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[Note: <\/strong>This MS is available in larger font on our Manuscripts<\/strong> page.]<\/span><\/p>\n Introduction<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Seven hundred fifty years before Jesus\u2019 birth, Hosea, on behalf of God, denounced Israel\u2019s ignorance and its consequence: \u201cMy people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I also will forget thy children\u201d (4:6). Ignorance of God\u2019s law was their <\/strong>downfall, and it will cause the same consequence for any present-day saint or congregation of them if they persist in it. Moreover, one is greatly advantaged who has some knowledge concerning matters related to God\u2019s Word, besides that Word itself.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It will be impossible to do justice in one chapter to the three subjects included in its title (in truth, they each deserve a chapter\u2014or perhaps a book\u2014of their own). One must be either a spiritual babe and\/or grossly misguided to believe that knowledge of these areas of information is unimportant to one\u2019s faithfulness to the Christ. Undeniably, a major factor in the extensive apostasy the church has suffered over the past six decades has been that so many brethren have failed to inform themselves in one or more of these areas.<\/span><\/p>\n Since knowledge of these facts (and their implications and correct applications) is necessary to attaining and maintaining good spiritual health, we do well to briefly consider why ignorance of them is so pervasive.<\/span><\/p>\n In some cases, a combination of the foregoing factors may have contributed to the prevalent ignorance that has been\u2014and continues to be\u2014such a curse to the church of the Lord. Moses lamented in plaintive terms the apostasy of Israel he foresaw: \u201cOh that they were wise, that they understood this, That they would consider their latter end!\u201d (Deu. 32:29). So we would wish concerning thousands of the Lord\u2019s people. Let us now consider each of these areas of important information.<\/span><\/p>\n Keeping Informed About Church History<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Moses was born under the \u201cexecutive order\u201d of infanticide, enacted by a merciless and cruel pharaoh to control population growth of enslaved Israel. This order arose at least in part because he apparently failed Egyptian History 101:<\/span><\/p>\n Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who knew not Joseph…. And the king of Egypt spake to the Hebrew midwives, of whom the name of the one was Shiphrah, and the name of the other Puah; and he said, When ye do the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women, and see them upon the birth-stool; if it be a son, then ye shall kill him; but if it be a daughter, then she shall live (Exo. 1:8, 15\u201316).<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Pharaoh\u2019s murderous edict graphically illustrates the sort of tragedy that can result because of ignorance of history in general. This potential for tragedy in the wake of ignorance also applies with no less force to God\u2019s people and their need to know and remember their history, both inspired and uninspired.<\/span><\/p>\n God manifestly knew that Israel needed to maintain knowledge of their history if they would be faithful to Him. The ceremony and ritual involved in the initial Passover spared the Hebrews from the God-dispatched destroyer who \u201cpassed over\u201d their houses without harming them. God decreed the Passover observance for the Jews in perpetuity as a memorial of His deliverance of them from their bondage (Exo. 12:24). This event of Israel\u2019s history was to be so retained in their knowledge that generations later, when their children asked them, \u201cWhat mean ye by this service?\u201d they could recite this historic deliverance (vv. 25\u201327). When Ahaz, one of the worst of the wicked kings of Judah, thrust the nation into idolatry and apostasy, he apparently canceled the Passover observance (2 Chr. 28:1\u20134, 22\u201325). He doubtless understood the threat its recollection of history would be to his wicked designs. Righteous Hezekiah followed Ahaz, both destroying his idolatry and reinstating the Passover (2 Chr. 30:5). Judah\u2019s faithfulness was generally parallel to her faithful Passover observance with its crucial remembrance of history.<\/span><\/p>\n Jehovah again emphasized the significance of Israel\u2019s knowledge of its history. When Israel crossed the Jordan by God\u2019s miraculous provision, he commanded Joshua to erect a twelve-stone monument to be a \u201cconversation starter\u201d for future generations. As the children would ask their parents, \u201cWhat meaneth these stones?\u201d they were to rehearse the history of the way God rolled back the Jordan for them to enter Canaan (Jos. 4:1\u20138). Both this monument and the Passover observance imply the necessity of knowing the history to which they were tied and from which they had emerged. More than this, the very purpose of knowing and relating this history was to engender trust in and faithfulness to God, Who had so richly blessed them. When they forgot their history, they forgot God, for He was intimately and inseparably bound up in it.