The Truth In Print Vol 14 Issue 8, Sept. 2008
A Publication of the Valley church of Christ
2375 W. 8th Street, Yuma, AZ 85364 (928-782-5058)
They Don’t Have A Right To Be Supported By Our Local Churches
The matter of the Truth Magazine Lectureship has come up again (Guardian Of Truth Foundation’s). I ask you to consider the following points: (1) What they cannot accept tells what they are; (2) Their use of old liberal institutional slogans tell what they are; (3) Their silly comparisons tell what they lack.
I. What They Cannot Accept Tells What They Are.
Paul spoke to the church at Corinth of the right of gospel preachers to be supported and said, “Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel” (I Cor. 9:14). Gospel preachers who labored together each individually had the right to be supported by the local church. Again Paul said, “I robbed other churches, taking wages of them, to do you service” (2 Cor. 11:8). Nowhere do we read that they were ever supported as a “group.”
Today brethren have chosen to put themselves in a Human Institution where they “know” they have no right to be supported by the local church, one or several, and we find them belaboring the point that they do not involve themselves as a Human Institution with any local church treasury. That of itself speaks volumes. Is this not clear evidence that they are not like the evangelistic efforts we read about in our New Testament? It is indeed!
And get this, sometimes they’ll claim that whereas their brethren speak of the all-sufficiency of the local church they are somehow denying them their viewpoint of the all-sufficiency of the “individual.” We aren’t denying them anything! If they want to follow the New Testament pattern just mentioned then they can be as capable and active as they have ability and energy. Paul was very effective in his sufficiency as an individual and I think that we are all aware of that!
Here is Paul’s answer concerning local church responsibility to support preachers:
1 Corinthians 9:3-14 (KJV)
3 Mine answer to them that do examine me is this,
4 Have we not power to eat and to drink?
5 Have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife, as well as other
apostles, and as the brethren of the Lord, and Cephas?
6 Or I only and Barnabas, have not we power to forbear working?
7 Who goeth a warfare
any time at his own charges? who planteth
a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock?
8 Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the same
also?
9 For it is written in the law of Moses,
Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen?
10 Or saith he it altogether for
our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope.
11 If we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great
thing if we shall reap your carnal things?
12 If others be partakers of this power over you, are
not we rather? Nevertheless we have not used this power; but suffer all things,
lest we should hinder the gospel of Christ.
13 Do ye not know that they which minister about holy things live of
the things of the temple? and they which wait at
the altar are partakers with the altar?
14 Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel
should live of the gospel.
One or more local churches could support individually Paul and any one of his faithful companions and fellow laborers, but local churches can’t support the G.O.T. “group” in their evangelistic efforts! As the ministers in the New Testament record converted lost souls and brought them into Christ’s kingdom they pointed them to God’s organization the local church (Acts 14:23, Lystra, Iconium, Antioch).
If the Human Institution is really just a group such as Paul often found himself in then why can’t the local churches support each individual preacher in the G.O.T. for their part when it desires to do the stated purposes determined and carried out by the G.O.T. foundation (group) in the work of teaching the Word and providing that along with worship? Now brethren does it really look like what they do is comparable, as some of them say, to joint activities in the Bible? Can the G.O.T. send out a statement of planned and purposed teaching of the Word, along with worship, and ask our churches for financial support in fulfilling that purpose? The very fact that they do not involve the Human Institution with the treasuries of the local churches for support in proclaiming the Gospel shows what they are — an unauthorized arrangement for teaching and worship. The local church is the pillar and support of the truth.
II. Their Use Of Old Liberal Institutional Slogans Tell What They Are.
Here we are far removed from the Institutional split and brethren of the 1950s and early 60s, and we are hearing liberal Institutional jargon such as:
1. Liberties are being denied via arguments from I Cor. and Rom. 14-15.
2. Change “factionalism” to Antis and you’ll understand their point about binding where God did not bind often being associated with conservatism, faithfulness and taking the safe route.
3. Fear of doing something wrong thus not doing anything. How many apostasies have been sustained by this kind of argument?
Does this approach sound familiar from past Institutional apostasies?
III. Their Silly Comparisons Tell What They Lack.
Silly analogies show what is lacking in respect for the authority of God’s word. Perhaps I can paraphrase one: God commanded the Ark, but don’t you think that Noah could have had other boats to do certain things with? Brethren we want you to see through our reasoned study that we are like those other boats Noah could have had. Boy! What a snow job. How many boats saved the eight souls? (cf. I Pet. 3:21) How many boats was Noah allowed to build with that “purpose” in mind? What is the “purpose” of the local church in I Tim. 3:15? Enough already.
Noah in the Old Testament with the ark and right to have other boats for other purposes. The synagogue under the Old Covenant that is not contradictory to the Temple under the Old Covenant, Jesus and His disciples with their “bag” that was not in conflict with the Temple under the Old Covenant with its “treasury,” Jesus even teaching in the synagogues and also the Temple — all come together as proof of whatever it is that they want to make it proof of. It all adds up to we’ve finally done it. We set our own stage for a human institution in evangelism and worship and that’s the way it will be. “Going onward” is rebuked in 2 John 9.
By Bob Lovelace