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This is the Church
by
A T Jones
Part Three
The "True" Church
(All the emphasis has been added by the Protestors)
Church organization (2)
There has never been a system of what is called "church organization" that has not demonstrated itself to be as cruel as the devil. The theory is that such "church," having the true church organization, is "the true church," which to be in is the surety of eternal salvation, and which to be separated from is the guaranty of forfeiture of eternal life.
Now it is certain that in the true Christian Church, only the true Christian Spirit must be found and only this Spirit the prevailing one. Without this it is impossible that any church can be true, and much less be the true. What then is the true and genuine Christian Spirit?
First of all it is only the Holy Spirit of God: for the Lord would not allow His own chosen and ordained and commissioned apostles to make a single move toward anything of The Church until they had been "baptized with the Holy Ghost." Luke 24:49; Acts 1: 4-5. And of this the inevitable "fruit" is "love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance;" and "Liberty;" for "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is Liberty" - liberty of thought, liberty of speech, and liberty of action. Galatians 5:22-23; 2 Corinthians 3:17. This is the Christian Spirit. And this is the Spirit that rules and is manifested in every church that is Christian. And the manifestation of this Spirit is definitely defined as -
"The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy." James 3:17.
Now in what is called "church organization," one man, or two men, or three men, or a few men invent and form a "plan of organization," and persuade people to accept it and to submit to it: which is in fact to submit to the rule of the men who hold the "offices," and thereby hold "the keys" to open or shut heaven.
And when the "organization" is completed and in working order, then any member who is not conforming to the will and workings of the officialdom is required to do so. And if in obedience to Christ in His Spirit and in His truth, or in his Christian liberty to think and speak and act, he does not do so, he is separated from the "organization" and ostracized from all recognition of the "church" and "the brethren" and thus is completely excluded from "the church." And if any of the brethren disregard the exclusion of the Christian brother and fellowship him and receive him into their houses, then they immediately become subject to suspicion and to being "eyed:" and if this does not prove corrective then they must also be separated. And the theory is that exclusion from that "church" means the loss of eternal life.
That is, for a man's disagreement with a man or a few men who "represent the church," by these men in their "representing the church," and in that their "representing God," that man is deliberately deprived of eternal life!
Now could the devil himself be more cruel than that - to put such a penalty as that upon such an "offence" as that, which in truth is no offence either to God or man? Eternal death, for disagreement with a man! Yet, in brief, that is exactly the process in and of the first such "church organization" - the false Catholic church - and of every other structure that is called "church organization." The Roman "organization" is proud of it and boasts of it as proof of her divinity.
Others repudiate that "church" with her "organization" as "the man of sin," "the mystery of iniquity," "the son of perdition," and "the beast;" and yet build one of their own on the same principle and after the same pattern; and with it do the same thing. Some of these others, indeed, have enough discernment to see the enormity of it, and compunction enough to try to evade it with the claim that in their case it does not affect the loss of eternal life to the one cast out; but is only his separation from the "organization" and its "fellowship:" because "we believe in religious liberty!"
But that is only a dodge and camouflage. For, if that be true, it is a plain confession that their "organization" and "fellowship" is not the true Church, but is no more than is any other mere club.
[Protestors' Note: And this is what a "church"is!!! See EGW comment.]
But they do not mean anything of the kind. They do not mean to abate an iota of the claim that theirs is the true Church indeed with all that this involves or implies: that to be in it means eternal life, and that separation from it means eternal death. And by this claim it is that they hold their power over the people. Does anybody think for a moment that for a moment any of the people would endure what they do endure there, or would stand in awe of that "church" authority or power, if they understood that all that the "organization" and association amounts to is only that of a mere human society or club?
Yet in truth and in fact and in effect, just that is all that it is.
It is only the superstition that in some mysteriously ineffable way the officialdom and hierarchy of the "organization" are possessed of a spiritual power that can affect the standing of the souls of men before God - it is only this superstition that causes the people against their own conviction and their own common sense of the right, to endure or sanction the "church" procedure in many and various ways. What else than superstition could it be that could cause people to think that some men in the "church" through election by other men or by themselves are partakers or possessors of spiritual authority or power to which all the other people of the "church" must unquestioningly defer, or else jeopardize their soul with God?
That is precisely the principle, and the superstition, of the infallibility of the pope.
The pope is elected by the cardinals, from among themselves, or by himself. No cardinal possesses or even claims any scintilla of infallibility. Yet when these cardinals who have none of it, elect one of themselves, who have none of it, and thus occupies the office and seat of pope, immediately he has all of it. How does he get it? Where does it come from? Oh, from the office, from the seat, of course: for it is only when he speaks ex cathedra, that is "from the chair," that he is infallible.
And every other officialdom of "church organization" is of the same stripe and the same superstition.
oooOooo
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