Appendix 1 gives links to resources which explain why church incorporation, federal tax exempt status, and other statutory or legal status of churches betray the love relationship between Christ and His churches.
Appendix 2 looks at common law versus statutory law church Bible Trust considerations.
Copyright © by Jerald Finney
March 4, 2023
Introduction
Legal scholars have unsuccessfully sought to uncover the origin of the trust relationship with property. They did not go to the source which would have given them the answer: the Word of God. The Bible Trust relationship with property is a concept, a plan created by God. He was the trustor, settlor, or grantor. The property held in trust is the trust estate. Man is the trustee or steward, the person who has a fiduciary duty to hold and manage the trust estate solely for the glory and benefit of the true owner, God.
The Bible Trust is inherent in the execution of God’s plan for the relationship of mankind with His creation. God owns the earth and all that is in it, to include every person. He entrusted man with the responsibility of holding and managing His properties, earthly and spiritual, solely for His benefit, for His glory. After creating man, “God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth” (Genesis 1:28). “And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.” (Genesis 2:15).
That same trust relationship is still in effect. Everyone is responsible to God for managing His properties. God will hold everyone who has reached the age of accountability responsible for how he exercises his fiduciary duty to hold and manage all that God entrusts him with.
When one examines New Testament Church doctrine, one finds that God’s plan is for the local church to be exclusively a heavenly, spiritual, eternal organism only, not an earthly, material, temporal organization or a hybrid of the two. This is thoroughly examined in Part I of God Betrayed/Separation of Church and State: The Biblical Principles and the American Application. God has entrusted civil government with earthly matters and the church with spiritual matters. Distinct difference between church and state render them mutually exclusive.
New Testament churches were organized according to God’s plan. They had no relationship whatsoever with the state. They acted as spiritual entities only. They entered into no contract with the state or any other entity, owed no debt, depended upon God for everything and the state for nothing, owned nothing, had no employees and therefore paid no salaries, held no bank accounts, held title to no real estate, leased no property, etc.
Of course, as is made clear in Romans 13:8-10 and other New Testament passages, believers and church members are subject to civil government for their relationship with man (the Second Table of the Law), but not for their relationship with God (the First Table of the Law). God gave civil government temporal earthly jurisdiction over evil doers, those who commit crimes against another or others. He gave the church eternal heavenly jurisdiction over His children. Thus, as to heavenly matters, the church and the believer are to “obey God rather than men.” They are to have no authority over them in those matters other than the Lord Jesus Christ and His Word. Again, see Part I of God Betrayed.
A local church can organize and operate according to God’s will as did churches in the New Testament. As to organization, she can do so by practicing God’s Bible Trust plan. Even better, she can declare the Bible Trust Relationship with both God’s earthly and spiritual properties in writing.
This lesson will explain that:
- Although man recognizes the concept of trust, secular scholars have not found its origin.
- God originated the Bible (common law) Trust relationship with property, both material/temporal and spiritual/eternal.
- There is only one way which a church may organize in compliance with Bible Church Doctrine. The churches in the New Testament all recognized and applied the doctrine of the Bible Trust.
1. Although man recognizes the concept of trust, secular scholars have not found its origin.
Efforts of scholars to trace the origin have been futile. “Whether these origins are Roman, Canonical or Germanic [or of some other origin] remains an unresolved question. …” Trusts, trust-like concepts and ius commune, 8 Eur. Rev. Private L. 453 (2000), C. H. Van Rhee: … See, En[i], (This article can be viewed and/or downloaded at: https://www.academia.edu/5937188/Trusts_Trust_like_Concepts_and_Ius_Commune. It can also be downloaded and viewed at https://www.academia.edu/3568421/On_the_Origin_of_the_Uses_and_Trusts?email_work_card=view-paper.)
