ADVOCATE AND MESSENGER 

Williamston, N.C., July 1927 

A brother, in a Gulf State, sends me eleven long typewritten, complicated, general questions as to order in our Churches, and entreats me to answer them in The Advocate and Messenger, hoping that the Lord will guide me in my reply, and that He will restore peace and union among our Churches in his section, which have been distressed and separated eight years by discord and division on these questions. The questions are too many, long, and intricate for me to publish them with my answers in The Advocate and Messenger; and, praying for Divine light, I can only answer the in a general way, knowing nothing of the particular circumstances of the case.

"If any of you lack wisdom," says James (1:5), let him ask of God, that giveth all liberally, and it shall be given him." Knowing my own weakness and insufficiency, I do not set myself up as a judge over my brethren; but I feel sure that those children of God who know the circumstances of this trouble, and the spirit manifested by the contending parties are better qualified than myself as to the proper settlement of the trouble. I can answer only in a general way, according to the teachings of the Inspired Scriptures and the usual practice of the Primitive Baptists.

"Let all things be done decently and in order," says the Apostle Paul; that is, let all things in church worship and practice be done becomingly, in accordance with the character and commandments of God, in accordance with the character and commandments of God, and not in a confused but in an orderly manner; "for," as he had just said, "God is not the author of confusion (or disorder) but of peace, as in all churches of the saints" (I Cor. 14:33). In the previous chapter (I Cor. 13) the Apostle had declared that "charity" (love) is the chief grace of the Christian character, without which all else is nothing, and he said that love (that is, true love of God and man, of our brethren and sisters, and even of our enemies, says Christ, Matt. 5:44-48) "suffers long, and is kind, envieth not, vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, does not behave itself unseemly, seeks not her own, is not easily provoked, thinks no evil, rejoices not in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth, bears, believes, hopes, and endures all things (that it possibly can), and never fails." The Church at Corinth was a Church of God; and yet, as we learn from Paul's two Epistles to that church, some of its members had fallen into great errors and disorders, and the church was divided into carnal and warring factions, but he corrected and reproved them, and taught them the truth and righteousness, and exhorted them to unity of mind and judgment. They even allowed one of their members to marry his father's wife, and the Apostle commanded them to put away from among themselves that wicked person (I Cor. 5), which they did, and whom, upon proper repentance, they, at the Apostle's command, forgave and restored (II Cor. 2:6, 7). The word rendered "many" in the 6th verse is ton pleion, the more, the majority; it was the majority of the Corinthian Church that excluded this immoral member; and, of course it took a unanimous vote of the church to restore him; otherwise disorder or confusion would have been brought into the church. This offender did not apply to some other church for membership, but went back penitently to the church at Corinth, his own church, although there at least had been, if not then, great disorders in that church. And this apostolic practice has been the general custom of Primitive Baptist Churches. Each church is a separate republic, with Christ as its only Head, in the management of its own affairs, in receiving, excluding, and restoring its own members. And where an excluded member returns and penitently confesses his faults, he should be forgiven and received, as Christ commands (Luke 17:3, 4; Matt. 18:21, 22; 6:14, 15). If an excluded member's church is in disorder, he, on repentance for his fault, should return to that church, and confess and be restored, and then labor to get that church into order. There is no instance, in the New Testament, where a member excluded by one church was received, while yet excluded, by another church; nor does the New Testament given an account of any church being unchurched, though many of the churches had errors and disorders in them. The letters of the Apostles to the churches and the messages of Christ (in Rev. 1-3) were to correct these wrongs. Of course, if a church becomes utterly anti Christian, and, after being labored with by other churches, finally persists in fundamental error or disorder, she forfeits the sisterly relations and obligation of other churches to her, and her sound and orderly members should "come out of her, and be separate, that they be not partakers of her sins, and receive not of her plagues" (II Cor. 6:14-18; Rev. 18:4).

Associations are unknown in the Scriptures, and have no authority over churches, but if held in love and peace, for the worship of God and for mutual edification, are upbuilding and comforting. And periodicals have no right to rule over churches. Helps from other churches may be asked, or councils of other churches may be called to give advice in cases of difficulty (I Cor. 12:28; Acts 15).

Sylvester Hassell