Curtis Pugh

            I enjoy fellowship with other believers!  I really do.  I mean that I enjoy talking about the things of God specifically with Brothers and Sisters who are honest and sincere in their love for Christ and their belief that the Scriptures are the Word of God.  I want my circle of fellowship and cooperation to be as wide as the Scriptures will allow.

But I do not enjoy being around people who seek to maintain ideas that are unscriptural.  I believe that “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:” (2 Timothy 3:16 ).  I believe that the Bible is God’s revelation of all that He wants man to know about spiritual matters.  I believe it contains all we need to know in order to be saved and to serve God in His acceptable way.

I believe this is the same view of Scripture as was that of the apostles and other first century preachers.  I believe this is the view of Scripture that the Bible itself teaches us to hold.  I believe this is the historic, mainstream view of the Baptists.  But this view implies limits.  First of all we are limited by the Bible as to what we must believe.  We are not free to pick and choose among the various doctrines as to what we are to believe.  Neither are we free to pick and choose among the practical instructions we are given – those instructions which tell us how to live so as to please God.

From the most ancient of times, this view limits us also to the Bible alone – that is we who hold this view are not free to go beyond the Scriptures.  Deuteronomy 4:2 says,  “Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you.”  We must be, if we would be Biblical in our doctrine and living – we absolutely MUST be as wide as the Bible in our fellowship and cooperation, but not one whit wider! 

Probably most of us are gregarious.  We like for people to like us.  We want the approval of our peers.  I confess that I am distressed when people don’t like me for one reason or another.  And yet there are sincere, honest, upright people who don’t like me because of what I believe.  And so I feel the pressure to capitulate – to give in – and go along with the crowd.  I think most of us feel this pressure.  For that reason there are some things I wish I could believe so as to have a wider fellowship.  I do not mean a wider fellowship with the world, but with sincere people who profess to believe the same Bible I believe.

For instance, I wish I could believe in celebrating Christmas.  Now hold on, this is not an article about Christmas.  Please allow me to give some valid examples as to how I could have a wider fellowship.  The Christmas season is filled with pagan practices, comes from a pagan origin, and cannot be the celebration of the birth of Christ as it claims for it is not observed anywhere near the date of His birth.  Beyond that, we have no instruction or example in the Bible which would lead us to observe this day.  But there is a lot of emotional exhiliration about Christmas.  (Even allowing for the post-Christmas depression syndrome, the pre-Christmas “rush” includes an emotional rush as well as hectic rushing about.)   But more than that, I am shut out of much of my extended family circle during this time of year.  My more distant relatives are busy with the season and as I cannot have a part in it, I am an exile – especially when they know I believe the season and all its traditions to be sinful. 

But IF I could go along with Christmas I would have a wider fellowship.  Not only would the circle of fellowship be wider in my own family, it would be wider among professing Bible believers.  Face the facts.  Most people calling themselves Baptists observe all sorts of non-Biblical holidays.  So,  in one way, I wish I could celebrate Christmas.  But my honest understanding of the Bible just will not allow me to participate in such a mixture of lies and supposed reverence for the Son of God.  I am constrained to worship “in spirit and in truth” (John 4:23).  Yes I could have a wider fellowship, but it would not be based on the Word of God.

Now if I could just be a Freemason, I would have a wider fellowship and perhaps a more powerful one as far as the affairs of this life are concerned.  I know a little about the Masons.  I have researched their organization and have been invited a few times to consider seeking membership in their vast organization.  Now when I was a boy I liked getting dressed up in costumes.  I would play cowboys, Indians, pirates, soldier, etc., etc.  So the wearing of costumes and special clothing would not be a problem to me.  I also liked clubs and secret organizations when I was a boy.  And there are many people in the Masonic Lodge who profess to believe and follow the Bible.  IF I could just be a Mason I would have a wider fellowship.  But the same Bible that made me a Baptist will not allow me to be a Freemason.  The same paganism that pervades all the traditions of men is found in the Masonic Lodge.

