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Can the Church Survive? (No. 4)
Batsell Barrett Baxter
The future of the church is hopeful, if we present-day Christians are equal to the challenge. There is no question that there are numbers of dangers which confront the church today. Among those dangers some of the most formidable arc the following:
Danger No. 1 - The far-right. This refers to the ultra-conservatives, including such groups as those who are anti-class, anti-literature, one-cup, anti-cooperation, and the like. This extreme within our brotherhood seems to be obsessed with their own abilities to interpret the Scriptures more perfectly than anyone else. Theirs is a pre-occupation with fault-finding, sometimes approaching the ugly-spirit of the Pharisees. They bind where the Scriptures do not bind. They seek to force their interpretation upon all others. This is one extreme of our brotherhood, an extreme that will fraction the church into smaller and smaller segments. We must not go this way.
Danger No. 2 - The far-left. Here the reference is to liberals and modernists, who in one way or another question the inspiration of the Bible, minimize its authority, and open up a climate for fellowshipping almost everybody and almost everything. Usually, the approach is an intellectual approach that tends to look down upon the educational qualifications of those of us who are more conservative. The danger of liberalism is even greater than the danger of the far right, for once this tendency in the church becomes dominant, there appears to be no return. The history of religion in America is that it has become more and more liberal until it has reached the point of meaninglessness. Certainly, we do not want to go in this direction. We must be loyal to the Scriptures, studying them humbly to learn what God meant for each of us to believe and to do.
Danger No. 3 - Pentecostalism. This threat to the church of today comes rather unexpectedly. A few years ago most of us never dreamed that within our spiritual family we would have the problem of those who emphasize the direct operation of the Holy Spirit, and the possession of special gifts of the Spirit, such as tongue-speaking, healing and the like. Actually, this emotionalism in religion appears to be a kind of fad that has risen and fallen periodically back through the centuries of church history. In our own present generation, the fad of tongue-speaking and special gifts began in many of the main-line denominational churches a score or more years ago and has largely burned itself out. It seems tragic indeed that some of our own brethren should embrace this kind of fallacy, after our religious neighbors have found it to be a dead-end street and barren of any ultimate good. Perhaps we need to feel some guilt because back through the years we have too often failed to present the truths in the Scriptures concerning the Holy Spirit. Out of this vacuum, many good, honest and sincere brethren have been led astray by the Pentecostals. We must not go down this road of emotionalism and shallow Biblical interpretation.
Danger No. 4 - Division. Satan has always been unusually effective in driving wedges between God's people. He began it in the days of the apostles and has been highly successful down through the centuries in dividing the church. Currently one of our greatest and most pressing issues is the widening breach between the "black church" and the "white church." There appears to be today less of a feeling of closeness and fellowship between black Christians and white Christians than even a few years ago. There are other issues that divide us, too numerous to name. On all of these issues we need to center our thoughts on Christ, love each other more, and then study the Scriptures to know God's will. We need to love in deed as well as in word. It is so easy to divide; it is so difficult to unite.
How we do long for a return of the emphasis proclaimed by Alexander Campbell, Barton W. Stone, J. W. McGarvey. David Lipscomb, N. B. Hardeman, G. C. Brewer and others: "In matters of faith, unity, In matters of opinion, liberty, In all things, charity (or love)." We must not let Satan divide us. "We be brethren."
Danger No. 5 - Worldliness. A very different kind of danger, the love of things or materialism, is one of the most deadly of all of the threats to New Testament Christianity. Our preoccupation with the secular, even when it is not wicked or immoral, often crowds out time for spiritual concerns. Then, too, we are in great danger of absorbing the standards of thinking and behavior of the world about us. We tend to think like the world, dress like the world, live like the world, and speak like the world. As the church has become stronger it has gained ever greater acceptance and respectability in the community. Often this has led to compromise with the world about us. This is another of the roads down which we must not go.
Our Challenge
As we think of these five major threats to the church today, let us think of the way in which we may stand firmly against these challenges. First, we need to study the Scriptures until we know exactly what God's will is and until we clearly understand how his teachings apply in our lives. We must then stand firm upon the Scriptures, allowing nothing to lead us to compromise divine truth. Second, we must care for those about us who are in need. If the church is to survive it must show its concern for those who are hungry, thirsty, strangers, naked, sick, and in prison. (Matt. 25:35-36.) We must have a genuine love for those in need. As our Lord did, we must demonstrate our concern for the young, the old, the poor, the sick, the lonely, and others in need, so that they may know our love. Then, their hearts will be opened to receive the Lord's gospel.
Third, we must share our faith in Christ with our associates. It is not enough to give dollars on Sunday; we must give time, effort and concern to saving the lost who are within the shadows of our own influence. This is one of our weakest points today. It may be a point on which we either survive or perish. Unless all the Christians are concerned about the souls of their neighbors, friends, and associates, and are earnestly striving to help them know Christ and his salvation, a congregtation will dry up and blow away. The pastor system, whereby we hire others to do our work, has never worked and it will not work today. Each Christian must be God's man, actively working to save the souls of all those whom he knows.
Conclusion
As we think of the survival of the church, there are many dangers and many problems to be faced, yet we believe that there is much more that is positive and encouraging than that which is negative and discouraging. While ours are dangerous times in which to live, none of us would want to live in any other generation. The real question does not concern the survival of God's church, for that is sure. Our question is whether we will rise to meet the opportunities God is giving to his people today and whether we will be the Lord's church. "Can the church survive?" "Certainly, it will survive." "Will the church, as I know it, survive?" "That question is yet to be determined."