[Biblemat] S) CONGREGATIONAL INDEPENDENCE (3)

[J5827Sasser at wmconnect.com]

Brethren and Friends, Jim Sasser here.  Here is the third install-
ment of a sermon preached by brother Harris J. Dark in the Chapel 
Avenue Church of Christ in Nashville, TN. in the spring of 1950.  Use to the 
glory of God.

CONGREGATIONAL INDEPENDENCE  (3)

IT IS A SAFETY MEASURE: -- In the third place, I contend for
congregational independence because it is one of the great-
est safety devices ever provided by the Lord.  Centralized movements are hard 
to resist, if they do go astray, as they are almost certain to do, sooner or 
later.

     Let me show you why they are hard to resist.  In the first
place, people take a pride in them and develop a patriotic att-
itude toward them.  Without this they could not exist and con-
tinue.  It is necessary to build up a spirit of patriotism with ref-
erence to the central organization.  Then, if the central organ-
ization happens to go astray (and it would be directed by hum-
an beings who are subject to error) that spirit of patriotism (maybe 
prejudice) must be overcome in order to resist effect-
ively.

     Furthermore the apostasy does not come in one big leap;
it comes very gradually.  The central organization does some-
thing that's somewhat questionable and a given congregation
doesn't like it much, afraid of it, considers it a dangerous
trend.  It looks like it's a little off side but it's not a bigh enough step 
tht you want to make an issue out of it.  You hate to be the first one to 
object, make yourself conspicuous,
and be classified as a  reactionary.  So finally you think it over and say, 
"Well, maybe it will be all right, I'll string along."
After you get used to that one until you don't think about it
much more, there is another questionable move.  You go 
through the same process again until after awhile you fall in
line.  Then the first thing you know there is rank digression.

     In other words in order to resist the drifting or digression
of the central organization you have to secede and secession
is not popular.  It's difficult.  It's not nice to be a rebel.  And so when 
the central movement goes wrong there is a strong
tendency for all affiliated congregations to go with it.

     Furthermore, pressure will be applied, though indirectly
perhaps.  Statements will be made to indicate that if you don't
string along you are not loyal.  All the congregations in a given area will 
be invited to attend a mass meeting "to demon-
strate our loyalty to the cause of Christ," with the implication
that if you don't come along, you are not loyal.  Well, who 
wants to be classified as disloyal by his own brethren, by the
olk whom he loves?  Thus pressure is brought to bear.  You
are not considered co-operative if you don't go along and so 
it's hard to resist.

     Congregational independence is a safety device also be-
cause the centralized movement gives an opportunity for dic-
tatorship to be developed.  As long as dictatorship is confin-
ed to a local congregation it can be only local damage.  But if
you have a broad general movement and happen to get a dic-
tator in charge of it, then he does broad and general damage.

     So, congregational independence curtails the danger of
apostasy.  It curtails the danger of dictatorship and makes it
comparatively easy for one congregation to remail loyal even
though others may go astray.

     The voice of history declares that congregational indepen-
dence is a safety device.  Let me give you just a brief history
of what happened following the thirty-four-year period I have
mentioned before.  A few years after that period the principle
of congregational  autonomy was forsaken.  The change came about very 
gradually.  God's plan was for there to be a
plurality of pastors or overseers in each congregation.  But
after awhile one of those overseers gained pre-eminence over
the others and he came to be distinguished by the word bish-
op, which according to the Bible should have been applied to
all of them alike.  But it wasn't long until this mother church
established a mission or two near by.  No doubt it argued that
it needed to look after the missions.

     Incidentally, the Bible doesn't say anything about establish-
ing missions.  The Bible talks about establishing churches.
When Paul returned on his first missionary journey, as we call
it, he appointed elders in every church (Acts 14:23).  The Bible doesn't say 
he appointed elders at every mission.  He
appointed elders in every church.  They were churches before they had elders. 
 They were churches the very minute
two or more Christians began to meet and eat the Lord's sup-
per.  Today some speak of missions.  You don't read such 
language in the Bible.  There's nothing found about a superin-
tendent of a mission.  Paul appointed a plurality of elders in
every church.  That is significant.

     Following the apostolic period they established missions
and the "mother" church looked after them.  Thus, after about 150 years, 
since there was one man now running the
"mother" church and since the "mother" church had some
others under its wing, there was one man over a group of
churches instead of a group of men serving one church.  The
Bible plan was reversed.

     Suppose I had been living back in those days and had rais-
ed my voice against it, what do you think the folk would have
said?  They'd have said, "Well, Brother Dark is kind of curious, narrow, 
anti-missionary, reactionary, non-co-operat-
ive," and all that sort of thing.

     I don't believe those brethren meant to do wrong.  They no
doubt thought they were doing right.  But suppose you could
have shown one of those fellows back in 150 A.D. the Roman
Catholic Church of today.  What do you reckon he would have said?  Yet the 
mistakes they made then finally led to the
Roman Catholic hierarchy with all its evils.  If you and I are
not very careful we will make the same mistakes they made.
Let me ask you, if we once go beyond the Bible, where will we
stop short of Rome?  Is there any stopping place?  We can
stop when we get to where the Bible stops, we have an ex-
cuse for stopping; but if you once go beyond that, then where you stop is 
just a matter of opinion.  You don't have any Bible to stop you after you pass 
congregational independ-
ence, because you've passed the limitations of the New Testa-
ment.

     There is a saying that history repeats itself.  Departure from 
congregational independence led to the establishment
of the Roman Catholic Church.  Let us heed the warning.

     Four or five hundred years ago there was what we call the
Reformation Movement.  Men like Martin Luther started out to
reform the church of Rome and to get back to Jerusalem.  But it wasn't long 
until they let up on the oars and began to
drift.  Apostasy set in again and any informed Lutheran Church is more like 
the Catholic Church now than it was three
hundred years ago.

     Then we had what is knowin by historians as the Restorat-
ion Movement, in which the purpose was not only to reform on doctrine and 
certain practices but on organization as well,
and go get back to the congregational independence.  But it
wasn't long until drifting set in again.  There was a great apos-
tasy over instrumental music in the worship and the mission-
ary society.  It was the rich churches that went astray.  It was
the rich churches that digressed.  When I was living in Rich-
mond, Va., a big central church down town with 2,500 mem-
bers had a brass band playing for them on Sunday night.  The majority went 
astray and it was a minority of the small
churches that held out against them.

     Since then we've had another apostasy, not quite of such
great proportions, over premillennialism.

     Do you think there will never be another one?  Do you be-
lieve we are immune from apostasy from here on out?  Do
you think it can happen again?  It won't happen over instru-
mental music anymore, that point is settled, the line drawn.
We have a traditional opposition to it, if no more.  It won't
happen over premillennialism next time, that line is already
drawn, too.  What do you think it will happen over next time?
What will be the nature of the next apostasy?  If you think 
there won't be another one, I'm afraid you have a false feeling
of security and are over-confident.  (Instrumental music along
with many other things have raised and are raising their ugly
heads these days against the pure and unadulterated religion
of the Bible)  (More will be posted on this subject tomorrow,
the Lord willing, JWS).   </HTML>
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