Truth Magazine

By Paul K. Williams

The progress of institutionalism and centralization in the Church of Christ in South Africa is, as in America, many faceted. In 1963, when the Turffontein (Johannesburg) church precipitated the split by sending out letters of “withdrawal” labeling Gene Tope and Ray Votaw as Bowers of division, the liberals managed to make the main issue seem to be whether the church could relieve non-Christians from the treasury. They imported James Judd for a one night debate with Ray Votaw on this subject and have since .steadfastly refused to have any more debates on that or any other issue separating us.

But with the division accomplished and with the free hand which this gave them, the liberals began introducing the same centralization which their brethren in America were already infamous for. The particular form which is most popular is the preacher training school. There is one in Benoni (near Johannesburg) for whites and one in Pietermaritzburg (50 miles from Durban) far non-whites. Another one is being planned for Cape Town. They are under the direction of elderships in America, etc.

The Benoni school (Southern Africa Bible School) is governed by a board of trustees who are chosen by an advisory board made up of white preachers in Rhodesia and South Africa who are selected by “the Board of Elders of the Church of Christ with business headquarters at 10715 Garland Road, Dallas, Texas, U.S.A.” The school solicits and accepts money from churches and individuals wherever and whenever it can get it. And the whole mess is defended as nothing more than a “Sunday School.” It is no wonder these brethren won’t debate! I would hate to have to defend such a “Sunday School,” too.

The Head of The Church of Christ

Another aspect of centralization has affected faithful preachers more directly. The South African government allows whites into the Homelands (rural African areas) only when they possess permits to enter-permits issued by the Bantu Administration in Pretoria. Gene Tope and I have had permits to enter Vendaland for a long time. Mine was first issued in 1968, his before that time, and they have been renewed each year on application. But in 1972, when Ron Chaffin and Ray Votaw applied for permits, they were refused. On inquiry it finally became apparent that the applications had been referred to the “Head” of the Church of Christ in South Africa and had been turned down by him.

It turns out that John Hardin, official and teacher in the Southern Africa Bible School, director of its annual lectures, etc. was recognized as “Head” of the Church of Christ in South Africa by the Bantu Administration at some time previous to 1972. Since that time all applications for permits have required his approval before being granted by the Government. He has used his position to deny faithful preachers Government permission to preach in African areas!

Words fail me in describing my feelings about this. I cannot fathom how any Christian would ever use his influence with the Government to hinder the preaching of anyone. There is not a hint in the New Testament that Christians are in any way to hinder or persecute those with whom they differ. The weapon we wield is the sword of the Spirit, not the sword of the government! Such tactics can only have been learned from Catholicism; they did not come from Christ.

An intriguing question is: Who appointed Brother Hardin to be “Head” of the Church of Christ in South Africa? Did the churches have a convention at which he was elected? Or was he self-appointed? Or was he appointed by a small group of “interested” men? And I wonder where the scripture is for such appointment regardless of how it was done! It is obvious that he functions as head only in matters requiring Government approval, but where is the scripture for that?

In 1974 when Gene Tope was moving to Durban he attempted to get Ray Votaw a Vendaland permit by asking the Bantu Administration to let Brother Votaw replace him. But that did not work.

I got involved through a different matter. The church in Masakona, Vendaland, wants to build a church building. In 1973 the chief of the village gave them a site to build on and they made application to the Magistrate for permission to build. I helped with the application and all requirements were met. These things take time, though, and the last of April this year I received a letter from the Magistrate. He wrote: “We have been informed that the Department of Bantu Administration and Development is having two branches of the above-named church denomination on its records-or two different church denominations using the same name . . . . We would like you to inform us about the legal name of the one under which Mr. Jim Munyai preaches and who the registered head of that branch is.” So we were bumping up against the same problem.

I made a trip to Pretoria the following week where I talked with three different officials. I went into the whole problem of permits. I received a sympathetic reception and decided that the main problem must lie with the Venda Government. So I made my week-end trip to Vendaland for June a day early. On June 6th I met a white official in the Venda Government and explained the whole problem. I think I talked with the right man and he was very understanding. He suggested that I talk with the Magistrate concerning the church building, so I stayed until Monday and talked with him. He also understood and indicated that everything should now move smoothly.

I hope this problem is sorted out. Leslie Maydell of Pretoria who has just returned from Florida College is now making application for a permit to preach in Vendaland. This will be a test case to determine whether the stumbling blocks have truly been removed. We should know soon.

There seems to be no stopping place on the road to Rome, brethren. The centralized combines naturally attract power-hungry people. Only the “readiness” of the members will govern how soon these people will lead the liberal churches into a fully organized hierarchy.

