Devoted to the Propagation and Defense of New Testament Christianity
VOLUME 13
September 21, 1961
NUMBER 20, PAGE 1,12

From Heaven Or Of Men?

Roy Loney, Lawrence, Kansas

On Christ's last entrance into Jerusalem, we learn that he went into the temple and cast out the money changers and those who bought and sold the animals for sacrifice, saying, "My house shall be called a house of prayer, but ye have made it a den of thieves." (Matt. 21:12, 13) This forceful act was known to the chief priests, and they came to Christ pompously demanding, "By what authority doest thou these things, or who gave thee this authority?" The wisdom of God is seen in Jesus' reply: "I also will ask you one thing, which if ye tell me, I likewise will tell you by what authority I do these things. The baptism of John, whence was it? From heaven or of men?" The exasperated men were wise enough to meditate a reply. If they acknowledged John's baptism was from heaven, they stood self-condemned because they had not accepted it. If they claimed it was from men, they endangered their standing with the people who regarded John as a true prophet. The weakness of their position permitted no answer. "We cannot tell." They could take neither horn of the dilemma, and so had to beat a precipitate, cowardly retreat The question, "Is it from heaven or of men?" needs to be repeatedly asked today, for the principle underlying that question is eternal. It is the standard by which every doctrine or practice is to be measured. A doctrine or practice originating with men is of no value to man's immortal soul. "In vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men." (Matt. 15:9) Men's doctrines are destined to perish, hence, we are not to taste, touch or handle them. (Col. 2:21, 22) In the day of judgment, Christ will condemn those whose religious practice did not harmonize with his will, "depart from me, ye that work iniquity." (Matt. 7:22, 23)

A man's thoughts and ways are as far from God's thoughts and ways as heaven is far from hell. (Isaiah 55:7, 8) And a man's ways may seem absolutely correct to him, but will lead to death. (Prov. 14:12) "Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it." (Psalms 127:1)

It is a fact beyond successful disputation, that all we can know of God's will is what is revealed in the Holy Writ, "If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God." (1 Peter 4:11) "To the law and to the testimony; if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them." (Isaiah 8:20) Only through the law is the knowledge of sin. (Rom. 3:20) We can know nothing whatever as to what pleases the Lord, only insofar as God reveals his will. The Word is "able to make us wise unto salvation, through faith in Christ Jesus." (2 Tim. 3:15) Our most earnest prayer should be "Speak Lord, for thy servant heareth." The apostle John was given a measuring reed, to measure the temple, the altar and the worshippers. (Rev. 11:1) We know that reed was God's word. "He that rejecteth me and receiveth not my word, hath one that judgeth him. The word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day." (John 12:48) Thus we ascertain whether a doctrine or practice is "from heaven or of men." In the day of judgment, everything will either stand or fall as it is judged by that principle.

We know that the church of Christ came from God. "Upon this rock I (Christ) will build my church." (Matt. 16:181 Because it came from God, its spiritual value is indisputable, for it is divine. The difference between the human and the divine is the difference between condemnation and salvation. Between heaven and hell. Religious institutions originating with men, can have no spiritual value to humanity, for all that is of value to our souls was given when Christ gave the church and the New Testament. God's power and wisdom "hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness," (2 Peter 1:3) and the inspired scriptures supply the man of God unto all good works. (2 Tim. 3:16-17)

Today there is a spirited controversy over the scriptural right of Christians to establish and maintain so-called Christian schools or Bible Colleges. That these institutions were established by men is a self-evident fact, first from the silence of the scriptures, and from the testimony from many sources. In the record of the activities of some of the apostles given in Acts, there is only one institution mentioned, the church of the living God. When any of the apostles and their co-laborers engaged in missionary activity at any one place, they left just one institution behind them, the church of God. Modern men, feeling that something other than the church in its congregational form is necessary for the preservation of the kingdom of God, have felt impelled to establish something besides a local congregation guided and controlled entirely by the word of God, and so we have Harding College, David Lipscomb College, and Freed-Hardeman College. These institutions do not antedate the men whose name they wear, and hence, it is indisputable that these institutions originated in the wisdom of men and not in the wisdom of God. If of men, then do they not fall under the condemnation of Matt. 5:13? "Every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up."

