"Placing Membership" And The Candlesticks
My brethren will sometime go to any lengths to try to prove some peculiar teaching on some particular verse of scripture; sometimes even to the perversion of a verse. We, of all people, cannot do this, and remain consistent with our plea. Denominational preachers do it, but they have nowhere else to turn. Gospel preachers do not need to stretch a scripture to make an argument, that is, if the argument is scriptural. If there is any argument there, plain, not controversial, passages I will sustain it.
The idea that I am calling in question has come before me recently in three different religious periodicals. In these articles the writers are striving to make an argument on identifying one's self with a local congregation. Now get this, I believe as strongly as any of these brethren that a person should make himself known in some public manner; but I believe the scripture used does not prove that point.
These brethren have presented the idea that since the seven churches of Asia mentioned in the book of Revelation are referred to as seven candlesticks, then, of necessity, the "candlesticks" of Matthew 5:15 refer to local congregations. This is a common argument with Ben M. Bogard, but until recently I didn't know that any of my brethren taught the same. Why yes, Bogard says, Matthew's candlesticks are certainly local congregations; and after a person is saved, the Lord wants him to be where he can do the most good, hence the saved person is baptized into the Baptist church, a local congregation, a candlestick. All this Bogard uses because otherwise the church is simply superfluous.
But let's notice a few things and ask a few questions about the matter. First, does candlestick always mean local congregation everywhere it is used? If not, why apply it just to Matt. 5:15? If it does mean local congregation everywhere used, then explain where local congregation comes into the picture in Revelation 11:4, or Luke 8:16, or Luke 11:33, or Mark 4:21? If it means local congregation in Matt. 5:15, then what does the house in which it is shining represent? Is the house the whole world? If so, what is that which is outside the house? Jesus said, "Let your light so shine before men..." Men, here, certainly has reference to all men, including women.
I am afraid that in stressing a point, these brethren have made void the lesson the Lord would have us know. You know the foot-washing people have done just that to the lesson the Master gave on humility; they have perverted it to prove something else, and in so doing have destroyed the greatest lesson on humility in our Bible. Jesus had the same lesson in mind with the light that he had with the salt. "Ye are the salt of the earth." Disciples have power as salt, but the idea is that we are to use that power, for if we don't, we will lose it, and be lost, also. "Ye are the light of the world." We become this light by the good works that we perform before men. If they can see our light or good works, then we can be assured that that light is on a stand or candlestick. If they cannot see it, something is wrong with us; we are not that city on a hill, we have hidden our light in the obscurity of worldly things.
Certainly we should let ourselves be known into whatever locality we happen to move. But simply placing our name on a church roll will not make our salting power any greater nor our light any brighter. This depends on us as individuals. The elders of some particular congregation should be informed of the fact that we are looking to them for instruction, spiritual guidance, for oversight, etc. But let's not try to establish our argument on a scripture just because a word used in a figurative sense in Revelation happens also to be used somewhere else in the Bible. There are too many good arguments without using a questionable one.