Since
its beginning The Shield of Faith has considered the work of the Lord a non-competitive
arena; those who preach the true gospel are members of the same body, with the
same head, proclaiming the same kingdom. They are neither competitors nor
adversaries, but co-workers. However, we hold certain distinctives.
Let’s consider some of those principles that we feel are important to conserve.
1. The New
It
is too late for us to “start” a work. God is there before us, and we can only
do what he is already engaged in. When God’s plan is finally finished, it will
be a church from every kindred, tongue, people and nation without spot or
wrinkle or any such thing. It will be an assembly of redeemed sons of God,
perfectly conformed to the image of Christ who is himself the express image of
God the Father.
Church
simply means called out. It consists of those who were called out of this
world’s societies when they heard his voice in the preaching of the Gospel, which
is the word of God by which men and women become saved. The church, therefore,
exists wherever the Gospel has been “heard.” If God, then, sends one of his
saints to a land or a place where there are no believers, he is the first
member of the church in that place. His mandate is to preach the Gospel. Those
who hear and in whom faith is born are added to the church. God began the work
before that saint arrived.
We,
the saints are, so to speak, the bacteria of an infectious, beneficial (anti)
disease that travels around the world wherever we go. Our work is to infect,
not to cure. But we must be perfectly clear about the Gospel we preach and what
the Bible teaches about what the church is and how it operates. Somehow, as
Jesus taught, there must be a sharp line drawn between the commandments of God
and the traditions of men. The former addresses the problem, the latter
contributes to it.
Many
godly men in the previous generation with whose latter years our early years
have overlapped shared their observations, denounced encroaching errors, cried
out their alarming prognostications and described in negative terms the
conditions the present church largely embraces as the spiritual norm. What we
do not want to do is dismiss their anointed warnings as the paranoid ranting of
old men who felt threatened by change. These were men, like
In
our vision for “New Testament Church” principles, it would be counter-productive
to perpetuate, or leave unmolested, the tradition of a clergy-laity system in
newly birthed congregations that God may allow us to influence or oversee. It
must be clear, according to our analogy of bacteria spreading a beneficial
(anti) disease, that we are all bacteria and equally infectious. Although there
is, of necessity, oversight by a plurality of appointed elders, there are no
lords over God’s people. Every child of God, being gifted, must learn to be led
by the Spirit of God and have liberty within the context of the assembly to
minister accordingly. He must learn to exercise forbearance, longsuffering,
self-control and submission to authority in order that the Holy Spirit can
coordinate the corporate ministry of the assembly without the exercise of
legalistic controls.
Part
of today’s error in the modern church is in the interpretation of words.
“Synonyms”, which are not synonyms at all, are misused in describing legitimate
parts of church order. These non-synonyms include: entertain/edify;
worship/music; Christian/disciple; pastor/elder; obedience/legalism;
attendance/participation. Most of this linguistic tangle can be shaken out if
we carefully apply the word of God. In any case, it is important that we do not
carry the seeds of our home-grown syncretism in our baggage.
2. Verbal Inspiration of Scripture and the unnecessity
of multiplied versions.
“Man
shall not live by bread alone, but by EVERY WORD that proceedeth out of the
mouth of God.” If every word of scripture is inspired, the preservation of
those words, insofar as is possible, when translating from one language to
another is imperative.
The
modern method of dynamic equivalence would seem to demonstrate that the words
are not as important as are the ideas they formulate. Often, however, in the
interpretation of ideas the point is missed or nuances of the idea are
overlooked, and the idea written by the translator is not the same as the
thought intended by the author. As a result, a distortion is produced.
In
1611, translators produced what we know as the KJV. For the next 350 years it
was recognized in the English-speaking world as “The Bible.” Its authority was
unquestioned in the church; and even the world regarded it as a weighty
document whose precepts commanded respect. It was the moral foundation of the
Western world.