Truth Magazine XIX: 44, pp. 698-699September 18, 1975

CORRECTION

In my article, “Centralization in South Africa,” (Sept. 18, 1975) I stated that Brother John Hardin was recognized as “Head” of the Church of Christ in South Africa by the Bantu Administration. Furth inquiry has established that at least one department of the Bantu Administration (the one dealing with application to build church buildings) recognizes him as “liaison.” The official in charge understands that he is not “head” of the church of Christ. I sincerely apologize to Brother Hardin for unintentionally misrepresenting this matter.

Sincerely,

Paul K. Williams (signed)

Correction appeared in Truth Magazine XIX: 50, p. 794
October 30, 1975

By James W Adams

One of the manias of modern society is the craze to have too much too soon. The old virtue of waiting and working to obtain is exactly what we called it “an old (obsolete) virtue.” Precocious youth wants a hot-rod when it ought to be pedaling a “bike,” a boy friend.. when it ought to be playing with dolls. Young married people want a $30,000.00 ranch-style home in an elite suburb when they should be living in a frame cottage on Thrift Avenue.

High school boys and girls rush into the sacred institution of marriage and assume the responsibilities of household bills and children when they should be solving algebra problems and attending football games. There is a time for everything that is right and proper, but nothing is made better by rushing into it before time. The divorce courts bear mute testimony to this truth with reference to marriage. Someone has well said, “How can the teenager who isn’t ready to make a success of high school think he is ready to make a success of marriage.”

Marriage is divinely ordained for man’s good. It is hedged about by divine laws. It should not be entered into advisedly or hurriedly, but in the fear of God. Christian young people should realize that marriage is “until death do us part.” Divorce is not a part of the Christian’s thinking-“what God hath joined together, let not man put asunder” is the principle by which he lives. A relationship so sacred and permanent deserves mature consideration. It was never designed to satisfy the whims and unrestrained desires of precocious infants.

Truth Magazine XIX: 44, p. 698
September 18, 1975

By Mike Willis

In the May issue of Restoration Review, editor Leroy Garrett continued his examination of abuses of the scripture by considering Heb. 10:25. If Brother Garrett contributed anything new to interpreting Heb. 10:25, I missed it. He said that he believed that the day of Heb. 10:25 was the day of the destruction of Jerusalem, a position with which I have been familiar all of my preaching life. Really, the editor of Restoration Review used this passage as another occasion to spread his subversive, anti-establishment propaganda. I have not used these adjectives lightly to describe Brother Garrett’s writings. I want you to read his quotations to see the subversive and anti-establishment tendencies in the article.

First, Garrett revealed the “abuse” of Heb. 10:25.

“It is presumed that believers are under absolute and arbitrary obligation to be present at all meetings of their congregation, and this verse is the text to prove it. `Forsaking the assembly’ is thus equated with `missing church; which is often described as one of the necessary five acts of public worship. If one gets to the assembly each time the doors open, he can check off item number one: he has assembled. He is to proceed to the other four. We are told that this is what Heb.10:25 is talking about” (p. 82).

Having thoroughly blended truth and error to construct a mental picture of his opponent’s position, Garrett is now ready to destroy his fabricated straw man. Actually, Garrett believes we have a responsibility to be present as much as is possible, even as, I do, but he does not believe that it is because Heb. 10:25 demands it.

“As for the Lord’s day assembly, as well as other meetings a congregation decides to have, it goes without saying that every member should respond responsibly to them all” (p. 87).

Garrett emphasizes that the reason one misses is because he no longer loves Jesus. We would agree with him, as most of us have preached for years, that forsaking the assembly is a symptom of a spiritual sickness. However, whereas Garrett does not believe that Heb. 10:25 says anything at all to the brother who completely forsakes the assembly, I believe that it does. Garrett said,

“As for the brother who has `quit church’ and no longer seems to love Jesus or his fellow disciples, I can’t see that the writer of Heb. 10:25 has the likes of such ones in mind at all in what he says. But it might in some way be made to apply to such. But the problem with such fallen brethren is not that they have `forsaken the assembly,’ but that they no longer love the Lord” (p. 87 ).

There is some truth that needs to be agreed with and some error in this which needs to be exposed. To illustrate, if a man stole some money, he stole it because he does not sufficiently love Jesus. Nevertheless, the passages which condemn stealing are not irrelevant to his condition. Whereas the problem with the brother who forsakes the assembly is that he does not love Jesus as he should, the passages which deal with worshiping collectively are not totally irrelevant to his needs.

