The Church Is All-Sufficient
By Dan Gatlin
Premillennialism teaches that when Jesus came to earth, He came to set up a physical kingdom in which He would reign as both a spiritual and political leader. But since He was rejected by the Jews (Matt. 12), Jesus had to change His plans. Consequently, the church was established until Jesus could come again to reign as King on earth. This interpretation denigrates the church as simply a “Plan B” put into place at the last minute because of His supposed failure the first time around. Premillennialists refuse to recognize that the church is the kingdom.
The New Testament clearly teaches that the church was part of God’s plan from eternity past. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He has made us accepted in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace” (Eph. 1:3-7). The key to understanding Ephesians 1 is to understand what it means to be “in Him,” “in Christ,” “in the Beloved,” etc. Predestination and election are not individual, but corporate. Election in Christ takes place in the church, to which any honest, obedient soul may become a part. We are reconciled “in one body” (Eph. 2:16), and it is in that body (the church) is where Saints dwell (Eph.2:19-22). It is the church that was purchased with the blood of Jesus (Acts 20:28), and through His blood we have redemption (Eph.1:7). Therefore, redemption and predestination are in the church. The church is no “Plan B.”
God has also made clear the purpose of the church: “to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places” (Eph. 3:10). It is the church that is to make known “the manifold wisdom of God.” The only “organization” authorized in the Scriptures to do this is the local congregation. Where is the authority for any human organization to take the work of the church away from the church? Had the phrase “by the church” been omitted from this passage one might argue generic authority for human organizations. But the phrase “by the church” specifies the “organization” that is to make known the manifold wisdom of God. This specific excludes any other option, i.e. human organizations.
Of course, individual Christians may work together to promote the cause of Christ. “When Aquila and Priscilla heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately” (Acts 18:26). Some tell us that so long as money is not taken from the local church treasury that we can form human institutions to do the work of the church. But individual action, even concurrent individual action, is not to be confused with corporate (or organizational) action. Organizations have structure, a hierarchy usually in the form of a president or board of directors (what passage speaks of their qualifications?).
The word “church” is used in several different ways in the New Testament, though we most often use it to refer to either the universal church (Matt. 16:18) or the local congregation (1 Cor. 1:2; 1 Thess.1:1). The two concepts are distinct, yet related.
The “universal church” refers to all of the saved in all places at all times. The universal church has no earthly headquarters, leaders, or treasury. It is not intended to function as a single entity on earth. It simply describes the fellowship that individual Christians have with God (1 Jn. 1:6-7). When the Bible speaks of “one body” (Rom. 12:4-5; Eph. 4:4), which is the church (Col. 1:18, 24), it is not referring to one local congregation, but one body of believers. In Acts 2:47 we read, “And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.” Obviously, the Lord does not add Christians to congregations (that’s done by agreement between the local church and the individual, Acts 9:26-28). When one’s sins are forgiven fellowship is established with God and they are added to the church.
There is not just one “local church,” but many (Rom. 16:16). Each congregation determines it’s own fellowship (Acts 9:26-28), as dictated by Scripture. The authority of the eldership is limited to the local church only (1 Pet. 5:2). Though local churches cooperated in a common cause (1 Cor. 16:1), they did so independently, without violating their own autonomy. There was no directing entity to oversee their work.
Many believe that the universal church is made up of all of the local congregations combined. This concept is seriously flawed. If it were true, then to be a member of the universal church (and therefore in a saved condition) one would simply have to gain membership to a local church. Inversely, if one were not a member of the local church, he would be outside of the universal church. The eunuch was baptized and “went on his way rejoicing” (Acts 8), yet he was clearly not a member of any local church at that point. He was still reconciled in one body (Eph. 2:16) and added to the church (Acts 2:47).
The institutional controversy of the past generation was more than a simple discussion about autonomy and the proper use of the local church treasury. Those men defended the local church as the only organization fit to carry out the work. In 1949 William Thompson wrote, “No human organization can supplant the church of Christ, for God’s only missionary society is the New Testament church. There is no other institution that can give to men and women the spiritual blessing that are found only in Christ and the church. (Eph. 1:3, 23) . . . . Local congregations were the medium through which this work was carried on in the days of the apostles of Christ. They are the only missionary organizations that one reads about in the New Testament church in apostolic days.” Earl West taught the same in 1950, “The individual congregation of Christ’s disciples is the only missionary society known to the scriptures.” These men are not cited as authority, for there is no authority but that which comes from God’s word. But as the old saying goes, “Those who don’t study history are bound to repeat it’s mistakes” (Judges 2).
The new institutionalism facing the Lord’s church today has nothing to do with local church treasuries. Local churches are bypassed and appeals for money are made directly to the universal church. The organization then does the work of preaching and evangelism. If this is not centralization, what is?
Some have argued, “But where does the Bible say that individually supported human organizations are wrong?” Where does the Bible say that ham sandwiches and chocolate milk for the Lord’s Supper are wrong? This is an appeal to negative authority, the silence of the Scriptures. Martin Luther (and many since) took the position that “anything that is not expressly condemned is authorized.” This approach to authority has led to the 2,500+ denominations we see today. The question is not why is something wrong, but why is it right? Where is it authorized? “And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him” (Col. 3:17). Logically, one who affirms a position has the burden of proof, not the one who denies. If any human organization can be established to do the work of the church let it be shown from the Scriptures.
Brother West also wrote in 1950, “In the restoration movement, brethren began to think in terms of the church universal and, with that concept, formed a missionary society. Looking back on this history, as we can now, who can fail to see that this society became the master and soon dictated to the churches, a prerogative which belongs only to Christ.” In 1949 Foy E. Wallace, Jr. (before he fell away) warned, “The fight against societies, organizations, centralizations of authority, and all that belongs to digression in general, so valiantly made in Tennessee and Texas fifty and sixty years ago, shall be fought all over again. The Lord has many thousands yet who have not bowed the knee to Baal—and shall not!”
Let us never glorify any human institution by giving it the work God intended for the church. “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen” (Eph. 3:20-21).
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