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The Gospel Observer
"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations...teaching them
to observe all that I commanded you, and lo, I am with you always,
even to the end of the age" (Matt. 28:19,20).
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November 17, 2013
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Contents:
1) Church of Christ vs. the Social Gospel (Ron Halbrook)
2) True Life (Bill Hall)
3) News & Notes
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-1-
Church of Christ vs. the Social Gospel
by Ron Halbrook
When Paul wrote to the saints in Rome, he relayed greetings from
other "churches of Christ" (Rom. 16:16). Each of these
churches were made up of Christians in a given locality who gathered
to worship God under the leadership of local bishops or elders, and
with the help of special servants called deacons. Christ alone
was head of each church without any interlocking structure,
centralized agency, denominational bureau, or human headquarters
(Phil. 1:1; Eph. 1:22-23). Each church was designed by God to
sound out "the word of the Lord" both far and near. Several
churches sometimes cooperated in supporting a gospel preacher in the
field, but without centralizing their funds through a single church
or any kind of human board (1 Thess. 1:8; 2 Cor. 11:8-9).
When the Lord planted these churches and equipped them to preach the
gospel, society suffered from many social, economic, political, and
educational problems. The Lord did not equip his church to
conduct reform movements to resolve those crises. Whether those
difficulties are solved or not, man must save his soul. "All
have sinned" and Christ shed his blood "for the remission of sins"
(Rom. 3:23-24; Matt. 26:28). As "the pillar and ground of the
truth," the church brings men face to face with the crucified and
risen Savior (1 Tim. 3:15-16). Men must hear that they can be saved
by grace through faith when they repent of their sins, confess
Christ, and are baptized in water (Acts 2:38; 19:5; Eph. 2:8-9).
Restoration vs. Rise of Social Gospel
In the first half of the 1800s, many people turned away from
denominationalism and lives of sin. They searched the
Scriptures, obeyed the gospel in its original purity, and restored
New Testament churches. During the same time period, social
reform movements were being promoted by some traditional
denominations, by rising liberals, and by secular
rationalists. They had the idea that churches could both save
souls and help to build a great American republic. An
interchurch program in Boston in 1826 aimed to alleviate urban
poverty. Educational reforms were emphasized and many
church-related colleges organized. Other crusades included
women's rights, improved prisons, better hospitals, and a world
peace movement. Many denominations got caught up in the national
debate of the 1850s-70s over the nature of America's political
union, slavery and anti-slavery, the War Between the States, and the
reconstruction era.
In the meantime, true churches of Christ kept preaching the gospel
and saving souls as God ordained. They had no social agenda,
no poverty program, no colleges, and no political platform.
They preached Christ to rich and poor, high and low, male and
female, free and slave, Northerner and Southerner, Easterner and
Westerner.
During 1880-1920, urban poverty and other social problems increased
with growing immigration and industrialization. Also, Darwin's
theory of evolution and other attacks on the accuracy of the Bible
were becoming more popular. A full-fledged Social Gospel
emerged. The Social Gospel shifted the emphasis of religion
from the enduring problem of man's sinful ways to the prospect of
his perfectibility; from the Bible as the solution for man's
sinfulness to human sources of learning about how to improve mankind
(study political science, economics, sociology, psychology, etc.);
and from the goal of heaven as man's all-consuming desire to the
goal of better living conditions here and now. The Social
Gospel "was always chiefly concerned to find out the truth about
society, and on the basis of that knowledge to chart programs for
ameliorating the country's social woes" (Sydney E. Ahlstrom, A
Religious History of the American People [New Haven: Yale Univ.
Press, 1972], p. 796).
Although the Social Gospel movement of this period included
spokesmen ranging from religious conservatives to moderates to
socialists, it was the preeminent message of many theological
liberals who denied the accuracy of the Bible. Not all
liberals shared the Social Gospel vision of man's perfectibility,
but they generally shared its humanitarian impulse. Both
liberalism and the Social Gospel exalt man, his carnal needs, and
his rational powers at the expense of God. True churches of
Christ have continued to oppose these false movements so that men
may continue to hear and obey the gospel of Christ to the saving of
their souls.
The Social Gospel Among Churches of Christ
The Lord organized local churches of Christians to focus on the work
of spreading the gospel, worshiping God and edifying saints, and
caring for needy brethren. The church is perfectly organized by the
Bible pattern to accomplish the work God gave it to do, with elders,
deacons, and other Christians cooperating together. God's simple
plan of local church organization is perfectly adapted to the
mission of the church, and the mission perfectly suited to the
divine plan of organization. More organization would be needed
only if the mission were expanded beyond Bible limits, and expanding
the mission would require additional organization.
The Holy Spirit warned through Paul that some elders would pervert
the truth and lead brethren to practice error. Satan stays
busy promoting apostasy in the church in every generation.
Some who "depart from the faith" do not quit professing religion and
claiming to be faithful to God (Acts 20:28-30; 2 Thess. 2; 1 Tim.
4:1). Some ardently claim they are only adjusting the gospel
to the times, expanding the mission of the church to win more
people, and adapting the organization to meet the needs of modern
culture. John condemned such "progress": "Whosoever
transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ hath not
God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both
the Father and the Son" (2 Jn. 9).
