Newsletter Vol.3, #40—November 4, 2007
Matthew 12
3He
said to them, "Have you not read what David did
when he was hungry, and those who were with him:
4how he
entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not
lawful for him to eat nor for those who were with him, but only for the
priests?”
Something Wicked This Way
Comes
by Greg Litmer
(continued from last week)
Most Bible students are familiar with 1 Corinthians 16:1-2. However, I am afraid that many have not gone deeply enough in their study of this passage to understand or know all of its ramifications. It says, ‘Now
concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given order to the churches of Galatia, even so do ye. Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come.’ We first consider the word ‘collection.’ That word is ‘logeia’ and was thought to have been derived from ‘lego’ and to be a word distinctive to the New Testament. This is a point made in Thayer's Greek English Lexicon. However, additional work by archaeologists, particularly Adolf Deissmann, has produced papyri that tell a different story. We now know that the word ‘logeia’ was derived from the word ‘logeuo’ (I collect) and was commonly used in Paul's day. Deissmann wrote, ‘We find it used chiefly of religious collections for a god, a temple, etc., just as St. Paul uses it of his collection of money for the `saints' at Jerusalem’ (Adolf Deissmann, Light From the Ancient East).
What is the big deal? The importance of this
discovery is to prove that Paul used the word just as his contemporaries used
it. The normal usage of the word was that of a collection in the ‘formal’ sense.
He wasn't telling the Corinthians to put a little money away every week in a jar
at home. Rather, just
as faithful Christian scholars had asserted all along, he was instructing them
to take a formal collection on the first day of every week.
God has given His church a three-fold work in which to engage -- benevolence, evangelism, and edification. These are continuous works, and the need for funds to enable a congregation to carry out these works is constant. Indeed, the amount of work that can be done in some of these areas is dependent upon having the financial resources available. As Brother Robert Turner so well put it in the February, 1967 edition of Plain Talk, ‘To question the whole idea of a `church treasury' is to question the God given privilege and obligation of saints to function collectively.’ With these advocates of change, all such in-depth Bible study means nothing. If it doesn't fit their notion, they just say they disagree and pay it no attention.
What these demanders of change want to do to the glorious memorial of the Lord's Supper is heartbreaking. They are determined that the Lord's Supper was part of a fellowship meal -- a separate and important part, but part of a fellowship meal nonetheless. The Lord's Supper, as (cont’d from the front) practiced by faithful congregations of the Lord's people today, is ridiculed. Smith wrote on page 281, ‘It wasn't crackers they broke in their fellowship meals, but bread. The bread of a common meal. In the end, it's not just that the evidence to support our use of unleavened bread is wafer thin. What's important is to understand that our ritual pinch of unleavened bread bears no resemblance whatsoever to the robust first-century practice of actually eating together in memory of our Lord.’ Despite the fact that 1 Corinthians 11 indicates otherwise, those within this movement insist that the Lord's Supper was part of a common meal, based upon no more significant evidence than ‘it certainly seems so’, ‘surely this must be the case’, or ‘it is reasonable to assume.’
In addition to advocating that each individual take a large portion of bread, as one would in a meal, when partaking of the Lord's Supper, there was something else that one of these riders of the ill wind of change suggested. When asked what other things needed to be done to make the Lord's Supper more spiritual he responded with the idea that each member, man and woman, be given the opportunity to testify beforehand what the Lord had done for them that week. When further asked how that might be practically and scripturally done, he responded by saying, ‘That's what the church in Corinth did.’ I have searched and searched and have not found that to be so.
There is so much more that could be said about their attack on the New Testament pattern of worship, but the confines of this article prohibit it. One other point that must be made is that those who are pushing these ideas also deny the validity of the final step of New Testament discipline for any ‘doctrinal’ issues. Those who demand that the New Testament teaching on this subject be followed are derided as unloving, lacking compassion, and harsh. Those involved in this movement that I have encountered are characterized by an attitude of spiritual arrogance. Those who do not hold their views are simply not as spiritually enlightened as they are.
This is a dangerous, dangerous movement, brethren, and it is gaining momentum. If you have not encountered it yet, pray that you do not. However, be prepared in case you do.
Are They In Your Midst?
Beware of the following tactics:
1. Initially, they are very friendly, yet, comments made indicate they are seeking out like-minded members who wouldn't mind ‘a little change.’
2. They will ask the elders how open they would be to change but are not specific as to what they mean.
3. They will try to institute small changes without authority from the elders in order to gauge the response from elders and members (see comments about singing in the above article).
4. By comments made and questions asked as brethren socialize both at services and in their homes, they try to judge who supports the elders and who does not.
5. They will begin individual Bible studies in their homes with specific people invited and specific people excluded. Focus of the studies may be ‘different ways of looking at worship’ or ‘how to make the worship more spiritual.’
6. Eventually, having identified the disgruntled and weak members, they begin to focus upon them to bring them to their side: very attentive and flattering to them.
7. They will attempt surreptitiously to create ill will toward the preacher.
8. Failing that, a concerted effort will be made to attack the eldership, including false accusations against them.
9. Failing that, they will seek to find the most vulnerable link in the eldership and use that link, through flattery and attention, to divide, conquer, and stymie the work of the eldership.
10. When all this fails to turn the congregation to their way of thinking, they will leave with their recruits and continue their recruiting efforts from afar, via phone calls and emails.
11. Moreover, these agents of change, even while using F. LaGard Smith's words verbatim, will deny that their suggestions are derived from his book.
For additional information concerning these issues go to: