Searching for the Answer

W. Carl Ketcherside

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     "For all those words, which were written long ago are meant to teach us today; that when we read in the Scriptures of the endurance of men and of all the help that God gave them in those days, we may he encouraged to go on hoping in our time. May the God who inspires men to endure, and gives them a Father's care, give you a mind united towards one another because of your common loyalty to Jesus Christ" (Romans 15: 4, 5 --Phillips' Translation).

     Our world is filled with fear and frustration. We live in an age of tension and worry. The minds of men have become battlefields for conflicting ideologies. Our way of life is under constant threat. The dams which have served to hold back latent savagery are crumbling. In every corner of the globe there is seething unrest. We are reclining upon a rumbling volcano. The bulwarks of western civilization are straining under pressure. To what source can we look for help and succour in these "times which try men's souls."

     For some months we have been examining what appears to be a failure of the Christian philosophy to stem the rising tide of paganism. We have analyzed the varied concepts which claim to be Christian, we have sought in unprejudiced fashion to weigh the merits of current religious organizations, and we have found them wanting. We come now to the more difficult task of suggesting a remedy. It is relatively easy to see the outward symptoms which betray weakness. One need not be skilled in every instance to diagnose an illness. But he who prescribes for the sick will subject himself and his credentials to examination and attack. This is as it should be, for it will cause us to proceed with more care and deliberation. I shall first state my convictions upon which my coming remarks will be based.

     Our world is not the result of accident, experimentation, blind chance, or a survival of the fittest. It is a grand design, back of which is an intelligent Designer. The Eternal One who created the universe by divine fiat, has never lost interest in His creation nor retired from Concern with its affairs. He made man but a little lower than the angels. He set him over the work of His hands. By the exercise of providence He has directed the affairs of men, until history serves only to mark the footprints of God. After revealing His will directly to the fathers in the childhood era of the world, when the various nations turned from Him to choose their gods, He chose to reveal Himself as the God of a nation. At Mount Sinai He gave that nation a constitution, the basis of which consisted of ten commandments which He personally engraved upon two stone tablets.

     But He who made us knows our needs. He recognizes that it is easier for man to follow a personal pattern than to be guided by precepts and statutes. For that reason, nineteen centuries ago, He sent

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to this earth the Logos, the Word who was in the beginning, who was with God, and who was God. "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father." In Him dwelt all the fulness of Deity bodily. This earth, then, is the visited planet. It little matters that men set foot on Jupiter, Mars, or Saturn. These are material. They are a part of the creation over which man was given dominion. But it matters greatly that God visited this planet. Earth can never be the same again since "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself."

     The Son, after being put to death by cruel men, was raised from the dead. He went back to heaven, and is even now seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens. The task of reconciling the world unto God is now the responsibility of those who have been reconciled. These must beseech their own generation "on behalf of Christ, to be reconciled unto God." Their message is the Good News of a person. It is the Good News delivered by persons, to persons, about a person! It is not the proclamation of a system, an organization, or an institution. It is not the recitation of a creed, a dissertation, explanation, or exposition of a doctrine. It is simply an announcement of Good News that "while we were yet helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly." It is the thrilling declaration that "while we were enemies we were reconciled unto God by the death of His Son." Those who would share in the blessings of this Message are required to believe one fact in order to initiation into the benefits of God's grace -- that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God! The test of this faith is obedience to one act -- immersion in water by His authority!

     Why has the world not been won to His sovereignty on such a plea? Why are those who respect Jesus of Nazareth as the Son of God, such a small minority among the teeming millions who swarm over the surface of our planet? We should face up to these questions. We feel that it can be demonstrated that the enemy of righteousness has cleverly and subtly insinuated himself again into the paradise of God, and has sown the seeds of hate where flowers of love should bloom. He has separated and segregated the believers into warring camps. He has inveigled them into measuring loyalty by the ability to smite the sheep of the Great Shepherd and scatter them. He who pleads for unity is regarded as a traitor, while those are hailed as faithful who sow discord and seek to justify division. We put darkness for light, bitter for sweet, and evil for good. This is the work of Satan!

     The Son of God, on the night of His betrayal, gave us the clue for benign conquest of the world. He first prayed for those envoys to whom the Message of reconciliation was entrusted. He said, "I do not pray for these only, but also for those who are to believe in me through their word." His prayer was that all who so believed in Him might be one. He declared the effect would be "that the world may believe that thou hast sent me." We feel the conclusion is inescapable. If the greatest force operating to convert the world is the unity of believers in Christ; conversely, the greatest force contributing to the unbelief and ultimate damnation of the world, is division among the believers. Jesus says, "He who does not believe will be condemned." He says that the world will be made to believe only when those who do believe are all one. Religious division must stand indicted before the world as the chief agent of its condemnation.

