Organization by G. B. T.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 7, 1916

Organization

By G. B. T.

As I go about, occasionally I find some who say they do not believe in organization. Others say they do not believe in any general organization; that it is dangerous and popish.

In what way is organization dangerous? Without it we have disorder, confusion, chaos, and this condition is dangerous.

I go to the station to take the train west. The great engine, with its long train filled with human beings, pulls in on time. The engineer descends from the cab, oil can in hand. I approach him and ask the schedule of his train. He says, “I have no schedule, or time card. This road has no head. We have no organization. I am as experienced as any engineer on the road. I know how to run an engine, and I take orders from no one. I recognize no man as head.” I ask him if he has any information as to the trains traveling east. He says he has none, and does not expect any; that it is nobody’s business how he runs his train, or where he passes the train traveling in an opposite direction. My curiosity being aroused, as I am to take this train, I ask him as to his speed regulations. He says, “I run as fast as I please. No one gives me any orders. I have no time-table dictating what time I am expected to reach a certain town, or whether or not I am to stop. I get there when I please, and stop or go by, just as the notion strikes me.” After such a conversation, in the interest of my own safety I would conclude to walk, rather than travel on a road that had no head and no organization. A wreck is only a question of time.

We go into a great department store filled with merchandise of every kind. It has no head, or manager, no organization; everything is in confusion. The man on the tenth floor, in the millinery department, concludes he ought to have on his floor some cooking utensils or hardware from the basement department. Without counsel he has some pots and kettles brought up and put on a shelf in the corner. The man in charge of things on the fifth floor, where carpets are sold, decides he would like to have a side line of perfumery or dishes, for those who might inquire for them, so he has some brought up. Hardware is scattered from the basement to the top. Shoes are sold all over the building, but with one price on one floor, and another price on some other. Jewelry is everywhere, and nowhere in particular. Each man is a law unto himself; he takes his orders from no one. No attention is paid to the financial plans adopted by the firm for paying bills or for collecting from customers; each salesman in the store puts in operation a plan of his own. You go in and make some purchases. One salesman puts the proceeds in his pocket; another has a cash register; still another has a different system of recording sales. How long would it take a business run on such lines, without any organization and with no one at the head, to go into utter bankruptcy? — Not long, to be sure.

How long would a government exist with no organization, and no system of doing business, either at home or abroad? How efficient would be the mail service with no system, no one at the head? Would letters reach their destination as quickly as they do now? How would Congress get on, think you, with no one to preside, and no rules for preserving order? Think of our foreign policy, with no Secretary of State, no systemized arrangement, nor any well-defined policy; but each man in each country refusing to take counsel from any one, and running affairs according to his own notion. The nation would be quickly ruined.

Further illustrations of the folly of having no organization are quite unnecessary. No one in his right mind would contend for a minute that secular business could possibly be carried forward without any organization or systematic arrangement for doing the work.

It is equally absurd to claim that organization in the church is unnecessary or dangerous. Without organization those who are aggressive, domineering, and tyrannical would come to the front, as in a mob. With organization, these elements are held in check, and the people in the body have charge of things. It is to be expected that these domineering elements would argue, from the fact that they are held in check, that there is despotism somewhere, but this does not prove it.

There is order in heaven. We read of “the armies which were in heaven.” Rev. 19:14. An army is an organized body of soldiers, becoming disorganized only when they are being routed. The ministers of God—the angels—are fully organized. The Lord desires the same system and order for his church. “God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.” 1 Cor. 14:33. Indeed, God is not the author of confusion, disorganization, and turmoil in the churches. He desires that just the opposite shall be seen—peace and order.

The kingdom of darkness is also an organized kingdom. We are told that we wrestle against principalities, and against the rulers of the darkness of this world. Having arranged his army of lost angels into organized rebellion, to destroy God’s people, Satan would be most happy indeed if he could succeed in destroying organization from among the remnant, against whom his most determined efforts are being waged. Notice the following:—

“Satan well knows that success can only attend order and harmonious action. He well knows that everything connected with heaven is in perfect order, that subjection and thorough discipline mark the movements of the angelic host. It is his studied effort to lead professed Christians just as far from Heaven’s arrangement as he can; therefore he deceives even the professed people of God, and makes them believe that order and discipline are enemies to spirituality; that the only safety for them is to let each pursue his own course, and to remain especially distinct from bodies of Christians who are united, and are laboring to establish discipline and harmony of action. All the efforts made to establish order are considered dangerous, a restriction of rightful liberty, and hence are feared as popery.”—Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 1, p. 650.

Here is another statement equally strong:—

“O how Satan would rejoice to get in among this people, and disorganize the work at a time when thorough organization is essential, and will be the greatest power to keep out spurious uprisings, and to refute claims not indorsed by the Word of God. We want to hold the lines evenly, that there shall be no breaking down of the system of regulation and order. In this way license shall not be given to disorderly elements to control the work at this time. We are living in a time when order, system, and unity of action are most essential. And the truth must bind us together like strong cords in order that no distracted efforts may be witnessed among the workers. If disorderly manifestations appear, we must have clear discernment to distinguish the spurious from the genuine.”—Special Testimonies to Ministers and Workers, No. 3, pp. 60, 61.

We are profoundly thankful for the simple, yet efficient system of organization which has been developed, by which this message can be advanced in an orderly way in all parts of the world. Suppose we should break up into fragments, and each church be separate from every other church, how, for instance,

could a strong, aggressive work be carried forward in foreign fields among the millions who are yet to be warned? Scarcely a church among us could supply the funds to support even one missionary. But when all are united upon a plan, then through an organized, systematic arrangement, the strongest and most aggressive work ever done by a denomination of equal membership can be and is being successfully carried forward. The same applies in the home fields and in all other lines of work. It is this systematic organization which Satan would be pleased to destroy. But he will not be able; it will stand till the end.

G. B. T.