Jakim And Kareah -- No. 4
(This is the fourth in a series of articles on imaginary conversations between two Christians who lived immediately following the days of the apostles. The fact that references are made to inventions which did not then exist will not, I think, detract from principles involved. — TBW)
KAREAH: Well, well, my good friend and brother from Jerusalem! How are you, Jakim, and what brings you to Thyatira? I don't believe that you have ever visited our humble city before.
JAKIM: Hello, Brother Kareah: it is good to see you! Yes, this is my first visit to Thyatira, and I am here only because of a very important mission upon which the elders at home have sent me.
KAREAH: It must be an important mission to bring you to a city so far from Jerusalem. Pray inform me of your "mission."
JAKIM: I would like to have an audience with the elders here. We have a great opportunity up at Jerusalem.
KAREAH: Well, why don't you go ahead and take advantage of it? Why come down here to us?
KAREAH: Because it is too big for us!
KAREAH: Well, I would suggest that you leave it alone then. The church here needs its funds to fulfill its own obligations.
JAKIM: I was afraid that would be your attitude. I have noted that you are always critical of the plans that really get something done.
KAREAH: I am afraid that you misunderstand me: I am for every plan that "gets things done" IF these plans are according to God's will. But I certainly do oppose any scheme which "ties up" the brotherhood with one eldership.
JAKIM: You are just quibbling! This opportunity is too great to sit around quibbling about incidentals while one hundred and seventy souls die every hour!
KAREAH: No opportunity is so great that we can forsake the Lord's way! You must remember that we must not only do what God says, but we must do it in the way He says to do it. God is interested in the how as well as the what!
JAKIM: Oh, Kareah, you make me tired.
KAREAH: Nadab and Abihu would probably have said the same thing.
JAKIM: But you do not understand! This opportunity is too great to let pass. We have an opportunity to sign a contract to preach the gospel over almost every radio and television station in the entire Roman Empire! Surely you cannot love the souls of lost men and quibble about incidentals while they are dying without Christ.
KAREAH: Your appeal about the lost is very touching to me, because I am just as interested in the lost as you are.
JAKIM: But you cannot be: I am for this scheme and you are against it.
KAREAH: There is another point against these big schemes. Their "daddies" always measure the zeal of another by whether he is for or against their scheme. And they will even count neutrality as opposition. But we must not allow our zeal to become misguided and cause us to leave the pattern of how congregations of the Lord's church are to do the work which He has given them to do.
JAKIM: Oh, I assure you that this work will be entirely scriptural since it will be under the oversight of the elders of the congregation at Jerusalem.
KAREAH: Just because a work is under the oversight of a group of elders does not necessarily prove that it is scriptural. Elders can make mistakes as well as anyone else. By the way, what is this project to cost?
JAKIM: Oh, not so much. Only a million and four hundred thousand drachma.
KAREAH: Only this much you say! But a moment ago you were speaking of it being a great sum.
JAKIM: Oh, it would be great for us at Jerusalem, but it will not be for the entire brotherhood.
KAREAH: Then you expect the brotherhood to furnish the money for this plan?
JAKIM: Yes, that is right.
KAREAH: Then it is a brotherhood activity. My misgivings had plenty of ground then; you are trying to get up a brotherhood work!
JAKIM: Oh, no! It is our work. It is the work of the Jerusalem congregation and only our work.
KAREAH: You mean it is not the work of the contributing congregations in any sense?
JAKIM: Absolutely not! It is our work I tell you! If the churches want to help us by contributing to it, that is fine, but it is not in any sense their work.
KAREAH: But won't the contributing churches think that it is, at least in some sense, their work. If you make it clear to them that it is not in any sense their work, I doubt if you could get a handful to help you with it. They are not going to give 5000 drachma a year to do nothing.
JAKIM: Oh, they will give all right. Most congregations, preachers, and elders realize that they will be classified, at least in the minds of progressive brethren, as rather "anti-missionary" if they do not help. And, by the way, it is hardly likely that preachers who ask questions such as the ones you are asking will be asked to speak on our annual lectureship up at Jerusalem, and you know what that means to a preacher.
