What Is Wrong With Societies, Foundation

What Is Wrong With Societies, Foundations…

by Donald Townsley

What is wrong with societies, foundations and other auxiliaries that men form to do the work and worship that God planned from eternity for the church to do (Eph. 3:10-11)?

(1) In the New Testament we read of nothing larger than, nothing smaller than, and nothing other than the local church through which Christians are to work and worship together (Acts 9:26-28; 2:42; 20:7; Heb. 10:25; 1 Cor. 11:17-34; 1 Tim. 3:15; 1 Thess. 1:8).

When God specifies something man is limited to what He has specified.
When God specified singing that eliminates the instrument (Eph. 5:19; Col. 3:16).
When God specified gopher wood with which to build the ark, Noah was limited to gopher wood (Gen. 6:14).
When God specified the local church, man is limited to the local church (1 Tim. 3:15; Acts 20:7; 1 Cor. 11:18).
Since auxiliaries formed by men have no right to exist, it would make no difference where they get their financial support (churches, businesses, or individuals) because that is not what makes them wrong. They are wrong because they are functioning in the realm that God ordained for the local church (1 Tim. 3:15), and there is no authority for their existence!
Christians have no authority from the New Testament to form foundations and auxiliaries to preach the gospel and to receive individual support because these things supplant the church and infringe on the work and worship that God gave the church to do.
Churches have no authority from the New Testament to support missionary societies and auxiliaries that do the work God intended for the church; to do so destroys the independence of churches (1 Pet. 5:1-2; Acts 20:28; 14:23).
There is no divine authority for churches to pool their resources in a human organization and allow that human organization to do or to direct their work.
When brethren ignore the independence of the local church, they are on their way to a complete apostasy!

(2) These organizations are wrong because one cannot walk by faith and support them (2 Cor. 5:7; Rom. 10:17; Heb. 11:6).

Where there is no authority from the word of God, there can be no faith.
There is nothing in the word of God that authorizes them.

(3) Missionary societies and other auxiliaries are wrong because Christians have not been given a choice of teaching the gospel through the local church or through a human organization (1 Thess. 1:8; 2 Cor. 11:8-9; Acts 11:22-26).

(4) These human organizations are wrong because they violate the law of unity.

The gospel requires unity of mind and judgment (1 Cor. 1:10).

Christians are unified in mind and judgment by following the divine standard—the word of God (Jn. 12:48; 17:20-21).
The divine standard authorizes the local church for work and worship of Christians (Acts 2:42; 9:26-28; Heb. 10:25; 1 Tim. 3:15; Acts 20:7).
All agree when Christians work and worship in the local church, they are right and cannot be wrong.
Christians will not divide over working and worshipping in the local church.

(5) Missionary societies, foundations and auxiliaries that do the work and worship that God authorized for the local church to do are foreign to the teaching of the New Testament.

These organizations are unauthorized by the word of God, and they bring division among God’s people.
The use of human organizations violates the law of unity.

(6) Using human organizations to do the work that God built His church to do denies the completeness and sufficiency of the church.

The church is divine in origin (Eph. 3:9-11).
It was bought with the blood of Christ (Acts 20:28).
It was given a divine mission (1 Tim. 3:15; Acts 2:42; 20:7; 1 Cor. 16:1-2; 1 Tim. 5:16).
God has given the mission of supporting the truth and worship to no other institution in the world!
The church is the “pillar and ground of the truth” (1 Tim. 3:15)—not some human organization.

(7) God purposed the local church to be the medium of fellowship where Christians discharge their duty to one another and to God (1 Cor. 5; Phil. 2:1-4; 2 Thess. 3:6-15; Heb. 10:23-25; Acts 9:26-28). Human auxiliaries are unauthorized by God as mediums of fellowship for Christians to carry out their duties to one another and to God.

(8) Missionary societies and auxiliaries are nothing but substitutes for the divine plan—the local church.

God will not accept human substitutions for His divine plan.
Cain is an example that shows us God will not accept substitutes (Gen. 4:4-5; Heb. 11:4; 1 Jn. 3:12).

(9) The use of missionary societies and auxiliaries make the church an empty, meaningless organization.

Why have the church if other organizations can do the work and worship just as well as the local church?

(10) There is no place in God’s “eternal purpose” for a missionary society or any other organization other than the church to make known God’s “manifold wisdom” (Eph. 3:10-11).

