Undenominational Christianity

Continually I come in contact with people who are confused over the various denominations that are in existence. Often I am asked, “Can I be a Christian without belonging to a denominational church?”

In the early days of Christianity there were no denominations. The early followers of the Christ were simply called Christians (Acts 11:26). Collectively, they were referred to as “churches of Christ” (Romans 16:16). Religiously, the apostles Paul, Peter, John, and all the rest were neither Catholic, Protestant, nor Jew. They were Christians only.

First century Christianity was undenominational Christianity. There term should not be confused with the modern idea expressed in “inter- denominational” or “all-denominational” Christianity. Those who tried to create divisions within the church in the first century which would have resulted in denominations were reprimanded (I Corinthians 1:10-13). Their allegiance was to Christ and to Him only. The “party spirit” was not present in pure New Testament Christianity. There were no divisions over doctrine which divides the religious world today. Those who followed Jesus, followed His Word; they had a “Thus saith the Lord” for all they practiced. They were followers of Christ, members of the church which He purchased with His blood—this and nothing more. They practiced no man-made creeds which would have made them members of man-made denominations.

Certainly today if we follow the Christ as they did, we too can be just Christians, having “like precious faith” with the apostles (II Peter 1:1). We will be, as they were free from the error and confusion of denominationalism. We can worship and serve the same God as simply and acceptably as they did, following the pattern set forth in the New Testament. When we follow the same God and the same Christ using the blueprint given to us by Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit, then we can be New Testament Christians just as men and women were nearly two thousand years ago.

The plea of the church of Christ has been the same from the beginning. The Scriptures are sufficient to guide us in all matters of religion (II Timothy 3:16-17; II Peter 1:3). We plead for men to abide in the “old paths” and walk therein. You can be an undenominational Christian just as in the early days of the church by following only the teaching of the New Testament.

William S. Cline

Football Christianity

Quarterback Sneak — Those who quietly exit following the Lord’s supper, a quarter of the way through the worship service, or near the last quarter of worship.

Draft Choice — Selection of seat near the back door.

Draw Play — What too many children (and a few adults) do with attendance cards.

Bench Warmer — Those whose only participation is attendance on Sunday morning.

Backfield in Motion — Making three or four trips out of the auditorium during the worship service.

Stay in the Pocket — What happens to a lot of money that should go toward the work of the church.

Two-Minute Warning — When the preacher begins extending the invitation, giving everyone time to shuffle song books and gather up belongings.

Sudden Death — When the preacher goes into overtime.

Blitz — The stampede for the doors after the dismissal prayer.

Halfback Option — When 50% of the congregation does not return on Sunday night.

Author Unknown

I Believe in Santa’s Cause

Many years ago the singing group, The Statler Brothers, had a song titled, “I Believe In Santa’s Cause.” As I think about the meaning of that song, I realized that I, too believe in Santa’s Cause.

Santa’s Cause involves happiness for all people. Santa is one who spreads good will. It should be my desire to live peaceably with all men (Romans 12:18). Santa wants everybody to be happy. There is nothing negative ever said about Santa. Santa brings smiles, joy, and happiness to everyone he is around. In a world full of violence, bloodshed, and despair, Santa brings joy, peace, and happiness. The Christian should shine and stand out in the midst of a crooked generation (Philippians 2:15). The Christian should be the light that is needed to bring happiness to all around.

Santa’s cause involves giving. No one can think about Santa without thinking of giving. This time of year involves giving. Unfortunately many people are getters, not givers. Some love to get, but do not like to give. Giving involves sacrifice. Jesus said “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35). Is this our attitude generally around Christmas?

If we did not get any presents under the tree, how would we feel? Perhaps many young children are taught that getting is more important than giving. When we give presents we feel good. How do we feel when we have to give money to a certain cause? Are we stingy or liberal? The giving that Santa represents ought to be a very real part of the Christian’s life year round.

Santa’s cause also involves universal love. Santa looks at children in Afghanistan and Iraq the same way he does children in America. We, too should have a universal love for all people.

The Bible says God is no respecter of persons (Acts 10:34). Neither should Christians be biased or partial (James 2:9). This time of year the love for many is shown. From the church that gives baskets to the needy of the community to the individual who makes a special gift to send to someone, universal love is seen in many areas. God’s universal love for the world caused Him to send His Son into a world that was full of sin.

