Thoughts on Christian Living Book #2 by Dr. W. A. Dillard - HTML preview

A PROBLEM WITH AUTHORITY

Why are there so many divisions among the churches in the world of “Christendom?” According to whom asked, a litany of extended, various answers may follow. However the true answer is both simple and the common denominator of all such instances. It is the rejection of church authority. Someone who cannot get his way, or put forward a different theological view to what his church accepts, will simply withdraw, and start a congregation where he can be sure his ideas are mainstream. This is exactly how modern Catholics grew from a separation in the early churches of the Lord; how the Eastern Orthodox separated from Roman Catholics; how Protestants bodies separated from Roman Catholics, and how the hundred odd divisions of Baptists have come about among themselves. Younger religious upstarts (neo-protestant) peculiar to the American Continent, had strange or even cultic ideas, and the bottom line was insubordination to church authority; they preferred their own way.

Because such fleshly division became a practice early in the history of the Lord’s churches, the biblical explanation for this type of rebellion is best put forth in I John 2:19, “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.”

But, even a true New Testament Church does not, in the strictest sense, have any authority. Rather, it is bound by the commands of Christ Jesus it’s head together with the guidance and leadership of the Holy Spirit given to it at Pentecost, to operate within the constraints of heaven’s authority explicitly set forth in Holy Writ. The Bible then is the final rule of both faith and practice. A statement similar to this may be heard often in New Testament churches as members grow in grace and knowledge. It is fitting and an altogether appropriate constraint, but let ego, emotions, nuances of the flesh take ascendency, and soon some will find themselves afoul of what the greater church understands what its mission and message is to be. In such cases the offending, aggressive party must repent and agree with the scriptures or move across town and start a separate congregation. Sadly, the latter is too often chosen, but though material substance abounds, there are no heavenly blessings on those who operate afoul of the Holy Word: that is, in opposition to heaven’s authority so extended through an obedient church. In spiritual matters, grace and works do not mix. The same is

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