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An Answer to the “Why Questions” |
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By Evangelist Richard Bradley Co-Editor |
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A recent correspondence from the General Director of our agencies in Anderson contained the following:
And, now, at last, here are the “why” questions (as proposed by the Bylaws & Charter Review Committee):
(A) If you could capture in one sentence, “What is the purpose of the Church of God Movement?” what would it be?
(B) What is the unique contribution that the Movement makes to the Kingdom in the world today?
(C) Upon what should the Movement focus going forward?
I am sure that all who may read this article will have received or read the initial “Why?” document circulated by Jim Lyon, our current National Director. It was released in the same time frame as his statement of focus for the Reformation Movement of the Church of God for the immediate future, which is, “Jesus Is the Subject.”
When Moses was on the mountain with God, we know that Yahweh gave to him the tablets of stone whereon He had
written His commandments to His people with His very own finger. “And he gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communing with him upon mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God” (Exodus 31:18 KJV). “And the Lord delivered unto me two tables of stone written with the finger of God; and on them was written according to all the words, which the Lord spake with you in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly” (Deuteronomy 9:10).
These tablets were dashed to pieces when Moses descended the mountain and found sin in the camp (Exodus 32:7 KJV). Moses then fasted and prayed forty days before the Lord when God instructed him to hew out two more tablets like the first and come back up the mount and God would again write as He did the first time. Moses had to furnish the labor and the stone tablets which God had hewn with His finger the first time (Deuteronomy 9:15-10:5 KJV). However, when Moses came down this time he had something more than the two tablets of stone; he had the pattern for the tabernacle, which was a dim shadow picture of God’s pattern for His church.
By definition the word “pattern” speaks of “an ideal worthy of imitation, a plan, diagram, or model to be followed in making things; to make, mold, or design by following a pattern.”
“And thou shalt rear up the tabernacle according to the fashion thereof which was shewed thee in the mount (Exodus 25:40; Exodus 27:8 KJV). God’s Church has never been a free-lance people, left to themselves to settle issues by chance or circumstance. In every dispensation of time God has a pattern whereby His people are to live and build.
Ezekiel 43:10-12, “Thou son of man, shew the house to the house of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their iniquities: and let them measure the pattern. And if they be ashamed of all that they have done, shew them the form of the house, and the fashion thereof, and the goings out thereof, and the comings in thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the laws thereof: and write it in their sight, that they may keep the whole form thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, and do them. This is the law of the house; Upon the top of the mountain the whole limit thereof round about shall be most holy. Behold, this is the law of the house” (KJV).
Hebrews 8:5, “Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount” (KJV).
Similarly, the New Testament contains the pattern for the true church, and since all things are to be built according to the divine pattern, the church must be built according to that same pattern. Many things are being built by motivated men today. But are they being built according to the pattern? To build willfully, or ignorantly and contrary to the pattern will result in an entity that is contrary to divine specifications. What man or group of men, knowing this fact, would want to continue to build that which is destined to fall short of God’s pattern?
The facts are, that everything pertaining to the building and sustaining of God’s church is found in the New Testament pattern. To build according to that pattern is to preach, teach, accept and stand for the one true church as set forth in the eternal Word of God. Just as we stand for other truths patterned for our benefit in the New Testament, such as salvation, sanctification, communion, baptism, feet washing, tithing, and divine physical healing, so ought we to stand for the church of the Bible.
That is where Jesus, the Head of the Church, said for us to stand and that is where I am standing. It was He Who said, “Upon this rock I will build my church . . .” (Matthew 16:18 KJV). It was to His early disciples that He said, “Occupy till I come” (Luke 19:13 KJV). It is He Who instructs us to continue His mission.
Now, each piece of that ancient tabernacle, which prefigured Christ as Savior, was designed with loops into which staves could be inserted to carry them to their next location. It was completely transportable. So it is still, with the eternal truths of the church. They are designed to be carried to the next location, the next generation. Faithful servants of God bore the furniture of the tabernacle in days of old and that is typical of the countless faithful servants who have borne the truths of Christ and His bride, the church, across the years and centuries so that you and I may benefit from those eternal truths. It was Dr. Boyce Black-welder who said, “The man who says he loves the God of Truth, should automatically love the truths of God.”
I want to focus on that on which Jesus focused. As Peter wrote, “For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow His steps” (1 Peter 2:21 KJV). I want to stay with the “pattern” of the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched. God builds His Church. Matthew 16:18, “. . . and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (KJV).
I want to be a part of that body of believers called the bride. Revelation 21:9, “And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb's wife” (KJV). Jesus has only one bride, only one wife. A plurality of “churches” is not found in the New Testament except when used concerning congregations of the one church in different geographical locations. The “pattern” says there is one body. That is who and what I am and I cannot understand why I would want to be anything else.
Faithful servants, men and women, have gone before us bearing these eternal truths upon their shoulders and carrying the “torch of truth” in their hands and passing it on to the faithful of the next generation. Their faces I have seen across the years, these lovers of truth. Their faces are many— Black-welder, McCutcheon, Johnson, Conley, Shepherd, Reynolds, Reed, Sovine, Neece, Goodpastor, Oesch, Boyer, Morgan, and the list goes on. Their trust was that we would faithfully hold to and carry this truth safely, with honor and pride, and faithfully deliver them into the hands and onto the shoulders of the next generation. I can see the priests of old going before the people of God with the ark and the tabernacle in the lead. It is our turn, it is our responsibility to stand up and stand for those eternal truths. In my heart the fire is still burning, and the light is still shining. It is forward, not backward, it is upward and onward, not back down the mountain. No lure of “leeks, onions, and garlics,” no call of Babylon, must pull us aside. We must faithfully climb so that “the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it” (Isaiah 2:2 KJV).
That which Jesus built was not an organization, but an organism. The set-up of an organization can be changed and made to operate in various ways. An organization, since it is formed by man’s act of organizing, can be reorganized repeatedly, but an organism is complete in its form from its beginning. This living organism was born from Jesus’ side and it needs no “RE-organizing,” for it is like the human body—complete. From its beginning all it needs is faithful care for its growth and development. So it is with the body of Christ of which I am a part. I know “Who” I am. I know “Whose” I am. I know “What” my mission is. I know “Where” I am going. I know “How” to get there. Why do I have to ask “WHY”? “WHY” do I need to call into question all the things that have made and continue to make me a part of His glorious Church?
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