KAREAH: Yes, I know, but, nevertheless, I must forego such a blessed privilege if it means that I must support a "brotherhood" activity, one that ties up the brotherhood with one eldership. I know that many who would not submit to mere "pressure" will help you with this only because they believe that it is the right thing for them to do. I certainly would not presume to impugn the motive of any who help, but I just cannot see my own way clear to endorse what you are planning. But I would like, in the light of your statement that it is the work of the Jerusalem congregation alone and not in any sense the work of the contributing congregations, to ask another question. Here it is: what happened to what the contributing congregations did? Did it just vanish into thin air?
JAKIM: Oh, there is perhaps some "little" sense in which it is the work of the contributing congregation.
KAREAH: If so, do you not have "the universal church" at work?
JAKIM: Well, didn't Paul have a great number of churches sending money to Jerusalem awhile back?
KAREAH: It was a far cry from what you brethren are planning.
JAKIM: What do you mean?
KAREAH: I simply mean that none of the apostles ever tried to get the entire brotherhood "tied up" in one big scheme on a permanent basis as you brethren are planning. Why not let each congregation put on its own radio and television program?
JAKIM: I am amazed at you, Kareah! You know that we will NEVER get the job done by letting each congregation have its own program. This way we get it so much cheaper and we have a better quality program. Besides a network program will attract the attention of the world.
KAREAH: Your words manifest a lack of faith in the way God planned the church. You seem to feel that a "combination" of churches is a much wiser way than having each congregation independent.
JAKIM: Of course, I believe God's way is best. But I tell you we will never get the gospel to Cyrene without this program.
KAREAH: Well, it was taken to all of the known world in the days of the apostles. Why can't it continue to be done in just the way they did it? We are just one generation away from them. Why can't we do it?
JAKIM: Because we live in a changing world, and we must change to fit the changing times.
KAREAH: But I have always believed that the gospel is designed for all situations. If we will follow the plan followed by the apostles — which certainly did not involve "the universal church" at work — we will get the job done. May I appeal to you to recognize that you brethren at Jerusalem owe it to us — you have an obligation to us — to leave our funds out of your planning, except in cases of emergency! By the way, there is another question I would like to ask you. Since you say this will be the work of the Jerusalem and the Jerusalem congregation alone, is the money which is contributed your money alone?
JAKIM: Yes, it is ours alone!
KAREAH: What if the elders at Jerusalem, after they had received one million and four hundred thousand drachma, decided that it would be better to put the money into tracts, would they have to ask the elders of all of the contributing congregations if they could use the money for that instead of radio and television, or could they make the change without asking? If they had to ask, would that put the elders at Jerusalem under the oversight of the elders of a combination of churches?
JAKIM: I guess it would if they had to do it, but they do not! I told you that the money becomes the property of the Jerusalem congregation and so its elders could do with the money whatever they felt to be best.
KAREAH: Do you mean to tell me that the elders at Jerusalem can solicit funds from every congregation in the brotherhood for ONE purpose and then use that money for ANOTHER purpose?
JAKIM: Certainly!
KAREAH: Why that would be getting money under false pretenses wouldn't it? Perhaps I do not understand Caesar's law, but I believe that the postal laws of the Roman Empire would forbid your soliciting funds for one purpose and then using them for another.
JAKIM: Well, perhaps I do not mean that just the way I said it. Perhaps they WOULD have to ask the contributing elders.
KAREAH: But then wouldn't they be under the oversight of the elders of the contributing congregations?
JAKIM: Well — er — I guess so. I tell you, Kareah, some of these questions are new to me. Perhaps I had better have some time to study them over.
KAREAH: Such appears to be the case. But it seems to me that you should have studied this all out before you went before the entire brotherhood to solicit its funds and set yourselves up as a sort of radio, television "headquarters" of the churches of Christ.