In The Master's Service

WHY DO WE BELIEVE WHAT WE BELIEVE?

The things we believe relative to the doctrine and practice of the church should be of the greatest importance to us, and for this reason we should give much thought as to our reasons for believing the things we do. Many of us grew up in the Primitive Baptist Church, that is, our parents were members before us and we had opportunity to observe the doctrine and practice before we ever had a desire to unite with the church. And, of course, we grew up with the idea in mind that what our parents believed and did was right, because we loved them and always found them to be truthful and honest. This was as it should have been, because in no other way could their lives have influenced ours from a moral standpoint. We heard their preachers preach salvation by grace and our parents believed this preaching, and if anyone had asked us about it we would have told them that what Mother and Father believed was right, simply because they believed it. This was good also, because I have always thought that fathers and mothers could do much toward causing their children to have respect for the church. They could not then, nor can they today, cause their children to love the church and its doctrines, but they could teach the child to respect them and then through this respect for them they would respect the church.

There is no doubt but what the practices of our forefathers have influenced our lives to some extent, and many of us accept their practices without question; we simply follow in their steps without thinking to confirm their practice by the Bible, and this leads to tradition of the wrong kind, which the Bible condemns. Matthew 15:3, 15:6. Some traditions are right to follow, but they are the traditions of the Apostles, who were inspired of God to write the New Testament. II Thessalonians 3:6. We don't think any man since the apostles has been inspired to give the church any doctrine or practice, and when we begin to believe anything some man advocates we are following unauthorized tradition.

It is well enough to consider the practice of our fathers, but we should not take their practice as ours unless we first confirm it by the Scriptures. Many errors have crept into the church in all ages, because men are fallible creatures and subject to mistake, and so the only wise course to pursue is to take the Bible as the man of our council. It is human nature for us to take the path of least resistance, do the things that cause the least effort on our part, and the Devil is always close around to coach us in the things we do. This fact, perhaps, was the cause of many errors that have come into the church from time to time.

We sometimes hear Old Baptists say, with reference to practical things, "Such and such a thing was good enough for our fathers, and it is good enough for me." But is it? Suppose our fathers practiced something unauthorized by the Bible, would that be good enough for us? It would not be if we are sinners in our service. I have known some to make strong contention over external things, non-essentials, like the sort of song book we use in service, the Sunday we have service, having electric lights in the church house, and many other things like that, and at the same time run rough shod over some things of vital importance, such as looking after the widow and the orphan, the poor of the church and the ministry. They have also been careless in some instances about contending for proper discipline, and when we question them about it they sometimes tell us that Ma and Pa used this song book, or had this Sunday meeting as long ago as I can remember, or they had no lights in the church, and did not do too much for the pastor.

Again I say, do we believe what we believe because some one before us believed it, or do we believe becasue the Bible teaches it? The same Bible that taught the first Christians how to follow and serve Christ still teaches the same things today, nothing has changed about the Scriptures, and we are just as obligated to study them as were the first saints in the days of Paul. If our fathers before us practiced something the Bible did not teach we should correct the same in our practice, and while we are doing this, if we will observe closely, we will find that they practiced things that we have left off that were right, and so we can learn a lot about our practice by observing their practice in the light of the Bible.

Some have been heard to say, "The pastor is no better to work than any other man, and I don't believe in setting him up on easy street." It is true that the pastor is no better to work than other men. I don't know of anybody that has argued that he is, but the whole idea as taught by the Scriptures is not to help support the pastor because he is better than other men, but because the word of God teaches it. Perhaps the reason some of us want to cling so tenaciously to some of the practice of our forefathers is that it calls for little effort on our part, perhaps we are just a little covetous and selfish, and this practice of not spending much effort and money in the service of God just suits our natural disposition. Let us be careful that we have a thus saith the Lord for what we do.

I don't believe in adding new and unauthorized things to our church service, but I do believe in doing the things we are taught to do, and many things that are considered as something new by some of us have been taught in the Bible all the while but we juat haven't been doing them. We do not need Sabbath Schools, musical instruments, prearranged protracted meetings, salaried ministers, individual drinking cups in communion service, to leave off washing feet, and to keep unclean and ungodly members in the church. The Bible will sustain us in this, I think, but on the other hand we don't want to make a brother an offender for a word, preach non-resurrectionism, absolutism, arminianism, nor any other false doctrine. Our fathers before us did not preach these things, but that is not our reason for not preaching them; our reason is that the Bible does not teach them.

Let us awake to what the Scriptures teach, and if we love the cause of the Master, let us endeavor to do what they do teach. Let us believe what we believe because the Bible teaches it, and not simply because our forefathers believed that way. We look for witnesses among those who have gone before, yes, but only as they confirm our convictions concerning the teaching of God's word. if our convictions are right we will find others in the long ago who believed them too, and this comforts and strengthens us in our stand. We are all poor and needy and need to consult the Bible at all times in ordeer to charter our course, for without its instruction we will wander off after the gods of this world.