Churches of Christ in the early decades of the 20th century roundly
condemned the Social Gospel's carnality, exaltation of man at God's
expense, and this-worldly focus. One phase of the Social Gospel
movement was the "institutional" church, a term referring to the
desire to organize committees, departments, experts, ministries, and
services "to cover the entire life of man" (Aaron I. Abell, The
Urban Impact on American Protestantism 1865-1900 [Cambridge: Harvard
Univ. Press, 1943], p. 137). The broadest program opened the
church doors all day every day to provide meals, entertainment,
athletics, gymnastics, kindergarten, legal training, police matrons
and rescue missions to keep people out of prisons, day nurseries,
coffee houses, libraries, health and first-aid instructions, medical
clinics, job training and employment bureaus, special services for
immigrants -- the list is endless.
Institutional churches organized services on local, regional, and
even national bases through clubs, societies, boards, bureaus,
leagues, and associations of every kind. Facilities were built
for child care, abandoned women, schools, and summer vacations for
the needy. Church architecture shifted from providing a place for
the spiritual work of teaching and worship to accommodate the
explosion of new services and programs. Doctrinal concerns were
sacrificed in favor of interdenominational cooperation in social
ministries and community services.
The Social Gospel and institutional church concepts left their mark
on American religion, taking souls further away from New Testament
Christianity. After World War II, many churches of Christ
began drifting away from the Bible pattern into apostasy. Some
have left the spiritual mission God gave his church and are doing
anything and everything the denominations do -- providing facilities
for day care, secular education, gymnastics, and all sorts of social
activities. The list is endless. One Texas church sends
a van and team out to aid fire fighters on the scene. Churches
conduct suppers, parties and banquets galore.
Some churches disguise their facilities for food, fun, and frolic
under such names as "fellowship hall," "all-purpose room," or
"family life center." A Church of Christ in Angleton, Texas
often promotes dinners, picnics, and banquets in its bulletin.
A front page "gospel meeting" announcement emphasized before even
giving the lesson subjects, "Sunday lunch after services for all our
families and all our visitors!" After the church's "Wild Game
Dinner" and several other March meals, the editor exulted, "I
believe we have eaten more meals as a congregation than we have
eaten at home" (Angelton Accents, 21 Feb.-28 Mar. 1989
issues). Rubel Shelly tells the Woodmont Hills church in
Nashville, Tenn. their new facility is not so much "a church
building" as "a place to feed and house homeless people," a place
for "community service to take place all day, every day" (Love
Lines, 15 Feb. 1989).
True churches of Christ must preach and practice the spiritual
gospel of Christ, not the social gospel of man-made religions (Matt.
21:25).
-- Via Guardian of Truth XXXV: 7, pp. 206-207, April 4, 1991 http://
www.truthmagazine.com/archives/ volume35/GOT035104.html
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True Life
by Bill Hall
The goal of the gospel is to prepare people for heaven. Its
emphasis centers upon happiness in a life to come rather than upon
this life. "For what profit is it to a man," Jesus once asked,
"if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" The
Lord would teach us to look through faith beyond the suffering and
heartaches of this life to a life free of suffering and heartaches;
to lay up treasures in heaven rather than upon the earth. He
wants us in our preaching to proclaim a message of salvation through
His blood, to bring to people's consideration those things that are
eternal. But when we succeed in leading men and women to surrender
their lives in favor of the life to come, we lead them into gaining,
not only heaven, but also the peace and contentment that make for
real happiness upon this earth. "He who finds his life shall
lose it," Jesus said, "and he who loses his life for my sake shall
find it."
-- Via The Beacon, July 16, 2013
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-3-
News & Notes
Chuck Bartlett, a gospel preacher in Newburgh, Indiana, has
returned home after spending several days very sick in the hospital;
but his daughter wrote on November 11 that he is still "VERY
weak. Sitting up for 30 seconds exhausts him. He lost
a lot of weight and went straight to bed after coming home. He
will have a long recovery ahead of him. The cause is still
unknown, but the result is that we are more aware that life is
short and God is in control. We still ask for your prayers full of
FAITH that he will be well again soon." Let those of
us who are God's children be remembering Chuck in our prayers.
Let us also be praying for the following:
Jean Calloway, who had been receiving dialysis three times a
week, was recently back in the hospital and not able to continue
with her treatment, due to the pain it was causing. Let us
pray that this will soon be taken care of.
Let us also continue to remember in prayer Virginia Fontenot (who
has stage 4 cancer), Shirley Young, Cheryl Crews, Peggy
Lefort, and Terry and Pam MacDonald.
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The Steps That Lead to Eternal Salvation
1) Hear the gospel, for that is how faith comes (Rom.
10:17; John 20:30,31).
2) Believe in the deity of Christ (John 8:24; John
3:18).
3) Repent of sins (Luke 13:5; Acts 17:30).
4) Confess faith in Christ (Rom. 10:9,10; Acts
8:36-38).
5) Be baptized in water for the remission of sins
(Mark 16:16; Acts 2:38; 22:16; Rom. 6:3,4; Gal. 3:26,27; 1 Pet.
3:21).
6) Continue in the faith; for, if not, salvation can
be lost (Heb. 10:36-39; Rev. 2:10; 2 Pet. 2:20-22).
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Park Forest
CHURCH OF CHRIST
9923 Sunny Cline Dr., Baton Rouge, LA 70817
Sunday services: 9:00 AM (Bible class); 10 AM & 6 PM (worship)
Tuesday: 7 PM (Bible class)
evangelist/editor: Tom Edwards (225) 667-4520
Tom@ThomasTEdwards.com
http://ThomasTEdwards.com/go
(Gospel Observer website)
http://ThomasTEdwards.com/audioser.html
(audio sermons)