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