<\/span><\/p>\n The New Testament would contain considerably fewer pages if we stripped it of its quotations from Old Testament passages, not to mention the almost countless additional references to historical persons and events besides. Bible students can call to mind numerous instances in which the Lord or an inspired New Testament penman issued a warning rooted in Old Testament history. Jesus condemned Capernaum for its unbelief, reminding them of Sodom and Gomorrah (Mat. 11:23\u201324). He referenced such historical personages as Solomon (Mat.<\/span><\/p>\n 6:29), Jonah (12:40\u201341), Moses (19:8), and Noah (24:37) and made application of their experiences and\/or accomplishments.<\/span><\/p>\n Paul clearly expected those to whom he wrote and preached to profit from history: \u201cFor whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that through patience and through comfort of the scriptures we might have hope\u201d (Rom. 15:4). The Hebrews writer based stern warnings about apostasy on God\u2019s judgment upon Old Testament apostates (Heb. 2:1\u20133; 10:28\u201331). He also issued great encouragement by listing several historical spiritual heroes and heroines, depicting them as cheering us on in the Christian race (Heb. 11:1\u201312:1). Moreover, there appears to have been a rather large reservoir of historical knowledge in the Jews contemporary with the Lord and the apostles. One gets the impression that they expected those who heard and read their inspired words to be conversant with the historical events, persons, and places to which they referred. Obviously, inspired men understood the need to know spiritual history. \u201cChurch history\u201d specifically spans from Pentecost to five minutes ago and involves both inspired and uninspired history. Further, in a general sense, this history can hardly ignore the Old Testament prophecies, types, and shadows that foretell the Messiah and His kingdom.<\/span><\/p>\n The general level of ignorance of inspired history\u2014including both portions of the Bible\u2014is appalling among the Lord\u2019s people. Our spiritual forbears of only three or four generations ago were generally characterized by a hunger and thirst for knowledge of God\u2019s Word, born of an unquenchable faith in and love for it. This spiritual appetite drove them to study their Bibles daily, and the preachers they heard gave them good, solid spiritual food\u2014laden with \u201cbook, chapter, and verse.\u201d Succeeding generations lost that desire to study and learn what God would have us do and be, satisfied to be spoon-fed by a preacher once or twice a week, with little or no study on their own through the week. Add to this lack of appetite the fact that on Sundays they may only get 15\u201320-minute \u201ctalks\u201d designed to make them feel good\u2014and that may make little reference to Scripture. Such ignorance has left thousands of saints and hundreds of congregations practically defenseless before any and every \u201cwind of doctrine.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n God\u2019s lament through Hosea over Israel\u2019s gross ignorance of His Word could as well be said of His spiritual \u201cIsrael\u201d over the past five or six decades. As old Israel\u2019s ignorance proved destructive to her, so ignorance of the Bible has all but invited error in doctrine and practice, as well as immorality, to flourish among the people of God. Moreover, mere \u201chead knowledge\u201d of God\u2019s Word is insufficient if there is no reverence for it as Holy Writ and if there is no desire or feeling of obligation to obey what one learns. Many who teach in theological schools have a thorough knowledge of the New Testament, but they deny its inspiration and have no intention of practicing any of it.<\/span><\/p>\n Knowledge of uninspired church history can be very helpful in maintaining our faithfulness in the kingdom. Those do well who have a clear concept of inspired church history of the first century. Those also do well who have some knowledge of the major stages of apostasy of the succeeding nineteen centuries of uninspired history. Brethren need to have at least some acquaintance with the roots of hundreds of unauthorized doctrines and practices that eventuated in the monstrosity known as Roman Catholicism. The Roman Church held unchallengeable religious and civil power for centuries, at least in the Western World. Brethren also need to know that an effort to reform the Catholic Church began in the sixteenth century, resulting in no Catholic reforms, but in the beginning of the so-called \u201cProtestant\u201d Churches, that have, in turn, produced the thousands of denominations.<\/span><\/p>\n Moreover, brethren particularly <\/strong>need to know something of the efforts of the sacrificial and dedicated men, beginning in the late eighteenth century, who decided to forget the obviously failed efforts at reformation. Brethren need to be familiar with the thrilling account of the fact that these men saw in their study of the New Testament the imperative to maintain the church as it began under the inspired administration of the apostles. They pled with others to simply return to the New Testament and reproduce\/restore the church as inspired men portrayed it.