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“Preparing for a Smaller Brotherhood”
PREPARING FOR A SMALLER BROTHERHOOD
Bill Jackson —Deceased
Before someone tries to rename me, let me state that “I am not Chicken Little, running around crying that THE SKY IS FALLING!” I do not believe that the sky is falling. I do know that many congregations are fallen, and more will fall; and I know many members of the church have done and are doing the same. Sadly, in spite of all the publicity given to the marks of apostasy in our time, some are still prone to chalk it up to “preacher excitability, and exaggeration.” They state that after documentation of more than 160 congregations having had internal problems due to the Crossroads/ Boston Movement errors [Of the late 1970s and early 80s in the church—Editor].
Some will still say, “Peace, peace, when there is no peace.” I am stating no more, in this article’s heading, than was in the mind of Paul and others as they worked in the first century, and pointed to the coming great apostasy. Paul spoke of the departures from the faith (1 Tim. 4:1), and that due to men who have tired of sound doctrine, and wish to hear something else (2 Tim. 4:1-4). Peter spoke of false teachers who will bring in damnable heresies, and that “many shall follow their pernicious ways” (2 Peter 2:1-2). The Lord had waning faith in mind in looking to His return and asking, “when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8). Our Lord, and the apostles, were laying before us the matter of the church, as a result of apostasies, being smaller than in an earlier time. We do not see how any informed member can doubt it.
There cannot be great apostasy and the church still be growing in number. There cannot be all the weakness associated with departures from the faith, and great spiritual or numerical strength at the same time. Having fallen from the “top ten,” the church will fall further unless there is, very soon, a turnaround that we cannot now see. In fact, being “in the top ten,” and pridefully desiring to remain so, or to climb even higher, no doubt encouraged some to soften all stance in order to be more pleasing unto men, and to gain the numbers that will be so impressive that we will remain high in denominational favor. After all, the denominational papers and magazines were the ones keeping the count, and some in our ranks wanted to keep these in a favorable mood toward us. But, did not Jesus warn, “Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you!” (Luke 6:26)?
We must then prepare for a smaller brotherhood. When the apostasy has run its course, that is what we will have. But, it will be a more faithful brotherhood, loving God and loving truth, and still holding onto and preaching exactly what we believed and preached since Pentecost, 33 A.D. It will still be the body of the Christ (Eph. 1:22-23), charged with making known to lost men the manifold wisdom of God (Eph. 3:10). It will be the body maintaining the New Testament’s marks for the church, in name, in organization, in work, in the plan of salvation taught, and in the form of New Testament worship. It may not be the body once positioned on Main Street, downtown in a large city, having long since had to move once again into the frame building down some side street and across the tracks, but it will be the body of Christ, and faithful to the Lord. It will be the body known by the Lord, and to be claimed by Him when He next appears (1 Cor. 15:24). A congregation does not have to be great in size to be either faithful or blest by God! There will remain, I fear, one confusing element.
Unlike some hobbyistic movements, so anxious to leave the church that they readily adopted some other religious name, the trend in modern-day liberalism is to keep the designation “church of Christ.” Some few, in demonstration of “freedom” will be “the Family of God...Fellowship Cathedral... House of the Carpenter...” etc., but doubtless most will retain the wording “church of Christ.” Those who are traveling will have to do more careful advanced planning as to where they will stop for worship. But still, if worship is important—and it is—the planning is worth it. We will have to do that planning, for the brotherhood will be smaller!
