THE PARABLE OF THE MOSQUITO

Just recently I visited an old friend who is confined to a convalescence home. Just 65, Bill was still strong and healthy. He owned his own business and was flourishing. Then one night a tiny mosquito landed on him and bit him. When he felt the sting he brushed it away and thought nothing of  it. But in the seconds that the creature was on him, it injected him with a terrible virus.  A few days later he experience fever, chills and headaches. Three days later his brother found him on the floor of his home, in a deep coma. His diagnosis, viral encephalitis.  Physically he recovered, but he suffered irreversible brain damage.  Today he is much like a stroke victim.  All because of a tiny mosquito carrying an invisible virus.

This poor fellow's unfortunate experience reminds me of a terrible spiritual virus that is being spread among Churches of Christ.  There are men circulating among us like that mosquito.  They look and seem harmless enough. Many brethren don't care for the ideas they are promoting, but they mistakenly view them more as an annoyance than a deadly threat.  They disease they are carrying is called "Change."  The carriers of this disease are a band of preachers and university teachers who have taken it upon themselves to introduce revolutionary changes into the faith, worship and life of our congregations.  They have successfully infected a large number of young men while they were attending Christian Universities.  They have gone forth and sought out positions in our churches....and begun to spread their deadly ideas. Scores of churches are already infected.

So drastic are the changes proposed that any congregation that embraces and follows them to their logical end will no longer be a church of Christ. The symptoms are easily discerned: a loss of respect for the authority of the Bible in the life of the church; especially a refusal to recognized the law of silence that forbids us to go beyond what is written (I Cor. 4:6). Victims are restless and bored with the worship Christ ordained and crave entertainment and sensual excitement.  They tend to experience a marked change in their attitude toward fellow-Christians, past and present, who do not embrace their program of change.  They feel a strong urge to reach out and fellowship denominational people and their activities. Singing praises to God with the sacred hymns of the past is unpleasant for victims. They demand new songs and instrumental music to accompany them. Their spiritual appetite for the Lord's Supper flags and they find it necessary to turn it into a common meal for their bellies.

The virus affects their ability to read Scripture. When God says, "I permit not a woman to teach, nor to have authority over a man" (I Tim. 2:12), to their jaundiced eyes it seems to say it is alright for women to do just that. When the Book of God says, "by works a man is justified and not by faith only" (Jas. 2:24), the words are scrambled in their minds and come out "a man is justified by faith alone without works." The change in their spiritual personality is pronounced. They dislike their own spiritual ancestors and embrace those who despise the church of which they are members.  They often feel ashamed of who they are and try to disguise their places of worship, by calling them "Community Churches" or some other non-Biblical name.

This viral infection has reached epidemic proportions among our people.  It can only be brought under control by isolating those infected and not allowing the carriers into the pulpits and classrooms of congregations. Students should shun schools where this disease is breeding, lest they too be infected. Any coming from a church or school that is infected  should be carefully examined before being accepted into the fellowship of a congregation.  Behold what terrible damage that one small mosquito did to my friend Bill.  Be warned what one promoter of change can do to your congregation.