"Just Take My Word for It"

A number of years ago, I received a letter from a congregation saying they had withdrawn fellowship from a fellow preacher and his wife. The reasons were set forth in a letter and sent to me in order to discourage me from holding a gospel meeting in the area where my friend was preaching. Since withdrawing fellowship from someone is a serious matter, the correct response on my part was important; the options were few. The information could be ignored altogether, and plans could move forward for the meeting. Some probably would reason, "He's my friend, and that's all that matters." The second choice was to say, "The evidence I've been sent is compelling; friend or no friend, I'd better cancel the meeting." The third option seemed to be the only viable one—investigate the situation.

Some of the evidence fell into the "we said; they said" category. Nothing could be done with the spin either side put on a conversation; a person would have had to be present to understand what was actually said, the way it was said, and various other nuances that might enter into one's analysis of the conversation. But the original letter did contain some details that could be checked on. One of those was that my friend had surreptitiously gained entrance to a church building in order to baptize someone. That didn't make sense on the surface of it. Why would someone need to use deceit in order to baptize a sinner? Don't we usually baptize folks who are willing to repent of their sins after Bible study? Nevertheless, I talked to the custodian of the building, and he was unaware that any skullduggery had been used on him.

Some of the other accusations were not as they had been presented, either. One of the elders who had withdrawn from my friend said they had an incriminating letter on file. I asked to see it. He asked why. I answered that it would verify what he had written to me. His response was, "I don't have to prove anything to you." So far as I was concerned, this constituted an admission that he and the other elders did not have sufficient evidence to withdraw fellowship and that their writing to prevent the meeting was nothing more than a bluff. To say the least, it was disheartening that elders in the Lord's church could even conceive of such a bad idea—let alone implement it. The Lord's church does not belong to men and ought not to be used in the way these men had denigrated it. Withdrawal of fellowship is not intended as a weapon but a sincere effort to get brethren to repent of actual (rather than alleged) sins.

Equally disheartening is the fact that today some seem unwilling to investigate a matter. Some problems are "solved" by someone saying, "Just take my word for it." And many do. Or in certain instances, someone says, "Another brother looked into the matter and is satisfied that everything is all right." Really? Therefore, instead of learning the facts, brethren are willing to gloss over matters and pretend a problem does not exist. Nothing can be resolved this way; certainly, harmony cannot prevail. People make mistakes; they can be repented of. The unity of brethren should be one of our highest goals.