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A free church is a Christian collective that is intrinsically separate from the State or an external church government. Certain free churches may be called a New Testament church, an unregistered church, or when forced into hiding, an underground church. (see Contrasts)
A free church may indicate that the clergy does not charge a fee for seating or membership. (see Pew Rent )
The term free church has various meanings depending on usage; whether it is applied in a descriptive or associative manner, or to reference historical fact. Diverse usage is exemplified by the following table:
| Implication | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Traditional | Free of external control and influence | The American free churches were recognized to be self-governing by President Thomas Jefferson, and immune to any control or taxation by the State. [1] |
| Liberal | Having an exclusive church government of local members, but still under State control | Although the free church in Bismarck formed under the tenets of the Free Church of Scotland and established its governance by local members alone, it was a State corporation registered with the IRS as a 501(c)(3) Church Organization, forfeiting ultimate control to both State and Federal governments. [2] |
| Gratuitous | Members do not pay for membership or seating | This is a free church where you may sit in areas assigned to the congregation without paying a pew fee. [3] |
| Associative | Denotes a church denomination | American Free Church, Evangelical Free Church, Free Church of Scotland, etc. |
| Historical | Having the characteristics of a New Testament church | The body of Christ emerged as a free church, suffering persecution for its separation from the world and ancient religious traditions. [4] |
| Contemporary | Having severed ties with the State. | When the Indianapolis Baptist Temple unincorporated it became a free church, no longer a tax collecting agent for the State. [5] |
A free church should not:
Though a free church may adhere to an ideological criteria, it does not guarantee that the State will honor its existence. This may happen through governmental intolerance of religion, Christianity, church autonomy , privacy rights , free speech , or other civil rights , or the State may require that the church collect and pay taxes, provide membership lists, reveal expenditures and donations , or accept leadership assignments, in the State's own interest. In some nations, collectives that attempt to retain a free church status are sanctioned , persecuted , imprisoned, or the members are tortured or executed. [7]
Ironically, rather than receiving status quo acceptance as just another church or denomination, free churches may find themselves shunned by State registered churches and organizations which fear losing State approval status through general acceptance or association of any kind, even though their religious doctrines may be nearly identical. This phenomena has been reported in China [8] , Russia [9] , and the United States, as well as other nations, and is similar to the societal rejection Jews experienced in Nazi Germany when they were declared " enemies of the State ". [10]
In an attempt to stop any revolt against the Catholic Church, non-Catholic churches were declared heretic and the extermination of all heretics was ordered. [11] ( See Legacy )
The historical Christian church was a free church before Emperor Constantine . It struggled against paganism, barbarism, secular and religious tyranny from inception and throughout the dark ages, continuing with notable events such as the Protestant Reformation and certain radical movements such as the Anabaptists and Calvinists . To assume that the free church at large ceased to exist at any time, because of a lack of historical documentation, is similar to assuming that people of antiquity have not existed due to lack of birth records. Various free churches existed throughout Europe, Asia and Africa, outside the control or extermination by Rome.
"The Paulicians like the Waldenses, Hussites and Huguenots were driven to arms. In the mountains between Sewas and Trebizond, and for thirty-five years (AD 845-880), warfare raged. At length the Paulicians passed from righteous defence to inexcusable revenge until they were eventually driven back into their mountains where they enjoyed partial independence and maintained their faith." [12]
France: "The Council of Toulouse, in 1119, presided over by Pope Calixtus II, pronounced a general excommunication upon the Albigenses, casting them out of the Church and delivering them to the sword of the State together with all who afforded them defence or protection. The second General Council of Lateran, 1139, under Innocent II reiterated the decree. Each succeeding Council strove to excel its predecessor in its sanguinary and pitiless spirit. The Council of Tours, 1163, under Alexander III., stripped the heretics of their goods, forbade, under peril of excommunication, any to relieve them, and left them to perish without succour. The third General Council of Lateran, 1179, under Alexander III., enjoined princes to make war upon them, to take their possessions for spoil, to reduce their persons to slavery, and to withhold from them Christian burial." [13]
Italy - 11th century: "Their traditions invariably point to an unbroken descent from the earliest times." [14]
