Truth Magazine

By Henry S. Ficklin

(INTRODUCTION: Henry S. Ficklin (1883-1974) delivered this lesson over the radio in Athens, Ala., on April 1, 1962. It is still needed in Athens, Nashville, and everywhere else-though it is what some call “legalistic” and “dogmatic.” Ron Halbrook, 3536 Dickerson Rd., Nashville, TN. 37207.)

After the lapse of almost a year, I am again able to speak to you of the radio audience. Through the goodness of God I am permitted to preach here “The Unsearchable Riches of Christ.” The speakers on this radio program, which has been conducted for a number of years, for the glory of God, for the up-building of the true church, and for your edification, would like to know how much good you, their invisible audience, are obtaining from these sermons. It is a bit different to speak to a radio audience from speaking with your audience at the church building. For on the radio we cannot be rewarded by seeing the lively expressions on your faces as you listen, and we cannot hear you say “Amen.” But there are other ways by which these radio speakers may know how much good you are receiving from these sermons. You may write and say that you were helped, and you can show it by being a more faithful Christian. And your speakers over the radio hope that there are some secret changes that you are making, that you are changed within, that you love the truth more, that burdens have been lifted from your hearts, and that you have a joy and peace in your soul that you have never known before. And if you some of you – should write in and tell them that you have learned the way of salvation from these lessons and that you want someone to come to you, that you might obey the Gospel, your speakers will rejoice to hear this from you.

During this broadcast, and after it is over, too, I want us to be thinking about “Counterfeit Religion.” My text is Exodus the 7th chapter, verses 10, 11 and 12; “And Moses and Aaron went in unto Pharaoh, and they did as Jehovah had commanded; and Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh and before his servants, and it became a serpent. Then Pharaoh also called for the wise-men and the sorcerers; and they also, the magicians of Egypt, did in like manner with their enchantments. For they cast down every man his rod, and they became serpents; but Aaron’s rod swallowed up their rods.” From this text, I have derived my subject; “Counterfeit Religion.” There is great danger for us in Counterfeit Religion, as there always has been.

I. Our Age Abounds in Counterfeits. We have false faces. We sometimes buy boxes of stationery, thinking we have bought a bargain, but find that, half-way down, there is a false bottom, and see that we have only about half as much as we think we have. Some years ago I went to preach at a new congregation in the mountains of Kentucky. On the outside there was a siding that was an imitation of brick. It was not brick, but it looked like brick. I hate for a congregation to pretend that it has something which it does not have. Let us not have any pretense on the inside and let us not begin pretending before we get into the building. And, some years ago, in Paris, Kentucky, officers discovered a factory for counterfeit money. This started me to studying about the counterfeit in religion.

II. The Devil has Been In The Counterfeit Business From The Beginning.

1. He started it in Egypt, when God’s people were in bondage.

God knew that Pharaoh would resist the will of God to bring his people out of Egypt, because of the hardness of his heart. So, the Lord empowered Aaron and Moses to work miracles before him when Pharaoh should say: “Show a wonder for you.” (Exodus 7:8) This came to pass when they went in before Pharaoh. And Aaron did as the Lord commanded-he cast down his rod and it became a serpent. Then Pharaoh called for the sorcerers, the magicians, and they cast down every man his rod and it became a serpent. But Aaron’s rod swallowed up their rods, just as every counterfeit will finally be exposed.

2. The devil produced a big counterfeit when Israel vis divided.

The account of this substitute religion is found in 1 Kings 12:25-32. The Northern ten tribes had pulled away from Judah and Benjamin, and had made Jereboam king. Jereboam was a shrewd religious politician, one of the first that the people of God ever had to deal with. He saw that he had to institute a false religion to keep Israel divided. This is the account given in 1 Kings 12:26-32: “And Jereboam said in his heart: Now will the kingdom return to the house of David; if this people go up to offer sacrifices in the house of Jehovah in Jerusalem, then will the heart of this people return unto their Lord, even unto Rehoboam, king of Judah; and they will kill me, and return unto Rehoboam king of Judah. Whereupon the king took counsel and made two calves of gold; and he said unto them it is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem, behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And he set the one at Bethel, and the other put he at Dan. And this thing became a sin; for the people went to worship before the one, even at Dan. And he made houses of the high places and he made priests from among all the people, that were not of the sons of Levi. And Jereboam ordained a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like unto the feast that is in Judah, and he went up unto the altar; so did he in Bethel, sacrificing unto the calves that he had made; and he placed at Bethel the priests of the high places that he had made.”

