00B.42 Chapter 35. Why I Don't Go To Church
XXXV. Why I Don’t Go to Church (AN ANSWER TO MR. WILLIAM CORBIN’S ESSAY IN THE AMERICAN MAGAZINE) In the August (1937) number of the American Magazine there appeared a lengthy article under the heading, "Why I Don’t Go to Church." The article was written by Mr. William Corbin and consisted largely in Mr. Corbin’s own experience with churches—his failure to find anything of special meaning or value to him in any church service that he had attended, and he had been on a special quest across the continent and had visited every denomination of any consequence seemingly. His inquiry was for a reason for the church’s continued existence in the earth. He thinks the church has served its day and is now a useless institution. He sums his whole problem up in this pointed question: "What, then, has the church to offer that is unique, peculiar to it, that is not found in better form elsewhere?" Our answer to that question may not be acceptable or satisfactory to Mr. Corbin, or anyone else who is troubled by the question, but to us and to all others who think as we do it is so simple and obvious and necessary that we marvel that the first person he went to in his investigation did not give it to him without hesitation. He may wonder how we can give such an answer to his question or accept such a solution of his problem, but we can assure him and all those like him that their wonder cannot equal ours that they could ask such a question or have such a problem. But our various viewpoints and our respective wondering will be explained in the body of this reply. The cause for such diverse attitudes will be found to be the cause for the question in the first place; for in this reply we shall not only attempt to give answer to his question, which can be given in one word, but we shall also offer what we believe to be the reason for his confusion; for he is confused, according to his own statements. He tells us at great length about his searching, and admits his lack of satisfaction, and even acknowledges that he does not know for what he is seeking! He closes his long article with these words: "I wish I knew what I sought." No wonder he did not find satisfaction! He does not know what it is he is looking for, and consequently would not recognize it if he should see it. When he learns what it is that he wants, it will be an easy matter to tell him where to find it in abundance. He represents the whole human race without the gospel, and his yearning is the universal heart cry of mankind. It is the exact mission of the church and the spiritual instinct of every reborn soul—hence, of every Christian—to tell such inquirers where to find that for which their souls are sighing. That really answers his question, but we shall be more specific and give a categorical answer to his question, and then give attention to what we regard as fallacies in his reasoning. For the sake of perfect clarity we shall give the questions and the answers in dialogue form, thus:
Question: "What, then, has the church to offer that is unique, peculiar to it, that is not to be found in better form elsewhere?"
Answer: Salvation from sin; regeneration of the human spirit; victory over death; and eternal life in the presence of God and in company with our friends "whom we have loved and lost a while."
Question: "What reason is there for the church’s continued existence? What mission or function has it that is not better performed by secular institutions, social clubs, or welfare societies?"
Answer: The same reason that brought it into existence in the beginning. It has the same work to do now that its divine Head and Founder gave it to do when he set it up in the earth—namely, to tell those who, like Mr. Corbin, seek endlessly and know not what they seek, what the object of their search is and where to find it; to bring answer to those who are’
Like a babe crying in the night, A babe crying for the light, And with no language but a cry.
It is set for a light to the Gentiles; it is "the pillar and ground of the truth"; through it "the manifold wisdom of God" is to be made known.
Fallacies. Let us now consider what from our viewpoint are flaws in Mr. Corbin’s reasoning:
He says he is a religious man, and that he prays. He may, therefore, reject our first answer on the ground that one may have salvation, if he believes in sin and salvation, which is exceedingly doubtful, judging from his inquiry; and if he does not believe in these, he is wholly inconsistent when he speaks of himself as a religious, praying man— outside of the church and independent of any ecclesiastical body. In that he is correct, if he thinks of the church as a denomination, as an organized body. And that is his fallacy on this point. He seems to think that in turning from organized religion he is turning from the church of the Lord. He speaks of the church all the time in the sense of an organized body with all the mechanics of a human institution or of an earthly government. He thinks in the terms of an ecclesiasticism. But the church as the New Testament reveals it is not an organized body with human head and earthly headquarters and visible means of revenue and objects of material investment. It cometh not with observation, but is within the heart. It is not meat and drink, but it is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. It consists not in socialistic activities nor in rationalistic theories nor in deductions and conclusions nor in creeds and decrees nor in conventions and statistics nor in movements and money. The church is the spiritual body of Christ. This body is composed of all who have been born of the Spirit, and to be born of the Spirit means to believe in the divinity and the power of Christ and to surrender heart and life to him; to become obedient to his word and a partaker of his nature. Or, in the shortest possible statement, it means to become a Christian. The church, therefore, is composed of all Christians. In fact, it is Christianity. Christianity and the church are one and the same. You would as well try to separate between the sunlight and the sunshine as to try to distinguish the religion of Christ from the church of Christ. Therefore, to become a Christian is to become a member of the church. To be born of God is to become a member of the family of God. Hence, one becomes a member of the church by conversion, and one does not need thereafter to join any denomination nor to put one’s self under any board or body of men. One needs only to follow one’s Lord, to obey the teaching of the New Testament.
