Longhenry/Jackson Debate on Benevolence

 
 
 Proposition: 
 The Scriptures teach that the church, from its treasury, may help only the needy saints.
 
 Affirm:  Ethan R. Longhenry
 Deny: George A. Jackson
 
 Hello, and may the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
 
 It is good to be able to discuss issues critical to our faith and walk with the Lord, and I hope that 
 we would be able to do so in a manner befitting Him.
 
 Let us first define our proposition so that none may be confused concerning that which we speak 
 of.
 
 "The Scriptures:" the Word of God, the books of Genesis-Malachi representing the Old Testament, 
 and the books of Matthew-Revelation representing the New Testament, the latter of which is our 
 focus here.  
 
 "teach:" show as positive example or commandment the things which Christians ought to do.
 
 "the church:" the body of the saved; for our purposes in this discussion, we are going to use the 
 church in its local sense, the group of believers that would meet in a particular town, such as 
 Corinth or Ephesus.
 
 "from its treasury:" the place where the money of the church, gained from freewill contributions 
 collected on the first day of the week, is kept (1 Corinthians 16:1-2).
 
 "may help only the needy saints:" help being assistance in a physical form; for the purpose of our 
 discussion here, we will examine the church's role in assisting its own in a physical sense.  
 "Saints" are those who are members of that body, saved and renewed by Christ (Galatians 3:26-
 27).  "Only" is to be understood to mean that this help is specific to the saints in question, and is 
 for no other.
 
 The church can also help fund other ventures besides benevolence, but we will not discuss those 
 things in this debate-- I just wanted to make this point so that no one would think that the church 
 can only spend its funds on assisting physically its own.  
 
 I believe that George and I are in agreement about how we determine whether or not we have 
 authority in our practices as a church and/or as an individual.  We must search the Scriptures as 
 the Bereans did (Acts 17:11), and determine whether or not we have a direct commandment to 
 perform a certain activity.  If no such commandment exists, we may look at the examples of the 
 first century church, and if there is an example of such practice approved by those in authority, we 
 then have found authority for it.  Finally, in the absence of command or example, if a text has a 
 clear inference about a practice performed, we may take that as authority for our practices.  If 
 there is no such command, example, or inference that is necessary, we do not have the authority to 
 perform this practice, and must stay away from such things (2 John 9).
 
 It is my singular purpose in this affirmation to show that the Scriptures do teach that the church 
 should help any of its own in a time of need, be it locally in their congregation or universally to 
 any saint or saints that are suffering.  
 
 The most clear example of local churches assisting saints comes originates with a prophet Agabus, 
 who prophecies in Acts 12:28 that a great famine was to plague the land of Judea in the time of the 
 emperor Claudius.  We are then told that disciples who had the means did give for this venture.  
 
 Furthermore, we have the example that the churches also gave to help out in this time of need.  
 Paul gives such commandment in 1 Corinthians 16:1-3:
 
 Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I directed the churches of Galatia, so do you also.  
 On the first day of every week each one of you is to put aside and save, as he may prosper, so that 
 no collections be made when I come.  When I arrive, whomever you may approve, I will send 
 them with letters to carry your gift to Jerusalem.
 
 In 2 Corinthians 8:1-5, Paul tells the church at Corinth of the generosity of the churches in 
 Macedonia:
 
 Now, brethren, we wish to make known to you the grace of God which has been given in the 
 churches of Macedonia, that in a great ordeal of affliction their abundance of joy and their deep 
 poverty overflowed in the wealth of their liberality.  For I testify that according to their ability, and 
 beyond their ability, they gave of their own accord, begging us with much urging for the favor of 
 participation in the support of the saints, and this not as we had expected, but they first gave 
 themselves to the Lord and to us by the will of God.
 
 Therefore, we see that in this time of distress, churches were commanded to give to assist those in 
 need, and they did so bountifully.  
 
 Now, the Scriptures do not speak only of those saints in need in faraway places.  Later, Paul writes 
 to Timothy concerning the church in Ephesus (1 Timothy 1:3) and a "list" of widows (1 Timothy 
 5).  We do not know much about this list, but what we do know is that widows were on it, but only 
 certain widows, as seen in 1 Timothy 5:9-10:
 
 A widow is to be put on the list only if she is not less than sixty years old, having been the wife of 
 one man, having a reputation for good works; and if she has brought up children, if she has shown 
 hospitality to strangers, if she has washed the saints' feet, if she has assisted those in distress, and 
 if she has devoted herself to every good work.
 
 Furthermore, younger widows were not to be on this list, but should be remarried (verses 10-15).  
 Finally, we see that these widows would be supported by the church, in verse 16:
 
 If any woman who is a believer has dependent widows, she must assist them and the church must 
 not be burdened, so that it may assist those who are widows indeed.
 
 Therefore, we have an approved Scriptural example of the church helping out its own who could 
 not help themselves!  
 
 It must be noted from the above verse that the church should only be burdened with assistance 
 when no other avenue of assistance is available.  Those who can be taken care of by individual 
 Christians ought to be taken care of by individual Christians, and the church should not be 
 burdened so that it may help "those who are widows indeed."
 
 Therefore, we have seen from the Scriptures that the early churches helped saints in distress, be it 
 on a distant shore or within its own.  We do not have any such example for the churches assisting 
 anyone else, nor a commandment made or an inference that is necessary.  Thus, we can conclude 
 from the Scriptures that the local church ought to provide for its own or for any other Christian in 
 need, and that no such commandment exists for the assistance of those not in the fold.
 
 I await George's first rebuttal.
 
 May the peace of our Lord Jesus be with you.
 
 Ethan R. Longhenry (ELDV)