III. Here we have a complete system of substitute, counterfeit religion. Here are false places of worship, Bethel and Dan, instead of Jerusalem; idols, calves of gold, instead of the invisible God; false priests, instead of those from Levi; false feasts on the eighth month, instead of on the seventh month, as the Lord had directed. (Lev. 23:39) Jereboam imitates the true worship, but he perverts it. He gives them gods that they can see. He makes it easier, for he tells them “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem.” Now, how far was it? It was just about twelve miles farther to Jerusalem from Bethel. But that was “too much,” too far for a backslider to go. We ourselves have heard that argument of the devil. You may live ten miles from where a faithful congregation worships. Satan will say to you: “That is too far for you to go. There is a denomination meeting just a mile from you; that is more convenient, stop there.” That argument, I am sorry to say, has often been the cause of many weak Christians going to places of worship that were not Scriptural. But mere convenience has no weight at all with Christians who have convictions. A sincere Christian would rather walk, or crawl, to the right place of worship, than to go in style to one that is wrong. And you who uphold the truth, let me urge that we never use an argument like that to get some one to come to the right .place of worship. Let us never use low motives. King Jereboam knew, too, that people want some kind of religion, even if it is the wrong kind. He knew, besides this, that people, many of them, want to see some form. This accounts for the many images of the saints and of Mary. They worshiped Jehovah under the form of the golden calves. The devil wants us to have a worship that resembles the true worship, some, if only slightly-one that seems right. But all false religion will bring heartache in the end. “There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” (Proverbs 14:12)

IV. The Devil, It Seems, Has a Substitute For Almost Everything That God Does.

Some time back it came as a distinct shock to me that there would be false Christs, even, for our Lord says “For there shall arise false Christs and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.” (Matt. 24:24) And the closer we get to the end, the more the false in religion will come out.

The devil, of course, knows that the Christian religion is true and divine. That is why he imitates it and not a pagan religion. You never saw a counterfeit infidel, and no one today is counterfeiting Confederate (worthless) money.

V. Let Us Notice Some of the Many Substitutes that the Devil is Putting Into Circulation: First, let us notice the living beings (persons) which he puts forward.

1. There are false angels. “Even Satan fashioneth himself into an, angel of light. It is no great thing, therefore if his ministers fashion themselves as ministers of righteousness.” (2 Cor. 11:14, 15) Besides this, the devil has angels, for Hell is prepared for the “Devil and his angels.” (Matthew 25:41)

2. There are the false spirits. So real and so dangerous are these false spirits that the apostle John warns us against them: “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but prove the spirits whether they are of God; because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: and every spirit that confesseth not Jesus is not of God: and this is the spirit of the anti-christ, whereof ye have heard that it cometh; and now is in the world already.” (1 John 4:1-3) The Thessalonians were warned by the apostle not to be misled about the immediate second coming of Christ, for he writes to them, “to the end that ye be not shaken from your mind, nor yet be troubled, either by spirit, or by word, or by epistle, as from us, as that the day of the Lord is just at hand.” (2 Thess. 2:2)

3. There are false prophets. Our Lord said that “false prophets” would arise (Matthew 24:24), and he told. his disciples to “beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing.” (Matt. 7:15) And the apostle John in 1 Jno. 4:1 said that they had already appeared.

4. There are false shepherds, or preachers or teachers.

The apostle Peter in his second epistle writes that, as there were false prophets of old “among you, also there shall be false teachers.” (2 Peter 2:1) Christ gives the marks of such teachers, shepherds: such a one is a “hireling and careth not for the sheep.” (John 10:13) Such preachers are man-pleasers. They follow: they do not lead. They go with the tide of worldliness that is engulfing us today.

5. There are false apostles. They were in Paul’s day, for he writes: “For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, fashioning themselves into apostles of Christ.” (2 Corinthians 11:13) And we have them today. Any church that claims to have apostles today is either itself misled, or is trying to mislead you and me, for an apostle must have seen Christ. When an apostle was to be chosen “to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas fell,” the apostle Peter said that he must be chosen “of the men therefore that have companied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and went out among us, beginning from the baptism of John, unto the day that he was received up from us, of these must one become a witness with us of his resurrection.” (Acts 1:21, 22) When Paul was asserting his undoubted claims to be an apostle, he writes to the Corinthians, “. . . am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus my Lord?” (1 Cor. 9:1) Any man who claims to be an apostle today is a “false apostle,” to use Paul’s own inspired words.

6. There are false Christs – counterfeit Christs. It is a shocking thing that anyone could claim to be Christ. But our Savior foretold that men would do that, “. . . for there shall arise false Christs.” (Matt. 24:24) Nothing will stop ungodly men from their false claims. But we must not accept them.

7. Then, there is the most familiar counterfeit of all-the false Christian-the hypocrite. He wants to have the name of being a Christian, without bearing his cross, and without living the Christian life.

8. The Devil Can Give Us, Too, The false church the false institution. The Lord has pictured for us the true church, made up of saved people, a divine holy institution, “. . . a holy temple in the Lord.” (Ephesians 2:21) But Satan has many substitutes to offer. He can give you a proud church, like Laodicea. He can give you a worldly church, with profane elders and deacons. He can give you a denomination that sprinkles babies and has a human creed and a human name. He can give you Babylon itself with its images, its worship of Mary, its “. . golden cup full of abominations.” (Revelation 17:4) Satan will offer you even a Christless church-the Unitarian church that denies the divinity of Christ.

