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Objections
Answered
THE
IMPORTANCE OF THE NATURE OF CHURCH MEMBERSHIP
Again
the objection will be made: Why be so technical? Why split
hairs over such fine points of theology?' Even if you are
right, what difference does it make ?
There
are some things about which we cannot afford to be
technical. There are things about which i would show a
lack of love to be technical. If a man's wife goes
down town and promises to be back home by half past eleven
in order to prepare lunch, and then overstays her time and
does not arrive home until one o'clock, there is a case in
which the man cannot afford to be technical over the
discrepancy of one and a half hours between promise and
fulfillment. There may be many reasons why she could not
do as she had hoped to do. Traffic may have been held up.
She may have made an extraordinary search in order to save
a little money. Possibly she became ill and had to rest
awhile. Doubtless it would be wicked to be technical over
such a cause and offend the love she bears you.
But
suppose you are building an elevator in your home, an
elevator upon whose correct working the lives of your
family will depend. Then it is your duty to be very
technical to the utmost extent; for a failure to build
with the utmost accuracy may cost the lives of your loved
ones and make you legally guilty of manslaughter.
Suppose an architect is building an eighty five story
skyscraper. Would you wish him to be a cheerful, easy
going fellow who cared naught for the little "fine
points" of architectural engineering, In such a case
one would wish him to be very exact and very scrupulously
technical—if one ever expected to go in or around the
building.
Just
so, there are many things about which Christians can
afford not to be "technical" with each other.
"Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in
drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or
of the sabbath day" (Col. 2:16).
But
upon the question of the nature of church membership rests
the whole matter of the unity of the church. If the church
on earth must inevitably be organized like an earthly
corporation such as the Pennsylvania Railroad or the
Standard Oil Company, then I see no possibility of
Christian unity in any true Scriptural sense whatever; for
even if it should be possible to get all Christians into
such a corporation it would doubtless be or quickly become
so dominated by proud and arrogant ecclesiastics that it
would be not only a menace to political liberty, but a
colossal nightmare on the free and liberal spirit of
mankind.
Ignoring the dangers of such a combination, and regarding
it as desirable, we are still faced with the hopelessness
of getting all Christians to sign one creed and seek
admittance to one earthly organization.
On
the other hand, the idea of spiritual church membership,
holding the gospel of Christ alone as a creed, is at once
so simple and so certainly true and conformable to the
practice of the church of the New Testament, that, while
the idea will require time to seep through the minds and
hearts of Christians, it is unquestionably the hope of the
future; and is in itself —A New Approach to Christian
Unity.
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