There are two bodies in the United States that are often supposed to resemble each other, and by many are really confounded. Consider the causes of the confusion and the important differences. The confusion in the minds of many as to the identity of these two bodies arise from certain

1. The Christians are called Christians, sometimes the Christian Church. Their various societies take the names First Christian Church, Grace Christian Church, Christian Church of the Evangel, etc.

In some places the Disciples take the same name, and since members of the Christians join them under the influence of that name, they cling to it afterward.

2. The Christians and the Disciples alike have no written creed.

3. The Christians and the Disciples both preach much in favor of Christian union.

4. The Christians and the Disciples both invite to the Lord's table all the followers of Jesus.

5. The government in both bodies is congregational, and is derived from Bible acts and phrases.

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6. The Christians and the Disciples both insist on the importance of conforming to Bible Doctrines and commandments.

7. Both bodies profess to receive to church fellowship all whom Christ has accepted, without regard to what is commonly called dogma.

Although these many points cause the two bodies to resemble each other, and have led many Christians, and even some churches, to unite with the Disciples where the points of difference were temporarily not made prominent, there are certain points of difference that many of us who love Christian union consider important. Some of these are the following:

1. The Christians accept only the one name.

The Disciples answer to the name "Church of Christ," or "Churches of Christ," to the name "Christian," to the name "Disciple," to the name "Reformers," etc., all good names; but they were definitely named by their founder "Disciples of Christ."

2. The Christians have no written creed except the Bible, nor anything that is a substitute.

The Disciples have a consensus of opinion on one subject of doctrine, unto which they insist that converts must submit in order to reception into a church: that a man is not a child of God until he is immersed in water in order to the remission of sins.

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3. The Christians teach that every one must for himself interpret the Bible on disputed points of doctrine, and unite in teaching baptism as a Christian duty; but their uniting in such teaching is not because of any denominational position directly bearing on the subject of baptism, but because as individuals their preachers and converts so understand the Bible, and as individuals so interpret it. But if any one who did not believe in immersion should apply for admission, the Christians would unhesitatingly receive him, if his character, as manifested by his confession (or profession), and his conduct, was that of a Christian.

But the Disciples would not receive him unless he would be immersed in order to the remission of his sins. In fact, they teach that he could not be a Christian unless immersed; that in the act of baptism a man enters into a new relation to God. They so interpret certain passages in Scripture. But the Christians teach that those Scriptures do not support the doctrines insisted upon; indeed, that they do not say it and do not mean it.

The writer of these lines believes as strenuously in immersion as any Disciples minister. He has never baptized in any other way, and could not be induced to do so. And yet as a Christian minister he would receive into a church of which he was pastor, and has done so, those who have been sprinkled for baptism. Such a course does not cause a Christian church to be suspected of being untrue, or not denominational, but

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such a thing would cause a Disciple church to cease to be a Disciple church in anything that would make it distinctly denominational.

4. The Christians arose about the beginning of this century; a little before in North Carolina; at the beginning of the century in the great Cane Ridge revival in Kentucky, and in New England. Alexander Campbell, the supposed founder of the Disciples, however, was not even immersed until the year 1812, when he left the Presbyterians. He was by birth an Irishman; first a licentiate of the Seceder Church, of Scotland; later came to America, and finally, after having joined the Baptists, by whom he was excluded in 1827 because of his doctrines, founded the "DoC" more than a quarter of a century later than the rise of the Christians. The Disciples thus arose in schism. The Christians arose in revivals and in desire for liberty and union.

Alexander Campbell supposed that he "discovered," or "re- discovered," what he supposed to be the biblical doctrine of baptismal regeneration, depending upon making Peter the "rock" of his Church (Matthew 16:18), though baptism might be called the keystone, supposing that Peter so meant it on the day of Pentecost. However, Campbell made no discovery on this subject, for the Roman Catholics had long insisted on the doctrine, Pope Pius V. teaching:

"That the law of baptism, as established by our Lord, extends to all, in so much that unless they are regenerated through the grace of baptism, be their parents Christians

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or infidels they are born to eternal misery and everlasting destruction." (Catechism Council of Trent, page 123.)

The Latter Day Saints, who arose at the same time as the Disciples, have improved upon the doctrine as taught by Campbell; for they "believe in and carefully practice baptism by immersion; and baptism for remission of sins (in the sense of in order to remission) may be repeated whensoever needed." This renewed baptism must be a great satisfaction to an offender. But the Disciples do not teach that Baptism may be repeated; but only that in the first act the convert is forgiven, that he then enters into a new relation to God, that he goes into the water a sinner and comes out a Christian.

One reason of the confusion as to the Christians and the Disciples is that Alexander Campbell, in 1831, teaching Christian union, made with Barton W. Stone, a Christian minister at Jacksonville, Ill. (who had been for a third of a century teaching the same doctrine, but teaching it without insisting that his own interpretation of dogma be accepted), a kind of a local compact that was called a union, and that Stone considered a true union. The effect of the compact, however, was that Barton W. Stone was placed in the background, because of his great age and gentle yielding spirit; the doctrines of the Disciples were sturdily preached and insisted upon by the younger, aggressive, combative Disciple ministers; and the Christians, for the sake of peace,

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surrendered, though not convinced. The Christian churches in the sections that had been under the influence of this so-called "union" were studiously taught that the Christians had disappeared, being swallowed in what the followers of Campbell called "the Reformation." Many churches were thus swallowed; but they and their descendants constituted an element in the Disciple Church that loved the name Christian, because of the so-called "union." The Disciples, however, deeded their property to "The Disciples of Christ." The Christians, as a people, brotherhood, or connection, never acknowledged or ratified any such compact, and most of them never heard of it.