Of
course the truth has always had its antagonists, and in the nineteenth century
a godless element among religious German intellectuals mounted an aggressive
undertaking to dispel the moral restraints of God’s word. (Psalm
2). This movement of biblical higher criticism sought to poison the well
by casting doubt upon the authority of scripture. They accomplished their
objective by revising the Greek text of the New Testament, and from that
revision producing a new version of English scripture. With the aid of the
revised manuscripts and the method of dynamic equivalence, since 1950 more than
one hundred and thirty revisions of the Bible have been produced, each one
moving us a little farther from the original words recorded by holy men of God
who were moved by the Holy Ghost.
The
common excuse for this constant revision is “to make the scriptures more easily
understood by keeping the language up-to-date.” But it is ludicrous to believe
that each new translation is justified by language change. What has been accomplished, however, is the
almost total dismissal of the Bible as any kind of authority, historical,
scientific, or moral. It has become simply another piece of religious
literature among many.
One
of our responsibilities is to contribute to the promotion of a renewed
confidence in the Word of God; not by denouncing the insipid but popular
versions that are so widely used, or those that use them, but by using
exclusively the AV and encouraging by example its use by others. It should be
our authority and our tool, and we should be able to confidently explain why
when asked.
3. Principle of Faith
Jesus
was no ordinary man. At the age of thirty, He laid aside his carpentry tools
and began to preach the gospel of the
Two
things contributed to their ability to get the work done: one was hearing his
voice, thereby knowing it was his will; and the other was being assured of his
promise to sustain their obedience with his provision. They did not need to
know HOW it would come, but only WHO would provide it.
As a
mission, we want our work to have the same seal upon it and to be evidence that
the Lord Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever. Ours is not an
enterprise about which there is nothing of the supernatural. Our plans are not
our own, neither are our methods. This does not mean we should not be
business-like or thoughtful about how we do the work he has assigned us, but it
should mean that what we are engaged in is obviously his work and could not be
done unless he were doing it. Each of us must be committed to dependency upon
the Lord himself.
4. Defining a Missionary
The
word missionary is never used in the Bible. The biblical title is apostle.
There
are actually three kinds of apostles mentioned in scripture. Two of those kinds
are unique; they will never be duplicated. The third kind defines what we call
missionaries.
An
apostle is a "sent one;" The premiere apostle was the Lord Jesus
Christ. He is called the high priest and apostle of our profession. The
commission for which he was sent, and which he accomplished, was to reconcile
us to God, once for all.
The
second kind of apostle was depicted in the twelve disciples that Jesus chose to
follow him, whom he called apostles. They, along with the prophets, became the
foundation of the Church, They are unique and irreplaceable.
The
third kind is they who are sent out by the Holy Spirit from the churches to
proclaim the Gospel to every creature and make disciples in every nation. This
is an on going breed that will continue to multiply until every nation has
heard the Gospel witness; and then shall the end come. Today we call these
missionaries.
The
word defines the man it describes. A missionary is a man on a mission. He must
know what that mission is. When a missionary has defined his mission, he must
then have a commitment to fulfilling it, an unshakeable dedication.
Some
common conceptions that people have of missionaries are superficial because
they are simplistic observations of what their subjects were doing at some
specific isolated juncture of their work. Paul made tents for a period of time
in
Those
things that may occupy the missionary's time from day to day, whether he is a
pilot, a doctor, a mechanic or a teacher, do not define a mission or a
missionary. Sometimes, for some people, those things tend to obscure the real
substance of his mission; and sometimes that's true of even the missionary
himself.
The
work of the missionary is redemptive: the proclamation of the Gospel and the
demonstration of the life of the Lord Jesus in whatever circumstance he may
find himself.
5, Disciple-making Resulting in Churches
The
commission that Jesus gave to his disciples was, “Go, and teach all nations
(make disciples in every nation), teaching them to observe all things
whatsoever I have commanded you.” And the promise that accompanied that command
was, “And lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.”