So much for Garrett’s theologically significant comments on Heb. 10:25. The greater part of his article is an attempt to undermine any confidence in the present manner we have of worshiping God. Read his comments for yourself:

“Parents will impose upon their young children by taking them to several adult-oriented services every week, some of them being at night, forcing the children to sleep or play their way through the hours-lest they ‘forsake the assembly.’ Brethren will leave company at home, people that they might well win to the Lord through tender loving care, in order to be in their pew when the doors open even on a Sunday or Wednesday evening. To do otherwise would be forsaking the assembly. Forsaking mind you! To miss church now and again, however important one’s mission might be, Is to forsake the assembly.

“Some of our hard-working brothers and sisters might do the right thing by staying home with their families, by going to bed early, or by visiting grandmother or a neighbor, rather than to be going to church all the time. But the System has latched on to Heb. 10:25 as a proof text, and it is made to mean that ‘you’ve got to be here’ or you are sinning by forsaking the assembly. Brethren will drag themselves to meeting even with splitting headaches (‘You’d go to work if you didn’t feel well, wouldn’t you?’has been part of the harangue), so as not to violate what he has been led to believe is a mandate-be there or you are forsaking!” (p. 82).

“But many brethren insist that the assembly ‘cannot be forsaken’ for any reason within one’s control, physical incapacitation being the only excuse. The working man might also be excused for missing Sunday a.m., If he Is present for the evening service and breaks bread then, which has given rise to our second serving of the Supper. If the ox is to a ditch or a neighbor is in need, they will just have to wait until after the assembly. You’ll hear brethren say that they would not ‘forsake the assembly’ in order to stop and render aid to victims of a car wreck. They wouldn’t leave the Lord waiting like that! Such illustrates how we abuse the scriptures so as to uphold a System that puts rules before persons, the very thing that Jesus sought to correct in the religion of the Pharisees” (p. 83).

(Who among us has ever taken the position, Brother Garrett, that it would be sinful to miss services to take care of emergencies? I want to see your documentation of “many brethren” – who state that-that the System-whatever that is-has officially taken this position.)

“Our folk are kept so busy ‘going to church’ that they hardly have time to serve the Lord. When I suggest to our leaders that we discard the Sunday evening service and make it an evening of visitation or studies in various homes, so as to extend our outreach. I am told that the brethren won’t do that. So we go right on corralling them once more, Imposing still more sermons on them, which no one pays much attention to. While we should assemble to worship and scatter to preach, we are always assembling and never scattering.

“It is a common scene in our churches on a Sunday or Wednesday evening to see a young couple gathering up their sleepy children following one more boring experience. The mother has one child in her arms, the father another one across his shoulder, while the six-year-old is tugged out the aisle on his daddy’s hand, yawning every step of the way-the child that is: That is the closing scene. The opening scene is the parents trying to keep the kids quiet and out of each other’s hair. Finally that blessed moment comes when they fall asleep. It is all a rather oppressive scene. But then there is Heb.10:25.

“It is a common scene in our churches on a Sunday or Wedcould say to such families: ‘These Sunday and Wednesday evening gatherings are for the convenience of some of our people, but with your little ones it might not be the case with you. Why don’t you have your own church with them at home? Read some stories to them that they would enjoy together, and then put them to bed early. Then you two might have an hour or so of quiet together and be better ready for work the next day.” But to say such, which of course makes all the sense in the world, he has to become free from the assault of Heb. 10:25. You can’t advise a family to ‘forsake the assembly,’ even if it would be a blessing to them” (pp. 84-85).

(If that advice would be a blessing on Sunday night and Wednesday nights, why would it not also be a blessing for Sunday morning as well?)

Fellow preachers’and elders, how many of the ones who miss the services at the congregation with which you labor are missing because they are teaching someone the gospel, helping the person who is in need, or in some other way engaged in the service of God? When you do say something concerning attendance, are you speaking to this category of people-those who otherwise would have been present but were called away by a last minute emergency or those who miss Wednesday evening Bible study to teach a home Bible study? We all know to whom you are preaching! Our sermons are aimed at the man who could care less whether the church even. assembles on Sunday or Wednesday evening; we are trying to persuade the man who had rather sit at home and watch TV on these nights rather than to assemble with the saints that he is spiritually sick and in need of the Great Physician. But, why would Garrett seek to misrepresent the real problem?

