For All Churches To Be Right There are people who would have all churches to be right in the sight of God. To them, churches are left to men’s choices and the choice makes very little difference in their evaluations. These are conclusions which men make without giving proper consideration to what they are concluding. In fact, some members of the Lord’s church have been known to make statements of this nature. These statements and conclusions display their lack of knowledge and ignorance of the scriptures. Paul evidently had such a caliber of people in mind when he wrote, “Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame.” (I Corinthians 15:34). When one speaks of all churches being right, we must accept that the ingredients, which constitute the whole, must be right. In other words, if the churches are right, what the churches do must be recognized as being right. While some people are prone to say that all churches are right, yet they denounce certain things which these churches practice. How can there be any consistency with such an approach? If you have failed to follow what we are trying to say, then notice our continuation. For all churches to be right, then the following practices must be right: Earthly Headquarters. With the exception of the Lord’s church, practically all denominations have earthly headquarters. Whether it exists for the Roman Catholic church in Rome or the Mormon church in Salt Lake City, Utah, they have legislative bodies which govern and rule them on this earth. If all churches are right, then these earthly headquarters are right! I have been asked numerous times as to where the headquarters of the church of Christ is located. My answer has always been that it is in heaven where Jesus sits on the right hand of God. (Hebrews 1:3). The scriptures speak about Christ being the head of the church. “Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, Which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all.” (Ephesians 1:21-23). To the saints at Colosse, Paul wrote: “And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.” (Colossians 1:18). Comparing the husband and wife relationship to Christ and His church, Paul again wrote: “For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.” (Ephesians 5:23-24). The only earthly arrangement which God has given for His church involves the local congregation, which is subject unto Christ, as an autonomous or self-governing body. Paul speaks of this arrangement in Philippians 1:1. “Paul, and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons:” The pattern of truth revealed in the scriptures gives no authority for earthly headquarters to legislative and control local congregations. However, if all churches are right, this earthly headquarters arrangement must be recognized as being right. If not, why not? Mechanical music. If all churches are right, then mechanical instruments of music in worship must be right. Why? Because the majority of the churches use mechanical music in their worship. They see nothing wrong with it and feel that they are drawn closer to God by the use of mechanical music. Jesus told the Samaritan woman, “But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” (John 4:23-24). Truth is found in the word of God. “Sanctify them through thy word, thy word is truth.” (John 17:17). The word authorizes “Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord:” (Ephesians 5:19). The word would have us to “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.” (Colossians 3:16). The Lord’s disapproval is manifested against one who would not abide in the teaching of Christ. “Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son.” (II John 9). There is not any authority in the doctrine of Christ for the use of mechanical instruments of music in worship. Those who use such transgress the doctrine of Christ and have not God. However, if all churches are right, mechanical music must be right because the ingredients which make up the whole must be right if the whole is right. Our concern should be for what God approves as being right. It is very easy to make things right in our own eyes and ignore what God says is right. We must always remember the words of the wise man, “There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” (Proverbs 16:25). There can be a great gulf between what might seem right and the church which Jesus built, as we read of the pattern of truth in the New Testament.
|