9. There Are Counterfeit Ordinances, Too.

a. There is the true Lord’s Supper, with its impressive simplicity, a spiritual feast, But Satan takes it and turns it into “The Mass,” with its unscriptural ritual, withholding the cup from the congregation, and having the priest drink that, of which Jesus plainly said: “Drink ye all of it.” (Matthew 26:27)

b. The Lord gave us the One Baptism. It is the burial of a repentant believer. He is buried in the water, as Jesus was. He is baptized for remission of sins. But a paedo-baptist preacher, will take a little baby and will sprinkle water, or even rose petals on it. What a mockery!

10. There Is The Counterfeit Conversion. To be converted is something very deep, very sincere, my friends. It means that you and I have been born again. The apostle writes: “Wherefore, if any man is in Christ he is a New Creature; the old things are passed away; behold they have become new.” (2 Cor. 5:17) But you can do it a much easier way, if you accept the devil’s counterfeit. You can merely go through the form, and not really be changed; you can let it be all outward. Or, you can sit in the seat, and just hold up your hand. A President of the United States, not wishing to come as any other sinner, was enrolled without formality.

11. There is the counterfeit worship-It is simple, heart-searching, and soul-feeding, if done as God directs, with nothing material or carnal, such as a mechanical instrument, and no choir. But Satan can make it more attractive for you, if you are without spirituality. He can make it stiff, cold, proud, with no kneeling, and no note of victory.

12. There is the counterfeit Sanctification. True sanctification is deeply sincere and spiritual. But Satan can induce you to have the kind that merely has the groans, and the pious phrases. You can have a bragging religion, like the Pharisee in the temple. Even Love, the purest and most heavenly of all our affections, can be made counterfeit. The apostle Paul urges: “Let love be without hypocrisy.” (Rom. 12:9) And the apostle John urges, too: “My little children, let us not love, the purest and most heavenly of all our affections, can be made counterfeit. The apostle Paul urges: “Let love be without hypocrisy.” (Rom. 12:9) And the apostle John urges, too: “My little children, let us not love in word, neither with the tongue but in deed and in truth.” (1 John 3:18) We can just say that we love Christ, while not keeping his commandments. That is counterfeit.

13. There are the counterfeit sacred books. God gave us the Bible. It is inspired, holy, complete, infallible, altogether heavenly. But Satan has seen to it that we have counterfeit sacred books. Mrs. Eddy’s Science and Health, and Joseph Smith’s Book of Mormon. Do not accept these, my friends.

And, if we do not watch, Satan will take even our virtues and turn them into something wrong-something counterfeit. I may think that I have firmness-surely a noble trait of Christian character-and my firmness may become stubbornness. I may think I have patience. That is good, but patience ceases to be a virtue when I tolerate evil or false doctrine, or perverted and vain worship. God wants me to be zealous and earnest. But Satan can get me to be fanatical, instead and destroy my influence. So my love may get to be just soft. An English author warns against extremes by saying: “What goodness can there be in the world without moderation, whether in the use of God’s gifts or in our own disposition and courage? Without this justice is no other than cruel rigor, mercy unjust remissness, pleasure brutish sensuality, love frenzy, anger fury, sorrow desperate mopishness, joy distempered wildness, knowledge saucy curiosity, piety superstition, care wracking distraction, courage mad rashness.” (Synonyms Discriminated, page 23) So, let us watch our virtues, and not allow Satan to pervert even them.

14. There Is the False Unity. Scriptural unity is found in (Jn. 17:21, but the devil offers the World Council of Churches; Communism; Buddhism-all forms of error.

15. The False Centralization. Israel had it (i.e., divinely approved central authority, RH) under the Judges, Apostolic congregations were under Christ. My friends and brethren, let this be one of our mottoes: “Nothing but the truth.” God has given us the true religion-it is Christianity. Its doctrine is pure, sound. It is not human, but divine. Its worship is simple and divinely given; such will feed the soul. We can know that we are right, if we follow God’s way, given us in the New Testament. Human substitutes are vain, showy, carnal, attractive to the flesh, and give you an easy religion. But, if you follow them you will be bitterly disappointed in the end.

Conclusion

The true Church is still in the world today. For the prophet Daniel prophesied, “And in the days of those kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the sovereignty thereof be left to another people but it shall break in pieces and consume all those kingdoms and it shall stand forever.” (Dan. 2:44) Our Lord himself promised: “Upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.” (Matt. 16:18) So, there has always since then been a true church and there is today, and always will be. If you are not in it, any of you who are my listeners, let me urge you with all the strength I have to find it and belong to it, and give up all false doctrine and false and vain worship and be sure about your salvation.

You that are members of the one body, I urge you to keep the church pure. You cannot watch too closely; you just can not stand too firmly for the faith. We are in great danger. The spirit of the age is modernism, luxury, ease, compromise. The apostle wrote the Corinthians: “But I fear lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve in his craftiness, your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity and purity that is toward Christ.” (2 Cor. 11:3) From almost every college in existence young preachers are coming out with worldly ideas, and they mislead the churches very often.