"Then, according to that," Mr. Corbin might reply, "you do away with organized religion yourself and agree with me. Then I ask again: Why go to church?" This objection will be met and this question answered further down in this article. At present we want to get all the fallacies before us.
Mr. Corbin assumes that the church was once useful, but that it is now obsolete. He shows that the work that it once did is now done by human (the church is divine) institutions. But the duties and activities that he alludes to were only the secondary works of the church. Educational and social works are the outgrowth of a renewed heart; they come as a result of the primary work of the church, which is to preach Christ and save souls. The children of God manifest the disposition of their Father and do good unto all men. They preach and practice peace and show good will unto all men. To assume that there is no work for the church now is to assume that there is no sin now, no lost souls, no perplexed and inquiring hearts, no fear of death, and no desire for eternal life; or else it is to assume that science and human institutions are meeting these needs, which would be nothing short of absurd. Human nature has not changed, and, therefore, fundamental human needs have not changed. All our science and our enlightenment, our inventions, and our advancement have not changed and cannot change these things. Men still enter this world by birth and go out by death, and science has not made any change at either end of the line. During the interim we still sin and suffer and wonder about our whence and our whither and ponder and puzzle over the phenomena of nature and the meaning of life. We experience soul ache and constantly yearn for we know not what, until we either die in despair or find satisfaction and hope in Christ. There is no difference in the work, the organizations, and the devices of men today and those of a former day, except in degree or size and methods, and man’s devices never did meet man’s spiritual needs. The world had science, sociology, culture, and philosophy before Christianity came, and the attainments of the world in these fields then were in relation to the size of population and the demands of the times as great as ours. But those things could not save society or satisfy human hearts. Ancient Rome had a totalitarian government which, as the word implies, assumed to be all-sufficient, and it tried to meet all the needs of its citizens. It even resorted to the dole, which resulted in the ruin of Rome. The Greeks had science, art, athletics, music, culture, and philosophy, and to them the preaching of the cross was "foolishness." They could see nothing in the church, even in its infancy, and therefore in its purity, that could not be obtained or accomplished through other means in better form. That is the reason they did not "go to church," and that is also the reason Greece fell an easy prey for the heathen hordes and heartless hosts that robbed her not only of her glory, but also of her life. Hence, Lord Byron wrote: " Tis Greece, but living Greece no more."
Mr. Corbin seems to think of the church as only a social institution, and therefore a competitive organization, and he sees it outstripped and defeated; whereas the church is a divine institution and has no competition in its special field. Christianity is a revealed, a supernatural religion. A denial of, or at least a failure to recognize, this fact is the basic fallacy in the reasoning of all those who agree with Mr. Corbin. It is the cause of all their trouble. Even those religious institutions that Mr. Corbin praises, those he thinks still have a place in modern society because of the superior powers of their leaders—Fosdick, Jenkins, etal. —deny this fundamental fact. They only say, "Lord, Lord," and do not the things which he says. They have a form of godliness, but deny the power thereof as to regeneration and eternal salvation. They are the ones that Mr. Corbin praises, and yet, to us who believe in the things herein set forth, they do not seem to offer anything that cannot be found elsewhere and through means and institutions not religious. We grant that they have more intellect and learning, more culture and entertainment, more momentum and money than can be found anywhere else in the name o f religion. But an equal amount and quality of all these things can be found in the universities and clubs, in the theatres and lyceums, and in political groups and machines—the money power in the last named. But the religion of Christ is not merely social and cultural, it is spiritual; it does not merely educate, it regenerates; it does not merely give us the best there is in this life, it assures our hearts of eternal life in a better world to come.
