THE SPIRIT OF GOD:–
ITS – OFFICES AND MANIFESTATIONS, TO THE END OF THE CHRISTIAN AGE.
BY ELD. J. H.
WAGGONER. 1877
Continued…
CHAPTER IV.
THE UNITY OF THE FAITH
“Now I beseech
you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same
thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly
joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.” 1 Cor. 1:10.
Christian union has always been considered
desirable; but lately, seeing that confusion and diversity are increasing, and
knowing of no means whereby to correct the evil, the churches have resigned
themselves to the apparent necessities of the case, and, to solace themselves,
have devised what they call “unity in diversity.” But we are sure no such unity
as that was ever learned from the word of God.
The gospel inculcates union and has made
provision to effect it. The apostle, concerning the benefits and privileges
conferred on the church by Christ, wrote as follows:—
“When he ascended up on high, he led captivity
captive, and gave gifts unto men.…. And he gave some, apostles; and some,
prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the
perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the
body of Christ; till we all come into the unity of the faith, and of the
knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the
stature of the fullness of Christ.” Eph. 4:8-13.
Here we have definite information concerning
the object for which these gifts were given unto
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men, and the time of their continuance. The
reader will bear in mind that the absence, or the apparent absence, of the
gifts of the Spirit at any time or in any age of the church, is no argument
against their perpetuity. The apostle says, “Follow after charity, and desire
spiritual gifts.” Now if charity should not be found with a certain body of
professed Christians, or in a certain age of the professed church, it would not
prove that it was not duty to exercise it; but it would prove that there was a serious
declension from the divine standard of piety. In like manner, if the gifts of
the Spirit were entirely wanting in a given time, yes, if the church had ceased
to “desire” them, that fact would by no means prove that God had withdrawn the
gifts. But it would prove that the church had forgotten the injunction of the
apostle, and had lost sight of the standard of Christianity as it was at first
erected. We do not learn what is truth or what is duty by the position or
practice of professed Christians at any specified time, but by the teachings of
the divine word; and the position and practice of all are to be judged by the
word.
Those who plead that God has withdrawn the
gifts from the church usually affirm that they were given to the apostles for
the especial purpose of completing the canon of revelation, or a system of
divinity, and when they had completed their writings the gifts were removed as
being no longer necessary. But it is worthy of particular notice that when the
apostle specifies the objects or uses for which the gifts were conferred, the
above mentioned reason is not given at all. It would be very strange indeed if
the apostle,
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in recounting the uses of the gifts, should
mention several but entirely omit the real use, or the chief one!
It is to be noticed also that all the gifts
were given with the same end in view, and for the same length of time. If they
were withdrawn there are now in the church no evangelists, pastors, nor
teachers, for these are among the gifts of the Spirit.
Or, if God saw fit, in his wisdom, to withdraw
them from the church, it is daring presumption to try to re-instate them. It is
allowable, and may be expedient, to devise methods of operation on points
concerning which there has been no revelation, when such methods do not
conflict with revelation. But, when God has ordained a plan and adopted a
means, and afterward reversed or abolished it, to endeavor to re-instate it is
an effort to impeach divine wisdom. Had it been wise and right to retain it, he
would have retained it. If it be proved that he has abrogated a certain order,
that is sufficient proof that he did not consider it wise or expedient to have
it continued. What, then, must we think of that class of professed Christians
who teach that God “set in the church” certain gifts, as evangelists, pastors,
and teachers; that he afterward withdrew them and left the church without them;
and they themselves proceed to re-instate or supply them to the church,
according to their own will and pleasure? Such proceedings toward any earthly
government would be considered no less than treason,—an entire subversion of
the authority of the government by erecting offices contrary to the known will
and action of the governor.
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The gifts were at first conferred on the
apostles to qualify them to preach the word, and so says Paul in Eph. 4:12,
they were given “for the work of the ministry.” Jesus would not suffer the
apostles to preach even a single sermon until they were “endued with power from
on high,” though they had been under his personal direction and instruction
more than three years; and we have no warrant to believe that he intended the
work of the ministry to be carried on at any time without the direct aid of the
gifts of the Spirit.
And it is expressly declared that they were
given for their several offices “till we all come into the unity of the faith,”
a position unto which the church has not attained. It will not do to say that
the church did arrive at such a state in the days of the apostles, and that it
has fallen from it, for the admonitions and reproofs given in their writings
disprove that. Or if it were true that the saints at first were so united in
faith, but fell from that state in the great apostasy, then is proved the
necessity of a revival of the gifts to accomplish their destined work. But it
is not necessary to argue that point. The church has not yet been so perfected.