<\/span><\/p>\n The effect of familiarity with church history over the past twenty centuries will give one who would be faithful certain definable advantages toward being faithful:<\/span><\/p>\n It is extremely disheartening that so few brethren know or even have any curiosity about those dedicated brethren who have gone before and who have made great sacrifices of time, talent, and what little treasure most of them had to advance the cause of primitive religion. Their lives and struggles are sources of great inspiration for true disciples. I strongly encourage the reading of any of the following one-volume summaries as a beginning point for a broad overview of church history:<\/span><\/p>\n For a far more comprehensive history, particularly of the effort in our nation to restore the church, the four volumes of The Search for the Ancient Order<\/em>, by Earl Irvin West, are unbeatable.<\/span><\/p>\n George Santayana, the American poet-philosopher of the previous century, may be best known for the following sage observation: \u201cThose who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.\u201d We could well add, as a footnote to Santayana\u2019s statement: \u201cYes, and those who do not know <\/strong>anything about the past cannot very well remember it.\u201d So very many in the church of the Lord know nothing of the departures and apostasies of the past\u2014and the Scriptural refutations of them\u2014and have fallen prey to repeating those errors.<\/span><\/p>\n Keeping Informed About Current Events in the Church Universal<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n The Lord\u2019s church today is by no means the same body it was fifty years ago. My grandfather (an elder for forty years in central Texas) or even my father (whose more than thirty years of preaching ended in 1966) would not believe their eyes and ears were they to be \u201cbeamed down\u201d into many present-day assemblies that now masquerade under the designation, Church of Christ<\/em>. They would surely believe that someone had placed a Church of Christ <\/em>sign on these buildings by mistake or as a prank. They would be struck by the gross contradiction between the sign outside and the preaching and practice going on inside.<\/span><\/p>\n Even into the early 1960s, traveling Christians could stop on a Lord\u2019s day at almost any building bearing a sign Church of Christ<\/em>, confident that they would find brethren engaging in Scriptural worship and teaching God\u2019s Word faithfully in classroom and pulpit (with notable exceptions in some Midwest and Northwest states where the Christian Church has deceptively retained the Church of Christ <\/em>designation since 1906). Those whose adult Christian lives have spanned a half-century or more are well aware of the changes\u2014radical changes\u2014the church of the Lord has undergone. In no corner of the world has the church escaped them.<\/span><\/p>\n I have many times been asked why <\/strong>and how <\/strong>this metamorphosis has happened to a people whose very reason for existence characteristically has been merely to be the New Testament church by adhering to the scriptural pattern for it. These are significant questions that deserve answers. Many who have lived through these changes are still perplexed by and about them. Some brethren admit being \u201cuncomfortable\u201d with what they see and hear in their congregations, but they cannot quite \u201cput their finger\u201d on just what makes them thus feel. Especially do those generations that are too young to \u201cbridge back\u201d fifty years in their experience need to know (1) that a grievous evolution has occurred and (2) what at least some of the factors are that have produced it.<\/span><\/p>\n Major Elements of the Evolution <\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Every movement of apostasy, digression, and departure from the Truth since Pentecost has involved either liberalism or anti-ism.<\/span><\/p>\n The Lord\u2019s church has doubtless had some of both brands of apostates almost from Pentecost. The two hundred-year history of the restored church in our nation includes the rise of various antis and liberals. It took a few decades for the fruits of some of these men to mature into \u201cmovements\u201d with widespread effects (the devil is content to take small steps). Liberalism resulted in the American Christian Missionary Society, soon followed by introduction of instrumental music in worship by the mid-nineteenth century. Anti-ism resulted in such things as opposition to Bible colleges, individual communion cups, and \u201clocated\u201d preachers.<\/span><\/p>\n While both strains of divergent theology are equally repugnant to our Savior, liberalism seems always to prove the more devastating of the two in the long run. It required half a century from the time men began pleading for a return to the old Jerusalem Gospel for the influence of the missionary society and instrumental music liberals to reach fruition. It produced a devastating division in 1906 that took about eighty-six percent of the church at that time with it, thereafter becoming the two-pronged \u201cChristian Church,\u201d both branches of which have become increasingly permissive over the century of their existence. Between the two World Wars, the liberal and speculative views of prophetic fulfillment (i.e., premillennialism) posed a major threat to the faithful remnant left after the great division of 1906. Foy E. Wallace, Jr., led the exposure and refutation of this threat to the faith, which, by 1950, had isolated and all but decimated its influence except in a few congregations.