The Roman Catholic “Church,” with all its heresies understood this matter, although with some distortion, a long time ago:
- “Trust-like devices were popular in the Church [speaking of the Roman Catholic ‘church’], since they allowed this institution to accumulate the necessary means to discharge its tasks. At the same time, these devices preempted the criticism that the Church was not practising [sic] its own teachings on the spiritual dangers of wealth. The wealth accumulated by the Church was not regarded as property owned by the Church itself. According to S. Herman, it was said to belong to God the Father as sovereign Lord, the Pope and his clerical lieutenants acting as His stewards. In trust terminology: God acted as ‘settlor’, while the Pope and his clerical lieutenants acted as trustees. Christ, the meek, the poor and the congregation were usually designated as ‘beneficiaries’. God, as the settlor, also figured as the ultimate beneficiary of creation. In this way, the wealth of the Church could be justified, since the Church simply acted as a depositary of goods created for all. Church officials were charged with managing the goods entrusted to them as ‘trustees’ and with using them for the good of the community. ” See Trusts, Trust-Like Concepts and Ius Commune…;Op Cit.
Of course, this Catholic misunderstanding allowed the Institution of the Roman Catholic “Church” to prosper and store up tremendous wealth while the clergy lived a luxurious life (the “beneficiaries” in practice although not in name) since the trust estate was not used for the benefit of God according to his will, the true owner of everything. Nonetheless, even though misapplying the concept, Catholicism recognized it.
2. God originated the Bible (common law) Trust relationship with property, both material/temporal and spiritual/eternal.
Had scholars considered all the evidence, they would have discovered that the concept of trust was originated by God in the manner in which He ordered things. The plan started when God created and covenanted with man; it is evident throughout the Word of God. “Trust” (also explicitly stated), “trust estate,” “trustor,” (or “grantor” or “settlor”), “trustee” or “steward,” “beneficiary,” and “fiduciary” are all found in the Bible. The concept is just part of the way things work, the way God arranged things, as He explains in His Word.
The principle of trust originated with God. God embedded this precept in His word and it is seen from Genesis to Revelation and in all dispensations. God has administered his rule over the world in various dispensations or economies as He progressively works out His purpose of world history. Primarily, dispensations are stewardships. All in a particular dispensational economy are stewards (trustees), although one man usually stands out. For example, Paul was used by God more than any other to reveal His grace and to record the doctrine of the church as dictated by God. Nonetheless, all the apostles and every other believer are also stewards of God’s grace. All have a responsibility to respond to that grace. God will judge those who fail to do so. (Charles C. Ryrie, Dispensationalism (Chicago: Moody Press, 1995), pp. 56-57; for an more detailed analysis of dispensations and dispensationalism, see the short article The Essence of Dispensationalism).
Some meanings of trust, as given in the 1828 Webster’s Dictionary, are:
- Confidence; a reliance or resting of the mind on the integrity, veracity, justice, friendship or other sound principle of another person. He that putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe. Proverbs 29:25.
- Something committed to a person’s care for use or management, and for which an account must be rendered. Every man’s talents and advantages are a trust committed to him by his Maker, and for the use or employment of which he is accountable.
This article will deal with definition 2 above. From that definition, one can see that the God ordained a trust arrangement with mankind.
God owns everything—the land, everyone, and everything. That ownership is implicit in the fact that He created it all. (Ge. 1). He clearly stated His ownership of all in His Word:
- God said, “Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine:” (Ex. 19.5).
- God said, “The land shall not be sold for ever: for the land is mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with me.” (Le. 25.23).
- “Thine, O LORD, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine; thine isthe kingdom, O LORD, and thou art exalted as head above all. Both riches and honour come of thee, and thou reignest over all; and in thine hand is power and might; and in thine hand it is to make great, and to give strength unto all” (1 Chronicles 29:11-12).
- “The earth isthe LORD’S, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.” (Ps. 24.1).
- God said, “For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills.” (Ps. 50.10).
- “The heavens are thine [God’s], the earth also is thine: as for the world and the fulness thereof, thou hast founded them.” (Ps. 89.11).
- “The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the LORD of hosts.” (Hag. 2.8).
God, the true owner of all things, entrusted man, under God, with the earth and all that is in it. God entrusted man with His property. Man was put in trust to administer God’s earthly property according to God’s plan. Man benefited from use of the property entrusted him. Man was to use the property God entrusted him with for the glory of God, for God’s pleasure (Revelation 4.11). God entrusted a New Testament church to the members of the church. Church members are trustees of the church they are members of.