Mr. Corbin reverses the telescope. He looks at the church through the wrong end of the instrument. Instead of measuring professed Christians by the divine standard, he measures the divine standard by professed Christians; instead of judging Christianity by its original principles and by the character of its divine Author, he judges it by those who now profess to espouse it—those who have "stolen the livery of heaven to serve the devil in." That quotation is applied in only a limited sense. We do not mean that these religionists are wicked men or that they have ulterior motives; we only mean that they do not present the full gospel or represent the church as Christ and the apostles left it in the earth. They do not point men to the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. They do not preach him as a divine Savior who suffered a sacrificial death for our sins. Mr. Corbin searched among men across the continent for his answer and found it not. He could have found it in any hotel room where there is a Gideon Bible. He should heed the admonition of the ancient prophet, "Seek ye out of the book of the Lord, and read" (Isaiah 34:16), and believe the promise of our Savior that "he that seeketh findeth" (Matthew 7:8 K Look not at the stumbling followers of Christ, but look at their Lord. All men are imperfect, even the most devout Christians. We do not condemn the science of medicine or surgery because of the blunders of some members of those noble professions.
Mr. Corbin measured the services he attended by what he could take out of them and not by what he could put into them. (This has no reference to the collection.) He went there seeking something from men who have the same frailties, limitations, and needs that he has. He went not there to meet his Lord and to offer to him the sacrifice of a broken and a contrite heart. He did not "enter into his gates with thanksgiving" and "worship and bow down." He listened to the service with the consciousness of the fact that he was an investigator and that he had assigned himself the special task of examining every detail and of searching out the similarities and the differences in all the services, and especially to note the new things and the old things. He compared the services with other programs, and perhaps contrasted them with some. He listened with the ear of a critic and with the heart of a censor. It is also entirely possible that he had it in mind to write his article for the magazine. He expected the poor preacher to offer something so new and different and appealing that it would challenge the attention and stir the soul of one who had already repudiated the old-time religion and was surfeited with the new and the modern. If the preacher warned against the evils that are ensnaring youth, wrecking society, and damning souls, he called it platitudes—out of date—McGuffey’s Reader stuff. If a preacher had told of Christ as our Savior, he would have said: "Medieval theology. Not for me; I am a modern." Truly, he is a modern. But no generation of men ever needed Christ more than moderns or wanted him less. If the chaotic confusion into which moderns have plunged the world does not prove their utter lack of a balanced intelligence, what would it take to prove it? If the wars and the threatened wars which the nations are either engaged in or are expecting soon to be engaged in, and which they do not want, but say they are unable to prevent, do not prove that "it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps" (Jeremiah 10:23), how could we go about proving that? But still foolish man blunders on blindly to his ruin. And still Mr. Corbin will write, and the American Magazine will publish an article, against the only thing that can save civilization!
Mr. Corbin judged everything by the carnal mind, and not by the mind of the spirit, or by the spiritual nature. He knew not that "the mind of the flesh is enmity against God [and seeks to find all the fault with God and religion that it can]; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be." (Romans 8:7.) He knew not that "the natural [unspiritual] man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him; and he cannot know them, because they are spiritually judged." (1 Corinthians 2:14.) This does not mean that man cannot receive the things of God without a miracle being performed to change his nature, but it does mean that man has both a carnal and a spiritual nature and that the things of God do not appeal to the carnal man. He is not even qualified to discuss them. The word of God to him is like pearls cast before swine. The reasoning of a carnal mind upon spiritual things may be allegorically presented by a barnyard scene: A chanticleer of proud carriage and beautiful plumage is strutting before a flock of ducks and haranguing them on this fashion:
"Tell me, you waddling ducklings, why do you go to the pond to swim and fish, or to the brook to hunt periwinkles? What do you obtain from the water that I cannot get in better form elsewhere? You go there for food? Why, I can get grain at the barn and bugs in the garden. As for water—oh, I am a waterfowl myself! I drink it every day, and the old duck that mothered me used to take me to the pond every day when I was a dependent chick to hunt for food and, as she said, to enjoy the water; but when T grew old enough to have some sense and to be independent, T abandoned such a practice. I obtain bugs in the flower garden, and the environment is much more beautiful. I get worms in the plowed fields, and there is no necessity for getting wet and bedraggled. T have discussed this with others—many others—and they agree with me. I am not alone. Ask the hens and the turkeys and the guinea fowls and the peacocks and see what they tell you. They see no need for the pond, and they think that swimming around and diving for minnows is foolish when you can obtain better food in open fields. Now, as for yon crane, with his long and shandy legs and his elongated neck and his sharp and lengthy beak, he may well continue to wade among the lily pads or to stand proudly in the brink of the lake and to thrust down his graceful head and take up and swallow at will the foolish fish that disport themselves about his feet. But, you poor, short-legged, blunt-billed, mud-splattering ducks, why do you continue to go to the lake? T have visited all your swimming places and I have watched your performances, and I saw nothing new. I saw you paddle about; I saw you close your foolish eyes and thrust your bill into the mud: I saw you use your silly head to throw water on your back; I saw you dive and stay under till you were dying for air; I saw you push your head down to the full length of your neck and turn your tail up toward the sky and scratch at the top of the water with awkward feet. And I said: Yet this is 1937! These things were all right before men gave us convenient drinking places and invented granaries and stored up grain, before they plowed the fields and planted gardens. Then our forebears had to seek food in the waters. But now that is all out of date. And yet even you young ducks insist that you are going back to the lake for your enjoyment. Well, it is not for me and the turkeys and the peacocks!"
