In Search of Truth

Our leadership group has been reading through your 'Works of the Church'. Could you better explain your stand on not helping non-Christians? I'm afraid it left us a little confused. Also, the underlined seems disconnected. We are enjoying your web site and the information you are providing.

Sincerely,

At this point, it should be no surprise to once again find that both the local church and the Christian individual bear responsibility. Please note the individual nature of both of these passages: The first passage begins by examining an individual's worthless religion and concluding by contrasting and explaining meaningful religious service for an individual. The second passage is also individual in nature. If you back up in the context to verse 1 of chapter 6, you will read mention of many individual responsibilities, the last of which is the task of doing good to all, especially Christians. We have examples of both in the New Testament. Dorcas was a Christian who was full of good works (Acts 9:36-43), and such is the requirement of widows who are supported by church because of their need (I Timothy 5:3-16). We also read of multiple churches independently other churches that were overcome with famine (Acts 11:27-30; I Corinthians 16:1-4; Romans 15:25-27; II Corinthians 8-9)

I apologize for the confusing nature of the article. I can assure you that is not what was intended. An attempt has been made to clarify the paragraphs and update the web-site.

The primary purpose of the article was not to discuss how benevolence was to be accomplished. The primary point was to establish that it is indeed a work of the church. As a secondary point, I hoped to get people thinking about "how" this work is to be accomplished. The article was meant to introduce one to the question you are pondering - not answer it completely Several articles that are positioned later in the series discuss this question in more detail, along with related questions. These articles are entitled:

• Autonomy of the Local Church
• The Organization of the Church
• Addressing More Questions about Church Cooperation and Organization

In brief, my understanding of Scripture is that the collective church is not to be burdened with the work of helping non-Christians. However, individual Christians are given this task (James 1:26-27). What this means is that a local church should not use its funds or resources to take care of the physical needs of non-Christians.

For example, a local church should not spend its money out of its treasury to help the general population that was affected by the past tsunami that struck Asia. It should be helping saints in that area (Acts 11:27-30; I Corinthians 16:1-4; Romans 15:25-27; II Corinthians 8-9), and individual members should use their private funds to help the general population (Galatians 6:9-10), but the local church treasury should not be taxed with such burdens.

I could speculate why God established the church this way, but it would not be profitable. I think the more important question is, "What does the Scriptures say?"

Please do not understand me to state that the church as a whole has no burden to support the needy of this world. My family has been involved in therapeutic foster care. We gave to Red Cross and other international charities that helped out in the 9/11 and tsunami crises. In fact, if I was not involved in such works, I would expect to find the gates of heaven closed to me.

I hope this clarifies my position. I would encourage you to read the updated section on benevolence, as well as the other related articles.

If you find any other typos, grammatically manged, or otherwise indiscernible paragraphs, please let me know. I will gladly quickly correct those.

If you have any other questions, please let me know. I would be happy to discuss my position on this topic or any other.

May God bless us with open eyes and open hearts.

Thank you so much. I apologize if it seemed that I was criticizing your work. I really needed to make sure I was understanding you correctly. We are striving to have a church as you describe and it takes a lot to make people understand that some of what they've experienced in traditional churches is not necessarily correct.

Thank you, again. And may God bless you for your diligence in sharing God's word and helping others understand.

Sincerely

Do not worry. I did not take your note as being critical. In fact, I was happy that you took the time to illuminate an area where the article could be improved. Thank you for that!

Also, it has been my experience that the majority of modern Christians would think it unusual that a local church should not financially aid non-Christians. As you consider this topic in your small group, I imagine that much discussion will be generated. I would encourage you, and those of your small group, to not be swayed by the majority. When it comes to religion, the majority should never be followed, just because they are the majority. If we do so, we will not find ourselves in good company (Luke 13:23-30). As in all things, we should seek the will of God (I Peter 4:11), which I am convinced you are already doing.

Please let me know if you have any additional questions. I would be glad to help in any way that I can.

Thanks again for your encouragement!

I'm looking back through some email and wanted to let you know that you changed the thoughts of several people. People (myself included) who would have considered themselves fairly mature spiritually. What a wonderful service that you provide. Is this something you do in your spare time?