Let us believe in Santa’s cause year round. The thought of spreading happiness, good will and universal love should be part of the Christian’s life 12 months a year. Do you believe in Santa’s cause?

Author Unknown

That Time of Year Again

Undoubtedly, during this holiday season more people (in our culture, at least) will be thinking and talking about the birth of Jesus than at any other time of the year. We see the effect of this phenomenon in various marketing and advertising campaigns, music that is played on popular radio stations, greeting cards, and slogans such as, “Jesus is the reason for the season.”

The birth of Christ is certainly among the most important (supernatural) events in the overall history of the world. It was/is a cause for great joy—something which God saw fit to have recorded in His Word. It signaled the implementation and the culmination of His Scheme of Redemption, the gift of complete forgiveness, available to all mankind.

However, as important as the birth of the Son of God is, it pales in comparison to His death and resurrection. Christ’s birth was simply the means God chose to bring His Son into this world. His birth was not (as is true with us) the beginning of His existence (John 1:1–2, 14). But His death and resurrection are the events without which we would all be condemned to eternal torment.

The scriptures authorize and obligate us, in very specific language, to have a special, religious observance to commemorate the death of Jesus (every first day of the week—Acts 20:7; I Corinthians 11:26). The scriptures are completely silent, however, with regard to any special commemoration of His birth. We’re not even told when it occurred.

Lest the point of this article be misunderstood, there is nothing wrong with Christians participating in the secular traditions surrounding “Christmas” that have evolved in this country. It is no different, in principle, from observing various traditions that we associate with Independence Day (e.g., fireworks and cookouts). It is good for families and friends to come together, exchange gifts, and share a special meal; and no Scriptural principles are violated by these practices.

However, we need to be careful that we don’t give anyone the wrong impression about what we’re doing when we celebrate “Christmas.” False teaching is just as wrong on this subject as it is on any other.

To put it another way, it’s a mistake to do anything that leaves the impression that we attach any religious significance to this time of year. We simply have no Scriptural authority to do so (just as we have no authority for attaching any religious significance to the holiday known as “Easter”). Christmas is not a celebration of the birth of Christ, and we are not authorized to think or speak of it in such a way. Jesus is not “the reason for the season.” He is the reason for our joy and hope, every single day of the year.

Andy McClish

Our Cares and God’s Care

A verse that we all should commit to memory and upon which we should ever rely is the following: “Casting all your anxiety upon him, because he careth for you” (I Peter 5:7). When we learn to trust this promise, it will bring us great consolation and courage.

Because of persecution, there was great anxiety among the brethren to whom Peter wrote. They were being “put to grief in manifold trials,” and their faith was being “proved by fire” (I Peter 1: 6–7). There was a “fiery trial” among them (I Peter 4:12). In 23 of this epistle’s 95 verses, Peter alludes to the persecutions and immense sufferings these brethren were undergoing for the Lord. A major purpose of this letter was to tell them how to deal with these anxieties.

Anxiety in 1 Peter 5:7 translates a word that refers to those things about which we worry and about which we are unsettled or undecided. Paul once confessed that he had daily “anxiety for all the churches” (II Corinthians 11:28). While his concern over the welfare of the Cause never faded, it appears that, by the time of his first imprisonment in Rome, he had learned the futility of “worrying” about it. He thus exhorted the Philippians, “In nothing be anxious…” (Philippians 4:6a).

The Lord made a lengthy statement on this subject in the Sermon on the Mount: “Therefore I say unto you, Be not anxious for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on…. Be not therefore anxious for the morrow: for the morrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof (Matthew 6:25–34).

If there is a difference in the exhortations of the Lord, of Paul, and of Peter, perhaps it is this: The Lord and Paul urge us to cultivate a calm and settled approach to life that will help prevent our becoming anxious about life’s experiences in the first place. Peter tells us what to do when we nonetheless, through human weakness, become anxious and distressed.

The antidote for worry is the promise of God's care and concern for His children. The word Peter used for God's “care” refers to His interest and concern and implies both His willingness and His ability to meet our needs. If God cares for the sparrow and the raven and adorns the expendable grass of the field, does He not much more care for those who are His children (Luke 12:6, 24, 28)? If He knows the very number of the hairs on our heads, He knows and is concerned about all of our far more important needs (Luke 12:7).

