Sin Of Division
James A. Allen, Nashville, Tennessee
Jesus prayed for the oneness of his disciples. "Neither for these only do I pray, but for them also that believe on me through their word: that they may all be one: even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou didst send me." (John 17:20-21) People are made believers in Jesus "through their word." They are one by adhering to "their word." The Word of God is perfect. It covers everything. Anything it does not cover is unauthorized and sinful. As long as people practice what the Word of God commands they cannot be divided. The man who departs from the Word of God by introducing something for which it gives neither precept, nor example, is the man who causes the division. The man who opposes the departure is not the man responsible for the sin of division. To oppose the departure is to contend for unity.
"Now I beseech you, brethren, through the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfected together in the same mind and in the same judgment." (1 Cor. 1:10) There can be no division among people who adhere to the Word of God. Wherever there are disciples of Jesus, in any part of the world, of any race or language, they are in perfect unity with all other disciples, though unknown personally to them, as long as all of them adhere to the Word of God. They speak the same thing, think the same thing, and are of the same mind and of the same judgment. Not until someone starts something for which there is neither precept, nor example, in the Word of God can there be division. The man who starts such a thing causes the division, not those who oppose it.
It seems to me that B. C. Goodpasture and Athens Clay Pullias are heading a movement to divide the churches of Christ over orphan homes. It is a terrible, horrible thing. Brother Goodpasture finds himself in control of the century-old, wealthy, powerful Gospel Advocate, and is using its colossal influence over the churches to promote this wicked, sinful division. Brother Pullias finds himself at the head of David Lipscomb College and is using its immense prestige and influence over the churches in the same abhorrent effort.
They, and those they lead, are trying to drive from the churches all who believe that the churches today, like the New Testament churches, should each one provide for its own orphans, and that it is a shame to ship them off to a far-away, big, general institution. They ostracize, black-list, slander, falsely misrepresent, and ridicule everyone who believes that God's people should do their good works through God's church. If a man is preaching for a church, they intrude into the business of that church and try to have him dismissed. If he is engaged to hold a meeting for some church, they intrude into the business of that church and try to have his meeting cancelled. They circulate false rumors about him. They say he is "anti" and that he is a trouble-maker and that he divides churches. When investigation is made, and the rumors proven to be false, do they correct their falsehoods? Certainly not! They ignore the correction in bitter, contemptuous silence. Are those who practice such things living the Christian life? Or is their design prestige and money?
Pullias and Goodpasture know that they cannot sustain their plea for any human institution, such as an orphan home, to take over the work of the local church. They know that they cannot point to either precept, or example, from the apostles. This settles it with all who want to be guided by the Bible. To promote the introduction of anything that is without precept, or example, from the apostles is to give up "the Bible, and the Bible alone," as the all-sufficient and alone-sufficient Guide. No one is guided by the Bible when he preaches something that is not in the Bible. No one can claim that "Where the Bible speaks, he speaks, and where the Bible is silent, he is silent," when he is pushing something on the churches that is not in the Bible. When he presses something for which he cannot show book, chapter and verse, he is estopped from claiming that he is obeying the divine injunction, "Preach the word." The only way to have divine assurance of being acceptable to God is to adhere faithfully to the things for which there is a "Thus saith the Lord, either in an apostolic precept, or in an apostolic example." Anyone who advocates a thing not in the Bible, as these brethren are doing, gives up "the Bible, and the Bible alone" as his alone-sufficient and all-sufficient Guide.
That they themselves realize that they have no Bible authority, or Bible guidance, for what they are trying to promote is evident from the erroneous assumption upon which they present it. Brother Pullias preaches on, "Where There Is No Pattern." What a mockery of Bible preaching! Certainly, "where there is no pattern," there can be no faith. There can be no faith except where God speaks. "So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God." (Rom. 10:17) To do things as service to God that God does not command is sin. "For whatsoever is not of faith is sin." (Rom. 14:23) The local congregation is the only religious institution that can be established "by faith." Preaching the Word of God will not establish anything else. God, in his wisdom, has made the local congregation all-sufficient and alone-sufficient to do every good work.
The promoters of the orphan homes realize that they are promoting an unauthorized thing. Their false assumption is, "that God has commanded us to do a thing, but has not told us how to do it, and that, therefore, we may do it any way our human wisdom suggests." All this is a slander on the fulness, completeness, perfection and all sufficiency of the Word of God and "the apostles' teaching."
Pullias, knowing such false teaching cannot be sustained, is using the terrible influence of David Lipscomb College over the churches to put the orphan home into their budgets. He is trying to persuade them to put a new restrictive clause into the deeds to their church property. This new restrictive clause would prohibit any man, even though he helped build the church-house, from worshipping God in that house if he is opposed to that church giving its money to an orphan asylum. And this sort of wickedness can be published in Goodpasture's Gospel Advocate, but it cannot publish that the only benevolent institution the apostles established is the local church.
To establish one human institution to do any part of the work of the church leads to establishing other human institutions to do other parts of its work. This would reduce the church to a mere money-raising body and turn all its functions over to human institutions. It would be the "Christian Colleges" to teach the Word of God, the Orphan Homes, the Old Peoples' Homes, et al, to do the benevolent work of the church, with the church to support them. The promoters would thus enter into the big-beggar's paradise. Then the logical consummation would be, if the church can function through human institutions in teaching, and in its benevolent work, why cannot a human institution be established to raise the money? Then there would be no reason whatever for the church to exist. All of its functions and work would be taken over by the human institutions. There would not be a thought of pleasing God and doing His will. The Bible could not be the Guide. The whole scheme is from the Devil and is devised by the Devil to turn people away from the Word of God. The Devil wants people to be religious and be prominent in church circles. If he can get them to give up the Word of God as their guide, if he can get them to do one thing for which the apostles do not give the precept, or set the example, and that, therefore, cannot be done "by faith," then they commit sin and the Devil wins.
The worldly, fleshly fascination of begging and love of money permeates the whole vicious scheme. Big begging!! Begging is the biggest business in the world. Dupont and U. S. Steel are infants compared to it. It has more net profit than any other business. Big beggars cannot be satisfied. Like an animal getting a taste of blood, the easy money makes them ravenous. One million calls for two million, then three, then four, then five, there is no end until it comes to a dead halt in hell.
Do "our" big-begging human institutions ever publish a financial statement? I have never seen one. Christians, business men in the church, have tried to get a financial statement. All they received was a reply that they do not furnish financial statements. They all have papers, publications of their own, and make a show of publishing their "monthly receipts." But do they give a true statement of their assets and worth, how much real estate they own, how many stocks, bonds, mortgages, moneys out on interest, goods, chattels, etc., etc., they own? If they published a true, financial statement, the big-begging might turn into a fiasco.
When a body of people that has no creed but the Bible cuts loose from the Bible, they have nothing to hold them in check and are in a worse shape than man-started churches that have their human creeds to hold them in check. When churches of Christ, who have no councils, synods, general conferences, or general conventions, begin to start anything other than local churches, they are the defenseless prey of any ambitious promoter who takes it into his head to start big-begging. It could not happen in the man-started churches. Their human institutions are audited and have to give an account to the Conference, Council or General Hierarchy. But when people once stand on the Bible as their Guide, and then leave it by introducing something not in the Bible, they are headed down, down, with nothing to stop them this side of Perdition.