345 – Inter-church Affiliations

SEMESTER 3

345 – Inter-church Affiliations

BIBLE INSTITUTE OF CORRESPONDENCE

COURSE: ECCLESIOLOGY III LESSON # 45
INTER-CHURCH AFFILIATIONS

Read carefully, before this lesson, the tract “Baptized By One Spirit Into One body,” and Acts 13:1-3.

INTRODUCTION:

1. One great issue of ecclesiastical discussion today is the necessity and/or the propriety of various inter-church affiliations.
2. Some people boldly claim the right and necessity of a denominational hierarchy.
3. Some claim no Bible demand and profess no Bible pattern, but gladly suffer it for the sake of practicality.
4. Others are completely dedicated to such affiliations while failing or refusing to admit any affiliation at all.

I. DIFFERENT TYPES OF AFFILIATION IN CHURCHES AND PROFESSED CHURCHES

1. Strict groups with well defined chains of command, head­quarters, leaders, etc.

i. Catholicism – pope, cardinals, bishops, etc.
ii. Protestants – with the same structure and different titles.
iii. Sects, such as Mormonism, J.W’s, Moonies, etc.

2. Loose-knit groups, where churches own their own property, call their pastors, etc., and can withdraw, (perhaps with contest but must do so if they do not basically cooperate).

i. Assemblies of God and United Pentecostals, Churches of God.
ii. Southern Baptists, Conservative Baptists, NABA, ABA, BMA, GARB, etc.

3. Groups where the affiliation is voluntary, unwritten, unspoken and often denied, but is well maintained by peer pressure, pecking order, and mutual interests and investments, and where the order is carried out indirectly through schools, fellowships, etc.

i. Named fellowships, such as BBF, WBF, Inter-mountain Fellowship, Southwide Fellowship.
ii. Unnamed fellowships grouped around schools, Bible colleges, Mission clearing houses, personalities, etc. This affiliation is never visible to the affiliated, in fact, is usually denied.

Note: Two things should be seen about the above listing.

a) I have moved from the tightest to the loosest form of this affiliation.
b) There is an overlapping in these and an upward progres­sion toward strict ecclesiastical control in them.

I. CLAIMS TO JUSTIFY THESE AFFILIATIONS

1. All churches come out of one, are one, and should get back together.
2. All believers make up the true church and thus any effort toward total unity is good.
3. We can be more effective through cooperative effort, than through individual effort.
4. There are many things which can be accomplished by a united involvement, which no single church can accomplish.

II. VALID ARGUMENTS AGAINST THESE AF­FILIATIONS

1. We have no Bible instructions to affiliate ourselves in any way.
2. We have no biblical pattern of it having been done.

Note: Such apostolic judgments as we see in Acts 15 must be seen as apostolic revelation from God, and not an ecclesiastical deter­mination.

3. We see a well defined pattern of churches acting independently as in Acts 13:1-5.

III. OBVIOUS PROBLEMS WITH AFFILIATIONS

1. A false sense of strength and security in number. (Mat. 28:19-20, I Sam. 14:6, Judges 7:2)
2. A false sense of right decision by the multitude.

III: “This many can’t be wrong.” But they can be, look at Christ’s crucifixion.

3. The constant danger of followers being led by dynamic but evil men.
4. The necessary compromise that does and must always flow through and out of numerical growth.
5. The real physical strength for survival in heresy, of that which is spiritually dead.

Conclusion: The only right way is the Bible pattern: Each local church (body of Christ) under her head (Christ) and influenced by no one else.