Sunday School -- Why? -- Why Not?

By John R. Freeman

(Editor's Note: The following article is a copy of a small tract which Bro. John R. Freeman had printed and sent out from Gunter, Texas, in 1924, and which he copied and re-signed more than 40 years later--December, 1964. It is requested that you read it carefully. The writer, 40 years prior to December, 1964, wrote the truth, and stood for it, and through the 40 years since 1924, his stability was fully recognized, nor did it ever waver, and from 1964 until his death in 1970, it was the same. It has now been 75 years since the tract was first written. It was the truth 75 years ago, and before, and it is still the truth, and will always be the truth for the remainder of time. Read it.)

A Sunday School is a school conducted on Sunday, the first day of the week. Neither the time of day nor the amount of time used is of any consideration. A school conducted on Sunday is a Sunday School.

The term school implies nothing as to the number of classes, the qualifications of teachers, or the character of the book or books studied. Suffice it to say, however, that in this article only such schools are referred to as propose to teach the Holy Scriptures. Whether the school is in the church or out of it, whether it is the whole church or only a part or even no part of it, does not alter the case. Nor yet is its being a school determined by the strictness or the laxity of the organization or by the name by which it is called. An assembly in which the scriptures are taught by men who speak one by one, while all others listen, is never called a Sunday School. No one calls it a school unless the teaching is done somewhat as in public schools and other such institutions. Hence any undertaking on Sunday to teach the scriptures in a manner similar to that used in secular schools, whether with one class and one teacher or any number of each, with the use of the Bible alone or of man-made literature, in the church or out of it, with or without a definite organization, under the name of a Sunday School, Bible Study, or Bible class: any such undertaking is in this discussion called a Sunday School.

Do you oppose a Modern Sunday School? Then you oppose all Sunday Schools; for there were none of any kind till modern days.

Everyone must admit that we cannot ask people to accept in religion anything without Scriptural authority. Absence of condemnation is not authority. If we have one thing because it is not condemned, we may have everything that is not condemned. But some say that the Sunday School renders the teaching more effective, as if Man could improve on God's work. But if it did and we for that reason accepted it, we should have to accept also instrumental music in the worship, missionary boards, and all kinds of societies, shows, etc., for the advantages claimed for them. Can you find where they are named in any form? Sprinkling is not directly condemned, nor is the practice of trying to pray one's dead relatives out of Purgatory. Why do we reject these?

Divine authority can be drawn from the Scriptures alone in the form of command, approved example, or necessary inference. Does the Sunday School exist because Jesus commanded it? Do the scriptures show that any apostle or evangelist demanded it of those with whom he worked or to whom he wrote? Is there one approved New Testament example which resembles the Sunday School? Did Jesus on the mountain (Matthew 5, 6, 7), the apostles in Jerusalem (Acts 2), Philip at Samaria (Acts 8), Paul at Troas (Acts 20), or anyone anywhere in apostolic days, use a method in any way like the Sunday School? To ask such questions is to answer most emphatically, NO!

Must we infer or conclude that since we are commanded to teach, we must have a Sunday School? We cannot so conclude without contending that Jesus and the apostles never did any teaching, for they evidently did not use any such method. If they did not need it, neither do we. There is for the Sunday School, therefore, absolutely no authority in any form: command, approved example, or necessary inference.

Let us see then if there are positive reasons why we may not have a Sunday School. "All scripture is given by inspiration of God...that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished to all good works" (II Timothy 3:16-17). Since the scriptures do not furnish the Sunday School, we infer that it is not a good work. "According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness..." (II Peter 1:3). The Sunday School does not pertain unto life and godliness. James speaks of "the perfect law of liberty" (James 1:25), though it says nothing about a Sunday School. Why will anyone hesitate to accept without addition that which is already perfect "Whatsoever is not of faith is sin" (Romans 14: 23). The Sunday School is not of faith; for "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Romans 10:17), and the word of God says not one word about it. Therefore the Sunday School is sin.

But we are not confined to inferences. The New Testament evidently forbids the Sunday School and its practices. If it is in the church, it disregards I Corinthians 14:29-33, which forbids more than one to speak at the same time. It despises the command, "Let your women keep silence in the churches" (I Corinthians 14:34). Many, by trying to put aside the instructions, openly oppose God; for Paul says they "are the commandments of the Lord" (I Corinthians 14:37). If the Sunday School is not in the church, it fails to observe Ephesians 3:21: "Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end." All who advocate the Sunday School disobey the injunction, "Prove all things, hold fast that which is good"(I Thessalonians 5:2?). They do not "Mark them which cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine...and avoid them" (Romans 16:17). They do not walk charitably" (Romans 14:15-21). They do not and cannot "Speak the same things", but rather render impossible that brethren "be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment" (I Corinthians 1:10). "IF any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God" (I Cor. 5:7), nor "in the Spirit" (Galatians 5:25); for they do not bear the fruit of the Spirit, "Love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance" (Galatians 5:22-23). "If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book" (Revelation 22:18). How dare anyone?

Finally, the Sunday School can claim no origin higher than uninspired man; and must, under the weight of divine condemnation, acknowledge that it is unworthy of the support or encouragement of the people of God.

This reasoning applies with equal force to a similar procedure on any day of the week -- to Bible colleges and to all meetings, conducted without divine command or example. -- February 1975, Lubbock, Texas