I do have another question. Two men in our group have been through an eldership training and are very dedicated and committed to sheperding God's people. They both have a heart that aches for those who do not know Him.

Our pastor had said he was going to have them both ordained, and I have to be honest in telling you we just have no idea what has come over him lately, but something is strange. We have a small group that are very committed, studying and growing and we would like to continue to grow it, but feel the need to have our elders legally made ministers or pastors. We can find almost nothing on how to become ordained for a non-denominational Bible based church.

Thank you so much for your help, and may God continue to bless your ministry.

I appreciate the update. It is always encouraging to learn of one's efforts being helpful to another, as we each struggle to grow more like Christ. ...

To be straightforward, I am not sure that I understand your second question exactly. However, a few thoughts did come to mind, which I will gladly share...

I am not sure what your pastor means by "ordained". The Bible does not mention any form of "official", or "formal" training to be an elder, deacon, evangelist, or just a plain Christian. Likewise, there is no reference to any formal "ordination", or "certification" that often accompanies such formal training. Depending on the accuracy of the teaching, attending a religious school can be profitable; however, it should have no part in confirming the qualifications of any its attendees. That work of selection is given to each local church - not a seminary, not an inter-congregational board, and certainly not the government. These bodies have no authority in recognizing spiritual offices, as far as the Bible is concerned. If they do, then I would ask a disputant for the passage to justify their authority, just as you seem to be asking.

In contrast to this, the Scriptures do refer to the early Jerusalem church "looking amongst themselves" to appoint servants to the particular task of caring for its widows (Acts 6:1-7). Moreover, Peter warns elders, or pastors, not to "lord themselves over the flock", instead they are to be examples to the flock (I Peter 5:1-5). This indicates that the elders have no authority to direct, or command the flock as would a "lord" or ruler. Therefore, elders have no more authority than that which arises from the flock voluntarily submitting to their wisdom. This would also suggest that elders are ultimately selected by the church; otherwise, they would needs be installed as some form of a "lord". In such a case, the congregation would be submitting to both the elders and the appointing board as "lords".

The qualifications for elders and deacons are plainly set forth in Scripture (I Timothy 3:1-13; Titus 1:5-9). Although the Scriptures speak of preachers and apostles appointing elders and deacons (Acts 14:23; Titus 1:5), my understanding is that they only "appointed" in the sense that they originally set forth God's will on qualified elders and deacons and, through their preaching, stimulated the congregation to follow God's will in appointing such men. This is the only way that I can reconcile all of these passages.

I would have no problem with an evangelist, or minister obtaining a legal certification, so he can legally perform marriage ceremonies. That seems a social ordination to perform a social task, which is not directly related to the spiritual work of the church. I would only be concerned if one thought this was necessary to perform the spiritual work of the church. As I said earlier, the Bible does not recognize any authority for governments in appointing spiritual officers for the church.

I apologize if this did not address your question. Maybe you can at least understand my thinking, and now refine my direction to address your original question. Hopefully, this will be of some help none the less.

As a side topic, you mentioned "your pastor". Although you did not raise this as part of your question, I would share my concern for a church having a single pastor, since pastors (which I believe is synonymous with elders) were always appointed in plural. The Bible never mentions a single elder being appointed in a church. It always speaks of "elders" or "pastors" in plural (Acts 11:30; 14:23; 15:2, 6, 22, 23; 20:17, 28; 21:18; Philippians 1:2; I Timothy 4:14; Titus 1:5; Hebrews 13:8, 17; I Peter 5:1-5). I would encourage you to read our brief article on elders, which addresses this topic in a little more detail:

http://insearchoftruth.org/articles/elders.html

My prayer is that these thoughts will be spiritually beneficial to you and the others there in Nebraska.

Please let me know if I can be of any more assistance, or if I can clarify any of these thoughts. I am always open to considering others understanding, if you find these viewpoints questionable.

Thanks again for your encouragement. It is greatly appreciated.

May God bless us with a more sincere love of the truth every day

Once again, I can barely find the words to thank you for taking the time and interest to help us. We are using your web sight (printed out) as our small group study on Saturday evenings to study what Christ intended for His church. We really appreciate your work and will probably continue to come to you with questions. Even though we're reading it, it seems better when someone confirms we are understanding correctly.

Thanks again and God bless!