"Why go to church?" This is an accommodated expression that means why go to the meetings of the church? And here we see why it is that we can reject the denominational machinery and still insist upon attending the meetings of the saints for worship. In the Bible sense it would be just as sensible to say "go to religion" as it is to say "go to church." But the idea is: why go to worship? A truly regenerated soul, a really spiritual man, would no more ask that question than a hungry person would ask: why go to the dinner table? or a duck would ask: why go to the lake? Hear the devout soul of the psalmist exult and imagine him asking: why go to the courts of Jehovah to worship? Listen to the raptures of a consecrated heart as it tells of the joys obtained in the house of the Lord:
I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go unto the house of Jehovah. (Psalms 122:1.)
And:
I hate the assembly of evil-doers, And will not sit with the wicked.
I will wash my hands in innocency: So will I compass thine altar, O Jehovah; That I may make the voice of thanksgiving to be heard, And tell of all thy wondrous works.
Jehovah, I love the habitation of thy house, And the place where thy glory dwelleth. (Psalms 26:5-8.) And again:
Oh send out thy light and thy truth; let them lead me:
Let them bring me unto thy holy hill, And to thy tabernacles.
Then will I go unto the altar of God, Unto God my exceeding joy.(Psalms 43:3-4.)
Also:
Blessed is the man whom thou choosest, and causest to ap- pi-oach unto thee, That he may dwell in thy courts:
We shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house, Thy holy temple(Psalms 65:4)
Then again: For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand.
I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, Than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. (Psalms 84:10.)
Also let us consider a few other joyful shouts of the psalmist as he declares his determination to sing the praises of his God i n the assembly (he never thought of seeking an excuse to be absent from the hour of worship), and calls upon others to praise the Lord in like manner.
Hear him:
I will declare thy name unto my brethren: In the midst of the assembly will I praise thee.(Psalms 22:22.)
Again:
I will give thee thanks in the great assembly:
I will praise thee among much people. (Psalms 35:18.) And again:
Let them exalt him also in the assembly of the people, And praise him in the seat of the elders. (Psalms 107:32.) And this:
I will give thanks unto Jehovah with my whole heart, In the council of the upright, and in the congregation. (Psalms 111:1.)
This, from an Old Testament servant of God, shows what will be the attitude of heart in a real child of God in any age or in any country. But Christians have some very definite teaching from their Lord and his apostles on this point. To them has been committed a very sacred service which memorializes the most important fact in their religion. To engage in this service is a sublime privilege. Think of the promise of our Lord that where two or three are gathered together in his name, he is there in the midst of them. (Matthew 18:20.) All true Christians rejoice to meet him and to commune with him. Our Lord also said: "I appoint unto you a kingdom, even as my Father appointed unto me, that ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom." (Luke 22:29-30.) The first Christians "continued stedfastly in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and the prayers." (Acts 2:42.) And the incident at Troas shows their custom and upon what day they "went to church." "And upon the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul discoursed with them, intending to depart on the morrow; and prolonged his speech until midnight." (Acts 20:7.) The inspired word also teaches us to forsake not "the assembling of ourselves together." (Hebrews 10:25.) The persecuted Christians of the first century who slipped away to the caves to worship God never asked: "Why go to church?” They went to worship despite all hindrances and rejoiced in every opportunity to get together and to praise the Lord and to admonish one another. If our hearts were as full of faith and love and humility and the spirit of Christ as theirs were, we would do as they did. No one would then ask: "Why go to church?” All the saints, who are not unavoidably hindered, would be in the worshiping assembly every time there is such an appointment—morning, noon, or night.