     What, then, must be the attitude of those believers who are soberly and seriously concerned about the salvation of mankind? Does it not stand to reason that they must hate "enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, and party spirit," which are listed as "works of the flesh," and which will keep those who do such things from inheritance in the kingdom of God? Are they not obligated to study, pray, and work for the repairing of all the breaches in the Christian wall? Must they not

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wholly and completely dedicate their lives to the eradication of schisms and the conditions which produce them? Is there any crusade in modern times of greater consequence than this? If the world believes that God sent His Son, and recognizes the fulness of the impact of His advent, wars will cease, swords will be beaten into plowshares, and the desert will blossom as a rose. Yet this can only transpire when those who believe are one.

     The greatest problem of believers is unbelief! Because they cannot see how unity of all believers can be achieved they do not believe it can be. They forget that we are to "walk by faith and not by sight." Their fear causes them to settle for something much less than Jesus prayed for. They are content if they can have peace within the party to which they give allegiance. But partisan peace is a chimera, a will-o'-the-wisp, and destructive of true peace. The party spirit is antagonistic to peace. Like the moth, it perpetuates itself only by consuming the fabric in which it hides. If every party in the Christian realm had perfect peace within itself, that would not be the unity for which Jesus prayed, and under such a condition men would be content, and true unity would never be attained.

     It is when men are dissatisfied with the narrow confines and unwritten creeds of the party that they lift up their eyes and look beyond. Parties should not be allowed to be at peace, but should be stirred up, agitated, and aroused. When a man is in a blinding snowstorm, his body becomes numbed, and he loses all sense of direction. He wants to slump down and give in to the unutterable weariness which takes possession of him and promises peace. He must be slapped into consciousness and forced to stagger on, else he will never reach home. So it is with those who are wandering befogged in the party spirit. They must be rudely jolted from their complacency or they will never inherit the kingdom. They may bitterly resent the one who jolts them, but he is their best friend on earth. We need men who will cuff our intellectual processes into activity and stimulate us to arouse and be on our way. Already "many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep."

     I believe that our only hope rests with the church of God, the one body of our Lord Jesus Christ. When the envoy of Christ exhorted the saints to "be eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace," he immediately declared, "There is one body" as the first item in a catalog of seven essentials to that unity for which we are pleading. The church of Christ is composed of all the saved on this earth. There is not one saved person outside of it, because to its number the Lord adds all the saved. The church of God is not an organization, but a divine organism composed of living, vital members.

     It is not merely an association made up of those who voluntarily band together because of kindred interests. It is a company of redeemed persons who are "members one of another," because they are in another person -- Christ Jesus -- in whom they lose their identity to the extent that they are neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor free, neither male nor female. They are all one in Him. They are so related to each other only because they are related to Him. It is not that one member is attached to another member who in turn is attached to the head, or that one is joined to someone who is joined to Jesus. Instead, all "hold fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God" (Col. 2:19). "We are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every joint with which it is supplied, when each part is working properly, makes bodily growth and upbuilds itself in love" (Eph. 4:15, 16).

     Each member of the body sustains a direct relationship to Jesus through the Holy Spirit. Each one is attached to the head. "For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body -- Jews or

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Greeks, slaves or free -- and all were made to drink of one Spirit." Not all members are at the same stage of spiritual development. Some are weak, others strong; some are ignorant, others learned; some are conservative, others liberal in tendency. They vary in temperament, knowledge, and degree of maturity. They are held together by mutual love, not because they all agree on every point, but because their love for Jesus is greater than their differences with each other.

     In our present state of decadent Christianity, which organization is the divine organism? Which party or faction embraces within its fold all the children of God on this earth? Which one is the body of Christ exclusive of all others? My answer, which will infuriate all partisans, is that no party now in existence can claim exclusive right as the church of God. The believers in our Lord have been shattered into splinter groups, and scattered over the hills Of sectarianism. It is a tragic error to think that all who are separated from us are severed from Jesus.

     What shall we do to remedy the situation? It will do no good to create other parties. It will only aggravate the situation to further divide and leave a heritage of hate and animosity to damn the souls of our children and our children's children. The first thing we must do is to rid ourselves of the sectarian attitude. We must see sectism as God looks at it. We must recognize it as a grievous sin in the Christian domain. Why is that so? Here are a few reasons.

