Should the church incorporate as a 501(c)3 non-profit corporation?
The following is an excerpt from an article written by the pastor of Indianapolis Baptist Temple, after the IRS seized the church property from the congregation for allegedly failing to pay taxes. For more information on IBT you can go here.
- Church must have a distinct legal existence – it must be incorporated.
- It must have a recognized (approved) creed or form of worship.
- It must have a distinct form of ecclesiastical government (i.e.: General Conference, national/international board of governors/trustees, etc., and state/local organizations, etc.)
- It must have a specific code of doctrine and discipline.
- It must have a denominational history.
- Ministers must be ordained by the Church Corporation (in order to serve in a pastoral capacity.)
- Ministers must be educated at a state-accredited college or university in order to be ordained.
- Church must have an Employer Identification Number (EIN) assigned by the IRS, in order to employ ministers.
- Pastor must receive a Social Security number in order to be employed by the Church.
- The Church must verify that it is a nonprofit organization to be tax-exempt.
- The Church must be engaged in activities that serve the public trust.
- Church must be able to answer to IRS as to its’ daily financial activity.(ledgers must be open for government review & approval.)
- Books and records must be available to IRS for inspection at any time.
- Church must inform IRS as to who serves at the church (Deacon, Elder, Treasurer, Teacher, Janitor, etc.) regardless of compensation (or lack thereof). (IRS wants the names of those who serve the church voluntarily.)
- Church must inform IRS of identity of almsgiving recipients. (Presumably to ration the amount of assistance that they get, by modifying the compensation received through welfare, SSI, WIC, AFDC, etc.)
- Church must report to IRS all gifts sent to missionaries ($500 up). Also a taxation measure, as per form 1099.
- Only use IRS-approved fundraising methods. (IRS determines which methods are acceptable to raise funds.)
- Must answer to IRS for any sermon or organizational position which is critical of the IRS. (So the IRS can penalize the church/pastor for stepping “out of line”.)
- Must give unreserved submission to the civil magistrate pertaining to all laws, (federal, state and local,) including issues of public policy (abortion, homosexuality, assisted suicide, equal employment, education, gambling, pornography, abortion, et cetera.)
- Church must actively promote racial mixing in marriage (miscegenation.)
(This has to do with the promulgation of state marriage licenses. Marriage has historically existed as an ecclesiastical certification, and is supposed to be protected by the free exercise clause of the 1st Amendment. Anything that involved intermarriage was, in the early days of the US, subject to licensure on the grounds that slaves could do nothing without permission. Yet, this was the back door which the government has used to promote the licensure of all marriages. The church has become an accomplice in causing married couples to have a third party to their union, without their knowledge or consent. All forms of licensed activity by the very definition may be regulated by the state, including the “fruits of marriage” – – your children. This is how state child welfare agents get away with “legally” violating people’s 4th Amendment rights!) - Pastor cannot enter the public debate about the licensure of ministries.
(Ministers must be licensed by the state in which they intend to practice, unless ordained denominationally, in which case the pastor may preach anywhere the denomination has an established presence.) The same arguments about licensure apply here as with #20; it is a violation of the free exercise clause with regards to Christian ethics. Ministers are answerable to God first; to be licensed is to put the state before God. - Pastors cannot enter into any activity opposing public policies on various issues, e.g.: abortion, homosexuality, assisted suicide, education, taxes, gambling, pornography, abortion, parents’ rights, et cetera.
- Pastors cannot solicit church members’ participation in any activity opposing public policies (such as the aforementioned.)
- Pastors cannot support legislation upholding parent’s rights (or other measures that would strengthen the sovereignty of the family over the state’s interest in the progeny of a licensed marriage.
- Pastors cannot proselytize against the promotion of homosexual lifestyles, abortion, gambling, pornography, and other “lifestyle options”, et cetera.
- Pastors/Churches cannot advocate state and U.S. constitutions, Bill of Rights as the supreme law of the land.
- Pastors cannot enter into sermons that criticize national public issue policies, such as the “drug war”, POW’s & MIA’s, increasing federalization of criminal statutes & police powers, etc.
- Pastor cannot oppose public education, its’ policies, or its’ shortcomings(Outcome Based Education); or promote private education above public education; or promote particular educational policies and programs.
- Pastor cannot publicly declare that people should obey God above, or before, the government. (As the apostle said, “We should obey the laws of God above the laws of men”.)
- Pastor cannot publicly criticize the actions of the government in the implementation of public policy. (i.e.: promoting sex education, etc.)
