Thinking Out Loud

By Lee Carter Maynard

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     I have read tracts and essays from several different groups, each claiming to be the true original New Testament church. It sounds a bit paradoxical because they all teach there is but one church, yet they belong to brotherhoods of their own like precious faith. The true church is non-denominational but there are thousands of assemblies or congregations. Probably no two of these are exactly alike. Some of their arguments are amusing.

     I have been connected with the Campbell-Stone restoration movement since I was a lad of fifteen. Grandfather preached forty years for the Christian Church, but after 1906 he preached for the Church of Christ in the same building and to the same people. After 1906 the fellowship was gone. Since that time I have seen the congregations divided into more than a dozen competitive groups, each claiming to be the true apostolic church. Each group has its own papers, literature, by-laws, schools, radio programs, ministers, and missionary endeavors. It is only natural that different groups in different parts of the country with men of different personalities will be different. It is unnatural for truly born-again Christians to refuse fellowship with those of other groups because they differ on things that are in no wise conditions of salvation.

     I love the groups with which I have worked many years and we have a name that identifies or denominates us from other groups or assemblies. These people have been kind and good to me and have had enough confidence in me and my doctrine to give me a free rein. I can truly say that in all these years I have never been in a church quarrel or division. I love the church and I believe in the autonomy of the local assembly or congregation. Autonomy, to me, means freedom from the jurisdiction of super-bodies, but it does not give a group the right to set up laws foreign to the Spirit of Christ and the Scriptures. Sometimes strong leaders or boards have assumed the same prerogatives used by the larger denominational super-groups.

     I have known people to confess Christ and be immersed, and then be refused membership in a local group because they would not subscribe to some of the man-made requirements for membership. Does the Lord add to the true church and the preacher to the congregation? Does becoming a member of the body of Christ mean one thing and becoming a member of the group another thing? I have always felt that Paul considered himself a member of the body and a part of the different groups with which he labored. I doubt if he carried a "church letter" and went forward and placed membership when he visited Lystra, Antioch, or Corinth. They may have had a congregational clerk and a book containing the roll of members, but the Bible is silent on it. I am not being facetious. I was never more serious, or disturbed. The church of our Lord is not a denomination. It is one body, always has been and always will be. Its head is the Lord Jesus, and its headquarters the Father's house.

     Men are divided and they divide God's people. The gates of hades did not prevail against the building of the church, and never will. It has existed intact since Pentecost and needs no restructuring or restoring. Men may make loud claims that their own group is non-denominational, but claims never alter facts. If I teach and believe that the group with which I work is the one true church, it must mean that other groups are denominational, sinful and lost. This is a pretty gloomy outlook.

     The true church is Christian, but when that term is used to identify a particular group it smacks of denomination. It was several years after Pentecost before the name Christian was used. Paul never

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once used it in his thirteen epistles. I do not know who it was who first called the church Christian, but I do not think he sinned. If it is right to give the groups geographical names such as the church at Antioch, Bethel Church, Columbus Christian Church, First Church, or Central Church, why is it wrong to give it historical names such as Moody, Luther, Calvin, Wesley, or Campbell? None of these names is intended to refer to the one true church, but to mere local groups. I am not advocating these names but I think we should be consistent.

     I have just read a tract that condemns creeds, conferences, synods, articles of faith, and Disciplines. But do not man-made laws do exactly the same thing? They explain who is eligible to vote, hold office, how to elect officers, how long they serve, who holds the deed to the property, church music, the name, and many other things not clearly set forth in the scriptures. There is no reference to by-laws, but are they sinful? I think not. Are church boards sinful? I think not, even though there is no mention of them in the Bible. They are formed to govern the local assembly, not govern the true church of Jesus Christ.

     When the Bible speaks we should obey, trust, and keep silent. When the Bible is silent we surely have the right to speak when we feel we have the leading of the Lord. We are apt to think that certain things are done away, yet when another group would say the same thing about other things, we loudly deny them that right.

     Some teach that any name except Christian when referring to the church is sinful. Jesus called his followers friends, disciples and brethren. I fail to see how it could be sinful to use any of these. Revelation 3:17 says the new name will be given to the overcomers who have not been black-balled. I heard a fellow try to prove that the name Christian was prophesied in Isaiah 62:4 but the text plainly says that the new name was Hephzibah. If it were to be Christian, why did they wait for several years after Pentecost to use it? It may have been given then by enemies in derision. No one knows.

     I love the term church of Christ, but the same chapter of the Bible speaks of the churches of the Gentiles. The first part of Romans 16:16 speaks of the holy kiss. We ignore that and hold tightly to the latter part of the verse. The Bible speaks of the church of God twelve times. Acts 20:28 says that God purchased the church with the blood of his son. Paul said that he bowed his knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ of whom the whole family is named (Eph. 3:15). Families are named after the father, not after a son. Interpretations trying to prove doctrine is what makes denominations.

     We boldly proclaim "No book but the Bible," but do not be misled, for the preacher has many books. We claim "no creed but Christ," which is saying that "belief in Christ is enough." We have talked loud and long about those who preach "faith only," but if I can read English, we say exactly the same thing when we say, "no creed but Christ." Creed means simply "I believe." Most everyone believes in Christ, but devils believed and trembled, yet were not saved. We must believe in Christ, but it is also important to believe in forgiveness, repentance, baptism, prayer and obedience.

     I used to belong to the Christian church. Now it seems that I belong to the Independent Christian church, which is used to separate me from the Disciples Christian Church, or from the non-instrument Church of Christ. I cannot believe that others who love and serve God and one another are sinful even if they do not call their assemblies by my favorite name. I pray, "Lord, let me sit on the love seat, and may the dear Lord occupy the judgment seat."

     I wonder if we have not lost something valuable since the days of house churches in homes like that of Aquila, Priscilla and Archippus. Church houses have supplanted the house churches. Our Lord said that where two or three were gathered together in his name, he would be in their midst. It is a long jump from

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the simplicity of the New Testament house church to the elaborate church houses. All who can truly say "Father," and live an obedient Christian life are my brethren, regardless of the name on the bulletin board.

     (Editor's Note: Lee Carter Maynard may be addressed at 523 Forty-first Avenue North, St. Petersburg, Florida 33703).