Books

Focus On The Fundamentals Of The Faith

By W. Douglass Harris

The Changeless Church

Many in the church today are clamoring for change. They are saying that unless the church changes and becomes more contemporary that it cannot survive. This clamor is almost paradoxical, because man is constantly searching for the unchangeable — that which is constant, certain, and secure. Among those things which are unchangeable is the Lord’s church. It is unchangeable in its essential features. Methods and expedients may change as good judgment dictates, but its divine structure can never be changed with God’s approval.

A subject of inspiration: The changeless nature of the church is a subject of divine inspiration. The prophetic conception of the church was that it would be an unchangeable kingdom. Daniel predicted that it would never be destroyed and would stand forever (Daniel 2:44). It is affirmed by the Hebrew writer that his readers had received a kingdom that could not be shaken (changed), or moved (Hebrews 12:28). This concept also conforms to the teaching of the Lord, the builder of the church of the New Testament (Matthew 16:19).

Why the church is changeless:

1. It is the culmination of God’s eternal purpose. To the Ephesians Paul affirmed that “To the intent that now unto the principalities and the powers in heavenly places might be made known through the church the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Ephesians 3:10,11). The church is not an after-thought of God, or an accident or contingency that He was forced into as a substitute for the kingdom. In fact, the scriptures teach that they are one and the same (Cf. Matthew 16:18,19; Colossians 1:13). God purposed the church from the beginning. What God designs He never needs to change. He does not reach conclusions by experimentation. He knows before He starts whether or not and how a thing works. The church is changeless because its Architect designed it perfectly.

2. Sin, which made it necessary, has not changed. The church is composed of people who have been saved from the practice of sin (Acts 2:47; 1 John 5:19). The church is the sinner’s only access to God (Ephesians 2:16-18; 3:12). As long as sin exists the need for the unchangeable church will continue. It was designed to give sinners access to salvation from sin, and that need has not changed.

3. The blood, which made its existence possible, has not changed. It was purchased by the precious blood of Christ (Acts 20:28; 1 Peter 1:18,19). Churches not purchased by the blood of Christ can be changed structurally, but Christ’s church is as changeless as His blood (Hebrews 10:11,12,14).

4. Christ, its head, is changeless (Ephesians 1:22,23; Colossians 1:18). “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today, yea and for ever” (Hebrews 13:8). When knowledgeable members are asked, “Who is the head of the church of Christ?”, the answer through the centuries and today is that Christ is the only head of the church. For nearly two thousand years the divine church has not changed heads, and will not change heads as long as time shall last. The church authorized by God has a living head, not a dead head whose remains are preserved in some tomb today. This gives Christianity a distinction that no other religion has. In Christ, the unchangeable head, resides all the executive, legislative, and judicial authority over the church. He legislates all the laws through His revelation and that of His apostles, and these laws cannot be changed without suffering the dire consequences.

5. The laws governing the church have not changed (Acts 2:42; Matthew 18:18). Those laws are not like the U. S. Constitution. Machinery was incorporated into it making changes possible. This was an admission that it was not perfect and was adaptable to all succeeding generations. But the New Testament contains no such machinery. Instead it claims to be a perfect code for all spiritual needs for all peoples everywhere for all time (Jude 3; 2 Peter 1:3; 2 Timothy 3:16,17; James 1:25). Dire consequences are threatened to those who would tamper with these laws (1 Corinthians 4:6; Revelation 22:18,19).

6. The seed which produces the church has not changed (Luke 8:11; Matthew 13:19). In the beginning God ordained that each seed would produce after its kind (Genesis 1:11,12). The same is true of the spiritual seed of God’s word. When it was preached in its unmixed and unadulterated form by the apostles of Christ and others in the first century, it produced Christians and churches of Christ only. Until God revokes the divine law of reproduction, the church will remain unchangeable as long as the pure seed is planted in the right soil.

Peter affirms that this seed is incorruptible (1 Peter 1:23). Every material thing on this earth has in it the seeds of decay. God’s word has a permanent, imperishable, non-decaying quality (Matthew 24:35). “Incorruptible” means it is imperishable or not subject to decay. This was God’s way of guaranteeing the perpetuity of His church.

Conclusions: Because the church is changeless in its essential features we cannot expect: (1) the conditions of entrance to be streamlined, (2) its primitive worship to be modernized, (3) its original mission to be altered, (4) its government to reflect human ideas (conferences, synods, associations, etc.), (5) to sacrifice the Lord’s demand for purity of conduct enforced by stern discipline of the disorderly, (6) to shelve its hope and subdue its expectancy of the Lord’s return, (7) to compromise its undenominational position, (8) to dishonor the Lord by stooping to wear human names, (9) to neglect giving men the proper focus on the church, and (10) to be fainthearted in pursuing its tasks. Each of these conclusions deserves a fuller discussion, but space forbids.

Changes allowed: It should always be understood that the church has two elements — the human and the divine. The head is divine but the body is composed of humans. The divine is perfect and unchangeable. The human is imperfect and variable (Cf. Galatians 1:6; 4:1). One generation passes on, but the church is the same (Cf. 2 Timothy 2:2). There can never be any alterations in the essentials for the church, but methods and incidentals may change where they are loosed by the Lord and good judgment dictates. Where the Lord did not bind a certain way, but left the matter to human judgment, even if a certain way is mentioned in the New Testament, it did not have to be done that way. They were under generic authority as we are where the way is not bound, such as the commands to go, teach, assemble, etc. But if a certain way is specified, it must be done that way. Human changes can be only in matters of generic authority, such as the hour to meet for worship on the first day of the week, etc.

We should praise the Lord that the earmarks of His church are permanently fixed in an inspired and unchangeable paradigm (pattern) preserved on the pages of the New Testament.