Nor is it true that such a state of things is found in any one church of the present age; for in most of them, and in
all large bodies of them, there is found almost endless diversity of faith on
many Bible doctrines.
There are many who, instead of confessing their
shortcomings and trying to remedy their defects, frame excuses and scout every
grace they themselves do not possess. Destitute of the gifts of the Spirit,
they deny that they were designed to
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be perpetuated. Having among them such a
diversity of faith, they deny the New Testament doctrine of unity, and urge
that it is impossible for all to see and believe alike. They think such a state
of things as is now found in the different churches is not only allowable but
providential, and a right development of the gospel plan. We admit that men of
different education, prejudices, and prepossessions, will not see and think alike, unless their prejudices and
prepossessions are overcome. But this is the very end contemplated in the
gospel. If this is not so—if each one is to gratify his prejudices and act
according to his own prepossessions, then the gospel is a nullity; for then
cross-bearing and self-denial are not required, and humility is not even a
Christian grace.
But what then means the text already quoted,
that we are designed to come into the unity of the faith? That it means all
that the words can imply is proved by other texts, as the following:—
“Neither pray I for these alone, but for them
also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one; as
thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us.” John
17:20, 21.
Here surely is described a more perfect unity,
a more complete oneness, than is found among professed Christians of the
present time. But verse 11 is equally explicit:—“Holy Father, keep through
thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one as we are.”
If the Christians of this day who plead so much
for “union,” even those styled evangelical, think their union truly represents
the union or oneness of the Father and Son, then
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their ideas of a “trinity in unity” are not
very exalted. It must be evident to every thoughtful observer that, either
there is no very close union between the Father and the Son, or else this
prayer is not fulfilled in the churches of the present age. That it was
designed to be fulfilled is proved by the apostle’s words in 1 Cor. 1:10, as
follows:—
“Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of
our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no
divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together, in the same mind
and in the same judgment.”
And again in Phil. 2:2, as follows:—
“Fulfill ye my joy, that ye be like-minded,
having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.”
And that last excuse for discord and disunion
among Christians, namely, that the various churches with their diversity of
faiths, are recognized as so many “branches” of the body of Christ, is removed
by our Saviour’s words to his disciples:—
“I am the vine, ye are the branches.” John
15:5.
This language was not addressed to different
churches, but to individuals, before any contention or departure from truth had
separated believers into different factions of diverse creeds. Every excuse or
reason offered to justify the present state of discord, or any diversity of
faith and judgment among Christians, is founded in selfishness, and is an
evidence of carnality according to the words of Paul in 1 Cor. 3:3:—
“For ye are yet carnal; for whereas there is
among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as
men?”
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Or, “walk according to man,” as the margin
reads; according to carnal, selfish feelings, and not according to the
teachings and spirit of Christ.
The
scene of confusion he there pictures has its exact counterpart in the present
position of the churches:— “For while one saith, I am of Paul, and another, I
of Apollos, are ye not carnal?” Verse 4.
It
must, surely, be as allowable to bear the name of Paul or of Apollos, as of
Luther, of Calvin, or of Wesley.
To such he asks:—
“Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you?
or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?” 1 Cor. 1:13.
So we may ask now: Is Christ divided? was
Calvin crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Wesley? If not,
why bear his name as Christians? If ever there was a time when the gospel means
for unity was required in the church, it is the present.
Some imagine that a gift of the Spirit cannot
be manifested “for the work of the ministry” without interfering with the canon
of revelation. But this is a very narrow view of the subject. An evangelist may
“make full proof of his ministry,” and yet conform to the word already given.
And so of any other gift. Paul was directed by the Spirit to go to Macedonia.
Peter, by direct revelation, was sent to Cornelius. Paul and Barnabas were
separated to a certain work by order of the Spirit. By the same power Elymas
the sorcerer was discovered and rebuked. In these and other instances, nothing
was added to the body of the Scriptures. And so, since the days of the
apostles, in the time of
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the Reformers, of Wesley, and in later times as
will be shown, instruction, reproof, and comfort have been given by the Spirit.