1. It fragmentizes that, which by its very nature, should be one, thus is subversive of the divine purpose and will.
2. It arrays against each other in partisan conflict those who should expend all of their joint energy and resources in opposition to the wicked one.
3. It arouses and stimulates the baser passions of covetousness, envy, jealousy and pride.
4. It elevates men to positions of eminence and rank in the spiritual realm, as party leaders, and thus provides for glorying in men.
5. It contains within itself the seed principle which carried to its fruition would destroy fellowship and thus make the eternal purpose of God of none effect.

     It will not be easy to rid our hearts of the party spirit. We have been conditioned by past teaching and environment to regard the party as the church of God. This is true of all. Some have been less partisan than others, but none are wholly free from the taint. No party or faction as it now exists can accomplish God's full purpose on earth. There must be a revolution, a transformation, a metamorphosis. No transfusion of spirituality into the party, no artificial respiration of any party will meet the needs of the present crisis. The party must sink into oblivion that the church of God may replace it in our lives. Old things must pass away; all things must become new.

     This does not mean we must relinquish any truth we have discovered, nor compromise any verity we have held. To do this would be to lose all and to banish hope of our salvation. But truth must cease to be regarded as a partisan possession or be defended as a private monopoly. We must recognize that those in Christ are at different stages in their acquisition of knowledge of truth. Those who are fortunate enough to have a superior knowledge of truth should not browbeat and assail the less fortunate. Those who have climbed higher should not kick those on a lower level. Those who have much need not feel obligated to deny the little that is possessed by another.

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     We should begin to manifest a philanthropic spirit, and create an atmosphere of love. The table of the Lord should be set in our meetings for all baptized believers whose lives are orderly and decorous. We should make it clear that we make nothing a test of fellowship that God has not made a condition of salvation. Jesus declares that he who believes and is baptized shall be saved. If one can be saved from all the sins of his past on that basis, and is thus added to the one body, we ought not to demand more of him to be welcomed into our hearts. The objection is made that on this basis we would be forced to welcome those who are allied with sectarian bodies in some instances. That is true, and we should welcome all of God's children who come among us, regardless of present affiliation. We should not be sectarian in our opposition to sectarianism.

     We are confronted with a problem! It cannot be solved easily. There is no panacea which will fit every place or condition. But let us not bury our heads in the sand like ostriches. We should courageously face up to the issue, and be long-suffering, patient, and forbearing, as we try to work it out. It will serve no good purpose to become angry, exasperated, and filled with bitter resentment. We have observed with sadness the manifestation of irritation and passion even upon the part of some elders as we have sought to explore the possibilities of answering the prayer of our dear Lord. They have taken it as a personal affront that a brother in the Lord should have the audacity to question any practice of ours which has been sanctified by tradition. But we must not have the attitude of ancient royalty, "The king can do no wrong!" We have been wrong about many things! God still works in history and the chafing and choler of men will not prevent truth from triumphing. To Him be praise and glory!

     Sectarianism is the order of our day. It exists without divine sanction and in contravention of the best interests and more advanced knowledge of mankind. But it embraces within its folds some of the most sincere and humble characters. Those who recognize sectism for what it is, a malignant growth upon the body spiritual, must exert every effort to offset its deleterious effects and to check its growth, at the same time giving care not to destroy the sound tissue. We must not root up the wheat with the tares! Not everyone in a sect is sectarian. Some of Cod's children are a dispersed, displaced, and exiled people.

     The fleshly Israelites, in covenant relationship with God, were called his people. They were still his people when misled. "My people hath been lost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to go astray" (J er. 50:6). They were still his people while in Babylonian exile, and the children born to them in Babylon were also God's people. In these days of spiritual Israel God has a people in Babylon. We have brethren who are scattered among the various sects.

     The very thought of this infuriates some! The very suggestion that it may be true calls down upon the head of one who makes the suggestion the wrath of those who feel that their participation in the grace of God is dependent upon denying a share in it by others. It is labeled a "new doctrine." It is designated "liberalism" and "modernism," by narrow exclusivists who would smite truth with a slogan and flail fact with fiction. If their evaluation is correct, then Thomas Campbell, Alexander Campbell, Walter Scott, David Lipscomb, Moses E. Lard, Benjamin Franklin, Daniel Sommer, et. al., were the rankest of liberals and the most pronounced modernists. Our brethren "garnish the tombs of the prophets" of restoration and denounce those who stand on the same ground they occupied.