The true church is a glorious church. You could gild a lily or a rose far more easily than you could improve on the true church. The true doctrine is God’s thoughts. The gospel teaching will really save you, it will give you blessed assurance. You can know that you are right. As the apostle wrote to Timothy: “Hold the pattern of sound words.” (2 Tim. 1:13)

“How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord

Is laid for your faith in his excellent word

What more can he say than to you he has said

You who unto Jesus for refuge have fled?

“Fear not, I am with thee, O be not dismayed

I, I am thy God and will still give thee aid

I’ll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand

Upheld by my righteous, Omnipotent, hand.

“The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose

I’ll never, no never desert to its foes

That soul, tho’ all Hell shall endeavor to shake

I’ll never, no never, no never forsake.”

Truth Magazine XIX: 9, pp. 137-140
January 9, 1975

By Jimmy Tuten, Jr.

On a recent trip to Baalbek, described as the show place of Lebanon, I had our bus make an unscheduled atop at a quarry just outside the ruins. I wanted to see the world’s largest cut stone. The huge block of stone had been carefully cut, hewed, and squared centuries ago. It is sixty-eight feet long, fourteen feet, high and fourteen feet wide. Its size is, overwhelming. Even though, it was carefully cut, a crack was found in it and it was never used. In spite ‘of all the ‘ labor . and. effort that went into this gigantic piece of rock, it rests where it has stood for .centuries. It was never-fitted into place in the temple for which it was intended. After being carefully cut it became a castaway.

Thinking of this massive stone reminds me of a statement of the apostle Paul: “but I buffet my body and make it my slave, lest possibly after I have preached to others, I myself should be disqualified (1 Cor. 9:27, NASV). “Disqualified” is one translation. The King James Version uses “castaway.” This word is a translation of the same root word rendered “approved” in 2 Timothy 2:15. The difference being that I Corinthians 9:27 renders it in a negative form and in this form it means “disapproved.” When Paul says he fears being a castaway he is really saying that he fears being disapproved. His fear is that as a workman his service might not receive approval. He fears rejection.

In Paul’s exhortation, “study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed” (2 Tim. 2:15), he encourages us to avoid becoming castaways and hence of no use in the Lord’s vineyard. May we strive to be faithful in our work and worship to God. God help us to be zealous in our service to Him. In so doing we will stand approved unto God. We will not be castaways.

Truth Magazine XIX: 9, p. 136
January 9, 1975

By Ron Halbrook

Our country’s 200th birthday is just around the corner. Two hundred years can look like an eternity to young people but only in the last decade have the last veterans of the War Between the States died. And some of those veterans knew old-timers in their day who could remember the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the Revolution, and the ratification of the U.S. Constitution.

Looking at it from this standpoint, a person realizes how young our country is. Yet the passing of those veterans in the last decade marked the end of an era, and marked it with utter finality. America’s youth is not perpetual. As she prepares to mark her 200th birthday, much will be said about her birth and the transition to modern times. When man is conscious of moving into new eras, he nearly always looks back to the successes and mistakes, the strengths and weaknesses of former eras.

That is not to say former eras are always seen as they really were. Sometimes they are even twisted and reinterpreted in an effort to justify (or condemn) certain trends in the new era. It is pathetic how little is learned from the past. That old truism is still true: men who do not learn from the mistakes of the past are doomed to repeat them. It is just as true that the strengths and successes of the past are a reservoir of wisdom.

The past cannot tell us what are the true standards of right and wrong. Only divine revelation can do that (2 Tim. 3:16-17). The past can show us the consequences of certain attitudes and actions in regard to divinely revealed standards. That is the correct assumption of a book like Homer Hailey’s Attitudes and Consequences. Thus a consciousness of history with the coming and going of various eras can benefit us . . . if only we will allow ourselves to be benefitted. The interests of man include biology and astronomy. Also, history. Rightly so.

Emphatically I want to say that next to history preserved in the Bible, no history should be more interesting to God’s people than church history. Nor should any be more beneficial. Church history properly includes what has happened in America. That properly includes restoration history, or the Restoration Movement, or the account of the restoration effort, or the story of the Restoration Plea (regardless of whether capital letters or lower case be used in “restoration”).

Well meaning preachers have told me not to spend much time and effort studying the Restoration Movement because “the world needs to hear about Christ, not the Restoration Movement.” The choice need not be either-or . . . as though any effort to understand or tell others about the Restoration Movement precludes preaching Christ. The broad implication is that church history has no proper use. Logically, such preachers should burn every study tool on church history in their libraries-every tool on every period of church history, not just the Restoration period in America–in fact, every book, pamphlet, or paper of any kind on any subject. (After all, “the world needs to hear about Christ, not archaeology, geography, someone’s debate, Barnes’ notes, Cruden’s Concordance, Smith’s Dictionary, Thayer’s lexicon, or Truth Magazine.”) Before someone says, “We would be better off,” we ask, “Will you personally set the example and lead the way???”

