It
is a basic principle of law that what one creates, one controls. Any
church that is incorporated, gets its life from the State and must
obey the State or lose its corporate status. "Corporate"
means shaped into a body. State incorporated churches are part of the
body of the State. We are to be the body of Christ and receive our
life from Jesus Christ, not the State.
In the State of Oregon, the Attorney General
has the final authority over a corporation. ORS 61.065, Section 3 states:
He may ". . . enjoin the corporation from performing unauthorized
acts."
What kind of unauthorized acts? In Medford,
Oregon, a church ran into trouble for not getting a permit to park their church
buses. Another church did not get a new educational ministry approved by the
State and was forced to close it. Another church tried to expand its buildings
without a building permit and was stopped. The attorney general has the power to
shut down an incorporated church for any breach of State statutes.
When a church incorporates under the State,
the church comes under the jurisdiction of the State and therefore surrenders
its headship to the State. The church's chief officers become official
representatives of the State by virtue of their corporate charter.
Those who incorporate transform their churches
into fictitious entities created by the State and ruled by State laws. Such
institutions are State churches and they can prove it. They have corporate
charters that bear the name of their sovereign.
We
must be
the change we want to see in the world
