Our Institutions - (II.)
In a former article we pointed out the fact that our institutions are the institutions that we as men have formed, created or fashioned according to what we feel to be our own needs. And that God's institutions are those that he has ordained, and authorized in his Holy word. We must therefore keep them separate and distinct; as the one is divine, the other is human, the one is holy, the other is common.
God's institutions are co-existent with his word; time will never know the day when these can be abrogated, or abolished. Wherever human society exists upon the earth, marriage, law and order, and the church of our Lord will be in the light of his eternal word the order of the day.
We have furthermore noted the fact that our institutions have been of great value and help in the training and fashioning of the youth and training for a Christian society. We who have given a great deal of our time, talent and energy to foster and maintain these institutions, have some reason to be proud of their work, and success.
But this study must deal with other phases of the question of our institutions. Hence, we now raise a question, just how important are they? In view of the great work that they have in time past done, are they indispensable? Can we as the people of God function, and carry the banner of the cross of King Jesus, and order our lives pleasing in the sight of our Lord without our institutions? A simple answer in the light of plain Bible truth will help us to see where we stand in the sight of Heaven's King. Every Bible student knows full well that no mention is made in God's eternal word of any of our institutions of this present day. When Jesus walked upon the earth and gave us an example, with all the wisdom with which the Heavenly Father endowed him he never uttered a word or gave a single hint of our present institutions.
The New Testament written by holy men of God who spoke as the Spirit gave them utterance, never uttered a word that in any way remotely hints of our institutions.
When God up in Heaven arranged the great scheme of redemption, and dispatched his beloved son to this earth, with the help of his apostles to woo, and to love, and lead man from darkness to light, without the help of any of our human organizations, the Gospel of Christ, covered the earth in one generation. Surrounded by paganism, Phariseeism, Sadduceeism, and infidelity, the cause of truth pressed its way from the poorest of the poor to the very palaces of earth's highest domain. Tell me, my dear reader, of what value would our institutions have been in that day to Christianize the world? What do you think, could the work have been done better and quicker with them or without them?
Let the student of history hark back and take a glance at the first four or five centuries following the establishment of the church, then tell me, what brought on the apostasy, was it God's institutions or our institutions? Passing over about twelve hundred years, while the earth was shrouded in the darkest night known to this earth since the sun shined on the garden of Eden, take a careful look at the dawn of the restoration movement. What did the giants of that movement do? Did they reestablish the ancient gospel by dreaming of some of our institutions, or did they take the Bible and the Bible alone, to shake the very foundation of the denominational world? What institution is in the fore front in that mighty surge that will forever be known as the greatest movement in modern times? And lest we should forget, take another look at that great movement and note that within less than half of a century, corruption was entering the simplicity of the ancient order of things, and tell me again on what did digression and apostasy ride? Was it the plain and unadulterated word of God, or was it our institutions?
Let us face the facts and be fair and true to ourselves, to God and to all that is near and dear to us. In spite of the great good that our institutions have done in helping to build a better society, and better men and women in the church, and in all the other ways, is it possible that they could do harm to the great cause of truth, for which our Lord died? I think that it is a known fact that any good thing can be wrongfully used and abused, until it can become a dangerous and deadly weapon against the very cause which it was intended to honor and to elevate. And let this be clearly made known that if our institutions have been harmful to the cause of truth, we who foster and maintain them are to blame for the way that we have used them. The surgeon with his knife can be a great asset to society, but if he loses his sense of reason and no longer knows where and when to cut, he becomes a deadly enemy to those who have trusted him.
Some months ago I read a statement from the pen of brother Reuel Lemmons, the editor of the Firm Foundation, that I thought was full of truth and to the point, talking about our schools he said: "our schools are a very fine thing provided that nobody gets the idea that one cannot be a good Christian unless he supports them." And what goes for the schools goes for all our institutions.
Today the church of our Lord is torn asunder all over the land, churches are divided, sadness and heartaches, are being suffered all over our brotherhood and our institutions are made one of the instruments with which this is being brought about. This will go on until we who foster and maintain them learn enough to know that the devil is using us as a tool to implement his cause of destroying the work of Christ.
When we learn that our institutions are private affairs, and that we have no right to push them on any one else, individuals or the church, it will be a better day both for the church and the institutions.
But as it now stands ultimatums have been set, demands have been made, and if the other fellow does not endorse our institutions we must blacklist him; mark him, and boycott his work and service. Tag him as no good and circulate every unholy report against him that we can rake up. If that is Christianity, the devil has been a good one ever since the world began.
Such conduct is not only destroying the church of our Lord, but it is also destroying our institutions by turning the best men in the brotherhood against them. And, my brother, if you do not already know this, you are bad behind in your learning. If we can not learn the lesson, as to where our institutions belong and where they should operate, the God of Heaven would do his cause a great service, if he should with the Hydrogen bomb blow every last one of them into eternal forgetfulness, so far that they would never be heard of another time.
That may sound like a strong and rank statement but if we do not wake up and see what a mess we are making of ourselves, the devil will drag us into Hell, to stink, sizzle, burn, and fry, throughout eternity. My brother, it does not have to be that way; but don't fool yourself, if we do not quit kidding ourselves and playing like little children and letting the devil use us to serve him, we are going to learn in the judgment too late.
Any thing that causes strife and division among the people of God is bound to be the work of the devil; for God is not divided against himself. Nothing is more clearly taught in the New Testament than the fact that we are to be one in the Lord. It is time for the people of God to weep and pray over this awful state to which we have brought ourselves.