G C BREWER LECTURE CONCERNING DENOMINATIONS
(Submitted by Hugh Fulford, via “Friends of the Restoration Movement Facebook”) NOTE: I believe submitted on 25 December 2015. Donald R. Fox
In honor of G. C. Brewer, born on this date in 1884, I submit the following from a lecture he delivered in Murfreesboro, TN on May 5, 1917, originally published by F. L. Rowe in a book titled "Murfreesboro Addresses," and later included in Brewer's book "Foundation Facts and Primary Principles," published by Old Paths Book Club in 1949. The excerpt below was taken from the latter book and is from a lecture titled "Are We A Denomination?"
"I then related to him [a denominati...onal preacher with whom Brewer was in conversation] how I became a Christian. I heard the gospel, believed on Christ, repented of my sins, confessed my faith in Christ before men and was baptized into the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and arose from that burial to walk in a new life and I have ever since tried to walk worthy of the calling. I did none of these things because they are taught by a church or required by a party but because they are the plain commandments of my Master. Is faith a sectarian doctrine, a denominational requirement? Is repentance? Is the confession of the name of Christ such a doctrine? Is baptism in Christ's name a sectarian doctrine? If so, why? Is it not commanded by the same Lord, authorized by the same God who requires us to have faith?
"When I had told of obeying Christ in these things I asked the preacher if he thought I was a Christian. He replied unhesitatingly, 'O, yes, I accept you as a Christian. I think you are saved.' I said, 'You accept me as a Christian and yet you would not receive me into your denomination until I became something else--took some other steps.' He said, 'Of course you would have to submit to the rules of our church.' I said, 'Now that is a thing I have never done. I have never agreed to submit to the rules of any denomination. I have never subscribed to any creed made by men. I have only given my heart and life to the Lord. Now can you see why I am not a member of any denomination? (pp. 62-63) ....
"The Christian religion is not an organized religion. There is no organization known in the Bible larger than a local congregation. Every congregation is an organization with its divinely appointed officers, bishops and deacons, who have the oversight and charge of that congregation, but that congregation is independent of all other congregations and its officers have no jurisdiction over any other congregation. We may have a cooperation of congregations, but we never have a corporation of congregations if we intend to follow the New Testament order" (p. 66).
OBSERVATION CONCERNING CONGREGATIONAL INDEPENDENCE
“Each congregation was independent of all others in its government. They sustained a fraternal relation to each other as parts of the body of Christ, but no one was under the ecclesiastical authority of another. There is no ecclesiastical authority recognized in the New Testament except that of a single congregation and that only when acting strictly in obedience to the will of Christ. From such a decision there is no court of appeal. On this point I submit the testimony of a few distinguished men, who while they stood identified with an ecclesiasticism ruling the individual congregation, admit that no such thing was known to the New Testament.” (Reference page 44, The Church, The Falling Away and the Restoration” by James W. Shepherd (1861-1948) Note by DRF: At this point, Mr. Shepherd introduces Mosheim and Lyman Coleman in further evidence for the independence of the apostolic churches.)