Should the church incorporate as a 501(c)3 non-profit corporation? Well, I guess that depends on the legal and lawful requirements, and who we desire to recognize as Lord?
NOTE: This topic will be discussed in detail further at a later time.
Confessions of a Heretic 
“Church must actively promote racial mixing in marriage”
From the standpoint of the faith of Jesus Christ, there are only two races of mankind: His disciples (Christians) and all others (nonchristians, unbelievers, infidels).
The peoples who the Israelites were forbidden to intermarry with were their ethnic near cousins, according to the genealogical “trees” in the Old Testament. They were forbidden to intermarry with them because they were IDOLATERS, infidels.
Individual exceptions were made: Rahab, Ruth and a few others who desired to become part of the chosen people of the LORD.
@ Mac –
Funny I never even read what you quoted – nor do I see how the church is required to promote racial mixing in marriage – other than it is an EOM – or Equal Opportunity Marry-er.
“20. Church must actively promote racial mixing in marriage”
I do not know the IBT’s/Dixons’ reason for claiming that the IRS requires churches to promote racial mixing. All I know of this matter is that “Heretic” quoted the IBT article excerpt.
The church I grew up in occasionally had guest preachers who were Black. They brought their “Amen corners” with them. On occasion one of the preachers from our congregation was a guest preacher at a Black church of similar doctrine. As it was not customary among the White churches to have “Amen corners” they did not have any to take with them.
The churches where we fellowship today have a few Black members and occasional visitors from Black churches of similar doctrine. I say “Black” churches as most of not all of their regular attendees are “Black.” They are not exclusive as Whites are welcome to attend there in full fellowship if they desire.
The churches mentioned above neither promote nor discourage “race-mixing.” Who a member marries is their business alone as long as they are:
Christians
Not currently married to another
Not divorced
Of opposite sex
Of legal age according to the civil laws
Marriage is not a “sacrament” nor an actual church rite or function. Members are free to use the meeting house (“church”), a private home, down by the lake, wherever they like. They may have a recognized minister perform the ceremony. They may have a court clerk, justice of the peace, ship’s captain at sea, or other person legally recognized, or may “self-marry” like the Quakers where it is recognized by the civil government.
IBT wrote and you quoted:
“This has to do with the promulgation of state marriage licenses. Marriage has historically existed as an ecclesiastical certification, and is supposed to be protected by the free exercise clause of the 1st Amendment. Anything that involved intermarriage was, in the early days of the US, subject to licensure on the grounds that slaves could do nothing without permission. Yet, this was the back door which the government has used to promote the licensure of all marriages. The church has become an accomplice in causing married couples to have a third party to their union, without their knowledge or consent. All forms of licensed activity by the very definition may be regulated by the state, including the “fruits of marriage” – – your children. This is how state child welfare agents get away with “legally” violating people’s 4th Amendment rights!”
Marriage was a strictly civil matter until the 13th century when the Roman Catholic Church began requiring people to have the marriage ceremony led by a Roman Catholic priest. It was a matter between the groom and the bride, along with their respective families. As the RC Church was the official established state government church in most of Europe, marriages came to not be recognized as valid if not done according to the dictates of the RC Church.
Slave marriage varied among nations and over the centuries. In some slave marriage was as recognized as the marriages of free persons, or between free persons and slaves. In America, slave marriage was not recognized, whether between two slaves or between a free person and a slave. In the east, marriage between a Black free or slave person and a White free person was not recognized and cohabitation was sometimes punished. Similar prohibitions in the west applied to white persons and “Asians” (Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, etc.) despite it being known that the ancestors of many of the White peoples of Europe came from central Asia (Caspian to Aral Seas region). See the Declaration of Arbroath.
I recall an anecdote to the effect that the Attorney General of Colorado said this to a public meeting – that children of a licensed marriage were property of the state, as were children whose births were registered with the state (birth certificated) whether their parents had a licensed marriage or not. I have looked for this on the Web but have not found it. Do you know of a source?
Marriage is NOT licensed by the state. The marriage ceremony is what is licensed. Marriage licenses are permits to get married, not to be or stay married. They expire after a short time (30 days in Tennessee, 60 days in some states, and 90 days in others). No one is required to renew their marriage licenses every 30, 60 or 90 days if the marriage ceremony has already been performed and the marriage certificate returned to the marriage registry. Child support arrearage does not result in marriage licenses being suspended and the married couple required to cease cohabiting.