Man is a fiduciary under God. Fiduciary, as a noun, means “One who holds a thing in trust; a trustee.” Man, as trustee, had a fiduciary duty to hold and administer God’s property for the benefit of God. Church members have a fiduciary duty to organize and operate the church they belong to according to God’s guidelines as stated in the New Testament. Fiduciary as an adjective means, “Not to be doubted; as fiduciary obedience” or “Held in trust.” Man benefits from use of God’s property and church members benefit from belonging to a church under God only.
God, the trustor, ordered man, the trustee, in the Garden of Eden, “Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” (Ge. 2:16-17). Eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil was a violation of man’s fiduciary duty to administer God’s property according to the will of the true, beneficial, and equitable owner of the property.
When God entrusted Adam and Eve with the earth and all that is in it, he gave them responsibilities:
“And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so. And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.” (Ge. 1.28-31).
Man violated his duty and God held him accountable. Satan lied to the woman and tempted her to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. “And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.” (Ge. 3:6-7).
God then judged man, woman, and Satan. Things changed. “And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.” (Ge. 3:22-24)
Man remained in trust of all that God gave him. Mankind continued as trustee of God’s earthly property. Man had legal (temporal earthly) title to God’s earthly property. Later, after the flood, God divided the earth into the nations and instituted civil government–the rule of man by man under God for the purpose of controlling evil doers. The perpetual principle that nations—Gentile nations and Israel—and individuals were left in trust of land and all things for the benefit of God continues.
3. There is only one way which a church may organize in compliance with Bible Church Doctrine. The churches in the New Testament all recognized and applied the doctrine of the Bible Trust.
“He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much. If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another man’s, who shall give you that which is your own? No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” Luke 16:10-13
“Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.” 1 Corinthians 4.1-2
“But as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak; not as pleasing men, but God, which trieth our hearts.” 1 Thessalonians 2:4
“According to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust.” 1 Timothy 1:11
“O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called:” 1 Timothy 6:20
As recorded in the New Testament, God ordained his church, an institution made up of local autonomous spiritual bodies. The churches in the New Testament followed the doctrine given them by God through the apostle Paul. They were “built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone” and were built “together for an habitation of God through the spirit” (Ephesians 2:20-22). They were spiritual, not earthly, entities. God made them to “sit together in heavenly [not earthly] places in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:6). They entered into no contract with the state or any other entity, owed no debt, depended upon God for everything and the state for nothing, owned nothing, had no employees and therefore paid no salaries, held no bank accounts, held title to no real estate, leased no property, and acted legally in no way. Church members were the church. Church members therefore gave to God, not to the church, not to themselves. Someone was entrusted with managing their gifts for the glory of God (See Acts 4:34-37) and according to His will with His Word as their guide.
They were under the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ, and him alone, entirely separate from all civil government. Of course, civil government unlawfully took authority over individual believers, as they had done with our Lord.
God’s doctrine for his churches has not changed. Man’s doctrine has changed. Thus, most churches in America choose to unite with civil government for many purposes. They choose to become legal entities such as non-profit corporations, charitable trusts, and Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c)(3) or Section 508(c)(1)(A) tax exempt worldly organizations.
A church can choose to remain a spiritual entity only by utilizing the Bible concept of trust, by practicing the God’s Bible Trust plan. Churches in any nation can do things God’s way. In many countries they will be persecuted for so doing. Churches in America can, without persecution, choose to operate as did the original churches. They can do so without any documentation other than the Holy King James Bible. However, should they wish their gifts and offerings to God to be held in a checking account, they will need to execute documents which establish a Bible Trust; then the trustee of the trust, not the church, can open a checking account whose owner is the Lord Jesus Christ. Should they wish some of their offerings to God to be used to rent or lease a meeting facility or to buy such a facility, they will need documentation so that the title or lease will be held in the name of the trust signed by the trustee, the owner being the Lord Jesus Christ.
