Societies And Institutions
This is the fourth and final article in a series in which we have been studying the background of the missionary societies and contrasting that with the things that are now being encouraged and promoted among the churches of Christ. Let us summarize and conclude:
1. We began by noticing the two divergent points of views of Campbell and Lipscomb, Campbell wanting a central agency through which the churches could work while Lipscomb urged congregational independence.
2. We traced the development of the Campbell point of view as it led to the creating of the American Missionary Society. We gave the first 62 years of history of the A.C.M.S. showing it to be ineffective in mission work, but very effective in "mothering" departures from the faith and eventually led into rank modernism. The thinking of the A.C.M.S. adherents confused the realm of church work with family responsibility and individual enterprise.
3. We showed the church has two primary works — preaching the gospel to the lost and edifying the body of Christ — and that no other agency on earth has this responsibility, nor can it be delegated to any human agency.
4. We showed that benevolent work is a secondary and temporary work of the church; secondary because it is primarily a family responsibility (including kinfolk of the needy family, 1 Tim. 5). We noticed that benevolent work, not being primarily church work, may be done by the government, Red Cross, the neighbors. The church is to help only in certain cases, the nature and extent of which help is to be determined by the existing need, which will vary from season to season and place to place.
5. We showed that there are many "good works" (doctor, dentist, embalmer, etc.) that are not the work of the church; that a failure of brethren in distinguishing between what. IS and what is NOT the work of the church has always given rise to departures; we illustrated with but one example, hospitals, and showed the church is utterly incapable of meeting the world's needs in this one field, to say nothing of all other worthy endeavors in the field of business and individual enterprise. Below we list in separate columns the works proposed by the A.C.M.S. and her sister "societies" and the "works" proposed by some of the brethren today. (We believe that both the A.C.M.S. and these brethren mean to do good, even to do good on a larger scale than is being done.)
Works Proposed By The A.C.M.S. And Sister Societies
1. Mission work — to be done through a central agency, the A.C.M.S.
2. Educational work — to be done through the C.W.B. M. or the F.C.M.S.
3. Medical work — to be done through a central agency, the C.W.B.M. or the F.C.M.S.
4. Literary work — books, magazines, etc., to be printed, the costs paid by churches donating to the C.W.B.M., the F.C.M.S, or A.C.M.S 5. Industrial — To be done through the C.W.B.M.
6. Benevolent work — to be done by the churches through the Nat. Ben. Assn.
7. Financial loans — To be made through a central lending agency for the various churches, the Board of The Church Extension.
Works Proposed By Institutional-Minded Brethren Today
1. Mission work — to be done through a central agency, one man (the late Don Carlos Janes setup) or one eldership agency.
2. Educational work — to be done by schools and colleges and supported by churches putting these schools into their budget, or by sending money to a central eldership to be forwarded to some school somewhere on earth.
3. Medical — Clamor for hospitals, medical missionaries, nurses, to be sup ported by the churches in America.
4. Literary — Any private publisher who asks for church "donations" to his private enterprise. (Of course, the church may buy his literature.)
5. Industrial — Farms, dairies and business enterprises, bought and maintained by church funds, administered by a central agency for the churches.
6. Benevolent — Institutions established by individual Christians to care for the needy, which ask the churches to support their enterprise by donations to be sent to some central agency.
7. Loans — Churches buying war bonds, loaning money to a "mission" church instead of giving to such worthy cases. (Banking business.)
If God had intended the church to engage in all the works above mentioned he would have included in an elder's qualifications such things to enable him to properly oversee these works — banking, medical, educational (secular). Since he did not qualify an elder for such work it is certain God never intended for him to do such work. And even if an elder is an undertaker or a doctor and could well see after such work, it is still NOT the work of the church. We pray these articles will have caused some brethren to restudy apostolic teaching and practice; to be warned by the apostasy and to see where the A.C.M.S. attitude can lead. Study! Decide! Practice!