Garrett is an opportunist; he is trying to lead the churches of Christ into new roads and away from the old paths. In order to do that, he must use every subversive tactic he can find to generate discontentedness in the churches. Just as the Communists pit one social force against another to stir up social anarchy and then tell the people that they know how to re-establish law and order if they will just accept communistic government, so also Garrett and his collegue Carl Ketcherside are presently trying to stir up spiritual anarchy in the church as they also promise the people that they know how to find spiritual order if they will but follow them. Our brethren need to be told about such factionalists who, paradoxically, disguise themselves as a “unity movement.”

Truth Magazine XIX: 44, pp. 696-697
September 18, 1975

By Jeff Butterfield

“I have been on the (U.S.S.) Saratoga for fourteen months where I am a welder. Thirteen months ago I was converted by the brethren here. Since that time I have had the desire to preach the gospel. If the Lord wills, I will push toward that goal. I am thankful for every opportunity to teach and learn of God’s will.

“In number we are about ten and have grown to that number from last year perhaps in May when only two of the brethren met here aboard the Saratoga. We are continuing to grow in number through whatever teaching we do on the ship. We’re all quite young in Christ and due to our limited knowledge at the present time we lack the edification we should have. Out at sea we meet to worship four times a week and get together to study and teach as we have the opportunity. When in port we worship with the South Jacksonville congregation where Brother Harold Dowdy is the preacher. He has delivered many fine lessons from God’s word and has been helpful in many ways. All of the brethren at South Jacksonville have been very helpful. We usually gain more at the meetings there than we do out to sea due to the many years the brethren there have worked in God’s kingdom. Any exhortation from the brethren who may know of us would be appreciated. “

(For more information about the church on the U.S.S. Saratoga, see the cover article of the January 2, 1975, Truth Magazine, or write Jeff Butterfield-Editor).

We learn from Jesus that one reason He came to earth was to preach (Mark 1:38). All that Jesus taught was truth (John 1:14, 17). The only thing Christ taught was what He heard God the Father speak (John 7:16). We learn in Hebrews that God had spoken in the past or in the Jewish dispensation to the fathers by the prophets, but now in these last days speaks through His Son (Heb. 1:1-2). Therefore we can conclude that through Christ we can learn the truth which is able to set men free. The scriptures teach as much.

As Christ was teaching one day He told some Jews that believed on Him that they could know the truth by continuing in His word. In so doing they would be made free (John 8:31-32). Though this was spoken at that time directly to those Jews who believed on Him, we find that it is true today also, as Christ still has the truth. We find that there is only one way into the sheepfold, and that way is through Christ (John 10:9).

Though Christ is not here today in the flesh, we can still be able to know this very same truth by following what the apostles have set forth. The apostles heard Christ, saw Him, and handled Him. That is what they have declared so that we may have this fellowship with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ(1 John 1:1-3). What we have then is the recording of the apostles of Christ from what they heard Him teach. While it’s true that men are fallible, we must come to the understanding that these men were inspired by God (John 14:26). Therefore we can see the reason for the unity in what they have said and have the assurance that by following what they have proclaimed we, too, can know the truth (2 Tim. 3:16-17).

But now a problem is presented. If all of this be true, why the need for creed books? We’re going to find that creed books contradict the Bible. Permit me to prove what I’ve just said. Page 91 of Luther’s Catechism says, “We are justified and saved by faith alone, without works. ” James 2:24 says, “Ye see then how that by works a man is justified and not by faith only.” Who do you believe? I believe James. Others would prefer to go along with Martin Luther. The truth is Martin Luther taught something the word of God did not teach. In so doing he perverted that which the apostles had taught (Gal. 1:6-9). The truth simply cannot be found in human creeds. The person who follows Martin Luther’s teaching becomes a Lutheran. On the other hand, the person who follows that which the Bible teaches becomes a Christian (Acts 11:26). Don’t be deceived by creed books. (See also Roland Worth, Jr.’s article “Creeds, ” page 13 of this issue–,Editor) The complete revelation of God’s will has been given and can only be found in the pages of the New Testament (2 Pet. 1:3). Nothing can be added to it nor subtracted from it (Rev. 22:18-19). We will find that the man who follows the perfect law of liberty by doing just what it says shall be blessed in his deed (James 1:25). That very same person will be a member of the one body (Eph. 4:4) for which Christ shed his blood and is also its head (Acts 20:28; Col. 1:22-23). This church follows only what the apostles taught (Acts 2:42) and is unmovable or steadfast in that doctrine. This church was promised to be built by Christ (Matt. 16:18) and it wears only His name (Rom. 16:16). Truth is found only in Christ Jesus.

Truth Magazine XIX: 44, pp. 695-696
September 18, 1975