Remember that the true owner of the trust estate is the Lord Jesus Christ; the trustee is merely the legal owner whose duty is to hold and manage the trust estate solely for the benefit of the Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, the trustee as legal owner acts solely for the true owner, the Lord Jesus, not for himself.
The trustor church declares the trust relationship. The trustee is the appointed temporal and legal owner of the trust estate, and the Lord Jesus Christ is the true, beneficial, and equitable owner of the property held in the trust estate. Gifts, tithes, and offerings are to God (to the trust estate which is owned by God), not to the church. The church is the giver, God is the recipient and owner. God’s money is placed in a checking account owned by Him, not in a checking account owned by the church or by the church corporation.
The trust is not an entity or organization, but merely a relationship with property. The church remains totally under the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ and His word as long as she does not act legally (See, Chapter 3: How a Church Can Nullify the Bible Trust Relationship with Property).
The trustee does not hold the property for the church. The trustee holds and manages the property for the benefit of, and according to the will of, the true owner of the property, the Lord Jesus Christ. The trustee is the legal owner of the property and the Lord Jesus Christ is the true, equitable, and beneficial owner. The trustee has a fiduciary duty under God to use the property, not for his own or the trustor church’s benefit, but for the benefit of the Lord Jesus Christ.
When a church assembles together, God owns the land upon which they meet. Although the trustee has the temporal and legal title to the land, God is the true, beneficial, and equitable owner. An equitable owner is “[o]ne who is recognized in equity as owner of the property, because real and beneficial use and title belong to him, even though bare legal title is invested in another.” (BLACK’S LAW DICTIONARY (6th Ed. 1990), 539). “In a trust relationship, as distinguished from a ‘contract,’ there is always a divided ownership of property, to which the trustee usually has legal title and cestui [que trust] an equitable title.” (90 C.J.S. Trusts § 1, fn. 13 (2007). C.J.S., like AM. JUR 2D, is a highly respected, used, and cited legal encyclopedia). The church does not make Jesus the owner since he is the owner no matter what the church does. The church merely declares and practices the truth: that Jesus Christ is the owner of all, including the real estate upon which the church assembles.
God’s plan requires that man hold legal title to His real property. A church under Christ alone, a spiritual entity only (See, e.g., Ephesians 2:19-22), cannot hold title (an earthly legal declaration of temporal ownership) to property. Nor can a church under Christ alone hold “church property” through a trustee or trustees. If title to property is in the name of church, or if the church holds property through a trustee of a trust, the church has acted legally and is a temporal earthly entity and not a spiritual entity only because she has entwined herself with man’s earthly legal system. Some trusts improperly state that church property will be held by a trustee for the benefit of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is a type of trust arrangement, but it compromises the spiritual only status of the church and combines the holy with the unholy, the church and the state. Corporations (aggregate of sole, profit or non-profit), charitable trusts, business trusts, and Internal Revenue Code § 501(c)(3) and § 508 organizations are legal entities. A church who owns property through one of these legal devises is asserting ownership, as she is if she owns property in the name of the church.
A church who does not hold property but puts property into a trust estate of a properly structured Bible Trust is not acting legally. By definition, that trust is not a legal entity. The trustee of such a trust holds legal or earthly title to the property in the trust estate. He, like every citizen in his right mind, is a legal entity. Of course, if he is born again, he is also a spiritual entity (1 Corinthians 2:14-16). Thus, any property a church meets on is temporarily held by a legal entity, whether a person, a corporation, a charitable trust, or some other kind of legal entity. However, only with a properly structured Bible Trust is the property declared to be owned by the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Bible instructs the saved man to obey man as to certain temporal earthly matters and God as to eternal spiritual matters (See Romans 13 and Render Unto God the Things That Are His/A Systematic Study of Romans 13 and Related Verses). A church under Christ alone is eternal and spiritual and subject to the jurisdiction of God only. God’s desires total separation of civil government and the church: separation of church and state, separation of the temporal and earthly from the eternal and spiritual (See, God Betrayed/Separation of Church and State: The Biblical Principals and the American Application).
