A PERTINENT QUESTION by S.

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Sep 4, 1901

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 27, No. 36.

A PERTINENT QUESTION.

By S.

The Literary Digest headed one of its articles recently with the pertinent question, “Does Christianity Need Restoration to the New Testament Model?” and quoted in its discussion of the subject, an article from the Christian Commonwealth, of London.

That such a question could be asked, shows that much which now passes for Christianity finds no warrant in the Word. The wonder is that any one should ever presume to advocate that Christianity consists of principles which Christ did not institute; but the world is awake to the fact that much is now called Christianity which has only the authority of man behind it. Therefore the question arises, Is there need of a return to that which Christ Himself instituted? The question as quoted is somewhat misleading; for true Christianity does not need a restoration to the New Testament model. Where Christianity departs from the New Testament model, it ceases to be Christianity; but whatever professes to be Christian, and is unlike the model which Christ left, certainly needs a restoration to that model.

There is no Christianity outside of Christ; there is nothing Christian that is unlike Christ; nothing Christian that Christ did not establish. Realizing this truth, the inconsistency of clinging to human forms and ceremonies as part of the saving Gospel of Christ is clearly apparent. Christ’s own testimony on this question should settle it at once and for all time. In showing the inconsistency of some of the forms and ceremonies of the Pharisees, Christ said, “Every plant, which My heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up.” Matt. 15:13. Paul, as if in answer to this very question, declares: “Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.” I Cor. 3:11-13.

Christ Himself, in the following language, shows the impossibility of human ceremonies accomplishing anything in His work: “I am the vine, ye are the branches: he that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit; for without Me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in Me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.” John 15:5, 6. Thus does Inspiration answer the question, declaring that God will uproot every institution which He has not established; that there is but one true foundation, and the fires of God’s great testing-day will consume all that is not builded thereon; that the one who does not abide in Christ bears no fruit for Him, and is cast forth as a branch to be burned. And he who is following and teaching others to follow human ceremonies and human institutions, is not perfectly abiding in Christ, is not building a perfect structure upon the true foundation, and his work, instead of abiding to eternity in the garden of God, will be uprooted and consumed with all things that displease and dishonor Him.

The Christian Commonwealth, in commenting on this question, and advocating a return to the New Testament model, falls into the common error of attempting to support one of those “plants” which the Creator did not plant. It says:—

The memory ordinance of the New Testament is the Lord’s supper. In the realm of God’s grace in which all Christians are to grow, divine wisdom has placed this ordinance at regular weekly intervals. In Acts 20:7 it is written, “And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them.” Beyond seven days no Christian need go without being reminded of the fact that Jesus “died for our sins according to the Scriptures.” And on the first day of every week—the resurrection day—every disciple who desires to honor his Lord will do so, if possible, by regarding the day and the ordinance.

Note what is assumed in this short quotation: First, that the Lord’s supper is an ordinance that must be celebrated weekly; and secondly, that these weekly celebrations must occur upon the first day of the week; and thirdly, that the first day of the week is the day to be regarded by Christians if they would honor God. It is this kind of interpretation which is responsible for much of the variance now existing between professed Christians and the Word of God, making a return to first principles necessary. There is nothing in the text or in the context which proves that the meal there partaken of was the Lord’s supper; nothing in text or context to show that this meal was an ordinance to be repeated each succeeding first day of the week; nothing to show that they were keeping Sunday as a Sabbath in commemoration of the Lord’s resurrection; and yet all this the Commonwealth infers, assumes, and teaches from this text. The Lord’s supper was an ordinance which was to be celebrated “often.” “As often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord’s death till He come.” I Cor. 11:26. “And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart.” Acts 2:46. Thus the evidence, instead of showing a weekly observance of that ordinance on the part of the early disciples, would rather indicate its daily celebration by them. It was an ordinance which they could celebrate as frequently as they desired—“as often as ye eat this ‘bread,’ etc.”

So, even if the disciples were celebrating the ordinance of the Lord’s supper at the time mentioned in Acts 20:7, it can not in any way be said to teach its weekly celebration, nor that its celebration must fall on Sunday, nor that Sunday, the first day of the week, is the day men must observe in order to honor God. In fact, the Sunday-sabbath is one of those “plants” which “My heavenly Father hath not planted,” one of those plants which “shall be rooted up.”

The work of God in the earth is a work of restoration to the divine pattern. Wherever the observance of God’s ordinances has been neglected, or wherever His institutions have been trodden under foot, there is the need for restoration; and whatever day men may set up in the place of God’s holy Sabbath here in the earth, those who enter “through the gates into the city” will keep there the only Sabbath ever recognized by Jehovah. See Isa. 58:12-14; 66:23. The Sabbath of the Lord is one of those plants which the Father planted, and which shall endure throughout all eternity. The majority of professed Christians are not keeping it. In this thing, then, there is need of a restoration, a turning again, to that institution which the Lord Himself has established. s.