Two Indispensable Conditions
Chapter III
1. Conditions Stated.
No church can send scripturally a donation to another church, except under two conditions:
a. The receiving church must be in "want"; it must be an object of charity.
b. The donation must be for a work that peculiarly is the work of the receiving church; for a work of ministration and benefit to the poor members of the receiving . church, which the receiving church is not able financially to perform; for a work to which the receiving church sustains a relationship that no other church sustains.
Both of these conditions obtained in every New Testament example of a church's sending a donation to another church; there is no exception.
2. Proof Texts.
a. Acts 11:27-30. "Now in these days there came prophets down from Jerusalem unto Antioch. And there stood up one of them named Agabus, and signified by the Spirit that there should be a great famine over all the world: which came to pass in the days of Claudius. And the disciples, every man according to his ability, determined to send relief unto the brethren that dwelt in Judea which also they did, sending it to the elders by the hand of Barnabas and Saul."
Both of the necessary conditions prevailed here: (1) a famine reduced "the brethren that dwelt in Judea" to "want"; (2) the money was sent for the "relief" of the Judean brethren — for a work of ministration which the receiving churches were not able to render to their own members.
Though this passage does not state specifically that the church at Antioch sent the relief (it only says that the "disciples, every man according to his ability, determined to send relief"), yet the following quotations do show that churches as such did send when the two indispensable conditions existed.
b. I Corinthians 16:1-4. "Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I gave order to the churches of Galatia, so also do ye. Upon the first day of the week let each one of you lay by him in store, as he may prosper, that no collections be made when I come. And when I arrive, whomsoever ye shall approve, them will I send with letters to carry your bounty unto Jerusalem: and if it be meet for me to go also, they shall go with me."
Here, the contributions were from churches to a church. And the donations were sent under the two required conditions: (1) the church in Jerusalem was an object of charity; (2) the money was for the benefit of the poor members in the receiving church; for a work of ministration within a poor church, and never for the work of general evangelization.
c. 2 Corinthians 8:1-3. "Moreover brethren, we make known to you the grace of God which hath been given in the church of Macedonia; how that in much proof of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality. For according to their power, I bear witness, yea and beyond their power, they gave of their own accord."
The same conditions existed here as in 1 Corinthians16:1-4. The churches of Macedonia were poor, but they were not objects of charity, like Jerusalem; they had "power" to give, and they gave "according to their power"; Jerusalem, the receiving church, had no "power" to give.
d. 2 Corinthians 8:13-15 shows that both conditions existed, and the design of the charity to Jerusalem is stated clearly; "that there may be equality."
e. 2 Corinthians 9:12-13 states that the gifts to the Jerusalem church were to fill "up the measure of the wants of the saints" — not for evangelization, a work assigned to all churches.
f. In Romans 15:25-27 Paul states twice that these donations are for the poor saints in a destitute church.
3. Illustrated By Baptism.
a. Baptism; prerequisites and design.
The examples of conversion in The Acts reveal clearly that faith, repentance and confession are prerequisites of baptism. No person can be baptized scripturally, except under these three conditions, because the scriptures contain no command, no example, no necessary inference to justify baptism in the absence of these three prerequisites.
The specified design of baptism is "for the remission of sins." (Acts 2:38.) When a person is baptized "for the remission of sins," many additional blessings are bestowed upon the new-born babe in Christ, and much good is accomplished in addition to the specified purpose; but that does not prove that a person scripturally can be baptized in the absence of the appointed design, "for the remission of sins," or where there are no sins to be remitted.
d. Donations from a church to a church; prerequisites and the design of donations from a church to a church: "For I say not this that others may be eased and ye distressed; but by equality: your abundance being a supply at this present time for their want, that their abundance also may become a supply for your want; that there may be equality: as it is written, He that gathered much had nothing over; and he that gathered little had no lack."
This passage makes the two prerequisites indispensable in the contribution from a church to a church: (1) the receiving church was in "want"; (2) the gifts were for a work of benevolence for the poor members in the receiving church, which the receiving church was not able to perform without aid from sister congregations. Therefore no church can send scripturally a donation to another church, except under these two conditions, because the scriptures contain no command, no example, no necessary inference to justify such contributions in the absence of these divinely appointed prerequisites.
If the specified prerequisites are indispensable in the act of baptism, why would not the specified prerequisites be indispensable also in the practice of donations from a church to a church?
The specified design in a church's sending a contribution to a church is "that there may be equality." (2 Cor. 8:14.) In this verse, Paul explains what he means by the word, "equality." He says, "But by equality: your abundance .... at this present time for their want; that their abundance also may become . . . . for your want; that there may be equality." Nothing has been omitted in this quotation, except the interpolations of the translators; and with the interpolations removed, every student should be able to see clearly that Paul means mutual freedom from want in his use of the word "equality."
When many churches sent contributions to the poor church in Jerusalem "that there may be equality," many blessings were received and much good was accomplished in addition to the specified design; but that no more proves that a church may send scripturally a donation to another church in the absence of the divine design — mutual freedom from want — than the reception of other blessings proves that a person may be baptized scripturally in the absence of the divine design — "for the remission of sins."
4. Reason For Prerequisites And Design.
The reason for these prerequisites and design in churches' sending contributions to another church is as clear as the noon-day sun. If these divine restrictions had been respected and observed, if no church had sent any of its resources to another church, except when the receiving church was an object of charity, and "that there may be equality," Romanism would have been impossible; because the centralization of control of church resources is the very foundation and essence of Romanism.
If these prerequisites and this design are not respected and observed to the letter, then the flood gates are thrown wide open to centralized control of church resources by any group of elders who, through either ignorance or egotism, may want to manage more than God intended for any one eldership to manage; then the development of another hierarchy can be measured daily by the degree of their success in this ungodly practice. And he who cannot see that this is true has never studied the history of "the falling away" to any profit at all.