In Answer To An S.O.S.
In a recent issue of the Gospel Advocate a good, but deluded brother sends out an urgent request for help. This modern Macedonian call comes from one, who says he has been a Bible student for fifty years. One would not expect a Bible student of this long standing to ask the puerile questions he does, but what with all the propaganda put out by the Advocate one can hardly be surprised.
I am happy to try to give this brother the information he requests. However, one thing troubles me. I don't know if I am really qualified to answer his questions. He makes some stipulations I don't know that I meet. After asking the questions he writes: 'Will someone help me? I shall wait and see. There are a number of boys scattered around the country who think they are very smart. Will some of them try?"
First off let me say that I do not think I am smart, especially as he uses the term. I try to observe Rom. 12:3, but one doesn't need to be too well versed in the scriptures to give an answer to this one that asketh. So perhaps I can qualify here. But I must confess that there is one part that sorta throws me. He says he wants these "boys" to help him. I don't know that I am yet a boy. I have been a qualified voter for a number of years. I am the patient (sometimes) father of two boys, ages 10 and 12, and the happy (always — my wife reads this) husband of one wife. To control these (the boys) is not a boy's job, as any parent can testify. Still, with a little stretching I might qualify. I have not yet reached the age where Stephen said Moses was full grown. Moreover I can still climb three flights of stairs without puffing, and even though I might be a little on the obese side from too much familiarity with, and love for the dinner table I can still play ball with the boys. And in spite of the fact that there is not too much hair on the top of my head where the hair on my head ought to grow, I will flatter myself that I meet the qualification and "boyishly" give a few grown up answers to some juvenile questions. The questions and the answers follow.
1. Book, chapter and verse where the church is commanded to build a meeting house.
Answer: There is no command to the church either local or general to build a meeting house. The local church is commanded to meet. There must be a place to meet. It may be under a shade tree, in the open, in a rented place or one purchased. The meeting house is not commanded. It is merely an expedient in carrying out the command to meet. It is scriptural to build a meeting house because it comes within the realm of that which is lawful. If there were no command to meet, there would be no authority for the meeting house. The expedient (meeting house) is authorized by the command to meet. How can a Bible student of 50 years, "be a master (?) in Israel and know not these things?"
2. Book, chapter and verse for employing a preacher full time at stipulated salary.
Answer: How does a preacher draw a salary without it being stipulated? If he is given the Sunday morning contribution isn't that stipulated? The N.T. teaches Christians to support those who labor in the gospel. This may be done by individuals or churches. (Gal. 6:6; 2 Cor. 11:8)
This support may be stipulated or not. The thing that is required is that he be supported. The Lord did not stipulate the amount. Had He done so how would the preacher ever get a raise! — that is in salary! I am opposed to some stipulated salaries.
3. Book, chapter and verse for building and maintaining a house for the preacher.
Answer: I Cor. 9:14; 2 Cor. 11:3. The preacher is to be supported, the Lord being my witness, and some brethren to the contrary. In supporting the preacher the church may include enough in his support so that he may rent, build, or buy his own house, or the church may furnish one. There is Bible for the church supporting a preacher and building a preacher a house, but where is the law for the church to care for the world's needy?
4. Book, chapter and verse for dividing the congregation into age groups for Bible study on the Lord's day.
Answer: The same verse that authorizes the dividing of these same groups into class studies on Monday etc., authorizes it on Sunday. As surely as we can teach an age group in a home on Monday, so we can teach that same group on Sunday in our own house or the church house. The verse that authorizes, Mt. 28:19.
5. Book, chapter and verse for singing a song of invitation at the close of the sermon.
Answer: The same verse that authorizes any singing, authorizes the invitation song, as well as the opening song and a closing song. All three songs have a purpose. The invitation song calls in the sinner, the opening song calls in the "firebugs" or smokers, and the closing song gets the sleepers ready to go home.
6. Book, chapter and verse for passing the collection plate.
Answer: We don't pass the collection plate at the church here. It passes us. It passes by some real fast. Others make passes at it. The Bible commands us to lay by in store. (I Cor. 16:1-2) We must do this. We can't do it without some way to do it. The command to give authorizes the way, just as the command to meet authorizes the place. Now if the good brother will find where the church is commanded to care for world's needy, then we will talk about the place for that. Let's have the law first, then the expedient.
7. Book, chapter and verse for using literature put out by man in the classes on Lord's day.
Answer: Mt. 28:18. We are to teach. We may use a tract, blackboard a chart, or the Gospel Guardian. All of these are merely fulfilling the command to teach. When we use these or similar helps we have added nothing to the command, "teach." But may we form a human organization through which we are to teach?
8. Book, chapter and verse for buying and using song books.
Answer: Eph. 5:19. I can't sing without a song, and not always with one. We must have a song in order to "speak in songs." This song may be written on a freshly laundered french cuff, the editorial page of the Guardian or in a hymn book such as published by the Advocate.
9. Book, chapter and verse where a preacher went to different congregations soliciting money to guarantee his salary before going to mission fields.
Answer: Our Lord advised us before building a tower to count the cost. Paul Asks about a "soldier serving at his own charges." In I Cor. 9:14, the Lord ordained the support of the preacher. He may arrange for his support before going to the "mission" fields or to the next city. Churches may have fellowship in the work of preaching. 2 Cor. 11:8. Besides is not the preacher to take steps to provide for his own as well as others? I Tim. 5:8. Or does this passage mean that all can arrange for their money but the preacher?
10. Book, chapter and verse where the elders are authorized to oversee anything but the congregation of which they are members.
Answer: You've got me. There is no scripture for this. The scriptures limit the work of elders, as such, to the "flock of God which among them." 1 Pet. 6:1-4. However, you may write the brotherhood elders at Highland Ave. Church in Abilene, Texas. They practice such. Maybe some of those "boys," can give you what they have never produced yet — the scriptures authorizing such.
11. When Paul described the widow that the church care for, which church did he refer to?
Answer: The question is not clear. I guess he means the widow the church is to care for. He refers to the local church. The church never cared for any widows except those who were saints.
12. When James said to go visit the widows and orphans, how did he say to do it?
Answer: He didn't. James here (1:27) tells individual Christians to visit the fatherless and widows. This is the work they are to do in practicing pure and undefiled religion. How individual Christians are to do this work is not set forth. There is no authority for the church to do this. Incidentally, how do you explain the contradiction you have made between Paul and James. In one question you ask about the widow the church could care for, implying that there are only certain ones the church may care for, and yet turn right around and apply James 1:27 to the church and take away every restriction Paul gave. Why did Paul restrict the church in caring for certain ones, if the church may care for any widow?
The writer then states: "Now I do not oppose any of the things mentioned above but if those things are according to New Testament Principles, why raise a fuss about building and maintaining a home for orphans and widow?" He implies that an orphan home separate and apart from the church — a human organization entirely — rests upon the same principles as the Bible classes on Sunday morning, the preachers house, and the songbook. In this he is wrong. He would oppose a human organization arranging the Bible classes, yet endorses another which rests upon the same basis. What Bible has he studied these fifty years? There is a command to sing, and a command to teach, and these authorize the expedients, but where is the command to the church to care for the world's needy?
I hope the foregoing may be helpful to our brother. If he sincerely, desires more information I will be happy to try and supply it. Some of us "boys" know a few of the answers. And if he thinks this article to be a little on the light side here and there, I am sure he will excuse it for we all know that "boys will be boys!"