     Thomas Campbell addressed his Declaration and Address to the Christians in all sectarian bodies. Years later he wrote:

     "We speak to all our Christian brethren, however diversified by professional epithets, those accidental distinctions which have unhappily and unscripturally diversified the professing world. By our Christian brethren, then, we mean the very same description of character addressed in our Declaration published at

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Washington, Pa., in the year 1809 -- namely, 'All that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity, throughout the churches.' If there were none such at that time throughout the churches, then Christianity was dead and gone. And if there be none such at present within the same limits, it still continues extinct."

     Alexander Campbell, who did more than any other in his day to plead for a return to the ancient order of things, wrote thus:

     "A deep and abiding impression that the power, the consolations and joys -- the holiness and happiness of Christ's religion were lost in the forms and ceremonies, in the speculations and conjectures, in the feuds and bickerings of sects and schisms, originated a project many years ago for uniting the sects, or rather the Christians in all the sects, upon a clear and scriptural bond of union -- upon having a 'thus saith the Lord,' either in express terms or approved precedent 'for every article of faith, and item of religious practice.'"

     Moses E. Lard, writing in his quarterly for March, 1864, on the topic "Have We Become a Sect?" has this to say of those who are in sectarian bodies:

     "Against the individual members of these parties we cannot have even one unkind feeling. Many of them we regard as true Christians, and love them sincerely. But as long as they occupy a place in bodies holding traditional and other unsanctioned tenets; holding practices unknown to the Bible, and supporting humanly imposed names, we must tell them plainly that they stand on apostate ground."

     Two years prior to this statement, Benjamin Franklin, in 1862, wrote in the American Christian Review, of which he was editor:

     There are individuals among the sects who are not sectarians, or who are more than sectarians -- they are Christians; or persons who have believed the gospel, submitted to it, and in spite of the leaders, been constituted Christians according to the Scriptures."

     In the same year, Brother Franklin made the following statement in his paper:

     That there are Christians among the sects, a people of God in Babylon, we have believed and admitted, and committed to print many years ago, and we believe the same now. That these have a right to commune, and, enjoy in common with all Christians, all the blessings of the house of the Lord, we presume is not doubted by any brother."

     David Lipscomb, writing in the book, Questions Answered, page 582, expresses his views in this statement:

     "There are some in sectarian churches who will obey God and follow him in spite of the churches in which they find themselves. As examples, there are persons in the Baptist, Methodist, and Presbyterian churches who are baptized to obey God rather than to please the sects. In this they rise above the sectarian spirit, despite the parties in which they find themselves. They ought to get out of the sectarian churches, but they see so much sectarianism in the nonsectarian churches that they think they are all alike.

     Daniel Sommer deposes as follows in his booklet entitled Religious Sectism Defined, Analyzed and Exposed:

     "What shall we say of those preachers who denounce all persons who happen to hold membership in a sectarian denomination with a sentence of sweeping impeachment, as though they were all under the influence of sectism? We should say that they are probably more sectarian than some whom they denounce. Their manner shows that they are unscripturally exclusive, and this is one of the elements of sectarianism."

     Do these quotations prove there are Christians in sectarian bodies? Certainly not! Their authors are fallible men and uninspired. We have not cited them as authorities on that point. But they do prove the position I hold is not a "new doctrine." Will our critics affirm that Campbell, Lard, Franklin, Lipscomb, and Sommer were "liberals" and "radicals" and "modernists"? Will they brand them as apostates? The truth is that all of the leading minds in the restoration movement were at a unit on this point. Benjamin Franklin labored under the presumption that the position we hold was "not doubted by any brother." It was not doubted either, until the factions which grew out of the restoration crystallized into so many small sects, motivated by the narrow and intolerant spirit which is the mark of sectarianism.

     Are you prepared for the logical conclusion? Since the position we advocate

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is the one held by all of the brethren from the inception of the restoration movement, then the opposite position is a "new doctrine." Indeed, it is a modern doctrine that honest misunderstanding or error in interpretation of a scriptural teaching, nullifies and negates the spiritual relationship into which one enters by the new birth. Upon such a premise we can never gather the scattered flock of God, and all we can offer them is an opportunity to leave one sect and be initiated into another by submitting to baptism at the hands of a "Church of Christ preacher." This is the new, novel and modern doctrine that is today called "gospel" by so many of our brethren.

     Let there be no misunderstanding of my position. I believe that every sincere penitent believer in the fact that Jesus is God's Son, who is immersed in water upon the basis of that faith, is God's child, and my brother. He may not, at the time of his immersion, know all of the blessings accruing from the act or connected with it, but his standing with God is not determined by knowledge of such matters, but by faith in Jesus as God's Son and the Messiah. I believe that sectarianism is sinful. It is condemned by God and must not be condoned by men. But many of God's children have been ensnared and enslaved within its toils. I want to assist them to freedom. I am dedicated to unrelenting opposition to any form of tyranny over their hearts, regardless of the name under which it operates. The fight for unity of all believers is really a battle for freedom.

