History Repeats

[Page 13]

     In Gospel Guardian, Feb. 7, 1957, George Welsh Tyler writes: "Some one has said, 'The churches would be in an awful mess today if it had not been for the Bible colleges.' To my mind they are now in an awful mess because of some of them... Today history is repeating itself and the Bible Colleges of the church of Christ are seemingly going the way of old Bethany."

     This is very revealing. It shows that these men recognize that they have "colleges of the church of Christ." Then, these are not mere individual enterprises like sawmills, filling stations and grocery stores. Who ever writes an article deploring the departures from the truth of "filling stations of the church of Christ"? The writers of Gospel Guardian generally believe in supporting Bible Colleges as long as you keep the money out of the "church treasury and hand it to them clandestinely. It is evident that these men thus endorse human organizations to develop Christians and edify the body of Christ. Brother Tyler is just a little more frank, or a little less guarded in his statement, for they are "Bible colleges of the church of Christ."

     The thing that entombed pure Christianity in the early centuries was the first Bible College started by Christians at Alexandria, Egypt. Mosheim called it "the grave of primitive Christianity." The thing that stopped the restoration of primitive Christianity was the establishment of Bethany College. The thing that stands in the way of restoring the restoration today is the special clergy system spawned by David Lipscomb College and schools of like ilk, which are nothing more nor less than theological seminaries of "The Church of Christ." When will we learn that the one body is capable of doing all that God intended? When will we learn that every human organization started to help the church of God always ends up by destroying it? It has been said that the only lesson learned from history is that no one ever learns from history. Why must we continue making the same tragic errors as our forefathers? Truth does not need human philosophy to support it! The work of God does not depend upon our puny human ingenuity for its strength or perfection. Let us rise and throw off all of these things which God has not founded and be free men in the Christ!