Begging From The Gentiles
In the past age of the world God chose the nation of Israel to be His people — a peculiar people — above all the nations of the earth. (Dent. 14:1, 2.) They were often called "Israelites," or simply "Israel," and were sometimes knows as "Jews." These names distinguished them from other nations known as "Gentiles." The names were used to point out fleshly distinctions. All who were not "of Israel" (Rom. 9:8-6) were "Gentiles in the flesh." (Eph. 2:11.) Men were either God's children — Israel or Jews — to whom God gave the law and the promises, or they were aliens — Gentiles — having no hope, and without God in the world.
But in the New Testament dispensation the words not only have a fleshly signification, as used by divine writers, but they came also to have a spiritual application to men. All who "by faith" were "baptized into Christ" became "Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise" (Gal. 3:26-29), even though many of them have been "Gentiles in the flesh." Fleshly lines were no longer of any value, but both Jews and Gentiles became one in Christ. It was in him that men became "new creatures." (2 Cor. 5:17.) And these "new creatures," whether made up of the circumcision or the uncircumcision, of fleshly Jews or fleshly Gentiles, became spiritually the "Israel of God, as Paul in Galatians 6:16 declares: "And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God." In contrast with this, those who did not obey the gospel of Christ, were sometimes, from the spiritual point of view, referred to as Gentiles, even though they might have included fleshly Jews. It was such a use that Peter made of the term when he said: "Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation." (1 Peter 2:12.)
Evidently with this spiritual use of the term in mind the apostle John wrote the following: "Beloved, thou doest faithfully whatsoever thou doest to the brethren, and to strangers; which have borne witness of thy charity before the church: whom if thou bring forward on their journey after a godly sort, thou shalt do well: because that for his name's sake they went forth, taking nothing of the Gentiles. We therefore ought to receive such, that we might be fellowhelpers to the truth." (2 John 5-8.) Since men of God in the first century went forth in the name of the Lord, "taking nothing of the Gentiles," we can well understand why John stated that the children of God should "be fellowhelpers to the truth." The Lord expected his people to support his work. It was their responsibility. They could and did carry on the Lord's work without appealing "to the Gentiles," to those on the outside of the church, to furnish the material assistance to make possible the accomplishment of the work of the Lord.
The church of the Lord in the twentieth century has often been commended for following the same course. Often denominations, when they have some work they wish to accomplish, as the erection of a church building or of some other program that requires the expenditure of a large amount of money, or even when the expenditure required is not great, send out a committee to solicit funds from all the merchants and business men of the city, even though ninety-five percent of them are not members of the denominations making the requests for donations. Instead of sacrificing to accomplish the work for which they are responsible, they are begging the outsiders to put up the cash. We have often criticized them for following such a course. It has been our contention that the members of the church should be expected to furnish the funds necessary for its work, and we have not solicited the outsiders — the "Gentiles" — to furnish the money to carry on the work which is our responsibility. We certainly have scriptural backing in this course, as shown in the passage already given, when Christians went forth to their work, "taking nothing of the Gentiles."
But "institutionally minded" brethren who have become so determined to build up human organizations to do the work of the church are losing respect for scriptural grounds and are becoming like the denominations around us. They are determined to get the money to finance such institutions even if they have to beg the Gentiles for it. To illustrate my point, the following quotation appeared in THE HOME VISITOR, official publication of Southern Christian Home at Morrilton, Arkansas. It was published on the front page of the issue of February, 1955. Here it is:
Strike It Rich
" 'Strike It Rich' weekly radio and television show is leaving the air. They have $1500 in bonds and merchandise accumulated. They are being liberal enough to give this amount to some deserving orphan's home.
"Do you think we are deserving? If so why don't you write them and tell them just how deserving we are. We have 150 children to feed, clothe, educate and give the other necessities of life. We have a building program in effect to build our girls a nice fireproof building. Do you think these are reasons why we should have the money?
"The address is: Strike It Rich, 485 Madison Avenue, New York 22, New York."
There you have it, brethren. The Southern Christian Home is one of "our" institutional homes, set up under an organizational Board of Directors chosen from various parts of the state of Arkansas. They tell us the work they are doing is the work of the church. Yet they are asking you and me to "beg the Gentiles" for $1,500 to assist them in their work. How much better is that than the denominations do when they beg the non-members to contribute $1,500 to help them erect a church building? It has been rumored that STRIKE IT RICH is leaving the air because of some illegal feature that has characterized it while in operation. I do not know whether there is anything to the rumor or not, but it makes little difference as far as this matter is concerned. Must we start "begging the Gentiles" to support ""our orphan homes"? If the Southern Christian Home is an individual enterprise — a work individually owned — and is not the work of the church, then let its owners and operators beg the $1,500 from STRIKE IT RICH program. They may do as they please about it. But they should not do this and then turn around and call it "the work of the church" and continue to "beg the churches" to send it the fifth Sunday contributions and all other funds they can spare. Shall I say, in the language of our departed Brother J. D. Tant, "Brethren, we are drifting"?