, outside institution in which to pool the resources of thousands of churches, on the pretext that it will care for the orphans that come from these thousands of churches, and then try to force the financial support of this general, outside institution on the churches. Brethren who love the orphans far more than those making money out of them do or could, are slandered as being opposed to the care of orphans, if they oppose this unauthorized, general, outside institution, called an "orphan home."

But the great sympathy felt for orphans causes many churches to erroneously overlook the fact this institution is unscriptural and sinful, and put such an organization into their budgets. If the college is not actually promoting this movement, it at least is aiding and abetting it. If sympathy for orphans can get the "orphan home" in, that opens up the way to also get the college into the budget. For many years, the college has failed to get into the budget of the churches. May be it could get in behind the orphan home!

If the college is a secular school, as it ought to be, and not a theological seminary, giving "ministerial courses" to young clergymen, as it ought not to be, on what ground does it intervene in the struggle between the churches and the orphan homes? That the college has intervened on the side of the orphan home, is clearly and plainly obvious.

A Nashville newspaper, under the heading, "Orphan Home Problems Discussed," published a picture of four of the sixteen orphan home superintendents attending, with the following notation:

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

This "conference of superintendents from sixteen orphan homes in seven states" was held at David Lipscomb College. If the David Lipscomb College was not the actual promoter of this "conference of orphan home superintendents," it aided and abetted it. The biggest problem of orphan home superintendents is how to get into the budget of the churches.

Another thing that makes it obvious that the college is either actually promoting this movement, or that it is aiding and abetting it, is the new restrictive clause that the president of the college has written for the churches to put into the deeds to their property. This new restrictive clause contains five restrictions. The fourth restriction says:

4. "The support of such organizations as care for orphans, dependent children, aged and sick, shall not be opposed or forbidden."

All who believe the teaching of the Word of God that God's church is all-sufficient for every good work are thus forbidden to worship God in the house they themselves built, if they oppose any organization, other than God's church, to do what God has appointed the church to do. That is, if this new restrictive clause can be inserted into the deed. Many human organizations, such as orphan homes, convalescent homes, March of Dimes, Homes for polio victims, Homes for aged men, Homes for aged women, and hospitals, are thus put on the church for support, and no member of the church can object, without being put out-of-doors of the house he himself helped to build.

The same restrictive clause that supports a Church of Christ Orphan Home also supports a Church of Christ Hospital. Are the "no pattern" brethren ready for that?

Nor does this new restrictive clause say any thing about opposing a missionary society. Item 3 says, "No mechanical instrument of music shall be used in the worship," but it leaves the way open to support the missionary society. There is a tremendous reason for this. The orphan home stands on the same identical ground that the missionary society stands on. A man cannot support the orphan home and oppose the missionary society without stultifying himself The devil surely is busy. He knows that his time is short. His object is to keep people from obeying God. The only way a man can obey God is to be guided by the Bible and the only way to be guided by the Bible is to do "the things" for which the apostles gave the precept or set the precedent. The devil does not object to a man being religious, and even very religious and very zealous. His object is to get people away from the Word of God as their Guide. If he can cause them to deviate from it in one item, he has won over them and led them into treason against the government of God. If he can make them believe that there are things in the service of God for which "there is no pattern;" "that God commands a man to do a thing, but does not tell him how to do it;" or, that, "we do many things for which we have no Bible authority, nor do we need any," the devil has won over them and turned them away from that humble, implicit, child-like reverence for God's Word as their all-sufficient Guide. He has turned them away from the faith that comes by hearing the Word of God, from "speaking as the Oracles of God speak," and from full and complete adherence to "the things" that are learned and received and heard and seen in the apostles. He has led them into treason against the rule of Christ over his church, as administered through the Bible from the twelve apostolic thrones. They are no longer friends of those who plead for pure, primitive, apostolic, New Testament Christianity. They are due a shocking disillusionment before the judgment bar of God. Oh, that they could repent while they have time!

The "Christian College" has always been a liability to the church. It always will be. The church has never been, and never can be, dependent on it, or on any other human institution, for any thing. The establishment of the first "Christian College," at Alexandria, Egypt, in the second century, to train young preacher, or give "ministerial courses", has been called "the grave of Primitive Christianity." If the college can not keep its hands off of the church and deport itself as a purely secular college, as it can only rightfully be, the best thing that could possibly happen would be for it to be liquidated. It "cumbers the ground."