A few years ago Brother James R. Cope, President of Florida College, said interest in restoration history had been declining for years to the extent that a college would be hard pressed to offer courses in it if the trend continues. The reason is not that everyone is “spending more time studying Christ and less time studying the restoration;” at the very time Cope said what he did, F.C. was struggling to avoid cutting back its whole upper-division Bible program. Declining interest in church history is just part of a broader pattern. At any rate, ignorance of church history just makes men more vulnerable to repeating mistakes formerly made.

“But some folks make a fetish of the so-called Restoration Movement,” someone says. A thousand amens! The choice is not between knowing the story of Jesus and the story of the restoration effort in America, nor between making a fetish of the Restoration and debunking study of a crucial period in church history (or perhaps debunking all church history, period). The choice is between knowing the strengths and weaknesses of man’s past efforts to serve God and being put at a disadvantage by remaining ignorant of those efforts. We do not claim one cannot reach heaven without a knowledge of church history, but neither are we willing to put a premium on ignorance of it. The choice is between the proper and improper uses of church history. If we must choose between knowing church history and Christ-a hypothetical dilemma-there will be no hesitation in choosing Christ. In reality, we may choose to know both and to keep them in proper relation to each other.

We have said the death of Henry S. Ficklin marks the end of an era in that period of church history called “the Restoration Movement in America.” How so? In the twenty years between 1790 and 1810, a spirit of search and inquiry in the American religious scene produced scattered, concurrent efforts at religious reform. Denominational appellations were dropped for the name “Christian” (sometimes written “Christ-ian”); Protestant creeds were dropped for a fresh study of the scriptures themselves. The authority of humanly-devised governmental structures in religion was dropped for the authority of Christ. These efforts were independent, proceeding at different speeds in different areas, led by: Abner Jones and Elias Smith in New England; James O’Kelly in North Carolina; Barton W. Stone on the Kentucky frontier; Thomas and Alexander Campbell in western Pennsylvania, eastern Ohio, and northern Virginia. Within fifteen years, these reforms were being spread in the great Western Reserve by evangelist Walter Scott and were established in Georgia by Christian Herman Dasher. Baptists, Congregationalists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Lutherans, and others left the corruptions and divisions of their fathers’ houses in search of the purity and unity of their Father’s house.

These independent efforts embraced the same basic solution or premise, however imperfectly they saw all the )mplications thereof at first. Professing servants of Christ should go directly to the Bible as the word of Christ for doctrine, discipline, name, worship, and church government.

When young Alexander Campbell entered the field of religious journalism in 1823, he promised, “The Christian Baptist’ shall espouse the cause of no religious sect, excepting that ancient sect called Christians first at Antioch.’ Its sole object shall be the eviction of truth, and the exposure of error in doctrine and practice.” He pled for a renewed interest in (therefore a return to or a restoration of) the Bible as the divine standard of authority in religious matters-to “oppose nothing which it contains, and recommend nothing which it does not enjoin” (citations from “Prospectus,” Christian Baptist, Vol. I, No. 1 (July 4, 1823), p. iv). Or as Thomas Campbell stated their aim previously, “Where the Scriptures speak, we speak; and where the Scriptures are silent, we are silent” (Robert Richardson, Memoirs of Alexander Campbell, Vol. I, pp. 236-237).

Restoration history may seem ancient, but this effort is still young. Henry S. Ficklin helps to prove that, for his tutor was J. W. McGarvey-the same McGarvey who listened to the aged Thomas Campbell recite hymns in his blindness, took notes in Alexander Campbell’s lectures on the Pentateuch, and was presented a Bible by Alexander Campbell with an inscription “for proficiency in knowledge of the Scriptures” (DeLoris and Dwight E. Stevenson (eds.), Autobiography of J. W. McGarvey, pp. 13-17). To think of brother Ficklin having lived in our time is to realize how young the restoration effort is. Yet to think of this veteran’s passing is to realize an era has ended-with utter finality. Time is moving on; indeed, much water has passed under the bridge in so short a time. Assessing the past, we see what has happened, is happening, and can happen.

We look back and realize what an impact the plea for a return to New Testament Christianity has had in America. We also look back in amazement at how quickly so many deserted the effort to return to the Bible-“so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel”-and became “subject again to a yoke of slavery” in denominationalism.

How much more good might have been done if many deserters of the plea had continued “in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of.” The word of God alone is inspired, profitable, all-sufficient (2 Tim. 3:14-17). Using recent church history properly, we find these passages leaping to life: Gal. 1:6 (“so soon removed”) and 5:1 (“entangled again with the yoke of bondage”); 1 Tim. 4:1, 6 (“some shall depart from the faith . . . . put the brethren in remembrance of these things”); 2 Tim. 2:2 (“the things that thou hast heard . . . commit thou to faithful men”) 3:1 (“perilous times shall come”); 4:2-3 (“preach the word . . . the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine”); 2 Thess. 2: 7 (“the mystery of iniquity doth already work”).

