Category: Institutionalism

At times, saints of old were guilty of “running ahead of God,” that is, they presumed to know the will of God and put forth human efforts to help accomplish His will. The results were always bad. We can be guilty of doing the same thing – as individuals and collectively as the church.

In 2006 the small group wearing the moniker “Spring Church of Christ” in Spring, Texas hosted their annual “Contending For the Faith Lectureship.” In that year the topic under consideration was “Anti-ism—From God Or Man?” In conjunction with the lectureship series, a lecture book was printed to help further the spread of their intended message. What will follow is a series of articles reviewing portions of that lecture book.

Some conservative preachers have moved freely between conservative and liberal churches, even having institutional preachers in for gospel meetings because it’s “different” in Europe than in the U.S. Non-institutional churches in the U.S. have financially supported so-called “conservative” preachers who labor in Europe who practice such blurring of lines as we have described in the preceding sentence because ‘it is not the same over there; they have not divided over these issues.’

We must have the authorization of our Lord before doing anything as his servants. Jesus said, “If you love Me, keep My commandments” (John 14:15).

Any departure from the Biblical pattern is serious. As we have maintained from the beginning, the scripture must be appealed to for any practice. If there is no Bible pattern for a practice, it must be rejected. The practice of Institutionalism in churches of Christ is divisive, and without Biblical authority. As with any religious error, the practice must be halted, and the adherents must repent to be accepted of God.

A generation reared on spiritual junk food is growing up, facing decisions of morality without moral foundation and preparing to take the lead in churches which they will surely continue to transform into just another worthless, destructive denomination. Once you have sown the wind, it is hard to stop the whirlwind. The time has come to get back to the Bible, or better, catch up to it. Before it is too late.

We must strive always to speak as the oracles of God (1 Peter 4:11). We must not employ tactics to grow that are beyond or short of the New Testament’s teaching. The only way to come out of error is to realize what it is. Studying the Bible, as did the Bereans (Acts 17:10-11), is what brought me away from Liberalism.

While division is ugly and undesirable it is a reality. We dare not try to circumvent it by promoting a unity-in-diversity doctrine. We must continue to sound forth the pure word of God with love and patience but without apology, and those whom God calls will unite with His word and His people.

It is a relatively simple thing to demonstrate that the scriptural work of the church is spiritual and not recreational, and that the word fellowship in the New Testament is a spiritual relationship and not banqueting or basketball.

Does the Bible really teach that there is no difference between the church and the individual? Where does such reasoning lead? Our study of this matter seeks to both answer these questions and introduce helpful facts relevant to this discussion.

If the benevolent societies among us are mere expedients, will someone prove it by measuring them by the scriptural qualifications set forth by Paul? If they can be harmonized with such qualifications some one should do it, if not they should be renounced in the interest of unity among God’s people.

The ship of Zion has floundered more than once on the sand-bar of institutionalism. The tendency to organize is characteristic of the age.

Have you been following God’s pattern (Matthew 7:13-14)?? By refusing to follow the pattern we can read about in the New Testament, we are refusing God and turning our backs on Heaven (John 14:1-3). Let us remember that we glorify God and Christ when we lovingly follow the pattern that has been laid out for us in the Bible. Think about it!!!

May we resolve to learn how to discern God’s will from the apostles and, having learned it, be content to practice it.

God has specified the organization of the church as definitely as he has specified the kind of music that we are to use in his praise and the elements of the Lord’s table. And for the church to build any other organization is to go beyond divine arrangements and divine authority.

The institutional digression is still with us. Too many are ignorant of it. Too few can defend the truth against its evils. We pray that you may be reminded or enlightened as to the issues and the evils of this apostasy. Lest we forget, “…let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.” (1 Corinthians 10:12).

When we do something and do it right, God is glorified, we are edified and the lost are justified. It is of very little importance if some digressive brethren invent an unscriptural project and then label us as “do-nothing” because we don’t participate. We have enough to do with what the Lord gave us and have no time to come down to the “plains of Ono” to complicate matters.

The church needs to address the needs of man, and be an agency of change to benefit mankind. And it can and will do so as long as it fulfills the call of God to preach the Word. The power is the gospel, and it alone is “relevant” to the eternal needs of sinful man.

The purpose of this address is to examine the New Testament record and see how New Testament churches conducted missionary work or the work of evangelizing the world. We shall see that, in the execution of their divine commission, the matter of supervision, management and control was in the local churches, where God himself placed it, and was never transferred to a general board. The authority divinely invested in the local church was everywhere strictly respected, which effectually blocked the way against the entanglements which have always marked the history of general ecclesiastical organizations in religion.

Note how that in nearly every generation issues have arisen and often have reoccurred. So, repeated teaching is necessary for each generation, in order to avoid falling victim to apostasies. All of these “neo”, or new, movements, and doctrines, reflected the rebellion of men against established authority, and opened the door for more and greater departures from the apostolic order of things. Many in the brotherhood are fast on the road to classic modernism.