In his book titled "Living Issues" brother W. W. Otey says of these colleges, "Everyone admits that they are human institutions, originated in the wisdom of men, managed and controlled by the wisdom of men." This would make them purely human institutions, guided and controlled entirely by human wisdom, and yet organized for a divine purpose. Guy N. Woods, in the Gospel Advocate of May 20, 1954, said, "Our Christian schools were established for the sole purpose of teaching the Bible. We all know that no other motive justifies the expense which their establishment and maintenance requires." This would imply that the divinely originated and divinely established church of the living God, was not sufficient to give to the world the teaching it must have to become "wise unto salvation through faith in Christ Jesus." (2 Tim. 3:15) This statement is proven by an Abilene Christian College bulletin, published in August, 1946: "The church needs Abilene Christian College. The church needs trained leaders, evangelists, elders, deacons and teachers. These teachers need to be trained in intellect as well as in the qualities of moral and spiritual goodness. However, congregations have neither the equipment nor the inclination to give such training as is needed by our leaders. Only a Christian school where the Bible is taught and New Testament re ligion is emphasized can prepare men and women to become missionaries of the New Testament church." Jesus taught that the divine institution was indestructible (Matt. 16:18) while human institutions were doomed to perish (Matt. 15:13) yet here we learn that uninspired men claim they can reverse the divine order. The divine must inevitably perish unless bolstered and sustained by the human. May we ask: "Is man wiser than God?"

The late G. H. P. Showalter wrote in the Gospel Pro-claimer (March, 1951) as follows: "Whoever founds any other institution for religious services of any sort, does not glorify God, honor Christ, or exalt the church. He is walking in darkness, not in the light, for he is walking in the way where the light of truth has never shown." Thus we see that these man-made institutions not only claim a divine right to exist, but they also make the shocking claim that the divine institution would perish were it not for the institutions originating with the wisdom of men. Listen to L. R. Wilson, one time president of Central Christian College, writing in the Firm Foundation, June 2, 1951: "If Christians do not operate schools where they may train their children, we might as well give up the fight for New Testament Christianity." That the teaching of the scriptures is essential to the propagation of the apostolic faith, we believe, for the apostles were divinely instructed to teach the new converts to "observe all things which I have commanded you," (Matt. 28:20) but that the teaching must be done in "Christian schools" established by human wisdom, we emphatically deny. The apostles were to teach them in the church, and the church when assembling together learned and taught the apostles' doctrine. (Acts 2:42) Even aged women were to be "teachers of good things" to the younger sisters, (Titus 2:3) and there is not the slightest intimation in the sacred writ that they had to organize a human institution in order to do that teaching.

In his book "Living Issues" brother Otey brings out the interesting fact that about 90% of all the gospel preachers of the present time, are educated in these colleges, and then he states, "The future course of most all the congregations will be determined by the ideas that prevail in the Bible Colleges. As the schools are, so will the preachers be. And as the preachers are, so will the church be. Corrupt the Bible colleges, and the church will be corrupt." To the extent this statement is true, it will give one a pretty dim view of the future for the church of our Lord. Just here we may ask: Why should the church be put into a position where its very existence depends on the institutions of men? Why should the church's future purity in doctrine and practice depend upon institutions that did not come from heaven? Is this the Lord's arrangement, or man's? I know of no institution except the church of God that has the divine authority to teach God's word, train public workers, and develop the church's officers. While the institutional question is becoming of paramount importance in present day thinking and teaching, we will do well to re-examine our position with reference to these colleges, and make the proper appraisal as to their worth and even of their scriptural right to exist.