<\/span><\/p>\n The early aforementioned anti <\/em>issues never gained major traction, and only a very few small groups of these folk can be found. However, about the time the battle had been won over premillennialism, a few brethren began trumpeting the twin issues of (1) opposition to church support of children\u2019s homes operated by brethren and (2) of one church\u2019s sending funds to another one to assist with support for its work (i.e., \u201canti-church cooperation\u201d). By the mid-1960s these brethren created sufficient confusion to attract perhaps ten percent of the brotherhood to their anti views. They have made few if any inroads since that time.<\/span><\/p>\n A new strain of liberalism began to gain traction in the mid-1960s that has proved to be a malignant force of greater proportions than the one that began a century earlier. In perhaps half the time it took its predecessor, it has done as much or more damage. Rather than distilling their efforts to only two major thrusts as did their nineteenth-century forebears, liberals in this latest assault from within have determined to reform, restructure, and reshape every facet of the restored church that distinguishes it from every other religious organization. Nothing is sacred to its appetite for change. It calls in question the restored worship, work, and organization of the church. Even the plan of salvation the apostles declared and implemented on Pentecost is elective. Such restructuring has blurred the line of fellowship, resulting in \u201copen membership\u201d that adds unsaved people to their church rolls.<\/span><\/p>\n To this cadre of dedicated liberals the denominations are \u201csister churches,\u201d which is consistent with their view of the restored church itself as merely another denomination. Summarized, the liberal onslaught of the past half century has been characterized by one great principle: abandonment of the need for Scriptural authority concerning every doctrine and practice that make the church of the Lord unique among the thousands of counterfeit religious institutions men have built. To a lesser degree, a \u201cnew breed\u201d of liberal has arisen since 2005. These are men who had a record of soundness and faithfulness in the kingdom over many years, but who, for a variety of motivations, turned a blind eye and a deaf ear to a prominent brother\u2019s impenitent errors regarding the eldership and marriage, divorce, and remarriage. This denial of reality caused them to make fellowship compromises, plainly forbidden by the Lord\u2019s inspired spokesmen (Rom. 17:17\u201318; Eph. 5:11; 2 John 9\u201311; et al.).<\/span><\/p>\n Paul\u2019s familiar statement of the authority obligation is both concise and clear: \u201cAnd whatsoever ye do, in word or in deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him\u201d (Col. 3:17). This multi-faceted malignancy has captured hundreds if not thousands of churches and tens of thousands of saints to one degree or another.<\/span><\/p>\n Some Factors Behind the Evolution <\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Those bent on provoking such changes in recent years have been eager to spread their influence far and wide. All of the factors discussed in the Introduction to this chapter (i.e., ignorance, apathy, naivete\u0301, et al.) have contributed significantly to this disastrous evolution. Other elements that have enabled these forces to ravage and savage the bride of Christ so completely in a relatively short span are the following:<\/span><\/p>\n The foregoing points by no means exhaust the list of contributing factors. If space permitted, we could also include detailed discussion on the role of pride, monetary advantage, emotionalism, the fear of being called \u201cnarrow-minded,\u201d and others.<\/span><\/p>\n Some preventive and\/or remedial measures for the evolution <\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Let us now consider some of the measures that would have prevented much of the apostasy the church has suffered over the past half-century. Where apostasy has occurred, some may be reclaimed by these same measures.<\/span><\/p>\n The foregoing resources do not even take into account the inexhaustible supply of information available via the Internet.<\/span><\/p>\n The congregation that is not being bothered with the change-agent agenda today may find it on its doorstep tomorrow. The individual Christian (particularly if he is an elder, Acts 20:28\u201331) who has no interest in such matters is grossly negligent. As with all other potential threats, so with these threats to the body of Christ: To be forewarned is to be forearmed.