The circular letter was read, received and unanimously adopted.
Circular letter by Elder W. E. Adams to the Eastern Baptist Association: As an apology (if it could be said one is needed) for the presentation of the subject which we propose to investigate in this letter, we desire to call your attention to the 3rd chapter of Paul's 1st letter to Timothy, 14th and 15th verses, wherein he said he "hoped to come to him soon, but in the event of his delay, that Timothy might know how to conduct himself in the house of God; that is, in the church of God, in God's assembly; that there are many wrong ways and only one right, and that right way is the way which is in conformity with the commission our Lord gave to His disciples, Matt. 28:20: "Teach them to observe [tavein - to attend to, to watch, to guard, to preserve], to keep all things whatsoever I have commanded [charged] you." When we ostensibly keep His commands, and yet do not observe them strictly as instructed, then we have not attended to them at all, notwithstanding our pretensions to the contrary. We read in Matt. 15:6: "By your tradition you make void [annul] the commandments of God." In the observance of the ordinances of God's house, which constitute no small part of our behavior, we should be guided only by the voice of God in His word. Where He leads let us follow. Where He pauses let us stop, remembering that He hath said, Heb. 12:25, that "we shall not escape if we turn away from Him that speaks from Heaven." And the Apostle James doth say, 2:12: "So speak ye and so do, as men that are to be judged by a law of liberty." As an illustration, take them of olden time. See 1st Samuel 15:10-11: "Then came the word of the Lord unto Samuel, saying, 'It repenteth me that I have set up Saul to be king; for he is turned back from following me and hath not performed my commandments.' And it grieved Samuel, and he cried unto the Lord all night." But God loved and blessed Abraham because he kept His commands. "And this is the love of God that we do keep His commandments" "And if ye love me ye will." He hath commanded us to show forth to the world "His death until He comes" again, by eating the loaf and drinking the cup: 1st Corinthians 11:26. But who shall do this? Where? And when and how? We desire to know because, though we take bread and break and give, and after supper the cup, it is impossible for us to eat the Lord's Supper unless we keep the feast as delivered unto us, 1st Corinthians 11:20-23. Let us then first consider, To whom was the ordinance delivered?
We answer, to the church, His called out assembly as such, and to no others. See Luke 22:14: "And when the hour was come He sat down, and the twelve Apostles with Him." Also Matthew 26:20 and Mark 14:17-18. They constituted His church at Jerusalem. See Acts 2:47: "And the Lord was adding those being saved every day to the church" (emphatic the called-out assembly). The twelve were called by Christ in person, Mark 3:14. The Apostles did constitute the church, and the only church of the living God at Jerusalem or in the entire world at the time Jesus instituted the Lord's Supper. It was this body, after thousands had been added to it, that received Paul and Barnabas, of which the apostles and elders were members, as found in Acts 15:4. After the days of Pentecost, when persecution arose, the church members were scattered abroad, and they went everywhere, preaching the Gospel of the kingdom and constituting churches, to whom they delivered the decrees for to keep, which had been ordained of the apostles and elders that were at Jerusalem, Acts 16:4 [or the doctrines before determined]. So the churches were strengthened in the faith and increased in number daily, 5th verse, And Paul exhorts the church at Corinth "to keep the ordinances as he had delivered them unto the church (1 Corinthians 11:2), and he that presumes to do otherwise is an innovator." He delivered to that church that which he had received of the Lord (1 Corinthians 11:23), and the church, as such, came together to the same place to eat the Lord's Supper, verse 20, and although they ostensibly ate the Lord's Supper, yet they did not in reality, because there was a lack of discipline and also heresies among them. See verses 19 and 20. By reading from the 17th to the 21st verse, any one can see that wherever a company of persons attempt to observe the Lord's Supper, and there is a participation by one that is unworthy because of his ungodly walk, and this company are acquainted with this fact, then it is not the Lord's Supper, and if there be divisions among them; and do we not see that, regardless of their pretensions, it is impossible for them to eat the Lord's Supper, or if there be heresies among them? Now, Webster says a heresy is a fundamental error in religion, or an error of opinion respecting some fundamental doctrine of religion. The Scriptures being the standard of faith, any opinion that is repugnant to its doctrine is heresy. Then, if any church celebrating the supper permits persons holding to doctrines or opinions which are contrary to the teaching of the Scriptures to join them in the celebration, this leaven leavens the whole lump, and they are disqualified to observe the feast. Should a church, or a company that calls itself such, if it holds opinions or teaches doctrines not in harmony with God's Word, it cannot acceptably observe the Lord's Supper. To the individual church was the ordinance delivered, and, as such, by it to be observed; and there is no record that it was ever observed by any one else or in any other way until false teachers came in and brought in heresies "by reason of