"That the Ambrosian Church, according to the ancient institutions of the Fathers, was always free, without being subject to the laws of Rome, and that the Pope of Rome had no jurisdiction over their Church as to the government or constitution of it". [15]
"How could a Church have arisen with such a document in her hands? Or how could these herdsmen and vine-dressers, shut up in their mountains have detected the errors against which they bore testimony, and found their way to the truths of which they made open profession in times of darkness like these? If we grant that their religious beliefs were the heritage of former ages, handed down from an evangelical ancestry, all is plain, otherwise we assert a miracle. Their greatest enemies, Claude Seyssel of Turin (1517), and Reynerius the Inquisitor (1250), have admitted their antiquity, and stigmatized them as "the most dangerous of all heretics, because the most ancient"." [16]
Rorenco, Prior of St. Roch, Turin (1640) and a bitter enemy fo the Waldenses states that, "they were not a new sect in the ninth and tenth centuries ..." [17]
"The Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM) decides what buildings can be used for church services, which pastors can preach and what areas can be traveled to spread religion. Church activities are restricted to Sunday services. No mid-week meetings. No Bible studies. No gatherings in private homes. Religious activities are outlawed outside of church buildings. No one under 18 may be evangelized or baptized. Members are allowed no contact with overseas church groups and forbidden to read foreign Christian literature, listen to foreign Christian tapes or tune in to gospel radio broadcasts. Most of all, the State is the head of the Church." [18] "As a result, more and more believers abandoned TSPM churches and began meeting in their homes. Most Christians are now in house churches. They preach, worship and evangelize, risking the loss of jobs and homes, arrest, imprisonment, torture and death." [19] "Because members of unregistered churches must meet secretly in abandoned buildings, woods, even caves ... " [20] Since then, Christians in "churches unrecognized by the socialist regime in Beijing continue to be harassed, oppressed, arrested, imprisoned, tortured and murdered for their faith in Jesus Christ. Most of these abuses are cloaked in secrecy for fear of offending Western trading partners and jeopardizing China"s fragile economy. [21] In the midst of a new program of modernization, Communist government and religious officials want the outside world to believe that China has religious freedom. And in fact the Chinese Constitution declares that "The state protects legitimate religious activities." "By TSPM estimates, China currently has 16 million Protestants and 3 million Catholics. But Ye Xiaowen, Director of China"s State Administration for Religious Affairs (SARA), claimed behind closed doors in 2006 that the combined total is closer to 130 million." Within present-day China the largest free churches are the True Jesus Church , Church Assembly Hall and New Birth Movement . Possibly several millions of persons in China belong to isolated radio churches .
A number of churches in Scotland and Northern Ireland , mainly of the Presbyterian tradition, have used the name 'Free Church'. Most notable is the Free Church of Scotland . The use of the term 'free church' is liberally construed, as Scottish pastors receive their assignment and paycheck from the government.
People " ... paid the going rate for the pew of their choice. The "pew rent" paid the pastor, the building upkeep, and whatever else needed paying for. ... in a stone "meeting house" built in 1783. The pews were gated. You paid by the pew. The closer to the front, the higher the "pew rent." Each pew would hold about five adults. A couple without children might "sub-let" two or three of their spaces, or go together with another household." [27]
Pagans and/or Wiccans claim to have also formed free churches which are commonly referred to as covens or groves, and in rare cases, ministries. (Need reference!) The terms "church" and "ministry" have been borrowed in more recent times in an attempt to qualify as tax exempt organizations in the United States and to garner credibility by association to the Christian church in stature. Whereas the term "church" is less appropriate for groups that are anti-Christ in nature, and its usage would create more of an oxymoron than a descriptor, due to the term"s connection with Jesus Christ, "ministry" is more generic.
It is interesting to note that the Christian church has not moved to adopt "coven" or "grove" as terms of equality.
The Sinagogue of Satan has been ironically labeled a Free Church by Michael S. Margolin in "A Free Church for a Change". Whereas the term synagogue has more relevance to Judaism than Christianity and the New Testamentterm "Sinagogue of Satan" referred to a Jewish collective that vehemently opposed Jesus, the use of the term "church" or "free church" is pejoritive to Christianity, an opinion, rather than being cast in any real historical sense. Accordingly, the aim of this group "is the ultimate destruction of religions through the advancement of individual freedom and social responsibility". Theistic Satanism Therefore to garner the terms Sinagogue and church to describe this religion of anti-religion is instrumental toward its purpose. A more fitting term would be "free anti-church", since Satan is considered to be the antichrist , and the church; the body of Christ at large.