Vol. XXXVIII December 1, 2006 No 12
DON’T FALL FOR IT!
by Tom McLemore
It is one of the most effective of the devil’s wiles these days. He uses seemingly good and innocent desires (such as the desire for all of one’s family to be in worship together or the desire to worship where people act more like genuine Christians) to lead our people to compromise their convictions. We have watched these phenomena developing for years. It is a species of the genus that has produced the nondenominational churches (“Let’s worship together and agree not to mention the doctrinal points on which we differ”). It is also a variation on the theme entitled, “It doesn’t really matter what you believe, so long as you are sincere.” The variation is in the key of “It doesn’t really matter what is taught and practiced where we attend worship, so long as we are all going to church” arranged according to “We feel like we have finally found the real people of God.” But actually it is a song in a minor key which will break hearts and ruin lives when the performance is over.
There was a time when at least some New Testament Christians whose spouses and significant others were not New Testament Christians understood that they could not win them to Christ by compromising the truth. They also understood that to give in for one instant on as little as one point of scriptural faith and practice would be to lose them for Christ. They were faithful to their convictions and practiced simple and pure New Testament Christianity before their spouses and significant others no matter what. Their watchword was Peter’s exhortation: “if some of them do not obey the word, they may be won over without a word by [your] conduct” (1 Peter 3:1, adapted). They lived optimistically, as Paul taught those in a similar situation in Corinth to do: “Wife, for all you know, you might save your husband. Husband, for all you know, you might save your wife” (1 Corinthians 7:16). They understood that the only hope to win their spouses or significant others was for them inflexibly to remain true to the truth. They recognized that there is a clear distinction between the undenominational church of the Lord and denominations of men. They realized that in the case of the former, one is added by the Lord in the process of being saved by him (Acts 2:37-41, 47), and in the case of the latter, that one’s membership is a human choice of a human organization, in which membership is unrelated (by the admission of all concerned) to one’s relationship with the Lord.
That, of course, was before the days when so many who are recognized as members of the church of our Lord have come to view it as “just another denomination.” We must acknowledge that there are people on the rolls of the churches of Christ who do not believe that the only true church is the one to which the Lord adds all who enter Christ, i.e., those who are baptized into Christ as penitent believers (Acts 2:38; Romans 6:3, 4; Galatians 3:26, 27). A startling number of folks who are now recognized as having fellowship among the people of God believe that those who are members of any church that claims to be Christian are saved, even though they have not yet submitted to the commands of the gospel of Jesus Christ and thus have not yet been added by him to the number of his saved ones. Ultimately, the devil is having a field day among us because of this very misunderstanding, and that is due to our failure to teach this fundamental truth. The most urgent task is to expound the Way of God more accurately to these souls so that they may be rather well-informed about the Way (Acts 18:26; 24:22).
At the bottom of this problem may lie a fear that if we emphasize this truth, it will not be endured (cf. 2 Timothy 4:3). However, it is possible to emphasize this truth in such a way that no one legitimately can accuse the church of assuming the divine prerogative of judgment. Then, if the person reacts negatively, it will be to the truth itself, and the people of God will be blameless. We must acknowledge that too many of our people have not been blameless in this matter, BUT THIS DOES NOT MAKE THE TRUTH UNTRUE! The evil one has been very successful in getting folks to think that if people tell the truth with an unchristian attitude the truthfulness of the truth becomes untruth, or if people tell a lie with a Christian attitude the falseness of the falsehood becomes truth. And he succeeds in getting them to approach truth in religion in this manner without realizing that they would never approach truth in any other area of life in this manner.
Imagine if people could transform a lie into the truth simply by telling it with a Christian attitude! The mechanic says to the auto owner, “Sir, your car doesn’t need a transmission as you have been told by every mechanic in town.” The auto owner replies, “Well, it must be true because of the sincerity with which you told me....” A woman with cancer says, “Every doctor I have been to says I have terminal cancer.” The doctor replies, “Well, I assure you that it will not harm you.” She responds, “Doctor, I believe what you have said because I can tell that you really care about me....” Do you think these folks are naïve? Well, there are all sorts of folks who approach religious truth in just such a fashion! And some of their names are on the membership rosters of churches of Christ! (Naturally, there may be some names on these rosters which fail to appear in the pages of the Lamb’s book of life in heaven. Luke 10:20; Philippians 4:3; Hebrews 12:23; Revelation 3:5; 13:8; 17:8; 20:12; 21:27; 22:19).
No Christian should ever speak the truth of the gospel with an unchristian attitude. Rather, we should always speak the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15). However, while love covers a multitude of sins (1 Peter 4:8), all the love in the world will not make false doctrine true. Furthermore, all the lack of love in the world will not make true doctrine false.
I have spoken to several folks who have left the churches of Christ in search of churches in which the members lived more authentic Christian lives (i.e., exhibited true faith, mercy, compassion, love, dedication) and where the services stressed rejoicing, fellowship, and praise more than strict adherence to divinely prescribed procedure. We must acknowledge that God’s people ought to lead more authentic Christian lives and put more emphasis upon rejoicing, fellowship, and praise in our worship assemblies.