5. The Christians acknowledge no leader but Jesus Christ. They have never accepted any man as authority in doctrine, nor as a religious master.

But the Disciples are generally supposed to accept Alexander Campbell as the founder of their Church; and because of that fact they are sometimes called Campbellites. The Disciples are called Campbellites in two senses. In one sense it is only a nickname, and should not be used. In the other sense it is correct, being descriptive of their theology, as being that of Alexander Campbell, who with great success taught the doctrine of immersion in water in order to remission of sin. It is not a new doctrine, but was new here, as stated by Alexander Campbell. The Christians have no respect for the writ-

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ings or doctrines of Alexander Campbell except as they have for those of any man whom they believe to be a Christian and a learned writer.

6. A Christian minister, or a series of Christian ministers, might (in a place where the Christians were not known) preach for quite a period, and it might not be known by a stranger listening, who received no private denominational information, but that the minister was a Baptist, or a Congregationalist, or a Methodist, or a Presbyterian.

But generally the Disciple minister in preaching has a special system of doctrine that is inculcated with more or less clearness, or which is directly or indirectly referred to in every evangelistic movement; such as the following points:

That Jesus did not preach the gospel except prospectively.
That the kingdom of God was not set up until the day of Pentecost.
That Peter on the day of Pentecost first preached the gospel.
That there is no difference between the faith of the sinner and the faith of the Christian, except in degree; that they are identical in their nature.
That gospel order is faith, repentance, baptism.
That a man's sins are not forgiven till baptism; and only in immersion.
That the church should commune on every "Lord's Day."

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That Christians should not pray for sinners.
That the convert himself cannot acceptably pray before baptism.
That the only parts of the New Testament that are of authority for Christians are those parts following the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John; that is, beginning with the Book of Acts.
That it is very important to "rightly divide the Word of God" in this way.
That "infants, idiots, and pious pedobaptists have no promise of salvation according to the Scriptures; but are "commended to the mercy of God." [NOTE: The original does not close the first set of quotes.]
That there is no call to the ministry by the Holy Ghost.
That the Holy Ghost is not influential, particularly, in the matter of conversion at the present time; but that it is a matter of accepting the Word of God, the Bible.
That the Spirit of God only exerts itself in the matter of conversion through the Word of God.
That conversion is not particularly a regeneration, or washing of the Holy Ghost; but that it is rather a "reformation."

Such doctrines are not heard from the pulpits of the Christians.

7. While the Christians do not lay violent stress upon any single parts of the Bible to the exclusion of the other parts, the Disciples insist specially on Acts 2:38; John 3:5; Mark 16:16; Matt. 28:19; 1 Peter 3:21; Acts 22:16, and all other passages, making thirteen in all that allude to baptism,

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where sin is spoken of in the connection or inferred by the preacher, even though some of these passages may be in the four Gospels, which they say are not of authority on matters of salvation, because treating of a period before the day of Pentecost.

The Christians generally think that the position of the Disciples is one on which the Christian world cannot unite; that people will not accept it as a basis of union, unless they are first convinced of the truth of certain dogmas at the present time disputed. As individuals, many of us insist that the position of the Disciples is unsound; that in cutting off pious pedobaptists, or simply "commending them to the mercy of God," saying that there is for them in the Bible no promise of salvation, they are setting themselves up as masters, or judges, in a way not contemplated or intended by the Master Himself; that if the stupendous doctrine were true that consigns to destruction all sprinkled Christians and Quakers, it would be revealed not only in thirteen passages, as admitted by the leading Disciples, but in very many passages. Many of us also insist that most of these passages contradict the doctrines of Campbell, that if the passages are true, Campbellism cannot be true; and that the other passages do not refer to Campbellism; that Alexander Campbell mistook the meaning of the word FOR, and of its Greek original, through an unfortunate translation.

Finally, the Christians strive to interpret the Scriptures in such a way as Christ

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would interpret them, so as to extend fellowship to all who as followers of Christ will be saved; to all whom the Savior would welcome into the Church if He were present. We try to stand on the ground that will receive the Disciple together with the lover of Jesus whom the Disciple would reject. We receive by character, and reject by character; not by dogma.

It is without doubt true that both these bodies are doing a great good in the world. The rejection of creeds by the Disciples places them on a basis where they will eventually accept the broad, loving spirit and doctrines of the Bible; and they will finally accept those whom Christ has accepted, and with their great energy and strenuousness as to teaching truth, they will be of still greater good than they have been in the past. The Christians, though less in number than the Disciples, have given the Disciples much truth, and by themselves desire to stand for a pure New Testament Christianity; neither Roman Catholic nor Protestant; simply a restoration of a New Testament Church.

[NOTE: Pagination follows that of the original pamphlet, which has a title page, unnumbered, but equal to page 1. Italics in the original are shown by all capital letters. This document was published as a tract by the Christian Publishing Association of Dayton, Ohio, no date given. Text keyed by Jim McMillan, September 1995.]