Devoted to the Propagation and Defense of New Testament Christianity
VOLUME 9
February 27, 1958
NUMBER 42, PAGE 3a,14b

Where Does Apostasy Stop?

Cecil Willis, Kansas City, Missouri

One the door is opened to let in one thing without Bible authority, where can one stop? When man assumes God will not object to something he wants to add, there is no stopping, place. Anything that someone else might want can just as well be added. So ultimately, the church will cease to be as God wants it, and will be transformed into the kind of institution that man wants, if this sort of thinking prevails.

About a century ago some of the brethren began gradually to go away. At first the departures were so slight that some of the brethren could see no danger in them at all. Finally, with absolutely no Biblical authority for them, mechanical instrumental music was added to the worship, and missionary societies were built in addition to the organization of the church. But these brethren, who became the Christian Church, could not stop with these two departures. The flood gate had been opened and none could turn back the tide.

In fact, no religious organization, having started down the road of apostasy, has ever turned back to reform itself. The Barry Christian Church of our city demonstrates that there is no stopping place for apostasy. In addition to their regular services, they also have "Junior church," "Tiny church," and nursery. "Junior church," includes grades 1-6; "Tiny church" includes ages 1-6; and nursery is for those under two years of age. One of their "junior deacons" serves communion "to those desiring it, in each, of the three children's groups." One can imagine that all those under two desired it! In the "Junior church" there was a sermon, "Junior Size" of course. Some of our brethren would really go for those "Junior Size" sermons!

Most of us can see the ridiculousness of such things as we have just mentioned. We ask, "Why would anyone go far?" The answer is simply that there is no logical stopping place for apostasy. Once the gate is opened to let in some things, there is then no logical reason why others of the like nature should not also be admitted. The place to stop apostasy is before it begins. No step away from the truth is too insignificant to warrant our concern. The Christian Church we have been talking about attempts to justify these things by the "expediency argument." What they failed to do was to prove these things to be scriptural, and then they could attempt to prove they were expedient. Virtually every departure in this or any other age has been defended by this now-thread-bare expediency argument. We should remember that nothing is expedient that is not first scriptural!