which the way of truth was evil spoken of." 2 Peter 2:1-2. It is not hinted that any one else has a right to observe it. The ordinance was delivered to the local church, as first to the church at Jerusalem. After that to such bodies as were regularly constituted by the proper authority. The local church celebrates, and all who are members of the church celebrating have a right to partake. One member has no right to invite another. Forty individuals unites together have no more rights, as a body, than the sum total of the rights each would amount to. All members have equal rights, and as one member has no right to invite another, then the right to invite is equal to a cipher, and forty-ciphers put together make simply nothing. Then we see the church has no right to invite any one, and inasmuch as they cannot delegate authority which they do not possess, they cannot authorize their pastor to invite the members of a sister church, nor even the members of the body participating. The church comes together by mutual consent to eat the Lord's Supper, and each one examines or proves his own heart, and if he discern the Lord's body and wants to eat, let him eat. There is no inviting about it, and that church or minister that presumes to invite is guilty of adding to the things written in this book. Every one should examine or prove himself, verse 28, because we may have secret faults known only to ourselves and to Him with whom we have to do, and if our hearts condemn us and we eat unworthily, we shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord, verse 27. But if any man be openly an out breaker, a reviler, an idolater or a drunkard or an extortioner, with such an one the church must not eat (1 Corinthians 5:11), nor be associated with him in church relation, because a little leaven ferments the whole mass, sixth verse. Therefore, let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, verse 8. Am I to judge of my brother's fitness? Certainly of his fitness to be in the church. Do not ye judge them that are within? 1st Corinthians 5:12. Put away that wicked man from among you, verse 6. Know ye not that the saints shall judge the world? Chapter 6: "Know ye not that we shall judge angels; how much more things that pertain to this life?" We do not judge directly of the fitness of any one to come to the Lord's table, but of their fitness to belong to His church, to be members of His body; for if such they are, they have equal rights and privileges with us in the house of God. "But if any man that is named a brother be a covetous person, an idolater, a reviler or a drunkard or an extortioner, have no company with him, with such a one do not eat." 1 Corinthians 9:11: "And if thy brother sin, go show him his fault between thee and him alone; if he hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. But if he hear thee not, take with thee one or two more, that at the mouth of two witnesses, or three, every word may be established. And if he refuse to hear them, tell it unto the church; also let him be unto thee as the Gentile and the publican." Matthew 18:16-17. When a brother is received into the church, it is moved and seconded that he be received as a candidate for baptism, after which he be granted equal rights and privileges in the house of God. He is not a member . . . . . . of Christ's body, the church, until he is baptized, for "we put on Christ in baptism" (Galatians 3:27), and then only of that particular church into which he is received. Membership in one church gives no one any rights or privileges in another church. This membership secures to him equal rights and privileges with his brethren. When he loses his membership he has lost all of his rights and privileges. And again, the Lord's Supper can only be made to symbolize the Lord's death when observed by a church only. As the individual can only show the burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus by observing the ordinance of baptism, so also can His death be shown only by a church as a body - one body, Christ, seeing that we (the members of the local church) who are many are one bread, one body; for we all partake from the one loaf. 1st. Cor. 10:17. The church at Pine Grove is one body and the church at Lakeview is another body, and as such only can show the sacrifice of the one body of Christ. The presence of two or more bodies, or parts of bodies, destroys the symbol of the sacrifice of the one body of Christ. If two or more churches can commune together, according to Scriptures, then no local church is a body, and if it take the sum total of all the churches to constitute the body, then the ordinance can only be observed by that body - the sum total of all the churches - and no church as such has a right to observe the ordinances singly. But the church at Corinth was one body, and as such they came together into one place to eat the Lord's Supper. So also, if any church be strictly a Gospel church, it must administer the Gospel ordinance in a Gospel manner, and after the pattern of the apostolic church. Let us not, therefore, remove the landmarks of our fathers, neither taking from nor adding to the things written in that book, which we must take as the man of our counsel, the lamp to our feet and the perfect guide to our pathway, which, by His Spirit helping our infirmities and directing our understanding, we will do so.==================== [Eastern Baptist Association of California and Oregon Minutes, June 1887, pages 14-19. Document was re-typed by Robert Cullifer, Folsom, CA and used with permission. Scanned and formatted by Jim Duvall.]
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