THE CHURCH AND THE FUTURE—By Athens Clay Pullias

THE CHURCH AND THE FUTURE---By Athens Clay Pullias THE CHURCH AND THE FUTURE
Athens Clay Pullias

There has not been a time since the days of inspired men when the opportunities and prospects for the growth of the church were brighter than they are today. In spite of many problems, the church of our Lord is stronger in faith, purer in life and teaching, and more zealous in the execution of the Great Commission than it has been at any time since the days of the apostles. The phenomenal growth of the last fifty years has been solid and scriptural. My work requires me to travel a great deal, especially in the area from Texas and Oklahoma to the Atlantic Coast and from Canada to the Gulf. It is amazing and inspiring to observe on every hand the rapid spread of New Testament Christianity.

It is necessary to remember that even with all we have done it is only a tiny part of the task envisioned by Christ in the Great Commission. We have scarcely touched the hem of the garment. In the years that lie ahead I firmly believe that the church can enjoy a period of purity and expansion unparalleled in its history. The accomplishment of this will require the observance of a few fundamental principles:

1. Strict adherence to the simple teachings of the New Testament.
2. A zealous proclamation on the widest possible scale of the gospel of Christ.
3. An unwavering faith in the power of that gospel to save rather than any plans or devices of our own.

It would be easy to be deluded into believing that as the church increases in number and power something else must be added. This is the trap into which efforts to restore primitive New Testament Christianity have fallen again and again with disastrous consequences.

I suppose there will always be two major problems confronting the church. On one side there will be the liberals, who want to water down the teachings of the Bible and to gradually relax emphasis upon adherence to New Testament truth. On the other side, there will be the radicals and the extremists, who want to make a thousand matters of judgment tests of fellowship; who want to impose upon the brethren as matters of faith innumerable human traditions and opinions.

It is my prayer that the church in the future will refuse to be pushed from its grand purpose in either of these directions. I will not say that we should stay in the middle of the road, for that sounds like compromise, but I will say that we should stay in the road of truth and right and not be enticed or frightened off into the innumerable side roads of error, opinion, and doubt. The headlight of a train is intended to light the main track. The wise engineer keeps his eye glued on this objective. He does not stop to explore the sideroads and paths into the wilderness which continually are glimpsed as he races on toward his major objective. The gospel of Christ is powerful enough to convert and save the world. You and I should learn it, live it, and preach it, and if we do we have only started to win the souls that can be won to Christ and to salvation. So I would say with the great apostle, if you want to insure the future of the church, “Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine’' (2 Timothy 4:2), and in the face of false teachers, ungodliness, errors, hobby riders, and all other problems that men may create by their shortcomings let us “be established in the present truth” (2 Peter 1:12).