     We live in an age of demonstration. Millions of dollars are spent for advertising with recognition that the best form of publicity consists of showing what a product will do. In the spiritual realm we must move from the theoretical to the practical. We need concrete manifestation of the unsectarian spirit. We cannot rely on mere discussion in the abstract. It is not the law in a code book or even discussed in forums which will make a nation better, but the spirit of the law exemplified in the daily conduct of the citizens which will make the difference. A few congregations of saints scattered throughout the world dwelling together in love, creating no test of fellowship which God has not made, recognizing the rights and privileges of all, whose bishops govern in affection, will do more to usher in a better day than all of the writing and discussing can ever do. For that reason we submit the following to the concerned ones among us, as a basis upon which we can commence to operate in hope of transforming the world in which we live through love.

1. We should confess our sins, and the sins of our fathers, in respect to the factionalism and partisan spirit so widely manifest in our day. Let each intreat for forgiveness and all ask for divine aid that we may avoid the blighting effects of the party spirit in the years that lie ahead.
2. Let the "fellowship of the concerned ones" meet often and study the sacred truths, and strengthen each other in the Lord. "They that feared the Lord spoke often one to another; and the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name."
3. Avoid the idea that those who honestly differ with us are apostates or heretics. These two words are seldom used today as the Holy Spirit used them. A man is not an apostate because he thinks instrumental music is acceptable in corporate worship; neither is one a heretic because he sincerely believes that water baptism is not essential. All of us need to correct our language and cultivate a pure speech. It is not sound speech to brand men and women with terms that have been twisted or distorted from their true meaning. One may be wrong about a lot of things and not be either a heretic or an apostate.
4. Let us set the table of the Lord for all of His children, and make it clear that every immersed believer whose conduct is orderly and approved of God is invited to sit down with us in fellowship or communion. Let us make nothing a test of fellowship which God has not.

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5. Banish the idea that you can win men to greater knowledge of the truth by giving them the "cold shoulder," or by treating them as pariahs or spiritual lepers. One does not sanction or endorse every item of a person's thinking when he calls on him to word a prayer to God. You do not agree with everything that is advocated by the members of your own party whom you call on to pray.
6. Do not be afraid to listen to any one. Truth has nothing to fear. It cannot be banned by error. It shines better when seen in contrast with error. It is yourself you cannot trust, when moved by fear. Develop personal conviction based upon your own study of the revelation of heaven. Thousands in these days merely parrot a party line. They think a certain way because others -- parents, relatives, or a favorite preacher -- think that way. Their hope of reaching heaven is based upon the idea that someone else is bound to be right.
7. Study the word of God for yourself. Let every person who loves the Lord feed upon His word daily. Do not differ with others merely for the sake of differing. Do not be contentious, quarrelsome or argumentative. But learn to question and to doubt what men say until it is proven to you. It is a healthful sign when a group can differ and discuss their differences in an atmosphere of calmness and with mutual respect. It is not a sin to differ honestly and to say so. Differences, in and of themselves, do not create divisions. It is when men cease to love each other and allow their differences to become the rallying point of parties that they divide.
8. Let the bishops rule by love and example, and let the flock show due reverence for those who watch over and guide them. A community of saints, free from the party spirit, welcoming with open hearts, all the children of God who come among them, working in peace and harmony, not because of threats or fear, but because of affection for each other in the Lord, will do more to usher in a better world than all of the articles written in this, or any other journal.

     If we are to contribute anything vital to the religious thought of our generation, if we are to point the way to peace and unity in Christ Jesus our Lord, if we are to be the humble instruments to help those who are struggling and groping their way out of the darkness of sectarianism today, we have no time to lose. The day is spent, the night is at hand. Dr. Elton Trueblood has said it in this way:

     If faith is to be effective in undergirding civilized society, it must be given some concrete embodiment. Civilization will not be saved because there are men and women who make the mere affirmation that God exists. Life is not raised to new levels by the mere fact that we have been intellectually convinced by the cosmological argument. Our predicament is too great and too serious for our salvation to come in so academic a manner. What is needed is something that can set men's souls on fire. What is required is a vision of man's life under God's Providence which so thrills us to the centre of our beings that we are willing to commit ourselves, soul and body, to the incarnation of that vision.