Words of comfort, warnings of danger, personal reproofs, directions to duty,
all come under the heads of the perfecting of the saints, the work of the
ministry, and the edifying of the body of Christ, while none of them are
additions to the Scriptures. The objection arises from prejudice, and must at
once be rejected by all who recognize the truth that the ministry is not sufficient,
without being “endued with power from on high,” to so instruct and lead the
church as to bring them to the unity of the faith and spirit. Human strength
and human wisdom cannot accomplish it.
“And God hath set some in the church, first
apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then
gifts of healing, helps, governments, diversities of tongues.” 1 Cor. 12:28.
As God set these in the church we have a right
to ask, By what authority and by what power have they been removed from the
church? Did God ever make known his intention to deprive the church of their
aid? They should remain where God has set them, unless he has removed them; but
of their removal we have no intimations in his word. The Bible foretells a
falling away; the arising of false teachers in the church; the entering in of
grievous wolves, not sparing the flock; and the bringing in of damnable heresies.
But all these indicate, not the withdrawing of the gifts from the church, but
the necessity of their retention; for surely they must be needed most for the
perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, and for the edifying of
the body
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of Christ, when such a sad state of things
exists. There is no reason to dispute that the instruction of the apostle to
“covet earnestly the best gifts,” and to “follow after charity, and desire
spiritual gifts,” was given to the church for the entire dispensation.
The intention of the apostle’s argument in 1
Cor. 12 is not generally appreciated because its connection is not regarded.
After enumerating the manifestations of the Spirit, saying the gifts are
divided to every man as the Lord will, he says, “By one Spirit are we all
baptized into one body.” This is a most important declaration, as it gives us
to understand that if we are not baptized by that Spirit into that body we are
not of that body.
When the Saviour left the disciples he said:—
“Ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not
many days hence.” Acts 1:5.
That baptism they received on the day of
Pentecost, according to “the promise of the Father” to the Son. And this
promise they held out to all to whom they preached, “even as many as the Lord
our God shall call.” With this baptism of the Spirit are all the saints
baptized into one body, yet “having gifts differing,” as it pleases God to
bestow. This can have reference to nothing but the immediate operation of the
Spirit. Then follows the argument for their
necessity in the church. He says:—
“For the body is not one member, but many. If
the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it
therefore not of the body? And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye,
I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were
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an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole
were hearing, where were the smelling? But now hath God set the members every
one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him.” 1 Cor. 12:14-18.
God hath set the members in the body so that it
is perfect and complete in every part. If any part is lacking, there is schism
or division. The hand cannot supply the place of the foot, nor can the ear fill
the place of the eye. A perfect body, complete in all respects, has every
member in its place; each fulfilling its office; each aiding and strengthening
the others; as it is written:—
“And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have
no need of thee; nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.” Verse
21.
Let it be remembered that this argument is
concerning the gifts in the church, and here is a rebuke to that spiritual
pride which asserts that Christians are now so wise and strong that they have
no need of some of the members which God set in the church; which virtually
boasts that we have outgrown the bounds of God’s original arrangement. This is
actually taking common ground with that class of infidels who kindly admit that
the Bible was good enough for the time when it was given, but that we have outgrown
its narrow confines and find it unsuited to our present wants. Neither the
revelation nor the arrangement for the church was local and temporary, unless
the gospel itself is temporary or confined to a part of the age.
The apostle has affirmed that no part of the
body, as God originally constituted it, can boast against any other part. And
yet this is exactly what the professed “body of Christ” is doing in
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this age. Some of the most important gifts
which God set in the church are ignored, despised, and boasted against, as if
they were hindrances instead of helps; as if they marred the body instead of
being necessary to its perfection. Of this same subject the apostle further
says:—
“The members should have the same care one for
another. And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one
member be honored, all the members rejoice with it.” Verses 25, 26.
The error commonly entertained in regard to
this chapter is this: it is supposed that “the members” referred to are
individuals in the church without any reference to the gifts. But such,
certainly, is not the idea conveyed by the language; nor can any gather that
idea from the entire chapter in its connection. It relates to the gifts as
divided to the several individuals composing the entire church, as God was
pleased that they should exist, that no part be lacking, or weak, or defective,
but that the whole body may be perfect according to the divine plan. For they
were all given
“For the perfecting of the saints, for the work
of the ministry, for the edifying [building up] of the body of Christ; till we
all come into the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God,
unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.”
Eph. 4:12, 13.
Happy state! blessed privilege! May we all have
grace to obtain it, and humility to accept the means whereby it is obtained.
To be continued…
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