How much good is yet to be done “if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end.” (Heb. 3:14). Some are despondent in our day because so many have deserted the plea; the results are divisions, bitterness, and lost hopes. There is a mood of crushed faith-broken imagination-failure. There is a casting around in search of solutions, i.e. further desertion of the plea in hope of finding some panacea. Confidence is replaced by compromise.

We must lift up our heads, not in godless pride, but in faith. Preaching “Christ and him crucified” is still “the power of God unto salvation” (1 Cor. 2:2; Rom. 1:16). The gospel seed only will still make Christians only; the distinctive marks of the New Testament church are just as plainly revealed as they ever were. We do not need disillusionment. We need dogged determination to believe, preach, and practice just exactly what the Lord reveals in His word-looking not at whether men are pleased or displeased, but “fixing our eyes on Jesus” (Heb. 12:2).

An era has ended because Henry S.’ Ficklin was so far as we know, the last living student of J. W. McGarvey. The impress of McGarvey included: thorough knowledge of the Bible text, simplicity, clearness, conviction. He sent young men all over the world with that impress, but not a one of them is living today. McGarvey’s conviction is seen in leaving his beloved Broadway, where he had preached from its 1870 beginning, when the instrument was introduced in 1902. Brother Ficklin was in the audience the day the vote was taken. “A girl fifteen years of age sat in the pew in front of me, and I thought, her vote will cancel McGarvey’s out. And I knew then that that was something very unscriptural. Brother Collis said, I’ve prayed about this vote, and I haven’t prayed that the organ might be introduced or might be kept out, but that God’s will might be done.’ I thought that was mighty weak! I thought he ought to have told them what was right . . . . the organ was introduced . . . and they didn’t have anybody that could play it, and they had to go and get an Episcopalian to play it” (Henry S. Ficklin, Reminiscing With McGarvey, pp. 8-9).

Ficklin twice left Owingsville rather than surrender his convictions. McGarvey’s example in moving his membership to Chestnut St. solely over the introduction of instrumental music was never forgotten. Convictions are exclamation points; how often Brother Ficklin said, “Everybody ought to have an exclamation point in his life.” “McGarvey didn’t have much use for question marks. They spoke of him as being legalistic and dogmatic. If you speak the truth, if you handle eternal verities in that way, they’ll call you dogmatic!” (Ibid., p. 8).

This is not to say Brother Ficklin worshipped McGarvey or made a fetish of a certain period in church history called “Restoration History.” To the contrary, he frequently pointed out McGarvey’s own inconsistencies in regard to the plea for New Testament Christianity. McGarvey wrote a great deal in opposition to modernism (“Biblical Criticism” column in the Christian Standard, The Text and Canon of the New Testament, Credibility and Inspiration, Jesus and Jonah, The Authorship of Deuteronomy) and he tried to keep modernists out of the College of the Bible. “The folly was that brother McGarvey upheld the Missionary Society and his associates were men who were officers in the Missionary Society” (Ibid.). The Society became a bastion of modernism, and modernists were in a position to take over the college almost immediately after McGarvey’s death.

Furthermore, though McGarvey never was a member where the instrument was used, he visited and preached freely, among the churches that did use it. Brother Ficklin did not know of a single person converted to the truth on this problem by McGarvey’s unsound procedure. “. . . as someone said, `While he preached against the organ he went where they used it and his influence went with his fellowship instead of with his teaching’ ” (Ibid.). Apparently McGarvey himself saw his mistake near the end of his life; he told J. P. Sewell, “You are on the right road, and whatever you do don’t let anybody persuade you that you can successfully combat error by fellowshipping it and going along with it. I have tried. I believed at the :start that was the only way to do it. I’ve never held.-membership in a congregation that uses instrumental music.: 1 have, however, accepted invitations to preach without distinctions between churches that used it and churches that didn’t. I’ve gone along with their papers and magazines and things of that sort. During all- these years. I have taught the truth as the New Testament teaches to every young preacher who has passed : through the College of the Bible. Yet, I do not know of more than six of those men who are preaching the truth today. It won’t work.” (From Biographical Sketches of Restoration Preachers in a lecture by J. P. Sewell.)

Yes, an era of church history has forever closed with the death of Henry S. Ficklin. As we prepare to go forward serving Christ, let us not forget the preparation of understanding what has happened before our, own time. Looking into the past, we see that principles of truth have not changed. Nor have the problems of drifting into digression. Let us reaffirm those principles of truth and do all in our power to avoid the pitfalls and problems which have led men astray.

Let us notice how rapidly brethren drift into digression. “Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall” (1 Cor. 10:12). It can happen to any one of us. Brother Ficklin loved the “spiritual strength” of churches in Limestone County, Alabama, and found his own strength renewed by them. But he realized how quickly even an area like that can drift away from principles of truth and spoke of that concern. Let us realize that we make and remake every day the decisions between truth and error, weakness and strength, compromise and conviction.