However, truth is truth, and that which is false is false. What is scriptural is scriptural, and what is unscriptural is unscriptural. All the possible failure and shortcomings in these areas, as well as all the possible success and improvement in these areas will not change the fact that there is absolutely no New Testament authority for mechanical instruments of music in Christian worship. Nor will it change the fact that the Lord’s people, under the guidance of the Lord and his apostles, observe the Lord’s Supper on the first day of every week. Nor will it change the fact that only Christian men lead prayer in, and rise to address, a worship assembly of Christian men and women who are guided by the Lord and his apostles. Nor will it change the fact that apostolic guidance resulted in elders and deacons’ being ordained in every church. The same may be said of many other matters clearly taught in the scriptures but denied, rejected, or altered by denominations. What this amounts to is that if we abandon these truths, even in the search for other things, even though they themselves may also be important truths, we are not improving our situation, but making it worse. In abandoning any truth of God’s word whatsoever, we are rebelling against God. In courts of law, we demand the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. The Holy Spirit guided the apostles into all truth (John 16:13). Paul “did not shrink from declaring . . . the whole purpose of God” (Acts 20:27). One who genuinely desires to please God will be satisfied with nothing short of this approach.
It is lamentable that we have fallen short in manifesting many qualities which ought to characterize us. However, there is a difference between shortcomings on which we can improve while following divine authority and out and out rebellion which will not be overlooked by God no matter how authentic our lives might seem or how much rejoicing, fellowship, and praise might characterize us! Everyone must realize that all the authentic Christian living, praise, rejoicing, and fellowship in the world will not make unscriptural practices scriptural! All the joy and contentment one may feel about all of one’s family’s being in worship together in a denominational church worshiping contrary to the teachings of Christ will not make that worship acceptable to God!
On what basis are some of our people rebelling against God’s word? Are they now seeing that God’s word does not really teach what they thought it taught on the divinely prescribed procedures for worship? No. We have not heard anyone seriously declare, “Well, what do you know! Colossians 3:16 actually says, ‘Singing with grace in your heart to the Lord to the accompaniment of an organ’ after all!” Rather, what we hear is “Just look at all the good, Christlike people who believe and practice differently. We must be wrong on this matter.” Counting heads is the approach of the enemies of Christ (John 7:48) and of those who choose the way to destruction (Matthew 7:13, 14), but it is certainly not recommended for those who would please God. We would be better served by the noble approach of those who “examined the scriptures every day to see whether these things were so” (Acts 17:11). The scriptures still communicate the truth plainly enough for any honest and good heart to see it. The most troubling thought of all is that too many of our people are thinking, “If not following the scriptures is wrong, we don’t care if we are right or not.” In other words, too many no longer embrace the sound, sane, sober, and sensible principles that always deliver people from denominationalism, and allow them to become and be New Testament Christians only, viz., the New Testament of Jesus Christ as the sole authority in religion and the determination to believe all of what it teaches and to practice all of, and nothing but, what it authorizes.
Matthew 23:23 is a good medicine for what ails us: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. It is these you ought to have practiced without neglecting the others” (emphasis supplied). Certainly we need to improve in many areas. I am most eager to acknowledge that authentic Christian living, genuine faith and love, and a more praise-filled, joyous atmosphere of celebration may belong under the category of “weightier matters.” But rebellion against God’s word and abandoning divine authority is never progress under any circumstances! If God is concerned only with the “weightier matters” and does care about the “lighter matters,” Jesus would not have said, “It is these you ought to have practiced without neglecting the others.” He would have said, “It is these you ought to have practiced.” If we rebel against God’s authority while we are making what, under other circumstances, would be acknowledged as genuine improvements in our lives, procedures, and practices, we are defeating our true purpose (the glorification of God, Ephesians 3:20, 21) and promoting another purpose (glorification of our own desires).
One of the great principles we learn from Christ in Matthew 23:23 is consistency in our approach to pleasing God. The same law that prescribed the tithes of the herbs also taught people to love God and to love their neighbors as themselves. The same revelation which teaches us to live authentic lives and worship the Lord from the heart also teaches clearly the form of worship which God desires of Christians. We cannot have either without the other. It is impossible to live an authentic Christian life and to worship the Lord acceptably from the heart while consciously rejecting part of his revelation (Matthew 15:8, 9). It is equally impossible for the clearly revealed form to be pleasing if followed by those who do not truly believe and do not live according to the teachings of Christ (2 Timothy 3:5; cf. Micah 6:6-8, et. al.). Can a Christian actually make progress in pleasing God by joining his or her spouse and family in worship that is contrary to the teaching of the scriptures and among people who are not the true children of God? And which is better, to have all the family united in rebelling against God, or to have some of the family living in obedience to God? Surely it is better for some of the family to be genuine Christians and be saved than to have all of the family to be in rebellion to God and be lost! Family togetherness in worship is an important value, but rebellion against God is too high a price to pay for it. The devil must be most happy when he can convince Christians that they are making progress in pleasing God while rebelling against him. Don’t fall for it!
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