CORRESPONDENCE WITH A FEARFUL BROTHER

Dear Bro. John:

I appreciate the intentions that you have. Certainly we need to be very vigilant in the area... making sure that we stay faithful to the Lord. I agree with most of what you have said. My only problem is in getting this “army” of people is that we already have an army—it is His army and He is the commander.... I am afraid of those who would like to become commanders in this army, of those who would brand those who are not “change agents” but who don’t always do things “like we have always done them”. and I am talking about in the area of expediency.... If we can just get people to be faithful—and I know from the beginning, we have not been able to, but there have been those who have stayed faithful through the years. But if we can just “preach the word” we don’t need “saviours” of the church. I think that the Lord can do a good job of that. I know where I am, we will follow the Word. We will not follow a school, an area that represents a way of thinking or a man, but only the Word.... Again I say this not to put down what you are trying to do. I just say at the same time this can be something that people use to boost their own agenda. A good thing can become something bad, such as the brazen serpent, that saved people, then became an idolatrous thing and had to be destroyed. So we must always be vigilant, sober, cautious    J. H.

Dear Bro. H:

Thanks for taking time to share with me your concerns. I am keenly aware of the danger of creating a monster while intending to do good.  Just today  I wrote an elder in another state, reminding him to avoid the temptation to create any kind of committee or organization to deal with this brotherhood problem....to avoid blacklisting or branding congregations or individuals.

On the other hand the old saying of Edmund Burke is certainly true:  “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”  For the last 40 years the majority of our good men....have failed to speak  words of warning about the danger of apostasy; about the danger of embracing the message and means of denominationalism.  These good men never taught nor practiced error themselves but because they neglected to indoctrinate their brethren, we now find ourselves in a crisis situation.  Virtually every week I hear of another congregation that has embraced this new approach to “doing church” as they like to say. And still most of our preachers and elders are saying and doing little or nothing to inoculate their members against it.  As a student of our history I know and can  predict that change agents will eventually knock at the door of every congregation.  Those who have been properly warned will recognize the danger and reject it.  Those who have not been warned will find themselves in danger of subversion.  Many of them we will loose. Neutrality in the face of a determined enemy of His church is not loyalty to Christ. Think about where we would be today, if in 1890 Bro. David Lipscomb and others had followed the path you have described of just preaching the word in their own community and leaving all the rest alone.  If your congregation would exist at all, it would likely be a Christian Church will all that entails.

I have no personal agenda. I seek no recognition, position, power or control.  I represent no school,  no publishing house, no clique of preachers. I am simply a Christian who loves the church of Christ of which I have been a member for upwards of 50 years (I Pet. 2:17). I make no apologies for “being set for the defense of the gospel” (Phil 1:16); for contending for the faith once delivered to the saints (Jude 3); for reproving, rebuking and exhorting my brethren (II Tim. 4:2).