As we continue into the present era, let us see this necessity: clear, simple, Bible preaching. Let us speak with conviction and then act consistently with those convictions. To compromise in conduct is to compromise in conviction. We encourage error when we fellowship those promoting error, even though we may claim to oppose it. Our influence goes with our fellowship, pleas to the contrary notwithstanding. What McGarvey learned by experience to be a mistake going among churches practicing and not practicing error “without distinction,” going along with the “papers and magazines and things of that sort” produced by false teachers-is being dressed up in the garb of “unity,” “grace,” and “fellowship” by such people as Leroy Garrett, Carl Ketcherside and Edward Fudge. Those who do not learn from the mistakes of history are doomed to repeat them!

If Brother Ficklin’s lips could proclaim the Glad Tidings to us again, perhaps he would include the words with which he closed “Reminiscing With McGarvey.” Speaking of “two memorable verses” which Paul penned to the brethren in the first century, he said, “They sound like a battle cry to me. Listen! ‘Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong.’ And now as a balance for all of them, `let all that ye do be done in love.’ If we do that, brethren and sisters, we’ll be sound; we’ll be safe; and we’ll have the approval of God Almighty.”

Truth Magazine XIX: 9, pp. 134-136
January 9, 1975

By Cecil Willis

The only way for us to get a correct concept of what the government of the church is like is by looking into the inspired history and divine instruction book for the church, which is the New Testament. It also should be observed that a church not conforming to the New Testament pattern of government of the church is, consequently, not the New Testament church, and therefore does not belong to Christ.

The Church: A Kingdom

The church is ruled by a king, and is therefore a monarchy. In many places in the New Testament, the church is called a kingdom. In preaching to prepare the way for the establishment of the church, both John the Baptist and Jesus preached that the kingdom was at hand (Matt. 3:1, 2; Mark 1:14, 15). When Jesus taught in parables, as he so frequently did, He often said the kingdom of heaven is likened unto this or that. In Matt. 13, he likens the kingdom to a man who sowed good seed in his field (v. 24). Again, he says “The kingdom of heaven is like unto a grain of mustard seed” (v. 31). “The kingdom of heaven is like unto a treasure hidden in the field” (v. 44). Many other such comparisons are made.

Jesus taught that some of the people alive in his time would live to see the building of the kingdom. “And he said unto them, Verily I say unto you, There are some here of them that stand by, who shall in no wise taste of death, till they see the kingdom of God come with power” (Mk. 9:1). So again we see the church referred to as a kingdom, which describes its form of government. This passage in which Jesus said some of those people would live to see the kingdom come with power, if there were no other statement in all the Bible, would completely and forever explode the theory that the kingdom has not come as yet, but that it will be established here on earth when Christ comes again.

In John 18:36, Jesus tells us the nature of the kingdom. It is to be a spiritual kingdom, not a material one. “Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now is my kingdom not from hence.” Jesus plainly states that he plans to build a kingdom, but equally as plainly states that it will not be a material kingdom. Some people are not content to let Jesus do what he said he would do. One of the leading tenets of denominationalism is that Jesus, when he comes, will build a material kingdom here on earth, and will live and reign with the saints for a thousand years. But, my friends, Jesus, in no uncertain terms, says “my kingdom is not of this world.”

We could look at many, many other passages, but, these are enough clearly to indicate that the church is a kingdom. We read in Luke 22:16-30 that the Lord’s supper will be in the kingdom, and we all know that the Lord’s supper is partaken in the church. The church, being a kingdom, has a government that corresponds to that of a kingdom.

The Government: A Monarchy

The church being a kingdom as we have just seen, its government is a monarchy. A monarchy is a government in which a single person has all authority. Such is the government of the church. Jesus said, “All authority hath been given unto me in heaven and on earth” (Matt. 28:18).

No other person, or group of persons, has authority in the church to make laws. This is a prerogative, belonging to Christ alone. He is the Monarch. He is the Sovereign. He is the King! Jesus acknowledged that He was the King of this spiritual kingdom he was to build. In John 18:37, we find this discussion: “Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end (Or for this purpose-CW) have I been born, and to this end am I come unto the world, that I should bear witness of the truth.” He was called the king of the Jews, for they thought he intended to build a material kingdom. Yet Jesus was a king, but a king over a spiritual kingdom.

But in a government where there is a king, He alone has legislative authority. All authority belongs to the king. Man has failed to recognize and respect the complete authority of Christ. Many denominational bodies confess they are not the body of Christ by their government. They admit they are not the kingdom of Christ because they have a legislative body other than the Lord Jesus. These denominations are ruled by ecclesiastical forms of government.