According to the Word of God, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and
today and forever. The Church is the body of Christ; therefore in principle
there should be no change from one generation to another. Today, our
contemporarily over-used word, especially as regards missions, is “church
planting.” The Bible doesn’t say anything about that; it doesn’t have to. That
should be the natural outcome of disciple making.
Jesus said, “Make disciples.” The apostle Paul
perpetuated the idea by saying, “[teach] faithful men who shall be able to
teach others also.” That’s a simple paraphrase of Matthew 28:19,20, “Go ye
therefore, and teach all nations.” Then they were to baptize them in the name
of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost and teach them to observe
“all things whatsoever I have commanded you.”
A church is like a
salad. It contains many ingredients that grow in the garden. Someone planted
each of those ingredients, but no one planted salad. The ingredients which,
when joined together make a salad, represent disciples which, when built
together, make a church.
The farmer doesn’t
plant salad; In like manner we don’t plant churches, we make disciples and
Jesus builds His church. He is the chef. We are the planters of the seed that
produces the ingredients. The church in any place is the assembling of disciples,
and the work of the church is making more disciples. But
disciples of whom? The goal is disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, sheep
who will hear His voice and follow Him. The believers in
The distinction
between “discipling” and “church planting” may seem trivial; but it is
important because of the consequences. Time has proven that it is possible to
plant “churches” without true disciples, whose vision will often become better
buildings, bigger congregations, advantageous affiliations, even, in some
cases, denominational competition when as yet the number of believers is so
small as to be unnoticed in the national population.
Or we can simply
preach the Gospel with the view of making disciples of the Lord Jesus, then
teaching those who believe to observe all things that the Lord commanded and
trust Him to build His church. Their vision will be to teach faithful men to
teach others also, and they are likely to be less hindered by the smallness of
their congregation or the lack of buildings or beneficial affiliations.
As in Paul’s day there is
still room for concern about the churches and the view some Christians have of
“church.” To them it may be something they can stand aside from and point to
and expect it to do things that they are not a part of. But the believers are
responsible to multiply, to be the example, to set the pace, to demonstrate what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. We
are the gifted ones from among whom God calls His apostles, prophets,
evangelists, pastors and teachers. We are the church. We are to bring forth
fruit after our own kind, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever He has
commanded us. This is not a formality it is a family. People are to be born
into it by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost. When
they are saved, they are added to the church––not an organization, but an
organism.
Our attitude is important, our
view of the church, how we see our role and our view of the great commission.
What will I do if I go abroad to the mission field, or if I stay home and labor
here? Will I make disciples? Or will I plant churches? If I make strong
disciples, strong churches will evolve––He will build them. If my view is to
plant churches, it does not necessarily follow that there will be strong
disciples.
Strong disciples are not those
who have merely impeccably orthodox theology. They are those who also cherish
godly character, the fruit of the Spirit, grace, forbearance and longsuffering.
They are those who present their bodies a living sacrifice holy, acceptable
unto God. They are those whose goal is to be not conformed to this world, but
to be transformed by the renewing of their mind that they might manifest the good
and acceptable and perfect will of God.
6. History
Our
original approach to the work and what we still teach in the training program
involves five “steps,” namely: 1. Evangelism, 2. Follow-up, 3 Conferences, 4.
Training, 5 Sending.
Evangelism,
includes every legitimate way of getting as much of the word as possible to as
many people as possible as often as possible. Its objective is not to get
decisions for Christ on the first contact, but to plant the seed of the word
line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little, that
the Holy Spirit might put the message together in their hearts and produce
saving faith.
Follow-up
includes continued communication, the extending of fellowship, drawing them
into Bible studies individually and in groups, baptizing them, teaching them to
assemble regularly to break bread, to minister to other believers and to
recognize that this is the church.
Conferences
bring the churches together to expand their horizons, to encourage vision and
cooperation and to build cohesion among the larger body of believers.
Training
involves those who catch the vision and sense a specific calling of God to be
separated to the work of the Gospel.
Sending
is when that calling is recognized by the other saints and they are separated
to the work.
This,
I believe, should still be our pursuit.