WELL PUT | AdventAI

The Seventh-Day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · December 11, 1879

FromThe Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, Vol. 54, No. 24

WELL PUT.

In one of our exchanges we find the following paragraphs, which strike vigorously against a growing evil. No credit is given; but the article is so good we regret that it is a stray waif.

Coaxing the devil to support the gospel is a modern device. The primitive church knew nothing of it. When Paul was collecting funds to aid poor saints at Jerusalem, he used no fairs, festivals, “mum sociables,” kissing games, or other sanctified snares, to accomplish his object. The Christians paid their own bills, and did not expect Satan to pay for the weapons which they used against him. When the devil supports a church, he does so in his own interest. He carries on his operations with a full knowledge of the fact that “a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand.” For every dollar paid out of his coffers to the church, he receives full value. Church partnerships with the devil never benefit the former, but always the latter. Hands off!

Untold harm comes to the church by the use of even questionable measures to raise money for the support of God’s work. It creates the impression, in the minds of the worldly, that the church is a kind of parasite, dependent for its existence on the community; that it is a sort of genteel beggar, which it is proper and fashionable to support; that it is an object of charity or even pity and contempt, which is grateful for the tolerance of the people that let it live. The ungodly regard such churches as engaged in seeking money rather than souls, and valuing wealthy members more than poor saints. To stand before the world in this light is humiliating and degrading beyond expression. Such churches ought to be closed or cleansed, cured or killed.