The promises of God and His Son to ever be with us are many. God's promise to Israel in this respect applies to us: I will in no wise fail thee, neither will I in any wise forsake thee. So that with good courage we say, The Lord is my helper; I will not fear: What shall man do unto me? (Hebrews 13:5–6).

Our Savior promised that He would be with His people as they do His work “always, even unto the end of the world” (Matthew 28:20). Peter's words are an echo of Psalms 55:22: “Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee.”

Immediately after urging us to be anxious in nothing, Paul wrote: “But in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God” (Philippians 4:6b). With deep faith in and reliance upon God, even in the face of the great trials and storms of life, we can claim a blessed tranquility: “And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7). Therefore, in a very uncertain world with Christians facing a very uncertain future in our own nation, let us fret less and trust and pray more.

Dub McClish

The Greatest Gift Of All

When the idea of gifts is pondered, one commonly would consider the act of “giving.” Truly one cannot receive a gift except it first be given by someone. Giving is indeed at the very heart of the Biblical Message (cf. John 3:16; 15:13-14; Romans 8:32). It is to the verse from John 3 that this article would bring the reader’s attention.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). “God so loved the world,” Our Heavenly Father loved man, whom He created in His own image, to such an extent that He did a certain thing, that thing was to “give!” What precipitated such giving? The answer is found in Genesis 3.

Adam and Eve had transgressed the law of God, thereby sinning (Genesis 3:6; cf. I John 3:4). The punishment prescribed for their sin was death, “thou shalt surely die” (Genesis 2:17). Adam and his wife stood condemned before their Creator and were powerless to redeem themselves or to justify themselves in the sight of God. Action now had to be taken to save these two precious souls from everlasting destruction (I Thessalonians 1:7-9). Who took action?

God, as was exemplified in the inquiry by God of (Genesis 3:8-9); so God was the One to move first. He put into place His eternal plan to save men from their sins, “Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began” (II Timothy 1:9; cf. Ephesians 3:11; Titus 1:2; Revelation 13:8). It is/was the eternal plan or purpose of God to save man by the sacrifice of His Son upon the Cross.

What (or more precisely: who) then was “given”? The very Son of God. “That he gave his only begotten Son.” The Son was “given,” but who is the Son? “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1; cf. 10: 30; Philippians 2:6). Jesus is God—He is Deity. The Lord told Philip, “he that hath seen me hath seen the Father.” What is the implication of these facts? That God gave Himself! What could be more sublime or majestic than this Heavenly ideal—God gave Himself for us; for our sakes.

We who were sinners (Romans 5:8) and enemies of God (Romans 5:10) received this unfathomable gift! The One that had been scorned and despised and disregarded; was the very One that took away the scorner’s reproach. The concept of such great love as has been demonstrated by God toward us requires spiritual maturity to grasp and the end of its depths shall never be found by the minds of men.

However, when one does lay hold of this great example, many passages of Scripture open with greater meaning and depth, such as:

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, Neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are my ways higher than your ways, And my thoughts than your thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9).

What has been the great example of this? God gave Himself for us. And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them (Genesis 1:26-27).

What is the greatest means by which God has shown us how to be like Him? God gave Himself for us. This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends (John 15:12-13). How has God loved us? God gave Himself for us.

Finally: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service” (Romans 12:1).

Why is it our “reasonable service” to “give” our entire beings (Matthew 22:37-40) unto God in service and subjection? Because God gave Himself for us! Oh, how unsearchable are the riches of God (Romans 11:33; Ephesians 3:8)!

John Rose

Good Leadership

Jesus had a special place in His heart for the poor and downtrodden. He was tender and kind to the most sinful. Even to those who would become leaders He said, “I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now” (John 16:12). We should not drive as did Jehu, but lead as did Jesus. We move a lighted candle slowly lest it go out. A fire almost expiring can be put out by a strong wind. A tender plant can be watered too much. In dealing with the weak we would do well to follow the hospital rule: “Walk softly and speak quietly.” We were all little children first and had to learn to walk. “The Lord’s servant must not strive.” We must have “a heart of compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, longsuffering; forbearing one another, and...love, which is the bond of perfectness” (Colossians 3:12-14). These qualities help to make a good leader.

G. K. Wallace