Real property is temporal and earthly and must have a legal owner. The legal owner is entrusted with God’s property; and God, the trustor, desires that the legal owner use the property solely for His benefit. This is true regardless of whether the legal owner knows this or not. He is to administer the property, if any, for the benefit of the true owner of the property, the Lord Jesus Christ.
When a church establishes the Bible Trust:
- She obeys God’s will;
- She lessens the chances that the property, and especially the buildings, will become idols. “Their idols are … the work of men’s hands. … They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them.” (Psalm 115.4-8);
- She has not prostituted herself by combining the holy with the unholy;
- She has chosen not to be structured like a business or a government created organization;
- She can operate according to the principles in the New Testament;
- Members of His churches give to Him, not to their church. If church members (a church is made of her members ) give to a church, that church gives to herself. The money given by members of an incorporated church go into the church, inc. bank account. The corporation is owned by the members. When members of a church who give to the church, they are technically giving to themselves since they are the church. Of course, many believers in churches not organized according to the principles of the New Testament, while giving to the churches they are members of, not to God, believe in their heart they are giving to God. I believe God will honor their giving, even though not according to knowledge, understanding and wisdom. However, when one grows to understand the truth about giving to God, he has a responsibility to begin to do things God’s way.
- The minds of the members have not been corrupted from he simplicity that is in Christ (See, 2 Corinthians 11:1-3).
[i] Trusts, Trust-Like Concepts and Ius Commune, 8 Eur. Rev. Private L. 453 (2000), C. H. van Rhee: This article concludes:
“Trust and Ius Commune: an Assessment
On the basis of the above, several conclusions may be drawn. Firstly, it may be concluded that it is very likely that the origins of the trust cannot completely be traced. Whether these origins are Roman, Canonical or Germanic remains an unresolved question. A link between Romanocanonical usus -Roman usus in a Canonical guise- and the trust seems the most promising of all possible links. However, much research needs to be conducted of ecclesiastical records both on the continent and in England. Examining these records should be the primary aim of legal historians interested in the origins of the trust.
“Secondly, the nineteenth-century shift from Roman law to indigenous law as the alleged origins of the trust did not change the position of the trust as a concept which may be placed in the ius commune tradition. Both the Germanic and Romano-canonical origins of the trust are of interest to scholars studying the question of whether trusts are part of a shared European tradition. As we know, ius commune comprised elements from both the Germanic and the Romano-canonical legal traditions.
“And thirdly, it may be concluded that it is very unlikely that there has been an exact
continental equivalent to the English ‘use’ or trust. The conclusion may be drawn that trust law cannot be viewed as an amalgam of concepts from the Corpus Iuris. This conclusion has also been drawn by Kenneth Reid (see his paper), who alleges that the modern trust is a relatively new concept, which cannot be explained solely by a contract/real right model. Nevertheless, we must continue to ask the question whether the uncovered similarities amount to more than parallels reflecting similar social conditions. My answer to this question is that it is very likely that English trust law was influenced by ideas on the Continent. This is not too bold a statement paying regard to the influence of the ecclesiastical courts in England as well as to the fact that English civilians frequently used Roman and Canon law texts when describing trusts.”
An interesting except from the article:
“Trust-like devices were popular in the Church [speaking of the Roman Catholic ‘church’], since they allowed this institution to accumulate the necessary means to discharge its tasks. At the same time, these devices preempted the criticism that the Church was not practising [sic] its own teachings on the spiritual dangers of wealth. The wealth accumulated by the Church was not regarded as property owned by the Church itself. According to S. Herman, it was said to belong to God the Father as sovereign Lord, the Pope and his clerical lieutenants acting as His stewards. In trust terminology: God acted as ‘settlor’, while the Pope and his clerical lieutenants acted as trustees. Christ, the meek, the poor and the congregation were usually designated as ‘beneficiaries’. God, as the settlor, also figured as the ultimate beneficiary of creation. In this way, the wealth of the Church could be justified, since the Church simply acted as a depositary of goods created for all. Church officials were charged with managing the goods entrusted to them as ‘trustees’ and with using them for the good of the community.”
Simply Church 