One does not see the many-sided wisdom of God when he sees missionary societies, foundations and auxiliaries!
It is a shame when men are no longer satisfied with God’s “eternal purpose” (Eph. 3:10-11), and build organizations that are unknown in the New Testament to do the work that Christ built the church to do.

(11) Missionary societies, foundations and auxiliaries are not part of God’s thoughts and ways.

God said, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith Jehovah” (Isa. 55:8).
God’s thoughts have been revealed to man that we may do God’s will (Deut. 29:29; Eph. 3:3-4; Matt. 7:21).
God’s thoughts and ways to carry the gospel to the world is the individual Christian and the local church (Acts 8:14; 11:19-21; 2 Tim. 2:2; Eph. 6:4; Tit. 2:3-4; 1 Tim. 3:15; 1 Thess. 1:8; Phil. 4:14-18; 2 Cor. 11:8).
Man’s thoughts and ways to do the work God gave the individual Christian and the local church is to do the work through missionary societies, foundations and other auxiliaries.

(12) In creating missionary societies, foundations and all kinds of auxiliaries to do the work God gave the church to do, men are trying to change God’s “eternal purpose” (Eph. 3:10-11) by substituting human organizations and devices of men.

Men who attempt to change God’s “eternal purpose” stand under the condemnation of God (2 Jn. 9; Rev. 22:18-19).

(13) God’s word is “the seed” of the kingdom (Lk. 8:11; Matt. 13:19; 4:23).

Seed produces after its kind (Gal. 6:7-8).
God’s word will not produce missionary societies, foundations and all kinds of auxiliaries—it will only produce the church!

(14) Missionary societies, foundations and auxiliaries of any kind are efforts on the part of men to help God.

Christians are “labourers together with God” (1 Cor. 3:9), but they must work according to God’s plan.
When men presume to devise plans of their own that conflict with God’s plan, they become transgressors of God’s will!
Moses smote the rock instead of speaking to the rock and God did not allow him to bring the children of Israel into the land that He gave them (Num. 20:7-12).
Nadab and Abihu “offered strange fire before the Lord, which he commanded them not” and there went out fire from the Lord and devoured them, and they died before the Lord (Lev. 10:1-2).
Establishment of denominations—work is vain (Psa. 127:1).
Changing the worship—worship is vain (Matt. 15:9).
Changing the plan of salvation will cause many to be lost (Mk. 16:16; 2 Thess. 1:8).
Foundations, missionary societies and auxiliaries are efforts to help God; they conflict with God’s plan for the local church (1 Tim. 3:15; Eph. 3:10-11).
God has warned us over and over of the consequences of trying to help Him; it will cause one to be lost (Matt. 7:21-23).

(15) Using missionary societies, foundations and auxiliaries to preach the gospel are examples of doing the right thing in the wrong way.

It is right to teach and preach the gospel (Mk. 16:15-16).
It is wrong to preach the gospel through a human institution—no authority for it.
It is an unauthorized and presumptuous way to do a right thing—the end does not justify the means (Psa. 19:13).
The apostles and early Christians preached the gospel as individuals and through the local church—but never through a human organization!

(16) Missionary societies, foundations and other auxiliaries are arrangements devised by men that deny the sufficiency of God’s arrangement (the local church) to accomplish the mission that Christ gave it in the world.

These arrangements by men impeach the wisdom of God (Eph. 3:10-11).
If men can change God’s plan for the local church and supplant it with human organizations, using them to usurp the functions that God gave the church, why can’t men change God’s plan of salvation that He gave to save the souls of men?
Many brethren who will condemn men for changing the plan of salvation, will turn around and change God’s plan for the local church!
Some will argue, “Why can’t a human organization preach the gospel as well as the local church; the gospel is being preached and good is being done?” The difference is that once can read in the word of God that the local church is to preach the gospel, but one cannot read about a human organization preaching the gospel!
If God had just commanded His children to work and worship without giving them an organization through which to work and worship, they could obey the command by forming any kind of organization.
God did not just give a generic command to work and worship.
God gave a specific organization through which His children are to work and worship—the local church (Acts 20:7; 1 Tim. 3:15; Acts 14:23).
When God gave a specific organization (the local church) through which His children are to work and worship, this excluded all other organizations (just as “singing” excludes the instrument).

Note: No originality is claimed; these arguments
were gleaned from many sources. -Donald Townsley