What if We Don’t Finish the Task (Part 3) – Preserving the Organic Church for Future Generations

I have never done it. I have always left. I will not fight. Do you think I left because I was afraid? I do it for the sake of God’s people. I have a little bit of a problem. I’m sure you’ve heard of the Maccabees. The Syrians would come down and fight one day a week. They’d fight on Saturday. The Jews would be sitting there, and the Syrians would come in, and the Jews wouldn’t work on Saturday, so they’d just come in and slaughter them, take a whole town of them.

The next Saturday, they’d be back again, because Jews wouldn’t fight. One day, a guy named Judas Maccabaeus looked around, and he saw a vanishing nation. He said, “Uh-uh, we’re going to fight on Saturday.” Some people know I won’t fight and try to take advantage of that. Well, somewhere deep inside of me, you better know there’s also a Judas Maccabees. If it’s a serious situation, I’ll get up and leave. But if he’s like, “Ah, that’s right, he’s not going to fight on Saturdays… Well, then I’ll fight on Saturdays.” And I will, I will take a strong stand, and yes, I will hurt people from it, but I will not be toyed with. Oh, I’ve had a little of this happen to me, and I thought I’d throw that in.

When we were in Denver, we had a situation that, unfortunately, we have had before and since. Could you imagine a person, a group of people, or a couple who, in this instance, deliberately stayed in the church for one reason and only one reason? They were so convinced, convinced that this should not be, they stayed at church so that anytime anybody joined the group, they went to them and told them they should leave and have nothing to do with it. You wouldn’t believe people do that, would you? Well, they did. And the church in Denver is made up of nothing in the world but a bunch of wild men.

They were tired of this, and they told me, “Man, we’re gonna, we’re gonna…” I took a deep breath and said, Gene, here we go again.” Do you think I didn’t want to throw those people out? Yes. But I knew that we were at a crossroads that nobody ever goes down. All my flesh said, “Throw them out.” And I was talking to a brother who was not the most patient or the most patient-wise person in the world. And even his wife said, “Just leave us alone; we’ll take care of these people.” And I said, “No, all of you. Step back and let it run its course.”

They went to the cross, and they began to learn tolerance and patience. And this went on for several years, even to the point that when Betty came to hold a conference with us…it happened to be held in Colorado Springs…these people…the first thing they did was they met Betty and told Betty all the horrible things about the church in Denver and about me. You ever seen water run off a duck’s back? Well, that’s what happened when they talked to Betty. That went off a duck’s back.

But they were the ones taking care of Betty when she was sick…they were the ones taking care of Betty. And now there are four, five, or six of them, and they were all living there to make sure the church did not grow. We went on and on and on, and then we had a conference, a brothers’ conference in Denver, and that thing was really getting explosive. The brothers were again asking me to do something about this, and certainly, we had every right to do so.

I came up to the meeting and, in my inimitable way, took another brother who was in charge of the money and took him out of the money. I gave the—and because somebody, because this particular couple was criticizing him for the way he was handling the money. I put them in charge of the money and took the two people they were complaining about the most, and pulled them out of the brotherhood and out of the money. Or, in other words, I’m stark raving mad. And that caused…I solved one problem and started another. So, this couple now had their way completely. It was theirs to do; they had no more complaints. I had stood in their way and let them have what they wanted. And do you think that stopped them? They just kept right on doing it.

Well, do you know why they finally stopped meeting with you? Oh, you moved, that’s right. Absolutely, the whole church got up and moved, that’s right, and then they moved. Right. Why did you do that, Gene? Speaking metaphorically, I spilled my blood over that, stopped the church’s growth, and slowed her joy. I set aside everything precious about that church. There are two things I will not tolerate. I will not tolerate a church that is cruel or a brotherhood that is cruel. And the other one is, I will not tolerate the situation in Arlington, Texas.

You will have a brotherhood. I ask you to imitate me. I am strong, but I am not dangerous. Not yet. I’m not dangerous. If you don’t witness that, I’ll witness for myself. My natural heavenly inclinations are to be caring for God’s people, know how they’re doing, and see if they have any needs. But if push comes to shove, I will do nothing. And then when push comes to shove again, I will still do nothing. And if push comes to shove, I will do one of two things: I will leave, or I’ll wait some more. But ultimately, the church will take care of the situation. When the sisters start telling me to do something about the situation, then it’s time to act. I’ll ask the brothers if they want it done. I have rarely acted except when it came down to throwing somebody out of the church because of adultery. And then I’m so good at that, you just can’t imagine how good I’m at that.

And yes, I have been sometimes unwise in what I’ve done, but I know where our hearts lie, and we will lose. We’re gonna lose this blood-bought, inwrought thing that we are if we die. I have never met a man who was not proud of his strength. Now he’s not gonna be bullied by anybody. Whatever happened to dying and laying down your life? I don’t want to lose this. It’s been too precious, too long, too hard, too much patience. It’s literally been a lifetime just trying to create a people who aren’t mean to one another.

You heard the story; I just got through telling it. Do you want that kind of recovery of the testimony? No, you won’t. You know what you want; you want what you have. And it will be lost in all the blood and the sweat and the tears and the late hours of loneliness and—when you almost give up, we lose it all to have what we have.

Okay, the next one really boils my blood. Have a non-Darbinian gospel. And we’re gonna lose it. A non-Darbinian—the word, you might even find it in the dictionary: a Darbinian theology. John Nelson Darby’s ideas and thoughts are taught in every Bible school in America and in most seminaries, and you’ve never been exposed to them… not for one second. You don’t know anything about overcomers; most of you don’t even know about the millennium. Oh no, those people had a cross. His name was John Nelson Darby. I’ve already mentioned this: the way we study and use the New Testament is unique to us, and it will be lost… forever. I’m very pessimistic that it would not be.