Articles From Our Bulletins
The Church’s Purpose
What is the purpose of the Lord’s church? Is it to eradi-cate poverty, disease, social injustice, illiteracy from among men? Is it to bring about a cessation of war and conflict? Is it to campaign for a temptation-free society for Christians to live?
If the church had as one of its great goals the eradica-tion of disease, the Lord could have easily equipped it to accomplish that goal. Could not the same power that enabled one blind man to see have enabled all blind men to see; that enabled one lame man to walk have enabled all lame people to walk; that cured many peo-ple of varied diseases have cured all people of all diseas-es? And could not this same power have been given to the church in all generations?
If the church has as one of its great goals the eradication of poverty, the Lord could have easily equipped it to accomplish this purpose. After all, He fed the five thousand with five loaves and two fishes. He similarly fed four thousand on another occasion. Could not He who did these marvelous works have enabled His church in all generations to feed, clothe, and shelter the impoverished masses of the world through miracu-lous powers?
If the Lord had wanted His church to become a lobby-ist group to apply political pressure toward a tempta-tion and persecution free society in which to live, He would have given instructions in that direction. He did not even lead His church into a direct effort to destroy slavery, but taught the Christian slave to be a better slave and the Christian master to treat his slaves as he would have his heavenly Master treat him (Colossians 3:22-4:1).
The church’s purpose is to save souls and prepare peo-ple for eternity--It holds out to the impoverished the hope of someday walking a street of gold; to the suffer-ing a time when there will be no pain; to the sorrowing a moment when “God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.” It tells the tempted and persecuted that there is value in these afflictions, that the testing of their faith is “more precious than of gold,” and to re-joice -- It tells all to live godly lives in whatever envi-ronment they find themselves. It seeks to change people through the power of the gospel, not society through the coercion of legislators -- Its weapons “are not carnal, but are mighty through God.” Its motivat-ing theme: “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”
When churches become involved in hospital and health clinic work, or when they build schools for the edu-cation of their children, or when they see as one of their great missions to provide for the world’s poverty, or when they feel obligated to cre-ate social upheaval and campaign for human rights, or when they feel called upon to express their views on the government's use of nuclear armaments or whatev-er, they have a distorted view of the purpose of the church.