By this change in the form of the government of the kingdom, they ignore the King. Men have assumed they have the right of self-government in the church. They forget the church is a monarchy; it has a King. But they attempt to make the church a democracy, and instead of submitting humbly to the king, they set up a representative legislative body. Many religious organizations select a certain number of representatives by district and by vote, much as we elect our civil legislators, and in a general convention of some kind, rule as to the terms of admission into this particular denomination, establish its order of worship, and many other prerogatives which belong to the King only. To make a democracy out of a monarchy is to insult our King Jesus. These men have changed the act of baptism, added uncommanded items to the worship, changed the government of the church, removed the Lord’s supper from the weekly worship, set aside baptism as a condition of salvation, and yet claim to be the kingdom of Jesus Christ, the church of the Lord, when actually, if these men have ever complied with the terms of admission into the kingdom at all, and most of these have not, they are at best a group of insurrectionists in the kingdom of the Lord. In the kingdom, Christ’s will is law, and rebellion is treason, punishable by eternal death from the hand of the Lord.

Local Autonomy

In the New Testament, we find the word “church” used in at least two senses. In Matt. 16:18, when Jesus said “upon this rock I will build my church,” he used the word church in its universal sense. However, when Paul wrote to the church of God which is at Corinth (1 Cor. 1:2), he spoke of a particular local congregation. So the word “church” is used in the universal and local, or congregational, senses. We have spoken of the church and its relation to the King. The King has specified a certain form of government for each of these congregations. Each congregation had its own officers, the qualifications of which are stated by the Holy Spirit, and recorded in 1 Tim. 3 and Titus 1. We shall speak of these officers afterward.

But at the moment we want to observe that there was not ecclesiasticism in the New Testament church. Each congregation was independent of every other congregation. There was no federation of churches. But today virtually every denomination scruples not to form its state, national, and international organizations, all of which are unknown to the New Testament. The largest functioning unit known to the New Testament is the local congregation. No congregation exercised any authority over any other congregation. Antioch exercised no control over Jerusalem. The elders of one church had no authority over any other church. This is what is meant when we say that each congregation was locally autonomous. “Each church was free and independent, under the teaching of Christ and the apostles, to govern itself, carry on its own work, and manage its own affairs . . . All congregations had the same head, foundation, and mission; preached the same gospel; constituted the one body. But each was independent to direct its own work!” (Leroy Brownlow, Why I Am A Member of the Church of Christ, p. 40).

Notice how that “the wisdom of God is seen in such an arrangement for his churches. If one became corrupted in doctrine or affected by evil practices, other churches would not be so affected. If dissension arose in one, it would not spread to the others; if one perished, the others would not be dragged down. If a window is made of one large pane, a break injures the entire pane; but if it be made of several panes, it is not so bad to break one. The independence of the churches is a protection for each one” (H. Leo Boles, Gospel Advocate, Feb. 15, 1940).

Officers in the Church

The divine arrangement was that there should be certain men ordained as officers in each of these local churches. There are two kinds of these officers) those that oversee and those that are special servants, the elders and the deacons. At the moment let us speak of the elders in each church. The Holy Spirit ordained that elders should be appointed in each church. The historical narrative says: “And when they had appointed for them elders in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they had believed” (Acts 14:23). Paul instructed Timothy thus: “For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that were wanting, and appoint elders in every city, as I gave thee charge” (Titus 1:5). From these two passages we learn that there was to be a plurality of elders in every church. Elders are also called pastors, shepherds, overseers, and bishops in the New Testament. All these names refer to one and the same group of men. Today men have distinguished between elders, bishops, and pastors. In Acts 20:17, Paul called to him the “elders” of the church. In Acts 20:28, in speaking to these “elders” he calls them “bishops.” The words “elders” and “bishops” are thus to be used interchangeably. Denominational churches often will have elders in a local church, but a bishop over several local congregations, which is an unscriptural form of government. Then many others take another name for elders, the name “pastors” as used in Eph. 4:11, and apply that to preachers. The preacher is not a pastor. If he is, he should not be. The bishop is not to control several churches, but several or at least a plurality of bishops should have the oversight of a single congregation. And they have no authority outside their own local group. The apostle Peter commands the elders to “Tend the flock of God which is among you” (1 Pet. 5:2). The sphere of the authority of the elders is that of the local church.

When the apostle Paul addressed his letter to the church at Philippi, he mentioned specifically the “bishops and deacons” (Phil. 1:1). The deacons are another office in the New Testament church. The word deacon is not in itself an English word, but is an anglicized Greek word. It means a servant, and the word servant well describes the responsibility of a deacon. A deacon is not a little elder, with considerable authority, but not quite as much as the elder. The deacon is simply a special servant.

Summary

In summary let us note that the church is a kingdom. This implies a certain form of Government. It implies the King, which , is Jesus, has all authority. Each congregation, under Christ, is locally autonomous, having over it qualified elders, and with them qualified deacons. Any congregation differing from this order, if men are qualified, is not a divinely approved congregation. Any group changing this divine form of government is not the church of the Lord. The church organization is simple, but the divine plan has been abused. Every attempt to improve upon this plan has resulted in apostasy and ecclesiasticism. The divine church has a divine form of government which must be followed!

Truth Magazine XIX: 9, pp. 131-133
January 9, 1975