Compromises In Churches Of Christ Since The Year 1900

I have a personal evangelism lesson I do frequently titled “Methodist Changes On Divorce.” It documents changes the Methodist Church has made on the Divorce And Remarriage issue since about 1900. There is a separate quote from the Methodist Creed book every 20 years or so showing the gradual loosening of their official position on the topic. I won’t list all the quotes here, but I will produce two just to show their drastic overall change in the last hundred years or so:

1896 Methodist Creed Book: No divorce, except for adultery, shall be regarded by the Church as lawful; and no Minister shall solemnize marriage in any case where there is a divorced wife or husband living; but this rule shall not be applied to the innocent party to a divorce for the cause of adultery …. (The Doctrines and Discipline of the Methodist Episcopal Church)

1984 Methodist Creed Book: Where marriage partners, even after thoughtful consideration and counsel, are estranged beyond reconciliation, we recognize divorce as regrettable but recognize the right of divorced persons to remarry. … We encourage an … accepting … commitment of the church … to minister to the members of divorced families.

We may think churches of Christ are immune to such change and compromise. But haven’t we made our own changes over the same period of time? I am thinking of compromises made by most churches of Christ since about 1900:

· In 1900 I am pretty sure all Christians thought it was wrong to kill for country (“carnal warfare” as it is called). Boy has that changed, and it wasn’t till World War II that the majority of brethren switched on the issue (Matt 5:43-48, Rom 12:17-13:4).

· Back then all Christians thought mothers should be “keepers at home” (Tit 2:5) to raise their children; am I right? Now the majority of Christian mothers not only think it is right to work a full-time job outside the home, but they do it.

· And if a woman was single and in the secular work force, brethren understood she shouldn’t be a boss over men because they realized I Tim 2:11-12 applies “every where” (verse 8) and not just in church. That all believed “the head of the woman is the man” period just like I Cor 11:3 says. Women were not even allowed to vote in this country until 1920. There is a 1961 Andy Griffith episode about allowing a woman to run for city council for the first time – views were changing.

· Public religious debating like we see Jesus and Paul (Acts 19:8-10) doing was always respected and very well supported in attendance. Now most Christians see such debates as wrong, or at best a waste of time.

· And God’s church grew by leaps and bounds in those days because of these debates and mainly because every faithful Christian was diligent in trying to do personal evangelism (Matt 28:19-20, Acts 8:1,4). Now very few are industrious personal evangelism workers. The Watchtower Witnesses are – yes, but not New Testament Christians.

· A few churches of Christ are still holding the line on Divorce And Remarriage (Matt 19:9, Mark 6:17-18), but I am confident the great majority (if including institutional congregations) now say “just stay in whatever marriage you’re in.”

· From what I understand all Christians believed women ought to have “long hair” (I Cor 11:15) in 1900. Back then you didn’t see any Christian ladies with what they called “bobbed” hair. Now, very few Christian ladies have long hair.

Forget 1900, consider this change the Presbyterian Church USA has made since 1978:

1978 … Homosexuality is not God’s wish for humanity … On the basis of our understanding that the practice of homosexuality is sin, we are concerned that homosexual believers and the observing world should not be left in doubt about the church’s mind on this issue during any further period of study. (Minutes of the 190th General Assembly [1978], United Presbyterian Church in the USA, pp.261-62)

2015 The Presbyterian Church made a historic decision … to formally recognize gay marriage and allow same-sex couples to marry in its congregations. … The … denomination voted to redefine the church constitution on marriage to include ‘a commitment between two people …’ (Time Magazine, 3-18-2015)

And I have seen many compromises in churches of Christ just since I became in Christian in 1981:

· in modest dress (I Tim 2:9-10) – Remember when zero Christians believed in mixed swimming (and didn’t frequent public beaches)? And remember when Florida College had a rule against wearing shorts? What happened with that?

· in what Christians do for entertainment (Matt 5:28, Eph 5:11, Rom 1:32) – Remember when many Christians didn’t go to the movie theater or to music concerts? Remember when Christians didn’t watch trashy TV shows and movies nor listen to trashy rock and country music?

· in church attendance (Heb 10:25) – Remember when all Christians (I thought) believed it was a sin to miss church for recreational and school activities?

· in our view of inspiration. I’ve noticed a sea change over the last several decades in the way many of our gospel preachers view how New Testament revelation worked. A general switch has been made from what texts such as I Cor 2:13, Deut 18:18, and Jer 1:9 (there are many dozens more like these, ask for my list) clearly prove, that God supplied each and every word, to assert at least some of the human authors wrote what they gleaned from “previously existing narratives” and/or through “investigation.” It makes me wonder if these Christians are relying upon denominational commentaries, because where else could they have gotten this notion? This compromise is perhaps the worst of all because it changes the very meaning of inspiration (“God breathed), and over time their students who hear this hog wash will take the next logical step and flat out deny the inerrancy of the scriptures. After all, if what is supposed to be God’s book resulted from “research” (as opposed to “direct revelation”), then mistakes were bound to be made. Note: If you can’t believe many “prominent” Christians are teaching this, write and I will send you some quotes.

You might say “but we were wrong then and correct now.” That is exactly what the Methodist Church says about Divorce And Remarriage. And I guarantee the Presbyterian Church 50 years ago would have never fathomed their changes on Homosexuality that were soon coming. There’s an old preacher’s illustration about if you put a frog in a hot frying pan, he will immediately feel the burn and jump out. But if you put that same frog in a cool frying pan and then heat up the pan very gradually on the stove, the frog will sometimes remain in the pan until he cooks to death. The point is that if you bring in sin very gradually, people won’t notice the change even if there is an overall drastic change, as long as that change is made over a long period time. That is what has happened to the Methodist and Presbyterian Churches … and also to our brotherhood – just on different issues. Let me say that again – our brotherhood has made drastic changes in belief and practice over the last century or so, but most today don’t realize it because the compromises have come so gradually.

And what did God tell the Old Testament prophets to do when there was similar wholesale compromise among His people in their day (Ezek 2:3-7, Jer 25:1-7)? We need more people like Ezekiel and Jeremiah today.

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