Introduction (V) by John Mark Hicks, Ph.D.
Conclusion
Moser was Texas born and bred, and preached in the conservative regions of McGary's and Showalter's Firm Foundation. He believed that the preaching he observed assumed legalism, and that this was rooted in a misunderstanding of the doctrine of salvation by grace through faith. In the 1920s and early 1930s he tried to correct this misperception through the pages of the Firm Foundation and his book The Way of Salvation. His position was rejected, and he was regarded as a Baptist in sheep's clothing. He was ostracized by his preaching brothers in Texas.
Nevertheless, he found a hearing in the east through the Gospel Advocate. The Gospel Advocate Company published his book, and the Advocate made him the head of a department. He found an ally in G. C. Brewer. The keepers of the Lipscomb-Harding tradition welcomed him. But the Texas wing of the Advocate staff was too influential and Moser was dropped. This, among other things, wounded Moser and contributed to his poor health in the mid-1930s. It also signaled the rise of a strong voice for the Texas tradition east of the Mississippi.
When Moser recovered, he continued his incessant attack on legalistic preaching. He still had his supporters, like Brewer, who promoted his tracts, but he was in a minority west of the Mississippi. He published in the Advocate on occasion. But Moser's influence was minimal (except in the persons of Brewer and others) until the 1950s when his work was a breath of fresh air in a decade of squabbling and fighting. It was a message of grace in a time when the church was struggling to determine which segment of the conservative wing of the restoration movement was the true church. Harding Press published Moser's tract "Christ Versus a Plan." The Gospel Light Publishing Company of Delight, Arkansas republished his The Way of Salvation. Teachers at various colleges used his book The Gist of Romans in classes.
A new generation was growing up in the midst of bickering and fighting, and this generation was exposed to the Lipscomb-Harding tradition of grace through faith. Woodroof refers to this as the "first wave" of grace teaching among Churches of Christ.254 However, it is far from the "first wave." On the contrary, it was the re-emergence of the Lipscomb-Harding tradition within the mainstream of Churches of Christ. The work of Moser prepared the ground for this major theological shift on the doctrine of grace. However, this view of grace was not new, nor had it been totally absent from Churches of Christ throughout the twentieth century. J. D. Bales, for example, testifies to the sermons on grace he heard from Armstrong, L. C. Sears and others while at Harding College (1933-1937).255 Moser, Brewer and others simply represented the old Nashville Bible School tradition in the mid-twentieth century which had been displaced in the east by the McGary- Showalter tradition through the influence of Wallace, Whiteside, and Woods. The late 1950s and 1960s saw the re-emergence of that tradition in the person of younger preachers who had been exposed to the Lipscomb-Harding tradition.
The McGary-Showalter Texas tradition, however, could not keep a tight reign on its theological development. There were sympathizers with Moser in Texas as well as in Searcy and Memphis. These sympathizers led a shift toward Moser in Texas just as the Lipscomb-Harding tradition was growing weak in the east. One indication of this movement was G. C. Brewer's speech at the ACC Lectures in 1952.256 Hughes notes that J. D. Thomas, who directed the ACU lectures from 1952 to 1969, believes that Brewer's lecture was a "pivotal turning point for Churches of Christ."257 It shifted a part of the Texas tradition toward the Lipscomb-Harding (and Moser) view of grace and bore fruit at ACC through the teaching of R. C. Bell and J. D. Thomas.258 This Texas shift was encouraged by Moser himself as he taught for eight years at Lubbock Christian College, spoke on their lectureships,259 and wrote four books in "The Living Word Series" for an Austin publishing house.260 This shift now pervades Texas even though the Firm Foundation is still the organ of the McGary-Tant-Showalter tradition.
Leonard Allen, then, is essentially correct when notes that "the efforts of Moser, Brewer and these others stand directly behind some of the theological shifts occurring among contemporary Churches of Christ."261 The Lipscomb-Harding tradition has taken root west of the Mississippi, and is returning to its origins east of the Mississippi.
Moser's story is but a single perspective on the history of the Churches of Christ from the 1920s to the 1960s. Yet, his story is significant because he represents the rise of a doctrine of grace in Texas that was imported from Nashville, but was subsequently muddied there. A theological shift occurred, and it was fundamentally a shift that went east and west. In the 1930s, Texas conservatism spread from Austin to Nashville, and in the 1950s and 60s the Lipscomb-Harding tradition of grace re-emerged west of the Mississippi.262 Moser's role in importing and prompoting the Lipscomb-Harding tradition west of the Mississippi was foundational, and his influence is significant in its revival east of the Mississippi.
Outline of Introduction
A Review
Endnotes
254 Woodroof, 19. It is interesting that now Woodroof is facing the same charge as Moser. Cf. Wayne Coats, A Review of Another Liberal Digressive Effort: As Proposed by James Woodruff (sic) to Change The Church of Christ (Mt. Juliet, TN: Privately Published, n.d.), 32. "He now espouses the same old worn out theory about grace which the Baptists and others have advocated."[back]
255 James D. Bales, "The Church in Transition": To What? (Searcy, AR: J. D. Bales, Publisher, 1992), 38. F. W. Mattox also testifies to this tradition of grace among the early leaders of Harding College. Interview with Mattox on August 3, 1993.[back]
256 Brewer, "Grace and Salvation," ACC.[back]
257 Hughes, "Are Restorationists Evangelicals?," 125. Thomas specifically invited Brewer for this purpose. Interview with J. D. Thomas, August 3, 1993.[back]
258 J. D. Thomas is grateful for the influence K. C. Moser had on his thinking. Two of Thomas' books demonstrate that he drew his theology of grace from Moser's well. Cf. The Biblical Doctrine of Grace (Abilene, TX: Biblical Research Press, 1977) and Romans (Austin: Sweet Publishing Co., 1965).[back]
259 Moser, "Preaching the Conditions as Responses to the Atonement," 67-72, in The Unfinished Restoration: Eight Annual Lectureship, Lubbock Christian College (Lubbock, TX: Lubbock Christian College, 1965); "Faith Principle," 130-40, in Power for Today's Living: Ninth Annual Lectureship, Lubbock Christian College (Lubbock, TX: Lubbock Christian College, 1966); "How to Teach Hebrews," 167-174, in The Church in the Twenty-First Century: Tenth Annual Lectureship, Lubbock Christian College (Lubbock, TX: Lubbock Christian College, 1966).[back]
260 Moser, Redemption in Acts and the Letters (Austin: Sweet Publishing Co., 1964); Attributes of God (Austin: Sweet Publishing Co., 1964); Galatians (Austin: Sweet Publishing Co., 1965); and Studies in Hebrews (Austin: Sweet Publishing Co., 1972).[back]
261 Allen, Distant Voices, 169.[back]
262 The rebaptism issue is another piece of this evidence that reflects a west to east shift. The McGary position came to take up residence at the Advocate in Wallace and has remained a stable position there, whereas the Lipscomb-Harding tradition is now strong in Texas. Harding University, the heir of Harding and Armstrong, has remained consistently opposed to McGary's position on rebaptism. Cf. Jimmy Allen, Re-baptism? What One Must Know To Be Born Again (West Monroe, LA: Howard Publishing, 1991), 10, 98-108, 114-9.[back]