Again, if I could be a member of the Southern Baptist Convention, I would have a wider fellowship.  My! How much wider it would be!  And many who profess to believe the Bible are in this man-made monstrosity and seem to be quite content there.  They have great crowds and seem assured that they are following the Bible.  Now that some are returning to the doctrine of free and sovereign grace among the Convention churches – at least we are assured by them that they have returned – I could probably find considerable fellowship among them.  But the same Bible which keeps me from other things keeps me from this man-made organization.

Well, the Bible does not exactly forbid joining up with such an organization of well-intentioned men.  But it does forbid compromise.  And it does not give men any instruction to form such a union nor to join such a thing nor does it give me any example of any New Testament preacher doing so.  Having neither example nor precept, I cannot join the S.B.C. (or similar organization) and believe that I am following the Bible, even though I would have a wider fellowship if I was not so constrained by God’s Book.

And lately we have seen the coming out of some Brethren who say that the only true churches are self-constituted ones.  IF I could believe this doctrine, I could have a much wider fellowship.  I could fellowship with a much wider group of Baptists and perhaps even some Bible Churches and other interdenominationalists.  I notice in one of the articles promoting this spontaneous combustion theory of church origin that the writer appeals to the idea of a wider fellowship.

But Brethren, when I read my Bible I see saved, baptized, ordained men being sent out of a pre-existing New Testament Church to do the work of evangelization, baptizing, and what today is called “church planting.”  I never read anywhere in the Bible about a church that just “happened” to come into existence nor have I ever read about a church being “self-constituted.”  Just how do you go about “self-constituting” a church?  Does the Bible tell us how to do it?  I cannot find such a thing at all in the Bible so I don’t know how to do it. 

To me, this “self-constituted church” idea is like infant baptism.  In fact, if I could believe in self-constituted churches I could believe in infant baptism – and vice versa.  The same principles of Bible interpretation that keep me from infant baptism also keep me from the self-constituted-church theory.  I have neither precept nor example of either infant baptism OR self-constituted churches anywhere in the New Testament.

For whatever reasons – perhaps some seek a wider fellowship – some self-destructive Baptists continue to write and otherwise promote this self-constituted church doctrine.  For a while I read the stuff put out by their most able men – and some among them are good men who profess to believe and follow the Bible.  But I soon found out that they have not yet come up with even one Scriptural example of a New Testament Church self-constituting itself NOR have they any Biblical command to do so NOR have they come up with instructions in the Word of God as to how a church can be self-constituted and  know that they are correctly constituted.  They talk about something called “covenanting together,” but, alas, I can find nothing in the Bible about this either!  So they don’t know how to do it and know that they have done it and I don’t know how to do it and know that I have done it.  No church that is self-constituted knows whether they did it right because they have not valid instructions as to how to do it.  Sounds to me like they are playing with fire – and I, for one, don’t want to get burned!

So, even if my fellowship and cooperation must stay restricted, I aim to follow the Bible as I understand it.  That means in the matter of church organization that a baptized, ordained man, being a member in good standing of a previously existing sound Church and sent out of (authorized by, if you please) such a Church is the Bible way of doing missionary work.  Until these Brethren with the new light can furnish Scriptural precept or example for their loose ideas, I intend to continue as I have learned Christ.  I do not require history, human reasoning, the opinions of some Baptist “Doctor,” or a long thesis: just furnish me with with a Biblical example of a church self-constituting itself or instructions telling us to do such a thing, or even instructions telling us how to do such a thing.  All I ask for is Bible!  And I don’t think this request for Bible proof is unreasonable.

Such Biblical evidence has NOT been forthcoming nor do I foresee any such Biblical proof on the horizon.  So, while I may wish for a wider fellowship and circle of cooperation, I do not expect to have it as long as I find myself restricted to strict Biblical doctrine and practice.

But the fellowship with Brethren of like minds is sweet.  But sweeter yet is the fellowship with Christ as we walk in obedience to Him and His Book.  I remember the words of one preacher who said, “Now we are not the only Church that believes these things, but if we were, we could handle it.”  There was once only one Church that believed and practiced the truth and while I may wish to enlarge the circle of Christ’s Churches, I do not have that authority.  I am satisfied that the number of Christ’s Churches is larger than some of us may believe, but it is certainly smaller that many would have us believe.

And so, Beloved of the Lord, let us be content with HIS fellowship and the fellowship of kindred minds. Amen.