<\/span><\/p>\n Keeping Informed About World Events Impacting the Church<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Some brethren give little or no attention whatsoever to any world events (e.g., world rulers and their policies and legislation). Others seem almost to be slaves to news media for the latest reports of events of every sort, both at home and abroad. Between these extremes lies the middle ground of a healthy interest in and concern relating to developments in the world about us that can\u2014and sometimes do\u2014affect the Lord\u2019s people. Scriptural precedent for such awareness and interest abounds. The Lord and the penmen of the New Testament acknowledge that His disciples live in both a material and a spiritual realm. Jesus called attention to this fact when He said, \u201cRender therefore unto Caesar the things that are Caesar\u2019s; and unto God that which is God\u2019s\u201d (Mat. 22:21). As Jesus schooled Pontius Pilate about Who was really in power and the existence of a kingdom superior to that of Rome, He made it clear to the governor that He was well aware of the events, laws, and governmental systems of this world:<\/span><\/p>\n Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence…. Pilate therefore saith unto him, Speakest thou not unto me? Knowest thou not that I have power to release thee, and have power to crucify thee? Jesus answered him, Thou wouldest have no power against me, except it were given thee from above: therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath greater sin (John 18:36; 19:10\u201311).<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n One cannot read Luke\u2019s portions of the New Testament without noting his great familiarity with events in the world that related to His principal readers\u2014the church of the Lord. He dates John\u2019s birth in the \u201cdays of Herod, king of Judaea\u201d (Luke 1:5). He tied the time of Jesus\u2019 birth to the rule of Caesar Augustus and particularly to \u201cwhen Quirinius was governor of Syria\u201d and specified that the circumstance that brought Joseph and Mary from Nazareth to Bethlehem was an edict (i.e., civil law) of a world ruler (Luke 2:1\u20132). Luke several times mentions the names of various soldiers, proconsuls, and governors as he records his inspired church history (Acts 10:1; 12:1; 13:7; 18:12; 23:25\u201326; 24:27; 25:13).<\/span><\/p>\n Paul valued his Hebrew heritage (Phi. 3:5\u20136), but he also was fully aware of his Roman citizenship and the rights and privileges that Roman law granted (Acts 16:35\u201339; 22:25\u201329; 25:10\u201312). The book of Revelation is a book written in the \u201ccode\u201d of signs and symbols (Rev. 1:1). It\u2019s primary purpose was to reveal to the saints living at the close of the first century the way world rulers, laws, and events were going to affect them. Obviously, the Lord knew they needed to be aware of these matters.<\/span><\/p>\n We live in a world in which everything associated with the Bible and Christians is increasingly under assault worldwide. Our nation, though founded by men who accepted the Bible as God\u2019s Word and incorporated various Bible principles into our founding documents, is no exception to this assault, for example:<\/span><\/p>\n The foregoing are but samples of worldly issues that are already affecting Christians and thus the church.<\/span><\/p>\n It is the height of folly to wrap oneself in a cocoon of deliberate ignorance of such matters as if they have no bearing on one\u2019s life. The Lord did not do so, and neither did His apostles or other New Testament writers. While we must never forget that we are not of <\/strong>the world, we are nevertheless in <\/strong>the world and cannot avoid feeling its impact.<\/span><\/p>\n Conclusion<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n The supreme aim of every Christian must be to live so as to remain faithful to Christ and join Him in Heaven at last. We must be so dedicated to this aim that even the threat of imprisonment or death will not deter us from it (Mat. 10:18\u201333; Rev. 2:10). This aim will motivate those who are sober-minded to be perpetual students, applying the Bible so as to walk ever more fully \u201cin the light, as he is in the light\u201d (1 John 1:7). It will also motivate us to learn something of church history, to keep abreast of the doctrines that circulate among brethren all over the world, and to stay informed about events in the world that might or will prove meaningful to our service in the Master\u2019s Cause.<\/span><\/p>\n [Note: <\/strong>I wrote this MS for and I presented a digest of it orally at the Contending for the Faith Lectures, hosted by the Spring, TX, Church of Christ, February 19\u201323, 2014. It was published in the book of the lectures, What Must a Christian Do To Remain Faithful To Christ? <\/em>ed. David P. Brown (Spring, TX: Contending for the Faith.)].<\/span><\/p>\n Attribution:<\/strong>\u00a0 From thescripturecache.com<\/em>; Dub McClish, owner and administrator.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Views: 0[Note: This MS is available in larger font on our Manuscripts page.] Introduction Seven hundred fifty years before Jesus\u2019 birth, Hosea, on behalf of God, denounced Israel\u2019s ignorance and its consequence: \u201cMy people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge,…<\/p>\n\n
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